THE CHALLENGE OF INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

Phenomenal Women Are Everywhere!

When International Women’s Day was first observed in 1911, the focus was on highlighting the issues impacting women’s advancement and equality.  Today, over a hundred years later, those challenges still face us.  Yes, there are amazing and lasting achievements which women have made in all areas of endeavor, however there is still much work to be done to raise awareness regarding discrimination, pay equity, and even the right to control what happens to one’s own body.  In some ways, it feels like we have stepped back in time rather than forward.  To keep my focus on the positive rather than despair at what has been challenged, I keep my focus on something that I discovered in my walks before sunrise; that the night gets this impossibly inky color of dark indigo right before the dawn breaks in a flurry and blush of color.  These times, too, will pass, and catapult us forward into a brand-new reality.

In a sense, although actions and words on paper may aim to remove access and standing, the true playing field, that of the spirit and the mind will never be conquered. As sure as the sun rises, there are little girls dreaming big dreams and doing the groundwork to make it all happen.  Today I happened on an old video of gymnast Simone Biles, before she was the G.O.A.T.; the best gymnast of all time. Even in those years old, grainy videos, that spark was there as was the sense you were watching something special.   The next Katherine Johnson (the mathematician and African American mathematician who calculated the flight paths for NASA missions that eventually resulted into manned flight to the moon) or Serena Williams, the phenomenal, record-breaking tennis player who learned the sport on the courts of Compton,  or Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani teenager and the youngest Nobel Laureate ever, who survived an assassination attempt for her championing of female education, are

dreaming their dreams of success as we celebrate this International Women’s Day in 2025. They are perhaps wondering if women in the US will have anything to celebrate the rest of the year. 

GIRL POWER

I feel confident that those decidedly not famous (yet) girls are out there dreaming dreams and practicing their craft towards the perfection and dazzling brilliance that will come.  One thing I know for sure is that true brilliance will not be dulled, not by ethnic or gender bias, or bad press, or even an assassin’s bullet.  The turn away from Diversity Equity and Inclusion is actually a reactionary pivot back to automatically awarding a position to the white male in the applicant pool without regard for his qualification for the position.  It is a technicality that will NEVER prevent innate brilliance and achievement.  It may make it a bit harder, but to paraphrase the words of Maya Angelou, “…and still she will rise.”  

So, this year as we celebrate women in the month of March, and observe International Women’s Day today, we do so knowing that the next amazing female innovator, athlete, sage and overachiever is out there perfecting her vision and her craft.  Collaboration and collective action on behalf of these future stars and standouts is how we make it happen.  Collective and inspired action towards achieving gender parity is the goal, and all-inclusive positive efforts towards that goal are the ways to make Women’s Day most impactful.  It’s a day for all women, and a day to do what we can to make a positive difference in the life of the women in our communities and beyond.