Category Archives: Women’s Activism

25 best-paying jobs for women

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25 best-paying jobs for women – CNN.com.

On Mother’s Day, along with apple pie, baseball and the American flag is motherhood , and, of course, the women who are mothers.  Most of them work.  But they are still not earning what the boys are.

“When you look at Forbes magazine’s most recent list of highest-paid CEO’s (chief executives of the 500 biggest companies in the United States), you won’t see a woman until No. 48: Irene B Rosenfeld, CEO of Kraft Foods.

In a country where women make up 47 percent of the workforce, women make up just 3 percent of Fortune 500 CEO’s. In addition, women who worked full time earned an average of just 80 percent of what men earned in the same positions in 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.”

In probing deeper into this unfortunate dynamic for women, one might want to take a look at the BLS stats highlighting 25 jobs where women earn $1000 a week or more but still a fraction of their male counterparts:

Chief executives
Women – Median weekly earnings: $1,603
Men – Median weekly earnings: $1,999
Women’s earnings as percent of men’s in same occupation: 80.2%

Lawyers
Women – Median weekly earnings: $1,509
Men – Median weekly earnings: $1,875
Women’s earnings as percent of men’s in same occupation: 80.5%

Computer software engineers
Women – Median weekly earnings: $1,351
Men – Median weekly earnings: $1,555
Women’s earnings as percent of men’s in same occupation: 86.9%

For a compete list, go to 25 best-paying jobs for women – CNN.com.  And, if you have any suggestions on how to improve these stats, email us.

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Hot Conference Networking Tips From the Gurus

Scott Allen, who writes about entrepreneuring and has just come from SXSW Interactive and picked up some tips from networking expert and author Thom Singernger on how to network a big multi-day conference.

In Top 10 Conference Networking Tips, Scot says “one of the main reasons that people site for attending a conference is the networking opportunities. Yet they often leave the event feeling they made few or no connections. Here are 10 Tips to help you get the most out of connecting with others at a conference:

1. Have a plan. Know in advance whom you want to meet (directly or the type of people), which speakers you want to hear, and what tradeshow booths you want to visit.

2. Set appointments in advance. If you know that there will be people in attendance whom you know that you would like to see, call or email a few weeks in advance to schedule a time to meet for coffee, a meal, or a drink. Do not hope to “run into them”, as your paths might not cross at a time when you can spend quality time together.

3. Do not focus on meeting the celebrity speakers. While meeting famous authors, speakers, and other gurus is fun, you are one of hundreds who will come up to them and shove a card in their hands. Instead, place you focus on meeting other people in attendance at the event. It is the other attendees who you are most likely to bond with and create real long lasting mutually beneficial friendships.

4. Talk to the people sitting next to you. When you walk into a seminar, take the time before the presentation begins to say hello to the people seated around you. I call this the “power of hello”. Once you have said something as simple as “hello”, it will be easier to talk with them later in the week if you see them again.

5. Ask questions of people you meet. Never lead with your “elevator pitch“. People are more interested in themselves than they are in you, so ask them questions to help them get to talking.

6. Put your technology away. Do not run to your phone, BlackBerry, or laptop at every break. When you are working on electronics you send the message that you are unapproachable because you are busy. Utilize the time on breaks to converse with others.

7. Do not automatically send a LinkedIn or Facebook request. So often people immediately send social networking link requests to people they just met. However, different people have different policies about whom they link with. If they believe in only connecting with those whom they have established relationships, you make it awkward if you send them a link too early (which they then ignore). Best is to ask people if they would welcome such a link at this time. Be respectful of the fact that they might use social networking differently than you do.

Immediately following them on Twitter is okay, as Twitter does not require a mutual connection acceptance.

8. Read their stuff. Many people are active bloggers, twitterers, authors, etc… If people create the written word, seek out their work and read it. It is a great way to get to know people by reading their stuff, but they will also be honored when you tell them that you read their blog or follow them on Twitter.

9. Introduce others. When you meet cool people, be the conduit who connects them with others who might be beneficial to them. This includes others at the conference, as well as other people you might know back home. If you ask the right types of questions, you will easily spot connections that can help others. Don’t ever worry about “what’s in it for me”, but instead just be the person who helps others. You will over time that others will help you too.

