Be Bold For Change

The title of today’s post is the theme for this day, International Women’s Day 2017. Sometimes special, designated days like this one seem to miss their connection to the common person, in this case, women. It feels as if we’re being asked to make a giant personal sacrifice, start a movement, take up arms – figuratively – while we’re busy living our lives and doing our best. For every Norma Rae, there are thousands of other women who recognized that Norma was onto something when she pushed for a union to get better wages and working conditions in their sweatshop of a textile plant. Their actions mattered too. Sometimes it’s the little things like setting a good example, that best exemplify who we are as women.

Maybe today you’ll just do something small to mark IWD. Maybe you’ll put $25 toward a loan for a woman in a third-world country, via Kiva, and help her make a better life for her family. (She will pay you back.) Maybe you’ll take a bunch of clothing to a women’s shelter instead. Maybe you’ll anonymously send a grocery gift card to a woman who’s down on her luck and could use a little bit of magic in her life.

On this day, I’d like to share three moments of boldness by women in my life, that delighted and/or influenced me. The acts were small in nature, but they spoke to the women’s character and have stayed with me all these years. Isn’t that what empowerment is about?

When my brother and I were little, our Polish Grandma stayed with us in our home while our parents went on a trip. Grandma was a tiny, God-fearing lady in a housedress who looked like she might fall over in a gentle breeze. We never felt very safe with her in charge, but she was Grandma, and she took care of us. One day, a Jehovah’s Witness member came to the door, holding out a Watchtower, and asking if we’d heard the good word. He was pushy – way pushier than most, and he sized up Grandma as a pushover. Grandma was nice at first, but as Kevin and I hid behind her it quickly became evident that this large man aimed to get inside the house. I remember feeling scared. Grandma told him no, and as he clasped his hand on the doorframe to pull himself in, she snapped the screen door shut on his fingers. He hollered in pain, withdrew his hand, and retreated. Grandma wiped her hands on her apron and shuffled her slippered feet back into the kitchen, muttering in Polish. Kevin and I developed new respect for her hidden toughness. LESSON: Never underestimate a woman.
Our beloved Aunt Marg was dying of cancer. By the time they discovered it, there was nothing they could do. Doctors at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto sewed her back up and sent her home. Uncle Chuck brought a hospital bed into the family room and looked after her. One day I was there at lunchtime, and as Uncle Chuck fussed in the kitchen they shouted back and forth as she instructed him on the meal he was making. He was fumbling around and trying to learn. She whispered to me, “If I don’t teach him how to make a few things now, when I’m gone, he’ll just eat something out of a can over the sink.” LESSON: Deal with your reality, no matter how awful it is.
A woman I’m close to had been through the highest highs and the lowest lows. From living in a women’s shelter with her children as she hid from her abusive, criminal husband, to later being set for life because of a wisely-managed position in a top company. Unfortunately, some of her past came back to haunt her and she found herself once again penniless. However, she had an idea about starting a business in an industry she knew nothing about. Along with being a single mom, she spent months educating herself and making sure that she truly did find a hole in the market. Slowly she began to fill that hole with her new idea and it exploded. She began with conservative projections that were quickly blown away, so she expanded. Now she has several employees and a company that continues to grow. She has branched off into a second type of company that’s also doing well. She did it all on her own, without a benefactor, a mentor or a sack of cash. LESSON: Anything is possible.

Women in Canada still make 73.5 cents on the dollar compared to men. We have a long way to go, but women in this country have it far better than women in many other nations. There’s a lot for which we can be grateful. International Women’s Day has a mission of change on a large scale. But you move a mountain one rock at a time. What rock will you move today?