I've just come back from a road trip in New England where we spent a day in Salem. It was packed with students visiting the museums and spooky exhibitions, learning about the witch frenzy of centuries past. In Europe, during the 16th and 17th centuries at least 40,000 people were accused of witchcraft and executed; and as we now know, many of the women tried and convicted of witchcraft were in fact intelligent women who were midwives, healers and/or women of property.
In Salem, the whole terrible saga which culminated in 20 men and women being hanged, was started by bored teenage girls whose intellect was suffocated. Three teenage girls were eager to hear old African tales from one of the women in the village and this literally fuelled their imagination. They proceeded to scare each other by telling wild stories and pretending to see visions and this got totally out of hand. Today in the UK, all of our teenagers are entitled to an education. Most are also enabled to be happy, dream big and effect positive change in the world. But not all teenagers are this lucky. Many have seen and experienced things that no young person should and 24/7 social media has resulted in many questioning their own worth. Are they good looking enough, clever enough, do they have the right designer brands, have enough friends? 4 in 10 teenage girls are now self harming. That's what is really scary - not Halloween. This is why we designed Oysters and Pearls, to try and reach 16 and 17 year old girls who need to know that they are as good as anyone else and that there are lots of opportunities for them in Lancashire. Our 7th Oysters and Pearls event is at Blackburn College on the 19th November and we need 40 incredible and generous Lancashire women to spend a day with 40 female students. If you are a woman in management, a woman running her own business or a woman in the professions, or even if you are currently taking a career break but have held an interesting position in the past, we need you please to join our day of motivation and mentoring. We won't ask you to get up and speak, we just want the girls to be able to share the day with you and ask you some questions one to one, so that they can see that today's women in work, were once teenage girls with issues, just like them. Please pledge one day, it could change a life to book please follow this link
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If you enjoy my blogs, you can read more of my work in my book available here www.amazon.co.uk/Words-Walks-Wisdom-Wendy-Bowers/dp/1671172353
AuthorWendy Bowers, Archives
June 2022
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