I Am an Unapologetic Feminist.
Will You Join Me?

The F-word. Let’s bring it back. I realize that it is often misunderstood. It can sometimes feel overused, like the words “trauma,” or “millennial,” or “organic,” but it’s valid. It’s powerful. It’s resonant. And bottom line: if you believe that all women deserve equal rights and you are committed to that goal, then you, too, are a feminist.

Stacey Abrams and Lauren Groh-Wargo turned their Red state Blue and it only took them ten plus years to do it. Inauguration Day 2021: we witnessed a Black-Indian woman sworn in as our Vice President, a Latina popstar sing her heart out, a young Black Poet Laureate who made us cry with her beautifully inspired words, and a Feminist Icon of Rock all in one ceremony. This show of feminine power rising did not transpire overnight. It’s a long game. Slow and steady wins the race. Keep going. It’s a marathon not a sprint.

These iconic women didn’t get to where they are by playing small and they certainly didn’t get there by apologizing… for anything. They stood their ground, they claimed their talents and abilities, and they went full steam ahead, day after day, year after year, one day at a time, as did those who came before them, and before them, and before them.

In recent years in the U.S., we have seen tremendous growth in women-owned businesses and the promotion of more women, especially women of color, in political roles. According to a recent American Express Report, the number of women-owned businesses climbed 21% to a total of nearly 13 million between 2014 and 2019. Businesses owned by women of color grew a whopping 43% during that same time period!

While this is excellent news, and certainly progress, there remains a significant disparity between women owned businesses and other businesses. There is still a large revenue gap between white-owned and BIPOC-women-owned businesses. Closing this gap would bolster the economy greatly, as well as building thriving societies and the communities within them.

How do we do this? More childcare, more on-line flexible training programs, more wide-sweeping changes in policies, business practices and attitudes are paramount to growing this swell of opportunity for women. Right now, we are in a position to make it happen even faster with the technologies we have at our fingertips.

This isn’t just local, this is a global issue. Feminism is a world-wide roar for more equality and growth. The Dalai Lama, who meets women all over the world, women who, in many countries, are victims of severe subjugation and suppression, made this famous quote when he came to the Vancouver Peace Summit in 2009: “The world will be saved by the Western woman.”

Surrounded by three other (female) Nobel Peace Prize Laureates at a discussion that prompted this quote probably influenced him a bit, as well as the fact that Western women have historically been afforded more opportunities and freedoms and we have made incredible progress to that end.

He went on later in the summit to say, “Some people may call me a feminist…but we need more effort to promote basic human values – human compassion, human affection. And in that respect, females have more sensitivity for others’ pain and suffering.”

Women are natural nurturers and multi-taskers of the most ultimate kind. How many times have you witnessed a woman, maybe yourself, maybe your mom or your sister or friend, taking care of her kids, running a business, supporting her friends, keeping her body and mind healthy, and slaying all of it, whether gracefully or not? She gets it done.

Because when you have a kid crying and your business needs you and your friend needs you, too, you just get it done. (In addition to hitting your deadline and getting in a 30-minute yoga workout on your app. Because if you don’t do it, nobody else will.) There is no other option. That ‘get it done’ moxie is born out of human compassion and human affection.

So, how can we support each other in being Unapologetic in our feminism, unapologetic in our right to be seen, heard, to be afforded the same opportunities as others? The simplest answer: Love.

I’ll defer to a portion of Amanda Gorman’s stunningly profound Inaugural Poem as I close out this sentiment: “If we merge mercy with might, and might with right, then love becomes our legacy and change our children’s birthright.”

Mercy is compassion. Love is affection. No apology necessary. Roar with me.