A blog post by Girl Fit PT’s co-op student Madeleine
Madeleine is a 5th year student in the Doctorate of Physical Therapy program at Northeastern University. She grew up as a competitive synchronized swimmer on the North Shore of Boston. She joined the Girl Fit team in January 2018 as a 6-month co-operative education student. If you called the office or came into the clinic recently, you have probably seen her smiling face!
I like to joke that my feminist awakening started when I was 9 and watched “Legally Blonde” for the first time. As a 9-year-old, I was under the impression that you could either be a girly-girl or a tom-boy. Girly-girls were pretty, popular, and conformed to societal expectations of women. Tom-boys were sporty, smart and had the monopoly on empowerment. Legally Blonde taught me that you could be both pretty and smart. At an elementary school age, this was revolutionary to my world view. Ever since my Elle-Woods-feminist-awakening, I have been on a life long journey to understand how I define feminism, and how best to use my power as a woman to help other women.
An important stop on that journey was a class I took for my minor in “Global social entrepreneurship”. I traveled to India for a 6-week study abroad program that focused on women’s empowerment and development in rural and suburban India. I learned an immense amount about social entrepreneurship, Indian culture, and the best way to empower women.