The Self-Empowered Woman

135: The Self -Empowered Woman: Clara Driscoll

2012-02-12T16:00:00.001-08:00

Dear Followers,

About eight years ago, researchers who were working on a book about Louis Comfort Tiffany made a startling discovery. While they were at the Queen's Historical Society they found a cache of letters written by Clara Driscoll to her mother and sister, which outlined her work as a glass cutter and designer of the much-valued classic Tiffany lamps. Their 2007 book tells the story of young Clara Driscoll and the 35 "Tiffany Girls" who were largely responsible (but mostly unacknowledged) for the award-winning lamps. Not surprisingly, it was assumed that Tiffany himself - with the help of his male design staff - created the complicated designs.

Clara Driscoll (born Clara Pierce Wolcott on April 2, 1861, in Tallmadge, Ohio) lost her father when she was only twelve years old (1: No Paternal Safety Net). Unlike most girls of her era, she and her three younger sisters were all encouraged to seek higher education. From an early age, Clara had an obvious artistic talent and attended art school at Cleveland's Western Reserve School of Design for Women (2: An Early Sense of Direction). Eager to leave Ohio, she - like lots of women of that era who were intrigued by the industrial arts movement - moved to New York (14: Selective Disassociation).

She enrolled at the Metropolitan Museum Art School, and was hired by Tiffany in 1888; four years later she was named director of the "Tiffany Studios' Women's Glass Cutting Department." These women chose the colors, size and type of glass pieces for the popular windows, mosaics and Tiffany lamps. Driscoll became the creative force - director, designer and crafter - of more than 30 iconic designs (like the Daffodil, Dragonfly, Peony, and Wisteria).

When she began working for Louis Comfort Tiffany, she was a 27 year old well educated single woman, but when she became engaged Driscoll had to leave Tiffany's because the company did not allow married women to be employees. After her husband died, she returned to the company and her Dragonfly lamp won first prize at the Paris Exposition of 1900 (8: Turning No Into Yes).

Back in 1902, Dsiscoll wrote home to her family that 15 of the Wisteria lamps that she had designed had been sold for $350 each. In today's dollars that price would be several thousand dollars. By 1905, 123 Wisteria lamps had been made, and Tiffany's took orders for them for years afterwards. In 1904, the New York Daily News included Driscoll as one of a handfull of remarkable women who made "$10,000 a year or more" (13: More Than Meets the Eye).

Her lamps became so popular, and demand was so great, that she had to give classes to the male employees on how to properly cut the glass pieces. It was another example of s female achieving an unusual level of authiority (5: Life is Not a Popularity Contest).

In 1909, she left the company for good, and after that the women's staff shrunk, and tastes changed with the advent of World War I. Had it not been for the discovery of her historically priceless letters, the talented Clara Driscoll might have never been recognized for her inmpressive body of work. In 2006, the New York Historical Society's exhibit in her honor "A New Light on Tiffany" introduced her designs to the public, and the following year "A New Light on Tiffany: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls" was published.

Looking forward to your comments...

134: The Self-Empowered Woman Sheryl Sandberg

2012-02-08T15:44:00.000-08:00

Dear Followers,

Today's profile is of a 42 year old, Harvard-educated executive who is expected to become - probably next month - one of the richest women in America. Sheryl Sandberg grew up in Florida, where she was "always at the top of her class" (10: The Critic Within). Her aerobic students (she taught when she was in high school) would probably be astounded that the teenage girl in Spandex grew up to become a $ 1.6 Billion Woman.

While at Harvard, she kept an extremely low profile and later admitted that she "really fooled" her male classmates during seminars because she "did not speak or raise her hand, but went on to join Phi Beta Kappa, and win the honor of being "Top Graduating Student in Economics" (13: More Than Meets the Eye). Perhaps the best bonus was winning the support of Larry Summers, who was her professor (and later her mentor) at both The World Bank and the U.S. Treasury Department (4: Supportive Someone).

She earned her MBA - with highest distinction - and landed high-profile jobs in New York. But when she accepted Mark Zuckerberg's offer to become Facebook's COO, it was the "alignment" of a great talent complete with social skills, ambition, and smarts (who enjoys tackling the problems that her boss wants to avoid), joined with one of the free-thinking founding fathers of social media.

Sandberg is admired for her ability to keep Facebook running smoothly, as well as her motivation to promote women whenever possible. According to The New York Times, it has become Ms. Sandberg's "cause" (7: Magnificent Obsession). She also serves on the boards of Disney, Starbucks and Women for Women International.

Sandberg's first marriage ended in divorce, and in 2004, she married David Goldberg (CEO of SurveyMonkey); they have two young children. She and her husband are building a large, modern home (rumored to be over 9,200 square feet), and sure to be one of the largest houses in Menlo Park (Silicon Valley). Whether other residents like the idea of a "trophy house" in their neighborhood is of little concern to Sandberg (5: Life is Not a Popularity Contest).

Sandberg's honors include:

50 "Most Powerful Women in Business," Fortune magazine 2007 - to the present

50 "Women to Watch," The Wall Street Journal

No 5 "World's 100 Most Powerful Women," Forbes

25 "Most Influential People on the Web," Business Week

Her name is bound to be all over the media in the near future because many believe that she will rank "among the richest self-made women in America,"; wealthier than Meg Whitman ($1.3 billion), but not as rich as Oprah ($2.7 billion).

Looking forward to your comments...

133: The Self-Empowered Woman: AFCECO

2012-01-28T10:44:00.000-08:00

Dear Followers,

Today's post is not about an individual woman, but about a movement designed to allow us to help Afghanistan's girls. Last week, I attended a luncheon with my friend, Sonia Cooper (pictured above wearing the bright pink scarf), which was designed to introduce people to AFCECO (Afghan Child Education and Care Organization) www.info@afceco.org.

This organization is designed to house and educate Afghan children in need, and to prepare them to become a more enlightened generation to (as their handbook states) "...lift our country out of the decades-long morass...." As part of this goal Ian Pounds (ian.pounds@gmail.com) from Vermount has moved to Kabul and devoted his future to teaching and caring for these children. In the photo on the left, I am pictured with Maria Fahim of Kabul, who in the past three years has learned how to speak excellent English; her dream is to become an engineer.

Girls of an earlier generation (i.e., before AFCECO), couldn't have dared to have such a goal.
Coincidentally, this weekend's edition of the Wall Street Journal (I used to be one of their book reviewers), has a front-page story about education in Afghanistan, where only the small area around Kabul has a literacy rate for females of over 20%. For men, on the other hand, there are (out of 34 total) only four provinces in the entire country with numbers that low.

The reason I was even able to be lucky enough to meet Maria is that Ian has been chosen to travel around the United States with these children in order to a) introduce young Afghanis to he United States, b) inform audiences about what is being accomplished thanks to this remarkable organization and its orphanages, and c) raise money to fund this program and - possibly - find sponsors for the children in need. Here are a few of the statistics I learned while I sat and enjoyed lunch with Maria. In Afghanistan today:

Over 1 million children suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome

70% of school-age girls do not attend school

Over 400,000 children have been maimed by land mines

In the past two years, the number of orphans has risen from 1 million to 1.6 million

Over 600,000 children sleep on the streets

35% of the country's children have lost one parent

Approximately 2,500 girls and women have attempted suicide by self-immolation

At least 8,000 "enemy combatants" are boys aged 14 or younger

There were six children from Afghanistan on the tour, and several of them bravely spoke about how the Taliban had adversely affected their lives and their families. And then, with Ian playing the guitar, they sang "Blowing in the Wind." How amazing it must be for these youngsters to escape the conflict at home and experience a completely new way of life. From Florida they were traveling in their motor home to New Orleans, Texas and California; The Big Apple will be their last stop before returning to Kabul.

Learning about this organization and meeting girls who otherwise would have never learned literacy, computer skills, or the benefits of a "world view," really convinced me that each of us can make a big difference by donating just a few dollars to www.info@afceco.org

Looking forward to your comments...

132: The Self-Empowered Woman: Frederica Sagor Maas

2012-01-19T16:30:00.000-08:00

Dear Followers,

There are so many amazing women today who are accomplishing great things that - if I had a magic wand - I could easily post a blog a day. But in the midst of all the exciting events of today's world, every now and then it's nice to take a look backwards and salute a true pioneer.

Two weeks ago, Frederica Sagor Maas died at the age of 111 years and 183 days. She was known as one of the rare supercentenarians, which means a person over the age of 100 who is known for reasons other then mere longevity.

Frederica was born on July 6th, 1900 in a cold-water, railroad flat on 101st Street near Madison Avenue in Manhattan, N.Y. Her parents, Agnessa and Arnold Zagorsky had emigrated from Moscow, and Americanized their name. Agnessa supported the family (there were four daughters) by working as a midwife (2: No Paternal Net). As a child Frederica wanted to become a doctor, but later decided to study journalism at Columbia University. She had a summer job as an errand girl at The New York Globe, dropped out of college in 1918 (11: Risk Addiction), and took a job at Universal Pictures, New York office for $100 per week.

One of the ways she learned about the movies was to carefully watch the ones she liked numerous times, and then study them critically frame by frame (10: The Critic Within). By 1923, she was story editor for Univeral and (practically unheard of for a woman of that time) head of the department. But a year later, she became dissatisfied with her job, resigned, and moved to Hollywood (14: Selective Disassociation).

She got a job writing scripts for Preferred Pictures, where she was successful, and then she moved to MGM. She quickly learned that others would take credit for her ideas, as well as her scripts, but when she complained she was labeled a troublemaker and her contract was not renewed (5: Life is Not a Popularity Contest).

In 1927, she married Ernest Maas, a producer at Fox Studios, and they wrote several movies for stars like Louise Brooks and Clara Bow. Her contribution to the 1927 hit movie "Rolled Stockings" was so pivotal that her name appeared on the screen credits, as well as on the movie posters. This was unusual, especially for a "woman screenwriter" (13: More Than Meets the Eye).

The couple's lives began a grim, downward spiral when they lost $10,000 in the 1929 stock market crash and many of their scripts were rejected. During most of the 30's they lived in New York and reviewed Broadway plays for the Hollywood Reporter. When they returned to L.A., she tried to work as an agent and continued to try to sell scripts, but they literraly lived hand-to-mouth.

By 1941, they were earning money writing for political campaigns, but did sell one script ("Miss Pilgrim's Progress") that wouldn't be made into a movie for another six years. During this tough time, they were even interrogated by the F.B.I. because they subscribed to two rumored Communist publications. They had struggled financially for so many years, seen both their careers evaporate, and then watched as the Pilgrim script was sold for a pittance and turned into a hit Betty Grable movie. Discouraged and depressed, they decided to commit suicide in their car in 1950, but cried together and turned off the iginition.

Ms. Maas foud work as a typist in an insurance agency, but had to lie about her age (she said she was 40 rather than 50). In 1999, when she was 99 years old, she published her tell-all autobiography (The Shocking Miss Pilgrim: A Writer in Early Hollywood), which is considered essential reading for history about the movie industry. Her book is full of stories about Joan Crawford, Louis B. Mayer, Ben Schulberg, Darryl F. Zanuck, and other Hollywood royalty. At the time of her death, she wa the 44th oldest verified person on the planet and the third oldest living person in California.

Looking forward to your comments...

131: The Self-Empowered Woman: Naama Margolese

2012-01-08T16:47:00.000-08:00

Dear Followers,

Sadly, gender extremism seems to exist everywhere, and lately it has reared its ugly head in Israel. The picture above is of an eight year old little girl (Naama Margolese, who is the daughter of American immigrants), and lives in Beit Shemesh, a city that was established in 1950, and is located between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Naama is an innocent second grader at a local elementary school, but - unfortunately - she is now afraid to walk to school.

Why? Because she has been spat on and called names (including a "prostitute") by a group of Ultra-Orthodox men and boys who felt that her modest clothes were simply not modest enough. Women and girls are expected to wear buttoned up, long-sleeved blouses and long skirts, and are forced to cross the street (and not linger) outside of the synagogue.

The extremists in this part of Israel are called Sicarii (daggermen - named after the violent faction of Jews who tried to expel the Romans around 70 A.D.), and Israel's Ultra-Orthodox community is estimated to be ten percent of Israel's population. The number of Ultra-Orthodox Israelis is booming because of their high birth rate.

Even though Naama's parents are Orthodox, the gender separation has become a touchy political issue for the entire country. Recently, an 18 year old female soldier (Doron Matalon) was accosted on a bus in Tel Aviv because she (much like Rosa Parks) refused to move to the back of the bus where women are expected to sit so that they are out of sight. Israel's public buses began operating in Jerusalem 14 years ago, but in certain neighborhoods there are men-only sidewalks and waiting rooms. In the name of female "honor and modesty," women are not allowed to be seen on billboard advertisements in certain areas.

Last week, riots broke out in Beit Shemesh when men and boys (who were dressed all in black) poured out of a seminary and synagogue with signs that called for the exclusion of women. Most of the public benches from the neighborhood (where mothers could sit outside with their children) were removed. Obviously, as several experts have noticed, Israel's biggest domestic challenge will be retaining cultural values without destroying the democratic rights of all its citizens.

Looking forward to your comments...

130: The Self-Empowered Woman: How To Help Others

2012-01-05T15:21:00.000-08:00

Dear Followers,

One of my favorite holiday greetings was a reminder about the importance of gratitude. And all of us, no matter what challenges we face here at home, are remarkably fortunate in comparison to many of our sisters around the globe. This is the time of year (in America) when many of us decide to spend that extra Christmas cash on department store sales or other bargain "finds." But in the spirit of honoring remarkable Self-Empowered Women, I'd like to propose that we revisit some of the amazing women we've met on this blog, and donate a few shopping dollars towards helping them in their quest to help others. Geographically, I've found women who inspired me in a wide variety of countries - below is a thumbnail sketch of a few of the women whom I feel deserve our support:

Tererai Trent – ZIMBABWE (http://www.heifer.org/) This blog (http://marilynwillison.blogspot.com/2009/10/24-tererai-trent.html) was about a woman who lived in rural Zimbabwe, was forced to marry at age 11, and by 18 was the mother of three children. When a Heifer International representative visited her village, she encouraged Tererai to write her dreams on a piece of paper, bury it, and then dig it up once her dreams come true. She moved to Oklahoma with her husband when he came to America to go to college, and in 2009, Tererai received her own PhD, and decided to return to Zimbabwe to inspire others.

Ana Gonzales – CHILE (www.desaparecidos.org/chile/eng.html) This gray-haired grandmother, in her mid eighties, worked tirelessly to make the government of Chile acknowledge the crimes of dictator Augusto Pinochet. Her quiet, persistent efforts on behalf of families who lost loved ones ("The Disappeared") captured the world's attention and admiration. (http://marilynwillison.blogspot.com/2010/01/46-self-empowered-woman-in-santiago.html)

Mu Sochua - CAMBODIA (www.musochua.org/) This amazing woman was sent to California in 1972, because her parents were worried that the Khmer Rouge's genocide would put her teenaged life in danger. After she enrolled at San Francisco State University, she never heard from her parents - who were murdered in Cambodia - again. She returned to Cambodia in 1989, and has bravely worked to eliminate sex trafficking and domestic violence in Cambodia. (http://marilynwillison.blogspot.com/2010/04/57the-self-empowered-woman-mu-sochua.html)

Zainib Salbi IRAQ (http://www.womenforwomen.org/) The founder of Women for Women International, who grew up in Saddam Hussein's Baghdad, has made it her life's mission to help women war survivors around the world. She has distributed close to $50 million in micro loans and aid in countries from Bosnia to the Congo.(http://marilynwillison.blogspot.com/2009/09/22-women-for-women-international.html)

Xinran CHINA (http://www.mothersbridge.org/) This gifted author has written books and lectured on the radio to make as many people as possible aware of China's harmful "one-child policy," which was started in 1979 in an effort to control over population. Since many families choose to have only a son, countless baby girls are given away (or worse), especially among the poor. (http://marilynwillison.blogspot.com/2011/04/100-self-empowered-woman-xinran.html)

Looking forward to your comments...

129: The Self-Empowered Woman: Korea's Comfort Women

2011-12-20T16:06:00.002-08:00

Dear Followers,

There has been a lot of media attention focused on North Korea the past few weeks because of the death and state funeral of dictator Kim Jong Il, and the new ruler, his son, Kim Jong Eun. But today's blog is about a situation in Seoul, South Korea that, unfortunately, is receiving far less attention.

