We try to teach women how to be strong, how to believe in

The words of Lisa Lopes resound like the voice of a prophetess: “We try to teach women how to be strong, how to believe in themselves, how to make themselves happy, as opposed to pleasing someone else first.” In this, she proclaims a reversal of the ancient order, for through centuries women were taught submission, silence, and sacrifice. Their worth was measured not by their own joy, but by how well they served the desires of others. Lopes calls for liberation, for a rebirth of selfhood, where the woman’s first duty is not obedience but the flourishing of her own spirit.

For countless ages, women were trained to live as shadows of men. Their labor, their beauty, their silence—all directed toward pleasing father, husband, or master. The poet Virginia Woolf declared that women had been made mirrors, reflecting man at twice his size. Lopes speaks against this inheritance, teaching instead that the mirror must be shattered so that women may see their own faces clearly, radiant with their own power. To be strong is not rebellion, but restoration; to believe in oneself is to reclaim what was stolen by centuries of subjugation.

History gives us luminous examples. Sojourner Truth, once a slave, rose to proclaim in her famous speech “Ain’t I a Woman?” that women’s strength was equal to any man’s. She lifted burdens, bore lashes, and yet still raised her voice before multitudes. Her message, like Lopes’s, was that women need not live for the pleasure of others but could stand as complete beings in their own right. Sojourner’s defiance was the seed; Lopes’s teaching is the flowering of that same truth.

The pursuit of happiness is no selfish thing. When a woman is denied her own joy, society itself is impoverished, for her gifts remain buried. To teach a woman to find joy within herself is to awaken her creativity, her voice, her courage. From such awakening, families are strengthened, communities renewed, and nations uplifted. For no one can pour from an empty vessel; only when her own spirit is nourished can she give to others freely.

So let the generations remember: to honor a woman is not to praise her sacrifice alone, but to defend her right to strength, to belief, and to happiness. These are not luxuries, but birthrights. The path to true equality lies not in chains of duty to others, but in the freedom to stand tall in one’s own light. And when women rise in such power, they do not abandon the world—they remake it, brighter and more whole than before.