Today I’m sharing with you a failed attempt to honour all of the women I’ve met through my work, who have affected me in a positive way.
It began because of Jodi Taylor. After her sudden death (which I’m still coming to terms with) I wondered if she knew how much I enjoyed our chats and her wonderful spirit. She was so funny and worked so hard.
Then I started to think about whether I’ve told other women when they’ve done something that’s made my world a better place. That got me thinking about all of the great women I’ve met because of broadcasting. I started out by making an alphabetical list, but that wasn’t big enough to hold all of the names I wanted to mention. So, it expanded to two names for every letter. After that, I realized there were so many more, and I created a big blob of names. But it kept growing and growing and I realized it would either a) never end or b) I would accidentally omit someone and feel terrible.
My life and my work have been positively affected by hundreds of women. (Men too, but we’re talking about women today.) Another reason I started this endeavour was because of an interview we did about empowering young women with self-esteem and skills to tolerate the crap they’ll inevitably endure on social media. The taunts we may have had to tolerate as kids now follow today’s girls everywhere they go.
Has every woman I’ve met through my work affected me in a positive way? Of course not. But, by and large, most have and sometimes in ways they don’t even realize. I didn’t have female mentors coming up. They didn’t exist. But now I feel like I have lots of them, young and old, inside radio and out of it. And I thank them all for their involvement in the evolution of me.