Does changing the norms of society seem like an enormous if not impossible task? It does to me, and yet it happens all the time.
If you look over the distance of time you can see how society has changed and evolved, sometimes it takes a real upheaval to make things happen, like WW2 or the industrial revolution. Both of these events changed the face of western society forever. After WW2, women started to move out of the domestic sphere and into the public one in greater numbers than ever before.
Sometimes we set out to make changes, people like Kate Sheppard , Florence Nightingale , Emmeline Pankhurst, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King to name just a few.
I wonder how Kate Sheppard , Florence Nightingale or Emmeline Pankhurst would view (western) society today, with women having the vote, able to make careers and even being Prime Ministers and leading larger companies.
These women and men are an inspiration to us, they may not have envisioned the society we now live in, but they helped make it possible.
They challenge me to voice my dissatisfaction with the way things are, and to look for a brighter future as well.
I dream of a future where women are free to walk in the night unmolested, to choose their futures without fear, where no child is sold into marriage or domestic slavery, where every children as enough to eat every day, where education is available to everyone, where each person is respected and allowed to develop their own skills and abilities, where you are not judged by your sexual orientation , gender or skin colour.
This is not an impossible dream.