The Shoulders We Do Not See

I was a bit of a bull in a China shop when I began my post-college career. I was tough and unstoppable without any fundamental understanding of how to behave politically, with something to prove to myself and the world. Although I have read countless books of women who have created lasting change, I still did not truly understand the shoulders that I climbed up on to get where I am today, and there are so many.

When I started my career at Macy’s, I was under the Cosmetic division run by Rose Marie Bravo. Of course, I called her by her first name, which she did not like. She was extremely buttoned up, not very warm, and carried herself with an aura of strength. Yet, I know for a fact, that she had to work three times harder than any other man who were her peers in the company. She probably slept on the numbers every night. In order to gain that respect, she must have felt she had to behave as she did. There were no other women at that level when I was at Macy’s.

Countless women have changed the direction of our country, including entrepreneurs, scientists, athletes, designers, architects, technology, mathematicians, educators, financiers, and people in every genre you can think of, but we know so few of them.

Each new generation of females should know those women who they climbed the shoulders of to be able to do what they do. We would not have a bank account, a mortgage, a car, a credit card, a dishwasher, a television, a windshield wiper, GPS, Zoom, or FT, WIFI, Kevlar, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Circular Saws and so much more if it wasn’t for a woman.

Women tend to not get the accolades that they deserve because we operate differently. It is time that women take those applause and begin talking about all the women that came before us. Each women’s role in history was essential to how we live today. How women operate in the world today has to do with everything that came before us. There a countless shoulders out there, do not forget them.