Living Feminism: Leading with our Values
By Sarah Ghiorse and Fatima van Hattum
During the month of March, when International Women’s Day is celebrated, we at NewMexicoWomen.Org, a program of the New Mexico Community Foundation, often pause to reflect on our commitment to gender equity and the rights of women and girls. We find ourselves discussing how to balance work, life and families; that is, how to do it all. This broader conversation then moves into self-reflection about how do we, as a women’s fund and program, embody our feminist values? Does our organization provide paid parental leave? Do we enable flexible and fair working practices that promote family well-being? Is childcare available at our events? We know that many women across the country and even across the world are having this same conversation every day.
In fact, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) recently wrote: “Let’s stop talking about ‘having it all’ and start talking about the very real challenges of ‘doing it all.’ We need our economy and our workplaces to support our working families. We need equal pay for equal work. We need quality daycare that doesn’t bankrupt a family. We need genderneutral paid leave in this country because, eventually, all of us are going to have those moments when we need to miss work to take care of our families—or those moments when we need them to take care of us.”
Do these kinds of spaces exist in the American workplace? If so, where? In a societal context where the term feminism is embraced, reviled and variously paired with presidential candidates and pop stars alike, what does it really mean to lead with feminist values? And how do we best uphold those values in our lives, workplaces and ways of being? Here, we would like to propose two core themes—of many—that are essential to leading with feminist values. Click here to continue reading our op-ed in the Green Fire Times.
