Time’s Up

If you watched The Golden Globes this past weekend you noticed that almost every single person in attendance (minus one) wore black to the ceremony. Both Men and Women were participating in a very loud, albeit, silent protest in regards to the sexual harassment allegations that have been seeping out of the Hollywood woodwork over the past few months. However, with a new movement, Time’s Up, these celebrities are recognizing that this behavior is not just in Hollywood on casting couches but in hotel rooms where housekeepers are working, in corporate America where women are questioned/silenced by male counterparts and on and on and on.

While I am one hundred percent behind the entire movement and was brought to tears multiple times throughout the three-hour telecast there was something else that I noticed during the awards show…the consistent sisterhood among the women and the support they showed one another.

At one point during the show, Reese Witherspoon got up from her table to go sit with a few other women from Big Little Lies (My god if you haven’t watched this yet please close out this tab and open up HBO.com). If you have seen the show, then you know that this mini-series is jam-packed with strong, independent women with fierce friendships, and those characters have bled over into these actresses real life. So while Laura Dern was waiting for her category to be called Reese sat with her, held her hand and screamed up and down cheering her friend on when she did go on to win Best Supporting Actress in a TV Mini-Series.

It was that moment, in watching these women truly celebrate each other’s successes, that I realized this is also something that we must be doing in our everyday life. If you’re in the office and a co-worker gets a promotion–cheer her on. If your best friend gets engaged, you shout that news out from the rooftops. Often times, women have a hard time bragging about our accomplishments so we need to do that for one another until we have all found our voices and can LOUDLY proclaim how we are so very damn proud of our hard work.

This is where we realize that it is easier said than done. This is where we realize that if both a man and woman in the workplace congratulate themselves on a job well done the man is often looked at with ‘leadership potential’ and the woman is ‘bossy’. But, I don’t care anymore. I know that some men I work with think that I can be bossy and be demanding with deadlines but I won’t let that stop me from doing anything but the best work possible and knowing that the product, in the end, is going to benefit from me dogging it.

Today, on my way to work, a man followed me down the highway pulling up next to me, rolling down his window to stare at me. This went on for a few miles. I would speed up and move away and he would follow me, often cutting off other cars and trucks. I needed to get away before he made the situation even MORE unsafe or did something just downright disgusting.

I shared this story on Facebook and got so many responses. Some have had similar experiences, men commented that this happened to their mothers or even to them. So, when we think we need support in the workplace we must also remember that there are not many safe places for women to just exist. We deserve to exist without wondering if anyone will say anything to us or make us feel uncomfortable. There’s no reason we must always have a ‘getaway’ plan in our head and always be thinking of our safety. But, safety comes in numbers so I urge each and every one of you to continue to support one another, believe one another and be each other’s cheerleaders.

I will continue to make that vow. I will cheerlead each and every woman I know until my pompoms don’t pom anymore. I will offer you up my friend Beth if you need to buy a house because I support her career. I want you to fly United because of my amazing friend, Maggie, who works there. I think, and hope, you are watching Netflix, and you should because the content is amazing but another dear friend of mine works there. And when these women succeed, I feel like I, in turn, have as well. That feeling is one of the best feelings in the world. When one of us wins, we all win.

I think you’re all amazing and want to celebrate each and every one of your successes! Leave me a comment about something you are just SO excited about and make sure we’re following each other on Insta so I can continue to like and love all of your photos and learn about you! And tell me, who do YOU cheerlead? Stay safe, stay smart and don’t forget…Time is Up. It’s our time now.