View Points
Three Black Women: Super (S) heroes for Justice
Although her confirmation took longer than the seven most recent U.S. attorneys general combined, viagra finally
the first African American woman, Loretta Lynch, has been sworn in as our nation’s attorney general. Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby is the youngest chief prosecutor of any major city in America. Outspent by her incumbent opponent, she was overwhelmingly elected by the people of Baltimore because she campaigned on a promise to prosecute corruption within the city’s police department. Recently, she brought charges against all six police officers implicated in the death of Freddie Gray, a 25 year-old black male who died in police custody under suspicious circumstances. Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was elected to her first full term as Baltimore’s Mayor, receiving 87% percent of the vote, and is only the second woman in history to hold the office.
These three women are truly phenomenal and well-positioned to challenge and change the status quo, not only personally, but through public policy and perception as well. The institutional racial and gender-biased systemic barriers alone, which they have all had to face, on the road to where they currently stand, elevate them to the level of Super (S) hero status.
There is something so unique to female leadership when it is compared to the leadership style of males that it invites more interrogation, examination and even appreciation. This does not by any means paint all males with the same brush, because there is clearly a range of leadership styles that are contained within both gender perspectives. However, there is a competitive, “I’m the Boss” style of domination as leadership that is more universally attributed to men than it is to women.
Women tend to be more inclusive in their leadership style, more collaborative and more empathetic to the positions and perspectives of others than their male counterparts. There is a growing appreciation of the traits that women use to keep families together, to organize people, to unite and make change in the shared life of the communities in which they live, work and serve. The qualities of shared leadership; nurturance and care for others should not only be sought after but are, in fact, needed in order to truly make a difference in the world in which we live today. A feminine way of leading includes helping the world to understand itself and pursue principled and value-based policies that not only make a difference to people but really matter as a foundation for real change.
These three women have been thrust into the vortex of the politics of systemic and institutional injustice. It is an historic moment and although we may not fully recognize the corner of destiny and legacy on which they stand, they may be the most powerful trio of women we have seen in a generation. They were chosen for such a time as this and it is not by accident that they are women who fearlessly bring the fullness of that identity to bear as they embrace the difficult and challenging jobs they have been chosen to fill. Loretta Lynch, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, and Marilyn J. Mosby are women in an historic time with a great potential to lead us at a time of enormous change. The magnitude of the historic responsibility they each hold will reverberate for decades to come.
While fighting for justice, all three super (s) heroes are “working moms” (outside of the home). Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has a daughter; Marilyn J. Mosby has two young daughters, while Loretta Lynch is a stepmother to her husband’s two children.
Up Next Week: Scandal is Over Y’all!