The photo above is of several elderly women and a bronze statue (named The Peace Monument) that sits on a street in central Seoul. The life-size statue was paid for with donations from South Korean citizens, and is strategically placed so that its eyes are directed across the street to the Japanese Embassy. Every Wednesday since January 8, 1992, a group of elderly women wearing yellow vests (former "Comfort Women") gather in silence to protest the actions of the Imperial Japanese Military during the 20th century.

From 1910 until 1945 Korea was under Japan's colonial rule, and one of the unspeakable side effects of this occupation was that thousands (estimates vary - depending upon the historian - from 20,000 to 410,000) of women in these territories were forced into sexual service at military "comfort stations." Today, the Japanese military admits that the women were coerced into serving at these stations, which in reality were military brothels.

Scholars have discovered that three quarters of the comfort women died, and most of those who did survive were left infertile due to either STDs or sexual trauma. One former Japanese soldier, Yasuji Kaneko, recalled his days as a soldier with these words "The women cried out, but it didn't matter to us whether the women lived or died. we were the Emperor's soldiers. Whether in military brothels or in the villages, we raped without reluctance."

While Korean women may have comprised the bulk of the area's comfort women, many came from China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and other Japanese-occupied territories. Even ten Dutch women were taken by force from prison camps in Java in 1944, and held in a Japanese comfort station. One of these Dutch women, Jan Ruff-O'Hearn, testified to a U.S. House of Representatives committee in 1990 about her experience as a war "sex slave."

The elderly Korean women who were forced to be comfort women during World War II want the Japanese government to pay reparation, rather than receive "hush money" from private donations. In addition to the fact that the interest level in World War II events is low, another problem is that time is running out for these quiet protesters. Twenty years ago, 234 Korean women were willing to set aside their shame and embarrassment to publicly protest the atrocities they and their peers suffered during the Japanese occupation. Today, only 63 protesters are available to gather in front of The Peace Monument each Wednesday.

Looking forward to your comments...

128: The Self-Empowered Woman: Margaret Thatcher

2011-12-17T14:55:00.000-08:00

Dear Followers,

Later this month, a new movie (The Iron Lady) that is already generating Oscar buzz and stars Meryl Streep in the role of Margaret Thatcher, will be released. Those of you who know me well, are already aware that I have both a personal and professional (i.e., emotional) connection to Mrs. Thatcher. The late Sir Gordon Reece, who was an intensely dear friend of mine, was instrumental in transforming her from a Conservative member of Parliament to the legend she later became. Margaret Hilda Roberts Thatcher is the first and only woman to have led a British political party, the first female Prime Minister in the English-speaking world, as well as the longest-serving British Prime Minister (of either sex) since British women were granted the right to vote (8: Turning No Into Yes).

Thatcher was born on October 13, 1925 in Grantham, in the East Midlands of England. Her father was a grocer who had two shops in Grantham, and was also a Methodist lay preacher (3: Belief in the Unbelievable). Their home life as a family that lived "above the shop" was full of reminders that hard work, education and discipline were the keys to success. Margaret and her sister were required to read two library books each week (and one of them had to be non-fiction). The family attended church twice each Sunday, and Margaret was an enthusiastic and admired member of the choir (9: Music).

Alfred Roberts (her father) also served as an alderman (a now discontinued form of local politician), and passed his love of public service to Margaret, his younger daughter, who as a little girl often went to political meetings with him (2: An Early Sense of Direction). Since there were no sons in the family, Alfred channeled all of his ambition into Margaret. At his urging she developed into a gifted student who became the first member of her family to attend college and - unlike her peers - managed to win a place at Oxford. As one admirer noted "Her father drove her to it. He may have been a Victorian patriarch, but he was no sexist" (4: Supportive Someone).

In 1949, at only 23, she was adopted as a Conservative Parliamentary candidate for the first time. Three years later, she married Denis Thatcher, who was ten years her senior and had been previously married; they soon had twins, Carol and Mark, and enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle in London. Even though her training was in science, she became a member of Parliament at age 33, which highlighted her natural tendency to be self-critical (10: The Critic Within). From her teeth to her weight to her clothes and even her voice, she worked hard (with Gordon's guidance) to be the best that she could be. Her staff and aides were often driven to the point of exhaustion by her perfectionist revisions and rehearsals whenever there was an important speech or event on the calendar.

Nicknamed "The Iron Lady" because of her fearless ability to take an unpopular stand (her decision to fight for a poll tax, go to war over the Falkland Islands, fight the unions and revamp the country's economy), she was often unpopular at home even though she was admired abroad (5: Life is Not a Popularity Contest). Lately, there have been a number of articles arguing that Mrs. Thatcher's decisiveness and economic realism is exactly what's needed in light of the global financial meltdown. After all, in nine tears she lowered the top rate of income tax from 98% to 40% and reduced "work days lost to strikes" from 29.5 million to 1.9 million. And these changes brought with them massive, controversial social upheaval.

Thatcher claimed that her leadership skills came from the lessons she learned as a child: "...an honest day's work for an honest day's pay; live within your means; put by a nest egg for a rainy day; pay your bills on time; support the police." She observed that "In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman." Mrs. Thatcher reluctantly left office in November 1990, when she realized that her own party - after she had been at 10 Downing Street for eleven years - chose to support John Major rather than her. She was deeply hurt and felt betrayed when she learned that the locks to her personal office door had been immediately changed after the vote. She made no secret of the depth of her sense of loss (12: Hard Times).

These days, she is known as "Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven," and it is rumored that when the 86 year old former Prime Minister dies - because she achieved more than any other peace time Prime Minister of the 20th century - she will receive a state funeral. It is an honor usually reserved for monarchs.

Looking forward to your comments...

127: The Self-Empowered Woman: Annie Edson Taylor

2011-11-19T07:35:00.000-08:00

Dear Followers,

Today's post is about an amazing woman who was born in 1838, and 63 years later became the first person to survive a trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

Annie Edson Taylor was born in Auburn, New York and her father (who left behind enough money to support his widow and eight children) died when she was twelve years old (1: No Paternal Safety Net). As a teenager, she attended a four year course in order to become a school teacher, and graduated with honors (10: The Critic Within). During her training, when she was 17 years old, she met David Taylor, who became her husband. They had a baby boy, but he died within days of being born. When Annie was only 25 years old, she became a widow when her husband was killed in the Civil War (15: Forget About Prince Charming).

For a number of years she changed jobs and locales frequently. In addition to working as a music teacher (9: Music), she also worked as a dance instructor. During her 30s and 40s she lived in both Bay City and Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, San Antonio, Texas, and even Mexico City (14: Selective Disassociation), but eventually returned to New York.

In a bad financial state, she decided to try to be the first person to ever successfully ride over Niagara Falls in a barrel (11: Risk Addiction). She had the barrel custom made out of Oak and Iron, weighted with a 200-pound anvil, and padded with a mattress and a leather harness. It was four and a half feet high and three feet in diameter. She and her barrel were taken by rowboat to Grass Island, where she crawled inside with her "lucky" heart-shaped pillow (3: Belief in the Unbelievable). At 4:05 a.m. on the morning of her 63rd birthday, the barrel was set adrift, and passed over Horse Shoe Fall.

By 4:40 a.m. the barrel was captured, and much to every one's surprise "Mrs. Taylor was alive and conscious" (13: More Than Meets the Eye).

A portion of the barrel had to be sawed off for her to emerge, but she walked along the shore to a boat that took her to Maid of the Mist Dock where she was taken by carriage into the City of Niagara Falls. Three doctors examined her and found a three-inch cut behind her right ear to be her only injury.

Annie earned money speaking about her experience, but she never became financially stable. What little money she did earn from her lectures was (along with the barrel) stolen by her manager. She used her savings to pay for detectives to track him down; he and the barrel were eventually discovered in Chicago.

Annie's last years were spent posing for photographs with tourists at her Niagara Falls Souvenir stand. She died destitute (12: Hard Times) in Lockport, New York at the Lockport Home and Infirmary. Currently, a play about her (called "Queen of the Mist") is being staged at the Gym at Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village, NYC.

Looking forward to your comments...

126: The Self-Empowered Woman: Dao Ngoc Phung

2011-11-12T20:26:00.000-08:00

Dear Followers, First of all, a great big THANK YOU to everyone who helped me celebrate my birthday. Lucky, lucky me to have so many kind, thoughtful and (amazingly) generous friends. Each of you made getting older more fun than I could ever have imagined!

Today I'd like to introduce you to an amazing 14 year old Vietnamese girl named Dao Ngoc Phung, pictured above with her younger brother and sister. My hero, Nicholas Kristof, wrote about her in his New York Times column as a way of illustrating the difference between the Vietnamese culture and ours. I won't be highlighting The Self-Empowered Woman traits that this young girl has, but I'll bet that you'll be impressed by the time you've finished reading this blog.

Phung is only 4'11" tall and weighs 97 pounds. Her passion is school, and in order to continue her education and meet her family obligations, she sets her alarm clock (six days a week) for 3 a.m. On Sundays, she sleeps until 5 a.m. Last year, her mother died of cancer and the family was left with $1,500 worth of debts. That's why her father has had to take jobs in the cities even though the family lives in a remote area of the Mekong Delta. So from Monday through Friday, Phung - who is in the ninth grade - lives like a single mother.

Each morning she wakes her siblings (Tien, who is nine and Huong, who is twelve), prepares breakfast, and they bicycle to school. For her it's a 90 minute ride each way, but she makes sure to arrive 20 minutes early so she won't be late for her classes. After school all three kids go fishing for their dinner, and then there is homework or chores. Everyday Phung helps her brother and sister with their homework first, and then she does her own. She rarely gets to bed before 11 p.m., and wakes up four hours later.

Phung wants to attend college and become an accountant, and while she is too poor right now for that to seem feasible, her astonishing work ethic just might make it possible. She recently asked her father to pay for extra tutoring, but he cannot afford the annual $40 fee.

Kristof feels that the 2,500 year old legacy of Confucius (which includes respect for teachers, scholarship, and the belief that "education can change destinies") works in her favor. In that part of the world, education is generally a top priority.

Phung's father never misses a parent-teacher conference even though he has to take off work to attend. He told Kristof "If I don't work, I lose a little bit of money. But if my kids miss out on school, they lose their life hopes. I want to know how they're doing in school. I tell my children that we don't own land that I can leave them when they grow up. So the only thing I can give them is an education."

If you would like to help this remarkable girl, a fund has been established in her name by an aid group called Room to Read.

Looking forward to your comments...

125: The Self-Empowered Woman: Dorothy Rodham

2011-11-06T13:19:00.000-08:00

Dear Followers:

Many of you might think that this blog would focus on Hillary Clinton, who is wearing gray in the above photo, because she was First Lady for eight years, a former US Senator, Presidential candidate, and our current Secretary of State. But, instead, I'd like to pay tribute to her mother, Dorothy Emma Howell Rodham, who died on November 1st at the age of 92.

Dorothy Rodham had a childhood that has been described as "Dickensian." She was born in Chicago in 1919 and her sister, Isabelle, was born in 1924: Dorothy's father (Edwin Howell) was a fireman and her mother (Della) was a neglectful parent. The couple had an unhappy, often violent marriage, and in 1927 Dorothy's father filed for divorce. Della did not show up in court, but her sister (Frances Czeslawski) appeared and testified against her. Edwin was granted custody of his daughters, but was either unwilling or unable to care for them.

When Dorothy was only eight years old, she was put in charge of her three-year old sister for their four-day train trip (on their own) from Chicago to Alhambra, California (1: No Paternal Safety Net). Unfortunately, her paternal grandparents were ill-prepared to take care of two young girls. Her grandmother (whom she remembered as a strict woman who wore black dresses, punished the girls severely for small mistakes, and wouldn't let them have visitors or attend parties) was once so angry at Dorothy for going trick-or-treating on Halloween that she ordered the girl to stay in her room for one full year - except for attending school. Fortunately, when the grandmother's sister learned about the punishment, Dorothy's "restriction" was lifted after four months.

At age 14, Dorothy moved out of her grandparents' home (14: Selective Disassociation) and accepted a job as a housekeeper, cook and nanny for a family that gave her room, board, and $3.00 a week. They encouraged the young teenager to read and go to school, so Dorothy enrolled at Alhambra High School where she joined both the Spanish and the Scholarship clubs.

In High School her speech and drama teacher (Miss Drake) and her English teacher (Miss Zellhoefer) let Dorothy know that they really believed in her. She paid tribute to them both in a book marking the school's centennial in 1998 (4: Supportive Someone). But after graduating in 1937, she made the brave decision to return to Chicago - where she hoped to enroll at Northwestern University - because her mother had told her that her new stepfather would help her pay for college (11: Risk Addiction).

Unfortunately, Della only wanted her daughter to be nearby in order to work as her housekeeper, so Dorothy found work as a secretary at a textile company and in 1942 married a travelling salesman named Hugh Ellsworth Rodham.

They moved to the suburbs and had three children (Hillary, Hugh and Tony), and even though Dorothy never had a career of her own she encouraged her daughter (as well as both her boys) to get a good education and engage in meaningful work. In spite of a miserable childhood, she managed to make the most of life as a mid-century American housewife. Hillary once paid this tribute to Dorothy: "I'm still amazed at how my mother emerged from her lonely early life as such an affectionate and levelheaded woman" (8: Turning No into Yes).

After her death, President Obama said "Ms. Rodham was a remarkable person. Anybody who knows her history knows what a strong, determined and gifted person she was. For her to have been able to live the life that she did, and to see her daughter succeed at the pinnacle of public service in this country [was] I'm sure, deeply satisfying to her."

Looking forward to your comments...

124: The Self-Empowered Woman: Royal news

2011-10-29T08:31:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

Those of you who know me are well aware of what an Anglophile I am. Who else would give up a cushy L.A. Times job to move 6,000 miles away to spend five years working as a journalist in London? And my framed invitation (plus menu card) to have dinner with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip on the Royal Yacht Britannia is among my most-treasured life souvenirs.

So, naturally, I felt it was worth special notice to share the news that leaders of Commonwealth countries decided at their summit meeting on Friday (in Perth, Australia) to change Royal Succession Laws. This represents a major paradigm shift for gender issues. The Commonwealth decision means that first-born daughters of future British monarchs now have an equal right to the throne. Previously, a younger male heir would inherit the crown rather than his older female sibling. What this means is that if the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (pictured above) have a daughter as their first-born child, she would be the next monarch before any younger brothers. This new ruling would also allow any future rulers to marry a Roman Catholic.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said that "Attitudes have changed fundamentally over the centuries. The idea that the younger son should become monarch instead of an elder daughter, simply because he is a man, or that a future monarch can marry someone of any faith except a Catholic, this way of thinking is at odds with the modern countries that we have become."

The discussion about changes in Royal Succession Laws was prompted by Prince William's marriage to Catherine Middleton earlier this year. Queen Elizabeth's opening statement at the summit did not directly address the Succession Laws, but she did say that women should play a greater role in society. There are 54 Commonwealth States, and twelve of the 20 countries have the highest rates of "child brides" are in the Commonwealth.

Looking forward to your comments...

123: The Self-Empowered Woman: Tyra Banks

2011-10-16T09:14:00.001-07:00

Dear Followers,

Today’s remarkable woman is beautiful, a multimillionaire, only 37 years old, and has become a household name in America. Most women know Tyra Banks as the TV host of America’s Next Top Model or of the past program The Tyra Banks Show, while most men remember her as the first African-American model to be chosen as a Cover Girl for Sports Illustrated Magazine.

Banks was born in Southern California in 1973, to a mother who worked as a medical photographer and a father who worked in the computer industry, but her parents divorced when she was only six years old (1: No Paternal Safety Net). Carolyn London-Johnson has always been exceptionally close to her daughter, and has been there with love, advice and guidance ever since she became a single mother, three decades ago. Banks openly acknowledges that her mother was a great example of an independent woman (4: Supportive Someone). Tyra Banks graduated from L.A.’s Immaculate Heart High School, and was accepted by both USC and UCLA, but decided—instead—to pursue a modeling career.