10. Follow up. If you meet interesting people and you never follow up, it makes no difference. Own the follow up after you meet people and send them an email (or better yet, a handwritten note) telling them how much you enjoyed talking with them, and plan for future discussions.
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A few of the attendees at Thom’s session had some great additional tips:

  • When attending evening parties, get there early. That way a cluster of conversation builds up around you and you don’t face the challenge of working your way into other clusters like you do if you arrive late.
  • Another great way to meet people at parties is to play the role of informal host. For example, know where the host or celebrity guests are, where the bathroom is, the name of the waitress/bartender, etc. Stand near the entrance and be of service to people.
  • When you get business cards, jot a brief note on the back – where you met them, what you talked about, etc. That will make it much easier to follow up with them.
  • A great way to follow up with them is not only to follow them on Twitter, but also to make a brief post about your conversation with them. Promoting other people is a great way to create value for them and build the relationship. (If you’re unfamiliar with Twitter, see Twitter for Entrepreneurs. If you’re already on Twitter, you can follow @ThomSinger as well as me, @ScottAllen.)

I invite you to follow me as well, @gretchenglas,thanks.

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The Delegation Or Outsourcing Imperative

Outsourced
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I’ve written before on the critical importance of delegating or outsourcing to give you time to focus on the big picture and develop the right strategic direction so your business can grow.

It’s not easy.  Some people have an extraordinarily difficult time doing it.  I have a friend who’s a very successful but rather harried and definitely overworked leader of a national organization.  She often says:  “I can do it myself in the time it takes to show someone else how to do it.”  I respond: “Yes.  When I teach someone how to do something it takes about as much time as it would take for me to do it myself.  Maybe a bit longer. But that person is now able to do it forever.” Do the math. It’s an investment of time that will bring you a great return on your investment.

To succeed, without working yourself to death, we all must learn to delegate or outsource.  Finding and training people to delegate or outsource to will give you a support system which will facilitate your success:

First – decide what to delegate: the point of delegating is to free yourself, first, from routine, low level or mechanical tasks which someone else can do, perhaps better and more efficiently than you.

Delegate anything low priority or which doesn’t require your personal attention to achieve your primary goals.

Select the most capable person for the task: you may not like to file, but there’s someone, somewhere, who does.  Let them do it.

Give clear direction and reach an agreement on expected results: You should be willing to take the time, up front, to review your expectations and reach an agreement on what the end result should be. Communication is a key component of this process.

Be available for questions and mid course decisions

Set a clear deadline with accomplishment milestones along the way

Finally, give credit to your assistant, volunteer or support staff

The only way to develop a support system for yourself is to let the people you delegate to have the responsibility to do what you’ve asked of them; let them do it their own way; let them make their own mistakes and learn from them. Praise them when they complete their assignment. Point out that the completed task contributes to the success of the company as a whole. Give them credit within the company.

Here’s an example from Chaitanya Sagar on how learning to delegate: ,Delegate or Outsource – If You Want Your Business To Grow

“…In the initial days of my company, I did everything myself. I spoke to customers; I interacted with investors; and wrote business plans. At the same time, I cleaned my office and went long distances just to deliver legal documents somewhere. I spent a lot of time on those tasks which were not strategic or something that contributed to my customers. I did everything because I had nothing better to do. If I hired someone else, I would pay them and I’d have to sit idle!

As a small business grows, and as the scale at which a task is done increases, you have to find ways to get the time to focus on the bigger picture. If you don’t, you will get caught up in myriad routine activities, and can’t progress on strategic areas of your business. You have to make time to steer your business in the right direction. And you can do that by delegating work to others, by outsourcing, and at times, it’s as simple as asking the other party to visit your office instead of you visiting them!

My startup has been growing gradually. And some of the rules I had learned in the initial days are obsolete already. Though I saved precious dollars in the initial days doing all the routine work, time and again, I found myself asking myself, “Why am I doing this? How does my customer benefit from it? Should I not be working on something that enhances value to my customer?”

So now I do what is strategic and outsource many activities like coding for my website, marketing material work, accounting, graphic design, etc. In areas I do outsource, I am glad I do because it led to a lot of progress. Inn hindsight, the decision to outsource my work to others has greatly paid off in the following ways:

1. Where it was not my core competency, I rode on other’s competency and made wonderful progress.

2. When the project (such as product development) was over, I had the ability to scale down the activity reducing the “burn rate” without having to fire employees (had I hired them).

3. I was able to save time and could focus on the strategic aspects of the business.”

What about you?  Do you have any delegating or outsourcing examples or experiences to share?  We would like to hear from you.

