It’s always about others joining in when change is required.
Okay, so I hope if you haven’t seen all the posts that I made for Women’s History Month that you’ll go back and take a look. There’s a super interesting one that we did about Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter stood up for women in so many different ways, and the most outstanding thing that he did was that he resigned from the Southern Baptist Convention because they refused to change their position on women’s roles in that organization.
But most interestingly, it wasn’t just that he was complaining about what the Southern Baptist Convention was doing, he was complaining about how religion in general was treating women. And he stood up for it, he wrote that letter of resignation in 2015, I believe. And the letter in its entirety is reproduced in my book, Answers from Within, because there’s a chapter in the book that’s titled Man’s Inhumanity to Woman.
And there is at the end, in the appendix, the complete reproduction of Jimmy Carter’s letter, a very, very courageous letter for a man who has been very religious and very devoted. And he came out and said, “No, this is wrong. And it’s time for the men in religious organizations to stop misusing certain authorities to keep women in certain positions.”
And I really love Jimmy Carter in general as a human being for everything that he stood for. But in this Women’s History Month, I had an opportunity to really go deeper into what he had said and what he had done. Because he wrote this letter and he did a TEDx talk as well, which is also available on my YouTube channel. And I posted segments of it on Facebook and Instagram. But go back and take a look at that, because Jimmy Carter was a stand-up guy.
The men need to join us on this journey
There’s another post and I’m talking about the men. Because for me this year, it’s really about — obviously women are happy during Women’s History Month to celebrate our accomplishments and the strides that we’ve made. But what’s important is that the men need to join us on this journey.
And I think that it’s not just — it’s important that it not just be the women. Because number one, nothing has ever been done until other people get involved. I don’t know if some of you have seen, there’s a video that’s going around about a coach that basically pulled one of his female athletes’ ponytail. And there’s a response from one of the other athletes. And it’s very disturbing. But the important thing about that video is that somebody else jumped in to help her.
And that’s always the important thing when we’re trying to work on overcoming an issue. It’s not you by yourself, or it’s not that group by themselves. It’s always other people who are also helpful that help to bring the change.
There’s another post out there about Chadwick Boseman. And there’s a movie that he was in. And they offered him more money than they offered his female counterpart. And it wasn’t known at the time, before the movie was filmed, but he agreed to reduce his salary so that his female counterpart would get the same salary. That is also posted and you will also be able to go and see that on YouTube. The video of her speaking and the posts will also be on Facebook.
This is what we need. We need the men to guide us. And when I saw that video of the coach being very aggressive with that woman, I thought, who’s her father? Who’s her brother? And who are all her male family members? And would they be okay with him treating her the way that he did? And I also thought, who is his mother? And who is his sister? And who is his cousin? And would he be okay with any of them being treated the way that he was treating that particular female athlete? So it’s always about others joining in when change is required.
And that’s why in my books, whether it’s Answers from Within, which is available on Amazon, and also in For the Love of My Father, which is about healing daddy issues growing up without my father, the thing is always to get to the point where we have enough people on the same wavelength that change can come forward.
Kathrine Switzer is the first woman to run in a marathon
There’s some other posts that I did as well. And one of them, which I had never heard about — I mean, I sort of in the back of my mind might have, but consciously I didn’t. The other one was Kathrine Switzer. Kathrine Switzer is the first woman to run in a marathon. And again, we see the principle there of how important it is for others to join in.
Because Kathrine Switzer was running, and this particular gentleman — and the videos are on, it’s on Facebook, it’s on Instagram, and it’s on YouTube. And there was a man who was chasing her down to take her out of the race. But if you look at the video, and you look at the pictures, you can see — I think it’s pictures, there’s no video, live video of it, but it’s pictures.
Two men, one on her right and one on her left, my other right and my other left. And they jump in sort of behind her to get the man who, it looks like he’s going to drag her down. But they intervene to stop her, to say, “Leave her alone, allow her to run.”
And that wasn’t even a big deal. I mean, we’re just talking about running a marathon. And by that action that she took, and the fact that those men were willing to protect her, to say no, leave her alone, to jump in, that made a difference in the change.
And she was able to complete the race. And it wasn’t a big deal. I mean, today, who can imagine that it would be a big deal to be able to run in America? So the idea that whatever barrier, whatever change is required, that anyone is going to do it by themselves is usually not the case. So Kathrine Switzer was another amazing woman that we sort of looked at during this Women’s History Month.
The first woman to become a doctor in the United States
There’s another one that you can see, and it’s Elizabeth Blackwell. Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to become a doctor in the United States. And unfortunately for her, I cannot even begin to imagine what her life would have been or how it was being in medical school, because she was actually admitted into medical school as a joke. Apparently some of her, let’s call them classmates, said, “Let’s go ahead and let her in because it’s never going to happen.”
