I love the month of June—from ushering in the official start of summer to Pride and Juneteenth celebrations filling the New York City streets with joy and community to warm weather and more time spent outdoors, it feels like a natural time to re-energize, lift the spirits, and look forward with a sense of purpose and hope.
We’ve all heard it before: 7-8 hours of sleep a night is important for our health and well-being. So is rest, self-care, and eating balanced, nutritious meals, but when my to-do list is a mile long, and it seems like each time I check off one thing, I add two more, well cuts have to be made somewhere. There are, afterall, only 24 hours in a day. And all too often it’s the sleep, rest, and self-care that are first on the chopping block.
Well, here we are at the tail end of March 2023, and I can’t help but feel reflective. Yes, after several weeks of “Get it girl!!!!” and “Treat yo self queen!!!” marketing emails, you’re likely well aware that March is Women’s History Month. The fervent tone and saccharine sentiments feel at odds with the moment in which we find ourselves.
As a staunch feminist, nothing makes my blood boil more than women being denied access to education. Women deserve equal rights to men. Period. While that should be the end of the discussion, the reality is that women are still being denied this singular, fundamental, basic human right. And it frustrates me that more needs to be said. But it does, so I will.
You should know what you're risking when you give up your financial independence. When I was young, I determined I would never depend on anyone, if I could help it, for my financial wellbeing. And so, I started working as soon as I could, taking any job I could get my hands on: from delivering newspapers to babysitting to dog-walking to working at a dry cleaners.
Laura Cox Kaplan runs a small media company focused on helping women build and sustain influence in their lives and careers. Influence isn’t a topic we often focus on as it relates to career and personal development and yet it’s essential, especially as we contemplate or plan for future career evolution and pivots—both those we know about and plan for and those that tend to surprise us or that take us off guard.
In her retirement announcement, Williams makes painfully clear that this isn’t a choice she particularly wants to make; tennis is in her blood, in her heart, in her soul; it’s defined her since she was three years old; but she recognizes that a choice has to be made between tennis and building her family, because she is a woman.
It’s no secret that the pandemic plagued small business owners nationally and across all demographics with shutdowns, supply chain shortages and inflation. And while AAPI women entrepreneurs have grown significantly in the recent past, the negative impacts of the pandemic affected these women at a higher rate than their male-owned and non-minority-owned counterparts.
Necessity also breeds ingenuity and change. For many women, the pandemic and work-from-home culture sparked appetites for entrepreneurship—and many joined the growing Entrepreneur Economy for the freedoms it can offer–to be your own boss, build your own schedule and ultimately the power to live and succeed on your own terms. However, being your own boss can also be a stressful and alienating experience, and research has shown that self-employed women are at higher risk of mental illness due to gender obstacles and isolation.
According to Gallup, the number one concern women looking for work have—work-life balance, even over salary—was also a primary driver of women leaving the workforce at the start of the pandemic, whether by choice or by fiat. Women, faced with the challenge of trying to simultaneously do their jobs, care for their homebound families, homeschool their kids, and all the myriad other responsibilities that fall primarily on women, suffered termination, burnout, downsizing, or “gentle encouragement” to resign voluntarily.
Let me start by saying that my foster son, Oliver, changed my life. Before starting my company, The Ollie World, I worked as a clinical therapist (MSW), with a specialty in infant mental health. Prior to that, I worked for a local county to help set up three SART locations, which provided a multidisciplinary treatment approach to working with drug and trauma exposed little ones ages 0-5. It was while working there at this position that I became a single foster parent to my foster-son, Oliver, who I created the Ollie (swaddle) for.
Starting your own business takes a healthy ego, or sense of self-esteem and importance: you have to believe in your own capability. The investors or first customers you attract will be buying as much in your idea as your personality and aptitude. But as you find early successes, it can be easy for a growing sense of confidence to morph into ego and interfere with your ability to learn, spot chances to grow, bring on experts in areas you’re not, and address when you’re wrong—all of which are key for growth.