Unfinished Business
On July 19-20, 1848, The Seneca Falls Convention was held, the country’s first women’s rights convention.
The convention was designed to open a conversation about women’s rights and conditions for women in society, religion, and politics. The convention’s Declaration of Sentiments directly connected women’s rights to the country’s #DeclarationofIndependence, challenging Americans to include women in the democratic experiment.
100 attendees, 68 women and 32 men, signed the #DeclarationofSentiments
It would be 70 years before women would secure the right to vote...and decades after that til the #VotingRights Act was enacted, ensuring all Americans the right to vote! And 178 years later, their work is still inspiring us to finish the job and ensure equal rights and justice for all.
📝
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
Now, in view of this entire disfranchisement of one-half the people of this country, their social and religious degradation, - in view of the unjust laws above mentioned, and because women do feel themselves aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of these United States.”
#SenecaFalls
#Suffs
#ElizabethCadyStanton
#LucretiaMott
#FrederickDouglass
#womensrights
#ThisGirlCanMakeHERstory
#ThisGirlCanUseHerVoice
#thisgirlcanvote
#thisgirlcanchanchangetheworld
Women’s Rights National Park National Park Service
National Women’s History Museum
Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum
Women’s Suffrage National Monument Foundation
This Girl Can! Be Revolutionary
As America celebrates its 250th year, who do you think of when you reflect on this nation’s founding? Whose stories do you know, and which figures from history come to mind?
Most of us think of John Trumbull’s iconic painting and see all the “guys” at the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Or we remember seeing Emmanuel Leutze’s Painting of ‘Washington Crossing the Delaware’ in our history books. There, of course, are the Battles of Lexington and Concord and the “shot heard round the world” in 1775, the Battle of Saratoga in 1777 and the Battle of Yorktown in 1781 which forced the British to surrender.
But, where were the women during all this time of strife, protest, contentious debates, and war? If we are to just look at traditional resources and textbooks, we would think that women had no role in the founding of this country.
250 years later it is time to fix that perception!
Take for example, Margaret Cochran Corbin, the first woman to receive a military pension. When her husband John went to war, she went with him. Many women during the war became “camp followers”, doing laundry, cooking and tending to the wounded. Margaret, however, put herself literally in the line of fire. In 1776, when her husband went to fight in the Battle of Fort Washington, Margaret dressed as a man and followed him into battle, helping to load his cannon. When he was fatally wounded, Margaret stepped up and fired the cannon herself. She, too, was hit and was unable to use her left arm for the rest of her life.
In 1782, Deborah Sampson asked the question,
"Why can I not fight for my country, too?"
She disguised herself as a man named Robert Shurtleff and joined the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment. For over two years, her real identity went undetected. She received a gash in her forehead from a sword and was shot in her thigh, and extracted the bullet herself. She was the only woman to receive a full military pension from the United States government.
There was nothing prudent about Prudence Cummings Wright. With all the men off in battle, Prue would lead an armed militia to defend the town’s covered bridge to stop the smuggling of information North to Canada. The women of her militia captured the spies as they were crossing the bridge, taking their documents and holding them prisoner, preventing the British from knowing the plans of American troops.
Perhaps one of the few women who comes to mind when we think about this time in history would be Betsy Ross. Betsy may be best known for showing George Washington how to make a five-pointed star and sewing the first American flag, but she was also a businesswoman, having taken over her late husband’s upholstery business and worked on uniforms, tents, and flags for the Continental Army.
Yes, women were running things in 1776! In fact, if you have a really close look at the bottom of the Declaration of Independence, you will see this
While it may not be a signature, the name of Mary Katharine Goddard is the only woman’s name to appear on the document. Mary Katharine owned a printing business in Baltimore, Maryland, and she ran the Baltimore post office, a bookstore, and also published a newspaper, the Maryland Journal, which advocated for patriotic causes. She published Thomas Paine’s ‘Common Sense’ and was the first printer to publish the Declaration of Independence in its entirety, displaying all the signers’ names. She boldly made the decision to include her own name at the bottom, sort of a de facto signer of the Declaration, and potentially put herself at risk for treason charges.
Women’s voices in 1776 and throughout the Revolution were NOT silent.
