Author & Podcaster Tracy J. Cass
We're Not Going Back!
05 November 2024
Everybody’s Homegirl Podcast
"This year marked the 50th anniversary of women gaining the right to have mortgages, business loans, and credit cards in our own names."
If you are a Black woman in leadership, I’m sure you’ve been referred to one or more of the following: difficult, unapproachable, aggressive, abrasive, standoffish, micromanager (which is code for being a bitch). And to add more insult to injury, how many ways have the teams you’ve managed told you they don’t trust your leadership by their behavior? Is it pulling up policy to double check that what you’ve asked them to do is in the employee handbook? Is it sending you emails or notes explaining the many ways they disagree with a decision you’ve made.
In your home, is it your kids always asking you, “Why?” Or, your husband doing something completely different after you’ve researched the best way to complete that home project? Does your church family give you the side eye after you’ve shared the vision God gave you, or is someone going to the ministry leader behind your back explain how they could do a better job than you.
This year marked the 50th anniversary of women gaining the right to have mortgages, business loans, and credit cards in our own names. We’ve made great strides toward the equality of women, but we are still fighting. Equal pay, reproductive rights, and the right to live free from violence, sexual assault, and discrimination are still serious issues for women of today.
More than national agendas, women face uphill battles in our day-to-day lives. In our careers, our churches, and our homes we are often second-guessed, dismissed, and ignored.
Every day, Black women are fighting for the right to lead and exist in a world that values and affirms them. In my opinion, we do not get that respect unless we scratch and claw for it, proving over and over again that we are not just competent but wise, resourceful, compassionate, empathetic, responsible, dedicated, collaborative, compromising, and loving. After all that, we look around to see that other people get to just…BE.
Black women are the literal personification of working twice as hard to get half as much, and quite frankly, it’s exhausting.
So I ask again, have we really turned that corner? I think so. I agree, we’re not going back. However, the real challenge is to move forward with a national agenda for equality but also gain respect as leaders in our daily lives.
Local elections matter, and so do our ordinary leadership roles. The journey of thousand miles starts with a single step, so we must continue to make small steps in our leadership roles in church, work, and home to knock down the barriers which limit our greatness. That way, the next time a Black woman, or any woman decides to run for the most powerful position in the world, it’s normal and not a “come from behind victory during the fourth quarter.”
We aren’t going back to being dismissed and disrespected. We stand firm in our power and our greatness.. But, we are tired of saving the world. Sometimes, we need to be saved.