She began modeling in the eleventh grade (2: An Early Sense Of Direction), but was told by many agencies that she “wasn’t photogenic.” Fortunately, she had a good runway walk and scored a great victory when she was chosen for extensive work as soon as she landed in Paris. She broke the record by being booked for an unprecedented 25 shows as a newcomer, and modeled for (among others) Badgley Mischka, Chanel, Christian Dior, Dolce & Gabbana and Donna Karan (8: Turning No Into Yes.) Soon, however, as she began to mature she also began to gain weight, and (very upsetting for Tyra) her mother was told that Banks needed to slim down in order to get work.

Instead of trying to please the high-fashion agencies, they began to explore different job possibilities where her curves were not considered a liability (5: Life Is Not A Popularity Contest). To this day, Banks considers the day that she landed the contract to pose for Sports Illustrated as a professional turning point. After succeeding as a cover model for GQ and Victoria’s Secret catalog, Banks expanded into film and music work. She made a number of TV, music video (remember George Michaels' "Too Funky" with the supermodels?) and movie appearances (11: Risk Addiction), and started her own production company, Bankable Productions. The time had come where she knew that her future would have more to do with other forms of media, and less to do with modeling (14: Selective Disassociation).

In 2008, she won a daytime Emmy Award for The Tyra’s Bank Show, which ran from 2005 to 2010. America’s Next Top Model started in 2003 and remains popular today: Banks serves as the show’s hostess, judge and executive producer. In addition, she is credited with performing the theme song for the program (9: Music).

Tyra Banks openly admits that in grammar school she was a true “mean girl,” who taunted her classmates in the worst way. But when - at eleven years old - she grew three inches and lost 30 pounds in a single year the tables turned and she became the one being bullied. Ever since that experience she has tried to help girls and young women to make good choices and live wisely. In 1999, she established the TZONE program, which became a public charity (The Tyra Banks TZONE Foundation) in 2005 (7: Magnificent Obsession).

Banks, who is 37 years old, has never married and has no children. Today, the woman who was once told that a) she wasn’t photogenic enough to be successful and that b) she weighed too much to make it as a model is attending Harvard Business School’s Owner/President Management Program.

Looking forward to your comments…

122: The Self-Empowered Woman: Nobel Prize Winners

2011-10-08T17:41:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

Instead of focusing on one amazing woman, today's blog will introduce you to the three women who received - on Friday - this year's Nobel Peace Prize . Their selection highlights not only the "Arab Spring" movement, but the increased power and influence women are experiencing globally. President Obama said that the winners pictured above are "a reminder that when we empower women around the world everyone is better off, that countries and cultures that respect the contributions of women invariably end up being more successful than those that don't."

The woman on the left is 39 year old Leymah Gbowee, who was born in Liberia and experienced the horrors of the First Liberian Civil War in which Charles Taylor's army used child soldiers. A mother of six, she realized that "If any changes were to be made in society it had to be by the mothers." So she organized the Christian and Muslim women to pray for peace and holds non-violent demonstrations. By 2003, the women's movement brought an end to the Second Liberian Civil War and led to the election of the woman pictured on the far right, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first woman to become president of an African country. Gbowee is the central character in the 2008 documentary film "Pray the Devil Back to Hell" as well as the author of "Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War." Her group protested outside the presidential palace by sending politicians this statement of intent "In the past we were silent, but after being killed, raped, dehumanized, and infected with diseases, and watching our children and families destroyed, war has taught us that the future lies in saying NO to violence and YES to peace! We will not relent until peace prevails." She earned an Master of Arts in Conflict Transformation from Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. When told of her award she said "Three women receiving the Nobel Peace Prize is really overwhelming...It's finally a recognition that we can't ignore the other half of the world's population."

The second picture is of 32 year old Tawakkul Karman, who is a mother off three and has played a pivotal role in Yemen's political upheaval. To many, she is known as "Mother of the Revolution" and in 2005, she founded an advocacy group called Women Journalists Without Chains. Two years later, she began staging sit ins in front of Yemen's Parliament, and in January she took to the streets with several dozen protesters calling for Mister Saleh's resignation. She has been arrested, received death threats, been called a traitor, and criticized for the fact that three years ago she stopped wearing the full facial veil. She has been inspired to fight for marginalized groups by Ghandi, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King. She called her prize "A victory for the entire Yemeni Revolution" and she hopes that it would bring additional international support. The head of the Nobel Prize committee, Thorbjorn Jagland said that the committee "included the Arab Spring in this prize, but...if one fails to include the women in the new democracies, there will be no democracy."

The last photo is of Liberia's president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who at age 72 is the mother of four sons and has eight grandchildren. Although she has transformed her country, she is facing a difficult bid for re-election. About 250,000 people were killed during the country's civil wars back when Liberia - Africa's first independent republic - was called "a poster child for Africa's ills." Mrs. Johnson Sirleaf, who was the first woman elected as an African head of state, managed to bring peace to the country. She holds degrees from: the University of Colorado, Boulder; the University of Wisconsin, Madison and Harvard. She also served as assistant United Nations secretary-general, and as a vice-president at Citibank. When she was inaugurated as her country's president, both Condoleezza Rice and first lady Laura Bush attended. The Liberian election is scheduled for this Tuesday, and her opponent is a popular soccer star. While admirers refer to her as the "Iron Lady" her political opponents have used the phrase "Too Old To Hold." After learning of her award she said "We are now going into our ninth year of peace, and every Liberian has contributed to it. We particularly give this credit to Liberian women, who have consistently led the struggle for peace even under conditions of neglect."

Looking forward to your comments...

121: The Self-Empowered Woman: Wangari Maathai

2011-09-30T15:01:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

Today I'd like to introduce you to an amazing woman who, sadly, died last week. Wangari Muta Maathai was best known as the force behind Kenya's Green Belt Movement, a program she developed to help women plant trees in order to conserve the environment and improve the quality of life.

Born in 1940 in the village of Ihithe, Kenya, Maathai’s first years were spent when the country was still a British colony. Her family was Kikuyu, which is the largest ethnic group in Kenya, and when she was seven years old she, her mother, and two brothers lived in one place while her father worked on a white-owned farm in a different part of the country (1: No Paternal Safety Net). Maathai moved to Mathari and entered St. Cecilia’s intermediate Primary School, which was a Catholic boarding school (3: Belief In The Unbelievable). At that time she became fluent in English and took the Christian name of Mary Josephine.

When she completed her studies at St. Cecilia’s, she was ranked first in her class (10: The Critic Within) and was admitted to Kenya’s only Catholic High School for girls - Loreto High School Limuru. During the 1960s, her country was undergoing upheaval, including the Mau Mau uprising and the end of Colonialism, 300 Kenyan’s were chosen to study at American Universities. They were part of a program known as “The Kennedy Airlift” or “Airlift Africa.”; Barack Obama was one of the recipients of this scholarship program.
Maathai studied at Mt. St. Scholastica College (now Benedictine College) in Atchison Kansas, majored in Biology, minored in Chemistry and German, and graduated in 1964. The Africa-American Institute provided a Scholarship for her to enroll at the University of Pittsburgh for her Masters Degree in Biological Sciences, which she received in 1966.

Told that she had been appointed as a research assistant at University College of Nairobi, she returned to Kenya only to learn that the position had been given to someone else. Her belief was that this was due to both tribal and gender bias. She found work at the School of Veterinary Medicine at University College of Nairobi under a German professor (Reinhold Hofmann), who encouraged her to peruse her doctorate; she studied at both University of Munich and The University of Giessen (4: Supportive Someone).

In 1969, she returned to Nairobi to work as an assistant lecturer and continue her doctorate studies. That year she married Mwangi Mathai, who had also studied in America. In 1971 she became the first East African woman to receive a PhD, and by 1977 she was named Associate Professor in Veterinary Anatomy at the University of Nairobi. During this time, she campaigned for equal rights for female staff members at the university, and joined the National Council of Women of Kenya. She began to see that the root of most of Kenya’s problems was environmental degradation, and it became her life's work (7 Magnificent Obsession).

She encouraged the women of Kenya to plant tree nurseries and search nearby forests for seeds to grow trees native to the area. In return, she paid the women a small stipend for each seedling that could later be planted elsewhere. In 1979, after ten years of marriage, she and her husband divorced (15: Forget about Prince Charming), and her activism on behalf of women and the environment led her to be the recipient of a campaign of hurtful name calling. Maathai (and everyone else) was told that she was: too strong-minded for a woman, cruel, ignorant, a mad woman, and a threat to the order and security of the country (5: Life is not a Popularity Contest).

Her divorce was costly, and there was no way she could afford to support their three children on her University salary alone. So she let them stay with their father for the next six years while she accepted a job in Zambia that required extensive travel. By 1992, her advocacy for the environment and her pro-Democracy activism made her a target for assassination (11: Risk Addiction). As a result, she barricaded herself in her home for three days before the police entered and arrested her. She was arrested again in 2001 in an attempt to save public land from deforestation.

In 2004, Maathai became the first African woman (and first environmentalist) to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Thanks to her determination and bravery, more than 30 million - WOW - trees (and women) are standing proud. Sadly, Maathai died at age 71, but her cause continues; for more information contact: www.greenbeltmovement.org

Looking forward to your comments . . .

120: The Self-Empowered Woman: Kathryn Stockett

2011-09-15T17:10:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

I'm willing to bet that most of you have either read the book (which was published in 2009) or seen the movie that today's amazing woman wrote. Kathryn Stockett's novel The Help has sold over five million+ copies, been on the New York Times Best Seller list over 100 weeks, and been published in more than 35 countries.

When Stockett was only six years old, her parents divorced (1: No Paternal Safety Net). Much of her childhood was spent with her paternal grandparents in Jackson, Mississippi. The result of her mother''s absence and her father's business travels was that - in retrospect - she felt that her grandmother's maid (Demetrie) was the adult with whom she forged the strongest connection. In her words, "I didn't always know where my mother was, I didn't know where my father was, but I always knew where Demetrie was. I would go to my grandparents' six days a week. Demetrie was always there."

In 1974, Stockett attended Mothers' Morning Out Preschool and began a lifelong friendship with Tate Taylor. By the time they were in Junior High, Taylor knew he wanted to be a filmmaker, and Stockett wanted to be a writer (2: An Early Sense of Direction). As anyone who has heard Stockett lecture can attest, she is not the pious or sanctimonious type. Her grandmother's family, however, worked as Missionaries in Shanghai (3: Belief in the Unbelievable).

The fact that The Help was rejected 60 times has practically become literary legend. Her childhood friend, Taylor, - who directed the movie version - was among the first to read the unpublished manuscript, and he was the one who urged her to continue even though she received five dozen rejections. As she remembers those days, "We were both experiencing doors being shut in our faces, one after the other." (4: Supportive Someone).

Both Stockett and her novel initially received a lot of criticism. Plenty of people in Jackson, Mississippi resented the fact that she focused a spotlight on the town's segregation. And, at first, readers wondered how (and if) a white woman of this era could capture the feelings of Black domestic workers from 50 years ago (5: Life is Not a Popularity Contest). In spite of all the negative feedback her novel initially received, The Help (which took a decade to write) became a runaway success.

Obviously, writing is a passion for Stockett, who is now hard at work on her second novel about a family from the 1930s, coping with The Depression. She even told an interviewer that she was so worried about finishing The Help that she "couldn't have another baby because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to write - to finish the book." She freely admits that she doesn't consider herself a "great" writer, but "I'm just stuck being a f****** writer my whole life. If I'm not writing I'm miserable." (7: Magnificent Obsession).

Hearing "NO" for so long, according to Stockett, helped her get "used to not taking no." She told Katie Couric that she felt she should send thank-you notes to the people who turned down her book because "Every rejection made me go back and try to make the story better." (8: Turning No Into Yes).

Not surprisingly, Stockett pushes herself to the limit. "If you tell me I can't do something, chances are I'm just going to try harder to do it. Sometimes it can be very, very annoying." She revised the book every time it was rejected (10: The Critic Within).

The Help began when Stockett was working on a different project during a month-long leave from her job in magazine publishing. On 9/11, when the planes hit the twin towers, she was in her apartment and a power surge wiped everything off her hard disk, and left her with no mobile or landline phone reception. As she recalled, "I felt so homesick, I've never been so homesick in my life, and on September 12, I started writing a story in the voice of Demetrie, to comfort myself...When I first started, I was just doing it to hear Demtrie's voice again. Her voice was so natural to me." (12: Hard Times).

Stockett doesn't reveal much in interviews about her love life, but records indicate that she has a daughter, Lila, and Stockett and husband, Keith Rogers, amicably divorced after eleven years together (15: Forget About Prince Charming).

Demetrie began working for Stockett's grandmother in 1955 and stayed for 32 years.

Looking forward to your comments...

119: The Self-Empowered Woman: Betty Skelton

2011-09-06T14:51:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

Last month, one of America's truly amazing women died at age 85. Betty Skelton, who was admired for her good looks and her flair for fashion, was often referred to as "the First Lady of Firsts." Her passion was speed, and she set 17 aviation and race car records in an era when they were considered to be "male only" activities (7: Magnificent Obsession). Nearly 35 years after her retirement, she held more combined hallmarks than anyone in history.

Born in Pensacola, Florida, in 1926, she played with model airplanes instead of dolls. From her home's backyard, she could watch the comings and goings of planes from the Pensacola Naval Air Station. When she was only eight years old, she told her parents she wanted to fly, and that's when she began reading anything she could find about aviation (2: An Early Sense of Direction).

Her parents often drove her to the municipal airport, and she would ride with local pilots whenever they had a spare seat. A young Navy Ensign (4: Supportive Someone) began giving her family flying lessons, and when she was only twelve years old, Betty made her first solo flight. She soloed legally on her 16th birthday, and earned her private license; by 18 she had her commercial rating and became a flight instructor, teaching war vets on the GI Bill how to fly. She also earned her sea-plane and multi-engine ratings (10: The Critic Within). She had hoped to qualify for the WASPs, but it was disbanded before she reached the required age of 18 and a half.

She was employed by Eastern Airlines to work as a night clerk, which left her days open for flying. Unfortunately, in the 1940s, there were no commercial airline jobs for women, and the military would not let women be pilots. So Betty turned to professional aerobatics in 1946, and two years later won her first International Feminine Aerobatic Championship (8: Turning No Into Yes). She also won in 1949 and 1950, and she set numerous air speed and altitude records.

Later that year, she bought an experimental single-seat open-cockpit biplane, which was the smallest aerobatic airplane in existence at that time. In her words, " I didn't just sit in that little airplane, I wore it. If I sneezed, it sneezed with me." She painted her plane red and white, and named it "Little Stinker." While flying it, she became the first woman to perform an inverted ribbon cut flying ten feet off the ground (11: Risk Addiction).

By the 1950s, she had achieved the highest rankings in aerobatics, but there were still barriers against women pilots. When she met Bill France, the founder of NASCAR in 1953, he persuaded her to drive at Daytona Beach during Speed Week. Soon she became the auto industry's first female test driver and also earned a total of four Feminine World Land Speed Records, and set a Transcontinental Speed Record (13: More Than Meets the Eye).

Betty Skelton became very active in the auto industry, and set records driving across the South American Andes mountain ranges, as well as from New York to Los Angeles. She became the fastest woman on earth when she drove a jet car on Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats at 315 miles per hour.

In 1960, LOOK Magazine ran a cover story that featured her undergoing the same physical and psychological tests that the astronauts faced. The seven original Mercury Astronauts were so impressed with Betty Skelton's skills that they fondly referred to her as "Number 7 1/2."

Looking forward to your comments...

118: The Self-Empowered Woman: Ntsiki Biyela

2011-09-03T09:49:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

Today I'd like to introduce you to a true trail-blazing Empowered Woman. Ntsiki (pronounced n-SEE-kee) Biyela is South Africa's first-ever fully-fledged female African winemaker. And what makes her story even more amazing is that until her first year at university she neither knew what wine was, nor had she ever tasted it!

Now 33 years old, Ms. Biyela was born and raised in the rural village of Ulundi/Kwa Nondlovu in Zululand. Her mother worked as a maid in Durban, only saw her daughter once a year, and Ntsiki was raised by her grandmother (1: No Paternal Safety Net). During her childhood, life was primitive. The village had no electricity until 2004, and as a girl she had to walk seven miles to a forest to gather firewood. She fetched water each day from a river (12: Hard Times).

