"Female athletes are praised for their bodies while male athletes are praised for their athleticism. I did a research paper in college about Title 9 and discovered that it helped women's programs but it didn't hurt men's programs the way many claim it did. There are girls who play football in High School but rarely do they have the opportunity to play football in college. Today only 2% of sports broadcasting is dedicated to women's sports." - Allison Dellicarri is a student at Marist College and an accomplished runner on their track and field team.
Olinka Foster
"After graduating from the University of New Mexico with a Biology degree, I applied for a soil science job in Farmington,NM. I was warned that the man who ran the lab, the Chemist, was difficult to work with. If he approved me, I had the job. He was a much older man, Danish and wore a pissed off expression. He was a brilliant scientist, and he approved me and went on to teach me how to soil testing by hand rather than with instruments. We also both loved photography and one day I said, "There's a Diane Arbus show in Los Angeles - I wish I could see it." And he said, "Then go."I said there was no way I could go. I have to work and I didn't want to travel that far alone. He said, "Don't be one of those people that never sees or does anything in your life because you're afraid. Life is short - just go. I'll pay for the train ticket and clear your schedule." I took the train by myself from Farmington to LA, it was a great trip. He was the first person I told that I wanted to go to nursing school. And he told me at one point that he approved me being hired because I was nice to look at. Maybe it was a sexist reason for hiring me, but working for him changed my life." - Olinka Foster is a Clinical Research Associate with Veterans Affairs and a BSN/RN.
Jena Booher
"After becoming a mother I felt I lost my identity - I struggled with feelings of failure, shame and insecurity. But getting through this has inspired me and lit me on fire and it's why I started Babies on the Brain, to support new mothers and families. Now, I have a sense of unstoppability. I used to say to my baby daughter, " I'm going to change the world" and then we would laugh together. But now, in the last few months, I say, "I'm going to change the world," and I don't laugh afterward. This vision that I have is much bigger than me." - Jena Booher is the founder of Babies on the Brain.
Mary Mitchell
"I was given the tribal name "Aqua" which means: Born on Wednesday. Wednesday was the first day I ever touched my foot down on Ghanian soil. I now have the responsibility of being a Queen Mother for a village in Ghana. A hand-carved stool was made for me to sit on during the ceremony and the community asked my forgiveness for the slave trade and its impact on African American history." - Mary Mitchell is a volunteer with Voices of African Mothers and find out more about her work in Ghana at Moadewix.com.
Juliet Halvorson-Taylor
"I ran for President in a mock trial at my high school. The opposition ran an attack ad about my high pitched voice. My feminine voice was somehow deemed not strong enough. There are things that are strong and powerful that are feminine - I don't have to change or be more masculine to be strong. The sexism that I've encountered isn't blatant, it is internalized." - Juliet Halvorson-Taylor graduated high school this Spring and is taking a gap year to work as a field organizer for the Hillary Clinton campaign.
Andrea James
"All of my children are 13 years apart. The first was born when I was 19, the next one at 32 and then the last one at 45. In 2009 I was sentenced to serve 24 months in a Federal Prison. It was horrible, I wasn't there for my babies." Andrea James is the founder of Families for Justice as Healing and the author of "Upper Bunkies".
Rahama Wright
"I was on an airplane with my family and was seated next to an older man. He asked me to play Go-Fish, and while playing his hand started going up my skirt. I stood up and moved to an empty seat next to my brother. I was twelve years old, going through puberty, and thought I was doing something wrong - I always felt I was running away from my body. I wanted to cover up to avoid all the predatory sexual advances from grown men. I'm working through that body stuff now and working on empowering women in through my work in Ghana." - Rahama Wright, a former Peace Corps Volunteer, is the founder of Shea Yeleen, a social enterprise that promotes sustainable economic development in rural Sub-Saharan Africa.
Barbara Hull
"When I was giving birth to my first daughter - she was a face presentation, so the doctor did an emergency C-section. They didn't tell me I was having surgery, they just put me under. They told my husband, but he wasn't allowed in the room. I was in my twenties and I woke up with this big scar and felt that my body had been mutilated. I was very athletic and in good shape, I considered it a failure that I didn't deliver my baby on my own. Then, I had two more daughters, two more C-sections - when the third one was born my oldest daughter was only two." -Barbara Hull, retired genetics counselor and mother of three.
Dianne Berkun Menaker
"As an educator it sometimes disturbs me because there is an assumption that women should be teachers because we are nurturing. I maintain high expectations, I set a standard for my students and I have a real skill and talent in what I do. I believe that girls and women need to feel purposeful. What I teach them here will grow with them, they develop their talent, their minds and they understand their value as a human being. If the focus for young women is about being beautiful - then all they have is a declining asset. Music and singing is about your unique voice - and really it is all about having a voice that matters. Some girls arrive in the program they don't value themselves, they are basically apologizing for the floorspace they take up in the room. And over time, I see them see themselves as being of value." - Dianne Berkun Menaker is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.
Nana Fosu-Randall
"I was in Liberia right after the war, working for the United Nations, and I saw this girl who had no hands. The girl was maybe 13 years old and she was sitting in a chair with a baby in her lap. I couldn't believe it - I had been working for the United Nations for many decades and had seen the aftermath of war in Lebanon, Kuwait, Iraq and Israel but this was different. Maybe because Liberia is very close to Ghana, where I am from, seeing that girl changed my world. I wondered how is she going to care for herself, how can she ever clean herself with no hands. When I returned to the United States I knew I had to address the turmoil in Africa and I started my organization, Voices of African Mothers in order to address poverty and hunger and to educate women." - Nana Fuso-Randall is the founder and President of Voices of African Mothers.
