Resist

I’ve never been one to rock the boat. I was always the rule-follower in school. I was always the one who trusted authority and had faith that rules were there for a reason, and the decisions made by my leadership were the most reasonable ones.

In my “old-age”, I find myself breaking more rules and questioning authority. Leadership doesn’t always know best. In our case as women, our elected leaders and in some cases our supervisors at work have failed us. They have not acted with our best interest at heart. Women continue to be paid less than our male counterparts. We continue to lack benefits seen in other western cultures like paid family leave, extended maternity leave and childcare support.

It’s time to resist. In the last 10 months I have felt a fire in my belly. I’ve witnessed a fire burning in the eyes of my female friends and colleagues. Our flames have been fanned and we are marching, we are meeting, we are learning to lead.

This month, Women AdvaNCe is honoring our collective resistance. We are celebrating it. We are fostering it. Our Writer’s Collective will feature stories of women who resist, or tools you can use to stand up for what you know is right. We will continue this curriculum until our 2017 NC Women’s Summit , being held on November 4th.

We’d like to invite you to share your stories of how you’re resisting. Are you signing petitions? Are you donating to causes important to you? Are you running for office? Did you fight back against inappropriate male authority? We want to know what role resistance is playing in your life.

Beyond that, we hope you’ll consider joining us at the Summit. We are putting together an amazing program, filled with information on policies impacting education, health and the economy. Our Break Out Sessions enable you to customize the Summit to meet your interests. Want to run for office? Can’t figure out how to balance self care and aspirations? Do you feel called to write, but need some tools and confidence to shout from the rooftops? We’ve got experts ready to arm you with knowledge so you can march forth and resist this year, and many more to come.