And she was admitted and she became the first female doctor admitted to practice in the United States. Amazing. But yet, we see the challenges that she must have faced.
There’s another lady who I really had not heard about before, and her name was Grace, let’s see, Grace Brewster Hopper. And you might want to go and research her. But she was a woman that was significantly involved in the development of COBOL, which was one of the initial languages for computer programming, COBOL. And she was a rear admiral and she was well up in the military. And she was one of the people who was significant in the development of that computer language.
The first female President of that country
We also spoke about Claudia Sheinbaum Prado, which is more current, right? She’s now the President of Mexico. A country, a huge country, a wonderful country, a beautiful country, just like any others. It has its own issues, but nonetheless a country of 130 million people with a culture and a history and traditions that span thousands and thousands of years. The place we call Mexico, and the original inhabitants were there before anybody ever thought of creating America.
So Ms. Sheinbaum Prado, we are very, very proud of her because she has made a difference in the Americas and is making a difference in the America by becoming President, the first female President of that country.
Not only to become free, but to free others
And then one other person that we spoke about is Harriet Tubman. And we have an article that we’re doing about Harriet Tubman because she, in some ways, and has been written about in a million different ways, but is known sort of as a supernatural, mystical kind of woman.
You know, she was a slave. She was severely injured. Her skull was cracked. She lived through that. It caused, apparently caused, some issues with narcolepsy and a number of other things, headaches and things along those lines. But she was able to overcome all those things to become a free woman.
And not only to become free, but to free others. She was a leader of the Underground Railroad. She was a nurse during the Civil War. She led raids during the Civil War. And the most interesting thing, and this is how people become mythical — that’s different to mystical — but because it seemed like they could never catch her, like she would disappear, and she would do very, what people would consider unusual things.
So, but I think that as a woman, and as a former slave, and as a person of African descent, she can teach us much. And in the article, I talk about three lessons that we can learn from her:
- Keep it moving.
- Pray for those who do you wrong.
- I will leave as a surprise so you can read in the article what the third lesson is that you can get from her.
Women’s History Month is not just about the women
So for, and by the way, I’m wearing this top because it has balloons. And it’s a real celebration of women’s history. It’s important. And it’s important not just to the women, but for the men.
And as much as I talk about my father, and For the Love of My Father, and if you guys have been around, and you’ve heard me talk about how I grew up without my father, the consequences of that, and what it took for me to really heal my life, I think about it and I say to myself, wherever and however this works, on the other side of life, I would like to know that my father is thinking, “I want my daughter to be safe, and protected, and to be fulfilled, and to live a life where she can be all that she was created to be.”
That’s what I would want from my father. He might have made some mistakes on this time. And on this side, by the way — not “might have,” did. But I would love to know that he’s thinking, “I want the very best for my daughter. I want her to live free and be a sovereign being on the planet.”
So please, for my male friends, Women’s History Month is not just about the women. It’s about your daughter. It’s about your sister. It’s about your cousin. It’s about your mother. It’s about your grandmother. And it’s about leaving the world a better place so that if you as a man are not present, that they can survive and they can be whole and they can be safe in the world.
As you all know, I’m Olivia S. Benson, the author of these two books, which are both available on Amazon. And my website is OliviaSBenson.com. I share my thoughts, my insights, my experiences, because my goal is to share in such a way that my ideas, my thoughts and my experiences can make your life better. And it can make your journey easier than mine.
We are doing a giveaway of Answers from Within
Hey, I almost forgot to remind you guys, and it’s going to be posted on Instagram and Facebook and everywhere else. But I wanted to remind you that through April 15th, I believe, is the date, and everything will be posted so you will have the details. We are doing a giveaway of Answers from Within. And if you’ve never heard about it before, it’s called Answers from Within, A Spiritual Guide for Finding Answers to Work-Life Issues.
And if you are at a phase in your life where you’re wondering what life is about, because four essential questions:
- Who am I?
- Why am I here?
- Where am I going?
- And who’s going with me?
And it’s kind of the analysis of the process I went through in order to find the answers to my work-life issues.
So what we’re doing is we’re going to have a contest. And all you have to do is like, share and tag your friends in the comments. And for every friend you do that with, it will equal one entry into the contest. So between now and April 15, you can have unlimited number of entries.
And we will be responsible, by the way, for mailing the book, a signed copy of the book, to the winner, wherever they are in the continental United States. Of course, if you’re in Alaska, that’s even better. We will mail it to you in Alaska.
But like, share and tag your friends in the comments on my Instagram account. And the winner, and we’ll announce the winner after April 15, will receive a free signed copy of Answers from Within. So jump in and share, tag, like and do all those kind of great things for an opportunity to have a signed copy, a free signed copy of Answers from Within.