I have to tell you a secret.
Now, I still feel pretty weird about this, so I’m going to ask you to just keep it between us for now.
I just became the most credentialed woman in the world.
IN. THE. WORLD.
Like, on the entire planet.
I didn’t actually mean to do that and I still cringe internally every time I think about it.
I wasn’t trying to ‘do a thing’ with this. I take courses and do degrees on the side constantly because it helps to keep my brain active and healthy.
You see, I was in a really bad car accident at the end of my first year of University. I suffered a brain injury in the accident. I had to relearn how to read, to speak, to do math (I’m still working on that one). So, one way that I keep my brain healthy and active is to constantly be learning new things. I don’t do it so people will be impressed. Most of the time I don’t tell anyone about it.
I have over 20 degrees now.
I still feel super weird saying that. But I don’t plan on stopping. It’s just a thing I do. Let’s not dwell on it.
It wasn’t until I finished my second recent PhD (I’m doing this thing where I’m trying to earn 8 PhD’s because in one of the Thor movies Bruce Banner offhandedly commented that he had 7, which is different from the cannon, but either way, I just want to be able to say I beat an Avenger in real life) that a friend asked how many degrees I was at now and I counted. She did some googling and, welp… whoops. I accidentally did a thing.
I wasn’t going to say anything about it, because, well, Nova Scotia can be a really hard place to be an accomplished woman, let’s be honest. There are very few resources for women, especially for women entrepreneurs and Goddamn if the competition isn’t awful amongst women out here. They can be just so, so mean. They will cut you down…
Putting this out there just felt like it would invite in a lot of terrible that I just don’t want to have to deal with.
But I had a conversation recently with a friend that changed my mind about it.
It hasn’t been that long since women were even allowed to go to school.
It was only 1945 when Harvard Medical School admitted women for the first time. A number of schools followed suit over the next bunch of years, but it was only 1980 when women and men were enrolled in equal numbers in colleges in the US.
There are large parts of the world where women still struggle to access education.
So, okay. This actually IS a big deal and I shouldn’t feel weird about feeling weird about it. It’s important to talk about it. It’s important to honour the women who have fought for me to be able to achieve this. Especially because the rights of women are, once again, unfortunately, being eroded worldwide.
It’s important that we protect the ability of women to follow in my footsteps. I don’t want to be the woman with the most degrees in the world forever. I want many, many women to be able to get many, many more than I have.
After all, a good mentor, teacher, and leader should expect that the people they’re mentoring, teaching, and leading will surpass them.
This is the first time in my lifetime that I’m actually worried that that might not happen.
To be clear, I’m not trying to be a leader in this. If you know me, you’ll know that has never been my intention. It’s just something I do because I love it. But now that I have realized that I accidentally am, I know that that comes with a responsibility to ensure that future generations can follow my example.
So, for the sake of every current and future woman, I hope that we take a good hard look at what’s happening in the world and choose to reject following it. I hope that we protect women’s rights and make choices that allow women to achieve whatever they choose, however they choose to achieve it. We need to continue to support, nurture, and help women in ways that don’t lead to this terrible in-fighting and awfulness that really just sets us all back. More resources are necessary.
I mean, come on. You don’t want ME to be the pinnacle of womankind’s educational achievement. That would be just so, so very sad.
Help me make sure that doesn’t happen?
I’m not sure what needs to be created or improved, again, this is a new thing that I unintentionally did. But let's workshop it together? What are your ideas for improving support for women’s education both locally and globally?
Reach out and tell me your ideas!