Wisdom for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Athletes, Female Politicians and Women Who Support Women

As I began to turn off the morning show I was watching there was an advertisement for the new movie “Battle of the Sexes” about the 1973 epic competition between tennis players Billie Jean King and Bobbie Riggs. A few of the sentences I heard in the commercial were from Riggs saying, “I didn’t say women don’t belong on the court, they should be there to pick up the balls.” Followed by this statement, “Business, sports, you name it, men are at the top of the world.” I chuckled as they described Riggs as a bombastic male chauvinist pig and King as a hairy legged feminist. It sounds like the 70’s doesn’t it?

Just yesterday I visited Juanita Perez Williams the first Latina female running for Mayor in a major city, luckily right here in Syracuse. I congratulated her on her primary win which was hard fought. She thanked me but said with emotion in her eyes, “Oh Tracy there is still so much to do to lift up women into leadership roles especially in politics. Already male competitors are taking personal digs at my marital status as a divorcee, although I have a great relationship with my ex-husband, and announcing in the paper who I’m currently dating. You don’t see anyone discussing the personal life of my male opponent.” I said to her, “Women have to keep backing women because we know that sexism still exists today whether it’s this example in politics, pay inequality for females in business, and the belief women still can’t beat the odds in a man’s world.” We feel like the world has become a 50/50 place for women and men in all aspects but it hasn’t.

When I heard the quote “Business, sports, you name it, men are at the top of the world,” it flashed me to the mission I came up with for Women TIES last year as I realized Women TIES has to be more than helping just women in business, we need to help women in sports, equality issues and life. The new mission statement, “Women Supporting Women in Business, Sports, Equality and Life” sounds similar yet so different than Riggs statement, don’t you think?

One week from today as I greet a hundred fifty women at the “P.O.W.E.R” event for an all female business conference, I will remind myself the reason I’ve produced this event for nine years – to bring strong, intelligent females to ones place to meet, create new economic and personal relationships and to reiterate the need for women to support women first and foremost in every aspect in life until we gain true equal status and respect. If we stand up for females, it doesn’t mean we are hairy legged feminists as Bobby Riggs so elegantly stated.

This Wednesday Wisdom should inspire you to think about the way every single day you are seriously supporting other women to lift them up. Are you buying from women entrepreneurs first and foremost? Are you showing up at female sporting events to fill the seats? Are you encouraging your young nieces or granddaughters to think about becoming a leader in her own roles in school or sports? Are you supporting political movements that strengthen and not weaken women’s rights and issues? Men aren’t going to change the world for women – women must do this for women.