Eye to Eye with Elizabeth English: ¡Sí, Se Puede!
Saturday, December 8
Yes, we can! This is the rallying cry of the legendary civil rights activist and community organizer Dolores Huerta who, along with the late Cesar Chavez, founded the United Farm Workers union. In recognition of her fearless leadership in the fight for labor and human rights, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. Huerta was among the many feminist luminaries and warriors who presented at TEDWomen2018 in La Quinta, CA where the senior admin team and I gathered to reflect on the state of the world and the role of women and girls in solving humanity’s most pressing problems.
Yes, we can! This is the rallying cry of the legendary civil rights activist and community organizer Dolores Huerta who, along with the late Cesar Chavez, founded the United Farm Workers union. In recognition of her fearless leadership in the fight for labor and human rights, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. Huerta was among the many feminist luminaries and warriors who presented at TEDWomen2018 in La Quinta, CA where the senior admin team and I gathered to reflect on the state of the world and the role of women and girls in solving humanity’s most pressing problems.
This year’s TEDWomen theme, Showing Up, heralded the indisputable fact that women are no longer waiting on the sidelines for change, power, or influence. With a record number of women elected to Congress and our voices raised in the Women’s March and #MeToo movements, women everywhere understand that power will never be given to us. We have to take it. The message was clear: Until we demand equal representation at the decision making tables, the world will continue to strain under systems and policies that neglect women and girls - or worse, oppress them.
Two realizations seized me during TEDWomen: First, essentially every woman who spoke about her efforts to advance herself, become more powerful, or effect change faced a similar set of obstacles and counter-forces. This helped me see our struggles at Archer more universally and less personally. The prevailing sense of determination in the face of often discouraging odds was inspiring, and I felt less alone in my own struggle as a strong, assertive, and aspirational woman. Second, the lineup of speakers was both multicultural and international. The vastness beyond Brentwood, CA and even the whole of the United States is humbling. The more we extend our perspective and enlist solutions from those whose experiences and perspectives differ from our own, the better the outcomes for all of humanity.
Majd Mashhawari is 25 year old engineer and entrepreneur from the Gaza Strip. She is the CEO of GreenCake, a start up that designs and manufactures bricks made from recycled local materials. Buildings destroyed by war are difficult to rebuild in her community because construction materials cannot make it over the border. Majd’s work serves as a powerful metaphor in a word where the affronts and injustices for women and girls, especially in impoverished communities, seem at times insurmountable and relentless. All we can do is keep building, one improvised cinder block at time.
Photo Credit: TEDWomen
¡Sí, Se Puede!
The Archer School for Girls admits students of any race, color, religion, national and ethnic origin, sexual orientation or other legally protected status to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national and ethnic origin, sexual orientation or other legally protected status in its hiring or in the administration of its educational policies and programs, admissions policies, financial aid programs or other school-administered programs.
The Archer School for Girls’ mission is to educate students in an environment specifically designed for girls. As such, the school will consider any candidate for admission who identifies as a girl. Once admitted to Archer, all students in good academic standing who abide by Archer’s code of conduct and who meet requirements for graduation will be eligible to receive an Archer diploma, regardless of any change in sexual identity or other legally protected status.
