International Women’s Day 2024: Shakespeare's Sisters

2024 IWD theme is 'Inspire Inclusion' and I want to share a personal reflection on inclusion.

Picture the scene. At the end of February it feels like it has been raining all month, the fields and flooded and the rivers have swollen and broken their banks but on this gloomy grey Sunday afternoon, it looks like the brown, fast flowing murky waters are receding, just a little, but just enough, to make it possible and safe to get the Stratford Upon Avon Women’s Masters rowing eight onto the water, for a long overdue practice.

These 10 women - 8 rowers 1 cox steering the boat and a coach on the river-bank, are all in their 50s, busy working, parenting, caring, but we come together to work ‘as one’ to make the boat go faster.

In our crew we have a teacher, a global director for a pharmaceutical company, clinical nurse manager in a dialysis unit, leadership development coach, environmental advisor, artist and illustrator, digital transformation manager, jewellery maker. An eclectic bunch and the start of a great party - if we weren't all sitting in a long row in a 19m boat, feet fixed and tied in, sitting on a tint wooden seat, which runs up and down 'slide', and a 3.7 meters of carbon fibre oar in our hands.

We also have wonderful women who will step in, often at very short notice to sub, rowers and coxes, when one of us can’t make the outing, to help the crew train and get on the water.

Some of us have rowed for a long time, some a long time ago, and after a break (generally 30 years) have come back to the lure of the river, and some of us have recently learnt to row.

We have come together, as one, for a specific goal.

We are rowing the Vesta Vet(ran)s International Masters Head of the River Race on the Tideway in London. We will be one of over 400 boats rowing the 4.5 miles fromnbsp;Mortlake to Putney Bridge (basically the Oxford Cambridge Boat Race in reverse).

We have trained together on the water, working outings between working, doing the children's taxi service, caring for parents and other family members, managing busy home lives; we have all committed to improve our fitness with early morning ergs (rowing machine) training before work or the school run.

For most of us, rowing outings on the water are 90 minutes of calm in the middle of busy mid-life, when we are unreachable by phone, and have to commit and focus all our effort and concentration on moving together, improving each stroke, and working as one. ?Recharging our sanity, connectedness as well as exercising.

We have been to the indoor rowing tank at Oxford University to be coached to help us work on our technique and moving together, as one.

We had a crew outing to watch ‘Boys in the Boat’ the recent George Clooney directed film (based on Daniel James Browns’ book) about the rookie University of Washington crew coming together from a variety of different underprivileged backgrounds to beat more prestigious rowing Universities and go on to represent America in the Olympic in 1936 in Berlin.

We are not aiming for such athletic prowess, but we all having our goal in mind. The positivity and camarade that has developed is both motivating and moving, and a real demonstration of what happens when women come together to make something happen.

We are not the ‘Girls in the Boat’ but have nicknamed ourselves “Shakespeare’s Sisters” as a homage to the Stratfords’ famous son, as well as a nod to 1980s pop duo. This sisterhood shows up as one of the most committed, improvement focused and fun boats I have rowed in.

·????? Yes, we are inclusive

·????? Yes, we are supportive and encouraging of each other

·????? Yes, we care about being the best we can for ourselves and each other

·????? Yes, we want to do our best in the longest (rowing) race most of us have ever signed up for in our lives

·????? Yes, we want to be positive role models for our daughters, children and other people

·????? Yes, we celebrate the wonderfulness that is women…..

·????? even as Masters, sometimes after a hard training session, our bodies ache

YES ! We inspire each other and we have connected belonging

Whatever happens on the 24th March over the gruelling 4.5 mile course, we are as one, together “Shakespeare’s Sisters doing it for each other!”

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#IWD2024 #inspireinclusion #together #shakepeare’ssister #rowing #vestainternationalmastershead2024 #tideway #trainhard #goalfocus #asone

#masterswomen #BritshRowing #StratforduponAvonBoatclub

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