This Too Shall Pass: Why Women Must Stay Optimistic in Troubling Times

I don’t know about you, but never have I felt more proud to be a woman! Women are soaring. Across industries and communities, we’re breaking records, building legacies, and leading change like never before. From boardrooms to ballads, classrooms to Capitol Hill, we are winning — loudly, brilliantly, and undeniably.

And yet, these first five months of 2025 have been some of the most politically turbulent in recent memory. While women rise, so too does a storm of policies and rhetoric aimed at pulling us backward. It’s a conflicting, often disorienting dual reality: progress in our power, met with aggression toward our rights.

Last week, I reached out to an old friend — a woman I deeply admire. She's a brilliant educator, a seasoned executive, and a champion for women and minority-owned businesses and nonprofits. She's the kind of leader who has raised millions to uplift others, the one I’ve always called for guidance and inspiration. But this time was different.

She didn’t offer the usual words of wisdom or hopeful encouragement. Instead, she confided that she was feeling overwhelmed — heartbroken and disillusioned by the regressive wave sweeping across our nation. For the first time, she was seriously considering taking her investments, her talent, and her energy elsewhere. Not to another cause, but to another country — one where diversity, equity, and inclusion are still values to be celebrated.

It was a sobering moment.

This woman, a white female leader who has spent her life fighting for marginalized communities, is struggling to find her footing in a country that no longer feels like home. And if she’s feeling this way, what about the countless others — especially Black and brown women — who’ve been bearing the brunt of injustice for far longer?

That conversation reminded me of something essential: we are not okay. Our people — our sisters — are suffering. And yet, that reminder didn’t break me. It woke me up. Because in the face of struggle, we cannot afford to lose hope. We must choose optimism, even when the world feels heavy.

Optimism is not denial. It’s resistance. Research shows that optimists handle adversity with greater resilience. They see beyond the chaos, remain solution-focused, and foster a sense of well-being that sustains them — and others — through the storm. And make no mistake: we are in a storm.

But storms pass.

When the world feels like it’s closing in, I turn inward. I meditate. I move my body. I surround myself with people who fill me up, not drain me. I protect my peace fiercely — and sometimes that means logging off, turning off the news, and taking a break from the noise. We have to preserve our mental energy for what matters: the long fight ahead.

We are not the first generation of women to face darkness. And we will not be the last to rise through it.

As I reflect on this moment in history, I’m reminded of the words of Sojourner Truth, who delivered her now-iconic “Ain’t I A Woman” speech this week, on May 29, 1851, at the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio:

“If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again!”

Those words are as true now as they were then. Together, we are powerful. Together, we are capable. And together, we will get through this.

Lift as we climb ladies! This too shall pass.

In strength and sisterhood,