Inspiration

I'm sitting in the Women in Trademarks panel at the INTA (International Trademark Association) Annual Meeting and it's so inspiring. It's an incredible juxtaposition to have been speaking to college students about finding my dream job and navigating my career a month ago and to now be listening to these incredibly successful female attorneys talk about how they have navigated their own careers and found their own success. I think this is what we, as women, need to be doing. Those of us in the thick of the journey trying to get lift off in our career and actively searching for our dream jobs need to speak to those just starting out or to those young women in college who are still trying to figure out what to study in school. At the same time, it is important for us to seek out the women that came before us and hear their stories. Better yet, if these successful women are open to it, we should seek mentors just as we seek to mentor those women younger than ourselves. We have to make our own ladders to the top and each rung of that ladder is going to be built by women supporting women.

This panel has reinforced my vision for what this next wave of feminism needs to be. Case and point, there are only 3 women (1 of whom is also the moderator) on this very panel. There are exceptional women out there to mentor other women. I seek out younger women to mentor while seeking out women above me to be my mentors. My point is, we have to seek both mentors and mentees, because we need each other to make this rise together as women.

It is truly inspiring to hear these three women speak about how they have climbed to the top (or rather, near top, because we are never done climbing) and have relied on the principle of bringing women with them and encouraging other women along the way.

May I become one of these women....