Ms. Biyela attended Mahlabathini High School, excelled in science, and hoped to become an engineer even though she had no money for college tuition. Her big break came when her uncle introduced her to winemaker Jabulani Ntshangase, who helped her apply for a scholarship (4: Supportive Someone). She was one of ten black students to apply for a South African Airlines scholarship to study winemaking at the University of Stellenbosch. To attend the winemaking course in college, she had to move 1,000 miles away from her home and her much-loved grandmother. Everything from the geography, to the language, to the subject of wine was unfamiliar to her (14: Selective Disassociation).

Her classes were mostly filled with white, male students who spoke Afrikaans, which she did not understand, but was the language of the area and of her instructors (5: Life is Not a Popularity Contest). Luckily, the Biology, Botany, Mathematics and Physics classes were also taught to forestry students in English, so she attended classes with them. For four years, however, the language barrier remained a problem. A black Zimbabwean student (who also did not speak Afrikaans) had already been trained in winemaking and became a great ally. A part-time job at Delheim, a large winery, also helped her learn more about Oenology.

After graduation, she was hired as a winemaker at a boutique winery in Stellenbosch (8:Turning No Into Yes). Even though she was inexperienced, her very first red blend (2004 Cape Cross) won a gold medal; it was the first gold metal won by a black winemaker in South Africa. In 2009, Biyela was named South African Woman Winemaker of the Year (13: More Than Meets the Eye).

Not surprisingly, Biyela demands a great deal of herself. In her words, "It is a lot of pressure. I feel I have a responsibility. I have people looking up to me, and I don't want to be responsible for their future not going right" (10: The Critic Within).

Looking forward to your comments...

117: The Self-Empowered Woman: Jennifer Lopez

2011-08-22T13:54:00.001-07:00

Dear Followers,

Today’s remarkable, accomplished woman is someone most of us know from watching her work as a judge on American Idol, and enjoying her music and videos for years. But there is a lot more to Jennifer Lopez than meets the eye. In addition to being an actress, dancer, fashion designer, singer and television personality, she is one of the few big-time modern celebrities who has never had an embarrassing meltdown (at least not in the public eye). Unlike Britney, Mariah or Whitney, JLo has somehow managed to get stronger (both personally and professionally) with each passing year.

Born in the Bronx on July 24th, 1969, to parents who were Puerto Rican immigrants, she was raised as a Catholic and always attended Catholic schools (3: Belief in the Unbelievable). She began her television career as one of the “Fly Girls” on the Wayans' show In Living Color, the TV program where Jim Carrey also made his national television debut. From 1999 to the present day, Lopez has enjoyed a thriving musical career, and has sold (singles and albums) a combined total of 55 million records. Billboard Magazine has ranked her as the 27th artist of the 2000’s decade.

Her film career has been equally impressive. She has starred with Ben Affleck, George Clooney, Richard Gere and Matthew McConaughey (among others) in hits like The Wedding Planner, Shall We Dance? Monster-in-Law and The Back-up Plan. When Lopez filmed Out of Sight, she became the first Latina actress to earn over $ 1 million for a movie role.

JLo has had her share of criticism from people who feel that she acts like a diva. And she has had several disputes with exes, PETA, recording studios (SONY, Epic Records), and even with former employees (5: Life is Not a Popularly Contest). She recently told Vanity Fair Magazine that one good thing about being on American Idol is that people could see that she was a lot nicer than her reputation portrayed her to be.

Lopez has the ability to end affiliations, associations and relationships when she feels that she needs to. She told VF “I needed to get to where I could say ‘I know what I want, I know what I need, I can’t let you do this, I can’t let this happen, I can’t let that happen. Even when I feel bad about myself.’” In addition to her one-time split from manager Benny Medina, and other professional break-ups, there are lots of goodbyes in her personal life (14: Selected Disassociation).

JLo has had, not surprisingly, a challenging love life. Her roster of serious relationships includes Ojanai Noa, Sean Combs, Cris Judd, Ben Affleck and Marc Anthony (Birth name Marco Antonio Muñiz). She has been married
and divorced three times (15: Forget about Prince Charming). The one area of her personal life that does seem stress-free can be found in her role as a mother to twins Emma and Max. She employs no nannies, but family members (her mother, Guadalupe, and cousin, Tiana, and best friend from childhood, Arlene) help with child care duties. She has traveled with the twins when work made it necessary, and has promised herself to never be away from them for more than 24 hours (16: Intensive Motherhood). Last year People Magazine labeled Jennifer Lopez the Most Beautiful Woman in the World.

Looking forward to your comments...

116: The Self-Empowered Woman: Power Dressing

2011-08-12T18:59:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,
As we all know, in today's world there are more and more women assuming positions of power. Recently, Robb Young's beautiful new book crossed my path and I couldn't wait to share it with Self-Empowered Woman fans. Power Dressing: First Ladies, Women Politicians & Fashion (Merrell, $29.95, 192 pp) gives us an inside look at how women in the public eye choose to present themselves.

For example, Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto frequently wore a "salwar kameez," which is a traditional tunic-and-trouser suit that (in various fabrics and colors) she wore for decades when she led the Pakistan Peoples Party. Thanks to her, it became the most suitable form of dress for political women. Sadly, on December 27, 2007, as she was in Rawalpindi preparing to run for Prime Minister for the third time, she was wearing a blue and white salwar kameez. After she prepared to leave, and touched up her makeup, a suicide bomber detonated himself next to her car, and she was dead.

Germany's Chancellor, Angela Merkel, has said that the Ossi syndrome (a bias against those who have roots in the former East Germany) has contributed to the criticism about her public appearance. Many have said that she looks and dresses in a manner that is "frumpy, stern and outdated." In her words"Half of the German press constantly feels the need to review my haircut and make antics about it." But many feel that her "style deficit" and "dull outfits" demonstrate "consistency and prudence, two qualities general prized in German politics."

Vaira Vike-Freiberga, the Former President of Latvia, was - in 1999 - a multilingual, scholarly emigre (she had left the country as a child when the Soviets occupied Latvia), who became a compromise candidate for president. After the election she relied on skirt suits in rich fabrics such as damask, jacquard and embroidered tweeds. In her words, " I considered it my duty, representing Latvia, to present myself in an attractive and correct way...All one has to do is to avoid looking silly, frilly, frumpy or slovenly."

The Former Finance Minister of Nigeria, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was often called "everyone's favorite aunt," and is a woman who always stands out in a crowd. Eminent economist and vice-president of the World Bank, she returned to Nigeria to clear up what had once been called "the most corrupt place on earth." When it came to style, she was primarily known for her bright "head ties"; her way of tying them became a national trademark.

Former Prime Minister of India, Indira Ghandi wore hand-loomed saris that made both a fashion and a political statement. For decades, her saris were made of khodi, which is a homespun fabric that had been an integral part on India's economic empowerment and opposition to British Colonial Rule. By law, the Indian flag must be made of khodi, a rustic fabric that Indira Ghandi transformed into an elegant and stately political style

Looking forward to your comments...

115: The Self-Empowered Woman: Esmeralda Santiago

2011-07-30T16:27:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

If you haven't already heard about the book "Conquistadora," you soon will. Critics have hailed it as the Puerto Rican "Gone With the Wind." And while the novel is full of twists and turns, the author's life story is truly the stuff of which Self-Empowered Women are made.

Esmeralda Santiago was born the oldest of eleven children in San Juan, Puerto Rico. When she was born, her mother was only 16, her father was 28, and already had a child with another woman. When she was thirteen years old, she, her six siblings, and her mother moved to New York in part to find a better life, and in part because - in her words - "Papi had chosen to send us away rather than marry her" (1: No Paternal Safety Net). Her mother was ultimately married and divorced three times.

Santiago entered school unable to understand, speak or write English. But with the help of library alphabet books, her language skills - in one year - improved to the point where her reading was at tenth grade level by the time she enrolled in the ninth grade. The fact that pronunciation was so difficult for her is what led her to writing. When others would laugh at her inability to make the "th" sound or to use the correct vowel form, she "hunched over notebooks, writing out my frustration, shame and rage. I lived in those pages, in English and Spanish, where the written word said what I couldn't utter." What a vindication that she would go on to write award-winning novels, memoirs, anthologies and screen plays (8: Turning No Into Yes).

The move to the U.S. was difficult for the young teenager who struggled to find a balance between the two cultures. When, after seven years, she returned to Puerto Rico for a visit, she was told that she was "no longer Puerto Rican because my Spanish was rusty, my gaze too direct, my personality too assertive..." (5: Life is Not a Popularity Contest).

Two years after arriving in New York, Santiago was accepted into the prestigious Performing Arts High School. After graduation she worked full time and spent eight years studying part time at community colleges until she was accepted as a transfer student - and given a full scholarship - at Harvard. She ultimately graduated Magna Cum Laude. (10: The Critic Within). Then, she earned her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College (13: More Than Meets the Eye).

In addition to her literary output, Ms.Santiago is an active volunteer for the following causes, which for obvious personal reasons, are close to her heart: public libraries, community-based programs for adolescents, shelters for battered women and their children, arts programs for young people, and organizations that support literature and the arts (7: Magnificent Obsession).

Her 2004 memoir "The Turkish Lover" covers the years from 1969 (when she was 21) until 1976 (when she graduated from Harvard). Much of the book focuses on her relationship with Ulvi Dogan, a Turkish filmmaker (15: Forget About Prince Charming). Since that time, she has married Frank Cantor, and they have created Cantomedia, a media and film production company.

As if her life doesn't seem amazing enough, two weeks before she was due to take her manuscript of Conquistadora to her publisher, Santiago suffered a severe stroke. The result was that she had to spend 18 months relearning how to read and write English; it took even longer to regain Spanish, which had been her first language (12: Hard Times).

I was humbled and deeply impressed by what this remarkable woman has achieved, and I hope you feel the same way.

Looking forward to your comments...

114: The Self-Empowered Woman: Elizabeth Catlett

2011-07-23T17:29:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

As most of you already know, The Self-Empowered Woman blog strives to be a virtual salon, where we have an on-going opportunity to meet a wide variety of accomplished, interesting women. I think today's blog will both inspire and amaze you.

Elizabeth Catlett is a 96 year old artist/sculptor whose works are currently on view in the Bronx Museum of Art. She has spent a lifetime - both as an artist and educator - using her talent to focus on issues of gender, race, and deprivation. Born in Washington, D.C. in 1915, both her parents (who were teachers in the D.C. school system) were the children of slaves. Catlett was raised by her mother and grandmother because her father died before she was born (1: No Paternal Safety Net).

The recipient of a full scholarship to Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Catlett was turned away - in 1932 - when she arrived at the school and the faculty realized that she was "colored." Seventy-six years later, the same school (now named Carnegie Mellon University) awarded her an honorary doctorate for her lifetime's work as both a sculptor and printmaker (8: Turning No Into Yes).

After being rejected in Pittsburgh, Catlett returned home and attended Howard University where she graduated cum laude in 1935. For the next two years she worked as a high school teacher in North Carolina, but resigned because of the low salaries black teachers received.

She then entered the University of Iowa School of Art and Art History, where she studied sculpture for the first time. American landscape painter Grant Wood encouraged her (and his other students) to work with subjects that they knew best. For her, this meant Black people, especially Black women. Catlett has said that Wood was always "so kind," and always called her "Miss Catlett" (4: Supportive Someone). In 1940, she became the school's first student to receive an MFA in Sculpture.

She also studied ceramics at the Art Institute of Chicago, and lithography at the Art Students League in New York. Catlett then became a university teacher in New Orleans, and she also taught in Harlem. During this time, she was briefly married to Charles White (15: Forget About Prince Charming).

In 1945, while working on a Julius Rosenwald Fellowship Grant, Catlett was told that the grant would be renewed inf she left New York. Her goal was to complete a project about Black women , so in 1946 she moved to Mexico City where her social life included Diego Rivera, Francisco Zuniga and Frida Kahlo. During this time, she joined the Graphic Arts Workshop, and in 1948, she married the printmaker/painter Francisco Mora, with whom she had three sons (all of whom are involved in the arts). The political climate - in the post-McCarthy years - was hostile to Catlett's race, class and gender concerns, and in 1958, even the Mexican officials arrested Catlett and told her she was "unwelcome" in their country. That's when she decided to become a Mexican citizen. When the U.S. Government labeled her "an undesirable foreigner" and refused to let her into the country (5: Life is Not a Popularity Contest) to be with her sick mother, she and her husband brought her mother to Mexico to live with them.

Catlett always refused to accept restriction and discrimination. When she taught at Dillard University in New Orleans (1940 - 1942), African Americans were not allowed to enter City Park, where Delgado Museum was housed. A Picasso retrospective was being shown, and Catlett wanted her Art History students to see it even though they were not allowed on the grounds. A teacher at Sophie Newcomb College helped her to get the students into the museum on a Monday, when it was closed to the general public. Many of Catlett's students had never been in an art museum before, but she was willing to break all the rules on their behalf (11: Risk Addition).

Catlett has outlived both of her husbands and most of her colleagues, but continues - in her 90s to make "technically savvy and stunning" art (7: Magnificent Obsession). How amazing that this talented artist, the granddaughter of slaves, is today the grandmother of Naima Mora, who was the Cycle4 winner of America's Next Top Model.

Looking forward to your comments...

113: The Self-Empowered Woman: Emma E Edmonds

2011-07-13T14:25:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

It's common knowledge that The Self-Empowered Woman blog tries to introduce readers to a wide variety of female achievers. And so far we've highlighted women from scores of countries, backgrounds and eras. But today's subject, Sarah Emma Evelyn Edmonds Seelye (aka Private Frank Thompson), is one of the most amazing women I've had the privilege to research. Over 400 women served in the Civil War as soldiers, but the story I'm about to share is by far the most amazing.

Sarah Emma Evelyn Edmonds was born in New Brunswick, Canada in December 1841. Her hot-tempered, abusive father resented the fact that she had not been a son, and treated her badly (1: No Paternal Safety Net). He wanted her to enter an arranged marriage with a man she didn't like, so she ran away from home at age 15 (14: Selective Disassociation).

For two years she lived on her own as a single woman, but decided that life would be easier if she disguised herself as a man, so she cut her hair, bought a man's suit, and took the name Franklin (Frank) Thompson. In her new identity, she sold Bibles in both Canada and (eventually) in Michigan.

Even though she was not an American, she was deeply affected by the growing tensions between the North and the South. While she was living in Flint, Michigan the first call for Union enlistment went out, and she tried to enlist. It took her four tries, but she finally got sworn in as a member of the Union Army (back then there was no medical examination, only questions). So on April 25, 1861, "Frank Thompson" became a male nurse in Company F, the Flint Union Greys of the Second Michigan Infantry Volunteers (8: Turning No into Yes).

Edmonds later wrote about her war-time experiences in the memoir (pictured above) "Nurse and Spy in the Union Army." As a soldier, her duties ranged from being a male nurse, burying the dead, regimental Postmaster, mail carrier and spy. Perhaps her most daring adventures centered when she was sent South to serve as a spy with General McClellan's campaign in Virginia. She was so determined to be accepted that she carefully studied every available piece of information on weapons, tactics, local geography and military personalities (10: The Critic Within).

In order to create a persona that would fool the Confederates, she decided to disguise herself as a black man, and used silver nitrate to darken her skin, as well as a minstrel wig to change her hair. She gave herself the name "Cuff," and worked in the kitchen where she learned valuable information about the morale of the troops, the size of the army, and the weapons that were available. She learned that the Confederate Army was using "Quaker Guns," which were merely logs that had been painted black to look like cannons from a distance. She escaped and returned to the Union Troops where she was able to give all this information to General McClellan in person (11: Risk Addition).

Two months later, when she was again ordered to infiltrate the Confederate Army she decided to be a fat, Irish peddler woman named Bridget O'Shea. This time she returned to the Union camp on a beautiful Confederate horse, but because she had been wounded in the arm she barely escaped the Rebel Troops that were chasing her.

In August, 1862, Emma returned to the South as a black mammy, with darkened skin and a bandanna to cover her hair. She worked as a laundress in the camp, and while cleaning an officer's coat important, official papers fell out of a pocket. Emma grabbed them, and took them back to General Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley.