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Women’s Aspirations and Progress in Women’s History Month

This video “I Wanna Be” shows women’s steady but sure progress, and ends with Hillary Clinton’s speaking to other women and particularly young women:

“Always aim high, work hard, and care deeply about what you believe in. When you stumble, keep faith. When you’re knocked down, get right back up. And never listen to anyone who says you can’t or shouldn’t go on….. If we can blast 50 women into space, we will someday launch a woman into the White House….”

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Clinton Tackles The High Profile, Big Impact Issues

WASHINGTON - JANUARY 22: U.S. Secretary of St...
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We are starting to get a glimpse of what high profile issues Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is taking into her portfolio and under her wing to move forward on the global stage. We also have a clue as to one of the ways she might approach her enormous task.

The Issues Clinton is taking on:

Diplomacy – no surprise there. But the experienced peace makers she’s chosen to advise her and act as envoys represent  a 180 degree turn from the bellicose and oil-hungry Cheney who pined to invade Iraq and, while doing it, award billions of dollars of no bid contracts to his old company pals at Halliburton. This is the company which proceeded to do such things as trucking ice hundreds of miles from Kuwait, with an armed escort, including hovering helicopters, for protection, rather than build a generator and ice maker in the Green Zone. It will be a healthy change to see foreign policy guided by a desire for peace instead of power and profit. As The Boston Globe states in Diplomacy returns: “the appointments of  former senator George Mitchell and erstwhile diplomat Richard Holbrooke are encouraging signs. Mitchell has a deserved reputation for resoluteness, fairness, and unflappability. Some of the lessons he learned from his role in forging the 1998 Good Friday agreement that led to peace in Northern Ireland are applicable to the Mideast”.  So we can have some realistic hope for the MidEast under Clinton’s tenure.

Energy security and climate change

Clinton is on record saying energy security must be an important and integrated element of US foreign policy:

“These are issues on which I will personally engage, and they will consistently receive high-level attention at the [State] Department. I will work with our friends and partners around the world, who are facing the same challenges. I also intend to ensure that the department works vigorously through the interagency process on these issues,” Clinton responded to questions following her Jan. 13 confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

As concrete demonstration of that commitment, Clinton announced a new climate change envoy Monday. According to the Earth Times, Todd Stern will become the country’s chief climate negotiator with the international community, which is hoping to agree to a new climate treaty by the end of this year. Stern, who  served as a senior advisor to former president Bill Clinton and led the US delegation to the groundbreaking Kyoto talks in 1997, will also be involved in domestic US efforts to reduce pollution.

Next up?  The Economy

Wihout saying more publicly, Clinton has telegraped the message that she plans to address global economic issues in order to improve our interrelated economies, and to alleviate the various financial stresses at home.  It won’t be a moment too soon.

Bolstering Women’s Role In The Effort For Change

To accomplish these difficult goals and meet these daunting challenges, Clinton has many tools as her disposal including extremely accomplished and capable envoys.  But she also has something else.  She has the good will of many women in the U.S. and around the world. Women who are willing to listen to her and put their shoulder to the wheel in order to bring about sorely needed change.

At her confirmation hearing, Clinton pledged to focus more attention on women’s issues, especially in Afghanistan.  It has long been a Clinton policy, dating from the Clinton administration, to leverage the underutilized resource of women and their efforts to lift up a nation and bring peace and prosperity to a region. I participated in former President Bill Clinton’s initiative to bring economic empowerment to women in the America’s by such simple but effective policies as micro-lending to allow women to start businesses.  I believe the underpinning of this approach is that unrest, dispair and instability don’t exist in a vacuum. To bring peace, a region must have hope, the kind that comes with providing education and training which allow people to lift themselves up.

Our state department now recognizes that the progress of U.S. efforts in Afghanistan has fallen back because, in part, we have failed to address these kind of issues. Neighboring Pakistan increasingly may face thorny issues because of the hiding or harboring or unwillingness to address the issue of terrorists taking cover in it’s border regions and it’s ongoing disagreements with India, including the conflict over Kashmir. The fate of Afghanistan and Pakistan are intertwined in many ways, so it is interesting to note that, according to The Boston Globe, on Friday, Clinton met with a group of visiting female Afghan legal professionals.

The fourteen judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys were in Washington on a State Department training program on justice reform in Afghanistan. According to the State Department, Clinton praised the women’s “bravery and courage” for bringing reform to Afghanistan and reaffirmed President Obama’s commitment to stabilizing Afghanistan.

