It is Wednesday, March 8, 2017 and you would be out of your mind if you thought I wasn’t going to talk about International Women’s Day for my WTF Wednesday post. Part of me doesn’t know where to begin because I have so many feelings and emotions about today and what it means to women. Another part of me hates myself for even writing that sentence; so trite, my professors would have scolded me for being SO lazy with my words. Get it together, girlfriend.
Honestly, I don’t want to dive deep or talk politics, it’s not my bag. I’d rather talk to you about my feelings on how I think that Vanderpump Rules is one of Bravo’s greatest gifts to, not just reality TV, but TV in general; it’s a less polarizing topic and tends to not destroy families. I know I’ve gained three friends out of bonding over our love of Stassi and hatred for Tom Sandoval and his weird highlights. I digress.
A few favorites: It always seems impossible until it’s done. Enjoy Today. Things come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.
I bought a bunch of wall art for my office last year when a large project I had been on ended and our team of 40 was split up. I was off to a new department, leader and team. Goodbye to the fabric walls of my cube-life for the past three years I was moving on to a coveted office with a door! I really wanted to make this new space a place where I felt empowered and strong; I am the only woman on the team after all. With the very strong desire for an office worthy of Instagram I hit up my favorite discount retailer, Home Goods. I grabbed a cart and stocked up on an obscene amount of office decor; the letters ‘E’ and ‘J’ to put my initials everywhere, cute tchotchkes to fill up book shelves and tons of inspirational wall art. Everywhere I look in the office BAM, inspiration to kick ass and take names.
But this one item I got, it is my favorite and the one thing I look at in my office when I need a real charge. It is simple, white and plainly says: Like A Boss. I get a lot of ‘ha, nice.’ from men that walk in my office and see it. Even my executive took a look at it, chuckled and said “That suits you.” Funny, how this sign, with such a strong statement, gets a lot of respect from men. I’ve had a few women tell me they wouldn’t dare put up something like that, or maybe would go a more girlier-route such as ‘Girl Boss’ and to that I say WTF?
This Girl Boss thing has become a real trend lately and I see a lot of instal-ladies describing themselves as such. Listen, my mom didn’t send me off to 3rd grade on career day dressed like a ‘Girl Lawyer’ I went dressed as a lawyer. We need to drop this ‘Girl’ qualifier from our verbiage, it’s separating the men from the women and that’s not what today is about. All of the #GirlBoss has to stop because men aren’t tweeting about how they are a proud #GuyBoss or a #DudeCEO so we shouldn’t either. I think this aligns with the whole ‘like a girl’ concept, too. I won’t get in to that, but I think we all agree dropping ‘like a girl’ from our conversations was the best thing to do for the younger generations.
By the way I’m a big advocate of us also dropping the words ‘just’ and ‘sorry’. A friend of mine shared this with me last year, and it’s a total game changer for every email I write, and everything I do. No, you’re not ‘just checking to see where we are on the project’ you’re ‘checking on the project‘ because that’s your job and you shouldn’t apologize for it. You’re a boss, treat yo’ self as such.
I shared with one of my guy friends today that he, too, should work to drop this qualifier word, as well. Now, he’s very pro-ladies, pro-equality for all, will take politicians to task on twitter and then some, but I challenged him to keep going with his words. Instead of saying you worked with a really smart girl in IT, tell people one of your coworkers is really smart, and her name is Sarah. Or your coworker is crazy good on this project, no need to share if the coworker is a guy or girl unless it comes up. I think if we continue to go down this path and drop the ‘Girl’ from our vernacular we could make some kind of change. I know I’m being positive and hopeful but damnit, I am.
Today will mark a very important day going forward and I feel so strongly we have the power to enact change and our voices will be heard: Like A Boss.
Red pants, pointy toe I-mean-business-shoes, The HuffPost and my favorite thing in my office.
What did you do today for International Womens Day? Do you agree with dropping ‘girl’ from #GirlBoss? Hit me up and tell me your thoughts! So proud to call all of you my people!
First, I didn’t know you had a blog…love it! Second, this is an amazing article and I just love your perspective. I’m not familiar with this trend of adding “girl” to things…news to me, and I don’t care for it. I’m with you. Great blog post. I will be back!!
Yes! Been tinkering with it for almost a year now, thanks for the kind words. xoxo, Erika