Mercy Otis Warren was a playwright, satirist and historian, known for her writings in support of the revolutionary cause and featuring strong women’s voices. She was an outspoken critic of the British rule and wrote plays and poems in support of the American ideals of freedom and independence. She believed in the idea of “Republican Motherhood” encouraging women to be active politically as mothers to model good citizenship for their children. An advocate for women’s education, she wrote a history of the American Revolution that included the contributions of women. Mery believed that women should freely express ideas about politics and government, despite the fact they would have no rights or vote in that government until 1920. After the war, she was critical of the way the new government was forming, with too much Federal power, she often published her political writings under a pen name, and criticizing the new Constitution and calling for individual rights and liberties to be included. Her widely-distributed pamphletswere influential in the formation of The Bill of Rights.
Phillis Wheatley was an enslaved poet and the first African American poet, and only the second woman, to have her work published. In July 1761, at the age of 6 or 7, she was kidnapped from her home in West Africa and sent to Boston on a slave ship. A Boston merchant, John Wheatley, and his wife Susanna, purchased her and named her after the ship she arrived on, Phillis. She received a highly unusual education for any girl, let alone an enslaved girl. A strong and vocal supporter of the Revolution, she would write a poem dedicated to George Washington and spoke of her own enslavement. It would be the written word that Phillis used to call for freedom and speak out against slavery. Her eventual fame gained her own emancipation in 1773. Despite knowing there was little hope of men like Washington, who praised her work, changing the circumstances of slavery, she would continue to support the Revolution and use her pen to be heard.
“Any time while I was a slave, if one minute’s freedom had been offered to me, and I had been told I must die at the end of that minute, I would have taken it—just to stand one minute on God’s earth a free woman—I would.”
~ Elizabeth Freeman
Elizabeth Freeman(“Mum Bett”) was also enslaved in Massachusetts for over 30 years. Her “mistress’ often was violent with her and in an incident where she struck her sister with a heated kitchen shovel, Elizabeth protected her sister by blocking the strike, resulting in a serious wound on her arm that would never heal. Rather than cover her arm, she left the scar visible as evidence of her mistreatment. In the increasingly abolitionist-leaning Massachusetts, this reflected poorly on the Ashleys, and the injury impeded her ability to work, all enraging her enslaver more.
When she overheard a discussion by her enslaver, Colonel Ashley, of the ‘Sheffield Declaration’, she began to question why the words “…mankind in a state of nature are equal, free, and independent of each other, and have a right to the undisturbed enjoyment of their lives, their liberty and property.”did not and could not apply to her. She sought the help of Theodore Sedgwick, a lawyer and Massachusetts delegate to the Continental Congress, who had helped to draft the Sheffield Declaration. Sedgwick, saw the case as a potential “test” to determine if slavery was constitutional under the new Massachusetts Constitution. In August of 1781, the case went to the County Court of Common Pleas of Great Barrington Massachusetts in the case known as Brom and Bett v. Ashley. Sedgwick would argue that the Massachusetts Constitution, with its language of “all men are born free and equal” set the ground for outlawing slavery. The jury agreed that Bett and Brom were not Colonel Ashley's property. While she never learned to read or write, she would change the world! helping to set a legal precedent for abolishing slavery in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1783. Upon winning her freedom, she chose a new name, Elizabeth Freeman. She would go on to be a healer and work for the Sedgwicks. After 20 years, she was able to buy her own land for $75, which had a small house and barn where she lived the rest of her life, a free woman.
“I wish most sincerely there was not a Slave in the province. It always appeared a most iniquitous Scheme to me—fight ourselves for what we are daily robbing and plundering from those who have as good a right to freedom as we have. You know my mind upon this Subject.”
~Abigail Adams to her husband John
And of course, there was Abigail Smith Adams, who, while known as the second First Lady of the country and the Mother of the sixth President, was in so many ways the voice of conscience for her husband John Adams while he worked to form a new nation. Growing up, Abigail did not have a formal education as schools were exclusively for the education of boys, leaving girls with the most basic of education, helping them to be a “lady in society”. This did not sit well with Abigail. Growing up, she had a liberal father and an encouraging family. With access to a large library, she would read everything she could get her hands on and would be a staunch advocate to ensure girls had access to books and formal education. She would write to her husband,
“If you complain of neglect of Education in sons, What shall I say with regard to daughters, who every day experience the want of it....If we mean to have Heroes, Statesmen and Philosophers, we should have learned women. The world perhaps would laugh at me, and accuse me of vanity, but you I know, have a mind too enlarged and liberal to disregard the Sentiment. If much depends, as is allowed, upon the early Education of youth and the first principles which are instilled take the deepest root, great benefit must arise from literary accomplishments in women.”
