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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If, as The New Agenda co-founder Amy Siskind suggests: “A fraternity of leadership has led our country into an economic crisis of epic proportions, ” will women be the ones to bail us out and put our financial house back in order? As The New Agenda further points out:
The Times: In an article titled Age of Testosterone comes to end in Iceland:
“Iceland, ravaged throughout history by volcanic eruptions and natural catastrophes, is struggling with a man-made disaster so overwhelming that the women are taking over. It is, they say here, the end of the Age of Testosterone.”
Next week a newly minted left-leaning Government led by Johanna Sigurdardottir will start to tackle the tough agenda of cleaning out the old-school-chum networks that have led Iceland to the verge of bankruptcy.
Half of her Cabinet will be women.”
New York Times op-ed: In an piece titled Mistresses of the Universe, Nicholas Kristof posits:
“At the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, some of the most interesting discussions revolved around whether we would be in the same mess today if Lehman Brothers had been Lehman Sisters.“
What do you think?
Have the guys displayed a little too much testosterone and too little….. what shall we say…brains? balance? reserve? How about common sense? I would hazard a guess most women wouldn’t take $1 and bet $30 on it, like most U.S. banks have done, and which got us into this mess to begin with. Unless they’re addicts.
Oh, I forgot. You can get addicted to power and greed. But women, for the most part, aren’t. So it makes sense to give them a shot at cleaning up this mess the power players have made.
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Former Autodesk Chief Executive Carol Bartz, 60, will be the new CEO at Yahoo. And that’s a Yahoo! for a woman playing with the big boys in the hallowed tech preserve. And another kudo for not backing down when the pundits start sharpening their knives for her.
Bartz has a long string of successes so she is well equipped for the job:
Tons of awards, but who’s counting? The point is Bartz has smarts, experience and moxy.
Some of the pundits have quibbled that she’s a manager and operating person not a Mergers and Acquisition guy. Did anyone here see Wall Street?
We thought the goal was to run a company, not necessarily sell it or break it up and sell the pieces.
In an online conference call today, Bartz confronted the pundits head on and came out swinging:
“Let’s not put ourselves in some crazy timeline. Let’s give this company some frigging breathing room. Everybody on the outside deciding what Yahoo should or shouldn’t do–that’s going to stop,” she said. Her first meeting with Yahoo’s managers was set for 10 minutes later, she also said. Another moment came when asked about how her background at a company selling software to companies would serve her at an Internet company selling ads and serving a large consumer audience. Bartz was quick to slap down the doubts about her expertise as nonsense.”
“I didn’t know CAD (computer-aided design) when I joined Autodesk, I didn’t know hardware when I joined Sun,” she said. “I have brain power to understand what it takes.”
Now there’s a woman who knows who she is and is about to show us all. A tip of the hat to Bartz and our hearty congratulations
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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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For the first time in American history, a woman has achieved the rank of U.S. Army four-star general.
The Pentagon announced Monday that Lt. Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody had been nominated for the position.
“This is a historic occasion for the Department of Defense, and I am proud to nominate Lt. Gen. Ann Dunwoody for a fourth star,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in a CNN report. “Her 33 years of service, highlighted by extraordinary leadership and devotion to duty, make her exceptionally qualified for this senior position.”
On Friday, Dunwoody received her fourth star during a promotion ceremony.
While military women nationwide are certain to foresee brighter futures thanks to the standard set by Dunwoody, the nomination comes as welcome news to all women — especially women veterans.
Local women veterans expressed their pleasure at the news of Dunwoody’s nomination.
“I think it’s about time,” Air Force veteran Vivian Chiasson of the Village of Rio Grande II said.
“I think it would be absolutely wonderful,” Beverly Belanger, an Army veteran of Lady Lake, said. “It’s time for some new blood — female blood.”
She added, “As long as the lady is qualified to fill the position, I would love to see a female general in there.”
Although the role has been limited to men in the past, local male veterans fully support and praise the advancement.
“As far as I’m concerned, if she’s qualified, it’s a wonderful thing,” said retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Fran Pagliarulo, a Village of Bridgeport at Lake Sumter resident. “Women have become more and more recognized for their abilities.”
Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. John Sievertson heartily concurred.
“I think it’s great,” the Village of Belvedere resident said. “It’s just been a matter of time until (a female) reached the four-star general (position).”
