Women in Iceland protest a gender pay gap of 14% by leaving 14% early

Look at those women! Together, standing up for equality. It makes me cry. It is amazing what can be done when people stand up shoulder to shoulder.

It’s so beautiful to see women having each other’s backs.

Around here in california, we have an earthquake preparedness day. It’s calle the Great Shake Out. It’s planned way in advance. Businesses and schools work take part and they have earthquake drills so that everyone can practice what to do in an emergency.

We also have fire drills from time to time.

It is not unreasonable for women to protest. It seems like the world would continue. Like we do after emergency drills.

Then again, what if there were crises because of this? Isn’t it a good thing to prove the value of the women who are undervalued by 14%?

I am deeply moved by this.

It happened a while ago, but I just found out about it. President Obama was giving a speech, and a very professional pregnant woman was standing behind him.

What  a great opportunity! Wouldn’t you love to be given a place on the stage behind a sitting president? I loved her dress, too. She looks very groomed and professional.

And pregnant. Oh my. Sometimes standing still can be excrutiating. It seemed to be for her. She started to teeter, and the other people around her noticed.

What would you have done? I would HATE to have to excuse myself. I would have set all phasers to “tough it out” and stayed there.

What actually happened, as you can see in the video, is that she began to teeter and nearly faint. Her colleages next to her noticed. The one woman reached out to steady her.

No one asked her to leave. No one told her to sit down.

It is a bit sticky, isn’t it? Because if it were me, I would NOT have wanted to admit that I couldn’t do it.

There was a lot of sunlight. I suspect that she may have also not had enough water. I would probably worried more about needing to go to the bathroom while on stage and have avoided drinking water before the event.

It’s a real fear. I remember taking the 4 hour PMP test while I was 7 months pregnant. I knew that any time I spent leaving to use the facilities would be deducted from my total time to finish the test. No way was I going to miss this valuable certification because I had to pee.

And I always had to pee at  seven months pregnant.

So I carefully drink smaller amounts of water, and strategized how I would handle the 4 hour test.  I didn’t have to pee, so my strategy worked.

Even better, I passed the test and got the certification so my strategy *really* worked.

I can feel this poor woman’s pain. I imagine her gritting her teeth. Her inner monologue must have been IcandothisIcandothisIcandothis as she swayed and tried to keep it together.

She had to be thinking, How humiliating. This is a one time opportunity to be on the stage. This is a rare honor not given to just anyone.

I’m here! I am taking part in history! My baby, when the little one arrives, will be so proud to know that Mama did this.

And she teetered. And it was undeniable. Everyone noticed.

What was most incredible is the President Obama noticed. He had to have been hyper focused on his message. He was talking about his Affordable Care Act, which in common parlance was given his name: Obamacare. Talk about a legacy!

He still noticed. And it was incredibly charming that he noticed this teetering pregnant woman behind him and took the time to help her off the stage.

She looked so professional up there, even to the point of near collapse. And President Obama looked amazing in his response to her. He was able to take a moment from his speech, help this woman, and even make a self-deprecating joke about how he was probably talking too long.

I love this story.