Why call ourselves WonderWomen?

“Wonderwomen” explained…

At first glance the name WonderWomen may sound a little presumptuous and overconfident as it suggests that we believe we have, well, superhuman powers. But research tells us that the vast majority of working women feel just the opposite. Studies demonstrate that women from all walks of life carry around a tremendous amount of guilt throughout their daily lives. Guilt over not being a Martha Stewart mom, guilt over not sprinting up the corporate ladder, guilt over our messy houses, our take-out dinners, over not spending enough quality time with our kids, over not publishing enough articles, or seeing enough patients per hour, over not being a sexual goddess every night for our partners, or not being the best wife we could be,… or friend, or daughter, or sister.  We even have guilt about feeling guilty!  So our group’s name is to remind us that we wear so many hats - which requires some exceptional qualities- and that whatever we are doing at this moment is enough.  Plain and simple. 

But there’s another, perhaps more important significance to our name - the concept of “wondering” itself. We are a band of women who choose to wonder about a lot of tough issues.  We wonder about racism, about misogyny, about our polarized nation, about career burnout and gender discrimination, about #MeToo, about our own sexuality, about our quality of life, our careers, our parenting, our marriages, our happiness.  And during our time together many of us have noted that “the wondering” about this journey of life can be one of the best aspects of the ride itself.  So in a nutshell we are WonderWomen because we are lifting and inspired by wondering.

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“It is difficult to be around people who are trying to be perfect — perfectly healthy, perfectly polite, perfectly poised, perfectly controlled. Remember that being human means being imperfect, being flawed. Let yourself be. Let others be. Slouch in your chair. Eat with the wrong fork. Laugh out loud. Stand up and reveal who you are and know that you are good enough. Stop worrying that people will find out who you really are. Instead, hope that they do. Help them by sharing yourself and not who you think you should be, but who you really are.” from Journey to the Heart by Melody Beattie