Clinton has long standing credibility and ties with women’s groups both in the United States and abroad, certainly ever since she declared in Bejing in September 5th, 1995, “women’s rights are human rights.” I believe she will use these human resources to help achieve America’s goals and the goals of women everywhere.  And we applaud her for it.



Women

Clinton starts working the phones to U.S. allies – CNN.com.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has phoned a slew of leaders since taking office on Thursday, reaching out to key allies in the Middle East, Asia and Europe as the Obama administration reviews foreign policies.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announces her new Middle East envoy on Thursday.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announces her new Middle East envoy on Thursday.

Clinton, who was sworn in Wednesday, has spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, as well as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Jordan’s King Abdullah and the foreign ministers of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, according to acting State Department spokesman Robert Wood.

The calls were “introductory” and did not delve into the nuances of Middle East policy, despite a simmering crisis in Gaza and Thursday’s naming of former Sen. George Mitchell as a special envoy to the Middle East.

President Obama said Mitchell will help implement a cease-fire between Israelis and Hamas and support anti-smuggling efforts to prevent the latter from re-arming.

But he added, “Lasting peace requires more than a long cease-fire, and that’s why I will sustain an active commitment to seek two states living side by side in peace and security.”

By naming Mitchell as his personal envoy, Obama is sending a diplomatic heavyweight to the region.

“He’s neither pro-Israeli nor pro-Palestinian,” Martin S. Indyk, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, told The New York Times. “He’s, in a sense, neutral.”

Don’t Miss

Clinton also spoke with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and India’s foreign minister, Wood said. Video Watch a former secretary of state discuss Clinton »

On Friday, Clinton met with a group of visiting female Afghan legal professionals.

The fourteen judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys were in Washington on a State Department training program on justice reform in Afghanistan.

The State Department issued a statement about the meeting late Friday. It was not on Clinton’s public schedule, and Wood did not mention the meeting at his daily press briefing when he discussed the secretary’s second day in office.

According to the State Department, Clinton praised the women’s “bravery and courage” for bringing reform to Afghanistan and reaffirmed President Obama’s commitment to stabilizing Afghanistan.

At her confirmation hearing, Clinton also pledged to focus more attention on women’s issues, especially in Afghanistan.

On Thursday, Obama and Clinton named Richard Holbrooke, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, as a special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Holbrooke negotiated the 1995 agreement at Dayton, Ohio, that ended the war in Bosnia.

Holbrooke called his latest mission “a very difficult assignment.”

“Nobody can say the war in Afghanistan has gone well, and yet, as we speak here today, American men and women and their coalition partners are fighting a very difficult struggle against a ruthless and determined enemy without any scruples at all,” he said after his appointment was announced.

Holbrooke said, “If our resources are mobilized and coordinated and pulled together, we can quadruple, quintuple, multiply by tenfold the effectiveness of our efforts there.”

Amid an administration review of North Korea, Clinton also spoke to the foreign ministers of Japan, South Korea, China and Australia — key allies working to disarm Pyongyang, the spokesman said.

She also spoke with the foreign ministers of India, Britain, France, Germany and the Czech Republic, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, Wood said.

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The administration is also reviewing policy toward Iran, with Obama promising more engagement. Wood said that Undersecretary William Burns would be seeking input from Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia, partners in the so-called “P5 plus one” group dealing with Iran’s nuclear program. Video Watch Obama discuss the need for greater diplomacy »

Sources said Dennis Ross, a Mideast peace envoy for previous administrations, will be an envoy in charge of engaging Iran, but it is unclear what role he’ll play.

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Is The Fair Pay Act For Women A Constantly Moving Target?

Remember those Looney Tunes animated cartoons where the characters Wile E. Coyote (also known simply as “The Coyote”) and the Road Runner did battle with each other, with the Road Runner  using devilish tricks to humiliate and defeat the Coyote.  I remember one cartoon, or seem to, where the Road Runner kept zooming ahead, constantly moving the sign that said “5 miles to Somewhere”, so it became a 100 mile trek, with the goal always out of reach.  The Coyote usually wound up running as fast as he could and going SPLAT head on into a wall or cliff, having completely lost his bearings in the skulldudgery and never even getting close to his destination.

