United Nations Office for Project Services

Cuando una niña se vuelve mujer: una historia de abuso psicológico - Parte 1

Vi una y otra vez como otras mujeres eran derrumbadas a mi alrededor. Nunca pensé que yo también sería derribada.
Greece, Southern Europe

Story by Maria Sotiropoulou. Translated by Leonardo Ismael Pérez Correa
Published on April 9, 2021.

This story is also available in GB de it



Desde temprana edad, escuchaba historias de mujeres poderosas. Alentada por las palabras de mi madre, crecí con la percepción de que nunca debía permitir que nada me quebrase. En mi mente llevaba una imagen de como debía verse una mujer independiente: siempre erguida y haciendo frente a todos sus obstáculos y enemigos.

Al crecer, fui lentamente entendiendo que la vida no es ni un cuento de hadas ni una película de mujeres empoderadas en un espacio dominado por hombres. Vi una y otra vez como otras mujeres eran derrumbadas a mi alrededor, sin importar cuanto se esforzaban. Sin embargo, no dejé que esto le cortara las alas a mis aspiraciones y mis sueños. Pero principalmente, nunca pensé que, en algún momento de mi vida, yo también podría ser derribada. Aún no me daba cuenta de que mi glamorosa imagen mental no reflejaba la realidad.

Muchos me han advertido –y aún lo hacen— que el campo de la política en la que quiero trabajar está dominado por hombres. Cuando empecé a trabajar en mi organización, [1] Era muy proactiva. Debido a mi ingenuidad y falta de consciencia sobre la industria, acabé ignorando varias señales de advertencia—algo que tendemos a hacer cuando estamos emocionados y asustados a la vez. Esto es especialmente cierto en situaciones con relaciones desiguales donde una parte mantiene una posición de poder y autoridad.

El mundo de los poderosos en trajes, los discursos políticos y el compromiso público me hechizaron en mis primeros años de estudiante. Tomé todas las oportunidades que me llegaron, sin tomar en cuenta que algunas cosas te “llegan al plato” más fácilmente de lo que parecen. Creí que iba por el camino correcto, percibía cada oportunidad como un paso más hacia a mis sueños. Por supuesto, cada paso venía con sus propios desafíos, pero los consideré algo inevitable y normal, porque después recibiría el premio que me había ganado. O eso pensé.

Nadie me avisó que esas dificultades incluían actitudes manipuladores, condescendientes y sexistas. Asumí que, por cada paso dado, tendría a un “mentor” protegiéndome, mostrándome lo que estaba bien y lo que estaba mal, lo ético y lo poco ético. Y más importantemente, aceptaba las palabras enjuiciadoras como normales en el contexto, como “la forma en que son las cosas”.

Desde comentarios amargados sobre mi apariencia y feminidad, hasta el hecho de que con una personalidad fuerte y extrovertida, la gente decía que yo daría “todo en mi poder” para obtener lo que quisiera. Todas esas horribles palabras las entendía como bromas inocentes e incluso “consejos amistosos".

Después de un tiempo, empecé a darme cuenta de que los consejos que mi “mentor” me daba no siempre eran legítimos. Comencé a tomar iniciativa propia, siguiendo el camino que yo había hecho para mí misma, sin estar pidiendo consejos específicos todo el tiempo. No quería encajar en el molde que alguien más ya había creado.

Pero esto se volvió un punto de cambio en mi vida, lo cual desafortunadamente no predije. Siempre se esperaba que yo diera lo mejor de mí misma, pero nunca que superara a mi “mentor”. No sabía lo mal que eso iba a terminar.

Lee la segunda parte de esta historia. 


 [1] Debido a posibles críticas el nombre de la organización fue omitido.


How does this story make you feel?

Follow-up

Do you have any questions after reading this story? Do you want to follow-up on what you've just read? Get in touch with our team to learn more! Send an email to
[email protected].

Talk about this Story

Please enable cookies to view the comments powered by Disqus.

Share your story

Every story we share is another perspective on a complex topic like migration, gender and sexuality or liberation. We believe that these personal stories are important to better understand what's going on in our globalised society - and to better understand each other. That's because we are convinced that the more we understand about each other, the easier it will be for us to really talk to one another, to get closer - and to maybe find solutions for the issues that affect us all. 

Do you want to share your story? Then have a look here for more info.

Share Your Story

Subscribe to our Monthly Newsletter

Stay up to date with new stories on Correspondents of the World by subscribing to our monthly newsletter:

* indicates required

Follow us on Social Media

Maria Sotiropoulou

Maria Sotiropoulou

Born in Greece, I was an energetic and extroverted person ever since my childhood, being passionate about foreign languages and debating. Holding a Bachelor's degree in Political Science, I am currently completing my Master's in European Studies at KU Leuven, focusing on European Governance and External Relations. My interests consist of foreign and European politics, governance, integration, gender equality, and women’s rights.

