Here's to mother*#$!ing women

Happy International Women’s Day everyone.

This glamorous beauty is none other than my incredible grandmother, Stella. In addition to being a spectacular human being in general, she was also a feminist and made her own contributions to the women’s liberation movement in the early 1970’s.

I was thinking about what portrait I could share that would embody the meaning of International Women’s Day and one very particular photo of my grandmother came to mind. It’s a photo that shows her as a young woman with her eyes closed, looking completely free and in love with life.

My grandmother was a part of the Greatest Generation, and she really was just that - the greatest. Like so many women, past and present, she faced innumerable challenges in her life that she managed with dignity, grace, strength, and humour. And like so many women, past and present, she was a quiet fighter who did what needed to be done with a level of courage that would make a Marvel superhero look like a frightened child.

I knew growing up that she had made the decision to enter the workforce shortly after seeing the feminists of the women’s liberation movement on TV sometime in the late ‘60’s/early ‘70’s, but when I was younger I didn’t understand how amazing this was. In part, this was because when she told me the story, she didn’t give herself the credit she deserved. The way she told it was that she and her husband were sitting on the couch one night watching feminists talk about women’s rights on the news, and she just made the decision then and there. She turned to him and said, “I’m getting a job.”

My grandmother, Stella, on the far left after she had re-entered the workforce following the women’s liberation movement.

She always laughed when telling the story, adding that her husband, “the poor man, didn’t know what had hit him.” : )

It was only as a grown woman that I thought about the fact that before that point in the story, she had previously been a housewife her entire adult life from the time that she had gotten married at the age of 18. But the fact that she had been a housewife for several decades, had no job experience, and needed to upgrade her education didn’t phase my grandmother at all. She got on with it, and ended up working as a secretary for the Catholic school board for many years.

In other words, my grandmother was nothing short of a complete and utter badass.

I’m so proud to share my lineage with such an extraordinary woman. And I’m so proud to share a connected lineage with all women. Past and present, we are fighters.

And so this International Women’s Day, my message is this:

Here’s to mother$*@^ing WOMEN.

Much love,

Laura