Amanda Lamb: On their shoulders
One of the themes of my podcast, AGELESS, is how women stand on the shoulders of those who came before them. We stand on the shoulders of our mothers who stand on the shoulders of their mothers. Each generation makes more progress and then passes their wisdom onto the next generation.
This is why Women’s History Month is something that we should all recognize and honor. Sure, there are the big things - women getting the right to vote and being accepted into certain professional roles - but many of what women have accomplished are about the less obvious things. For example, in my mother’s generation mothers could work, but only if they did it all - cared for their children and their home and did their jobs. My generation was the first generation where fathers became true partners in the child-raising arena and tending to the home front. Many women would argue that the “balance” of tasks at home between spouses is still not 50/50, but it is much closer than it was just a few decades ago.
What I’ve learned in my podcast is that every woman over 50 has some example of a struggle she has experienced on her journey that she had to overcome in order to thrive. I call it walking over hot coals. If you live long enough, you will walk over many hot coals to get to where you’re going. And you will have scars from this - but in time, they will fade, and those scars will become part of the wisdom you bestow on other women who are standing on your shoulders.
So, it’s only fitting that during Women’s History Month that my podcast celebrates some fearless women who overcame many obstacles to be where they are today.
Dori Staehle suffered from a downward spiral of physical symptoms after being hit by a cyclist. This then led her to a mental health crisis, a place where she couldn’t imagine continuing life. But enter the power of music - specifically drumming - and she found healing. Not only did she heal herself, but she decided to use drum therapy to help others.
Karen Alston remembers that her grandparents told her she could be anything she wanted to be when she grew up. And she believed it. She would not allow anything to hold her back, especially being Black and female in America. Today, she is an entrepreneur, a fierce defender of women and a champion for the voices of marginalized communities.
Like many women in America, Nancy Popkin found herself divorced in her 50s and needing a career that could pay the bills after having stepped back from the workforce to raise her children. She had already had many chapters -television news management, talent agent, nutrition and wellness coach. But then she found success in an unlikely field with few women - construction management. She believes that all women have the power to reinvent themselves at any stage of life.
Divya Parekh came to the United States with her family from India in her 20s, reluctantly. She loved her life in India and didn’t see a need to make a change. But once she got here, she realized that even a person raised in a different culture can have “two homes.” She had a long career in corporate America in the technology sector until she decided it wasn’t serving her anymore. Now, she supports other women as they transform their lives and helps them see their true potential.
I get inspiration from the women I interview every single say. I relate to many parts of their stories, even if their experiences are very different from my own. But most importantly, I always take away some nugget of wisdom that makes me look at the world in a new way. We throw around the term “generational wealth” to refer to one generation leaving money to set up the next generation. But what if it meant something else? What if it meant sharing the wealth, the wisdom of our lives, with the next generation to help them avoid some of the pitfalls that we experienced, or at the very least learn how to anticipate them and cope with them.
We have an opportunity to recall what we’ve learned from the women on whose shoulders we stand. We also have an opportunity to share what we’ve learned with the next generation as they stand on our shoulders. Share the wealth and the wisdom, we will all be better for it…
