A Special Birthday Message from Barbara Rackes
Tomorrow is my birthday. It’s time to turn the page.
I am part of a generation that worked hard to make sure the current and future generations of women had rights and privileges – to vote, to serve on juries, to control our bodies. My children and grandchildren are the leaders of the future and I take the responsibility of helping them understand how far we’ve come since the 1960s very seriously.
In 1980, Lynette Allston and I were pretty much the only female business owners in the Midlands of S.C. As a result, we were interviewed by the media again and again and asked: “where are the others?”
In that first business, my lender demanded that I have my “daddy’s” co-signature to borrow money. When I applied for my first mortgage, I was asked to sign a contract committing to taking birth control for five years. None of us would accept these constraints today.
Times have changed in business and the number of women-owned small businesses is now increasing at nearly double the rate of their male counterparts. The same is not true for our representation in government where decisions that impact all aspects of our lives are made.
As I move to a new role as mentor, guide, and grandmother, I ask you all to keep your eyes on the road and safeguard the progress we’ve made. We often take our access to important leadership roles for granted. But, as women, our right to these roles is not protected under the U.S. Constitution. Every liberty we have gained came because we fought to acquire it. Now we must fight to keep them.
SC WIL has been my later life’s work and will be my legacy. In the early days of Rackes (women’s clothing retailer for those who are too young to remember), we told people we sold more than clothes, we sold confidence – the confidence that comes with knowing you look professional and can focus on your work, not how you look.
That commitment to building confidence is reflected in the mission of every organization of which I have been a part. In everything we do, we have the responsibility of making sure the next generations retain the rights and privileges we have today.
Passing the torch,
Barbara Rackes, SC WIL Board President & Founding CEO