Head of School

The Power of One

The following article by Head of School Trudy Hall appeared in the fall 2007 issue of EMMA, The Bulletin of Emma Willard School.

Each of us has authentic power. I like to call it the power of one. We can believe in it. Grab hold of it. Act on it. It’s personal; it’s ours.

his fall, our school community took on the issue of personal power in a compelling mantra: women, power, and responsibility. Over a stunning September weekend, a cadre of notable women from the international arena guided and inspired our exploration, and you will read more about the perspectives we heard and shared in the following pages and on our website. Let me set the tone for your reading—just as I set the tone for our 194th academic year at September’s Opening Convocation—with my own perspectives on power.

I define power as the ability to influence outcomes. Historically in this country, women had relative lack of access to resources that could directly improve their status. Despite the fact that we arrived on the Mayflower in 1620, American women did not officially have the right to vote in national elections until 300 years later; and that right was won only after a long, contentious struggle.

Lucy Stone, a reformer who played a key role in launching the suffragist movement (in the company of our own pioneer Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Troy Female Seminary Class of 1832), was admitted to Oberlin College in 1837, but although she was permitted to attend class with men, she was not allowed to read her own papers in class, participate in debates, or deliver a commencement address that she had written. A woman’s voice was not yet welcome in a public forum. Even then, however, women were not to be deterred in exercising their authentic power.

So what is authentic power? It is real power: power that is not granted by the position society has assigned us—being the spouse of a president, or being born to royalty or wealth. Nor is it power that is granted by the position we might have earned—the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or the head of school or captain of a team. Authentic power is the power that is hardwired into us from the moment we are created. Dancer and choreographer Martha Graham said of such power: “There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium, and it will be lost.”

In my convocation talk, I reminded our students to pay close attention to those moments when they feel more competent, more comfortable, more successful, more alive, more focused. These are moments when they are very close to their own authentic power. If they were to lose the potential of those moments, all of us would lose. And I reminded them of something equally important, that with power comes the responsibility to do something: power an idea, power a promise, power a risk.

Perhaps most important, I am committed to teaching them that power is a gift. They must use it wisely, use it judiciously, use it only with good will as their intent, and they must never use it as a weapon.

While it is true that women who have chosen to embrace power have not always walked an easy path, their perseverance has made a difference in the lives you and I live. They applied their power responsibly, and we are the beneficiaries of their triumphs—from the right to birth control to the right to vote; from the right to own property to the right to speak publicly; from the right to pursue an education wherever our intellect takes us to the right to run for political office.

We honor these women by following their lead and exercising our authentic power with gusto and flair, with purpose and determination. Whatever our age or position in life, we need to claim our authentic power and use it creatively, responsibly, and joyfully. We must never play small. If we have an idea, we must act on it. If we have a belief, we must stand up for it.

If we expect Emma Willard students to become women of power and responsibility, it is up to those of us who have gone before to show them the way. Are we owning our own authentic power? Are we leading by example?