Other Stories in Español




Show all

Get involved

At Correspondents of the World, we want to contribute to a better understanding of one another in a world that seems to get smaller by the day - but somehow neglects to bring people closer together as well. We think that one of the most frequent reasons for misunderstanding and unnecessarily heated debates is that we don't really understand how each of us is affected differently by global issues.

Our aim is to change that with every personal story we share.

Share Your Story

Community Worldwide

Correspondents of the World is not just this website, but also a great community of people from all over the world. While face-to-face meetings are difficult at the moment, our Facebook Community Group is THE place to be to meet other people invested in Correspondents of the World. We are currently running a series of online-tea talks to get to know each other better.

Join Our Community

EXPLORE TOPIC Gender

Global Issues Through Local Eyes

We are Correspondents of the World, an online platform where people from all over the world share their personal stories in relation to global development. We try to collect stories from people of all ages and genders, people with different social and religious backgrounds and people with all kinds of political opinions in order to get a fuller picture of what is going on behind the big news.

Our Correspondents

At Correspondents of the World we invite everyone to share their own story. This means we don't have professional writers or skilled interviewers. We believe that this approach offers a whole new perspective on topics we normally only read about in the news - if at all. If you would like to share your story, you can find more info here.

Share Your Story

Our Editors

We acknowledge that the stories we collect will necessarily be biased. But so is news. Believing in the power of the narrative, our growing team of awesome editors helps correspondents to make sure that their story is strictly about their personal experience - and let that speak for itself.

Become an Editor

Vision

At Correspondents of the World, we want to contribute to a better understanding of one another in a world that seems to get smaller by the day - but somehow neglects to bring people closer together as well. We think that one of the most frequent reasons for misunderstanding and unnecessarily heated debates is that we don't really understand how each of us is affected differently by global issues.

Our aim is to change that with every personal story we share.

View Our Full Vision & Mission Statement

Topics

We believe in quality over quantity. To give ourselves a focus, we started out to collect personal stories that relate to our correspondents' experiences with six different global topics. However, these topics were selected to increase the likelihood that the stories of different correspondents will cover the same issues and therefore illuminate these issues from different perspectives - and not to exclude any stories. If you have a personal story relating to a global issue that's not covered by our topics, please still reach out to us! We definitely have some blind spots and are happy to revise our focus and introduce new topics at any point in time. 

Environment

Discussions about the environment often center on grim, impersonal figures. Among the numbers and warnings, it is easy to forget that all of these statistics actually also affect us - in very different ways. We believe that in order to understand the immensity of environmental topics and global climate change, we need the personal stories of our correspondents.

Gender and Sexuality

Gender is the assumption of a "normal". Unmet expectations of what is normal are a world-wide cause for violence. We hope that the stories of our correspondents will help us to better understand the effects of global developments related to gender and sexuality, and to reveal outdated concepts that have been reinforced for centuries.

Migration

Our correspondents write about migration because it is a deeply personal topic that is often dehumanized. People quickly become foreigners, refugees - a "they". But: we have always been migrating, and we always will. For millions of different reasons. By sharing personal stories about migration, we hope to re-humanize this global topic.

Liberation

We want to support the demand for justice by spotlighting the personal stories of people who seek liberation in all its different forms. Our correspondents share their individual experiences in creating equality. We hope that for some this will be an encouragement to continue their own struggle against inequality and oppression - and for some an encouragement to get involved.

Education

Education is the newest addition to our themes. We believe that education, not only formal but also informal, is one of the core aspects of just and equal society as well as social change. Our correspondents share their experiences and confrontations about educational inequalities, accessibility issues and influence of societal norms and structures. 

Corona Virus

2020 is a year different from others before - not least because of the Corona pandemic. The worldwide spread of a highly contagious virus is something that affects all of us in very different ways. To get a better picture of how the pandemic's plethora of explicit and implicit consequences influences our everyday life, we share lockdown stories from correspondents all over the world.

Growing Fast

Although we started just over a year ago, Correspondents of the World has a quickly growing community of correspondents - and a dedicated team of editors, translators and country managers.

94

Correspondents

113

Stories

57

Countries

433

Translations

Contact

Correspondents of the World is as much a community as an online platform. Please feel free to contact us for whatever reason!

Message Us

Message on WhatsApp

Call Us

Joost: +31 6 30273938