During the COVID-19 quarantine lockdown, I was trying to come up with an idea for my blog ( https://confessionsoftheprofessions.com ) and I started collecting COVID-19 stories from around the world, but everyone knows what COVID is and everyone has a tragic story to tell or misery to share. We all collectively experienced what a pandemic is like and we all have seen or known or heard about how dangerous COVID-19 was, so there would be only so many times you can tell your COVID story of government lockdowns and all that.

Then I saw an opportunity, the only time I would personally ever have time to take on such a massive project. Work was slow. I was looking for something to do. It is called My Life As A Woman Project and sought to obtain the story of a woman from every country in the world. I already had access to a network of people from many different countries, so I switched up the focus and thought: "What is it like to be a woman in that country?" Every woman is different. Every woman will share a different perspective. But women are very detailed in storytelling. I sent requests out to about 1,500 women, most of them replied, but just a little more than 500 women were willing to share the personal story of their lives.

So I spent the next four months interviewing and even hiring some men and rehiring those women who were on board in understanding what I was doing and could reach countries that I could otherwise never reach. There are still places around the world that are communist and Internet is very limited. There are also places where it is not so easy to reach women. There were places where I spoke with "women of tradition" meaning I had to learn about their culture, learn how I needed to speak to them, and earn their respect before they would even write me a story.

Whatever the meaning of the project was, I hope it helps the world someday understand things about society and its treatment of women -- and its not all bad at all -- but these women are the game-changers of everyday life, coming in all ages from 17 to 90 years old. They told their stories of government corruption, family expectations, and even struggles with their own values and purposes in life. Women are beautiful. I figured I'd pave the way and give a woman from every country in the entire world a chance to tell her story. One simply does not talk to 1,500 women from all over the world and is not transformed or changed in some way. I hope you will be too.

A project like this was in no way cheap at all. The thing about talking to so many women and guaranteeing they share their stories and tell the truth: almost every woman was paid between $10 - $20 with some more of the rare women from harder-to-reach countries costing me a lot more to obtain and even authenticate that it was actually a woman writing her story. Taking advantage of that ONE MOMENT in human history where EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THE WORLD was pretty much at home is what allowed me to do this. Most of these women were out of work and were needing some work so I compensated them in exchange for telling their story.

The project was solely funded with donations to my blog as well as from my life savings.

https://mylifeasawomanproject.com