New Pink Power

Women don't have ambition? Really?

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's COO attributes the lack of equality in the workplace to women's lack of ambition.

“Until women are as ambitious as men, they’re not going to achieve as much as men.” – Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook

This is such an unfair representation. Are there women who don't have ambition? of course! the same way that there are men with no ambition.  But to characterize the inequality and injustice that women face in the workplace as our own fault, is going a little to far. 

Let's see...

• We go to work knowing that we will have to work harder than men to even be noticed
• Knowing we will be paid less than a man to do similar jobs.
• Knowing that we will see other people be promoted continuosly with no achievement over us other than having the right gender.
•  Knowing that for every sign of leadership and courage - any attribute celebrated in men - we will be labeled "a B".
• Knowing that there is a glass ceiling that apparently can only be broken if we have the right mentor.
• Knowing that we will juggle all this while being moms, wives, daughters and keeping our households running.

 If  this is not a sign of ambition, frankly I don't know what is. Anyone that manages to work and succeed under this circumstances has nothing BUT ambition!

 

Do you think you are too old to go after your dreams?

This thought has crossed my mind at some points in my life.  At 44, I now find myself working on my second master degree and although I did wonder for a while if I was too old to go back to school with 3 kids at home under the age of 12, a husband, a small business to run, and well.. did I mention I am 44? I have to say that this is the best decision I have made in a long time. It has been a breath of fresh air. It has given me an opportunity to learn a whole new field, to re-activate my brain, and basically to start planning the next 40 years of my life.

It wasn't until recently however, that I realized that our understanding of "age" has changed a lot. Look at Frances Hesselbein for example.  She is 96 years old. Yes! 96! and she is the CEO of the Peter Drucker Foundation. Now called the Leader to Leader Institute and soon to be renamed "The Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute".  So if France can be CEO at 96, I think the sky is the limit and those of us who question whether we can go after our dreams at 40 or 50 or 90 for that matter, should stop and realize that the whole definition of "age" has forever changed. Women like Frances are an inspiration.  Read Frances hesselbein's story. Buy her book at Amazon.

Miss Representation - A film exposing how the media erodes female self-worth!

A documentary revealing the damage mainstream media does to women! In a film directed by Jennifer Siebel Newson, she exposes how American media erodes female self-worth. How TV, Film, and Web content teach us that our worth is based on our desirability. How women leaders are trivialized, and how Hollywood green-lights few female protagonists especially if the role does not involve landing a man.

Watch Miss representation's official trailer below. And then look for a screening near you.

How craiglist enabled sex slavery!

Much has been said about how Craiglist being forced to shut down their adult services section was a violation of the first amendment.  When you look at it from the outside, you may agree with that statement, until you dig a little and realize that Craiglist was a major venue for the trading of young girls for sex. Did you know that about 100,000 girls are traded for sex annually in the United States? and the majority of them are trafficked by pimps online. And unfortunately Craiglist had become the wal mart of the child sex trade in America.

The Rebecca Project for Human Rights was founded to advocate for justice, dignity and policy reform for vulnerable women and girls in the United States and in Africa. They believe that women and girls possess the right to live free of gendered inequity and violence, and that investment in their leadership creates healthy, safe, and strong communities.  Learn more about the Rebecca project at http://www.rebeccaproject.org/index.php.

So while some people may focus on the fact that this may look like a violation of the first amendment. I personally feel that if it somehow limits the ability of some pimp to trade young girls for sex, it should be lauded.  As a society we have an obligation to - at the very least - protect vulnerable girls from sex abuse even if we don't do more to help them become useful members of society.

 

Helping Women Survivors of War Rebuild their Lives

Women for Women International intends to change the world one woman at a time.  It provides women survivors of war, civil strife and other conflicts with the tools and resources to move from crisis and poverty to stability and self-sufficiency, thereby promoting viable civil societies.

Women for Women International works with socially excluded women in eight countries where war and conflict have devastated lives and communities. They enroll women in a one-year program, and provide them with job skills and business training so they can earn a living. They come to understand their rights and how to fight for those rights in their homes, their communities and their nations and become leaders.

Get Involved. Help a woman survivor of war rebuild her life. To make a donation go to https://mywomenforwomen.org/donation/donate-now.php?wfw=webgen

 

 

Climb Wyoming - Providing Free Training and Job Placement to Singe Mothers

Did you know that In Wyoming:

• Nearly half of the families living in poverty are headed by single mothers
• Almost half of the babies are born to mothers on medicaid
• Women earn an average of 60 cents for every dollar earned by men creating the largest wage disparity in the nation

An Non-Profit organization is trying to change that.  The uniquely comprehensive CLIMB program model was developed in 1986 to help move single mothers out of poverty - permanently. The program has helped over 1000 families reach self-sufficiency to date, the effects of which will be felt for generations.

