What It Means to Be a Powerful Woman
Powerful women. These words create a vision of those who have crashed through a glass ceiling, famously challenged an injustice, or forged a “first” achievement. We think of the public faces of these women who seem to have an unbreakable spirit, superhuman strength and enduring commitment to rise above, against the odds.
While these women and their accomplishments are nothing short of outstanding, power does not come from the contests you win, the promotions you gain or a global awareness of your story. These achievements are all the results of what can happen when women use their power. The power itself comes from within. It comes from owning who you choose to be.
Powerful Women Help Other Women to Be Stronger
The powerful women I have known in my life have come in many shapes and sizes. Some stepped into their power to rise to the top of their professions, creating a life of abundance and choice. Others stepped into their power through unexpected challenges and hardships, managing the difficult hand life dealt them with perseverance and grit. The thing all these powerful women have in common is a clear sense of who they are, a willingness to embrace their fears as fuel and a commitment to bring others along in their journey towards something better. Powerful women help other women to be stronger. They celebrate each other’s accomplishments and support each other’s challenges. They don’t allow others to define who they should be. They challenge both the men and the other women in their lives to recognize their biases and the limitations those impose.
The Power in Owning Who You Are
I am fortunate to come from a family of very strong and powerful women. They are not CEOs or Senators or global philanthropists. They are women who used their power to lead their local communities to have better schools, better access to fresh food and better political leaders. They are women who raised sons to marry, work for and appreciate strong women. They raised daughters who own their own voices and do not allow anyone to tell them what they should think, be, or dream. Each of these women has stepped into their power by owning who they are and forging forward with conviction. In doing so they brought me and others along with them.
Who Inspires You?
As we seek to challenge each other to forge a more equal future for all women, we can find endless sources of inspiration both in those who have gone before us and those who will come after us. For me, it is the one who has come after me, my daughter, who truly has been and continues to be my greatest inspiration. She challenges me to be the best possible example of what it means to be a strong and powerful woman. She shows me how sharing your fear and vulnerabilities makes you stronger. She reminds me constantly what it really means to love yourself. Most of all, she has made me realize that, in spite of all I have accomplished in my life, I still have old school biases and I must work to challenge my own thinking.
It is the example I set for her that drives me. The idea of my daughter experiencing a future and a world far different than the one I stepped into that challenges me to be a stronger, more powerful woman. An example of a what can be rather than what was. Who is your inspiration?
Strong women. Know one, be one, raise one.