All in all, Emma had eleven successful spy missions while serving in the Union Army. When she was transferred to serve with General Grant (before the battle of Vicksburg), her long hours in the military hospital took a toll and she became ill with Malaria. Rather than blow her cover as "Frank Thompson," she returned to female attire and entered a private hospital in Cairo, Illinois. After recovering, she traveled to Washington and worked as a female nurse until the end of the war because "Private Frank Thompson" had been listed as a deserter.

After the war, her memoirs became very popular, and she donated all of the profits to the U.S. Relief Fund. On July 5, 1884, a special Act of Congress her an Honorable Discharge from the Army, plus a bonus and a veterans pension of $12 a month. Helping the war effort truly was Edmonds' passion, and she wrote "I am naturally fond of adventure, a little ambitious, and a good deal romantic - but patriotism was the true secret of my success." (8: Magnificent Obsession).

Emma Edmonds died on September 5, 1898 at age 57, and is the only female member of the organization formed after the Civil War by Union Veterans - The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). She was buried in Houston, Texas, with a limestone marker that says "Emma E. Seelye, Army Nurse."

Looking forward to your comments...

112: The Self-Empowered Woman: Senator Kristen Gillibrand

2011-07-06T15:26:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

The two women pictured above represent a great political story for our time. The woman on the left is Kirsten E. Gillibrand, who was appointed to fill Hillary Clinton's New York Senate by then-governor David A. Paterson. And thanks to her deep-seated belief that more women need to participate in government (7: Magnificent Obsession), the woman on the right (Terri Sewell) ran for a House seat in Alabama, won the election, and became the first black woman ever elected to Congress from that state.

Gillibrand learned about politics from her grandmother, Polly Noonan, who was a high-level worker for the Albany Democratic Women's Club. Ms. Gillibrand (who was known as Tina Rutnik in her youth), would stuff envelopes, answer phones, hand out bumper stickers and fliers, and knock on voters' doors (2: An Early Sense of Direction). In her words, "What I admired so much about [my grandmother] was her passion. I thought 'Someday I may serve, someday I may be a part of this.'"

Many seasoned political pros were surprised that Gillibrand was re-elected to her Senate seat because conventional wisdom has always held that "women candidates - aside from the already famous - have trouble raising money" (13: More Than Meets the Eye). But Gillibrand, particularly with the help of EMILY's List, has easily raised millions for her campaigns.

Gillibrand's background is impressive. She attended the Emma Willard School as well as Dartmouth College, where she majored in Asian studies (she was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority). During her college summers she worked as an intern for former Senator Alfonse D'Amato, and she later interned at the United Nations Crime Prevention Branch in Vienna. Gillibrand spent a semester in China in 1986 (first in Beijing, and then in Taichung, Taiwan, and learned to read and write Chinese (she memorized over 2,000 characters) before she left for her semester abroad (10: The Critic Within). That unique language skill has proved popular with many of New York's Asian voters.

Gillibrand graduated from UCLA Law School in 1991, and during the Clinton Administration she served as special council to former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Andrew Cuomo.

She is married to Jonathan Gillibrand, a British national who works in finance. They have two young sons, Theodore and Henry, and Senator Gillibrand received a standing ovation on the floor of the House when - just as she had done for her first pregnancy - she worked until the day before she gave birth.

Gillibrand has begun a campaign called Off the Sidelines (www.offthesidelines.org) in an effort to get more women into politics. After the 2010 elections the number of women in Congress declined for the first time in 30 years, and she feels that more women in Congress would help make the government much more productive. "When women's voices are heard, the outcomes are better. That's what my Grandmother taught me."

Looking forward to your comments...

111: The Self-Empowered Woman: Jill Scott

2011-07-03T09:35:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

Many of us first fell in love with Jill Scott when we watched her performance as Precious Ramotswe in Anthony Minghella's HBO adaptation of Alexander McCall Smith's "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency." The seven-part series, set in Botswana, was co-funded by the BBC and HBO. Scott played a wise, gentle (and very effective) detective,

Scott was raised by her mother and grandmother in North Philadelphia (1: No Paternal Safety Net), and has told interviewers that she had a happy childhood and was "very much a loved child." She was raised as a Jehovah's Witness (3: Belief in the Unbelievable).

Essence magazine referred to Scott as a true Renaissance Woman, and there's much more to Ms. Scott than just her TV and movie roles - you've probably seen her in "Law & Order: SVU," UPN's "Girlfriends," and movies including Showtime's "Cave Dwellers," and Tyler Perry's "Why Did I Get Married?"

Scott began her career as a "spoken word artist" before she broke in to the music industry. At a live poetry reading, Amir Thompson of The Roots invited her to join the band in the studio, and the result was co-writing credit for "You Got Me," when earned Scott her first Grammy Award. She also joined the touring company (along with Eric Benet and Will Smith) for the Broadway play"Rent." And in 2005, she won her second Grammy for "Crossed My Mind." The same year, St. Martin's Press published a volume of her poetry titled "The Moments, The Minutes, The Hours."

In 2001, Scott married her longtime boyfriend, Lyzel Williams, but the couple divorced after six years of marriage. And she had a son with her drummer, Lil' John Roberts, but they broke up when the baby was only three months old (15: Forget About Prince Charming).

Scott underwent a long legal battle with her first label after she signed a distribution deal with Warner Brothers Records (14: Selective Disassociation). Her voice has often been compared to Minnie Riperton's because she is comfortable in the sixth octave - on the song "Gimme" she hits a D6 with full vibrato, and on "Spring Summer Feeling" she hits a C7 in the background.

With $100,000 of her own money, Scott established the "Blues Babe Foundation," which helps young minority students pay for university expenses (13: More Than Meets the Eye).

In 2006, at the Essence Music Festival, Scott criticized the way black women were portrayed in rap music, and in April's edition of Essence magazine she wrote a controversial article about black men who marry Caucasian women (5: Life is Not a Popularity Contest). With her fourth studio album, "The Light of the Sun" Scott hit number one on the Billboard Album Chart for the first time. Jett, Scott's two year old son, is what she calls "my best gift...we're both super in love right now, just nuts about each other...he's pretty incredible" (16: Intensive Motherhood).

Looking forward to your comments...

110: The Self Empowered Woman: Saudi Arabia/Women Drivers

2011-06-21T15:27:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

This photo is of women in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia hailing a taxicab, which is one of the primary ways that Saudi women get from point A to point B. The other way is to rely on private chauffeurs, which costs about $600 per month. Women in Saudi Arabia are denied the right to vote, cannot leave home without a male guardian, and are not allowed to drive. In fact, Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that bans women from driving motor vehicles.

Two local movements ("Women2Drive" and "Saudi Women for Driving") are trying to change the government's position on female driving. Several weeks ago a 32 year old female computer technician, Manal al-Sharif, posted a video of herself driving on YouTube. As a result, the authorities held her for ten days, and she was forced to sign a form promising to not speak in public and not drive in the future.

Other women in the Middle East have been taking part in anti-government demonstrations, for example in Yemen and Egypt. But in Saudi Arabia those who oppose women driving argue that 1) women should not be thrown into bad driving situations, 2) they should not be legally held responsible for driving accidents, 3) driving would lead to "the public mingling of the sexes," 4) give women "too many freedoms," and 5) put the 800,000 male drivers who now work out of a job.

Back in 1990, 47 women staged a similar pro-driving protest by driving in a convoy of 15 female-driven cars to Riyadh. Clerics called them "amoral," and the Royal family confiscated their passports. The women who worked for the government were fired, and most were ostracized by family and friends.

Saudi women are veiled, segregated, prevented from getting their own identity cards, and must get written permission from a male relative in order to travel abroad. Last week, Amnesty International called on the kingdom to stop treating women as second-class citizens and permit females to drive.

Looking forward to your comments...

109: The Self-Empowered Woman: Barbara Pym

2011-06-12T14:49:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

http://www.barbara-pym.org/Index.html

I've been asked so often about where I get ideas for The Self-Empowered Woman Blog. Often I read about high-achieving women in newspapers or magazines, and sometimes I'll learn about someone amazing on TV. Today's subject, however, came to me courtesy of my brother-in-law, David Yuratich, who was visiting from California. We were discussing "worthy" books and authors, and he told me about the amazing British writer, Barbara Pym (1913-1980).

Pym's mother, Irena, was the assistant organist at the Parish Church at Saint Oswald in Oswestry, Shropshire, England. Church life, vicars and curates became a part of Barbara's daily life. These Anglican characters surface in many of her books (3. Belief in the Unbelievable).

Pym started her first novel when she was only 16 years old (2. An Early Sense of Direction), and after her graduation from Oxford in 1934, she returned to her hometown determined to become a published author.

During World War II, Pym worked for the censorship office in Bristol and had her heart broken during a painful romance (15. Forget about Prince Charming). During the war years she joined the WRENS (Women's Royal Naval Service), and spent of that time in Naples. After the war she worked for the journal "Africa," and in 1949 her first book was accepted for publication.

For the next 12 years her books were published on a regular basis and readers embraced her stories of "unassuming people leading unremarkable lives." But in 1963, her publisher rejected her work because it was "out of step with the times." Devastated by this unexpected disappointment, she revised the book ("An Unsuitable Attachment") but 20 different publishers refused to publish it.

This grim period of her life was called "the wilderness" and she considered herself trapped in a literary limbo. In 1970, she wrote "I get moments of gloom and pessimism when it seems as if nobody could ever like my kind of writing again." She began a romance with an antique dealer who was 17 years her junior, and the book she wrote about that sort of love affair was also rejected by a variety of publishers (12. Hard Times).

Just as her professional life had begun to sour, her health also began to suffer in the 1970s. She endured breast cancer, a mastectomy, and a stroke. And in 1976, again, her latest novel was soundly rejected. In spite of over a decade of literary dead ends, Pym refused to accept defeat and kept writing (7. Magnificent Obsession).

Everything changed in 1977 when both Philip Larkin and Lord David Cecil wrote in "The Times Literary Supplement" that Barbara Pym was "the most underrated novelist of the century." After 16 years of struggle, she was catapulted to fame and acclaim. Macmillan even reprinted all of her books, and in America E.P. Dutton began publishing all or her novels, as well (8. Turning No into Yes).

She was only able to enjoy her heightened popularity for two years before her cancer returned. She died in Oxford at the age of 66, but Pym's legacy is kept alive by "The Barbara Pym Society," which was founded in 1994.

Looking forward to your comments. . .

108: The Self-Empowered Woman: Christine Lagarde

2011-05-30T16:17:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

Many of you may have heard about the scandal surrounding the former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn while he was staying at the Sofitel Hotel in Manhattan. As a result of his indictment, the important financial position is now open and may, for the first time ever, be awarded to a woman.

Christine Lagarde is the stylish 55 year old French Finance Minister, and the first woman to ever become finance minister of a large (G8) industrial country (13: More Than Meets the Eye). Lagarde's father, Robert, was a university lecturer who died when she was 17 years old. Christine and her three younger brothers were raised by their mother, Nicole, a teacher (1: No Paternal Safety Net).

As a teenager, she was on the French National Synchronized Swimming Team, and spent time in the U.S. as an intern on Capitol Hill. Even though she was turned down twice by the elite French civil service college (ENA), she still trained as a lawyer. At 25, she used her law degree to join the International law firm Baker & McKenzie. By the time she was 43, she became chairman of the company at its headquarters in Chicago - the first woman to ever hold that post (8: Turning No Into Yes).

Lagarde has outspoken (and sometimes unpopular) opinions about "the testosterone-fueled mood of male-dominated hi-tech trading rooms." In her words, "...men have a tendency to show how hairy-chested they are compared with the man who is sitting next to them. I honestly think that there should never be too much testosterone in one room." She has gone on record as feeling that men, if left to themselves, will usually make a mess of things (5: Life is Not a Popularity Contest).

The 5'10" Finance Minister is divorced (15: Forget About Prince Charming); she has two grown sons, 22 and 24, and cooking for them and spending time together is her "delight" (16: Intensive Motherhood).

This high-profile barrier-breaking woman routinely wears Christian Louboutin high heels and has zebra-print carpeting in her official office. As Maureen Dowd wrote "Perhaps a woman who dominated without being domineering is just what is needed at the IMF."

Looking forward to your comments...

107: The Self-Empowered Woman: Lady Gaga

2011-05-22T15:51:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

Over the weekend Tony and I watched the HBO Lady Gaga Monster Ball Tour, which was a real eye opener. Obviously, it was a glimpse into a different form of entertainment, and once I got over the "visuals" I started thinking about whether or not Lady Gaga would qualify as a Self-Empowered Woman. So here goes...

Born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta in 1986, this native New Yorker has taken the musical world by storm. She began learning how to play the piano when she was only four years old, wrote her first piano ballad at 13, and performed at Open-Mike nights at 14. (2: An Early Sense of Direction). As an adolescent she attended the Convent of Sacred Heart, a private all girls Roman Catholic school on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Her take on the Unbelievable is: "I believe magic is real. I believe fantasy is real. I live half way between reality and fantasy all the time." (3: Belief in the Unbelievable). In addition to her contralto voice, Lady Gaga plays a variety of musical instruments (9: Music).

As a teenager she began to act in high school musicals, but she admitted that she "used to get made fun of for being either too provocative or too eccentric...I didn't fit in, and I felt like a freak." In the HBO Special, before she goes on stage, she begins to cry and admits "Sometimes I still feel like a loser in high school (5: Life is Not a Popularity Contest).

Only 25 years old, Lady Gaga is recognized today as one of the hardest working, most driven performers ever. Jimmy Iovine (a recording CEO who often appears on American Idol) has said "No one works like this girl. This is the first artist I've ever asked to stop. You really beg her to stop, and...she just goes." In her own words, Lady Gaga admits that in addition to concert tours and recording sessions "I write music every day" (7: Magnificent Obsession).

After attending NYU's Tisch School of the Arts for two years, she received a recording contract from Def Jam Recordings, but was dropped after only three months. In her words, "There were a lot of people that didn't believe in me...People would really try to push me around because the sentiment was always 'she can't possibly be for real'" (13: More Than Meets the Eye).

Her success is astonishing. She's already won five Grammy Awards, sold 15 million albums and 51 million singles worldwide. "Billboard" named her Artist of the Year in 2010, and she has been among the top 100 list of powerful and influential people on both "Time" and "Forbes'" magazines. Her single "Born This Way" was the fastest-selling single in iTunes history - selling one million copies in five days (8: Turning No into Yes).

A cultural icon for the younger generation, Lady Gaga has risen to the top of her field, and she did it her way.

Looking forward to your comments...

106: The Self-Empowered Woman: Mary Delany

2011-05-16T14:51:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

I love when friends and followers introduce me to stories that they feel mesh with The Self-Empowered Woman theme. Thanks to Donna Brown Agins, I was able to learn about a remarkable woman who discovered her (7) Magnificent Obsession at the age of 72.

Mary Granville Pendarves Delany was born on May 14, 1700. As a young girl, she was sent to live with her childless aunt (Lady Stanley) in London in the hopes that she might be chosen as a Lady in Waiting. During this time she attended a school taught by a French refugee (Mlle. Puelle), where she learned History, Music, English, French, Dancing and Needle Work. During this time she became friends with the composer, Handel (9: Music).

Unfortunately, Queen Anne died in 1714, and when the Hanovers came to power, Mary's chances of becoming part of the Royal household evaporated. Her family moved from London to Gloucestershire, which was socially isolated, but allowed Mary to continue her education and her interest in paper cutting (2: An Early Sense of Direction).

Because of the family's reduced circumstances, at age 17 Mary was married off to Alexander Pendarves, a 60 year old man whom she described in her letters as "disgusting," "excessively fat" and "my jailer" (15: Forget About Prince Charming). She lived with him for seven unhappy years until he died in 1724. He had not included her in his will, so she inherited very little, but widows at that time had more rights than unmarried women so this time was happier for her than her years with a wealthy man whom she despised.

In 1743, after 19 years as a widow, the Irish clergyman Dr. Patrick Delany - who was 16 years older - proposed and the couple shared their joy of gardening at their home near Dublin. During this time Mary was able to paint landscapes, decorate with seashells and do needle work, all of which revolved around her love of flowers.

Dr. Delany died in Bath, England at the age of 84; the couple had enjoyed a happy marriage for 25 years. Once again a widow, Delany spent a lot of time with her friend the Dowager Duchess of Portland. One day in October, 1772, Mary noticed a petal from a geranium as it fell onto the dark
surface of a table. She had paper nearby that was the same color as the flower, and she began to create her first collage. In her words, "I have invented a new way of imitating flowers."