In 1764, Abigail married an ambitious lawyer John Adams. Their marriage was a partnership, and though her husband John was not known to be publicly a fan of women’s rights, Abigail’s counsel throughout their marriage and numerous long separations influenced the thinking and the principles of a new nation. Famously, when he was in Philadelphia, she would stridently write to him to impress upon him that the new nation was not for men alone.
“I long to hear that you have declared an independency -- and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies, we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.”
Abigail Adams would argue to her husband that women simply would not follow laws in which they were not represented. Though her own marriage was far more equal than most of the day, she understood that every woman’s right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”, could never be relied upon to happen by the grace of her husband. Under the laws of coverture, married women did not exist under the law, with no right to own property or money. Abigail was concerned with greater protection for women under the new laws, as well as access to formal education for girls and women. She, too, like her friend Mercy Otis Warren, was a proponent of “Republican Motherhood”, believing that mothers had a vital role to play in political life and must be involved in politics to prepare their sons (and daughters) to be citizens and leaders.
Abigail was a woman in charge, she had to be. Her husband was gone for years at a time, so it was left to her to run their farm, deal with the Revolution literally at her doorstep, protect her children, engage in commerce, buy property and she would see four of her six children die.
Abigail’s lifelong influence on not only her husband but also a burgeoning nation was profound. John Adams needed her. He wrote after his election as President in 1797, “I never wanted your Advice and assistance more in my life…” Abigail was not a demure First Lady. She did not sit back. She would fervently defend her husband and his positions. She, in fact, became the “go-to” for many who wanted access to her husband. She would famously “plant” positive stories in the press about John. Some of her husband’s critics and the press believed Abigail was so instrumental in her husband’s work that she was called “Mrs. President.
Throughout her life, Abigail Adams was a voice to be reckoned with, despite a social, political, and legal culture that denied women their rights; hers was a voice that would not be silenced.
And so, while we see and learn about and reference the “Founding Fathers”, Abigail, and we, would remind us all to “Remember the Ladies”.
250 years later, we need to ensure that the women who were essential not only to the formation of a new nation, but to the running of life and home and the pursuits of free speech and liberty should never be ignored. As the National Women’s History Museum reminds us *She is NOT a Footnote! Because This Girl Can! Make HERstory.
Only by paying “particular care and attention” to telling their stories, teaching their history, and celebrating their legacies can we move forward to fulfill the promises of that preamble to the Declaration so that it is a common assumption that “all people are created equal and are endowed with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
This Girl Can! Slay Her Own Dragons-Thanks Daddy!
“It’s up to us to say to our daughters, don’t ever let images on TV tell you what you are worth, because I expect you to dream without limit and reach for those goals.”
~Barack Obama
We talk so often about the importance of girls having role models to look to, and to see that there are women who were once girls just like them, who followed their dreams. We want every girl to know about women’s stories from history and today. We want her to learn about the women who kicked open doors so that now she can walk through and pursue her own paths and maybe even kick some of her own doors open for other girls to follow.
For every girl, however, it is equally important for her to know to her core that she has a cheering squad right alongside her as she makes her journey. She needs to look around and see the people who love her, who believe in her, and who always help her to pick herself up, dust herself off, and get right back in that race. Sound familiar?
If you are lucky enough, this cheering section starts with your Dad. For a girl, a Dad can be a hero, but he is also her foundation. Her Dad can be her greatest ally, coach, teacher…Her Dad is the one who slays the dragons under the bed, and the one who instills in her a sense that she can be brave! There is nothing she cannot do, and she can in fact slay her own dragons when she needs to. And when she falls, and she will, he is there to put a band-aid on, help her regain her footing, and ensure that she doesn’t quit.
While ensuring that every girl has access to mentors who can show her the way and help build her confidence, we need to be sure that we are also looking to the men and boys in her life. When we talk about gender equity, we cannot exclude the men and boys in a girl’s world out of that very important conversation.
For a girl to believe in her own power, she needs to see and to know that the men and boys in her life believe in her too. Knowing they are there for her journey and stand with her as she pushes her walls and grows her confidence is essential to holding on to that confidence as she grows and tests her powers.
