The Ritual of Resistance: How Self-Care reclaims the power stolen from Women

History has a habit of erasing women’s labor—especially when it nourishes, heals, or empowers. For centuries, patriarchal systems and religious doctrines have minimized feminine contributions as “domestic,” “mundane,” or even “dangerous,” while profiting from the very labor they demeaned. Herbalists became witches. Healers became outcasts. Innovators became footnotes. Yet today, in the quiet act of massaging a cream into your skin or dabbing perfume onto your collarbone, you wield something radical: the choice to care for yourself in a world built to exhaust you. This is not indulgence. It is insurrection.

The Erasure of Women’s Mastery

Long before apothecaries bore men’s names, women were the original chemists. They fermented tonics in clay pots, distilled floral essences in copper stills, and mapped the healing properties of roots and resins. In ancient Babylon, women brewed salves for childbirth from dates and honey; in pre-colonial India, Vedic texts credited women with discovering turmeric’s anti-inflammatory magic. But as empires and organised religions rose, women’s knowledge was co-opted, their authority dismantled. The medieval Church labeled herbal medicine “sorcery,” while Enlightenment-era men rebranded women’s remedies as “science” — once they could claim credit.

Even perfume, once a sacred craft tied to temple rites and goddess worship, was industrialised into a male-dominated trade. The rose fields of Grasse, now a symbol of French perfumery, were first tended by women who understood the language of petals—until their expertise was reduced to manual labor, their artistry erased from the ledger.

Self-Care as Sabotage

Today, women’s labor remains the invisible engine of society. We are expected to work like we don’t care for others, and care for others like we don’t work. Our time is treated as infinite, our energy as communal property. To pause and tend to yourself—is to reject this theft. It is a quiet strike against a system that thrives on your depletion.