By Lizz Bottrell, Citizen Staff

I am woman, here me roar!

I’ve never felt more empowered as a woman than last week when I took a load of garbage to the dump. This may seem like a fairly mundane task, but the very fact that my boyfriend and his friends are always in charge of this, I felt somewhat proud to finally have my turn.

I’m proud of my job for a couple reasons. First and foremost, I drove the monster of a diesel truck my boyfriend owns. To top it off, the truck has a standard transmission, which I don’t have trouble with in my own car, but it’s a little wonky in the truck, making it a bit of challenge to drive.

Secondly, emptying all the garbage in record speed (that I also loaded, thank you very much) felt amazingly liberating.

Normally a task like this I likely would see as very routine, but the very fact that my boyfriend not only trusted me with the job but assured me over the phone amidst my protests that I was extremely capable, gave me a sense of pride.

Of course I knew I was capable, my protests were more of the ‘I really don’t want to do this’ sort. See, that’s the beauty of womanhood - we are all very capable of living quite independently and also quite capable of doing everything men can do. Well maybe not everything, but most things. The thing is, it’s great to take care of tasks independently, but when in a relationship, it’s also nice to have a man’s help.

Men help women, as they’ve been doing since the dawn of time, to impress us, to win us over and to eventually mate with us - it’s instinctive, it’s simply survival of the fittest. They continue to help us throughout a relationship as a way of showing love. I’ve found many men show their emotions through action instead of through words, as women tend to do. So by allowing them to help us or even asking for their help, we’re letting them show us their love and compassion.

But I also look at it another way. The very fact that a man can trust a woman with a job he normally takes care of, he’s showing an utmost respect. I have male friends in my life who squirm at the idea of stepping even slightly outside the 1950s gender roles. He says, woman, do the dishes. She says, man, mow the lawn. My boyfriend could have easily called one of our friends to take care of the task, but he didn’t, he called me.

When he got home, his quick, but loud comment, ‘You did it!’ said it all. I know I’m not with one of those men who can’t get over the whole ‘women stay in the kitchen’ concept. That idea may seem extreme, but there are some men out there who still think that way.

Sometimes I fear some men look at women as fragile creatures who need a man to take care of them at all times. I’m a really small framed woman and very often I find men always wanting to help me because they think I can’t do something myself. Whenever I’m out on my own taking care of a task usually deemed for a man, I dread hearing the words, ‘Excuse me Miss, do you need any help with that?’ It’s great that they ask, but honestly, unless it’s my boyfriend asking, I would prefer to be left alone unless I ask for help. And I do ask for help, but I like to do it on my terms, which lends to my feeling of empowerment.

Just to prove how stubborn I can be when it comes to asserting my womanhood, while I was in college, I took a broadcast journalism class and whenever I worked as the camera person I insisted on carrying all the equipment by myself. You should have seen the looks on the faces of the people who walked by whenever I worked with a male partner - they stared him down like a criminal for not helping me. He offered to help, but I insisted on carrying the heavy equipment on my own to prove a point. Women are more than capable, men just need to give us the chance.

So when my boyfriend gave me the chance to prove myself that day, I felt proud. I could tell he did too.