Perhaps it was. Wayward is another word for stubborn, or determined, capricious, and headstrong. Someone who doesn't let society push her around. A young woman who  takes matters into her own hands and the consequences be damned! 

If that window hung on a door somewhere in Colorado, on some building downtown, perhaps, in the early days of the last century, and it was true to its cause, the young women were, I suspect, being hidden away because they were guilty of nothing more than an unwanted pregnancy, shameful in its appearance, to a staid society with proper upright morals. 

I like to think of some of them as truly wayward - not ashamed, as they should be. Not willing to be hidden from the world. Not ready to be labeled with whatever vulgar label unwed mothers were given then.

I like to think, perhaps, there were girls who were also not pregnant, but were out of control, according to some rule in their households. Girls who wanted to read and write and be heard, when they spoke. Girls who wanted to challenge the status quo and make something of themselves - girls whose only goal in life was to NOT be Mrs. Somebody or other, because they knew if that happened, they were lost, forever.

Truth is, I might have been one of them. I might have been a wild and boisterous girl, guarding my independence jealously. I might have been a girl who refused to let someone else, certainly men or women who allowed men to run their lives, tell me I couldn't do this or that. I might have been a rabble rouser - gathering other girls to picket the town hall and demand the right to a higher education, or to the vote, or to make decisions about my life, by myself. 

How lucky are we that we live now, in a world that - while still struggling to allow us all of our civil rights  - does allow us more leeway than any wayward girl of the early 20th century.

It's with that thought in mind, and my daily view of the window now hanging on my wall, that I share some insight into being a powerful, determined, successful woman today, in the 21st century, where our voices are ever being raised higher and louder, as we insist on equal rights for all. 

Recently, I was treated to some information on the 100 Most Powerful Women in the World, according to IBM Watson Personality Insights, shared with me by Porch.com. They gathered 5 Personality Traits and deciphered which ones fit some of the most powerful women we know. There are women whose names are very familiar, like Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and Beyonce, and Oprah Winfrey. And there are names you might not be familiar with, as I was not, like Jenny Lee, Rosalind Brewer, and Kirsten Green. 

I'm a sucker for this kind of content. I admit it. While I support you, and all the women in my Smart Women Conversations, and all the women (and a few men) who contributed to my latest book...COMING SOON! A never before seen look at how to write a book from start to finish: The HOW TO WRITE A BOOK Book by myself and my co-author, husband Tom Collins...  I have to occasionally honor the great women we all look up to.

Women with sincere, true, honest accomplishments, in technology, politics, the arts, and fashion.

Women who made goals, worked diligently at them, and succeeded - well enough to receive the recognition in the Porch.com insightful look at the 100 Most Powerful Women in the World.