Member-only story

We Really Need to Talk About Women

Are we really in this together? Or are the deepest cuts the call coming from inside the house?

Felicia C. Sullivan
9 min read5 days ago
Photo by Joel Muniz on Unsplash

We trade stories about men holding us back like baseball cards. We talk about the boy’s club, and how we’re still denied access to entry. There exists no golden parachutes or keys to the corporate kingdom. Our nods are collective and knowing. We pass around articles about America’s obsession with long hours, the cult of overwork, and the evils of capitalism as the cause of our demise. We are Schrödinger’s cat in a box: simultaneously prospering and flailing before the gas is extinguished.

The first female CEO of X company! The first female Vice President! The first female creative director of Y agency! Look at these three Silicon Valley unicorns — all owned by women! Judge fails to sentence a rapist because he had no prior record. Women of color still make a fraction of the white male dollar. 53% of white women in this country voted for an incompetent misogynist in 2016 because of money, “Christian values,” racism, I hate Hillary, etc.

It seems as if in the gold rush to snap up all the real estate in firsts, we’ve become blinded by their gloss and sheen. We take our scraps because it’s the best we can get, and compartmentalize the still-real sexism practiced openly every day for…

The author made this story available to Medium members only.
If you’re new to Medium, create a new account to read this story on us.

Or, continue in mobile web

Already have an account? Sign in

Felicia C. Sullivan
Felicia C. Sullivan

Written by Felicia C. Sullivan

Storyteller/Author. Marketing Exec in a former life. Hire me: t.ly/bEnd7 My Substack: https://feliciacsullivan.substack.com

Responses (34)

Write a response

Felicia, you nailed it. We can’t keep fighting for a seat at the table while pulling the chair out from under each other. Internalized bias is real, and until we face it, we’re just playing defense against ourselves. Time for some real talk on how we show up for one another.

Interesting timing, Felicia. I'm currently reading 'The Dance of the Dissident Daughter.' by Sue Monk Kidd. It describes her spiritual awakening to the divine feminine from within the church. I honestly believe it's the long history of misogynistic…

We’ve never been “in this together”. We girls are notorious for competing with each other, fighting with each other, stirring up shit, being clicky (you remember where all the drama in high school came from … the girls) Men really have that angle over us. We’ve never been united.