Celebrating #WomensHistoryMonth

Excerpted from my March 25, 2021 Opening Remarks for the #FCBA Second Annual Women’s Summit Series.

We absolutely should take time to recognize the historical accomplishments, resilience, and greatness of women, in the same way that we celebrate the historical accomplishments, resilience, and greatness of Black Americans during the month of February. We celebrate because all too often, we as women don’t get credit for our ideas, for our inventions, for our breakthroughs, or for our brilliance. Nor do we get paid for it, as we were all recently reminded on Equal Pay Day. So yes, let us keep celebrating!

But honestly, I long for the day when we run out of “firsts” to achieve, and when our accomplishments are no longer regarded as anomalies. I long for the day when there is no longer a need to boast about the first female (or Black, or Asian American) Vice President of the United States because she will be one of a long line of them. I long for the day when we can change the narrative; imagine this future Jeopardy question [or answer]:  “The last man to serve as President of the United States” with the correct response being:  “Who is Joe Biden.” 

As the daughter of a woman who did not finish high school and the only lawyer in my family, I know all about firsts. I am encouraged by the glass ceilings and walls we have already shattered:  we are CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and Cabinet Secretaries, even MLB General Managers and Mayors of major U.S. cities like Atlanta and Boston. But I also recognize there are quite a few more still standing in our way.

We can help each other break down barriers by continuing to share our experiences. By reaching down and back to pull other women up and forward. By lifting as we climb. By teaching what we know, and modeling greatness and perseverance. By listening when that’s what the moment calls for, and speaking up when we have something important to say.

I recently came across a quote from a true #STEM and #Tech hero, Dorothy Vaughn, NASA human computer who, along with Katherine Johnson and many other trailblazers who happened to be women, made critical contributions to the success of the first U.S. space flight. Ms. Vaughn said of her experience at NASA: “I changed what I could and what I couldn’t, I endured.”

In one sense, that statement is one of strength; throughout history, the ability of the oppressed to endure has eventually led to more opportunity. As women, we put up with workplace harassment, being passed over, and being mansplained to, yet we still somehow manage to perform and even excel, often against great odds.  

So of course, let’s change what we can. But we need not sit back and passively endure the rest. Like so many great women in history before us, we can write our own stories and determine what comes next.