A pretty amazing year for women
You’ve watched all the debates, caught up on all the news, and are following the polls. Chances are you have a firm stance on who you’re voting for. Voting aside, why don’t we just take a step back and realize how amazing it is we have not one but two female candidates running for president?
Whether you’re Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, or you’re just feeling the BERN and have no interest in these ladies’ politics, Hillary Clinton and Carly Fiorina have one thing in common: they’re badass b******. If you follow the lives and careers of these two women, you’ll come to realize that they’re here to squash sexism and make a difference in this world. Politics aside, here’s why you should have mad respect for Hillary and Carly.
Hillary
- Won a Grammy in 1997 for Best Spoken Word album It Takes a Village, her 1996 book aimed to “Help make our society into the kind of village that enables children to become smart, able, resilient adults.”
- Before marrying Bill in 1975, she tried to join the Marines, probably to make a political statement. She was told she was too old, couldn’t see well and she was a woman. “I decided maybe I’ll look for another way to serve my country,” she said.
- When she was a little girl, Hillary wrote to NASA asking how to become an astronaut. NASA replied that girls couldn’t be astronauts.
- Hillary volunteered as a babysitter for Mexican migrant workers in rural Illinois
- In 1988 and 1991, The National Law Journal named Hillary one of the 100 most powerful lawyers in America
- Upon being accepted to both Yale and Harvard law schools, a Harvard professor told her, “We don’t need any more women.” So she went to Yale.
- She’s served as both First Lady and Secretary of State
Carly
- She beat breast cancer in 2009, and underwent a double mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation therapy
- Her father was a cowboy – Carly’s father served as a part-time cowboy in the summers of his youth, and then served in the U.S. Army Air Corps as Staff Sargent during WWII. He then served as Dean of the Duke University School of Law.
- She was the first woman to be a CEO of a Fortune 100 company – Carly became President and CEO of Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 1999. She was the first to be hired in this position outside of family lines. (She worked her way up from being a secretary).
- Fortune named her the “Most Powerful Woman in Business” in 1998.
- She attended 5 different high schools, including one in Ghana.
- She joined the male-dominated Network Systems division, and by age 35, became the division’s first female officer. Five years later, she was named head of North American sales.
If nothing else, we hope these ladies inspire you to never give up, break some barriers, do some good in your community and make a difference—no matter what happens in the polls.