1. Pursue your dreams

“Many women feel like they can’t spend time on their careers because they will be a bad mother, so they stop trying to be professionally successful once they have started a family.” Women can find a balance between work and home, and share the responsibilities of raising their children and taking care of the house with their husbands. “With support from her husband, a woman can find harmony in her life and her family can benfit from such mutual understanding and sharing of responsibilities.”

2. Speak up

“I went to college in Berkeley, California, in the 1970’s, where everyone was very politically active. If you are a principled person, you cannot just stand by and watch things happen. You have to say what you believe. Other female politicians have said that I embarrass them with my words and my actions. I tell them that I am sorry that they feel that way, but I must speak what I think is the truth. As women we enter poltics for the purpose of bringing peace to women’s lives. We need to speak up when women’s lives are broken by violence.”

3. Set an example

“Changing the expectations of women in Cambodia requires time and role models. If women have examples of other successful women, they will begin to see what is possible.” If women start being role models now, the next generation of Khmer woman will have an even stronger belief that they can do anything. You should be proud to be a woman, and don’t be scared to realise the wealth of opportunities in front of you.

* Words in “quotes” directly from Mu Sochua, words out of quotes paraphrased from her interview with Lift.