Her technique was to cut and glue together thousands of dots, slivers, squiggles and loops of brightly colored paper. Ultimately, "The Paper Garden" filled ten bound volumes that now reside in the British Museum. Delany only stopped creating her "Paper-Mosaicks" when her eyesight began to fail at the age of 88. By that time she had created almost 1,000 realistic and accurate paper flowers mounted on black backgrounds.

After the Dowager Duchess of Portland died, King George III and Queen Charlotte gave Mary a small house at Windsor and a pension of 300 pounds a year.

Looking forward to your comments...

105: The Self-Empowered Woman: Rosie Napravnik

2011-05-07T16:17:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

A 23-year old female jockey made history yesterday by finishing The Kentucky Derby as one of the top 10 riders. The first woman to ride in the Derby was Diane Crump in 1970, and the last was Rosemary Homeister in 2003. But Rosie is the first to finish higher than 11th at the Derby. Anna Rose Napravnik first sat on a horse when she was only two years old. Her mother trained three-day eventers, and by the age of seven she had told her mother that she wanted to become a jockey and win The Kentucky Derby (2: An Early Sense of Direction).

Anna Rose Napravnik's parents divorced when she was 16 (1: No Paternal Safety Net), and as a high school student she began riding as an apprentice jockey. She would be at the barn by four Am and gallop race horses from five am to nine thirty am and then take the bus to Hereford High School, and then she would attend night school three nights a week. On the day she would have graduated from High School she was, instead, in the winner’s circle twice at the Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.

When she rode Pants On Fire in The Louisiana Derby she became the first woman to ever win that race. Her success rate is undeniable, and she has won riding titles in Maryland, Delaware and at the fairgrounds in New Orleans, where her 110 victories were more than 30 more than her closest competitor (8: Turning No Into Yes).

Horse trainers acknowledge that in addition to being a natural, she is both tough and competitive. In addition, she had the good fortune to win on her very first mount and went from being an unknown in the racing world to being the most successful female jockey in the country (13: More Than Meets The Eyes). Track observers know that when she loses she's really unhappy with herself (10: The Critic Within). Rosie is 5'2" and weighs 111 pounds, but has no trouble controlling a 1200 pound thoroughbred. She's had four major injuries (broken and fractured bones).

Her mother has worked extensively with horses, her sister is a horse trainer and her father works an organic farm in Asbury, NJ with Belgian Horses. Napravnik's ultimate goal is to be recognized as one of the best jockeys in the sport - male or female.

Looking forward to your comments. . .

104: The Self-Empowered Woman: The Brain

2011-05-04T14:56:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

First of all, a huge thank you to everyone who attended today's "Meet the Author" luncheon at the National Croquet Center. Sonia Cooper and Jill Kaplan organized an amazing event, and it was wonderful to have so many amazing women (and men) in one room. I loved the Q & A session, and it was a real treat to hear the celebrity guests discuss which chapter in The Self-Empowered Woman most closely affected them. Thank you everyone!

As most of you know, I frequently get blog ideas from the New York Times. But today's article was inspired by a supplement that appeared in an April issue of the Wall Street Journal (decades and decades ago I was a WSJ book reviewer).

In April, the Journal convened an Executive Task Force of scholastic, business and government leaders to dissect the forces that hold women back in the workplace and look for ways to create new employment opportunities for them.

One of the most intriguing discussions was Dr. Sandra Witelson (a neuroscientist from Ontario's McMaster University), who discussed the differences between male and female brains. For years, some researchers have felt that because male brains were "larger" it meant that men were "smarter" than women.

Twenty-five years ago, Witelson (who is known in her field as the researcher who was given the task of analyzing Albert Einstein's brain to discover what made it unique) discovered that six year old boys and girls used different parts of the brain when they read. A boy uses one side of the brain to read, while a girl has more "bilateral" brain involvement. Female brains appear to have more connective pathways between the right and left sides of the brain, which often gives them an advantage when it comes to verbal skills. The actually have more brain cells in the brain's language region.

And while the male brain has 6.5 times more "gray" matter, women actually have 10 times more "white" matter, which is the part that consists of connections between the neurons. What this means is that a woman's brain works faster than a man's.

A Stanford University study showed that women's brains trigger greater activity in more areas when they see photographs of traumatic events. And, three weeks after seeing the photos they remember far more details than the men do (which some experts feel is why women remember emotional hurts or hostile acts for so long.

Brain scans have shown that when a man's brain is at rest, about 70% of its electricity is shut down. But when a woman's brain is in the same resting state, female brains show 90% activity. What does this mean? Women are constantly receiving and processing information from their environment.

What this means for us is that now is the time to acknowledge and celebrate the differences in the way we think and process information. Thanks to Dr. Witelson, we now know that the size of a brain is not the only thing that matters!

Looking forward to your comments...

103: The Self-Empowered Woman: Debbie Wasserman Schultz

2011-04-28T15:36:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

Today I'd like you to meet the Florida Congresswoman who is scheduled to become the first woman elected to lead the Democratic National Committee. The married mother of three from Florida's 20th Congressional District is 44 years old, which means that she will be the youngest committee leader in decades (13: More Than Meets the Eye).

Debbie Wasserman Schultz was born in Forest Hills, New York and grew up in Long Island. She came to Florida for college and earned a B.A. in Political Science in 1988 and then a Masters in the same subject in 1990; both from the University of Florida.

In Washington, D.C. (according to the New York Times) "Wasserman Schultz has long been one of the '-est' girls: youngest, smartest, funniest, toughest." Before coming to Washington, she served in the Florida State Legislature where, at age 26, she became the youngest woman ever elected to the Florida House. She is so popular in her Broward County District that in 2010 she was re-elected to Congress (where she has served since 2004) with 60% of the vote. She is the first Jewish woman to be elected as a Congresswoman in Florida.

One of her former Congressional roommates, Melissa Bean, commented that Wasserman Schultz would fall asleep at night with her head on her laptop or briefing book. And that drive even extended to her annual charity softball game where she was so anxious to slide into second base that she broke her ankle (10: The Critic Within).

In 2007, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, but only told her closest friends because "I didn't want it to define me." She scheduled her double mastectomy operations during congressional breaks (12: Hard Times). In addition to her husband ("I married a great guy"), Steve Schultz (4: Supportive Someone), she has eleven year old twins and a seven year old daughter (16: Intensive Motherhood).

In 2005, Forward, a national Jewish newspaper, named her as one of the 50 most influential leaders in the American Jewish community.

Looking forward to your comments...

102: The Self-Empowered Woman: Violet Cowden

2011-04-25T14:20:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

Two weeks ago, Violet Cowden (who was a member of WWIIs Women's Flying Training Detachment - later known as the WASPs) died at the age of 94. I found her story inspiring, and I hope you will, too.

Born in 1916, in a sod house in Bowdle, South Dakota, Violet was fascinated by the hawks that flew over her family's small farm. At the age of seven, she decided that she wanted to find a way to fly with them (2: An Early Sense of Direction).

Even before she got her driver's license, she enrolled at an airfield for her first flying lesson even though she had to ride her bicycle six miles each way. As she later told an interviewer, "I feel so in oneness with life and with the world and everything when I'm in the air" (7: Magnificent Obsession).

In 1936, She received her teaching credential and taught first grade; she also received her pilot's license. When Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941, she tried - unsuccessfully - to join the Civil Air Patrol. Her next choice was the Navy, and she became one of 25,000 women who applied for the WASPs; Violet was one of 1,830 who were accepted (only 1,074 completed training). She only weighted 92 pounds, and for a week stuffed herself with bananas and malted milk to reach the minimum weight requirement of 100 pounds.

She flew hundreds of thousands of miles in a variety of airplanes, worked seven days a week, and slept on commercial flights that took her to and from assignments. She was fearless when it came to flying untested planes, flying in bad weather, and landing on runways that had no lights (11: Risk Addiction). Thirty-eight WASPs died in the course of delivering planes.

The purpose of the WASPs was to free male pilots for combat duty. At the time, they were not considered military personnel - they were civil service employees and had to pay for their own food, lodging and clothes.

By December of 1944, the Army felt that male pilots could again be used to transport aircraft and the WASPs were dissolved. Violet later said that it was one of the worst days of her life (12: Hard Times).

Rejected as a pilot for the commercial airlines because women were not accepted at the time, Violet recalled "It was a kick in the face. It was just horrible." Cowden worked briefly behind the ticket counter at TWA, said it was painful being so close to airplanes and so far from the cockpit so she quit. She later moved to California, married, and had a daughter.

Thirty-three years after the WASPs were shut down, President Carter passed a bill that made them eligible for Veterans Benefits (8: Turning No Into Yes). For decades, Violet spoke at colleges, schools and civic meetings about how women took airplanes from factories to training fields and points of debarkation. In her words "I feel the story is an inspiration to young people that if we could break down the barrier only men could fly for the military, they would have a chance to do anything they dream...one can work with people to reach a life goal."

At age 76, Violet skydived in tandem with an instructor, and at 89 she dived with the Army's Elite Parachute Team, the Golden Knights. She is survived by her daughter, two sisters and three grandchildren.

Looking forward to your comments...

101: The Self-Empowered Woman: Julia Gillard

2011-04-17T15:50:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

Today's post is about Australia's brave and outspoken 27th Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. Born in Wales in 1961, she and her family moved to Australia in 1966 in hopes of improving Julia's respiratory problems (and the family's economic prospects). Like most migrants from the U.K. at that time, they arrived by boat.

Active in student politics studied at the University of Adelaide in 1982 she was elected vice-president of the Australian Union of Students. After moving to Melbourne, she graduated from the University of Melbourne with Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws degrees in 1986.

The decision by the French government to ban religious head coverings has angered many fundementalists, but Gillard has gone even further. Here's the content of her recent speech regarding Islamic immigrants in Australia: "Immigrants, not Australians, must adapt. Take it or leave it. I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks on Bali, we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Australians.

This culture has been developed over two centuries of struggles, trails and victories by millions of men and women who have sought freedom.

We speak mainly ENGLISH, not Spanish, Lebanese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society, learn the language!

Most Australians believe in God. This is not some Christian, right-wing, political push, but a fact, because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation, and this is clearly documented. It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools. If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture.

We will accept your beliefs, and will not question why. All we ask is that you accept ours, and live in harmony and peaceful enjoyment with us.

This is OUR COUNTRY, OUR LAND, and OUR LIFESTYLE, and we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy all this. But once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about Our Flag, Our Pledge, Our Christian beliefs or Our Way of Life, I highly encourage you to take advantage of one other great Australian freedom, THE RIGHT TO LEAVE.

If you aren't happy here then LEAVE. We didn't force you to come here. You asked to be here. So accept the country YOU accepted.

Looking forward to your comments...

100: The Self-Empowered Woman: Xinran

2011-04-06T16:31:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

Mea Culpa for the long stretch between posts. Part of the reason had to do with the loss of my intern due to class schedule changes, and the rest was simply because life (etc.) got in the way.

At any rate, it's time to continue our look at issues of interest to women, so here we go. As I'm sure you've noticed, I enjoy learning about female-centric developments in other parts of the world. In earlier posts, we've visited Afghanistan, Kenya, Cambodia, Qatar, Zimbabwe, etc. Today's area of note is China.

Xinran is a Chinese broadcaster and writer who could be described as that country's Oprah Winfrey, even though her following came through the radio waves. Her program "Words on the Night Breeze" had millions of listeners in the 1990s, beause in those days fewer Chinese were able to read or own television sets. In 1997, Xinran moved to the U.K., but her writings have given a voice to China's "unheard" women, most of whom were poor.

Her latest book (Message From An Unknown Chinese Mother) deals with the ramifications of the Communist government's one-child policy. Started in 1979, it was an effort to control China's population growth. Xinran tells us, however, that since families could only have one child many parents chose to "get rid of" girl after girl after girl until a boy child arrived.

According to the book, when a child is born the midwife prepares a bowl of warm water. If the baby is a girl it will be called "Killing Trouble Water" and used for drowning, but if it's a boy it's called "Watering The Roots Bath" and will be used to wash the baby.

The baby girls who survive, but are abandoned by their families, are often adopted by childless couples in the West. Xinran has established a charity called Mothers' Bridge of Love to help these unwanted girls.

China is just now discovering the economic ramifications of the accepted belief that "you do not count as a human being unless you have a son." The one-child family rule will result in a Chinese population that - by 2040 - will be older than that of America. And by 2050 nearly one out of every four Chinese will be elderly.

In some areas of China, couples are allowed to have two children only if they married three years later than the average age of the rest of the country or if they waited six years between the first and second births. But because the Chinese work force is shrinking to dangerous levels, the government has decided to employ a number of exemptions. For example, if either the husband or wife is an only child the couple may then have two children. In China, parents who don't qualify and give up their daughters in the hopes that their next baby will be a boy are called "Extra Birth Guerrillas."

Looking forward to your comments...

99: The Self-Empowered Woman: Collins & Gingrich

2011-03-17T16:10:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

As most of you already know, I'm a huge fan of Gail Collins, who was the first female member of the New York Times' editorial board. In the past, I've shared with you my great admiration for her amazing book "America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates and Heroines," as well as her more recent best seller "When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present."

Both books are excellent volumes that belong in the library of any reader with an interest in American History or Women's Studies.

Recently, Collins wrote a New York Times editorial about Newt Gingrich's interest in winning the Republican nomination for the 2012 Presidential Election. Her comments were so incisive that I just had to share them (and you might want to forward this blog to other women who know what it's like to be a Starter Wife).

Collins indites politicians (like Angelo Errichetti, Randy Hopper, Carl Kruger, Carl Paladino, Mark Sanford and Elliot Spitzer) who suggest that "hard work and patriotism" can drive them into serial adultery and other "inappropriate choices."

The editorial reminds readers that Gingrich's first wife, Jackie, had once been his high school Math teacher. While she "was recovering from surgery for uterine cancer...her husband walked in [the hospital room] and started talking about the terms of a divorce."

Gingrich's second wife, Marianne, "was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and was visiting her mother when her husband called to tell her there was another woman." Now, Gingrich has told the Christian Broadcasting Network that "he's found true love with Wife No. 3, converted to Catholicism, and 'learned an immense amount.'"

Here's what Collins has to say about his late-life epiphany and his new-found happiness with his latest bride, Callista: "People, can we all agree now that men who spend their early and middle ages betraying women right and left are not allowed to get credit for discovering the joys of monogamy at about the same time they receive their first Social Security check?

"Of course, Gingrich is being a better husband this time around. He's 67! By then, most men have not just finished finished sowing their wild oats. The oats have been harvested, ground up, reprocessed and turned into soggy cornflakes."

Looking forward to your comments...

98: The Self-Empowered Woman: Irena Sendler

2011-03-03T16:01:00.000-08:00

Dear Followers,

Usually I learn about my blog subjects from media sources. But my dear friend (and author) Donna Brown Agins, introduced me to the inspiring story of Irena Krzyzanowska Sendler, a Polish Roman Catholic (3. Belief in the Unbelievable) social worker who became known as "the female Oskar Schindler."

Sendler was born in 1910. Her father was a physician who treated many Jewish patients whom other doctors would not treat, and in 1917, he contracted Typhus and died (1. No Paternal Safety Net). His grateful Jewish patients paid for Irena's education; in 1923 she got in trouble in school for defending a Jewish classmate by getting into a fistfight with two bullying girls (5. Life is Not a Popularity Contest).

By 1932, when Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, Sendler had become a social worker caring for unwed mothers and children. Seven years later, the Germans occupied Poland, and Sendler and her helpers began creating 3,000 false documents to help Jewish families escape. This was very risky because helping Jews in German-occupied Poland incurred the death penalty (11 . Risk Addiction).

Her organization, Zegota, had 23 female members and one man. Sendler's code name was Jolanta and she organized the work of smuggling children out of the Warsaw ghetto, where 500,000 Polish Jews lived in a one-square mile area. Since 6,000 people were dying each month from disease and starvation in the walled-off ghetto, Sendler and a colleague were given permission by the Warsaw Epidemic Control Department to enter legally on a daily basis (13. More Than Meets the Eye).

