Thoughts on Take the Lead Women Launch
I was going to make a post about sorority recruitment today, and don’t worry that is coming Friday! I thought that this would be a better topic though because it’s more of a current event topic to talk about. I absolutely loved the cast of amazing women they had who spoke at the launch event and I thought that Take The Lead Women hosted a wonderful event. If you follow me on Twitter, sorry that I blew up your twitter feed. Here are five awesome tweets that I thought wonderfully represented some of the best moments. I definitely tweeted more so follow me on twitter for more of my live tweets/retweets!
1.
This was Sheryl Sanberg’s response to what to say to women who don’t feel there is inequality anymore. I can not agree any more whole-heartedly with this statement. Inequality still exists in many facets, and you would probably be shocked with how frequently inequality occurs.
Unfortunately there are tons of social factors that kind of keep that in place—including the unwillingness to talk about it in the first place. It may not happen to you personally, but that doesn’t make anyone’s struggle any less real. Instead of making generalizing statements like inequality doesn’t happen—scale it back and say inequality has never happened to me.
Inequality still occurs and we must begin to have quality conversations about it in order to fix it.
2.
This statement also rang a bell with me. We could literally cut the poverty rate in half if women got equal compensation for equal work. If I work just as hard as a man and just as long as a man my paycheck should be just as big as that man. This wasn’t even valid when guys brought home the majority of the money—women should demand to be paid equally for the amount of work they do.
Paying someone less based on gender is not the correct thing to do. Women in this day and age, being the population majority have a lot of influence. They influence what products become successful, what companies use in their products, and their money is very valuable to the country. If women could afford the luxuries in life they would buy them and the economy would be 10x better. It’s hard to be awesome on a budget.
One way to propel toward this equality, in my opinion, is to make it illegal for companies to make policies that stop people from sharing their salaries with each other. If you want to talk about how much money you make I think that you should be allowed to do so. This would hopefully stop companies from giving certain groups large sums of money over other groups.
3.
This was a quote by Carla Harris. As women we can sometimes be afraid to take on leadership positions. Some of my biggest fears are being rejected, even if I am not sure if I really want something. Yesterday I got a rejection letter, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to be a part of what I got rejected from, but I was still very sad. I cried and ate lots of donuts from a convenience store down the street from where I lived. Then it hit me, to pick myself up. I have a lot going for me. I have a great blog, I am published in a book, and I am about to start my job as Regional Director for The Smart Girls Group—just to name a few. I have 10 million more things to be excited for than I have to be sad for. I can’t let fear stop me from trying things out and becoming a better person. Yes rejection sucks, but I can move past that and think about it objectively. I realize that I wasn’t meant to share my talents with that group of people. My talents go further than that group and I am getting to showcase them often elsewhere. What do I have to be sad for?
To wrap up this rant, don’t let fear drive your life. Take control of your own destiny and rock it out, because you are super awesome. You win some, you lose some, but ultimately you learn from all.
4.
I think this is very important. We get so wrapped up in finding the perfect balance between career and family and this and that. We can do whatever we put our minds to. We can decide what we want to do with our careers and our families, and we should not be pigeon-held by the expectations of society to fit into a certain mold. If you want to be a totally rad mom and work at 9-5 then you do that. If you want to be a freelancer with no kids who lives on your parents couch—you can do that to. You get to make all the decisions in your life. No outside forces should be able to tell you what is and is not possible for you.
5.
I am so happy to have the amazing role model in my life that is my daddy! He has always been there for me, and he has done more than his fair share around the house and in my life. I am so glad that I have a daddy who is always there for me and who pushes me to be a better person each day. I look up to him. This quote is important and oh so right. I may even have a little harder time finding the right person, because you have to be pretty rad to measure up to the amazing man my daddy has been in my life. My mom chose an excellent person to marry and raise me with and I have to give a shout out to her for finding the most awesome person alive. I hope that more women get to experience the love and support that I have from a father or father figure.
So there you have it folks: a few of my thoughts from the Take the Lead Women Launch event. Answer in the comments: What were your favorite moments from last nights events?
This post originally appeared on College is Love
About the Author
TAKE THE LEAD prepares, develops, inspires and propels women to take their fair and equal share of leadership positions across all sectors by 2025. It’s today’s women’s movement — a unique catalyst for women to embrace power and reach leadership parity.