A girl’s Dad is also a model, the model of what a man can and should be for her, supporting, listening, encouraging, and loving. Knowing she can try her wings with a safe landing can start with her Dad. Understanding the positive and supporting role a man can, and should have, in her life begins with her Dad as well. The relationship a daughter has with her Dad helps her to gain a sense of empowerment from the love and encouragement she receives. She will be rooted in the knowledge that she is strong, she is smart, and she can do anything! She will carry the confidence to not only use her mind but also speak her mind. She will grow to be independent and walk her own path, knowing that if she encounters obstacles or roadblocks, she can overcome them. This can all start with a Dad. A Dad who knows that every girl can and should have the same opportunities as the boys on the field, a Dad who sets the bar, the gold standard, for how girls view the role men should have in their lives.
“She did not stand alone, but what stood behind her, the most potent moral force in her life, was the love of her father.”
~ Harper Lee
While every man a girl encounters and interacts with in her journey may not always provide or demonstrate the same attitude and positive support as her Dad, a Dad instills tools on how to handle the nay-sayers. With confidence and a core belief that she belongs in the room, she can handle her own emotions in situations of disrespect and conquer those dragons who want to dismiss her simply because she is a girl.
“Being a daddy’s girl is like having permanent armor for the rest of your life.”
~ Marinela Reka
The term “Daddy’s Girl” very often has negative connotations, but it shouldn’t. It doesn’t matter if you are your Dad’s Princess, that just means he has given you the power to be, to go forward with strength, and confidence, and to believe in your own power to follow your dreams.
A girl’s Dad is the one who leaves his daughter a gift to be opened whenever she needs it, long after he is gone...the gift that she is loved, the gift that there is always someone who believes in her, the gift that helps her stand on her own feet and move forward knowing This Girl Can! Change the World.
We KNOW This Girl Can! Make HERstory - Every Month
“I’m not going to knock on any closed doors. I’m going to make my own door.”
Why do we study women's history? The lives and the stories of women, their role in, and their impact on, our history have mostly been hidden.
We say it all the time, ” We cannot be what we cannot see.” We need to know women's stories, we need to look to them as models, as beacons of inspiration to follow as we build our goals and pursue our dreams. Learning about the lives and experiences of those trailblazing women who defied expectations and often risked their lives to achieve their goals will help us envision who we can become.
“Well behaved women rarely make history”
History is filled with the stories of women and girls just like YOU! What makes their experiences important? These girls and women found their own way, they defied societal norms and commands, and they bravely and independently pushed down doors, ignorance, harassment, and even threats to their lives and well-being.
Ensuring that every woman's story is heard and respected provides all little girls, and not-so-little girls, with the opportunities to understand and to know they too can realize the power of their dreams because there was someone who came before them who lived a life and showed that Yes! This Girl Can! Change the World.
As we wind down this #WomensHistoryMonth we share our hope that every day EVERY girl will believe that Yes! She can make #HERstory. We are dedicated to celebrating the hidden history of all women every day, not just in March. We cheer the rule-breakers, the trailblazers, the fearless, and the indefatigable who said Yes! #ThisGirlCan! Change the World. Now it is your turn-and we cannot wait to see YOU make HERstory.
#womenshistory
#thisgirlcanchangetheworld
#thefutureisfemale
#believeinthepowerofyourdreams
“If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.”
This Girl Can! Accelerate Action-Believe in Every Girl!
On this #InternationalWomensDay, and every day, we celebrate the lives, the stories, the work, and the leadership of every woman who said "Watch Me!"-Women who have blazed so many trails for girls and women all over the world. We honor their work and their legacy by committing to #AccelerateAction to advance gender equity. In the US alone, we are 106 years away from #genderequity. We need to ensure that EVERY girl can live in safety, unlocking access to education and the fundamental human rights denied to so many- fulfilling the promise that all girls can live in a world that fosters their potential. Girls everywhere must have access to the education, security, and well-being that will help them grow into amazing women who can change not only their own lives but their families, their neighborhoods, their communities, and …their planet! When women are educated and have access to opportunity, everyone thrives!
We need to ensure that any door a girl wants to walk through is open.
We need to show her #RoleModels and #Mentors that can help her SEE who she can BE.
We need to help her every day to build and sustain a positive sense of self.
We need to guarantee her the future of her choosing with every opportunity possible.
