A post I wrote on International Women's Day 2021 that continues to be relevant - enjoy!

The social media platform I spend the most time on these days is LinkedIn. Despite my cynicism with regards to this unique online community (which we can get into another time), I do appreciate the way these hustly-bustly corporate types use LinkedIn to celebrate and empower those who are often overlooked or have overcome especially steep odds to succeed in their field (even if this gesture is often just for appearances – sorry, I told you I’m a bit cynical).

This morning, I spent a few minutes scrolling through my beloved LinkedIn, and, because it was International Women’s Day, it was filled with stories of powerful women all across the professional world. Large corporations made sure to let it be known that they celebrate their female employees and male business leaders posted about the world they hope to create for their daughters.

In the middle of the day, I went for a walk. This is something I like to do sometimes. Especially in Southern California. The weather here is quite lovely.

As I walked, I began thinking about these posts and my ambivalent attitude towards western white-washed feminism. I began thinking about how, during occasions such as International Women's Day, powerful and successful women are (for the most part) celebrated - and rightfully so. I am proud of and grateful for the women who have persevered through rejection, prejudice, and societal pressure in order to create a culture where my dreams and passions are encouraged rather than scoffed at. I will celebrate these women all day long.

However, these are not the only women I will celebrate. In our culture, celebrating high-profile women can often look like measuring their lives against those of other women and cheering them on for what they’re not. In an attempt to champion those women in the corner office or the house of representatives, it’s easy to overlook or dismiss the hundreds of other women around the world working tirelessly and humbly in roles that are significantly less glamorous or celebrated.

It’s sometimes easy for me to feel important because I live in a culture and a time that values my dreams as important and impressive. Now more than ever, girls are being encouraged to enter the world of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and I think that’s wonderful, both for those girls who love STEM and for our society as a whole. But I think this STEM idolatry is slightly less wonderful for the girls whose passions and skills lie in an elsewhere they are constantly told is less important or less valuable.

I think of my friends who work in education or ministry or social work and how the work they are doing is overwhelmingly challenging and vitally important. They are changing the world in ways I never will.

I think of my mom, who graduated from college with a computer science degree in the 1980s and eventually made the decision to give up her career at IBM to raise her children. She has changed the world in ways I never will.

On this International Women’s Day, I want to celebrate the likes of Nashlie Sephus and Whitney Wolfe Herd and Debbie Berebichez. But I equally want to celebrate the likes of Meredith Waites and Haydon Tucker and Kelly McDonnell and all of the unnamed women around the world: those whose stories I will never hear and journeys I will never know.

I want to celebrate the women who don't have the choice that my mom had and who continue to work tirelessly every day to improve the world for their families and communities. I want to celebrate the farmers and the teachers and the hair dressers and the nurses. I want to celebrate the women who sacrifice comfort, finances, and worldly success in order to invest in the lives that directly surround them.

So, here’s to ALL women:

The women in laboratories, offices, classrooms, and cafeterias. The women running meetings, soothing babies, and cleaning bathrooms. The women starting businesses, publishing books, and managing family farms. The women changing the world, in ways that are celebrated on LinkedIn and ways that go unacknowledged day after day.

Being a woman is about so much more than conforming to any particular stereotype: whether than be gentle caretaker or boss ass bitch. So let’s celebrate women for all that we are, forever and always.