Power to women!

A hundred years ago, the suffragette movement put its campaign on hold and joined in the war effort. By the end of the war, women had proved to be a vital workforce  in industry, replacing the men involved or lost in combat. In 1918, they had their first taste of power when women over the age of thirty were given the right to vote. Less than a century on, some women are at the very top of the industrial employment ladder. Sarah Kovaleski is one of those women:

All Power to Her!

But there are so few.  There are so few in political and monetary power.  I listened to a recent report that women simply don't consider themselves as political candidates when they have credentials far superior to those of men who throw themselves into the fray with abandon.

It is a great loss to the world that females have been so buried by religion and cultural practice, often related.

5/6/2014

                               Condalina Rice,  Barbara Jordon

                               Just two great women who made
                               their mark on the world..

                                           Cheers..  Joe

Women definitely have it tougher than men.  Childbirth, etc. then all of the other problems that attend their offices.

We can name the few women who make their mark while the majority, men, make the money and carry the day.  We can't name them; there are too many.

My daughter-in-law's given name is Lynann Elizabeth. Since Elizabeth is my Susan's middle name, that means she shares a part of her name with all the women in Dave's immediate family. When he first told me, I said it must mean that it was a match made in Heaven, or he'd better run like Hell, and only he could know which. I am very glad he didn't run.

Lyn grew up in New York's Hudson River Valley. Her mother used to laugh about being a "Bible Belt Methodist" who shocked her family by marrying an immigrated Russian Jew. Actually, it was Lyn's grandfather who was the immigrant, and the three of them were all members of the Unitarian Church, but Lyn is proud of and honors her heritage on both sides. Her mom, Beverly, was an independent woman in a generation where there were few of them, even in New York. She was a psychiatric nurse and a semi-professional ice skater. She stood abour 5' 4" and weighed just under 100 lbs. She was a master at the art of "softpower." I miss her, and only had a few years and occasional visits to get to know her. Her daughter, husband, and son-in-law miss her more. She lost a long battle with cancer a few months before Jaycie was born. Her name for her daughter's little "baby bump" was Junior Cheerio, which became Jennifer Catherine, which became Jaycie. She joked toward the end that whenever we saw a butterfly, we should be friendly, because it just might be her. And synchronicity or coincidence, everytime I've been out with the family, at least in the milder months,there has always been at least one to come around.

Whenever I get on my high horse over the need for balancing the Feminine powers in a Masculine world, my three girls just look at me a little strangely. Lyn is a tenured university professor. Lynn is a middle school administrator, and Susan a high school counselor. They have no problem with the strong women thing. it's just a part of who they are.

Me? I was raised to be a "lady," and that meant, in the time and place of my girlhood, accepting my status with grace and going about my duties quietly and proficiently. Those duties involved keeping house, or at least overseeing those who did, looking after my children, cooking gourmet meals, and entertaining guests and business associates, often on an hour's notice. I was known for being pretty good at it, and it was a shock to the community when my children's father decided he would rather spend his time with the woman who ran his claims department, and I ended up back in school to finish my degree, and then moving the children to Houston where there were better career opportunities.

Today I am a strong believer in women, especially as opposed to ladies. Power to us all!

I'll drink to that, Ann, and I'll hand a half-full glass to DK, so she can join in the celebration.  

Every day women make a difference in their traditional roles as counselors, teachers, social workers, therapists, mothers and a few a business owners, executives, scientists and politicians.  Women make a major difference but that difference is either benefiting the career of a man in a higher position or going totally unrecognized.

I am talking about walking into a business and assuming the chief executive is a woman.  I'm talking about a Congress equally represented by women according to the population distribution of men and women.

Women today outperform men in education.  What they have that women don't is the ability to make connections for the specific purpose of rising in their professions and knowing which hands to grease, which to shake and when. 

Put four men and two women around a table and a woman's remarks will be passed over but picked up and repeated by a man who will be praised.  Often men don't hear women; they are too busy planning their own words and looking for their own opportunities.

These observations are not intended to belittle men by any means but rather to praise the skills they have picked up in team sports, the military, boy scouts, etc. that help them walk all over females.

Korean men had it right.  They were clear that they were the chief decision-makers.  Women were only allowed to work as typists and tea girls until in their 20's then expected to marry and leave the workplace.  Men gathered with men at the Kiesing  (Geisha) houses after work where the real negotiating went on behind screens.

Men's clubs (golf, tennis, squash) have long been the connection and decision centers.  While the men play golf, the women are in the office working harder and getting behind.

Toward the end of my teaching career, that started to change in our district. It had to do with the school board's desire to get re-elected. It wasn't so much about changing demographics as it was about the tax-paying residents coming to a realization of their power.

A fellow Engilsh teacher on my campus, a good friend, a relatively young man, came to me, upset over the fact that was becoming more and more obvious: If you wanted a promotion, you needed to be a female and a member of a minority. This individual was not only a white male, he was a Republican. White men were being passed over, and the new, good, administrative jobs ere going to African-Americans of both genders, and to Hispanic women. He was suddenly at the bottom of the totem pole. He didn't like being there. It helped me to know from working with him that he was a good man, a good teacher, and that he had the ability and the credentials to do the job, so I was able to sympathize, to an extent. The fact was, so did those minority men and women have the creds and the experience - even more experience, actually.

I liked the young man; we had been guests in each others homes. We had worked together to solve problems within our campus English department. But I was not sorry to see those changes coming from Central Office. They were long overdue. That was about a year before I transferred to the night school. In other words, about 20 years ago, and it was already happening.

