Mum, It's International Women's Day

Today as I was watching the news for the second time over, mulling over what to write about on my women's blog on women's day, I was struck by a story about the statement "whatever a man can do, a woman can do too". It was about the increasing number of women choosing a career in the trades.

I could almost hear the casette tape squeal as my life rewinded before my eyes to the day my mum walked in the door from work with a gift for me....my very own "Business Barbie".

The things is, the concept of a stunning woman dressed in a power suit wasn't exactly a foreign concept to me. Aprons and casseroles were. I spent every morning standing on a chair behind my mum curling my atrocious bangs (somebody should have stopped me!), while my beautiful mother stood in her power pumps and power suit and applied her bright red power lipstick.

My mum actually was Super Mom. She slogged her way through a painful divorce with her head held high, heels tapping the ground ahead and red power lipstick leading the way. She was a devoted mother, single parenting while fighting her way up the ladder of men she worked with at her large advertising agency until she found herself in one executive role after the next at a time when women just didn't do that (ahem, Mad Men). Just couldn't be that. Especially not mom's. And if they did, then they'd be practically famous for it. And she was.

Amongst other media attention for agency awards and successful campaigns, in 1999 my mother was listed in Chatelaine's Who's Who in Canadian Women - a book documenting the incredible achievements of women. Now, I remember thinking this was pretty cool. I also remember thinking that maybe this was the reason she had never made me a packed lunch ;) But this publication was also released the year before I started a degree in mechanical engineering. And two summers before I went tree planting. And 5 years before I would backpack through Muslim countries and then settle back in Vancouver to work with an energy developer, spending nights on end as the only woman in remote construction camps.

Hmmm. Coincidence? I think not.

My sister laughs now and says I have become domestic. I look at the 9 men out of 111 nursing students and also shake my head. A lot of my identity as a minority woman - exhibiting strength just by being in a certain environment was challenged when I recently made certain choices that led me away from that persona and straight into a copious amount of estrogen. But I am still doing it in my own way. I'm so thankful - to my mother - for her strength and for passing it on to me. For calling bullshit on the status quo. Because I didn't just grow up being told that women could do anything, I grew up living that truth.