By 1942, "The Final Solution" and death camps had become public knowledge in Poland, so Sendler decided to smuggle out as many babies and children as possible. She would sedate the youngsters so they would remain quiet, and she was able to smuggle them out in packages, boxes and ambulances. They were placed in Catholic convents, parish rectories, and Polish families or the Warsaw orphanage of the Sisters of the Family of Mary. Over 2,500 children were rescued this way (7. Magnificent Obsession).

In 1943, the Gestapo arrested, tortured, and sentenced Sendler to death. Zegota bribed German guards on the way to her execution, and the Germans dumped her (with broken arms, legs and feet) in the woods (12. Hard Times). She lived in hiding as "Klara Dabrowska" for the rest of the war. Unbelievably, when the Soviets took over Poland after the war, she was again tortured because she had supported the Polish government in exile!

During her later years Sendler was honored by Israel, Pope John Paul II, and became the recipient of Poland's Order of White Eagle (the country's highest distinction). She was nominated in 2007 for the Nobel Peace Prize, but lost to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

In spite of her truly brave heroic deeds, she once told an interviewer "We who were rescuing children are not some sort of heroes. That term irritates me greatly. The opposite is true - I continue to have qualms of conscience that I did so little. I could have done more. (10. The Critic Within) This regret will follow me to my death." In 2008, Irena died in a Polish nursing home at the age of 98.

Looking forward to your comments...

97: The Self-Empowered Woman: Borodin and Protopopova

2011-02-13T11:45:00.000-08:00

Dear Followers,

Today, instead of focusing on one woman's story, I'd like to introduce you to a man who had a positive effect on countless lives. Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin was born November 12 (Yay, Scorpio), 1833 in St. Petersburg, Russia. His mother was the mistress of a Georgian nobleman (Prince Luka Simonis dze Gedevanishvili) and had three illegitimate sons by him, one of whom was Alexander. At that time (and in that culture, "unacknowledged" offspring were given the surname of servants or employees of the nobleman, which is why Alexander's registered father was listed as Porfiry Borodin).

Today, music lovers think of Borodin as a composer (if you've ever heard the song "Stranger in Paradise," which won a posthumous Tony Award in 1954, the credit goes to Borodin). As a child he received a good education, including piano lessons, but his first love was chemistry. He attended the Medico-Surgical Academy (the later home of Ivan Pavlov) and earned a doctorate in medicine with honors in 1856.

When he was 23 years old, he was sent to work at a military hospital, but spent the next five years pursuing his passion for organic chemistry. While doing post-doctorate studies in Heidelberg, he met his future wife, an amateur pianist named Ekaterina Protopopova. Ekaterina was in Heidelberg being treated for tuberculosis, and when she became sicker and moved to Pisa for more treatments, he followed her. They decided to return to Russia and get married, but money problems made them postpone the wedding, Finally, in 1863, when he was 30 years old, they married. Ekaterina's health problems (asthma, etc.) made it difficult for her to tolerate St. Petersburg climate, so she spent long chunks of tine with her relatives in Moscow.

Borodin was a remarkable man for a number of reasons. He spoke French, German, English, Italian and Russian. And, even though he never attended a music conservatory, he played the piano, flute, violin and cello. Some experts in the field feel that he discovered the first link of cholesterol to heart disease 40 years before it was "officially" recognized.

But what I think makes Borodin a real star is that in addition to his work as a "Sunday composer," his interest in chemistry and his work as a doctor, he was a devoted husband who tenderly cared for his ailing wife. AND in addition to all that, he agreed with Ekaterina's belief that women deserved to have equal rights. Unlike most people of his time, he believed that woman deserved equal education, and he was convinced that females would make good doctors.

The life project he was most proud of was the establishment of the St. Petersburg Medical School for Women, which he founded and ran. The last 12 years of his life was spent making sure that women received the proper training to work as physicians side-by-side with their male counterparts

Sadly, Bordin died while dancing at the pre-lenten Maslenitsa festival with friends when he was only 54 years old. His heartbroken wife died five months later. The next time we visit a female MD, let's send a silent thank you to the Russian composer who convinced the world that woman had the skills, the smarts and the right to be physicians.

Looking forward to your comments...

96: The Self-Empowered Woman: Pilgrim Women

2011-02-12T16:18:00.000-08:00

Dear Followers,

Five years ago I was one of the millions of American women addicted to Sarah Ban Breathnach's wildly popular book Simple Abundance, which became a massive New York Times best-seller. A week ago, I decided to treat myself to Peace and Plenty, her new book about finding one's path to financial serenity. It was written, in part, to share the story of how she essentially lost her marriage, her money and her home, but learned to come to terms with what money. security and wealth really mean.

Midway through her book I stumbled upon her thoughts about the pilgrims, which reminded me of how much I'd enjoyed Gail Collins' look at Colonial life in her amazing book America's Women. And since all of us have had our share of economic challenges during the recession, I thought it might be worthwhile to remind ourselves what women who came to our shores 391 years ago were experiencing.

First of all, the 19 adult women (18 of whom were married) aboard the Mayflower had made the passage in the company of 83 other passengers. Their trip from England took ten weeks, and after they landed the men went off to explore while the women and children were left on board with a skeleton crew. During this time, one woman (22-year old Dorothy May Bradford) fell overboard to her death; some reports said she "slipped," but others said it was suicide.

A year later, only four women had survived. Here's how Sarah Ban Breathnach writes about these Pilgrim women: "Four very tired women who needed to take care of 50 men and children daily. With the men almost entirely focused on building houses and the village, the women had so many chores, they performed them in shifts. For aside from cleaning and cooking, there was plowing and planting, preserving and putting away, caring for the livestock, making soap and candles, tending the stock and creating herb medicinals...if they didn't drop dead with their hand to the plow or wither away away in a nighttime sweat from a succession of diseases contracted on the voyage, they took it as a sign that God meant for them to go on.

"...Sometimes in life, and today might be one of those days for you, all we can do is put one foot out of bed in the morning, and then in front of the other, literally...I figure if you wake up in the morning, you're meant to go on...All women are endowed with the same spiritual DNA as our Pilgrim mothers - a genetic code of resilience and strength, ingenuity and creativity, perseverance and determination."

Both these gifted authors deserve a standing ovation for reminding us of the Pilgrims who paved the way for us to enjoy the freedoms and opportunities that are the envy of less-fortunate women everywhere.

Looking forward to your comments...

95: The Self-Empowered Woman: Barbara Smith Conrad

2011-02-10T14:55:00.000-08:00

Dear Followers,

In 2009, mezzo soprano Barbara Smith Conrad was honored by the Texas legislature in the state Capitol. Hundreds of people stood and honored the woman who had once been at the center of a Texas Civil Rights controversy.

Conrad, who was born Barbara Smith, entered the University of Texas in 1956, which was the first year that African American students were allowed to attend the school. The next year, Conrad (who is African American) was cast in an opera production at the University of Texas (Austin), and was slated to sing opposite a white, male student in a performance of Henry Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas." Outraged segregationists in the Texas legislature threatened to withhold state money from the University, and Conrad's role was subsequently filled by a white student.

Today, 73-year-old Conrad is the subject of a PBS "Independent Lens" documentary titled, "When I Rise," which details this personal and painful story of the racism faced by a talented young, American student five decades ago. When Conrad was selected to play Dido (the Queen of Carthage), many locals were outraged. One white man spat in her face, and she even received death threats (12. Hard Times).

Born in the all-black small town of Center Point, Texas, Conrad grew up with big dreams. She had been inspired by seeing Marian Anderson sing (2. An Early Sense of Direction), and by the importance of church among the members of her community (3. Belief in the Unbelievable).

When Conrad found herself dropped from her school's opera production, the resulting publicity opened doors beyond even her imagination. Harry Belafonte heard about the incident, offered to pay her tuition to any other school she chose, and then told Ms. Conrad, "...let's turn your experience into a triumph." He brought her to New York City and introduced her to powerful people in the performing world (4. Supportive Someone). And former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt sent a check for $5,000, and arranged for the National Urban League to support the young singer.

Conrad -- who admits "I was just that stubborn" -- chose to return to Austin, and graduated in 1959 before returning to New York and playing Bess in a production of "Porgy and Bess" by the Metropolitan Opera. Although she never became as successful as Kathleen Battle or Leontyne Price (who had also been forced to transcend racism), Conrad remained both popular and admired for her talent. She performed in Europe and South America and had contracts with both The Vienna State Opera and The Met. In 1995, she sang for Pope John Paul II in New Jersey (8. Turning No Into Yes).

Today, she lives in a large Upper West Side apartment and gives master classes to other performers. She is the vocal director as well as a founder of Manhattan's Wagner Theater Program.

Looking forward to your comments...

94: The Self-Empowered Woman: Eve Ensler/Congo

2011-02-08T17:16:00.000-08:00

Dear Followers,

Last year, Good Housekeeping Magazine named Eve Ensler one of the "125 Women Who Changed Our World." Why? Because among other accomplishments (she is an activist, author, performer, philanthropist and playwright) she created THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES, which has been translated into 48 languages and performed in over 140 countries.

Today, Ensler's activist movement (V-Day), which supports anti-violence against women and girls, has joined with UNICEF and Panzi Foundation to establish the City of Joy. Based in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo, it will support survivors of sexual violence and help them to heal both physically and emotionally. For many of these women, the center will be their first opportunity to receive an education.

Hundreds of thousands of women have been raped (often violently and sadistically with objects ranging from rifles to wood) by the armed militant groups who travel through Eastern Congo. Three years ago Ensler came up with the idea to create a safe place where women can learn life skills. Her hope is to create "an army of women."

In her words "...when you have enough women in power, they take over the government and they make different decisions. You'll see...they'll put an end to this rape problem fast." City of Joy is a new compound with classrooms where Congolese women (many of whom have been raped more than once) will learn self-defense, farming technology, leadership techniques and computer skills. Google is donating a computer center.

There will be about 200 "leadership recruits" each year, and most of them are illiterate. The center, which cost about $1 million, was partly built by the hands of many of the Congolese women who plan to live there. A former UNICEF official, who admitted that neither diplomacy, academia or the Congolese government had been able to adequately protect women, admitted that "Maybe this is the moment where women on the ground show they can turn this around."

If you would like to support City of Joy, here's the link http://drc.vday.org/city-of-joy

Looking forward to your comments...

93: The Self Empowered Woman: Wikipedia

2011-02-04T14:48:00.000-08:00

Dear Followers,

Today's post, just like #82, is not about a particular woman, but is about an important issue that should be of interest to all of us. Thanks to New York Times contributor Noam Cohen, I learned that out of Wikipedia's hundreds of thousands of contributors only 13% are female.

The Wikipedia Foundation discovered this lopsided statistic thanks to a study by a joint center of the United Nations University and Maastricht University, The executive director of the Wikipedia Foundation, Sue Gardner, has set a goal to raise "the share of women contributors to 25% by 2015."

The gender disparity on Wikipedia shows up in the different way that topics are covered. For example, a topic that is of interest to boys (say, baseball cards) will have lengthy posts in numerous categories while a topic like friendship bracelets will only have four brief paragraphs.

"Sex and the City" has brief episode summaries while "The Sopranos" has detailed, lengthy articles about each episode. Jane Margolis, who co-wrote "Unlocking the Clubhouse" (a book about sexism in computer science) says that Wikipedia is merely a reflection of women's reluctance to assert their opinions, on- or off- line.

In the words of Catherine Ornenstein, the founder and director of a New York organization that monitors the gender breakdown of contributors to public forums (The OpEd Project) "When you are a minority voice, you begin to doubt your competencies."

She says that when it comes to members of Congress as well as contributors to the Op-Ed pages of the Washington Post or the New York Times, the 85/15 ratio persists.

Ms. Gardner is hoping to use "subtle persuasion and outreach through her foundation to welcome all newcomers to Wikipedia." Maybe today would be a good time for you to contribute information to Wikipedia about a person, place or thing that would be of interest to female readers. After all, 53% of adults who regularly use the Internet now look for information on Wikipedia.

Looking forward to your comments...

92: The Self-Empowered Woman: Stirring The Fire

2011-01-22T10:00:00.000-08:00

Dear Followers,

Below are photos of three women who have been agents of change in their cultures and countries (Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Afghanistan). To learn about a group that is devoted to empowering women and girls worldwide, keep reading this blog.

As most of you know, for the past year I've tried to introduce readers to women in different parts of the world who are making a difference. Today, however, I'd like to tell you about an organization that is designed to help students become advocates for those who need help, volunteer their help and/or study abroad in the developing world where women and girls can benefit by becoming more empowered.

Stirring The Fire is a movement designed to restore balance between the feminine and masculine qualities and values that affect cultures, institutions and our lives. The pictures above above are part of Stirring The Fire: a global movement to empower women and girls, which is a multimedia exhibition by Phil Borges.

The photography and films are designed to inspire those who want to get involved with specific women's issues internationally. In the words of Isabel Allende, this work brings us "...face to face with heroes - remote and mostly unknown women - on the edge of a slow but steady transformation, bringing social and economic justice to women and girls worldwide."

The United Nations Development Program, the World Bank, and even the Joint Chiefs of Staff understand that empowering women (which helps fight poverty and builds stability in the developing world) is crucial to our security as well.

Did you know that in much of the world women support and care for their families, grow and prepare the food, collect fuel and water, and yet (because of social and economic discrimination) are unable to attend school, earn money or take part in civic (i.e., governmental) life?

Stirring The Fire brought these statistics to my attention, and I want to share them with you:

Out of the 900 million illiterate adults on the planet, 2/3 are women.

Half of the world's food is produced by women, but they only own 1% of the farmland

Only 15% of the elected legislatures in the world are female.

Phil Borges feels passionately about the need to improve the lives of women and girls everywhere. According to him, "When women are free to make the most of their skills and ideas, they create a rising tide that lifts all boats."

If you would like to be a part of this movement, click on http://www.stirringthefire.org/.

Looking forward to your comments...

91: The Self Empowered-Woman: Bibi Aisha Update

2011-01-17T13:07:00.000-08:00

Dear Followers,

Back in August (Blog #76) you learned about the tragic story of an 18-year-old Afghan woman who had been disfigured by her angry husband and his vengeful family. Bibi Aisha had been the victim of a "Baad," which is a tribal custom of using young daughters to settle disputes between angry opponents.

When she was a little girl, Bibi Aisha's mother died, and her father (Hajji Muhommed Zai) offered Aisha and her younger sister as "compensation" to a family whom he had dishonored. But when Aisha could no longer tolerate the abuse her "husband's" family (Sulaiman) dished out, she ran away. Her husband, his father and brother, tracked her down, took her to a mountain side, cut off both of her ears as well as her nose, and left her to bleed to death.

Aisha somehow made her way to a women's refugee camp run by Women for Afghan Women. Eventually, Aisha was flown to America where the Grossman Burn Foundation in California planned to donate reconstructive plastic surgery on the now-20-year-old refugee.

Her story, however, has become more complicated because Afghan authorities have arrested her father-in-law (officers had to chase him on foot for over a mile) after he took her amputated nose and proudly showed it off at the village market. Now Afghan authorities (and Aisha's father) want her to return to Kandahar and testify at the court proceedings.

Meanwhile, Aisha's operation has been postponed because physicians feel that she is emotionally unprepared to deal with surgery. The harsh reality is that Aisha has been abused physically and emotionally for most of her life, and continues to suffer the after-effects of that harsh treatment. She continues to suffer from seizure-like episodes that appear to include flashbacks, and cause her to pull at her hair and cry. She has been moved among host families, staff, and volunteers in an attempt to help her adapt to her new reality. The girl who grew up without electricity or indoor plumbing, and never attended school, is now living on the East Coast and adapting to life in America.

Today, Aisha uses a cell phone, sends text messages, watches YouTube and is using the Internet to teach herself English. She uses supplies purchased at a local Michael's craft store to create jewelry and has been given a prosthetic nose (which she applies herself with a Q-Tip dipped in glue)created by Dr. Stefan Knauss. In October, she attended a fund raiser for the Grossman Burn Foundation and met former First Lady Laura Bush and Maria Shriver.

If you wish to help Aisha (and others like her) log on to http://www.womenforafghanwomen.org/.

Looking forward to your comments...

90: The Self-Empowered Woman: Dr. Hawa Abdi

2011-01-15T06:57:00.000-08:00

Dear Followers,

Today's posting comes to you courtesy of my dear friend, Susan Schorr, who is visiting from Santa Barbara. We took a brief hiatus from talking, laughing and eating to bring you the story of an amazing woman who lives near Mogadishu in Somalia.

