Lauren M. Poteat ’27 is an MBA student at the College of William & Mary Raymond A. Mason School of Business. She is an Alumnae Advisor to the Alpha Mu Chapter of Delta Delta Delta, a MBA FORTE Ambassador, an inaugural member of the W&M Aspen Institute Better Arguments Leadership Fellowship, and a member of the W&M Graduate Council. You can contact her at lmpoteat@wm.edu.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own.
One of society’s most remembered literary phrases comes from Alexander Pope’s 1733 poem “An Essay on Man” that says, “Hope springs eternal in the human breast: Man never is, but always to be blest,” which has been said to mean that humans possess a natural, unending optimism and belief in a better future, even when facing hardship.
I’m not sure how true this resonates with people while they’re actually in the pit of their storms, but it always seems like a perfect sentiment right after the storm ends. As a Forté Ambassador through my MBA program, I was tasked with the thought-provoking obstacle of curating a business activity that I could share with my peers. While simple enough, as a woman and as a woman of color pursuing leadership opportunities in business, the onset of this task proved to be somewhat upsetting. Women in the workplace have almost absolutely no rights, so why should I even care about something like this?
According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, in the United States, women are still paid $0.81 for every dollar a man makes. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reported that cumulatively, across their careers, up to 85% of women will be sexually harassed one or more times. A Harvard Business Review stated that women were 20% more likely than men to be fired for “misconduct” and “workplace performance.” A report done by the Economics of Gender stated that female CEOs were 45% more likely to be dismissed than male CEOs, even when the “firm was performing well.”
What sort of event could possibly address all of these issues? While I would love to say that I found the answer and put together such an event, I have not. I, too, have encountered terrible bosses and working conditions riddled with incompetence, jealousy and contempt for all women and have been flabbergasted at the idea of such a task.
However, in my confusion, this led me to reflect on my initial arrival as a graduate student at the College of William and Mary. I briefly learned about the Williamsburg Bray School, believed to be the oldest schoolhouse for free and enslaved Black children in America. The school operated between 1760 and 1774, providing faith-based education to hundreds of children between the ages of three and 10 years old before closing down during the American Revolution.
In the early 1920s, the College purchased the school, and its structure was relocated to a site a block away from its original location. In 1930, Brown Hall (now Prince George Street House) was built over the original site as a dormitory for Methodist female students, which eventually opened up to the entire female student body. Today, the house and its original site are under renovation as the Robert M. Gates Hall, which will serve as a hub for teaching and research.
In the midst of all of these renovations, archaeologists unearthed several surviving pieces of 300-year-old ceramics once commonly known as “Colonoware.” These handmade, unglazed pieces of pottery were created by enslaved Africans and Native Americans in Colonial and post-Colonial America. They were usually assembled by women and used for cooking and daily use. Ironically, such pieces of clayware were generally characterized as low-quality construction. Yet, they were able to sustain for over 300 years, providing deeper insight into the stories of cultural perseverance and hard work, often better than written records.
If a piece of pottery and the walls that once preserved it could persevere for over 300 years, telling the stories of descendants of women who made them, then I would like to hope that women will also be able to persevere through this upheaval and inequality at work. We are literally ending winter, with additional cold weather on the way. However, as Alexander Pope once wrote (and I do believe I agree), “Hope springs eternal.”
