What IS Fortis Matrem?
When I was in college, I remember my first meeting with my “academic advisor” at the University of Oklahoma. I was 20 years old and had just transferred from a small Catholic school. Ready to prepare for my application to medical school, I was convinced this would be a fruitful meeting in which I would begin my travel down the Yellow Brick Road of becoming a physician. Walking into the advising office in the College of Arts and Sciences full of sparkly expectations, I walked out 10 minutes later having met with someone who never looked at me and a schedule I didn’t know if I could actually make work. After all, I did need to sleep until 11am. Because: college.
In between Anatomy, Physics, and Exercise Physiology, I was enrolled in my first year of Latin. One of the items the advisor mentioned as she viciously typed on her computer was that Latin is often the root word of many medical words and this would prepare me well for learning the necessary verbiage to excel in medicine. What ensued was the most challenging foreign language that I have ever studied. I should have stuck with French and German, which I already knew!
Regardless, our challenges are often presented as opportunities. I successfully completed three years of Latin and a medical terminology course (shout out to my girl, Neely, who helped me pass that final exam with incessant quizzing).
Fast forward MANY years, and I am tasked with coming up with a business name that encompassed my vision. Fortis Matrem. Fortis is Latin for strength. Matrem is mother, in the accusative singular case in Latin. Accusative singular is literally a more aggressive case to identify a noun or adjective. In simpler terms, it ensures that the noun or adjective you are describing is the main emphasis.
History has seen its fair share of Fortis Matrem. Here are 4 women that you might remember:
Many of you are familiar with Marie Curie as the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for science in 1903. What you may not know is that she also raised two daughters alone following the death of her husband in 1906. One of her daughters was a co-winner of the Nobel prize with her husband for their discoveries in the field of radioactivity.
Sojourner Truth fled slavery in New York with her newborn baby daughter in 1826. However, soon after their escape, Sojourner learned that her 5-year old son, Peter, was sold to a man in Alabama illegally. She raised money for a lawyer and became the first black woman who successfully sued a white man in court. She became a Christian preacher in the northeast and spread the Word, fought slavery, and encouraged women’s suffrage.
Waris Dirie, originally from Somalia, was a victim of female genital mutilation at the age of 5 in 1970. When she was 13, her parents arranged a marriage for her to a man who was over the age of 60 (!) and she ran away from home, arriving in London. Despite becoming a successful model and actress, she retired in 1997 and devoted her life to her work as a UN Special Ambassador. Eventually, Waris would become a mother to four children, simultaneously founding Desert Flower that combats female genital mutilation around the world.
Indira Ghandi was India’s first female Prime Minister. She was responsible for the green revolution in India, which created jobs, combatting food shortages and no longer reliant on imported grain. She had two sons, Rajiv and Sanjay, who both grew up to be politicians. Rajiv would later become Prime Minister in 1984 following his mother’s assassination.
These women were brilliant, survived unimaginable hardships, used their creativity and gifts to help others, all while bringing up their children to be kind, respectful, and make their own mark on the world. Our society does not make it easy for women: we are expected to look a certain way, have the job, have the house, have the car, have the handbag (I mean I wouldn’t turn down a Birkin if someone gifted it to me…), all while raising kind humans and keeping a clean house and being present for our mates. It’s impossible to do it all. We just can’t.
These women didn’t do it all either. They probably didn’t do laundry some days. I bet their lists never ended, and maybe didn’t even get all the items crossed off. They probably yelled. They cried. They wanted to give up. But they didn’t.
When you have those days, and I know you do, think of these four women. We are all destined for greatness. It is inside of us, given to us lovingly by our Creator, no matter which Higher Power you might believe in. It is time for us as women to take a stand, give societal expectations the middle finger, and forge our own path of what it means to be Fortis Matrem. One strong mother at a time.
