Plain and simple, women need women. But it’s unfortunate that we’ve been conditioned to believe we need just about everything else.

We’re told we need more makeup, and then we’re told we need less. More weight, and then less weight. The messaging convinces us we need men’s approval and physical perfection above all else, which conveniently discourages millions of women from ever challenging the status quo. At the core of it all, though, we’re told repeatedly that we aren’t enough.

It’s hard to not notice the conditioning that women and girls have undergone, and it’s striking to what degree we’ve been groomed to put ourselves last.

One thinks about the intelligent, dynamic women who venture off to college and boldly claim how they’re really there for their M.R.S. degree, as if marital status is more important than education, self-discovery, a worthwhile career, or adventure.

Then the gaze shifts to the young men who populate those same college campuses. Notice their focus on their studies and futures, as opposed to the pursuit of a future wife.

That’s not to say that those who’ve found love at a young age are doing something wrong. Rather, it’s to call attention to the way we raise our boys to be totally self-possessed and focused on future success, while we raise our girls to be focused on boys.

It’s the phenomenon Simone de Beauvoir observed as the difference between raising Subjects (men) and Objects (women).

We shrink our voices, obsess over appearance, stifle our anger and sacrifice our identities (if we were ever so bold to find them in the first place) just to gain what society tells us we need. But what we really need are our sisters.

We need the companionship of other human beings who share our same life experiences, hear us when we speak and understand us in that special way that only another woman can.

The following women’s stories have been compiled to create the Voices of the Sisterhood, a case study in how much women of all backgrounds have in common. Notice the recurring threads. Notice the humanity.