Rania Sanford shares about her experience as an immigrant in America and Women’s History Month.
March is beautiful. It is life re-starting after a dormant winter. We are surrounded by flowers and sunshine. In Egypt, where I’m from, March 21 is Mother’s Day. I reflect on what March means to me as an immigrant.
I came to America with the privilege of growing up in an academic family. I soon got a university job in administration and called it home. But it would hit me hard that the question “Tell me about you” wasn’t about my credentials or ambitions. Rather, it was often a euphemism for “What country do you come from?” I felt like an outsider. Yet, I thrived violating the narrative of the “oppressed Arab woman” on a daily basis — perhaps out of determination to call out the ignorance of prejudice. And it became my calling to break down the stereotypes facing others as I had been doing for myself.
I find myself toggling two opposites; my presence oscillating between hyper-visibility and invisibility, at work and in life. It is a peculiar experience for many well-educated women of color. They face questions like: “Are you the right person for me to sponsor?” or “Are you ‘my competition’?” I hadn’t prepared to see these questions persist after a 30-year career, but they do… and they are accentuated now that I am in my 50s.
I build systems that give access and opportunity without hyper- or invisibilities. In celebration of March, I call on women who reinvent themselves anew like the flowers of spring. Rely on others who support, step in and lift up, so you can catch your breath and spread your wings. Lead with beauty, justice and good will. Happy Women’s History Month! With a Perspective, I’m Rania Sanford.