Financial Independence

Today a 24 year old friend told me she is pregnant. Not 6 weeks pregnant, not 16 weeks pregrant, but 30 weeks pregnant. She fell pregnant, she tells me, because her father did not allow her to marry her man. Why did dad refuse you marry?, I asked. "Because he wants me to be financially independent.", she confidently responded. Oh, what a great father. Now that Angie is pregnant, it will be difficult(though not impossible) to find herself a job. She might have to rely on her man financially. My very judgemental mind sees a very long journey of self imprisonment. She has a Bachelor's degree, but has just never been interested in working for herself. You see, her dad has 7 children, and mommy has never had a job before. "If daddy was able to raise all these children without mommy ever been financially independent, why must I struggle.", she asked me. "Working for yourself is not a struggle. Being financially independent is not a struggle. It is the beginning of freedom", I responded Today, I picked 10 homes from my street. All of them have struggling women. They all have no jobs, not because they do not want to work, but because they are not qualified enough to be employed in vacant positions. But worst of all, they all refuse to make vegetable patches in their backyards. They choose to be financially dependent on the husbands. I feel so saddened. For the remainder of this 16 days of activism, I choose to go back to these 10 homes and donate vegetable seed. We have 'free' water in our area, so there will be no extra expense for them. I realise I cannot force them to plant anything, but I'm just so tired of them looking hungry. I'm tired of distributing spinash and tomatoes from my garden. It is my time to do something about my tiredness. Today, I will be an activist, a vegetable patch activist.