International Women’s Day

Happy International Women’s Day! I know I still owe you guys a post on the Women’s March rally in January (I attended the one in Tallahassee, Florida, USA) — I’m so sorry. My personal life has been crazy in the extreme this year. I need to do better in terms of making time to post here and on my other blog, Kemetic vs. Atheist. And I will try to do better.

So anyway, back to the topic at hand. While we are all (I hope) taking a day to show our admiration for the women who have inspired us, I want to go back. Way back. Way, way back. (Points if you get the reference… 🙂 )

One of my favorite shirts. What WOULD Hatshepsut do?

Ever since third grade in Lewiston, Maine (USA), when a theater troupe came into our (Catholic) school to present a play about Hatshepsut, I have felt a deep and abiding love and admiration for her. I know that at one point it was fashionable to trash-talk Hatshepsut (“evil stepmother”, “couldn’t let go of the throne”, I don’t know, whatever people say about her), and I’m here to, as the kids say, “call BS” on all of that. How about this for her motive: She wanted to lead her people. And she did a great job; at least one book has noted that if Hatshepsut were a man, we’d be talking about her foreign policy and stuff instead of how she made poor, old Thutmose III wait to take the throne. That kind of thing really drives me nuts.

I have seen female leadership up close. I used to work for a woman, and she really was an inspiration. While making it look easy, she made me want to lead people too. That gave me the motivation to study for my Certified Association Executive accreditation (that has since lapsed because my career path seems to have taken another fork in the road).

Another inspiration to me was Marie Curie, who was an obvious one for me (my ancestors were Polish and French). The first woman to win two Nobel Prizes? Amazing.

Hillary Clinton was and continues to be an inspiration to me. Talk about trash-talking — boy, people love to dump on Hillary (look at her Twitter feed if you don’t believe me). But this is a woman who knows who and what she is, and doesn’t make any apologies for that. That right there would almost be enough, but she ran a very tough political campaign in which she won the popular vote (and if you think otherwise, I’m sorry for you) for President of the United States. She would have been President, and should have been President, except for this stupid, arcane, 18th-century relic we have in our government called the Electoral College. I would have loved to call her Madam President.

…and in elected bodies and prime ministers’ and presidents’ offices all over the world.

Who are the women who inspire you? Please feel free to comment below.