BOOK OF THE WEEK: "13 Things Mentally Strong Women Don't Do" by Amy Morin

Now is the time for women. For the longest time there was the glass ceiling where women could see the.career mountain top, but they were unable to unlock the door into the C-suite. But not anymore. 

If you look at social media, you may think 2020 has been just filled with negativity and yes while it has been less than ideal, you have to look at at all the positives that have come from 2020 that proves this is time for women. 

Let's start with Vice President-Elect, Kamala Harris. For the first time in the history of the United States the person that sits in the Vice President seat will be female. It really didn't come as much of a surprise that President-Elect, Joe Biden, picked a female, we were just unsure of who it was going to be. There were a lot of strong women it could have been, but the former Senator from California just made the most sense. I mean, seriously, just look at her, she looks like she could break at least six bones in your hand. And her "I'm speaking" comeback in the Vice President debate with Mike Pence was beautiful, you could sense Pence needed to change his pants after that one-liner. 

This week the Miami Marlins made Major League Baseball history, naming longtime baseball executive Kim Ng, the first female, Asian-American General Manager in the league. Not only is this huge step for women in the athletic arena, but it is also a big move for the Asian-American community, who for the longest time has also experienced a racial barrier in both their careers and education.  

But before those two, there was another female named to a prominent, high-profile position. Back on May 7, the oldest academic institution made history of its own with the hiring of its first female athletic director. Erin McDermott became Harvard's eighth director of athletics, but she is the first women to inhabit the corner office of the Murr Center. I was privileged to write her bio on GoCrimson.com and I will say, it gave me chills. She is certainly a presence wherever she goes and she was well-respected on a national stage by her Division III colleagues during her seven years at University of Chicago athletic department. 

McDermott now gets to work with and lead one of the women who has been a a pioneer of helping other women break barriers in their field, Kathy Delaney-Smith, 39 years at the helm of the Harvard women's basketball program. In her close to four decades in Cambridge, Delaney-Smith has coached many former student-athletes who rose to the pinnacle of their careers - CEO of the Kraft Analytics Group Jessica Gelman, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healy, and Boston Celtics Director of Player Development Allison Feaster. (Side note: another rising female in a male dominated field worked with these four women to put together a tremendous video feature last year. Be sure to check it out.) 

Gender norms have been changing and they've taken a major jump in 2020. There used to be the connotation that men were the bosses and women were assistants in not just the workplace, but in other aspects of life. This concept was sensationalized in the box office hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding with the microagression, "the neck that turns the head." Along with the glass ceiling, these norms are being broken because mentally strong women don't fear breaking rules, they revel in it. 

Mentally strong women (and people in general) don't fear speaking up in meetings. They have a willingness to put themselves and their ideas out there, not worrying what other people will think. I recall back to earlier this year in our weekly communications meeting were discussing who would be our four candidates for COOP Athlete of the Week. We narrowed it down to three males, but I made a case for one of my female swimmers, saying we should really consider adding this person for gender equity consideration. It's these little wins. Not being afraid to speak out for what they know is right. 

They don't fear much. They face all challenges head on. 

It leads right into the next point. Mentally strong women don't feel guilty about re-inventing themselves. If they acknowledge something needs to change or they have to do better in one aspect of their lives, they go for it. They don't shy away from it. But that also goes along with not being fearful.. 

I think back to the scene in "Good Will Hunting" when Will and Chuckie are talking and drinking beers on the construction site in Southie. Will is afraid of taking the next step and taking the job with the MIT professor, but Chuckie explains to Will he's "sitting on a winning lottery ticket" with a way out of the mundane everyday life of a construction life. It would be an insult to Chuckie and the others if Will was still there. Chuckie was trying to tell Will it was 'ok' to leave and move on to something better. Mentally strong women see this and go for it. 

The time of women is now. 

Women have come so far in society, reaching pinnacle positions in leadership. We still have a ways to go and I don't want to see anything that stunt that growth and limit the potential we can continue to go in. https://t.co/kV6j6kpj7v

— lgraham413 (@lgraham413) November 2, 2020