We need to foster the unshakeable confidence to believe in her own power to realize her dreams
...because This Girl Can! Change the World! ...and she will.
This Girl Can! BE
This Girl Can! Use Her Voice
This Girl Can! Be Confident
This Girl Can! Claim Her Rights
This Girl Can! March Forward
This Girl Can! Change the World
We honor the work of @girlsopportunityalliance @unwomen @roomtoread @raziasrayofhope @malalafund @educategirlsngo @womenshistory @leaninorg and all the amazing organizations working to support girls around the globe.
#IWD2025
#BelieveinEveryGirl
#ForAllWomenandGirls
#WomensRightsAreHumanRights
#educateagirl
#girlseducation
#womenshistorymonth
#KeepMarching
#ThisGirlCanClaimHerRights
#ThisGirlCanUseHerVoice
#thisgirlcanchangetheworld
"There is Too Much Work to Do" Keep Marching On!
“People say, what is the sense of our small effort?
They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time,
take one step at a time.
A pebble cast into a pond causes ripples that spread in all directions. Each one of our thoughts, words and deeds is like that. No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless.
There is too much work to do.”
~ Dorothy Day
Yes, it's been a week! and Yes, emotions, anxiety and simple dread are filling every inch within us and around us.
Through the fog of where we are, and the blow to our hopes, however, comes clarity-get back to work!
True, it may not be as simple as "pick yourself up, dust yourself off..." but history shows us that is exactly what we need to do. Women did not just land in a space where a woman could receive over 70 million votes in her bid to be President of the United States. It was the work, the determination, the persistence and the resistance of generations of women, and men who believed in those women and their rights, to get here. Setbacks, no matter their dimensions or seismic proportion, are a part of that history, and a part of every girl's journey to stand where she wants.
With each turn of history,however, we get to do it differently, see it differently, listen differently, and move forward differently. While the lessons of this week are still to be understood one thing is certain-we don't stand still.
So, what can this girl do?
At This Girl Can! Change the World nothing that happened this week changes anything except to strengthen our commitment to girls everywhere.
Our mission has always been about inspiring every girl to know their own power. We want every girl to understand she has a voice and the right to walk into any room she chooses at any time.
We want to support every girl to have the confidence that grows with her, an unshakeable confidence and sense of self that allows her to believe in her own power to realize her dreams.
We know what happens to young girls as they enter their tween and teen years. All the amazing confidence, the girl spunk, they have erodes, and many girls simply fall off the confidence cliff.
We do not want to see any girl lose her belief in her own power.
We do not want any girl to question her place or her voice.
We do not want any girl to ever feel she does not belong...or that she can't...because we know This Girl Can!
We know that positive role models, mentors who support and show the way, learning about women's history and telling women's stories, and amplifying affirming portrayals in popular culture and media are all key to helping every girl see what is possible.
So how do we help our girls understand this week when we as adults may not yet understand. How do we help them with the hurt and disappointment that we all are carrying? How do we create the path for them to soar?
We start with acknowledging it hurts but also looking at what there is to celebrate. We point to all the women throughout history who got up the next day and kept moving forward. Though the potential was not realized THIS TIME, stepping back, sitting down, giving up, giving in will never be the way to build lasting change. These are lessons that are not about one woman, one election, but rather about how every girl can navigate her own personal journey and achieve her own goals.
To do this,however, she needs us to show her we believe in her! and help her to believe in herself.
"The important thing is don't ever give up. Don't ever give up. Don't ever stop trying to make the world a better place. You have power. You have power. And don't you ever listen when anyone tells you something is impossible because it has never been done before."
~Vice President Kamala Harris
Now more than perhaps ever before we need to support girls understanding of what is possible. No, it may not always work out, but we need to foster their confidence to get up and most especially try again and again and again.
Progress is not instant soup and learning about women's stories throughout history will show that well. Our kids are from an instant gratification culture...a two minute tik tok is about the extent of their investment of time. So teaching them that justice is slow but worth the work is essential as is showing every girl that no matter the moment, no matter the current outcome, This Girl Can! Use Her Voice...This Girl Can! Choose Her Own Path... This Girl Can! Walk into Any Room... This Girl Can! Do Something... This Girl Can! Change the World.
Keep Marching On!
