Inspiration on International Women’s Day

She earned a new doctorate.

During the pandemic lockdown.

She said she wanted to show our son it was possible to pursue dreams, specifically educational dreams, at any age.

And she did.

But it was also because she always wants to be better.

Better at what she does. More knowledgable in her profession. Better for her patients. Better for her family. Better for herself.

She moved across the country as a young woman to find her path To pursue something she may not have even been able to explain at the time.

She climbed up into the mountains. Into the altitude. She ran, and climbed rocks, and scuba-dived. She cycled. In the end, she found friends, adventures, a tribe. A tribe she knows to this day.

She challenged herself. She soared. And crashed. Then discovered her passion, her path, her career.

She became a healer.

She opened a practice.

Crossed paths with others - many in the male-dominated field of healthcare - who would try to hold her back. Put her down. Try to lift themselves at her expense.

She didn’t let them.

It’s remarkable to discover just how many of these there are. The underminers. The self-centered careerists. The self-promotional narcissists. Those not only willing, but eager to diminish others, women, in a misguided attempt to make themselves seem more important than they are. Than they ever will be.

But she persevered. Found the right people. Aligned herself with the best, who realized they needed to align themselves with the best as well. With her.

And she did it in that uniquely counter-intuitive way she has. With kindness, not aggression. With love, not attack. With support, not condemnation. And eschewing the traditional competitive mode to boost other women rather than tear them down.

She rose up and connected with other professionals in complementary disciplines to become a specialist people trust. Patients. Their families. And their professionals, some of the most respected anywhere in the field.

Then she moved across the country and she did it all again. In a new place. A place even less supportive of women like her in that traditionally male-dominated field.

And she’s done what she set out to do.

She’s shown our son it’s possible to pursue and achieve educational dreams at any age.

But she’s done more than that. She’s shown him what it is to be a powerful woman succeeding in a world run by men.

And also how to be a good man supporting, and advocating for, and cheering on women like her in this world. How to be a man not threatened by a woman’s intelligence, ability, and achievement.

How to understand that someone else’s brightness does not limit him. In fact, how celebrating that brightness and being inspired by it makes us all better.

It is International Women’s Day today.

Officially, it is celebrated to bring attention to women’s issues from gender equality to reproductive rights, to violence and abuse, domestic and otherwise.

But it is equally important, more important, I think, to remember why women experience these things at a higher rate than men in the first place.

There are more women in America today than men. 50.47 percent of the population compared to 49.5 percent.

Women are better educated than men. More women have college degrees. Women make up almost half of the work-force. More than 40 percent of them are the sole or primary breadwinners in their families.

Yet, women are less than 5 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs, less than 15 percent of corporate executive officers, and continue to make less than their male counterparts in the workforce.

Only one-quarter of the U.S. Senate are women and just 28.7 percent of the House of Representatives.

One in three women have experienced physical violence by an intimate partner and 40 percent of women in America will be a target of sexual violence.

And we have overturned Roe v. Wade making women, in many of our eyes, second-class citizens.

They are commonly called “the weaker sex” for a reason. They have been historically pushed around.

Male politicians everywhere talk about their loving mothers. Their beautiful wives. The daughters they adore. As some sort of credit for being pro-woman. But why don’t we show it? Why don’t we make sure they have the same rights our male citizens do? The same opportunities? The same chances to succeed? The same encouragement despite immeasurable odds?

Instead, there are movements out there to explain away the pay gap. To diminish women’s contribution because they so often fill the caregiver role. Because so many of them feel they can’t fight back.

To be truthful, throwing the word “equal” around can be disingenuous. But how about equitable? How about we men start paying attention to the women in our lives as the incredibly valuable, inspiring, important contributors they are.

How about we open the doors and let them figure out what they want to do the same way we do for our sons?

They lead us at home.

They inspire us to be great.

They teach us the things we need to know to become in the world.

Why don’t we do the same for them?

Today… on International Women’s Day, celebrate the women in your life. The ones you have. The ones you lost over time. The ones yet to come.

They will make us greater than we imagine.

#forheather #storymatters #wordsmatter #internationalwomensday