Resilience is the ability to recover quickly from difficulties, stress, or change. It can describe both people and materials that bounce back instead of breaking.
From Latin *resilire* meaning 'to spring back, rebound'. It first described physical materials and later was applied to emotional and mental strength.
Resilience isn’t about never bending; it’s about bending without breaking. People often build resilience not from easy times, but from surviving hard ones and learning how they coped.
'Resilience' has often been celebrated in women and marginalized groups while systemic harms persisted, sometimes shifting responsibility from institutions to individuals. Narratives of women's resilience have at times romanticized enduring inequity rather than addressing its causes.
Use 'resilience' to recognize strength without implying that people should tolerate injustice or overwork. Pair it with attention to structural change, not just individual coping.
["capacity to recover","adaptability","hardiness"]
When discussing resilience, acknowledge the unpaid and under-recognized labor of women sustaining families, movements, and communities under adverse conditions, and emphasize the need to reduce those burdens.
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