Heterosexual, 21
“Being a woman to me means displaying a sense of resilience and strength in every aspect of life – from childhood, middle childhood, and adulthood. The phenomenal concept of womanhood shows that we women use the diversity of our experiences to empower each other. It is about seeing different qualities in yourself that you have acquired from the women around you – mothers, sisters, grandmothers, and friends. Being a woman for me means being the creator and protector of life and embracing everything that comes with it.”
Bisexual, 21
“For me, being a woman means being in a constant state of chaos. Don’t get me wrong, there are many lovely things about being a woman: doing your hair, hanging out with your girls, dressing up, and just being a literal fairy. However, being a Black South African woman means juggling oppressive structures like patriarchy, sexism, and racism. Your identities intersect to screw you over. Constantly being labelled as the caregiver, the nurturer, the “perfect” daughter means shrinking yourself and compromising parts of yourself to be deemed desirable in a world that is built against you. As an alternative Black bisexual woman, this is where the chaos comes in: defying the norm means repeatedly having to remind yourself that you’re good enough and don’t have to shrink yourself while also inevitably doing it because of the rigidity of the system.”
Pansexual, 21
“To me, being a woman means carrying both softness and steel in the same breath. Being a woman isn’t a straight and narrow pathway, and it’s definitely not as easy as we make it out to be. Being a woman means [having] the ability to be courageous and dominate every room we walk into, taking leadership roles to the next level while still holding our softness dear to us, [and] creating life and nurturing those around us.”
Bisexual, 24
“To me, womanhood means (among other things) perseverance, fortitude, and solidarity. It means supporting one another, even without saying a word. Above all, it means compassion.”
Heterosexual, 21
“Being a woman for me means straight-up confusion and an existential crisis at least once a month. I don’t know if I’m where I’m supposed to be in life. I feel like I’m behind, but I also realise how young I am in the grand scheme of it all. On the flip side, I don’t know what life has in store for me. Am I going to die young? Am I going to die an old lady? And if I get the chance to be an old lady, will I look back on my life and deem it a life worth living? What makes a life worth living – a husband and kids or a successful career or is it both? Am I going to achieve all my dreams or be part of the enormous pool of people who have never reached their full potential? I am so insanely confused, so at this moment, being a woman in my twenties, I’m crossing my fingers [that] I’m less confused in my thirties.”
Pansexual, 21
“Really trying to be optimistic, but in all honesty, it’s hard to be in this current time. I think womanhood is primarily about resilience, but not in the superficial, t-shirt-feminist sense. I think womanhood is comprised of an active survival against patriarchal sensibilities in the world around us, a constant struggle to retain your own humanity in a world that genuinely doesn’t view you as an actual human being. Factors such as being a queer person of colour, not conforming to gender binaries, and being part of a different class add barriers that bar you from the title ‘human being’. Institutions like patriarchy, racism, and capitalism try to conquer you, to subjugate you, and you are constantly in a fight against that subjugation.”
Heterosexual, 23
“Being a woman means embracing who I am with confidence, strength, and kindness. It means believing in myself even when life is challenging and continuing to grow through every experience. To me, being a woman means having a voice, making my own choices, and knowing my worth is not defined by anyone else. It is about learning, growing, and becoming the best version of myself. Every day I strive to live with courage, compassion, and purpose, and that is what being a woman means to me.”
Visual: Amy Lamplough