Leigh Goodmark
"Being the woman means I'm the Mom. I am the organizer, the doer, the appointment maker. Even when I wish there was someone else to do all that - I know as a mother it is my job and I like that. I have a son and a daughter and I have raised them both to understand gender differences and to be respectful toward women." Leigh Goodmark is a professor of Law at the University of Maryland.
Ursula Liebowitz
“Did you have a natural childbirth? – That's the question that women are often asked. I was at the gym working out two days before my daughter was born – I was healthy and strong. I never even considered a C-section would ever be a possibility for me, I viewed them as “unhealthy”. But the day she was born, I realized you can do all the thinking and planning you want in your life but ultimately you aren’t in control of what happens. Afterwards I realized, I didn’t do anything “wrong” – that no woman who doesn’t have a vaginal birth has done anything wrong." - Ursula Liebowitz
Barbara Hunt McLanahan
"Until I was seven years old, my family referred to me as "Girl". This was a Chinese tradition as having the women in the house do all of the housework, cooking, and serving. One day my older brother's friend came to the house and said to me, "Girl - go get me a drink." And I was horrified being spoken to this way and said, "My name isn't girl. My name is Barbara and you can get your own drink!" The friend kept insisting that I serve him but my brother stood up for me and when the friend wouldn't let it go I told him he had to leave our house, and he did. That day I told my mother that my name was Barbara and I didn't want to be called "Girl" any longer." Barbara Hunt McLanahan is the Executive Director of the Children's Museum of Art in New York.
Helya Mohammadian
"After my initial launch of SlickChicks I received an email from a woman who had limited mobility who wanted to buy a pair of slickchicks underwear in a size XLL. At first, I was manufacturing limited sizes and told her that I didn't have them yet in size XLL but as soon as I did I would send her some. Her request made me realize that the innovative product I had created for women to have a convenient way to change their underwear, also had a use as adaptable clothing for people with disabilities. Unfortunately, by the time I manufactured and sent the XXL garment to this woman, she had succumbed to cancer. But her daughter wrote to me and told me the most inspiring story. She said her mother was so excited that my product was on its way to her that she worked harder in physical therapy to keep her mobility so that she would be able to change her own undergarments and regain that dignity. While I am so sad that she never got that chance, the fact that slickchicks empowered her so much, erased any doubts I had about my product." - Helya Mohammadian is the founder of SlickChicks.
Monica
"When I was 7 and 8 years old and living in the Dominican Republic, I was sexually and psychologically abused by a family friend. I didn't tell anyone about it until I was an adult when I confided in a Nun at my church. She helped me and counseled me and eventually I did tell my mother. Now I can talk about the abuse without crying but I still feel an empty space inside of me. I have two children and I am very protective of them, especially my 18 year old daughter." Monica works as a Custodian.
Mercedes Gil Harris
"In 1991 I was still living in Venezuela and was given the assignment to design the 1992 Ford Motorcraft Calendar that generally hangs in automotive shops. Historically the Ford calendar featured women in bikinis, but I told my supervisor that I was uncomfortable making a calendar about car parts that featured women in bikinis. Instead, I provided my layouts that featured the product, rather than women's bodies. I was only 21 - but I had so much resolve about the issue that my supervisor and the art director accepted my alternative layouts without women in bikinis. Ford had orders for 23,000 calendars and given the population of Venezuela that is a lot of calendars. " Mercedes Gil Harris is an independent graphic designer. Visit her her shop on Etsy.
Stacey Marz
“Our Mother’s generation was different. They accepted their lot and were nurses, teachers or stay at home mothers. I’m a mother and I don’t think I have missed out any professional opportunities because I benefited from all the women and mothers who worked so hard before us.” Stacey Marz is a lawyer and the Director of the Alaska State Court System, self help services.
Emily Altman
"My mother, Floria Lasky, was a very successful entertainment lawyer who never retired and worked until she passed away at 84. She practiced law starting in in 1945. She was liberated , powerful and a role model for many female lawyers and for women in general. So it really wasn't until I was in my 30's that I realized that professionally gender could be an issue. I had graduated from Harvard as the last Radcliffe graduating class, I had a great job but I realized there was this glass ceiling for women." Emily is a mediator/arbitrator at Emily Altman LLC as well as the President of the Frederick Loewe Foundation.
Ritu Saheb
"Now our culture says that women can do anything and I've done it all. My life is possible because women can do anything. I am an architect, I'm a belly dancer, I'm a mother, I love clothes and I moved from India to the United States 25 years ago on my own. Men don't get the "You can be anything message." I can engage in a mostly male profession but men can't enter into mostly female professions as naturally." - Ritu Saheb is a real estate developer/architect.
Jasmin Peltro
"There is a lot of pressure to be a specific kind of a woman. People don't always recognize my femininity because I take on the more masculine roles in relationships and at work. I express my feminism through my mannerisms rather than how I look. Am I a lack of a woman because I don't connect with that part of me, or am I still a woman?" - Jasmin Peltro works at WeWork and aspires to be a photographer.