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Through the Looking Glass

Author: Renee Cerullo/Thursday, October 17, 2019

In the Next 100 years…What will New York State Women Accomplish?

It has been 100 years since Women’s Right to Vote became a reality.

            So…

 “What’s next for New York State Women Inc, as the coming decades unfold?”

 “Will we still be advancing Powerful Women Personally, Professionally and Politically during the next 100 years?"

Steve Jobs, (1955-2011) Founder of Apple, once shared that “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”

Our past is resting on the shoulders of great women like, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and many others that we’ve detailed in earlier issues of NIKE.  We’ve survived huge amounts of change during the last 100 years, especially advances in technology from the first burst of electric light to now charging our cell phones and I-pads without even thinking about electric power.

We’ve gone from being second class citizens to being pioneers across the spectrum of careers. We’re educated. We hold important positions. We are doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, teachers, nurses, professors, writers, financiers, administrators—professionals in all walks of life.  We are powerful and prominent—professionally  and politically.  We are voters.  We’ve passed the torch with each generation, enabling and embracing change.  Indeed, what started out as an organization where women harnessed the power of the suffragettes, we’re now cheering as women take the reins as CEOs, Senators, Governors, Ambassadors—and are campaigning for President.  

Still, we also remain caregivers, do-gooders, helpers, nurturers.  In our homes, (while decorated much differently than 100 years ago), we still tend the hearth. But today we have a choice.  We can choose to work or not work outside the home. 

We still bear our children and raise our children.

We still advocate because there is much work to do…to raise the status of all women…to eliminate racism, to push to improve the lives of all women, to ensure women’s rights, equal pay, improved health care, and benefits.  And we fight—against that which enrages us to our core—sex trafficking.

Some things have changed, some things have stayed the same.

What about the next 100 years?  We can look to “Futurism” for some answers.  Futurism is the concern with events and trends of the future, or which anticipate the future.

We know that in just the next 10 years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will have a huge impact. Robotics are already here.  Drones will soon be delivering our packages. Soon our vehicles will be self-driving. The devices we use to communicate will continue to evolve, getting smaller and smaller. The lens of our eyes will be critical to our identity (optical character recognition)—eliminating  credit cards, security gate entry, etc.  Humans will return to the Moon, and then go forward to Mars.

The way we live will change. Already Blue Apron provides ready-to-make meals, home-delivered—so we don’t have to shop for groceries.  Our homes will truly become “smart” homes in ways we can’t even imagine.  AI Technology will continue to innovate.  Similarly, as there is an APP for just about anything, even TAKL—for  shifting household chores—so too, will this continue.  

Now…add another 90 years of innovating to get to 100 years into the future. Futurists expect we’ll have flying cars, printed food, walk-in medical pods in our homes which will detect and provide multispectral scanning and treatment, and we’ll take holiday trips to Mars!  There’ll be underwater cities and colonies on other planets.  Longevity will increase – it is projected that most people will live for 100 years. With longevity, it is likely that within the next half century we’ll see more and more older women cohabitating together in communal-suites, technically-advanced housing as we age together.  (Think Golden Girls on AI steroids.)

Sound amazing?   (It is hard to wrap one’s mind around this).

There’s a place for New York State Women to continue to make a difference and that is in continuing to strive to eliminate sex trafficking. Women’s safety will still be an issue well into the future. Recognize that our biological natures are not likely to change over the next 100 years.  People will still be exploited by stronger forces.

The more Artificial Intelligence takes over our lives, the more difficult human relationship building will be.  It is projected that more self-help, and more do-gooder agencies will be needed, simply because of our human nature—our innate need to connect---our innate need for an authentic value system—our need for a community where we have shared values and a sense of belonging—where there is “heart.”

Enter New York State Women, Inc.—a community of shared values for being the best we can be (together) as women and that creates the wherewithal to ensure that women’s potential is fulfilled—personally, professionally, and politically.  We’ve got heart now, and we’ll have heart into the future. We’re in this for the long, long haul!

That won’t change.

~Claire Knowles (Member of Buffalo Niagara Chapter)

  http://lightsonworkshop.com

 
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