Why I support the Women’s Rug Round Table: so what I am about to share does not happen to future women in the rug industry.
I am in India. I am here to represent the rug industry, to collect information, to write about what the rug industry is doing for the weavers, for their communities, for the families, for the women and for the children.
I am a mother—who happens to travel with her son, to accomplish her job. Being a mother to an active toddler boy is not easy. Traveling through India, not easy. Collecting information, learning and sharing that with the public, time consuming. It means for long, long days where timing is everything and can change on a dime due to a toddler.
It has been my belief, and still is, that for this objective, writing about EYE AM THE RUG INDUSTRY. WE ARE WATCHING Visual Campaign, traveling with my son was an asset. He sees things differently. Children play with him, parents smile and open up.
Yet, today, today, I was not treated with respect as a reporter, as a business woman, as a person who is working very hard for the rug industry. Today, men took advantage of the fact that I was a woman, a mother.
I would like to think it was pure misunderstanding, a miscommunication if you will. Unfortunately, my gut, my instincts lead me to believe it was neither of those things. A woman’s instincts are very strong, a woman scorned—well, we all know how that goes. For this reason, I will not name names, I will not let a man get the better of me.
Just think if this is how men in the rug industry treat a woman in the rug industry, imagine how the female buyer, the mother, the sister, the wife, feels walking in to buy a rug.
What I will share is this, I might be a woman, I might be a mom, I might just be the person who is going to save your job. The rug industry is changing. No, the way a rug is made will not change. It will be improved but the process is almost set in stone. What is changing are your buyers, at the retail level and the consumer level. What is changing is the way the world communicates. When I mention I work for the rug industry, in the rug industry—well, you do not want to know their reaction. It’s not positive.
I am in India, for you, to help you, to help the rug industry at all levels, learn how they can help, who is helping the community, what is needed, and to build an encyclopedia of information for your buyers.
I am in India with a two and half year old. While I work for you, I am also working for my son.
One hand types, the other changes a diaper. One hand makes a video, the other feeds a son. One mother comforts a child, while her brain works on the next article.
Show me a man who can do this.
Give me a man who can take care of both family and work while traveling in a foreign country. Give me a man who finds ways to communicate with families with no words but with a child’s play.
If you can find me that man, I will buy him a drink.
Otherwise, if you’re a woman, join me and become a part of the Woman’s Rug Round Table. Woman only need apply. 🙂