“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”
— Harriet Tubman
This Little Girl is Me
This year’s theme for the United Nations #IDG is ‘Girls’ Vision for the Future’
This started me thinking about what my vision of the future was when I was little.
What did I imagine I could BE when I got older?
On the eve of #InternationalDayoftheGirl Inspiring Girls International is once again celebrating with their #ThisLittleGirlIsMe campaign, asking the question..."What advice would you give to your younger self?" Well, not enough space here to put everything I want to say to that 8 year old me...but
Once upon a time…don’t all good stories start that way? I was a 40-year-old in a 4-year-old's shoes. I had a lot, and I mean a lot! to say. I wanted to fix everything and everyone. I wanted to redecorate every room I walked into and change the world overall. I was never content with the status quo and could never figure out why… why… why…Very little has changed!
There were so many things that never made sense to me. Why were all the doctors men and the nurses women? How come only boys went to the MathLab? Why were all the girls put on different teams from the boys? Why didn’t I ever see boys at ballet class? SO many questions!
I grew up at a time of huge change for women in this country. So much was happening and women were becoming more and more a part of the national conversation. Yet, the pushback and backlash was huge. The messages were very conflicting.
Women could “Bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, and never let him forget he’s a man. Because I’m a Woman…W-O-M-A-N…” The fact that I remember that advertising jingle pretty much sums up the media we consumed and the mixed messages we received as girls and women. We will give you an inch…but don’t think about the mile.
I never once thought I couldn’t do it all or have it all.
I was going to go where I wanted, say what I wanted, do what I wanted…I was an 8-year-old Feminist!
I would soon discover, however, that the “real world” was not always in favor of opening a door for me, hearing my voice, or letting me join in. So as too many young girls continue to experience today, the confidence and absolute sense of “I can do this” got chipped away as I encountered “Nos” and “Do Not Enter” signs. That seedling of a little voice inside who said “You aren’t good enough” “You aren’t what they want.” “What are you doing here?” …always remained. While I never lost my belief in myself, I would always question whether others believed I could, and stubbornly, not always successfully, did what I could to “show them”. But fear and self-doubt grew from that seedling and a sense of “what am I getting wrong?” and “No way can I do this” could stop me in my tracks at any moment. I thought I had to not only climb the hill but carry that hill with me.
Life takes twists and turns, mountain climbs and cliff falls and along the way, I would design a brand that allowed me to create a character who could do and say and BE what I wanted for every girl. In many ways, my character Jane was little me!
The idea for This Girl Can! Change the World percolated as I walked through an overcrowded show floor eons ago at The Super Show. I was not seeing anything designed for or marketed to women and girls. This.a good 25 years after Billie Jean King took out Bobby Riggs,
I saw no positive representation or product identity for women and girls. So I jumped in. The plan was to reach all the little girls on soccer fields, courts, ball fields, tracks, ice rinks…and their moms and grandmoms too.
What began as a brand to fill a huge hole in a male-driven sporting goods industry quickly grew to a line to celebrate and cheer on all girls and women well beyond the field and the court. I created a character with sass and gumption who could represent every girl with cartoon-esque wit and a “don’t let them tell you no” message. Little girls needed -still need!- models and stories of Sheroes to inspire and help them see who they could become.
Life, the retail planet, and I all moved on in time. If you weren’t a major you couldn’t play in the big leagues. My girl “Jane” had her sparkle time, but Jane and I were not about to be benched forever.
I never felt that I was finished or that the brand had fulfilled its reach… or its mission. I knew what happened to young girls as they entered their tween years, they were falling off the confidence cliff. I have never lost my belief that every girl needs a cheering squad, that every girl needs to be able to see what is possible, and that every girl needs to be celebrated.
I wanted to ensure that all girls could have the confidence and unshakeable sense of self to never fall off that cliff and to always believe they could change the world, even if that world was just outside their front door.
In 2018 I attended an organizing event for a congressional candidate who would become the center of the “Squad”. I knew she would be inspiring but what I did not anticipate was a crowded room filled with young women not yet of voting age who were there to make a difference, to support, to speak their stories, and to change their communities. That night I knew Jane and I needed to get back to work!
According to the United Nations
Over 120 million girls are out of school.
90 percent of adolescent girls do not use the internet in low-income countries.
Globally, girls aged 5-14 spend 160 million more hours every day on unpaid domestic work than boys.
