Here at Coulter, we have a most definite niche in women’s organizations, representing American Women in Radio & Television, Women Networking in Electronic Transactions, and the American Society of Women Accountants, as a partial list of some of our full-service clients. My consulting clients include the National Council of Jewish Women and the Center for Women’s Business Research. In addition, our 60+ member team at Coulter is 90 percent female, so we take Women’s History Month very seriously around here.
And our clients struggle with how best to celebrate women and their contributions. You see, in only a few generations, women have made ridiculously huge shifts, gains and changes in pretty much every aspect of life. (I mean, how many of you watch “Mad Men?” I rest my case.)
In a little more than a generation, it is the norm for women to attend college, work professionally for an entire career. It is the norm for women (at least at the beginning of their careers) to assume the sky is the limit in terms of professional advancement. These opportunities are open and being taken advantage of by women from all ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, although obviously at differing rates – we haven’t solved everything yet by a long shot.
In honor of Women’s History Month, I wanted to point out some milestones in terms of where we have come from, as well as where we may be headed.
Women won the right the vote – and make no mistake about it, we won it after a particularly long, ugly and brutal fight – in …..1920.
Birth control information is no longer determined to be illegal, obscene information – 1936
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ensured a huge number of rights for all women and certainly African American women, in terms of discrimination and voter rights.
The ERA - "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." – was introduced in Congress in 1972 (it died ten years later, for lack of 38 states ratifying it as a Constitutional Amendment.)
1972 did see several amazing successes on the women’s front. How many women reading this played sports in elementary, middle, high school? Title IX, guaranteeing equal funding and access for boys and girls sports, went into effect. For the women in this room that were forced to either play half-court basketball or join the pom-pom squad as pretty much their only athletic options and experience with team sports, Title IX truly has been life changing.
The first year women could have a credit card in their own names? 1975
In 1986, the Supreme Court determined that sexual harassment is, in fact, illegal.
This one always floors me…The first year that women could get a business loan without having their husband or father co-sign? 1988.
As someone who was born the year that Ms. Magazine published its first issue (1971, FYI), I have enjoyed – and yes, absolutely taken for granted and enjoyed – some amazing progress our country, our culture, our world has made in terms of fairness, justice and equality. But we all know: the bar moves up. Once you create something new and amazing, we quickly stop celebrating it and start expecting it, complaining and wondering why it can’t be a little bit better?
Here is a great quote from Gloria Steinem:
"The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off."
So what is this truth? First, some good news:
- Women are 50% of the workforce
- Women own 40% of all businesses
- Women are more than half of all college graduates
- Women are now the primary breadwinners in more than a third of married couples – doubled over the past 10 years or so.
And yet…
- Those women college graduates earn 73% what their male counterparts do
- Women-owned businesses are three-times less likely to have revenues of a million dollars as compared to men
- And I hear rumors that a few women still haven’t mastered this whole “work-life balance” thing and there are mutterings going around that it may be, in fact, a total and complete lie cooked up to make us all feel inadequate and horribly guilty. Also: that whole breadwinner thing can feel a lot like an albatross.
I believe it is critically important for women to have a support network that helps guide them through these troubling and uncertain waters. I know that the women I look to are:
- strong, dynamic, funny people who laugh a lot at the things they can’t control.
- They are women with fierce senses of personal style.
- They are women who make statements with authority.
- They are women that don’t spend that much time worrying about being liked by everyone… and as a result, most people do.
- They are women that treat everyone – especially people who are providing them with service – with respect and kindness.
- Following on that, they are women who are generous in both spirit and deed.
- They are women who maybe have a one, five or ten-year plan – mostly so that they can laugh at how naïve they were one, five and ten years later.
- They are women who live life with as little fear as possible.
- They are women who have learned how to listen.
- They are women who have learned how to speak, persuasively.
- And they are women that know that when there is a problem, or a crisis, they have people to call.
- And most importantly, they are women who like to celebrate success, accomplishment and victory.
Let’s celebrate the amazing accomplishments – and the amazing rate of change – this March as we recognize Women’s History Month. And let’s also celebrate the importance of women creating and maintaining relationships, through associations, community groups or important friendships.
