To be frank, I’ll be happy for the day when no day is required to raise awareness global women’s issues. I’ve been a woman my whole life, though, both personally and professionally (ha!), and so I have a perspective on what women bring to the table as well as what you never see them bring, even if they’ve got the goods. I can say with 100% certainty that I am grateful to have been born in the U.S., even with its own challenges for women. I’ve studied extensively what the conditions are for women and their communities the world over. This is what I know for sure as it regards women:
1. If you educate a woman, the positive effects ripple through her whole community.
2. The best thing a woman can do is make sure she is educated and can support herself.
3. When a woman believes in herself, everything about her life changes in wondrous ways.
4. Stay away from women who knock other women down. They don’t get it.
5. Sexism is alive and well all over the damn place, most of it obliviousness, not malice. Do not kid yourself. Also, don’t let it change one thing about you going for it. Just go for it anyway.
6. If you ensure women are cared for during pregnancy and their kids are well cared for in the first two years of their lives, it would CHANGE THE WORLD.
7. Women have enormous power to change the status quo. They only have to want to do so. Start with your wallet, it represents what you value, whether you like it or not.
8. Social justice is a women’s issue as long as women are the ones to bear children.
9. I have strong faith in God, but I also believe in self-determination. Strongly. Make your own way. Don’t take a back seat if you want to sit in the front. Start where you are right now with what you have. It is enough.
10. Remember to pay it forward. At some point, we all need to be moving from a life of success to a life of significance.
May we all be empowered to make a life we dream of, for ourselves and for the people we love.
Trisha