award cocktail hours, and awards for showing up for awards. I guess you get my drift.
To crown one woman over another means that you are showing the world she did something better, different, faster, prettier, and more effectively than others. I don’t mind recognizing success and a job well done. But I don’t favor recognition that undermines the
success of other women, or an award that establishes an endpoint.
Women’s History Month marks the accomplishments of all women who dared to dream, then try, then fail, then get up again and try, then succeed, then have children (or not), then balance it all, then drop in their beds at night dog-tired—only to start their amazing lives over again the next day.
I recognize all women who understand that success should be as you personally see it. An award sets women up to think about their accomplishments differently, to think about “Now, what am I going to do to top that award?” rather than thinking about the next goal in their larger life’s work, or the value inherent in that work. An award places a period that
demarcates the conclusion of success, and it puts our successes in competition with one another.
Success should not be fleeting for women. Instead, it’s as ebb and flow set between consistent focus and true grit. If I had to award someone inside of MSCCN and CASY above someone else, I’d go to bed worried sick that awarding one over another lessens the work of all. This is where compensation comes in.
Great work should be compensated in a measure equal to that work, not awarded. Compensation is dignified, private, and provides a place from which a woman can work harder to achieve her next goal. What does this have to do with Women’s History Month? In short, everything.
The women I honor during this month never “won” an award—much of the time, they weren’t even
admired, though that didn’t stop them. They were too busy as Suffragettes, as fighters of wars, as women who stepped up and kept this country afloat, which they did in droves. I applaud and hold dear to my soul all women who achieve great things for the sake of the common good—no matter the accolades.