When asked about the women who inspire them, our ADR Advisors share a range of iconic women and personal inspirations. Some of the Advisors have chosen personal mentors, others have opted for historic figures and some chose both. My own choice is Margaret Mead, (see quote above) a pioneer in cultural anthropology also known for her research on sexual conventions in Western society.
Reading about the various influencers, I have no doubt that you’ll begin to generate a list of women who shaped your own lives. Feel free to share in the Comments!
In honor of Women’s History Month, hear about the women who inspire us and influence history. Let’s begin with a quote from Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, founder of Women’s Federation for World Peace and friend of the ADR:
“Women have the magical power to create harmony and to soften hearts. Brides build bridges. The world of the future can be a world of reconciliation and peace, but only if it is based on the maternal love and affection of women. This is a true power of womanhood. The time has come for the power of true womanhood to save the world.”
As a Black woman, whose family moved up from the Chicago slums to ‘the projects’, I was navigating the intersectionality of race, gender, and poverty in the USA. A historical iconic woman that inspired me would be Harriet Tubman, born a slave. I admire her because not only did she believe in human dignity and rights, but she also acted on her beliefs and principles.
Harriet Tubman understood that she and the others who were enslaved were human beings and not chattel. I had the honor to visit the Harriet Tubman House in Auburn, NY. Her modest home gives witness to her tremendous courage. She had seizures and narcolepsy, i.e., traumatic brain injury, from being hit in the head when an overseer threw a heavy metal weight at a slave.Harriet Tubman could be recognized during Women’s History Month, Disability Pride and Heritage Month and Black History Month.
Carlos: Angela, we’ve been friends and diversity colleagues for thirty-five years.It will be interesting to reflect on how the conversation about gender has changed over those decades.
Angela: Yes, but today we’ll only be able to look at a tiny slice of that huge topic. Let’s begin with language.When we first started working together, we used the term gender to distinguish women from men.Now we recognize greater complexities and fluidity, with terms like gender identity and non-binary.
Here’s my question to the men who are about to read this piece:
Based on what you know for sure, or have been fed by the media about her, if you were to find yourself seated next to Nancy Pelosi on a five-hour cross country plane ride and initiated the conversation, what would you talk about, avoid talking about and why?
So how about I give you, say, one minute to absorb and craft your answer to that question. Go ahead. No, wait, on second thought hold off on your answer until the end of this narrative.
In early May of 2022, I noticed a couple of protestors yelling at the downtown traffic on my drive home. Ironically, I believe I was on my way home from grabbing boba with some friends to commemorate the end of our junior year of college. I was unable to make out what their signs or chants depicted nor did I have much interest. It wasn’t until a few hours later when my father texted me a link to a news story covering what would be known as the beginning of worldwide heartbreak: the leaked draft of the Supreme Court majority decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022) that would explicitly overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.
I can’t keep up with bad behaviors by men nowadays – not all men before you lapse into cardiac arrest in anger at me – but those dudes who can’t seem to deal with their demons, fears, mental illnesses and hatreds in ways other than through the barrel of an AR-15.
So was it not men who flew planes into the World Trade Center, the field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon on 9/11? Was it not the “Alt Right” men who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 protesting the removal of the statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee that led to at least one death and scores of injuries?
Was it men who murdered nine church parishioners in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015 and who gunned down six Asian women in Atlanta two years ago? Weren’t the gut-wrenching shootings at Texas’s Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School and at the July 4th parade near Chicago committed by men?Was it a demented man who killed 11 worshipers at a Pittsburg synagogue? And more recently, was men who killed six Muslims in Albuquerque, or a man who plunged a knife into the neck of author Salam Rushdie in New York? Continue reading Are Men Necessary? (Part 2) – by Terry Howard→
Growing up in Virginia, my momma used to say to me that I sometimes “run around like a chicken with its head off.” That’s as perfect a depiction of any of my chaotic life as the month of June slips away. Duly noted.
You see, amid traveling, speaking engagements, fawning over a newborn grandson, greeting guests in my wife’s restaurant (and sometimes, yes, getting on her last nerve) and yard work, I failed to write something pertaining to Gay Pride Month. I really wanted to but never got around to it.
So while being confronted with the dual realities of the month coming to an end and the unrelated surge in hate mongering spilling into violence against LGBTQQI people, I decided to “go high.”
Recent findings from the Pew Research Center uncovered that across 34 countries, a median of 94% of respondents think it is important for women in their country to have the same rights as men, with 74% saying it is very important. Yet, women are less optimistic than men that they will achieve gender equality. How can these two diametrically opposed trends exist in the same world at the same time? It’s the sad reality for women in the world and the workplace that while their talent abounds, opportunity does not.
The numbers simply do not lie. According to the World Economic Forum, it will now take 135.6 years to close the gender gap worldwide. Post-pandemic, there’s a dearth of women in leadership roles, estimated to be only 27 percent of all managerial positions. According to McKinsey, the gender-regressive reality of these trends might mean that global GDP growth will be $1 trillion lower in 2030; conversely, taking action to advance gender equality could add as much as $13 trillion to the global economy by the same year.