I remember a personal trip like that when I, my niece and a few supportive friends made the trek to visit a nephew of mine who had misguidedly joined the remote Rashneesh compound in Oregon.  Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rashneesh had purchased the 64,000 acre Big Muddy Ranch near Antelope for $5.7 million and enticed many of his followers to join him, their wallets in hand.  Our goal was to get my nephew to sign some papers to preempt him from emptying out any of his other relatives’ bank accounts into the guru’s pockets, to support the guru’s lavish livestyle or his fleet of Rolls Royce’s, in which he drove by and waved to followers like my nephew whose job was digging fence posts and pledging more money.  As we drove on and on into the Oregon wilderness one of my friends asked dolefully:  “Is someone running ahead of us, moving these signs back 5 miles, every time we drive 4 miles?”

Good question.

And one which Lilly Ledbetter and a lot of other women must be asking ourselves about now. My nephew was not the only one ever to be suckered.  My niece and my friends and I were not the only ones who ever made a long trek only to have the sign posts moved down the road ahead of us to forever prolong the journey. Lily Ledbetter is an unfortunate symbol for women. She embodies the wrong that has been done to us all.  And one more time, there are promises on the table to correct it.  But will it happen?

According to the AFL-CIO in House Passes Two Major Working Family Bills: Fair Pay Act, Paycheck Fairness Act, Lilly Ledbetter says she knows she’ll never recover the hundreds of thousands of dollars she lost from her paychecks because of nearly 20 years of pay discrimination. But a few days ago, by a vote of 247-171, the House passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Act (H.R. 11) overturning the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that denied Ledbetter—and any worker who suffers pay discrimination—justice. Then shortly after, lawmakers added some new teeth to equal pay laws and passed the Paycheck Fairness Act (H.R. 12) by a 256-163 vote. Both bills now go to the U.S. Senate.

During a conference call with reporters Ledbetter said:

“I’m a living example of the fact that pay discrimination is a pervasive problem in workplace today….My case is just the tip of the iceberg. My case is over and I will never receive any pay. But Congress has the power to ensure what happened to me won’t happen to anyone else.”

After years of working at an Alabama Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant, Ledbetter discovered she was being paid less than the lowest-paid man doing the same work. She gathered enough evidence to file suit, and a jury awarded her $3.8 million. But Goodyear appealed to the Supreme Court.

But in May 2007, the Supreme Court squelched the award and ruled Ledbetter—and other workers—has no right to sue for a remedy in cases of pay discrimination if she—or any worker—waits more than 180 days after her first paycheck, even if she didn’t discover the pay discrimination until years later.

Following the court’s ruling, hundreds of pay discrimination cases have been thrown out based on the 5-4 decision that basically overturned decades of precedent that considered each paycheck a discriminatory act, thus allowing workers who don’t discover the discrimination for years to seek legal remedies.

Marcia Greenberger of the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) says the Ledbetter bill is a matter of economic justice and a matter of economic urgency for women and the families they support. More than 300 cases…were lost because of the court’s ruling. How many more were told by their lawyers, “It’s too bad. You’re too late.” We can’t wait another day to pass this law.”

The Paycheck Fairness Act, introduced by Rep. Rosa DeLauro’s (D-Conn.), would provide more effective remedies for women who are not paid equal wages for doing equal work, by adding some teeth to the 1963 Equal Pay Act. The Paycheck Fairness Act makes the 45-year-old Equal Pay Act a more effective tool. It stiffens penalties, protects workers from retaliation and offers concrete solutions to what is a real problem.

Anti-labor groups and Republican leaders in the Senate are sharpening their knives for the upcoming vote on this and the Employee Free Choice Act.  It is sure to be a knock down drag out battle.

And one more time, can women look forward perpetually to have the destination of equal pay enticingly in our sights then have it moved down the road again?  Will we keep getting suckered in?  Will we once more go SPLAT against the wall of our expectations?  Stay tuned..……

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Investment In Women in Emerging Markets Promises Long Term ROI

For some time now, women have formed non-profits, and along with governments and non-governmental agencies, have sought to provide micro-loans to other women in emerging nations, in order for them to start their own businesses.  Usually the loans were to automate a skill the women already possessed, such as enabling them to purchase an industrial sewing machine.  Or to capitalize on an asset they already possessed, such as enabling women of a Latin American mountain village, which raised geese, to start exporting pate to France and goose down pillows to the United States.  But the array of business skills they needed….in marketing, book keeping, product management…. was sorely lacking.