While these men were proud of their female counterpart, many found the news surprising — however welcome. In fact, Dunwoody joked about her husband’s reaction during her promotion ceremony Friday, according to The Associated Press.
“There is no one more surprised than I — except, of course, my husband,” Dunwoody said. “You know what they say, ‘Behind every successful woman there is an astonished man.’”
Prior to her most recent promotion, Dunwoody had been awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Army Achievement Medal, Master Parachutist Badge and the Army Staff Identification Badge.
During the Persian Gulf War, Dunwoody served with the 82nd Airborne Division in Saudi Arabia. She also has been assigned to the 10th Mountain Division and the Defense Logistics Agency.
Daisy Moon is a reporter with the Daily Sun. She can be reached at 753-1119, ext. 9067, or daisy.moon@thevillages media.com.
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Getting inside Obama’s ‘brain’ – CNN.com.
“- Karen Kornbluh is not famous, but her ideas are. As Barack Obama‘s chief policy director, political insiders call her his “brain.”
Karen Kornbluh, Barack Obama’s chief policy director in the Senate, writes extensively about women and families.
“Karen is a big ideas person, but more than that, she’s able to bring a lot of really smart people together and convince them to leave their egos at the door,” remarked The Washington Note blogger Steve Clemons. “She was a key reason why Obama’s message resonated.”
Kornbluh, 45, was the chief architect of the 2008 Democratic platform and the former deputy chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin during the Clinton administration.
She has written extensively about women and families. Her most famous essays “The Mommy Tax,” “The Joy of Flex” and “Families Valued” contend that modern American families are overworked, underpaid and deserve more respect from the federal government.
She has been quoted by many high-profile politicians, from Sen. Joseph Lieberman to former Sen. John Edwards.
Her sons, ages 7 and 11, were impressed that their mother authored the plan that energized an entire party this year. But they really wanted to know one thing: “Is your name going to be on it?” they asked her. Somewhat shy and a self-described “wonk,” she was slightly mortified to see that it was. They thought it was the coolest.”
Kornbluh spoke exclusively to CNN about working with the president-elect.
For the whole post, go to Getting inside Obama’s ‘brain’ – CNN.com.
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Lynette Long: Palin Displays Her Feminist Side – From the Washington Post.
AdvancingWomen.com adheres to a strictly non partisan policy, but we do support women and we’d like to see a lot more of them in office and a lot more of them recognizing and talking about positions which will help women. So we’re always glad to see another excellent post by Lynette Long who is very outspoken on her pro-women positions.
Lynette Long
HENDERSON, Nev. — Extolling the virtues of equal pay and opportunity for women, this afternoon GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin framed her White House quest in terms of feminist values.
“I have a question for the women in the audience,” the Alaska governor began her speech here at the Henderson Pavillion, underneath an arching white tent. “Are you willing to break the highest, hardest glass ceiling in America?”
Palin surrounded herself onstage with two higher-profile defectors from Sen. Hillary Clinton’s camp — Lynn Rothschild, a member of the Democratic Platform Committee, and Elaine Lafferty, a former editor-in-chief of Ms. Magazine — along with Shelly Mandell, the president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women, Linda Klinge, the vice president of Oregon’s NOW chapter and Prameela Bartholomeusz, a small business owner and member of the Democratic National Platform Committee….
Lynn Rothschild, former Hillary Clinton Supporter
And while Palin has spoken repeatedly on the stump about shattering the “glass ceiling” with her candidacy, this afternoon she lashed out at Democratic nominee Barack Obama as a hypocrite who fails to treat women — including Clinton — as equals.
“When the time came to make a decision, Barack Obama couldn’t bring himself to pick the woman who got eighteen million votes in the primary,” Palin said of Obama’s vice presidential pick, comparing it to the discrimination women face in the workplace every day. “The qualifications are there, but for some reason the promotion never comes … You’ve got to ask yourself, why wasn’t Senator Hillary Clinton even vetted by the Obama campaign?”
Elaine Lafferty, former editor-in-chief Ms. Magazine
Palin went on to suggest Obama discriminated against women employees in his own Senate office, as opposed to GOP presidential nominee John McCain.
