My daughter drew this 4 years ago
Women can be pretty complex, we can be strong, vulnerable and formidable at the same time.
I have been blessed being surrounded by strong ladies around me. And I made these collage, photos I have taken with SOME these women. There are many more photos I didn’t manage to put into collage, but each of those women that I knew, crossed path with, worked with means a lot to me.
Starting from my grandmother (my father’s side), she lived until almost a hundred years old and manage her little sundry shop in a small kampong. She set up the small shop with my late grandfather, selling only essentials to the villagers after realising how far it is for them to take bus rides to town just to get essential supplies. She continued the business until the Government decided to redevelop the land we used to live.
And the next person is my mother. Being the eldest in 9 siblings, she has to give up her dream learning arts and study nursing because she needs to help her mother take care of her brothers and sister. Years later she got married, and worked hard together with my father building their lives and future. My late father left the police force and slowly learning, taking up small businesses while my mother worked in a hotel to supplement the family income. She saved enough to buy him his first motorcycle so he could fetch her to and fro work every day. Our lives slowly became better when my father’s business did really well. My mother stopped working to take care of us.
Every marriage has its ups and downs, my parents got separated when I was 10. And that’s when my mother had to restart all over again. She has to take care of 3 growing girls and herself. She took on two jobs and even worked out of town at one time, and I had to be mom to my 2 other siblings.
I realised one thing. I shared the same resilience with these women. My grandmother and my mother.
And years later, being in the corporate, I got to work alongside some inspiring ladies and I noticed the struggle they have to face while climbing up the ladder, no matter how brilliant they were – men will always be the first choice to sit at the top level. Sure there were few women up there – very FEW.
I had my fair share of struggle while in the corporate too, once I had to deal with a tyrant boss who showed no respect to female staffs, even his Managers. Many were afraid to speak up as he knew almost everyone at the top. But I was lucky when a new CEO came, he was impartial and I requested for the matter to be investigated. I even put my job at stake and ready to leave if the investigation failed. I wanted to put a stop to his bully. Months later, the investigation started and he was put through a Domestic Inquiry and was suspended for a month. The team regained their morale and strengths again (like they never had in years!) and I requested to move to another department to learn other things and because I have done my part at the existing department. Last heard, the tyrant boss is still there at the company and is now a changed man. There are certain things about him that didn’t change (his personality) but other than that, he treats his staffs now much better than before.
In my last role with the same company I was teased if I could set up kiosks for the company. I have no prior experience. I knew another male colleague is eyeing on the same project, but my supervisor was adamant that I should try and work on it. I had to quickly learn up the process, sat down with few key people and managed to set up 4 kiosks within stores. I commuted to all 4 kiosks from time to time to check on staff issues and sales and we did really well. Impressed, my supervisor then assigned me to set up two branches in East Malaysia where I scouted for locations and negotiated with property owners. It’s been years since I left the company and the branches are still there until today.
When I left the corporate world for good and embarked on a small business connecting women to opportunities (learning, jobs, business), I met and worked with so many beautiful and strong women. They are the reasons why I love what I do now, to keep encouraging women to come out and explore their potentials when they lose their jobs or left with little options to sustain. Most of us could relate to one another because we went through struggles as kids and now that we are mothers we have different sets of challenges.
I started my small venture with nothing much because I wanted to spend time watching my daughter grow and while growing it I went through a lot of trials and errors. Yes, my little business is still growing organically, there were many hiccups here and there (which business doesn’t?) but I am sure there will always be sun and rainbows after a thunderstorm. Taking one step at a time. I wanted to show my daughter that we can make things happen if we want to.
I wanted to tell women to stop blaming unfortunate situations, pick themselves up again and fight on to live. Don’t dwell on self-pity and set realistic expectation. Women always feel that they cannot do things because they have limitations. WRONG! Some didn’t want to take up part time roles to sustain family income because the pay is deemed as too low. And yet they say nobody gives them the opportunity. Hey girlfriend, low pay is better than no pay at all. It still helps you put decent food on the table. I want women to stop bickering (and bitching) about other women because strong women lift one another up and not put each other down.
Google Erin Brockovich and you will know why. She was a single mother of 3 when she started to rebuilt her life again. She was just a normal clerk even when her pay was low. But she has to do it because her children’s survival depended on her.
Have you watched Hidden Figures? A movie about 3 black women who struggle in an era of racial segregation and still rose up to prove themselves in areas that were only exclusive to men back then.
And there are inspiring women out there like Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest Nobel Prize recipient. She survived a shot on the head and fought for education of women and children in her native valley, northwest Pakistan, where the Taliban banned girls from attending school.
And then this story about a single mother, how she turned her adversity and is now a millionaire. And she is in her forties! Read her inspiring story HERE.
Women can be strong if they choose to be strong. As long they are willing to change their mind set and improve themselves, they can make a difference.
Celebrities and famous people aside, I choose to end this piece by sharing this Youtube’s video to celebrate women’s strengths. And why these women? Because people hardly knew them and their contributions to the world. I want the Blockchain to forever remember them for all the things they have done to change the world and make it a better place.
Together with my fellow Steemian mate, 
Thank you to both 
I am glad to see how we spent time (whenever some of us are free) helping the babes with Steemit accounts jargons because all of us are still learning. 
I must mention here, I owe it to
With strong ladies in Sabah at an event I organized last year
Here’s to strong all strong Women, may we KNOW them, may we BE them and may we RAISE them.
Something About Angiechin28
Angie Chin is a Mom with a mission and founder of WonderWomen.Asia (coming soon), the first online portal in Malaysia that connects Women to affordable online learning, community activities, shareable contents, events, jobs and go-to market opportunities. At home, she’s a mommy to a 10 year old daughter, 6 furbabies + a grown babe. She loves travelling, cooking, exploring new food, reading and watching re-runs on Youtube.
Regularly posting up her ramblings and sharing contents (current favorites are Facebook & Instagram), she fell head over heels with Steemit after realising it’s the only platform that allows ANYONE to earn cryptocurrency by creating and posting up contents, even by liking, voting or commenting other people’s contents!
Whatever you do on the platform, you will earn. Isn’t that awesome?
To start earning, sign up for Steemit already! Post up your original contents and you can almost start seeing the ka-ching in your account before you know it. Best of all, it is FREE (Love the word FREE).
Life tagline (for now): Never be afraid to try anything once!
Drop her a note at wonderwomenasia@gmail.com