World Women Trade Fair

World Women Trade Fair

Ms. Okoli-Owube, 31, faced this dilemma first hand.  Even with a university degree, she found herself struggling to start a business and learn business skills at the same time. When she “saw a local newspaper advertisement last spring for 10,000 Women, a global entrepreneurship program run by Goldman Sachs, she and about 100 other women jumped at the chance to apply.”

As reported by the New York Times in Business Skills for Women in Emerging Markets, the welfare of girls and women has long been on the agenda of international agencies. The World Bank, for example, announced steps earlier this year to increase support for women entrepreneurs by channeling some $100 million in commercial credit lines to them by 2012.

But corporations have also begun to take their economic power more seriously, especially in emerging markets.

Many corporate programs employ microloans, grants or gifts to promote business education. Goldman decided to take a different approach after its research showed that per-capita income in Brazil, China, India, Russia and other emerging markets could rise by as much as 14 percent if women had better management and entrepreneurial skills.

“It’s not only philanthropy they’re after,” said Geeta Rao Gupta, president of the International Center for Research on Women. Goldman “had the idea that investment in women means a return on the gross national product of the country, and on household income.”

The company set aside $100 million over five years to bring business education to 10,000 qualified women business owners in developing countries, a commitment that remains unchanged despite banking industry turmoil.

Ms. Rao Gupta said the long-term view that Goldman and others were taking in emerging markets might help form a new economic stratum in societies where women’s participation in business traditionally had been restricted. Laws and customs in some countries, for example, bar women from opening bank accounts or require a husband’s permission to set up a company.

“This is the next step for women because it’s investing long term in business skills,” said Ms. Rao Gupta, whose institute researches and provides technical assistance for women in developing countries.

It has been said: “If you want to help a country, help the women in it.”  We applaud this commitment to women in developing countries.  We hope it continues and expands.  There is no question, in my mind, it will be a success in enpowering these women and consequently helping their families and their entire communities.

Photo Credit: World Women Trade Fair – The Goal of the International Handcrafted Gift and Home Textile Expo . is to assist women entrepreneurs living in third-world countries to ACCESS  GLOBAL MARKETS , and to also create awareness of the potential of TRADE as a mechanism for development and poverty reduction in developing countries. They use fair trade practices and eco-friendly products that do not destroy the environment. They are helping to reduce the level of poverty through community projects-building schools, health clinics, and providing training programs to other artisans leading to job creation.

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Women of the Year – The Grit To Persist

I’m a big believer in proclaiming “Women of the Year.”  I believe in identifying positive role models to give us Hillary Clintonall something to aspire to.

It also helps to give us hope when some of our goals….such as electing a woman to the White House… seem, at times, to recede before us, like those refracted heat waves that appear to form shapes, then vanish in the desert, leaving us wondering where is our palm lined pool of shimmering water? Nothing but miles and miles of dry, hot desert when it comes to women’s presidential aspirations.  But, better to light a candle than curse the darkness.  The candles women have lit and carried in the past year, or a bit over in one case, include some of the following outstanding women:

The New York Daily News named their New Yorker of the Year saying: “Hillary Clinton proved a woman of resolve and class.”

We couldn’t agree more.  And she did a lot more than that.  She made it more feasible for a woman to run for President of the United States, and she upped the ante for contenders to 18 million votes.  But Clinton’s skills as a campaigner, we predict, will be overshadowed by her skills as a serious decision maker and global negotiator.  I, for one, am heartened and relieved that , at least, the second phone call which comes in at 3am will be to Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

I don’t believe in “book-ending” Governor Sarah Palin with Clinton, but neither do I believe in ignoring her plucky candidacy. She was called on and she took up the challenge, energizing her party and becoming a celebrity in the process. Common wisdom has it that she made Tina Fey a bigger celebrity in the process as well with her Saturday Night caricatures of Palin.  I don’t deny those caricatures were fun, of a type, but I will find them a lot funnier when we actually do have a woman in the White House.

I think we should give Queen Elizabeth of England some appreciation if, for nothing else, endurance.  She fills that classic Elizabeth II in 2007requirement: 50% of winning is “just showing up for the job”.  Queen Elizabeth has shown up for over 50 years, if you only count the years since her coronation. ( She also, for example, presided over public events and, during the war, trained as a driver and mechanic, and drove a military truck  making her the first, and so far only, female member of the Royal Family to actively serve in the armed forces.)

