This morning I woke up to the following Facebook memory from 2013:

"After all those years as a woman hearing 'not thin enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough, not this enough, not that enough,' almost overnight I woke up one morning and thought, 'I'm enough." -Anna Quindlen

"A woman is like a tea bag - you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water."
Eleanor Roosevelt

Happy International Women's Day! Celebrate the women in your life...celebrate your worth as a woman...and strive to share your voice.

And another from 2015:

In honor of international women's day, I dressed my daughter in pants and converse sneakers...#anythingyoucandowecando(better)...but seriously, I am proud to be an empowered woman and I am proud to raise one. Give your women love, respect, compassion, equal opportunity and equal reward.

The first memory was the year I lived abroad with my now husband. It was the year before I became a mother in fact (almost to the day).It was the year that represented the end of a chapter as young woman and the beginning of a new yet undefined chapter of woman.

The second was the year after I became a mother still seeking to understand the new height of feminine identity.

Seeing these memories today spawned greater reminiscence. In seventh grade, I had an extraordinarily progressive teacher who was unafraid to teach more black history than Martin Luther King Jr. and willing to  approach the topic of women’s issues. She asked if I would be willing to read Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman” to the class. As I sit here writing, I realized I may have been the only black girl in the class but nonetheless, this moment had a profound impact on the way I feel about my strength as female.

Ain't I a Woman

By: Sojourner Truth

Delivered 1851 at the Women's Convention, Akron, Ohio

Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say.

http://www.sojournertruth.com/p/aint-i-woman.html

I have chills rereading and thinking of all the times I have felt the same as a black female amidst the chaos of the past few years, this election, the Women’s March and most importantly as a mother. I am not having the same reaction as some to the women gathering in mass because I cannot help but think about all the women who make it possible for other women to raise their voice. All of the women who cannot take off or are mothering on their own. I am privileged. My incredibly thoughtful husband works and I have been afforded the time to build a Postpartum Doula business and be with our young daughter. It has not been an easy road and I often carry a burden of guilt for not being able to find consistent work to sustain our family but it is the journey we have taken.

Acknowledging my own privilege of not working today, I am so aware of the struggle of women as mothers in this country. If I get a full-time job, I lose time with my child but I may make enough to pay for childcare. If I am only making enough to pay for childcare, is it worth the job and time away? I have a Master’s Degree but by taking the time to grow my child, paying for my loans falls to my husband. It is a constant struggle in our home and in the homes of many others.

There are women who have to fight to have time off to have a child, may lose a job while on leave, and have to leave their children at six weeks old when their bodies and minds are not even healed from the journey of childbirth. What would Ms. Truth say to this? How can we respect women in speech (with help from carriages and open doors) and ignore the support and strength needed to raise children. We ALL come from women so I am always dumbfounded at the lack of respect for mothers.

Today, while women wear red and attempt not to work or spend money, there are other mothers fighting for the right to stay in the country with their children, to breastfeed their children, keep them out of jail or at the very least, receive the same level of medical and educational care for themselves and their children. So, when you raise your voice today, shout a little louder for all those women already deep in the fight.

Ain’t we all women?