I ask, as a professional woman, what ideas are you sitting on because you are too introverted, too quiet, too afraid of the risk, to speak up? But, look at what can happen when you speak up. Remember where Greta Thunberg began her quest to be heard on climate change. She was a 16-year-old girl sitting alone in front of the Swedish Parliament holding a sign demanding action.
Greta Thunberg speaking at the UN – YouTube
Several days ago she delivered an impassioned speech to the world at the United Nations demanding action. “How dare you?”, she asked. Hundreds of thousands listened. She provoked an international protest against climate change inaction.
It took enormous courage and inextinguishable anger to accomplish what Greta did when she raised her hand and volunteered herself into the climate change discussion.
Now It’s Your Turn to Speak Up.
This is all very grand. It is unlikely that any of our ideas will be greeted with such a response. We are professional women putting in a days work in our job. Our ideas and questions are not as large or as earth-shaking as Greta Thunberg’s, but they have potential to change the way our team communicates, how our company asks for a grant, how our workplace approaches a project. And, of course, these ideas have enormous importance to us and our status within our workplace.
Not many of us have ideas that will command the attention that greeted Greta Thunberg, but unless we ask to be heard, we will never know what might come of them. I encourage you to take inspiration from all the many young activists who are finding their voices to speak in support of their beliefs for peace, justice, gun control, climate change. Find your voice to speak on behalf of your own beliefs. Do you have an idea for a better product, a new method, a kinder approach? Speak up because unless you raise your voice these ideas may never take flight.
