By Carolina Segarra
Today's society is highly demanding and requires that gender roles be set aside in order to create, innovate, and improve the world we live in. Formerly, the only job that women were allowed to have was that of being a mother. All other titles and roles were reserved for men or other women who chose not to pursue motherhood. But over the years and through multiple protests against the system that have kept women encaged, women and mothers have transformed into alpha mothers. These are women who inspire their children and the world, playing multiple roles as a mother, daughter, intellectual, and much more…all while making it look easy. Every day it is more common to find women who lead companies and their homes at the same time, without neglecting their femininity and leadership.
In Ecuador, a woman who becomes a mother usually quits their job and/or is forced to give up their passions in order to dedicate themselves completely to raising their child in the early years and beyond, which has triggered frustration, postpartum depression, anxiety, and fear of being seen as “not enough.” At the same time, these women have decided to change their destiny by being both mothers and entrepreneurs. This is why Ecuador has the highest percentage of enterprises founded by women in Latin America. These women seek to abandon social stereotypes and demonstrate that motherhood does not have to be a limitation, but a stage of life in which commitment from their partner and support from society only strengthens.
Women have shown that they are capable of great things, like Isabel Noboa, an Ecuadorian business owner, millionaire, and mother, who became the heiress to the Noboa fortune. She is now the head of the companies founded by her father, which has resulted in her becoming one of the most prosperous business women in Ecuador. She has led national and international markets and positioned herself as a brand of female empowerment by combining her passion for her family and for being successful, which has inspired many other women to be leaders as well.
Success for men has generally come to be defined by the economic capacity and the job hierarchy that he achieves throughout his life, while success for women is measured by homemaking and childrearing, ensuring that the good behavior and morals of her children are in line with those of the family’s. Female empowerment initiatives have now allowed these same women to achieve success as defined by their passions and priorities. Many of them embrace projects as their children, and others embrace being creators of life. Motherhood must always be a decision that strengthens the inner desires of each woman, which allows her to stay in a state of satisfaction as she grows into the person she is each day. This is how today's mothers have managed to make their way in a world led by men. Today we are no longer only mothers, pregnant women, or breastfeeding women, today we are alpha women, building each of our own realities. We are alpha mothers of our projects, of our children, of our decisions, and we have given birth to a new concept of femininity which has abandoned our restrictive social patterns. Today we lead the world into a better tomorrow. We look toward the future in hopes of one day receiving recognition without the thought of gender. We harbor the hope of a fairer society, in which we are recognized for being more than the best mother. We desire recognition for our work with equitable wages, job titles, and equal rights.
Today the world is ours, we are creators of life, we are part of a whole that manifests itself in us from our birth. Today we are mothers and entrepreneurs at the same time and we choose who we want to be for our children. We are the first hunters and gatherers who led our tribes, we are the ones who led an industrial revolution in pants, and who have kept the economy active for years. When they tried to erase our contributions to history we responded with force, pushing through everytime they tried to tell us “no.” We fight for education, we fight for our place in politics and at the polls, and we fight to be unapologetically who we are.
Being a woman goes far beyond being a mother. But when that time in our life arrives, our abilities multiply, as do our efforts, and the untold story of alpha motherhood begins. When we find ourselves alone at dawn, nursing the future, and hesitantly observing the world of tomorrow, we hope only to see a less hostile place for the illuminated eyes sheltered between little hands and the faint whisper that screams, “mom.” Today more than ever the world celebrates the creators of humanity. Today we can only feel pride in the fight we have given and that of the one that lays ahead.