I met Benazir Bhutto in San Francisco in 2001, I believe.  Although there was some controversy surrounding her I always admired her and found her speaking inspiring. “Bhutto was the first woman elected to lead a Muslim state,[5] having twice been Prime Minister of Pakistan (1988–1990; 1993–1996). She was Pakistan‘s first and to date only female prime minister. She went into self-imposed exile in Dubai in 1998.

Bhutto returned to Pakistan on 18 October 2007, and was assassinated on 27 December 2007, after departing a PPP rally in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi, two weeks before the scheduled Pakistani general election of 2008 where she was a leading opposition candidate. The following year she was named one of seven winners of the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights.

Benazir Bhutto

I think Bhutto provides another example of a woman persisting in her beliefs and showing up in the face of personal danger. Although she died a few days before 2008, it is now time to mark the anniversary of her violent death.  I salute her and say farewell.

I know there are many, many more women who should be saluted and honored in 2008.

I would nominate all the women who worked so hard for their candidates in 2008.

I would nominate all the mothers and daughters and wives who worked to maintain their families and those who lost loved ones in national service in conflicts abroad.

I would nominate all of us who have persevered, despite an unlevel playing field and personal challenges.

I suspect that might be all of us.

If you have women you think should be named women of the year,  please do write and share with us who they are.

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Latina Advocate/Change Agent, Hilda Solis, To Lead Labor Department

Want to see real change?  Obama is nominating someone for a Cabinet post, Secretary of Labor, who has been about change all her life, and who has shaken up the old boy’s club  doing it.

Hilda Solis, according to Harold Meyerson in the Los Angeles Times is “the Latina daughter of immigrants, a product and champion of the labor movement, a staunch environmentalist, an ardent feminist and one of the gutsiest elected officials in American politics.”

Now, that’s what we’re talking about.

“I’m very excited,” said Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. “This is an extraordinary moment for all women, but especially for the Latino community.”

One of seven siblings and daughter of Nicaraguan and Mexican parents, her father a union shop steward, Solis has been concerned all her life with the lives of the working poor. ” In 1996, as a first-term member of the California state Senate (and its first Latina member), Solis did something elected officials just don’t do: She took money out of her own campaign treasury to jump-start an initiative campaign to raise the California minimum wage. Californians passed it overwhelmingly.”

In the state senate, Solis  focused on cleaning up the air and environment in factory neighborhoods and projects to improve poor communities.  She stood up against domestic violence in cultures where male dominance and female submissiveness were ancient and ingrained habits and families often turned a blind eye to this type of abuse.

In 2000, in another gutsy move, Solis challenged a member of her own party for his seat in Congress and won by 69% to 31%.  Her victory signaled a tidal wave of change that had been building in L.A. with the influx of immigrants and the gradual transformation of red neighborhoods to blue.

Coming from a Waspy backround, but partnered with an Hispanic, living in a vibrant city with over 50% Hispanics and imbued with Latin culture and having lived in Latin America for five years, I had long seen the handwriting on the wall. As the Latin population has grown in all of the U.S.‘s major cities, new identities, forged by the challenge of equal rights and labor struggles, education, immigration, bi-lingualism and other daunting issues, have created new power for Latinos who are seizing success in virtually every arena of life in the U.S. From cinema to restaurants, singing to salsa.  Latinas are no longer on the fringes of power, but in the white hot center.

I wanted for Latinas and Latinos the same thing I seek for women in our culture: genuine equity.  And, after many years of working for women’s rights, I realize that comes from two things: succeeding in pocket book issues and wining office in politics.  So I was appropriately thrilled to learn of Hilda Solis’s nomination to prominent office, where she will, without a doubt, be a groundbreaker.

“It was no coincidence that shortly after Solis’s 2000 victory, virtually every Democratic elected official in Los Angeles marched alongside striking union janitors. As the janitors could (and did) attest, Solis’ victory had been theirs too.

“Known as a coalition builder in Congress, Solis has continued to focus on labor, immigration and environmental issues, “coauthoring the Green Jobs Act, providing federal funds for job training in retrofitting, solar panel installation and other environmentally friendly occupations.”

Hilda Solis is clearly a change agent. She has a proven record of change.  And, once in office, we will look forward to her, with passion and her hallmark fearlessness, continuing to transform the landscape around her.

If you ask me, Hilda Solis is change we can believe in.

