Monday Motivation: The Power of Accepting Business Invitations

Monday Motivation, Inspiration, Pro-Female Focus for Women Entrepreneurs, Women in Business, Women in History

For me some of my greatest connections, economic ties, and business kinships started by saying “yes” to something quite new and beyond the scope of experience. It could be the excitement of the unknown risk and reward or the inability to forecast how a new relationship might develop or the raw nudge to step into something fresh that keeps me giving myself approval to introduce myself to a new opportunity.

Asked by a member and sister feminist to join a group of women called “Modern-Day Suffragists, Continuing the Work” to search for suffragists who died in New York State for a new website for the 2020 Suffrage Centennial, I said “sure.” It was the beginning of the pandemic on a raining spring day and business was at a standstill. With an interest in the project, I zoomed in one morning with a crew of documentary filmmakers in Rochester and given an assignment of women to research that day. Everyone has heard of well known suffragists like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton but there were other women and men who were “left out of the history books because of their race, ethnicity, or orientation, as well as those who continued to push for equality after the passage of the 19th Amendment we want to identify,” per the website.

In the short time I had to research that day, I found interesting women including a Central New York woman who was one of the original founders of the lesbian movement who ended up residing in the East Village, a place my son lives now with his girlfriend. It was interesting to follow her history of activism in this particular societal issue that still reverberates today in the same location of the Big Apple. I also found some dead ends tracing women on the list because most women change their names when they are married thus being lost in history records. When my younger sister Bre Chamberlain traced our ancestors she discovered the same thing motivating her and I to both keep our last names as part of our full names for history sake.

Friday I had a chance to met face-to-face with three of the women on this project now officially online at https://www.womenandthevotenys.com, at Susan B. Anthony Square in Rochester when they joined me, my friend Jill Bates who introduced us in the first place, and some of my Women TIES members for a 20-second video message for the 2020 City Suffragist Parade in Rochester sponsored by the Susan B. Anthony Foundation. They said “yes” to join me because I said “yes” to join them one spring day via Zoom. They shared with me, my name displayed on one of the website pages as a Suffragist Search Party Participant, which I will proudly add to my bio.

Today’s Monday Motivation should demonstrate the power of accepting invitations to unknown, but interesting projects and people you might not have dreamed of before. The world opens up giving you new insight into our place in it. Not only do I hope you keep your maiden name officially in your married name, if you are married, but also proudly use it everywhere you work and go so you can be traced throughout generations for the powerful work, mission, and purposes you have in your lifetime. Women owe it to themselves and future generations of women “looking” for them to be found and recorded for their fascinating works.

Make sure you visit this fascinating new website to find out more about New York State suffragists…..and VOTE this year!