GUEST BLOGGER MADDI O’GRADEY

I love this picture because all too often we forget that we aren’t competing against each other but rather working together. Throughout my experience I’ve found that the people who were rude about my success were female friends and in countless studies it’s been found that women in the workplace are scolded and discouraged more by fellow women.

We have to keep the sisterhood alive.

We have to love and encourage women from all walks of life, we need to ban the word slut from our vocabulary because when we say it to our friends it gives licence to other people and males to say it- because it’s okay because we use that to our friends. We need to stop victim blaming and teach everyone respect.

We need to reach out to fellow women who are struggling.

We need to applaud one another’s success and check in regularly. We need to ban the words bossy and bitchy because when a women is an assertive leader it does not give someone the right to wrongfully call them a bitch or bossy.

We need to celebrate the women and political fields and be less quick to judge.

I’m so lucky to have a beautiful range of women in my life who support me and my endeavours, from my mum to my mentor to my beautiful friends and family and to my amazing Aim For The Stars sisterhood I love you girls.

Her success is not your failure, but your inability to recognise her achievements in turn, is a failure.

Maddi is a psychology honours student at Macquarie University. She is extremely passionate about education, gender equality and mental health. She has received an Aim for the Stars scholarship from Layne Beachley and a Youth Order of Australia medal. You can find Maddi on Instagram at maddison_laura