Women Making History Panel

Photo by Teddy Meyer.

By Broadside Correspondent Ramla Mahmood

Last Monday night, the Women Making History panel brought together four hard-working and talented women to talk about everything from their accomplishments and barriers to advice about majors and colleges.

“Do the opposite of what you think you should do,” said author Gina McCabe during the Feminist Ninjas’ sponsored event. “Study abroad, go outside your comfort zone, just go.”

McCabe, a George Mason University alumna, was joined by Carrie Weinfeld, Mason alumnae and lawyer, Dr. Joya Crear, director of the Office of Diversity Programs and Services and Dr. Marlena Wu, a staff counselor at Mason’s Counseling and Psychological Services. All the women were asked a variety of questions and in return gave insightful answers to the students who came to listen.

McCabe, who was inspired to share her story of sexual abuse by giving public lectures, is a 1993 Mason graduate and author of What If I Tell?, the story of a woman dealing with childhood trauma and an inability to enjoy her own success.
Throughout the event, McCabe talked about her biggest barrier, which she said was waiting for the world to hand her what she wanted.

After working several years, completing graduate school and climbing up the ladder she found herself with a job paying her a $1.4 million salary, a great husband and no financial struggles. Although she had everything she could ask her, after working five years she realized in the two years that followed that she was miserable. Finding her passion was what broke down the barrier for her.

“Money does not buy happiness,” said McCabe.

Instead of letting her life go down the drain, she chose to follow her love of writing and wrote a book, as well as opening Winding Road Books. She spends her free time speaking to others about her life and how they can improve theirs by doing what they do best.

“Every day is an opportunity to do what you want,” she said.

During the panel, Crear, Wu and Weinfeld also talked about their personal struggles and successes in the real world, advising students to take their own path, stand up for what they want and not be afraid to be different from their peers. They stressed the importance of equal opportunity and the importance of education, especially in today’s society. Wu spoke about the difficulties she had in graduate school writing her discretion and balancing a full time job and the lessons she learned from that.

“For me, the biggest challenge was fear of change and [more so] fear of failure,” said Wu. “You will fail sometimes, but you have the great opportunity to learn from something.”