“There is a difference between what Barack Obama says and what he does,” she declared. “Out on the stump, he talks about things like equal pay for equal work, but according to Senate records, women on his staff get just 83 cents for every dollar that the men get. What is with that? Does he think that the women aren’t working as hard? Does he think they’re 17 percent less productive?”
“I know one senator who does pay women equal pay,” she added, referring to McCain.
Within minutes of Palin’s remarks, Obama senior advisor Anita Dunn issued a statement saying, “Senator Obama has fought for equal pay for an equal day’s work, while Senator McCain has suggested that women don’t get equal pay because they need more education and training. While Senator Obama has proposed a plan to help working women, the McCain-Palin campaign offers just more negative attacks and distortions.”
An Obama aide who asked not to identified said that women on McCain’s staff earn more comparable salaries to men on staff because they occupy more senior, high-paid posts in the Arizona senator’s office, not because Obama discriminates against women.
Palin went on to say, if elected, she would pursue policies such as flexibility in labor laws so women could engage in more telecommuting and would push for a tax code “that doesn’t penalize working families.”
“Working mothers need an advocate, and they will have one when this working mother is working for all of you,” she said, as the crowd cheered.
A former high school basketball player, Palin then launched into a detailed discussion of Title IX, a 1972 law that banned discrimination in any educational program or activity that receives federal financial assistance. The law applies to a broad range of activities, but it has helped ensure high schools and colleges provide equal funding for sports programs and other measures in which men and women participate.
Palin said that she had benefited from Title IX, and for women of her generation, “Over time, that opened more than doors to just the gymnasium. It allowed us to view ourselves, and our futures, in a different way.”
While she credited feminists with the enactment of Title IX — saying, “We owed that opportunity to women, to feminists who came before us” — Palin quickly emphasized that Americans who embraced a different ideology could also push for gender equality. “A belief in equal opportunity is not just the cause of feminists. It’s the creed of our country.”
Toward the end of her remarks Palin seemed to echo the theme that Clinton touted as First Lady: that women across the globe deserved the same rights that American women enjoy, including freedom for sex trafficking and honor killings. “If I am elected, these women will have an advocate and an defender in the forty-seventh vice president of the United States,” she told the audience.
Let’s hope that either candidate who is elected will choose to advocate for and defend women. It’s high time.
For more posts by Lynnette Long, go to Lynette Long
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Changing Expectations and Strategies to Achieve Successful Career Integration
Society is sending women conflicting messages about which elements constitute success for a woman. Should she bake a perfect blueberry pie and chauffeur around kids with sparkling white socks, or should she aspire to be a corporate attorney for a Fortune 500 company and hire a nanny and a cook to shoulder some of the household duties.
In fact, both of those images conjure up a type of perfectionism women should aspire to, which, in itself, is a problem. The fact that both ideals are diametrically opposed makes a choice even more painful. To achieve great success in one area, almost certainly means giving up on great success in the other, at least, as both work and family are structured today.
Starkly put, this ambivalence about women’s role assumes that it is not possible to fulfill both roles as well as one should and, consciously or unconsciously, results in the “dumbing down” of women, who often choose less demanding careers, or avoid some career tracks altogether.
At times, women have taken it upon themselves to lower their expectations at work, in order to fulfill their obligations at home. A woman might choose to stay in a position in human resources, for example, rather than seek as job as a line executive, responsible for profits. Her career prospects would definitely be enhanced as a line executive but that career path might force her to travel, or subject her family to frequent moves.
This avoidance of career opportunities not only extracts an emotional as well as career price, hindering advancement but also affects the balance of power in the home, as the primary wage earner garners more prestige and respect and increasingly dominates the decision making. This unfortunate cycle leaves the woman with even fewer choices and increasingly less opportunity to grow and move along a successful career path.
Kim Babjak in StartupNation Blog writes Take me serious, or else!: “How do we get taken seriously about being sister-preneurs? My husband, I love to death and have been with for 25 yrs… needs to be continually trained and educated on the principals of homemaker/entrepreneurism. I am sad to say that the topic of the current Sara Palin phenomenon that I do not understand; how can you be a mom and run the world?
Well we can! We just need to delegate well.
I will tell you that as a mother of FOUR boys, just last night I had to once again snap hubby back into the reality of mom-preneurism.
It was our fourth child’s birthday, I ran around all day gathering items for the birthday, plus clean house, and I took off work to be with them as mommy….
