On a recent trip to the Great Barrier Reef, I encountered a new travel phenomenon: an island where your room key is currency. No matter where you are - in a restaurant or a gift shop, on an excursion or at a bar -- if you hand over your key, the charge magically appears on your final room bill. Convenient, smart and, for tourists who don't feel the immediate effect of dwindling cash, perhaps a tad dangerous.
Currency (and not just the kind you can spend) had been on my mind last June when I travelled throughout Australia. As the founder and president of the White House Project, a nine-year-old US- based organization committed to advancing women's leadership across all sectors, right up to the American presidency (hence the name), I had been invited by the Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasia to speak at its annual conference in Melbourne. I also went to schools in Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney to talk about women's leadership at individual schools. My topic was aspiring to lead and the currency of power.
In Adelaide, the second city I visited, Seymour College conducted a survey of girls in years 6 to 11, asking them to identify the issues that most affect them today. I was dismayed to see a striking similarity in the problems that girls have faced for decades in the US: body image, the "mean girls" syndrome, concerns about work and family, and male domination of the workplace, which was identified mostly by the older girls who are set to enter university and the working world.
We're stuck in many ways and here's why: the images that girls see, the culture they inhabit, the air they breathe -- all of these things tell them that while the key to power for men may be leadership, for women it's still mostly through men. And men come only if the women are thin and beautiful.
I was immediately thrown back to the '80s and my two eye-opening years in the American banking industry. In banking, as in many work environments then, women employees traded heavily on their beauty as a path to power.
I thought the women would be grateful when, as a female executive, I began to push against this familiar currency, challenging the way women at every level were sexualized. My female counterparts were anything but grateful. To the contrary, they knew this was the only real power they had and they weren't about to do any currency exchange that might produce a loss.
Until women and girls have real paths to real power, beauty and body are the currency they will trade in -- not brains.
The White House Project's message resonates strongly with women across continents. Women of all ages have an integral part to play in politics and leadership. Their currency -- new ideas, energy and perspective -- is global.
In Australia, I spoke about how girls could some day run for office, take charge of media images by learning to critique and challenge them, and make the women leaders in their own communities visible -- and I can tell you that these girls were ready to build real power for themselves and others. This would be their new currency. I told them, until women have real power, your issues won't disappear -- girls will still patrol the boundaries of the feminine, ensuring beauty and femininity are enforced.
To be sure, it is an uphill battle. As the recent book Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters From Marketers' Schemes [by Sharon Lamb and Lyn Mikel Brown] lays out, the media and marketeers have co- opted "girl power" and are profiting from selling the image of girls as "sexy, diva, boy crazy". These packagers encourage girls "to use their voice" to choose accessorizing over academics, sex appeal over sports, and boyfriends over friends. Our work begins by combating these cultural hurdles.
Real power -- the power to make decisions, to create change and lead -- is key. Once women have it, the world won't change for them alone; it will also change for the better, for men, for families, for communities and for workplaces.
I'm so sure this will happen, I would bet real currency on it.
Originally published in Australia's Sunday Life magazine
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my last boss admitted to me that he would only ever hire women (all attorneys) because we TRY HARDER. that kind of says it all. even those of us who are supposedly sitting in the men's seats at the table are still expected to try harder. and we do...
needless to say, i started my own company so all that extra effort came right back to me. this is a VERY IMPORTANT avenue for women who believe in balanced lives - working for ourselves. not coincidentally, my sister chose the same path.
i think we should treat the first 10 years of our careers as intensive training and networking, so we can spend the next 40 living our lives on our own terms. that, to me is "women's liberation."
personally, i couldn't care less about sitting at the head of a long table and ordering a bunch of boring corporate conformists around. if men get off on that, let them - i don't believe that will make most women happy for any length of time, because we value strategy, collaboration, connection and quality of life over pure power and cash.
most people seem to want the cash so they can retire and live their own lives. they seem to want the power so they can feel in control. i say, eliminate the middle man!
just my 2 cents.
due to the way we humans reproduce, women are going to continue to spend more time with and be closer to embryos, babies, and children than men (duh!).
As has been said before by others, and better than I can say it, when women are involved with carrying fetuses and then raising human young, it is likely that they will lose out in any power struggles outside (and maybe inside) the home.
Therefore, it seems to me, if we want to help empower women, we should encourage those things which make it easier for women (and some men) to care for the young of the species. Making healthcare available, much longer paid-leaves for child rearing, and childcare in the workplace whereever it is practical are all things that can help empower women by taking some of the stress off of them.
But until moms all over the world start to value brains over beauty, forget it. And I live in a Hispanic area where female looks are valued way over brains.
and Bratz make me puke.
Gives men something to look at when they're talking.
When one regards what Hillary Clinton is subjected to now (Who the heck CARES about her cleavage?!?!?! MSM sure focussed on it.), campaigning for the democratic nominee for the Presidency, I know we have a looooooooong way to go.
It's going to take a Cultural Shift and a huge change in Values and Priorities in our country if we want to accomplish any kind of equal rights for women. I dreaded raising a daughter in this country, and consequently, she attends an international university and considers herself a global citizen, rather than an American.
She strives to bring peace and equality to all, and I'm proud of her.
I don't see it as an uphill battle, or even going against the grain. Just finding a solid center, standing there, and listening to the currents and responding with conviction. As the above poster said, it does take tradition, and a form of religion. Feminism, like any ism, separates you from the task.
I'd be interested in getting involved in the dialogue.
I was raised in a home where Gloria Steinem was highly respected and discussed. I listened. When my father, his friends and my uncles tried to explain why feminism was wrong for both women and men, I saw they had no valid points. They had to rely on tradition and religion. Keep speaking the truth, children grow up and vote and they can discern bullshit if they aren't wedded to an issue for selfish reasons.