Transform the World for All Women
Allison Tanner
Sr. Enterprise Account Executive | Digital Transformation Partner | Office of the CFO
This week I am taking a break from traditional business transformation in honor of International Women’s Day.
This is my story.
As a child, I naively believed that if I worked hard enough, the success would come. How could being a girl ever get in my way? Of course, as I got older, I began to understand comments such as ‘girls cross their legs’ or ‘girls do not play in mud’ did not encompass who I might want to be. With my father always wanting another son, my bullish personality with a curiosity to try everything was simply called ‘Tom Boy’. I worked in the shop, played in mud, shot trap, saddled the horses myself, and refused to wear dresses… Yet instead of this being acceptable, a justification and label was added to my personality.
Early on, as an adult in the workplace, these traits became:
- ‘Too much’
- ‘Too loud’
- ‘Too assertive’
- Too, Too, Too….
In a business setting this rude awakening came when a male counterpart and I had completed a task in exactly the same way. He was high fived; I was told ‘to approach things more gently and to be more graceful’.
Yikes.
Thankfully, I have found my stride. I have been blessed with female and male mentors who have supported, guided, and helped me to use that bullish energy for the better. Leaders who honor me, just as I am: a loud, opinionated, driven, motivated, smart woman.
As a society, we are not there yet. However, we are getting closer every time a woman breaks barriers by living a life for herself with no pre-judgement.
To all the transformational women, thank you. Thank you for being bold, for standing up for ALL women, for breaking the glass ceiling as well as creating the possibilities I have had through my life and career. And of course, a special thank you to all women, men and non-binary amazing humans who have / continue to work towards the transformation of women’s rights.
Happy International Women's Day (early). I challenge you to challenge the status quo.
??B2B Sales & Marketing Leader | ?? Welcome! My Philosophy: Whoever puts customers first wins | Maximizing Revenue Growth and Customer Success for SaaS ?? | LinkedIn Learning Instructor
4 年Thank you for such inspiring and powerful message, Allison Tuttle! I can totally echo with the expressions that others have seen on me as too strong, bossy, too emotional, too loud, talk too much and even anti-men. On the other hand, I've seen men suffering from mental illness unable to ask for help for fear it'd make them look less macho. In fact, suicide is the second biggest killer of men between 20-49 years old globally. I've seen men made insecure by a distorted sense of what constitutes male success. So, men don't have the benefits of equality either. Imagine men don't have to be aggressive in order to be accepted women won't feel compelled to be submissive. Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive. Both men and women should feel free to be strong. Let's stop defining each other by what we are not and start defining ourselves by what we are - We can all be freer. And the reality is that if we stay at current rate of change, gender equality will take 99.5 years, or none of us can see this happen that women are paid the same as their male counterparts, be involved in policies, decision-making of their countries, socially afforded the same respect as men. I applaud YOU, Allison Tuttle for speaking up and I invite both women and men to do so too. #genderequality is everybody issue. If not now, when?
Thanks for sharing your story, Allison!
Sr. Enterprise Account Executive | Digital Transformation Partner | Office of the CFO
4 年Thank you Patrícia Souza (She / Her / Hers), Kelly Jorritsma, ?? Salina Yeung - Unlock your Full Potential, Brian Ballantyne, and Kelly Fuller (even though we have never met), for being stand up transformational people in my life! Thank you for fighting for the rights of all humans - for supporting equality for all!