When Women Support Women

I saw a post on Instagram from Jenna Kutcher this morning that prompted me to immediately double tap out of love for the sentiment, as I so often do when scrolling through Instagram while I have my morning coffee.

“When Women Support Women, Magical Things Happen.” -Jenna Kutcher

My feed is full of amazing women supporting each other and I love starting my day with these vibes. I also love starting my day with reading. Every weekday I rise at 5:00 AM to make my latte, scroll through Instagram, and then crack open my latest book to read until around 6:00. When you live in a world with 2 adults working from home, 2 teenage boys doing remote learning, 4 people trying to make our home the gym, baseball practices and games every time you turn around, and too many other agents of chaos to mention, 5:00 AM is sometimes the only option for some solitude.

This morning I started a new book that I picked up from the library yesterday afternoon. The title is “Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men” by Caroline Criado Perez. There will definitely be more to come on this book, because I can already tell it is loaded with insightful and thought-provoking information. After all, I think any woman in veterinary medicine can relate to living and working in a world built for men. But for now, I want to share something even more meaningful than the contents of this book.

Pg 218 for Sara, Pg 233 for Becky

I found a note inside the book written by the last person who checked out this book. I find all kinds of notes in books every so often and it is my favorite thing about utilizing the library (with the exception of all the money it saves this girl with a serious book addiction).

This note hit me harder than any of the positive vibes from my instagram feed and I immediately went down a rabbit hole following the clues in this note. There was a link to an interesting article about occupational health and women workers. No big shock that most information about workplace safety is designed around men. The next two things noted are page numbers with “for Sara” on one and “for Becky” for the other.

This is the part that makes my heart explode. I go to page 218 and read a few paragraphs discussing the concerns around women and heart disease because their symptoms present differently than men and have thus been blown off far too many times. Then, I move on to page 233 to read a little bit about oxytocin and its effectiveness for women in labor with an acidic blood pH. The point of this being that there is significant opportunity to learn more about how to prevent unnecessary C-sections, especially for those women who are already at higher risk for negative outcomes during birth. This is particularly important for black women who experience a much higher mortality rate when giving birth.

While there is a lot to discuss for each of these two topics, what I am taking away from this today is the amazing way that women look out for each other. I don’t know the author of this note, but I know she took the time to make note of information to share with these women in her life to make their lives better. I applaud her and all the other women out there constantly lifting each other up and making magical things happen.

Cheers to you all!