Happy International Women's Day!

Its the year 2012 and women's rights have come along way! I feel that I am personally living the 'American Dream'  and as a young, single women who owns her own business and employs women.  It wasn't very many years ago that I wouldn't have had this opportunity and I feel extremely grateful to the women who paved the way for me to live and work the way I choose.  You can see in my post from last March, what women have inspired my journey.
On this day I celebrate how far women have come, but I also ponder the journey that is still ahead of us. As a women in business I still see the way society underestimates me. I still struggle to receive respect and value in my work. I still hear the impact that a man's voice has when he repeats my exact words to the same group of people. I felt the immediate downgrade in the social ladder when I went from a 'married women' to a 'single girl'. I felt the doubt when I choose to live alone and when I made the choose to go into business as a sole proprietor. And I still laugh when a sales putz tries to take advantage of little ole young and dumb me.  Its interesting to see that the challenges and stuggles are still all around me. But the wonderful thing about being a women faces with adversity, weather its big or small, is we have each other and together we can continue to fight for women's equality and respect.

In this last year I have thought a lot about what it means to be a women. What I want out of my life and my business...and how I've always been struggling with the concept that I can't have it all: That if I want an amazing business, I'd have to give up having an amazing social life or when i'm ready to start a family, i'll have to give up my studio.  Then I read this wonderful passage from the Bible and went digging for the rest of the story and let me just tell you; it was like a weight got lifted off my shoulders and mind and heart became clear. I could have it all! As long as I was a good women and I had the Lord.  Please read about how one God-fearing women was an amazing wife, mother, and business women and respected and loved by all. I hope you're spirt is touched by Probers 31 like I was!

Happy International Women's Day!