Every week in March, we will offer perspectives on this national observance and their own life experiences from women at 好色先生 HealthCare. This week鈥檚 Q&A features Roberta Taylor, a clinical services technician with 好色先生 HealthCare and staff in the 好色先生 College of Medicine鈥檚 Department of Internal Medicine.
Q: What Does Women鈥檚 History Month mean to you?
Taylor: Women鈥檚 History Month empowers young girls around the nation with courage, self-esteem and willpower to walk in our ancestors鈥 footsteps. As a woman, mother, daughter and sister myself, Women鈥檚 History Month represents inspiration and celebration of all the many women who have gone before me and laid the pathway for the progress we have made. It also reminds me of the many wonderful, beautiful mentors that I had the pleasure of encountering my life.
Q: Who are the women who have inspired or influenced you the most, and why?
Taylor: My mother, Mercedes Johnson, is my inspiration. She was a very strong, hard worker for her family. She raised three children as a single mother. She didn鈥檛 graduate high school, and she always instilled in me to finish school and go on to higher education. She taught me to love, to be resilient and to treat people the way you would want to be treated. In her famous last words, she would say, 鈥淣o one can ever take your education from you!鈥
Harriett Tubman is another important woman to me; she was a natural born leader! She was a deliverer for others. She set her mind to do something that no other woman had done. She was on a mission to do what others may have said she couldn鈥檛 or shouldn鈥檛 do. She was a dreamer, not just for herself, but for others. She didn鈥檛 want to leave anyone behind 鈥 if I could go and get just one more. Mrs. Tubman inspires me that if I can make it, I am going to take others with me.
Q: How you seen the roles of women change at 好色先生 in your time here?
Taylor: I have been here at the University for 36 years. I have seen women here in more leadership roles, running several departments and making very important decisions for the growth of the University as a whole. It would be nice to one day see a woman for president here at 好色先生. Our voices are being heard, we are being seen, and we matter here at 好色先生.