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Challenging Women: If You Want To See A Woman President, Don’t Agonize, Organize

It seems like a million years ago now, that I was a fervent Hillary Clinton supporter and volunteer.  I campaigned for her, I raised money for her, I set up offices and went to other states to work for her.  Was I disappointed she lost? Sure.  There was a lot about the entire campaign that I was disappointed in, but I’ve had to let it go. We have a new president elect now whom I’m ready to support.

What I haven’t let go is my dream of seeing a woman in the White House someday.  I don’t know if that will happen in my life time but I’m not going to stop trying.

I went with my family to see the movie “Milk” yesterday afternoon, the one in which Sean Penn gives a shining performance as gay rights activist Harvey Milk, who was ultimately assassinated.  In it, someone said to Milk, as he prepared once more to run for political office as an openly gay man: “You know Harvey, you’ll never win this.”  He responded “Not everything is about winning.”

And I agree.  It’s the same point Albert Camus made in “The Myth of Sisyphus“, about a man being condemned to roll a rock up a hill only to have it roll back to the bottom again, and again.  Camus found something very courageous and uplifting about the act of trying to roll the rock up the hill: the victory inherent in our every day struggle to achieve our goal, to roll the rock up the hill.

The greatly esteemed Lynette Long says:” Right now, many people believe that they will not see a woman elected president of this country in their lifetimes…..

One can hardly blame people for feeling this way. But, I think it is too early to conclude that we will not see a woman elected president in the next 24 years. So, if you think you have another quarter century in you, not only might you see a woman elected president, you can help make it happen. It won’t happen because it will be easy to accomplish. And it It won’t happen because of hope. It will happen because of hard work in the face of long odds.

It will happen because we challenge ourselves to make it happen’ to make it a national priority. We must recognize that electing a woman to the Presidency of the United States of America is a way of affirming the 51 per cent of the American population consisting of women, a way of affirming that Americans can understand human rights well enough to appreciate that women’s rights are human rights, a way of affirming the great American heritage in promoting the rights of all persons based on ever more inclusive ideas of who counts as a rights-bearing person.”

Well, I agree with all of that.  Lynette also challenges us to join the White House project and to start our own groups, “Send A Woman To The White House.”

I believe, in addition to all that, we have to start from where we are with what we’ve got.  We have to elect more women to school boards, city councils, as mayors, senators and governors, so we develop a broad based farm team to start.  We have to identify the right women, believe in them and work for them.

And, equally important, we have to not allow the bias in ourselves, that puts a higher bar on women entering office than men.

I was at a party Saturday night when a long time woman friend and Obama supporter sat down next to me and started chatting about politics.  I told her I was impressed with a lot of Obama’s appointments and certainly wished him well considering the dismal state of our country now, with a recession and two bloody wars ongoing.  She told me how much courage she thought Obama had and what a magnanimous person he was for nominating Hillary as Secretary of State.  I said, “Well, if he thought she was that capable, why, during the campaign, did he say she had just gone and had tea with diplomats”. Tea, in the event you are not aware of it, is a long time code word marginalizing women, accompanied, even in the time of our own Boston Tea party, by the implication that women were out having tea with each other, mixing with undesirables, stirring up mischief, and leaving filthy homes while men where in “men’s places” drinking a good stiff whiskey and doing great things for humanity. I offered the opinion that if he thought Hillary was capable, to say she just drank tea instead of accomplishing anything was both cynical and hypocritical. She said: “Well, you do what you have to in order to win.” I said, “If you have to be cynical and hypocritical to win, maybe you shouldn’t do it.”

She exited the conversation.  I was reminded of a scene in The Godfather where Al Pacino, with great anguish, declares: “I try and try to get out and they just keep pulling me back in.”

It was an Al Pacino moment for me.  But then, although I wanted to put the whole thing behind me….not the election…but the denigration of women which sprung from it…..or rather, was made more unbearably visible by it, I didn’t really want to get out of the battle.  We are never going to get there without a battle.  And I hope we are up for it.  One more time.  Just to get you going, and if you doubt the reality of where we are and how daunting the challenge, perhaps you’d like to read a few of the White House Project facts below

The White House Project points out the following Women Leader Facts & Quotes:

  • Out of over 180 countries, only 11 have elected women heads of state.
  • 16% of members of national parliaments worldwide are women.
  • ‘Toughness doesn’t have to come in a pinstripe suit.’
    - California Senator Dianne Feinstein
  • ‘Don’t agonize. Organize.’
    - Florynce Kennedy
  • “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
    - Muriel Strode
  • “You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.”
    - Beverly Sills

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