Unsung Heroine — standing up for themselves in spite of…
This morning I got a call from Debbie, who was assigned to work on my company, Cirkled in, by her professor as a class project. After a brief intro, I suggested that we talk later in the day to go over things in details. While coordinating the schedule, I learned that she is 62-year-old grandma who is back in school to learn about marketing, messaging and branding. And she mentioned that this was her dream which she couldn’t fulfill earlier in life because of her family commitments. I was impressed.
This reminded me of my conversation just yesterday, with the lady sitting next to me on my flight back from SxSW Austin. Just a day prior to her flight, she had received her certificate to practice a totally new career and she was coming to Seattle for the 2nd baby shower for her daughter. Wow! These two interactions made me think of something I had not thought of before. It connected the dots for me and I had an “aha” moment.
Women have always stood up to the challenges, no matter how difficult circumstances were. The power of women is insuppressible. It won’t be long when we won’t need one day designated as “International Women’s Day”.
I hate “International Women’s Day” and I cannot wait our society to get to a point where we don’t need one day designated as “International Women’s Day” to celebrate them. Why do we need it? Do we have International Men’s Day? No. Why? because they are not the second tier for resources and opportunities in our economy and don’t need one day dedicated to them to recognize them. Because they don’t make 79 cents for each dollar. Because they don’t get less than 2% of VC funding when they found their companies. Because they are not less than 5% CEOs in Fortune 500 companies. All this while there are multiple reports proving that companies with women in the leadership perform better financially. There is so much to be said here. It will take volumes to document it all. International Women’s Day is a consolation prize for all the unfairness women face in the society today. Why do we need “Women in Tech”, “Women in C-suite” types of groups? We don’t have these for men. But these recent interactions gave me hope that it’s not too long when we won’t need one dedicated day for women. Women will have equal opportunities as men in any field whether it’s STEM or liberal arts.
I also remembered that this change has been happening at the grass root level. In US, since January 2017, hundreds and thousands of women’s group have been formed to join hands and change the system.
But if I look back, just in my tiny universe, women have been at work for atleast last 7 decades standing up for themselves.
First off, my mom. She fought against all odds in a very orthodox and male dominated society in mid-20th century in India. She got her master’s degree in spite of fulfilling all her obligations to raise family. She became a change agent in her small town educating kids who otherwise would be working in farms today, unable to even write their name. For last 73 years, she has been changing the system one person at a time. At age 73, she will be the director of my company’s India operations! Then I look at my younger sister, the next generation. At age 42, last year she earned her law degree and started practicing, in spite of an abusive husband and two young kids. Then I look at my younger daughter who at age 11, in 6th grade is able to calm down and work with her Robotics team member in spite of the fact that the team member has autism. While another male team member left the team because he couldn’t handle the situation. During one of the competition, coach told me how much he is impressed by my daughter and how she has shown amazing leadership skills and team spirit.
My favorite line in the movie “Hidden Figures” was — “NASA didn’t hire us because we wear skirts, but because we wear glasses”. Three women depicted in the movie had to deal with racial and gender inequality but none of that deterred them. I also think of two amazing high school interns we have today who are taking control of their lives and careers, gaining real life company experience while in high school. These young women don’t know what they want to be when they grow up, yet they do know how to take charge of their own destiny and march along.
Women make more than half of this planet’s population at 50.8%, so why not have equal access to resources and rights? As a woman with two daughters, I’m marching along on my path to make it an equaitable and just world for every woman. I’m also teaching my daughters that no one can tell them what they can or cannot do. They only decide what do they want to do. Gender can not be a hurdle. Every parent needs to give this message to their daughters and with that we’ll make women equity a reality for the next generation. We need to remind our daughters what William Golding once said. We need to remind them that they are not inferior than the other gender and can achieve at least equal success as men.
I think women are foolish to pretend they are equal to men; they are far superior and always have been.
— Sir William Gerald Golding (1911–1993)