Research Shows Women Get It Done

There is a video on instagram with 1.2 million views of a man on the phone with a customer service rep, trying to get a refund for a product. When his wife gets wind of what’s happening, she tells him to authorize her to speak on his behalf. Within just a few minutes, she got the refund and a $500 gift card. He stood there staring at her with his mouth agape. 

This is what women do. We get it done. 

There are several comments under the video, but my favorite comment is this one: 

As you can see, this comment went crazy with the likes and replies. I haven’t read all of them, because to me, they don’t matter. What matters, is the irony of the comment. 

For centuries, women have been controlled and oppressed by rules — not just in the U.S., but around the world. 

The goal of the Women’s Suffrage Movement was to overturn the law that women couldn’t vote. Women like Susan B. Anthony and Sojourner Truth lead movements and gave speeches simply to bring awareness and change around this movement. 

Until the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974 in the U.S., women could not get a credit card or a loan without a male co-signer which prevented many women from building financial independence.

In many countries, women have historically been unable to own property in their name. In India and Pakistan, discriminatory inheritance laws still limit women’s ability to inherit land and property.

In the US, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 was meant to ensure equal pay for equal work. However, on average, women in the U.S. still earn about 82 cents for every dollar a man earns, with women of color facing even larger disparities​. 

In the U.S., marital rape was not even considered a crime in many states until the 1970s. 

And these “rules” are not only in the past. The overturn of Roe v. Wade just two years ago ruled to strike down the constitutional right to abortion that had been in place for nearly 50 years. The decision returned abortion regulation to the states, leading to immediate bans or severe restrictions in many conservative states.

And even if we wanted to ignore all of the above, we STILL have never had a women president in the United States of America — and not because we haven’t tried, but because there is a patriarchal opinion that women cannot run a country. 

If ever I could agree with the statement that women believe rules don’t apply to us — it would be because for majority of our time on Earth, so many of these rules were designed to remind us that we are seen as less than, less strong, and less capable despite the fact that we show up and get it done every single time. 

Behind many great men, was a woman leading the charge. If he was the face, she was the engine. The machine making everything work — and she was leading from behind only because she wasn’ tallowed to lead from the front. 

Until women like Dorothy Cotton, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Dolores Huerta, Mae Jemison, Stacey Abrams, Oprah Winfrey, Serena Williams, Simone Biles, Malala Yousafzai, Wangari Maathai, Margaret Thatcher, Hilary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, my mother, your mother, your aunt, your cousins, your nieces, your sisters, your grandmothers — you remind us everyday that not only are we worthy, in many cases, we’re superior.

Women, get it done. That’s what we do. 

And when we ignore the immeasurable contributions women have made to the world, we live in contempt of the truth. 

People can say whatever they want about Kamala’s past and personal life. I’m not here to layout her policies or say why you should vote for her. That’s your decision. 

What I am here to say, is that if the fact that she’s a woman is the only reason you can identify for why she is or is not capable — do some research and remind yourself that you experience many, many freedoms because a woman made it happen. 

And if women have gotten it done for the last 1000 years, we’re damn sure not gonna stop now.