1 in 4 married/partnered adolescent girls aged 15-19 have experienced physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner at least once in their lifetime.
This Girl Can! Change the World relaunched on a mission…to believe in Every girl and help her know the confidence and permanent sense of self to allow her to understand in every moment, in every room, in front of any challenge or obstacle that-
This Girl Can! Use Her Voice
This Girl Can! Walk in anywhere she chooses,
This Girl Can! Speak Her Mind,
This Girl Can! Believe in her own power to realize her dreams…
and Yes! This Girl Can! Change the world
On this #InternationalDayoftheGirl, and on every day, we want to support all girls to see what they can BE! This generation of girls is disproportionately impacted by a plethora of global crises from climate, global and regional conflict, poverty, violence, and the erosion of human rights and gender equality. Far too many girls are denied their basic human rights, impacting their freedom, their choices, and their futures.
It is our goal to partner with organizations around the globe working to ensure all girls are protected, supported, educated, empowered, and respected.
As the UN says so well,
”With the right support, resources, and opportunities, the potential of the world’s more than 1.1 billion girls is limitless. And when girls lead, the impact is immediate and wide-reaching: families, communities, and economies are all stronger, our future brighter.”
We need, to invest in girls-full stop.
We need to believe in every girl so she can believe in herself.
Ensuring she has role models, sees positive representation in media, and has access to mentors who can help her believe in who she Can! BE is essential.
We want to help foster girls' confidence, and ensure their access to the education and security that will help them grow into amazing women who can change not only their own lives but their neighborhoods, their communities, and … their planet!
So what would I say to my younger 8-year-old Feminist self?
Trust your dreams.
Use your fears
Know you will fall down, maybe a lot, and that’s OK-a few scrapes and bumps can open new ways of looking at challenges.
Look in All Directions. Find That Other Way, Take That Other Path.
Don’t get stuck in a "my way" vision-always be open and always listen and learn
Believe in your right to fly!
Don’t Be Afraid to Say Yes! Opportunities Can Appear From Anywhere at Anytime.
Know You Just Have to Try to Climb that Hill...Not Carry It With You.
Always remember Don’t Wish Upon A Star…Reach for One!
#IDG
#BelieveinEveryGirl
#ThisGirlCanChangetheWorld
Raising Boys Who Believe in Girls
We talk a lot about ensuring that every girl has the confidence to know #ThisGirlCanChangetheWorld but what about our boys?
We need to be sure that we never leave our boys out of the conversation-ever!
For girls to always have the strong sense of self, and unshakeable belief in themselves to grow and thrive and never question their place, they need to be able to move through their world surrounded by men who also believe in them!
Men who not only see women as equals but also support their rights and goals.
Men who know that every girl, every woman, has the right to use her voice, walk into any room, work side by side with them, and stand on that equal playing field.
Help our boys see positive role models-male and female
Be sure our boys' media consumption portrays strong women and girls alongside supportive boys and men
Model equality
Educate our boys about women’s history
Help our boys understand what equality means
Teach our boys to respect every girl
Help our boys understand and support every girl's rights
Support our boys in developing their emotional awareness and intelligence
Help our boys know it is OK not to win and OK to be vulnerable
Point out instances of bias and sexism
Have conversations about what images and portrayals they see on social media and popular media
Help our boys be kind and supportive friends
Celebrate strong confident girls and women
Celebrate strong supportive men
👏to all the Moms and Dads raising boys who know that the girls in their world can do anything they can do...and that is not only OK but really cool!
These boys will be the Fathers, friends, soulmates, best pals… every girl needs.
#NationalSonsDay
#EmpoweringGirls
#GenderEquity
#SmartBoys
#ThisGirlCanChangetheWorld
Keep Marching!
"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex"
Thanks to the courage and determination of so many women over 70 years of protest and perseverance on this day, August 18, 1920, the Constitution was amended to ensure that the right to vote cannot be denied on account of sex. It would be another five decades before the vote was secured for ALL, and the fight continues, but…
This Girl Can Vote!…and She Will!
“The vote is the emblem of your equality, women of America, the guarantee of your liberty.
Women have suffered agony of soul which you can never comprehend, that you and
your daughters might inherit political freedom.
That vote has been costly. Prize it!
The vote is a power, a weapon of
offense and defense, a prayer.
Understand what it means and what it can do for your country. Use it intelligently, conscientiously, prayerfully.”
