LNAT Sample Essay - ‘Women now have the chance to achieve anything they want.’ How do you respond?

The power dynamic in society between the women and men is now as close as it has ever been. I argue that in today’s world, the female gender is no longer an obstacle to success and indeed ‘women now have the chance to achieve anything they want’; in light of the growing independence that women now have, as well as the countless platforms available now that women can use to achieve their goals.

My first argument as to why ‘women now have the chance to achieve anything they want’ is women are now increasingly independent, being able to pursue their goals on their own accord. Historically, men are always seen as the breadwinner for a family and as such women had little to no autonomy to pursue their own goals career-wise. However, the world today is very different, as a systemic shift has seen women becoming more independent, and as such correspondingly having more capacity and autonomy to pursue their desires. For example, the Forbes list of ‘self-made women’ has increased steadily over the past 5 years, as we see successful entrepreneurs such as Kylie Jenner and Rihanna topping charts and breaking records for their merchandise sales. Their independent success as women elucidates the clear point that women do in fact have the ability to attain the highest echelon of achievements in life. That said, critics might argue that the aforementioned examples are only exceptions to the norm, and whilst women are becoming more independent, men still generally dominate women in terms of executive roles or top C-suite jobs. Such a view seems overly nihilistic, though, as it must be acknowledged that whilst top jobs such as CEOs are still mostly run by men, this differs from industry to industry. Women very clearly trump men in the fashion and modelling industry, and we see females achieving immense feats in these industries. Hence, we cannot tunnel-vision into male-dominated industries and discount the achievements of independent women that are actualised in today’s world.

Furthermore, women now have more platforms and outlets to leverage on to achieve anything they want, empowering them to attain their goals. With the rapid development of technology as a tool for people to start their own business or leverage to reach a wider audience, we see that women have likewise embraced this as a huge boost to achieving what they want. Tiktok, the famous video-sharing media site has seen so many women becoming successful through making skits or sharing their persona online. Similarly, women such as the founder of LuLulemon has been able to use the online space to start her own business, which flourished into a multi-million worldwide makeup product company. With so many platforms available to kickstart a career from, women now have more autonomy and are more empowered than ever to achieve anything they want.

Some critics may posit that there is still an inherent discrimination present in society against women today that has been carried from the past, that inhibits their ability to truly achieve anything and everything they want. These critics point to the fact that many might naturally lean to stereotypes and biases that men are ‘more capable’ and ‘intelligent’ than women, especially in more archaic societies such as in the Middle East. As such, women are still suppressed from truly going out there and attaining their goals. However, this argument does not hold substantial weight as I believe that this inherent bias is not significant enough to inhibit a woman from achieving their goals. If a woman is dedicated to her ambitions, works hard and shows her unwavering competence, there is no obstacle big enough in this world to stop her from attaining what she wants - and the intangible stereotypical discrimination is no different. As such, i believe it is still definitely possible for women to attain whatever they want today.

In sum, because of the increasing independence of women today who have innumerable platforms to leverage on, i agree to a large extent that ‘women now have the chance to achieve anything they want’.

Word Count: 674

#LNAT #Essay #UCAS