Then hubby gets off work, scott free from anything. At the end of the evening, me being tuckered out, asked hubby, who did -0- to help out with anything, complained when I asked him to rub my sore, tired feet……YIKES! (no matter how successful you are, or become, we all have the same problems, just on different days!)
Moral of the story….men will always see us, consciously or unconsciously, (depends on what PhD you ask)as the one who takes care of the home, kids, HIM, and oh yes your home office thing!
Girls….It is a matter of conditioning, reinforcement and firm commitment to ease/shift the home and kid responsibility to the family for help. Take care when doing this, do not cause tension, for that will ultimately cause more stress. Teach without them knowing they are being taught.
My solution…..first talk and make clear your requests….
Second….if not responding…..reiterate your needs…
Third…..start going to dinner by yourself and movies, giving the family time to fend for themselves….
If all else fails…STRIKE!
There has to be a balance of power and commitment for both sides, keep pressing until it is reached.”
Moving Towards Change : Strategies for Successful Career Integration
Communication With Their Peers
Women should seek to dialogue with other working women about these choices and challenges in order not to feel isolated or that the fault lies with them
Higher Aspirations by Women
Women sometimes do not “actively work toward promotion“. Women must reflect higher aspirations and never stop seeking to advance in their careers.
Financial Independence
Women must seek to achieve and maintain financial independence because of expected additional years in the workforce and because a realistic look at statistics shows that women are most at risk for financial hardship as they age.
Enhancement of Career Opportunities
To enhance career opportunities and remain current and viable in their careers, women must take advantage of diverse learning experiences, volunteer for opportunities or positions which lead to additional experiences and seek advice of mentors, experts or colleagues.
The Equal Partner Conundrum
Negotiate with your husband, before marriage, or now, if you are already married, on what responsibilities he is willing to share so you can continue to grow and advance.
In the final analysis, AdvancingWomen.com agrees with author Kim Babjak : “If all else fails…STRIKE!”
For more, go here:
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Two Women, Great Legacies -Concurring Opinions.
“This week marked the passing of two women journalists who pioneered great change in their times. According to The New York Times obituaries section, Nancy Hicks Maynard, the first black woman to be a reporter at the New York Times, died at 61. Ms. Maynard joined the New York Times in 1968 where she stayed until 1974. At the Times, she reported on race riots, student takeovers at Columbia and Cornell, and the death of Robert F. Kennedy. She also wrote for the paper’s education and science news departments. She founded the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, which has trained hundreds of minority journalists in the past 31 years. Ms. Maynard and her husband, Robert C. Maynard, a columnist for the Washington Post, bought the financially-ailing Oakland Tribune in 1983. The Times reports that her interest in journalism was sparked after a fire destroyed her former elementary school in Harlem. Outraged by the way her community was described in the press, she “decided she could make a difference.” Indeed, she did.
And so did Mary Garber, a journalist who first began covering athletics more than 60 years ago when female sportwriters were barred from press boxes and locker-room interviews, who passed away on Sunday. When Ms. Garber began her career as a sportswriter, the craft was dominated by men. Coaches treated her badly, her fellow sportswriters ignored her, and professional associations excluded her. But she perservered, first covering high school sports and then on college athletics. She also highlighted the acheivements of black athletes in the 1950s, in particular at Winston-Salem State, a time when “news about black people ended up on the Sunday newspaper’s ‘colored page.’” The Hall of Fame basketball coach Clarence Gaines told a reporter in 1990 that “We had outstanding athletes . . . and Mary came to write about them when no one else cared. Mary was always trying to help the underdog.” She later wrote for The Twin City Sentinel in Winston-Salem and The Winston-Salem Journal. In 2005, at 89, she became the first woman to receive the Associated Press Sports Editors’ Red Smith Award, presented annually for major contributions to sports journalism.”
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This is exactly the kind of coming together and collaboration of women’s communities of interest that AdvancingWomen.com has been talking about and, hopefully, encouraging.
In this instance, Feminist Law Professors and The New Agenda are focusing on the same themes found in “Rumours of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated” and reflected in this Interview With Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney by MadamaB, Crossposted at The Confluence and MadamaB’s own blog
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney is described by author, MadamaB, as a “gracious, intelligent, fiery and fabulous feminist.” Among the many points Congressman Maloney makes is that real progress will come “when there is a critical mass of women in government. Once 30% of our representatives are women ( Ed. some say 50%) , women’s issues begin to be addressed. The United States is nowhere near that critical mass yet.”
