A NOTE FROM OUR CEO

Mariana Russo Chambers

"Come on, girls it's time to get up! We have a lot to do." These were my and my sister's most dreaded words. They came weekly at 9 am on Saturday mornings for almost every Saturday of my childhood. Knowing that the 'lot to do' meant cleaning the house wasn't what irked me the most. It was the fact that my brother didn't have to partake in any of the cleaning chores and to add insult to injury, we had to clean his room as well. "He's a boy!" was my mother's frustrated response when I would talk back or get mad about why I had to do something he didn't or wasn't allowed to go somewhere he was. My mother raised us with the notion that being a boy was so much easier than being a girl and this laid the foundation for much of my ambition and career today.

When I got pregnant, I swore I would never teach anything of the sort to my child and that I would keep these old-fashioned ideals far away. At home, my husband and I split the chores evenly, and we like to think we are very conscious of gender stereotypes to avoid yet, Mika still comes home touting her male classmate's smarts and most recently, asking me about who she may marry as if that is the most crucial role to play. Since embarking on this journey to deconstruct gender norms with Giancarlo, I've become acutely aware of n, but I've learned so much about how ion to be in for both men + women. I and keep doing the work that matters

MRC is a Latina immigrant, mom, wife and founder of C+C