Time to Shatter Glass Ceiling
I’ve always been one to break norms and push boundaries … 
To begin with, I got a degree in engineering 30 years ago, back when that wasn’t all that commonplace. I waited until age 37 to get married. My son was born at home in water with only my husband present. I homeschooled my son … and not for religious reasons. My son and I lived on a yacht in Fiji and the South Pacific for a while. I turn to nutrition, herbs, and holistic methods first and western medicine second when faced with health issues. Yes, I live way outside what people often consider “normal.” 
I’ll never forget when a female friend from work pulled me aside one day as I exited a “high-power” meeting and said, “What’s it like in there?” I must have looked at her oddly because I had no idea what she was talking about. So she continued, “You know, being the only woman.” Until she pointed it out, it never even occurred to me that I was the only female in an otherwise all-male management meeting. But to other women in that facility, it mattered that I was there. I was somehow blazing a trail for others.
I left the corporate world for a multitude of reasons … Mostly because I prefer making my own rules. I like choosing my own hours and what clients I want to work with, even what I do every day. There is no one looking over my shoulder judging my every decision, figuring out what they will put on my evaluation form that will determine if I’m worthy of promotion or being let go. 
I love wearing whatever I want to rather than the required lab coat at a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant or the expected suit in other positions I held. I greatly enjoy taking off months at a time to travel for pleasure or an afternoon when the weather is gorgeous out. I love having an office in my own home or meeting clients out somewhere for coffee (always tea for me).
The glass ceiling is still alive and well all these years later. Women still earn less for the same amount and type of work. Far fewer females hold upper management positions.
And as has been made so evident by the scandals of late, the film industry is wrought with mistreatment of women.
My friend and award-winning author, Marsha Scarborough, had this to say: “One reason it is so hard for women to rise to positions of power in any industry is that, if they object to sexual harassment (of themselves or others), they are sidelined. In my experience in the film industry, many women behind the cameras (including me) did speak out to protect themselves and others and saw their careers falter simply because that action made the men who had the power to hire them uncomfortable. The boys have the keys to the clubhouse (and the bank), and they will lock you out if you spoil their fun. That is what needs to change.”
This is a VERY telling bit of research: https://hbr.org/2017/10/a-study-used-sensors-to-show-that-men-and-women-are-treated-differently-at-work
Bestselling author Debbie Takara Shelor signature
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Takara Shelor
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