International Womans Day and the Nylon Ceiling

In the wee hours of the day I scrolled through my social media accounts to catch up on some of the longer articles I saved to read. It's March 8th " Woman's Day" in March Woman's Month! Wear red today. Well why? At first I was charmed by the cute and empowering tidbits, then I wasn't. February was Black History Month. I thought about the history and the social dogging of the black culture. How the media still wants us to be wary and afraid of our black neighbors and friends. As an artist/quilt maker, I admit, I am jealous of the "person of color" label. I want to be a person of color it sounds better than vanilla.

LeadvilleTwins Quilt by Sandra Townsend Donabed

Recently at a family gathering I was puzzling about an interview our son had. I was intrigued with what impression he made. What do men see in other men to hire? What qualities do they knowingly seek out? Is it an unspoken language that they share in order to give a young man a start. Man's responsibility to man? A Handshake...
I realized that women don't have the same language to hire or get hired. Why don't we feel the same responsibility to each other? To monetize our skills and efforts to further ourselves and our families? The glass ceiling still exists but what about what I'm calling the "Nylon Ceiling". Meaning how do other women measure  and support each other for success? We don't, we're stuck without a positive language to value our backbone and talents. We're using a language quantified by men, high school, and the media. Where are the working women emoji's?
Back to March being woman's month. It implies that we were compromised too and need our own month to be exonerated from a historical period of mistreatment. Ironically women have had to change and will continue to change to succeed.
I was myself yesterday, will be today, and tomorrow. I'm pretty sure I'll still be myself next month too. Still ready to express the words and practices needed to support and create a better environment for working women (and men).
Today I'm thinking of my dear departed friend Helen,she had some words, and her brilliant daughter struggling to get through college and into grad school with bare bones support. I applaud her tenacity and her future. Power on ladies!