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Recently I was invited to an event to ‘Celebrate 21st Century Women’. This seemed such a powerful and positive statement and event to go to. I accepted the invite with great joy.
My thoughts as I drove there on a rainy, windy Friday night was how far we have come as women. I reflected on my own mum and then on my daughter, the life my mum led and the life my daughter lives and will lead, are so incredibly different. I realised that I was part of this change, the channel to a new way of being.
All around us are the campaigns of women’s rights, as a mum of a daughter and of course a woman myself, I am aware of the importance of this. The need is greater in some sectors and countries than others. I have enjoyed the IT sector for 35 years and not been aware of any disadvantages myself. But I listen, and I talk to women and I know this agenda is required, we haven’t got everything right yet.
My way to operate in life is to send out positive messaging, the direction we seek to travel, not the things we are running from. I tend to work on a philosophy of moving towards progress not running away from the past. What has been, can help us to shape the future, but what we seek can help us create the change much more positively, it gives us a vision of a world we hope for.
When I consider my mother’s life, I celebrate the life I have, when I look at my daughter, I know the celebrations will be even greater. I see myself, and my generation as the channel for change and I am so proud of what we have achieved together. I want to thank the men and women who have quietly loved each other and empowered each other through positive praise and actions. The discreet way that this ‘agenda’ of equality is being practiced because it is right, not because it is forced. The stunning way that my sons don’t see ‘an agenda’, they see men and women in business and in life, as equals.
Perhaps, the generation of change is happening now, and I yearn for the day when there isn’t a conversation, there isn’t a need for positive discrimination and where men can be men and women can be women and we all see the merits of our genders and don’t have to force anything.
So, back to the event I attended; there were 120 remarkable ladies in the room, athletes, politicians, business women, leaders of charities. Incredible achievers, brilliant women. What saddened me is that the evening did not leave me with a feeling of celebration, it left me feeling we have still not done enough.
‘Not enough’, is this the way we have to communicate everything to create change. “I am not enough”, “what we achieve is not enough”, “you are not enough”. Our expectations are impatient, and they are not aligned with the realities of change and progress. Each of us need to take time out to see what we have achieved, what is being achieved.
Imagine going back one generation and look at the politicians, the businesses, look at yourself 25 years ago, how far we have all come, perhaps at this point we can celebrate we have done enough in our lives so far, accepting that our dreams, capabilities and passions can take us even further, but as a mark in the sand, today, we are enough.
The title of the event “Celebrating 21st Century Women”, the title was not “We need to do ore” and I know it was the intent of the amazing organisers, so that is what I took away from the wonderful experience I was given, surrounded by amazing ladies and amazing men.
(Thank you @olegmagni for sharing this awesome photo i my header @PexelsPhotos for free!)
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