By Ronda Scholting,o Emerge Colorado Class of 2013
It’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment when the bravado and self-assurance that we all seem to possess when we’re very young turns to caution and self-doubt.
When the decisions that used to be made so quickly and without much thought turn to decisions made slowly with the agonizing weight of pros and cons and what-ifs.
Much of the change comes from maturity and the encroaching responsibilities of a career, a family, our role in the community; where expectations can sometimes be stifling and limiting.
And, as we take on more and more, there is often a reluctance to expose ourselves to anything but the safe world that we’ve come to know.
That aversion to risk, to reaching beyond ourselves and out of our comfort zone, could be the one thing that keeps so many women from imagining themselves in leadership roles. We are too conditioned to ask “who, me?” instead of saying “why not?”
A recent Harvard Business Review article noted that today, more women are graduating from college than men, there are twice the number of female entrepreneurs, and women control 60% of all wealth in the country.
With those numbers, you would think that there would be more women in leadership positions. But, only 3% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women. And, while there are a record 98 women in the current Congress, they represent less than 20% of the membership.
As women, we have much to offer our families and our communities. Our value is real and tangible and we can do much to bring about the change that is so sorely needed.
By joining together, through programs like Emerge, we can find the support and the tools to empower us to reach just a bit further, to imagine ourselves as the problem solvers and the decision makers.
There is strength in numbers, strength in knowledge and strength in a shared vision.
There is strength in each and every one of us.