“And she is going to dance, dance hungry, dance full, dance each cold astonishing moment, now when she is young and again when she is old.”-Anne Lamott
This won’t likely be the first time you have heard someone equate this adventure called life to a dance… so we’ll forgo the after school special ‘life lesson’ music and cut to the chase! A dance is a beautiful painting made my the body alone, between two, or in community with many others. Bottom line, we walk through life as individuals, but are provided dance partners along the way to help shape, mold, comfort, and complete our life. Unfortunately, in life, and more specifically the working world, the choreography is sometimes lost; we trip over the steps and even each other. Particularly women. We work against instead of with each other. And for what? If a fellow woman succeeds, why do we roll our eyes instead of rejoice with her? These are questions to which a simple blog post won’t likely answer for you, but rather invite you to seek an answer to in your daily surroundings. And if we’re lucky, we can help each other change the direction toward which we are literally working.
In her latest WITsend article from Computer Weekly, Cate Sevilla recalls a recent speaking engagement with female students attending University at Oxford, during which one of the only issues agreed upon in the group was that women are in need of more role models. I can’t help but wonder who the top five female role models would be if women around the world were polled today. Would shout-outs go primarily those in the celebrity sector, such as Oprah or Angelina Jolie, or would local heroes receive some support, regardless of their fame or fortune? Sadly, I’d have to guess the former, and that’s not to say that celebrities are not out there doing things for the greater good. However, if we take a break from glorifying our versions of role models who stand solid in the limelight, and lend a hand to the empowerment of each other, could it be that we break down yet another barrier as females? What about mentoring each other?
Lourdes Townsend, now the regional marketing coordinator for Whole Foods, commented on women’s mentoring programs back when she worked as the international marketing manager for Stride Rite, “I never thought about learning from someone on my level. I always looked two to four levels above me and wondered what I had to do to get there. But the people who have the best solutions to the problems I face are often the people facing those problems themselves.” I know, one of those things that seems so obvious, but someone else has to point it out! What do you think? Should we be doing more to mentor each other in the women’s working world, housewives included? Or do you feel we’re in sync and dancing quite beautifully (and I’m just looking to a different stage!)?
