It was 8 AM and I was sleeping peacefully in my room until CHAOS shook me. Ok, maybe not chaos, but I was abruptly and forcefully awoken from my slumber. “We’re going to the city!” my mom had said cheerfully. After bundling myself in several jackets, scarves, and mittens I trudged to the car and grumpily sat in the back seat. As we arrived at the final destination, I was faced with a statue. Yeah, you heard me...a statue. I had come all this way in the FREEZING COLD to see a statue? Are you kidding me? Right ahead of me was a statue of a little girl; her hands placed confidently on her hips and her nose turned up to the air. She held a smug look on her face, almost challenging the statue of the enormous bull in front of her.
I remember turning to scowl at my mom. “What’s the point of this? Why are we even here?” I groaned. She looked me in the eye and said: “This girl was put here as a power symbol because there are not as many women in Wall Street boardrooms as there are men. She is called the fearless girl'' I remember being perplexed at first. At the time, I was performing as well in my classes as many of the boys who sat around me. I had female friends who were valedictorians of their classes or attending some of the most prestigious universities. It made absolutely no sense to me as to why there wasn’t an equal distribution of power to a gender with the exact same capabilities. “Why not?” I asked her.
Since that moment, I am happy to report that I have never stopped asking Why Not?. Why not have women in power? Why not give women equal opportunity? Why not give women equal pay for their work?. When we are trying to solve problems on a global scale affecting the vast majority of the population, why is it that the leadership coming up with solutions is not representative of all those being affected. The gender disparity seen in today’s society is outrageous.
Only 10% of top management positions in S and P 500 companies go to women
7% top execs in Fortune 100 companies are women
Fortune 500 female CEOs 5%
Venture capital funding 2.2%
It took until 2016 for a woman to even run for president in a major political party in the US
This is just pertaining to women in general. If I boil down to women of color, the statistics are even more dismal
It is almost as if women are being discouraged to go for top leadership positions. We are being pushed out due to the resistance of normalizing women in power. There has been a blockage in the pipeline for female leaders. Power should never be a question of gender, but rather a question of capability. So ladies...why not take it back?
***
Studies have shown that female-owned companies as well as companies with females on their boards have a significantly higher success rate than those with fewer females. Women are problem solvers by nature. Think about it: when have you ever given a woman a task that she hasn’t figured out a way to solve. They tend to be collaborative and creative thinkers. The combination of women with their way of thinking and men with their way of thinking will ultimately create the most sustainable and efficient solution. So why not increase the diversity in boardrooms and executive positions.
The simple answer would be a societal construct; specifically sexism. The world makes it sufficiently harder for women to achieve certain goals than it is for men. Without equal opportunity for leadership roles or even equal pay in current roles, the natural tendency would be to simply thrive as best as they can where they are. Rather than waste time, energy, and money in system plotted against them, women will maintain what they are given.
What I propose is that we break the system. Why not revolutionize this cause and create a movement together through which we break systematic sexism and get the roles we deserve to have. Though it is difficult, I firmly believe it is entirely possible and can be achieved.
Now, you may be thinking, “Ok Mihika you’ve come here and preached to us about how society is currently pitted against us. How do you expect me, a single human being, to displace a system built into our everyday life”. And I get it. I’ve thrown a lot of information at you and overthrowing sexism can sound pretty overwhelming. Despite this seemingly terrifying reality, I can assure you that there are, in fact, several solutions around how to get women into leadership roles. I mean, there has to be. Especially in our society where there ARE female leaders who continue to inspire us to this day.
***
This summer I began thinking: How can these women do it with all of the obstacles in their way? How can I do the same thing and, more importantly, how can I help other women do the same thing? So, I put down my SAT work for a few weeks and began to research. I needed to know what I could do to help. That night I remember being unable to sleep because my research had not reached a conclusion. All I found was trends. Basic trend lines that just reinforced what I already knew: women don’t have the same opportunity to lead. What I needed was inside input. I needed stories from women who clawed their way to success despite the restrictive power of the patriarchy.
Then around 4:30 AM as I was tossing and turning in bed it came to me: a nonprofit. A nonprofit that would work to inspire women of all ages and races to achieve their goals and take leading roles in whatever they do. Here marked the creation of my biggest and most life-changing accomplishment: Ladyship. Formed from a play on words combining Lady and Leadership, this business has taken over my entire life and, hopefully, will continue to do so.
Ladyship two main aspects to it. The first is the actual website which is a mentoring platform. In my research, I actually found that early in career mentoring significantly increases the chance that women will be leaders in the future. Women can sign up as members and participate in forum discussions through which they will be guided by mentors. The second aspect is the podcast series: InspireHer. On InspireHer, I interview female leaders on their experiences in the workplace. I do this specifically to inspire girls from my generation, or really any generation, to aspire towards these amazingly powerful women. Ladyship has blossomed past its beginning stages, but I truly think it has the capability to make an impact. Through Ladyship, I am able to provide two major solutions to the problem: mentoring and GenZ empowerment.
***
Here is where the rest of you come in. I want to go back to before I told you about Ladyship. Remember when I asked all of you to overthrow sexism? Yeah. This is how we are going to do it. If every woman worked to find a solution, be it simple or hugely complex, to our leadership problem and implement it in their daily lives, we would begin this revolution. By simultaneously refusing to conform and stepping out of our comfort zones to lead, we will beat the patriarchy because, if you think about it, it’s only there because we let it be there. I say, let’s not let it be there anymore. Envision the most powerful version of yourself. That is your fearless girl. Now go out into the world and let her shine.
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