How I Leveraged ‘Agentic Power’ To Help Kenyan Women Take Control Of Their Lives
It is impact rather than outcome that determines the success
“I ask no favor for my sex… All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.”
In this powerful statement, the iconic figure Ruth Bader Ginsberg (also known as “Notorious RBG”) quoted the words of Sarah Grimké. Grimké was born 141 years earlier than Ginsberg, and like Ginsberg, she pursued a career in law. Grimké, however, was prohibited by her father from studying law. Later, she did manage to become a minister, although society never truly accepted her in that role.
Ginsberg was more successful in her pursuit of a legal career, in spite of all the pushback she received. Both Grimké and Ginsberg faced great resistance but managed to do what seemed at the time to be impossible.
Why did people, predominantly men, object to these women entering the legal profession in bygone times? Were they afraid that they would have to surrender their power to a woman? Grimké and Ginsberg were merely asking their male counterparts to give up the power they wielded over the ability of women to shape and control their own lives independent of the constraining power of…
