A Pioneer — at its core — is a woman who owns her success, paves her own way, and leads the way for the next generation.
A Pioneer may also include employers or elected officials who challenge outdated policies or individuals who demonstrate support for pioneering women and girls.
Why “Skirts”? It’s a call back to the days when women, like my mom, felt they had to wear pants in order to gain an equal footing in the workplace.
In the initial phase of our film research, my mother (who is also a Pioneers in Skirts writer/producer) permitted the cameras to document a particularly tense moment between us as we discussed the reasons behind my sense of needing to “fix” myself.
We were en route to a film location. She stopped the car to tell me that she believed she’d given me what she herself never had: “You had the best education, you have tremendous experience — and still people treat you like you don’t deserve the job!”
I sat there listening to her tell me how she had to change her appearance and lower her voice in order to gain respect at work. She was frustrated that I, too, must change my appearance just so that I would be respected on set.
All I wanted was to be ME as well as the person in charge.
Why can’t I wear a skirt if I want to?
Until I started out in my career, I never really understood just how judged I would be for being a female in a career dominated by men. After all, why should I? It’s the 21st century and women have come a long way. Right?
But I was regularly feeling like I was wearing the wrong clothes or had the wrong amount of makeup on.
I would walk into a room expecting to be accepted for who I was, and instead, I was pigeon-holed into a reaction that dictated how I acted, responded, and what I wore.
“Skirts” is also a call back to the pioneering women who fought and won many battles for the next generation.
Speaking with my mom made me think about a memory I had from when I was in grad school. While filming a documentary short, I toured the Business and Professional Women’s Club of North Carolina state headquarters where I saw this photo of women breaking ground on the building.
At the time, I was struck by the fact that all the women in the picture seemed so determined. I could see in their faces that they were not going to let their dresses and skirts prevent them from trudging through the woods with their shovels to break ground on a building that would become their sanctuary and place to organize.
They can dress feminine and be in charge — these ladies were pioneers in skirts.
Pioneers in Skirts honors and recognizes that without women like my mom, and these pioneering women, women definitely wouldn’t be where we are today.
Today’s Pioneer
Today, there is a new Pioneer confronted by the fact that she is not immune. She is self-aware and determined. She has taken up yesterday’s baton.
Women and men continue to stand with them.
Today’s Pioneer wants to learn the history of those who paved the way for them.
They’re developing new methods and collaborative approaches for confronting the unfair systems and perceptions in their lives.
Today’s Pioneer is grabbing her own shovel.
Let’s continue to break ground, together.
Ashley Maria
