Now Reading | The Power of “And”: How Women can be Fierce and Feminine.
*photo: http://www.ted.com/talks/gayle_tzemach_lemmon_meet_the_first_women_to_fight_on_the_front_lines_of_an_american_war
I am currently cruising at 30,000 feet in a Delta plane headed back from some amazing brand strategy days with some fierce Canadian clients. I have been privileged to work with Jeanie de Beer for the past few days alongside the client’s incredible executive team. My heart is full from doing what I love and from the anticipation of greatness from the sessions we were able to have together. There is nothing as exciting as watching a brand go from a cocoon to a butterfly—and doing it with good people.
A colleague just forwarded me an article called The Power of “And”: How Women can be Fierce and Feminine and it immediately got my attention. It was featured on the TED website ideas.ted.com and it was written by Gayle Tezmach Lemmon. She set out on an adventure to get to know two students at the US military’s West Point Academy who just graduated from the storied Army Ranger School. They were the first females ever to make it through the grueling training program. I loved what she discovered on her journey. Here are a few excerpts from her story:
For the last two years, I worked on a story about the women who helped pave the way for these new Rangers, members of an all-women special operations team built to fill a security gap on the battlefield in Afghanistan. This group of 55 pioneering women — and its subset of 20 who joined Rangers and SEALs on combat missions — has challenged and upended the traditional “hero” narratives of war. These women were bound together by what they saw and did at the tip of the spear, even as government policy officially banned them from direct ground combat. These women were both intense and feminine. They were tough as nails and sometimes painted their nails, they were happy to love CrossFit and cross-stitch. They embraced the “and.”
I didn’t know what to expect when I met them, other than that I was sure they must be formidable and fierce.
What I found shocked me, then shamed me. Because somehow even I, who had spent years writing about war on the front lines and about women changing their world, somehow hadn’t expected these women to be funny or feminine.
I was floored to find that these incredible women were perfectly comfortable in their own skin, being women of their own making. They were deeply connected to one another. They were open, warm, generous, vulnerable, gorgeous, gracious and honest. And they were badass, too.
I loved this summation of these incredible woman. I have been privileged to meet women like this in the business world. Women who run a successful company and who are fierce in all the best ways as they demand excellence for their clients, but who do it with kindness, and graciousness, and authenticity. As the author says, we must move beyond the cardboard versions of real life people—and embrace and celebrate these fierce and deeply feminine women who make a difference every day.
Here’s to them.
You can read the entire article here: http://ideas.ted.com/the-power-of-and-how-women-can-be-fierce-and-feminine/
