It is true that your environment affects who you are and how
you think. And the environment every woman in America lives in tells us that we
are empowered. In fact, we aren’t simply equal to men anymore – we are so above
and beyond them that, honestly, who needs them? Susan B. Anthony. Cady
Elizabeth Stanton. Suffragists of the past. We appreciate your efforts and the
history you gave us, but we are way past anything you ever dreamed. Not only
can we vote but we can serve in the military. We can own and run Fortune 500
companies. We can #MeToo and destroy the life of any man that looks at us
cross-eyed. As a friend of mine use to
say, “We are all that and a bag of chips!”
And yet…
Part of my job includes the various certifications the
company I work for holds. Some are required to simply do business. Others are acquired
in the hopes that they will allow us to gain more work. One is a small business
certification. The other is a women owned business certification. Put those two
together and in the state of Pennsylvania (and probably every other state), you
can also obtain a DBE certification as well as an SDB certification. These
acronyms stand for roughly the same thing: Disadvantaged Business Enterprise
and Small Disadvantaged Business. And how are we disadvantaged? Simple.
Fifty-seven percent of the company is owned by women.
Which, as a woman in America, confuses me greatly…
Am I empowered? Or am I disadvantaged?
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