Badassery Magazine Issue 7 December | Page 36

OPENING UP TO GIVING BACK by Jennifer Mather D ear Reader, I wrote a really sweet article about giving back to our communities as women business owners and how to use our position to inspire our friends and family to do the same. But that is not what you are going to read here. What you are about to read is a piece written from my recent encounters with other business women in the wake of the election. Ladies, lest we have forgotten, we were pioneer women. We were horseback riding, rifle shooting, field plowing badass women birthing babies in the back of wagons while on the frontier. There was no time for daily pettiness, judgment and competition when we were pioneer women. We filled our days then with perseverance, dedication and prayer. We were united in survival and we were powerful. We have come so far away from that power. We 35 almost damn near lost that power altogether had it not been for the women’s suffrage movements and the women’s lib movement. We have not yet claimed that raw natural power, unity and independence for ourselves again but we are working on it. If you are not American, you should not feel apart. We are united and we share that same thread of strength no matter where we come from or where we are now. We have overcome the same adversities, the same obstacles, heartbreaks and hardships. We are one. From a business perspective, as an entrepreneur myself, I see this power of the pioneer woman gaining ground in each new lady boss with a vision and a mission. Some of us pull away from the pack and become leaders, mentors and guru’s guiding and inspiring other women to grow into their full personal and