To meet Wyoming's workforce needs, the CLIMB programs are helping women enter construction and energy trades as well health care, office careers and more.

The basis of the model is a job training and placement program – but there is more to permanent life change than finding a job. Other skills are needed – skills that ensure successful relationships on the job and in the home. Core to the model are mental health services that address personal barriers that have impeded success in the past.

They operate through grants and donations. We can all help.  To make a donation, go to http://climbwyoming.org/support.html.

 

 

Isabel Allende Tells Tales of Passion

I just finished listening to the short speech by Isabel Allende.  It is so wonderful to hear more women delivering the message that we all need to deliver: how the empowerment of women can change the world.  In her own words: "we need to make the world good. Not better! Good!".   See the video here. It only takes 17 minutes of your time.  After that, please share this page with your friends.

Getting Girls into School

We all want more children around the world to go to school.  But did you know that most of the benefits that accompany increased education are attributable to girls, who use their schooling more productively than boys?  Women in the developing world who have had some education share their earnings; men keep a third to a half for themselves.  Yet, 60% of the kids OUT of schools are girls.  And in some areas in the world, only 1 out of 5 get any education at all. When girls go to school, they marry later and have fewer healthy children.  With 5 years of education, her child has a 40 % better chance of living to age 5.  Some studies even indicate that a girl with education is 3 timess less likely to contract HIV/AIDS. Donor nations are increasingly reaching the consensus that global education, especially for girls, is the key to development.  But the main problem is not only funding, but changing the culture in parts of the developing world.  Parents will need to understand that in the long run, their families will be better off if girls get educated. Watch the video on the Girl Effect at http://www.girleffect.org/#/video/

Worldwide Gender Politics

Worldwide, women fill only 15.4% of ministerial positions.  I just ran into the following statistics and found them very interesting. The regional averages are:

Americas         22.9%   (23.8% in the US)

Europe            22.4%

Africa             18.3%

Asia/Pacific    9.1%

Middle East     7.1%

What are the countries with the most female ministers?

Finland             57.9%

Norway             55.6%

Spain                52.9%

Grenada            50%

Sweden             47.6%

What are the countries with the least female ministers?

Turkey                  4.2%

Afghanistan           3.7%

Pakistan                3.6%

Papua New Guinea 3.6%

Iran                      3.2%

What are the countries with ZERO female ministers?

Bhutan

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Burma

Libya

Monaco

Nauru

North Korea

Palau

Romania

Saudi Arabia

Singapore

Solomon Islands

Tuvalu

The most common portfolios of female participation are human services and education.

Sexism sells... How long until we stop buying it?

I just came across this video and it had me literally in tears.....yes! we all know sexism is prevalent, yes! we all know the name-calling, outright abuse, and harassment that women that are trying to change the status quo live with, but are we being blind to what the media is doing to us?  The video I am talking about is posted at http://womensmediacenter.com/sexism_sells.html.  Please spend some minutes watching it and forwarding it to your female friends and family and definitely sign the petition on the site.

Although a lot of the content on the video is of political nature and of "Hillary-nature", don't let that put you off if you are not a Hillary-follower. This is not about her, and this is not about political parties.  This is about the permission the media feels it has to bash women.

When a man stood up in front of Hillary in the campaign trail, with a sign saying "Iron my shirt".  Where was the uproar?  where was the media?  but more important... where we we?  as a gender we need to work together to not only highlight situations like this, but also to work on changing the fact that "it is OK" to do that.  What if someone had stood up in from of Obama to say "Park my car" or "wash my dishes".  What do you thing would have happened? maybe that is why black men were able to vote 50 years sooner than women were.  We have a big lesson to learn from the underrepresented group of African Americans. They have been able to work together to institute change while we women sit on the sidelines maybe even possibly crying foul, but then moving on to something else that gets our attention.   So how long until we start fully working together? how long before we stop buying the messages the media gives us?

I say "yesterday was late"!! get involved!! get involved with the community and with the organizations that are working on behalf of all women!!!  fight for what is right and learn to stick together as a gender.  My friend Eme with lots of wisdom recently told me... "There is only one area in which women are inferior to men, and that is in their ability to play together and to work together". So, I say it is time we stop buying it!!! it is time to come together and continue changing the world, even if as one of the men on the video say... "I close my legs when I see Hillary".   Let them all close their legs when they see we are a power to be reckoned with.