March is Women’s Month—and I wish it wasn’t. What I mean by that is that women should be seen in the context of full equality with men, especially when they are working to be a leader. My hope is that women become so integrated into the workplace that what they do is not seen as exceptional but is taken for granted.
Last week, The New York Times published Glenn Swain’s article entitled “Advocate for Women in Baseball Finally Gets to Be One” and described the journey Justine Siegal, 36, was on to fulfill her dream as one day being a pitcher for the Cleveland Indians. Although she’s not on the official team, she finally wore an Indians’ jersey and became probably “the first woman to throw batting practice to a major league team.”
That’s quite an accomplishment. Her 13-year-old daughter, Jasmine, was present to see her mom make what could be baseball history but most definitely to see a dream come true. The article quotes Jasmine as saying, “This is so cool. She’s showing that no matter what, you can achieve your goals.”
It takes commitment, perseverance, and resilience to succeed in a male dominated workplace—and world. Yet, making that commitment conveys to the next generation that the opportunity to break the glass ceiling and achieve equality.
The March 14th issue of Newsweek is a must read for those seeking perspective on “150 Women Who Shake the World.” It is a wonderful chance to see the work females are doing globally to protect others from violence and mutilation but also to raise their voices of rebellion because “Whenever a woman or girl gains control of her destiny, the local standard of living goes up and the values of human rights spread.”
“Hillary’s War: How She’s Shattering Glass Ceilings Everywhere” by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon describes Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton’s commitment to improving the role of women around the world. Specifically, the most powerful woman in the world wants “to put women and girls at the forefront of the new world order.”
That’s quite a challenge to overcome. Yet, with major league pitcher-for-a-day Siegal, 150 women shaking up the world, and Secretary Clinton being a champion of change, the challenge doesn’t seem too big to overcome.
Let every second, minute, hour, day, week, month, and year help women be treated equally with men so that one day we can work side-by-side for a better world—and say good-bye to Women’s Month.
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Hi Leigh,
The change is certainly occurring and it’s cool to see.
I realize that your blog is not a sports one, but given your interest in Justine’s efforts, I thought you’d be interested to know that we’ve been working with Justine to launch a girls baseball network at http://baseballforall.lockerdome.com. She wants to connect the 100,000+ participants in girls baseball. Pretty cool stuff.
Here’s a neat profile from the network that shows the tremendous passion there is in girls baseball: http://baseballforall.lockerdome.com/ld/Profile/default/shawnamacurio.shawna_macurio.pl
I’d love to chat with you about it, if you have a free minute
. I can be reached at gabe [dot] lozano [at] lockerdome [dot] com.
Cheers!
Gabe
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