As I reflect the day after the International Women’s Day, 2017, I am left a little disheartened. Not for the millions of women who marched, who picketed, who claimed their worth by not showing up! I despair over the reality of my own lack of worth. Not in a poor me kind of way. I learned early on that my choice to stay home to raise my children was always conflicted. I received my master’s in fine art, graduating 9 months pregnant. I knew I had to fit my art into my life, and for most of those years I continued to work in my little cocoon. I taught a class or 2 but I had to pay my babysitter more than I was making, which brings me to the conundrum. The value I placed on the work of someone else to stay with my 4 children was actually higher than the value placed on me to spend 2 hours with 10 children in an art class. So I stayed home instead and I built my artist studio in my house and I fit my work into any time I could. And when I still struggle to find that time between doctor appointments, grocery shopping, and helping with homework, I cringe at the thought that so many other women who feel stretched between our work and ourselves, our work and our families, our work and the world who still devalues our worth. I watched in amazement as fellow democrats felt unsure about Hillary, not sure they “liked” her. Is it because she was a woman in power? Are they doing that now to others, like Elizabeth Warren? Was yesterday successful? Did the world notice? I felt emotional yesterday. I noticed every woman around me, who was working in the workplace and at home….holding together, doing it all. I know we have come a long way, even if those around us try to take us back to that time long ago. We will fight, we will speak out, we will prevail.
Worth Her Weight in Gold