What is important, in the context of women’s emerging communities on the Net, is not the specific point a women’s activist makes, but the fact that she is taking a pro-woman stand in a society where there is a systemic bias which diminishes women and results in limiting their progress. What is significant in this instance is that Feminist Law Professors , The New Agenda, The Confluence and MadamaB’s own blog have all come together on the Net to reinforce each other’s perspective on the themes in Maloney’s book.
AdvancingWomen.com‘s position is that “it is important that a meaningful part of content on the Net be shaped and produced by women and offer new paradigms to support women’s advancement…. Our first task is to foster a sense of inclusive community among women’s groups with many different agendas and ideologies because that is the catalyst which will drive open communication among them and form the foundation for both networking, and its further evolution into a support system….
To achieve women’s advancement in many areas – business, law, politics, academia – we need a critical mass of women and women’s organizations to share their knowledge and strategies.”
When AdvancingWomen.com sees women’s groups like Feminist Law Professors , The New Agenda, The Confluence and MadamaB come together to share their knowledge and strategy, we feel very encouraged that the first steps towards that synergistic nexus of women’s communities on the Net has been taken and its evolution in growth and influence has begun.
When we look at the tools women have created or managed on the Net, a common theme runs through them: “Tina Sharkey at Johnson & Johnson’s (JNJ) BabyCenter ( networking and sharing information about child care and child raising); Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr (photo sharing); Mena Trott, co-founder and president of blogging powerhouse Six Apart ( connecting and communication through blogging); and Gina Bianchini, CEO of Ning, which lets users build their own social networks ( do it yourself, customized social networking)”. In one way or another, all these women have addressed the technical “how to” part of the equation of women’s communicating and networking on the Net. Other groups, many just now forming, are driven by the need to fill this new engine for thought and dialogue with their own passion, to level the playing field for themselves and other women.
In the beginning, many purposeful and committed women may have found themselves a bit put off by the jarring disconnect of the techie culture, in contrast with their own more reflective styles. Very young men in tight T shirts with screaming logos or rebellious, clever or obscure quotations, slumped in bean bag chairs for an all night “hackathon” until some got leg burns from their lap tops, amid crumpled, empty pizza boxes, crushed Red Bull cans and blaring music pulsating through a giant open space, frequently a loft or run down office. Was there a flash of genius there? Definitely, sometimes. Mostly they could have produced the same work from 9 to 5 but the crazy hours and adrenalin high were all part of the exuberant experience for them.
For equally driven women, either in their corner office, having fought tooth and nail to get there, or who might have met at Starbucks for a latte or a caramel frappe, or be sipping oolong tea on their deck or multi-tasking in their home office, Blackberry in one hand, baby on a hip, stepping over the tennis shoes of their son, roughly the same age as the founders of some of the new Net companies like Facebook….there may have been a sense that they didn’t belong in this new Net frontier. Not that the wonderboys were swinging open any doors for them. But women have long ago learned no one is swinging open any doors for them. If women want to walk into the tech scene and become powerhouses on the Net, we have to step up, open our own doors and “make the path by walking on it.”
AdvancingWomen.com has no doubt that women will go for it and stake our own claim to our sphere in the Networked world, particularly now that the social networking era with all of its new, automated tools is upon us. We have a hunch that “our” Net, the “women’s communities’ Net” will be different. It will be less about technical wizardry…..not that we don’t appreciate every ounce of that as it makes our work easier….give us those WordPress plug ins by the barrel full; it will be more about solving deep rooted problems woman have faced. It will be less about reaching out for new Net frontiers to conquer, than working together to reshape attitudes and stereotypes from the past that have prevented us from crossing old frontiers.
This time, we don’t have to ask permission to join the “old boys’ game”. ( Many of the old boys got “kicked under the bus” by the wonderboys anyway.) This time we have the tools and the ability to use the Net to route around the existing power structure, bypass the gate keepers, and ignore the often condescening “talking heads” to speak directly to each other, each from our own community of interest reaching out to like-minded others.
Also see:
Community on the Net – The Platform To Network, The Power to Mentor
