The Purse

Arriving home from The Massachusetts Conference for Women I'm stoked. I'm pumped. I'm energized and empowered. I'm thinking.

I want you to think about something for me. If you're a woman do you carry a purse? If you're a man - do you? If you're a woman how many of your outfits for "going out" include pockets that can feasibly hold the items you need with you - credit cards, keys, your phone. We are raised as women to be constantly be prepared. 

Heaven forbid you leave the umbrella at home. 

We need to always look our best - I have, currently, a chapstick, a lipgloss, a lipstick and a tinted chapstick in my purse at this very moment. 

At any other given moment you'll find a bottle of water, a snack, receipts (tons, crumpled in the bottom), my check book, wallet, phone, keys, business cards - in appropriately bedazzled case, several pens, a notebook, a pair of earrings, the list goes on. I'm virtually prepared all the time for a host of hypothetical scenarios that are entirely unnecessary to be prepared for. 

The reality is women are more prepared, better at multi-tasking, more efficient, and more empathetic than most of their male counterparts. 

I learned today that there was a study where men and women were asked to count dots on the screen until they felt entitled to ask for $15. What was found is women were 20% more efficient and took 10% longer to ask for the $15 than the men tasked with the same objective. A colleague jokingly mentioned that "we're a bargain."

We need to stop measuring productivity by hours and instead by outcome. We need to start validating worth and asking for what we deserve.

This is what makes female entrepreneurs and leaders so critical. The more women running businesses and rising to the tops of their fields the smaller the disparity between what men and women make (still 77 cents to the dollar bud) will be. We need to stop thinking that speaking out makes us "hysterical" or an "insane feminist" - our male counterparts don't give it a second thought. 

We need to embrace that we are just as good as the men in our lives, and sometimes better. Just think about how much stronger our shoulder muscles must be from lugging all that crap around.

PS.
My husband just started reading this and asked "what man carries a purse? why are you even asking that?" - case and point. 

Emily Susan Gaylord
Founder, Creative Director

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