Lean In and be a Humanist

I’ve long been fans of Madeleine Albright andGloria Steinem. Having attended a women’s college, I applied for, and was awarded, the great honor to attend the UN’s Fourth World Congress on Women in Beijing, China in 1995. It was a young feminist’s dream. I traveled with 22 other college women for a month throughout China and ended at the conference in Beijing. While I learned a lot and saw so many great things, one of the highlights of my time was standing inline at a port-a-potty with Hillary Clinton and Madeline Albright. These were women who were breaking through and achieving great things. Yet, here we all were in the same line to pee! It was so equalizing in some ways.

This weekend’s statements by Secretary Albright and Ms. Steinem are disheartening. And, this was compounded by the lack of courage displayed by Secretary Clinton who did not clarify her position of if women who don’t vote for her are going to hell.

Don’t shame women into voting for other women. Empower them to follow their intellect and personal beliefs and vote for the candidate they think can do the best job — and if that’s a woman, then awesome. If it’s a man, let’s celebrate that the elected man will make the right decisions — for ALL humans, not just women.

I get it. I do. Women have fought SO hard over the past century to ensure that our opportunities are great and fair. And, that should be celebrated and we should continue to support women in their work towards achieving their own dreams: if it’s to become CEO of a major company, to become President of the United States, to stay home and raise a family. What we should not do — EVER — is shame other women for their choices running the gamut from birth control, sexual preference, or who they choose to vote for.

Perhaps “feminism” is word that we need to move beyond and become “humanists”. Let’s all support each other — across race, gender, religious preference, and sexual preferences. Imagine the peace.