If you ask the internet how to recognise a strong woman, the most interesting lists appear, such as:

1. strong women accept themselves.
 

2. strong women admit mistakes.
 

3. strong women are open and honest.
 

4. strong women learn from other women.
 

5. strong women realise their dreams.

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6. strong women are enough for themselves.
 

7. strong women support.

 

It seems like a list of ingredients in a cookbook that suggests: Whoever has these ingredients or tries to simulate them will become a strong woman.

 

But it is not that simple! Some people are simply born with a certain strength. They have willpower and high emotional and social intelligence. Even if their upbringing wants to teach or impose something else on them, they stay on their path - they remain true to themselves.

 

This is true for men and for women.

 

For women, however, it is much more difficult to remain true to themselves because they are still subject to outdated social thinking. A woman who chooses to live as a single woman, not to have children and instead to have a career in order to be able to live a free life, is suspect to society.

 

People ask, for example:

"Why don't you have a husband? You look quite good or even super."
 

"What's wrong with you?"
 

"Have you experienced something bad?"
 

"You must be difficult!"

 

Or people pity and say how sorry they feel for this woman and give questionable tips:

"I feel so sad when I think about you not having a man and always being alone."
 

"If only you had a man, everything would be much easier."
 

"You should see that you find a man before you go through menopause."
 

"Take him! He has money! Then your life will be easier!"

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At this point, many more lists could be added to illustrate how much more difficult it is for a female person to go her own way than for a male. One should also look at this question from a global perspective. Western-oriented countries are obviously more developed and only questions like those listed above are asked. In most other countries of the world, such questions are not asked at all. They simply decide what the life of a girl and later as a woman has to be like. If she were to resist, she would be threatened with disaster.

 

According to a 2019 study by the World Bank Institute, only six countries officially guarantee full equality between men and women by law:

Sweden, Belgium, Denmark, France, Latvia and Luxembourg. Germany came in 31st with a score of 91.88, behind Peru, Hungary and Paraguay. In the Federal Republic of Germany, the World Bank Institute criticised above all inequalities in income and childcare. For ten years, the World Bank has been investigating the legal situation regarding equality between women and men in almost all countries of the world.

 

In its first report, the Bank had not yet certified complete equality for any country in the world. The data did show a great deal of progress. But many laws still prevented women from working or starting a business. So it is obvious that a woman cannot become strong because there is a list of ingredients to follow. It depends on her character, where she lives and where she can actually develop that strength.

 

But let's assume that the strong woman is lucky and does not live in a completely totalitarian system:

Despite all the hurdles and prophecies of doom, she goes her way because she has a strong character and is headstrong.

 

Just like the protagonist in this story: Susan.

She was born in 1972 on the edge of the Alps in a European country. The family system was absolutely patriarchal and the distribution of roles corresponded to the women's rights of the 19th century. I have the exciting task of telling her truly captivating life story. It is not a book about emancipation, even though that was an important part of her personal development by necessity. It is a story of how Susan, against all odds, managed to realise her personal dreams. The book also tells about many exciting adventures and encounters that came about because of her self-chosen path in life. It is a mixture of drama, adventure and comedy.

 

I see this biography as a road movie and that is exactly how I will tell it according to her: Authentic, exciting and sparkling.

 

The novel is interactive. That means I will put another episode online every week as a raw manuscript. In the process, Susan's past will be told, and I will equally incorporate facets of the current present. Weekly interviews with the client make this method of narration possible. The story begins with Susan's birth and ends at some point with her death. This will probably take quite a while, however, as she is a woman in her prime.

 

*This novel is not gendered. The client and I have the experience that strong women don't need that to be respected.

Barbarella C. Sinclair

 

Read on right here with the 1st episode