Change is coming but at a snail's pace.  I have a friend with a common marriage name but a Mexican maiden name.  When she applies for a job, she puts her first name, maiden name and married name to be clear that she is Hispanic.  Being bi-lingual, Hispanic and a well-educated female is a benefit.

In another position, we had the opposite.  Those with married Hispanic last names used them to make our executive "balance" for diversity look better.

We've had so many school superintendents around here (they are appointed by county) that have made unwise moral choices short of illegal but not appropriate in their personal and professional lives that school boards are now appointing female superintendents.  They seem to display more wisdom regarding sexual and favoritism matters.

It's interesting to note, however, that the females in superintendent positions are not known for their nurturing qualities but rather for being task oriented and harsh.  That's probably code for leaders.

Again, there are differences

I spent my last eight years in teaching at a night high school, set up to reduce the drop-out rate and get those who had back in classes. Our principal was a woman. Her motto was, "Show them that you care." We were a small campus - about 300 students. Classes started at 3:00 pm and ended at 10:00. We had lots of young mothers who came because we had a "night" care center.

At first, we couldn't get the state to allow meal service because the law said the we could not serve lunch later than 1:00 pm. There were no rules to allow serving dinner. There were no rules about a lot of the things we had to work out. We had classes four nights a week. On Fridays, we had full faculty meetings that lasted a couple of hours, and after, we jept our classrooms open for tutoring any students who chose to come. The first year was one of trial and error, and we made som errors before we started to get it right, but we all worked together. We all had a voice, and we all worked toward a common goal - to keep these guys in class and find ways to help them learn.

As for the meal problem, our principal orgainzed a group of parents to come in and serve light meals and snacks. She did a lot of the leg work herself. By the beginning of our 2nd year, we had finally convinced the state to allow an exception on the time for serving "lunch," and the cafeteria people took it over, but our little group of parents still stayed involved, helping to man the "night care" program. Eventually, we had a certified program that allowed our student moms and dads to earn credit by spending a part of their evenings in the nursery with certified home-ec teachers training them in child and home care. We eventually had our own building rather than using a wing of one of the regular high schools, and one of the innovations involved a group of us setting up a computer-based credit recovery program so that students who had not been given credit for many of their courses because of poor attendance could make up that credit in a matter of weeks and be able to move on.

We all worked as a team, but the power behind that team was the woman who saw a vision and worked to put it all together. She fought for the school and for her faculty members as well as the students, and for seeing to it that we had the freedom to devise programs that worked. No one worked harder than our principal. Talk about leading from the front!

I just noticed how often I used the word "work" in that last paragraph. Probably because that much "work" went into the program. The first year, only 20% of our students passed the state exams for graduation. The second year we were up to 70 %, and after that, we averaged around 85%, which was as high as the rest of the district.

Another of the district's female principals headed a 5A high school on our east side - heavily Hispanic. This woman was also Hispanic, and while I never taught under her, I heard a lot about her. She, too, had a reputation for being a collaborator who cared about the staff and the students and was able to get parents involved (generally a problem in that district since most of them worked)

After the first few years we were finally able to get an assistant principal to back her up - a Hispanic male who fit into the program beautifully, and made his own contributions. He, too, served from an attitude of caring and collaboration. It was a good place to work, and our leaders were effective because they were involved and because they listened to their staff and to the students. They were natural nurturers who saw the staff as a cooperative unit rather than as competitors for perks and position.

I am a strong supporter of women. My wife belongs to this select group and she is very important to me.

Did you know that Wyoming and Utah, two of the earliest States to allow women the right to vote, found women of the LDS faith (because it was the predominant religion of the area at the time, middle to late 1800's) leading the way in securing this right. I mention this only because many have the false impression LDS women less than equal to men. That is a falsehood.

Also, a woman has the special gift of giving birth. What an honor that is. I know of no man who can do that.

Mr. Moore, you surprise me.  That is a very insightful post.  It is generally not the religion itself that demeans women but rather how men interpret its implementation to benefit themselves. 

I attend a very non-denominational Unity church that is considered a Christian church because the Bible is part of the liturgy even though it is interpreted from original texts and used for its philosophical and parable value rather than as a literal dogma.  We also study from other religious texts and invite other religious clergy to share their beliefs.

I love my church and its membership.  However, they have one problem that's major for me.  They encourage members to question everything and find within themselves that small voice of God that helps understand the mysteries and the choices one must make in life.  They don't say "you must" but only make recommendations based on the five church principles which I find open enough.

The problem is that accepting everybody into the church brings some people with some pretty far out beliefs (by my estimation) and they are given teaching opportunities to share them in classes, etc.  They write books that they believe channel God and are as spiritual as any Bible or religious text.  Or they believe they are healers and teach others to be healers (for a price of course).  They believe they are in communication with their past selves (many past selves) or reincarnated.  They also are very huggy and being of English background, I am warm but a handshake will do fine thank you, not all that hugginess with people I don't know.  They also have less stringent moral codes than the Baptist background that sort of set mine. 

All that is to say that they, too, believe they are following the beliefs of my church where I have a different path.  I am as uncomfortable with some of their ideas as I would be with bits from the LDS or Catholic faith as examples.  The preponderance of teachings in Unity, however, separate from how other people interpret them, give me the guidance I seek on a Sunday morning for a more promising outlook over the following week.

One certainty in Unity - all humans are accepted and provided equal opportunity to participate in the church hierarchy.  There's no homophobia or ethnic diversity squeamishness and many women are ordained pastors.  Peace with self to create a world of peace is a priority.

I've often said I love my church because Christ would feel welcome immediately.  However, there's a church that meets at the local park that also might compete for His attendance.