Rebel Rural Woman

A rebellious woman has the “audacity” to shun all expectations of what she should be. – Jamie 

I am a rebel rural woman. 

I am concerned with self-defining who I am. On my own terms. In my rural setting.

I am redefining success in small towns. I am breaking down gender stereotypes.

And I’m throwing up a big middle finger to the ideas and dominant narratives around successful women. 

I am, to quote Journey, “just a small-town girl.” Except, remove the “just” and add an exclamation point.  I am a proud small-town girl! I am a rebel rural woman and I embrace rebellion and disruption as a necessary part of my social, political, and professional life. 

To be a rebel rural woman, you have to go against the grain. You are part of a counter-discourse of rebellion that breaks down the ways in which small town or rural existence is talked about. Think about the stereotypes of small-town people: simple life, redneck, hillbilly, conservative, lack of innovation. These stereotypes and narratives not only impact how others view people in small-town Canada, but it can impact the ways in which we see ourselves. Does being told over and over again that you can’t achieve your goals or be successful in a small-town setting then make us believe we have to shack up with the cliché goal of big-city living in order to do it? Totally. And I’m here to tell you that’s not true. I believe in the strength and resiliency of small communities. I am consistently wowed by the opportunities I find here and the ones I am able to make for myself. I invite you to embrace your inner rural rebel and build some legendary shit me with me. 

So what are the 3 main components of being a rebel rural woman? 

1.     Busting myths, all day, every day. 

You can think what you want about small-town living and the lifestyle and mindset of people who choose it. But… you’re probably wrong. Small town does not equal small minds. It doesn’t even equal small play. So many women I know in my own communities and in communities I’ve worked in are playing BIG. They’re building businesses, side hustles, and resumes that would make your jaw drop, and most importantly, they’re building legacies. 

Small towns are actually notorious for their resourcefulness an ingenuity. Often in rural areas we lack access to big-city amenities, which means we have to get really creative with what we do and how we do. So as rebel rural women, we’re creative and our work showcases just how much we can accomplish and build in our small towns. 

What’s most important though, in terms of busting myths, is both our leading by example when it comes to success but also our ability to speak out when we see the stereotypes reinforced. We bust through these myths with our everyday actions and words. Having difficult conversations only elevates my rebel status because they necessarily place me in a position of disruption. Disrupting gender norms in rural settings, resisting and advocating for the rights of BIPOC community members, especially BIPOC women, challenging the mindset of friends and family, this is the kind of disruption that I actively participate in. 

When I was in University, a professor of mine used the phrase “rule of thumb” to describe something on a slide in one of his lectures. The phrase dates back and references sexist legalities around domestic abuse and commonly held beliefs around it. When I brought this to my professor’s attention, he dismissed me for, you got it, being too emotional and sensitive. How original; Calling a woman who is challenging you too emotional. However, when he brought this conversation up later with his wife, their conversation around the topic changed his mind and he removed it from his lectures. So maybe my initial conversation didn’t disrupt his actions or his thinking, but it prompted him to have other conversations, thus changing his viewpoint. In small towns, it’s important to, as the old phrase goes, “see something say something.” When we call out injustice, sexism, oppression, etc. we not only start to change the dominant discourses in our community, but we challenge small-town stereotypes as a whole. 

And what’s perhaps most important as rebel women in small communities, is that we set an example of what women can be here. I always thing about the young girls and women who are watching me, the ones I work with, the swimmers I coach, and I want to make sure that they know, this is possible for them too. Inspire those mini rebels!

So yeah, goodbye stereotypes and harmful myths of small-town living, hello rebel rural women!

2.     Collaborate locally, sell globally. 

Locally, I work B2B. I engage in my local network of businesses in a really reciprocal way. You buy from me, I buy from you and we deliver a benefit to each other. There’s a saying, by John F. Kennedy, “a rising tide lifts all boats.” If I’m making money and I can spread that to my local business community, especially women in business, then we all win. And vice versa. Collaborating at a local level is so important to me because as women in business and professional women, the more we support and encourage each other, the better off we all are. 

However, that doesn’t mean that I solely sell locally. I think and work globally. Growing communities and revenue sources pull income from outside of their immediate communities and regions. In order to ensure our reciprocal local B2B activities grow, we have to inject outside cash. Think about it as investing in my local community; into local businesses, buying real estate etc. I am able to do this because I may have earned money from outside the community and I want to bring it home. I do this in a number of ways:

·      Setting up my headquarters here

·      Purchasing a building

·      Hiring staff from the local area.

I actually do quite a bit of work with small-town women in business, many from Renfrew County and some right from my home town of Deep River, ON. I help local women grow their business and grow as leaders. But when I work with women outside of my community, I reinvest locally, which helps local women too.

Moral of the story: Think big, but embrace small (town) Find your fellow rural rebels and support them hard. 

3.     Be Unafraid to Stand out. 

The third piece is so important. As a rebel rural woman, as someone who is successful in a small community, you’re going to naturally stand out. So, you have to own that. But because you stand out, this has to come with an undying commitment to your core values. What do you stand for? What are your unwavering values? You have to eat, sleep, and breath them because in a small town, people will notice. 

For example, I drive a super-fast car, it has a throaty exhaust, it’s recognizable on the streets of my town. However, because being courteous and following the law is of course a core value (seriously it should be most people’s) I drive the speed limit. I drive safely, because I’m easily spotted. 

And it’s everywhere. When I’m out in the community, when I’m on Facebook or Instagram lives, when I’m out at events, when I’m out at the grocery store, when I’m tired and sick and I don’t want to be out in the community and be forward facing, I still have to think about the message I’m sending as a public figure. As someone who is watched and paid attention to, I have to loudly live by my values. 

For example, an organization hired us to do a strategic plan. It was a project that was publicly funded. 30% of the way into our project timeline, we realized we had been set up to fail. Local leaders weren’t actually going to show up to participate (an important piece to project success) and we knew this because they weren’t brought in from the start.  The team and I then had to discuss whether or not we wanted to proceed with this project. If we did, we knew the document we would have prepared would have sat on a shelf and that the public money used to purchase the product, a.k.a. the document, would have been wasted. One of my values is that my clients take ownership in the plan, because ownership over the plan is paramount to creating and taking action. We ultimately chose to resign from the project. Both the toxicity of this leadership group and the realities around the fact that they didn’t care about what we were doing, put us and my reputation on the line. Based on our decision, we are able to genuinely say we acted with integrity and that are values prevailed. 

And this is a decision I made as a rebel rural woman. Right from the day I started my work and from the moment I did my first contract, I had to decide the values I was going to live and die by. This way, if anyone ever rewound my career and saw what I did before, my credibility wouldn’t ever be shaken and I could proudly reflect on how far I’ve come.

Leading and living by your values is paramount, especially when you stand out as a rebel. Being unapologetic about my life has been a key to embracing my role and identity as a rebel rural woman. If you already know that you’re a non-fit in the rural normal, then you don’t need to stay quiet or fit in. The action of disrupting or rebelling helps change small town norms. 

There you have it rebel rural women, 3 key ways you can embrace your rebel status and disrupt your way to success.  Bust myths and shatter stereotypes so you can create new norms and ideas around successful small-town women. Collaborate and support locally while selling globally so you can bring money into your community and make an impact. And finally, be unapologetically you and live by your values. 

Cheers Rebels.