Leading the Change in Ways We Did Not Expect

Donna Satterthwaite, Vice Chair, Juanita C. Grant Foundation • March 10, 2026
Woman in glasses working on a laptop, taking notes at a wooden table in a home office.

Each March, Women’s History Month invites us to recognize leadership. The 2026 theme, “Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future,” celebrates women whose work strengthens communities and builds what lasts.


When we picture leadership, we often imagine early success, public recognition, or formal authority. But some of the most powerful leadership unfolds later. It rises after interruption. It deepens with experience. It grows stronger over time.


Consider Barbara Hillary. She was a nurse and community advocate in Harlem. She survived both breast and lung cancer. At 75, she became the first Black woman to reach the North Pole. At 79, she reached the South Pole. She did not train her whole life for those expeditions. She did not wait for the perfect moment. She decided she was not finished.


Her story is not only about exploration. It is about endurance. It is about courage. It is about refusing to let age define possibility.


She stands alongside women like Grandma Moses, who began painting seriously in her late seventies. Vera Wang, who built a global brand after 40. Julia Child, who published her first cookbook at 49. Toni Morrison, who began publishing in her late thirties and reshaped American literature for generations.


None of these women followed a narrow timeline. None accepted the idea that influence belongs only to the young or the already established. They expanded what leadership looks like.


This is worth celebrating.

Many women practice this kind of leadership every day without headlines. Through caregiving, mentoring, organizing, teaching, building businesses, managing households, returning to work, and stepping into new arenas, they develop skills that strengthen families, workplaces, and communities. These are not small contributions. They are sustaining contributions. They are the kind that build futures.


For anyone navigating a second chapter, this message is clear. Leadership does not expire. Experience compounds. Reinvention is not a sign that you are behind. It is proof that you are still growing.


Women’s History Month honors those who led before us. It also celebrates the leadership unfolding right now. It celebrates persistence. It celebrates bold decisions made later in life. It celebrates the willingness to begin again.


The future is not shaped only by those who started early. It is shaped by those who continue.


Where might you decide you are not finished?

We welcome your ideas and reflections. If there are topics you would like to see explored in future blogs, especially related to work, career transitions, community contribution, or aging with purpose, we invite you to share them with us.


Donna Satterthwaite
Vice Chair, Juanita C. Grant Foundation
MotivAction Coaching

https://www.motivactioncoaching.com

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