Happy International Women's Day

First and foremost, in support of this year's campaign theme:

I will call out gendered actions, toxic masculinity, and casual subscriptions to gender norms #choosetochallenge

Our Company's most recent "Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Book Club" book was "We Should All be Feminists" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The length to value ratio here is off-the-charts: this book will take you a couple of hours to read, or less than that in Audiobook or TedTalk format, but the impact on your life will be substantial. Do yourself a favor and buy the book ASAP.

Our book club session discussed how this word's a trigger for so many Americans; it suffers from a "marketing problem." If you're "triggered" in any way, please read a few statements on Feminism from the dictionary so we can get on the same baseline:

1. The advocacy of women's rights based on the equality of the sexes;

2. The theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes;

3. The belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities

Nobody I know would take the counter to any of the above arguments.

Again, the book was outstanding. But, I'm here to talk about my incredible team at Passport for driving a super humbling discussion on these topics.

I admire the courage of our organization's women for sharing deeply personal stories about scenarios they've encountered [over and over] in their lives that continue to remain open as societal/systemic opportunities for improvement, just a few below:

• Heads of household (single or otherwise): Repairmen showing up to their homes and asking, "where's your husband - should I come back later?"
• Reflecting on interview-prep in their career: "which outfit would show commitment to the role, make me look the least feminine but not stuffy, but also x, y, z..." neverending list of considerations that we, as men, never have to take; "I've always had long hair and have essentially kept my hair in a bun my entire career to be sure people take me seriously."
• On just general behavior at work: "I never bring in baked goods to work... and I love baking. But, I've come too far to be put in a box."; "I've found in my career that if I speak up and share my thoughts, especially if it's counternarrative, it follows me for longer than it does my male colleagues."
• On pursuing a passion like fitness: "the stigma around having arms that are 'too big' or shoulders that are 'built like a man'" make it challenging to motivate others who could have similar interests
• On watching powerful women on television (e.g., politics, red carpet, etc.): "they are either not 'womanly enough' with 'too many pant suits', or not taken seriously if they do anything to enhance their feminine appearance."

All paraphrased and only the surface of the discussion. But, goodness. I couldn't sleep that night. Knowing how stressful work can be as a baseline, all I could think about was all of this extra weight that women carry as they navigate their personal and professional lives. 

After this book club discussion, I was in a sales pitch preparation session ahead of a big meeting last week. Before ending the call, I asked for a quick discussion of "what we should be wearing to tomorrow's pitch." A fundamental question I've asked many times before and never considered how loaded it was. I quickly confided with our sales director (who happens to be a woman!) my intent behind the ask and empathized that I knew this could easily send the participating team into undue stress; that I'm supportive of whatever allows someone to bring their best selves to the table. They know their prospects/customers best.

It's not just International Women's Day, but it's Women's History Month - we should all consider taking out time, intentionally, to study the history of the strong women that have paved the way. However, almost more importantly, we should be looking left and looking right at all of the women pushing hard to make history right now. What can you do to lift them? What can you do to call out injustice, even if you initially perceive it as "not a big deal" or "not meaning any harm"?

These microaggressions add up so quickly, and we can all do so much better to take a beat and consider how messages could be received before opening our mouths or "letting something slide" spoken by someone else.

I will call out gendered actions, toxic masculinity, and casual subscriptions to gender norms #choosetochallenge