A little hero worship is in order. Recently we celebrated International Women’s Day and while I’d be just as happy to celebrate International Equality Day, I feel this reminder of the inequities still has a place. For me it always becomes a place of gratitude though.
Granted by all who came before me I have the freedom to choose my profession, to choose my faith, to choose my friends, and I am grateful.
I have the freedom to choose!
Bigger than that; I also retain the ability to choose to be happy. This last one needs reminding on occasion; when the week has been long and the progress slow a reminder that happiness too is my choice bears repeating.
I went through a major personal transition over the course of the last year, and the evolution continues. As a woman who has lived her whole life subscribing to the idea that women can and should do anything they want this explosion of attention focused on the women who can’t has given me new appreciation for how rare that privilege is. And make no mistake, just because I was able to take it for granted doesn’t mean that I don’t understand it is, in fact, just that; PRIVILEDGE!
After 20 years of working in STEM, and a lifetime living with a gracefully strong woman who broke ground at every turn I can’t count the number of times I faced opposition based not on my abilities but on my gender, and was compelled to find a way to move around it. How?
It wasn’t easy and some days I really didn’t feel like doing it, but if you choose to take each occasion as an opportunity to educate then it comes a little easier. Make no mistake, we all deserve to feel equal, heard and respected for our skills and abilities and what I started to notice was that often the opposition I was facing came because someone on the other side of the argument felt just as unheard or unrespected as I did. By choosing empathy and listening over reacting I enabled us both to learn. One person, one moment and one decision at a time I continue to be grateful for the opportunity to do so.
Granted by those who came before, and through my actions, to those who come after.