Courage That Nobody Applauds Is Still Courage - Fact 23

THE WOMAN PROJECT — Woman Fact 23

Only you, a woman, will know the exact moment, when being quiet, stilling the spirit within, courage takes over, stands tall and you move forward, with inner strength you never knew you had. It is not loud, not deafening, it is quiet. How powerful is that. The unlimited capabilities of a woman. Recognize it. Celebrate it.

A Pew Research survey of over 4,500 Americans found that being seen as "powerful" was viewed positively in men 67% of the time. In women, it was viewed negatively 92% of the time. No wonder her courage learned to stay quiet.

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Courage rarely looks like the movies. Psychologists describe most real courage as quiet: staying in the room during a hard conversation, leaving a relationship that isn't safe, showing up to a job that scares you, getting back up after a diagnosis, a divorce, a diagnosis of a different kind entirely, grief.

Given that Pew Research finding, it makes sense why so much of her courage happens where no one's watching. Researchers studying women and courage describe it as most often rooted in responsibility and love, for children, for family, for people who needed her to keep going when she didn't feel like it. That courage rarely gets applause. It rarely gets noticed at all, because it was never performed for an audience in the first place.

Here's what deserves saying plainly: courage was never only the dramatic rescue or the public stand. Sometimes it's simply choosing, quietly, again and again, on days nobody sees, to keep going anyway. That's not smaller courage. It might be the realest kind there is.

THINK IT

What's one thing you did recently that took real courage, even though no one ever called it that, maybe not even you?