Unlike the women in today's Somalia, Dr. Abdi grew up at a time when females were allowed opportunities. At age 17, she won a scholarship to study medicine in Kiev, which is now the Ukraine rather than the Soviet Union. She was the only female among 91 other Somali students. Because her mother had died in childbirth when Dr. Abdi was twelve years old, her goal from that age forward was to become a doctor (2. An Early Sense of Direction).

After graduation, Dr. Abdi worked in government-run hospitals in Somalia, married, and had three children. Her only son died in 2005 (aged 23) in a car accident; her two daughters (one named Amina aged 30, the other Deqa, 35) became doctors and still work with their mother (16. Intensive Motherhood).

In 1983, with the permission of Mohammed Said Barre (the last President of Somalia's government), Dr. Abdi opened a one-room clinic on property that her family owned, and persuaded nomadic women to let her help deliver their babies. Today (18 years later) Hawa Abdi Hospital has three operating theaters, six doctors, 43 nurses, 400 beds and an 800-student school/adult education center to help teach women how to make clothes and prepare healthy meals (7. Magnificent Obsession).

Last May, her hospital was surrounded by over 700 Islamic militants who held her at gunpoint and let their teenaged recruits ransack the hospital and destroy equipment and supplies. The militia commanders taunted her and asked, "Why are you running this hospital? You are old. And you are a woman!" (13. More Than Meets the Eye)

The militants did not care that 90,00 refugees have flocked to her medical center, which is only 15 miles outside of Mogadishu and one of the few safe places in southern Somalia. It is practically the only place refugees can receive free treatment for everything from measles and malaria to life-threatening malnutrition and tuberculosis.

As the militants held her at gunpoint, Dr. Abdi yelled at them, "I'm not leaving my hospital. If I die, I will die with my people and my dignity. You are young and you are a man, but what have you done for your society?" (5. Life Is Not a Popularity Contest)

Last year, Glamour magazine named Dr. Abdi and her two daughters 2010 Women of the Year, and described Dr. Abdi as equal parts Rambo and Mother Teresa. According to the United Nations and Human Rights Watch, Dr. Abdi is about the only person doing any effective humanitarian work in Somalia. In her words, "Women can build stability. We can make peace."

Looking forward to your comments...

89: The Self-Empowered Woman: CCSVI

2010-12-31T15:18:00.001-08:00

Dear Followers,As you may have noticed, I've only posted one blog in December. My explanation has nothing to do with research or inspiration (you should see the huge pile of "Blog subjects" waiting to be attacked!), but everything to do with our medically motivated trip to New York. The photo above is of Tony and me in Albany, and was taken the night before my CCSVI procedure.

CCSVI stands for Chronic Cerebro Spinal Venous Insufficiency, a term coined by Dr. Paolo Zamboni of Ferrara, Italy. When his wife developed MS, he explored the disease from a Vascular rather than Neurological perspective, and discovered that most people with MS have a congenital restriction of several major veins. This stenosis interferes with the venous blood flow, and that causes a back flow of iron molecules.

This angioplasty-like procedure is (finally) being performed in the U.S., and after spending 54 weeks in search of a skilled American doctor, Tony and I hit the jackpot. Our friend Bea Lewis introduced us to Dr. Gary Siskin, who has performed more of these procedures than any physician in North America.

We travelled to Albany with Ed Broderick, and learned that both Jugular veins and the Azygous were all compromised. Dr. Siskin and his staff completed the CCSVI procedure the next day, and two days later we flew back to Florida.

There are several CCSVI YouTube videos (see The Reformed MS Society) where patients have had dramatic improvements. In my case, I'm having small positive changes in my ability to move my right hand and left foot. And even though it's hard to explain, I just generally feel better and a bit stronger. In theory, if the veins remain open the improvements will continue.

Next week The Self-Empowered Woman blog will continue with more stories about amazing women, but for now here's hoping 2011 will be a fabulous year for all of us.

Looking forward to your comments...

88: The Self Empowered Woman: Angelina Jolie

2010-12-06T15:10:00.000-08:00

Dear Followers:

This blog was started before the trip to Albany, but completed after the New Year. Apologies for the numerical mix up and the delay...

Even though she is always controversial, Angelina Jolie is the topic of today's blog because she will be starring in the film adaptation of Stacey Schiff's (Blog # 83) biography of Cleopatra.

Jolie is the daughter of the late actress Marcheline Bertrand and Jon Voight and her godparents are Jacqueline Bisset and Maximilian Schell. When Angelina Jolie was only a year old her parents separated (1. No Paternal Safety Net), and she remained estranged from her father for many years (14. Selective Disassociation). As a child, she lived in Palisades, New York with her mother and brother, and during this time (after regularly attending movies with her Mom), she decided that becoming an actress would be a good career choice (2. An Early Sense of Direction).

When she was eleven years old, the family moved back to Los Angeles and she enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute, where she trained for two years. When Jolie was 14, she began modeling, and appeared in several music videos. She also quit her acting classes, dyed her hair purple, adopted a black wardrobe, and toyed with the idea of becoming funeral director.

Jolie attended Beverly Hills High School and Moreno High School, but felt “isolated” (5. Life Is Not A Popularity Contest), particularly because her mother didn’t have much money and her clothes were second-hand. The other kids teased her because of the way she looked, and the fact that she was extremely thin, wore glasses, as well as braces (6. Life Is Also Not A Beauty Contest).

By the age of 16, Jolie was living in a small apartment near her mother’s home and returned to her acting classes. Her brother was attending film school at USC, and she appeared in five of his student films before landing her first leading role in the independent film “Cyborg 2.” Jolie is famous for doing many of her own movie stunts, and has admitted that she is “fearless to a fault” (11. Risk Addiction).

During her first Hollywood movie (Hackers) in 1995 she met her first husband, Jonny Lee Miller, but their marriage was short lived. And the same was true for her marriage to Billy Bob Thornton (15. Forget About Prince Charming). For the past five years, she has lived with Brad Pitt (ergo Brangelina) who is the father of her three biological children: they also have three adopted children (16. Intensive Motherhood).

Here are a few things you may not know about Angelina Jolie:

She has thirteen tattoos
As part of her work for the United Nations , she has visited over 20 countries
She has received one Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards
She has donated millions of dollars for Afghan refugees, Haiti earthquake victims, relief organizations in Chad and Darfur, Global Action for Children, Doctors Without Borders and a wildlife sanctuary in Cambodia
Her children are being exposed to Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism so they can decide for themselves which religion they want to follow
Jolie has a private pilot license (with instrument rating) and owns a Cirrus SR 22 airplane
She has no agent and no publicist

Looking forward to your comments...

87: The Self-Empowered Woman: Saudi Women/Sports

2010-11-21T18:38:00.001-08:00

Dear Followers,

Thanks to Katherine Zoepf of the New York Times, I've learned about an issue that should be of interest to all of us who took sports and physical activity for granted as just another unremarkable part of life as an American woman.

The girl wearing a green jacket is Dalma Malhas, an 18 year-old Saudi Arabian equestrian who recently won a bronze medal in show jumping at the first Youth Olympic Games in Singapore. What makes this achievement noteworthy is that she had to enter the competition on her own and pay her own expenses. Malhas is the first Saudi woman to ever compete in an international event.

Physical activity is forbidden in Saudi Arabia's state-run girls' schools, and conservative Muslims consider sports for women either immodest or (potentially) immoral. A few large Saudi cities have gyms where women can workout, but they are usually unmarked to avoid attention.

So here comes the kicker. Saudi Arabia (like Brunei and Qatar) does not permit women to compete in international athletic competitions, which means no women can be part of the Olympic Games.

The man pictured above is Ali al-Ahmed, a Saudi dissident, who directs the Institute for Gulf Affairs in Washington, D.C.. Three months ago, he began a campaign called No Women, No Play, with the goal of urging the IOC (International Olympic Committee) to suspend Saudi Arabia from future competitions until women are allowed to participate.

Critics might consider this a case of feminism gone wild, but the precedent was set in 1964, when the IOC banned South Africa because of apartheid. The Olympic Charter states, "... sport is a human right..." and "... discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic movement."

The woman in white is Lina al-Maeena, who founded a growing and very popular women's basketball team named Jeddah United. But whether or not liberal Saudis approve of gyms for females, the fact is that Saudi Arabia is a monarchy in which the king and a Salafist religious establishment create the laws. Unfortunately, most of the clerics oppose sports for women because it's felt that athletic females might a) wear immodest clothes, b) want to travel, c) compete in public, d) leave their homes unnecessarily, and (if virgins) e) damage their hymens and become unmarriageable.

Ms. Maeena has tried to put a good face on her country's restrictive approach by arguing that the U.S. didn't give women "equal rights" in sports until Title IX passed in 1972. And while that "equality" changed academic sports, the truth is that American women had been participating in sports and competing in the Olympics decades earlier.

How lucky we are that our grandmothers and granddaughters were and are able to play tennis, golf, ride, run, and compete without fear of government reprisal. Hats off to Dalma Malhas!

Looking forward to your comments...

86: The Self-Empowered Woman: Taylor Swift

2010-11-13T12:02:00.000-08:00

Dear Followers,

As I reviewed the last dozen or so posts, I noticed that there was (possibly) an overdose of women who were either foreign or older. So today's Self-Empowered Woman is 20 year-old American recording sensation Taylor Swift.

When she was only ten years old (2. An Early Sense of Direction), a computer repairman showed her how to play three chords on a guitar, and that inspired her to learn as much as she could about music. Soon after, she wrote her first song, "Lucky You."

At age eleven, she persuaded her parents to take her to Nashville because she wanted to get a record deal. She bravely showed a demo tape of her singing to recording companies (11. Risk Addiction), but even though she visited all of the label companies in town, she was rejected by every single one (13. More Than Meets the Eye).

At the age of twelve, she began playing the twelve-string guitar; writing songs and playing the guitar helped Swift cope with the pain of being bullied at school (5. Life is Not a Popularity Contest). Soon she was performing at Pennsylvania fairs and festivals.

When she was 14, her family moved to a Nashville suburb to help her chances of getting a recording deal. That year, she became the youngest staff songwriter ever hired by the Sony/ATV Tree Publishing House. For her junior and senior years of high school she was home schooled. She received her diploma in 2008.

Not surprisingly, Swift has used her personal life as the basis for many of her wildly popular songs. Her romantic disappointments with Joe Jonas, Taylor Lautner, and John Mayer have become public knowledge (15. Forget About Prince Charming).

One can only imagine how much those other labels regret overlooking her early talent. Here are a few of her musical accomplishments:

Her 2008 album "Fearless" was the bestselling country album in digital history.

Swift was the first artist ever in the history of Nelsen SoundScan to have two different albums in the Top 10 year-end album chart.

She is the youngest artist in history to win the ACM Album of the Year Award.

She was also the youngest ever to win the Country Music Association Award for Entertainer of the Year (only six other women have won this honor).

Swift has sold more than 28 million digital tracks, as well as received three Gold Mobile Ringtones for the 14 million ringtones sold. She has sold more than 13 million albums worldwide.

She was the first country music artist to ever win a MTV Video Music Award.

Last year, Swift became the first female artist with the most Top 40 singles of the decade, surpassing Beyonce.

She made her acting debut in the movie Valentine's Day, and her song "Today Was a Fairytale" was on the movie's soundtrack.

Swift was on People magazine's "100 Most Beautiful People" list in 2008, 2009, and 2010.

According to Forbes, she is this year's twelfth most-powerful celebrity with earnings of $45 million.

Imagine what she'll have accomplished by the time she's 40! A big thank you to everyone for all the amazing birthday wishes.

Looking forward to your comments...

85: The Self-Empowered Woman: Dilma Rousseff

2010-11-07T09:03:00.000-08:00

Dear Followers,

Now that our American election fever is over (for a little while) I thought that today I would introduce you to Brazil's first-ever female president. Dilma Vana Rousseff (who was born on December 14th, 1947) is the daughter of a Bulgarian immigrant; her father had been an active member of the Bulgarian Communist Party in the 1920s. He moved to Brazil to escape political persecution, and became financially successful. He married Dilma Jane Silva, a schoolteacher, and they had three children, but he died when Dilma Vana was only 15 (1. No Paternal Safety Net).

The new President of Brazil (which has the seventh-largest economy in the world) received her early education at a Catholic (3. Belief in the Unbelievable) boarding school, where the students and nuns primarily spoke French. After her father's death, the teen aged Rousseff went to the Central State High School where she became more aware of politics and realized that "The world was not a place for debutantes." This is where she first became interested in The Worker's Politics Organization (POLOP), and became opposed to Brazil's dictatorship (2. An Early Sense of Direction).

Rousseff became so involved with politics that the authorities gave her several nicknames: "The Joan of Arc of Subversion," "Political Criminal,"
"Female Figure of Sadly Notable Aspect," and "the She-Pope of Subversion." Obviously, such name-calling didn't upset her (5. Life Is Not a Popularity Contest).

In 1968, she married Claudio Galenao Linhares, a political activist five years her senior. Two years later, he was arrested; she was captured by the authorities, sentenced to six years in prison, and her political rights were suspended for 18 years. During her time in prison, she was tortured for several weeks with punching, ferule, and electric shock devices (12. Hard Times).

She was released from jail in 1972, but was barred from continuing her university studies the next year. Ultimately, she applied to the Rio Grande do Sul Federal University, where she majored in economics and graduated in 1977. In addition to politics and economics, Rousseff is an opera lover (9. Music).

Her first marriage (in 1968) ended with an amicable divorce in 1981, but she used her first husband's name until 1999, when she reverted to her maiden name. Her second (common law) marriage was to Carlos Araujo, even though he had an affair with actress and fellow militant Bete Mendes, he and Rousseff had a daughter, Paula Rousseff Araujo, who was born in 1976. In 1994, Rousseff found that another woman was pregnant with Araujo's child (15. Forget About Prince Charming); Rousseff and Araujo separated, but later reconciled. They remained together until 2000, when she left.

Politically, Rousseff had served as Brazil's Energy Minister and was chosen by former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Lula) to be his Chief of Staff, the first female to hold that position. Many believe that his support helped her win last month's election.

In 2009, Rousseff disclosed that she was battling Lymphatic System Cancer, and she also suffered from Myopathy as a result of the cancer treatment. During much of her campaign, she wore a wig due to chemotherapy-related hair loss. The story of a former left-wing, urban guerrilla who has risen to become her country's (first female) leader is a stirring one.

Looking forward to your comment...

84: The Self-Empowered Woman: Iana Matei

2010-10-24T16:42:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

It's no secret that I really admire brave women. And last week I learned about a woman who has truly put her own life at risk in order to try to help others. Her name is Iana Matei; she lives in the small town of Pitesti, Romania (about 300 miles North of Istanbul), and she has rescued over 400 young girls who were victimized by human traffickers.

In her words, "It is a crime against humanity to sell and buy life. There are many girls in Eastern Europe, including in Romania, forced into prostitution...Kept in captivity, abused and forced to have paid sexual intercourse with strangers, they become what can only be labeled as slaves."

Few Americans know about Ms. Matei's work, but for the past decade or so, her efforts have become more publicized, particularly in Europe. In 2006, the U.S. State Department gave her the Hero of the Year Award, in 2007, she received the Abolitionist Award from the U.K.'s House of Lords, and this year, she became the 15th recipient (and the first Romanian) to be chosen Reader's Digest European of the Year.

Matei is her country's leading advocate for victims of human trafficking, and that means that she often single-handedly rescues (11. Risk Addiction) girls as young as thirteen who have been either sold into sexual slavery or tricked into phony offers of marriage or "foreign job opportunities." Matei frequently "kidnaps" these girls from their often-violent captors, and then offers them a place to live as well as heal and rebuild their young lives. Her determination to help these young victims (and bring their tormentors to justice) has become her 7. Magnificent Obsession.

A psychologist by training, Matei is livid that there is no real, adequate legal punishment for the people who sell young girls into prostitution. In her words, "When these guys get caught, they get what? Six years? Maybe. They destroy 300 lives and they get six years. You traffic drugs, you get 20 years. There is something not right... I would like to see these criminals locked behind bars forever. I would throw away the keys of their cells. Let's have them locked up for 100 - 150 years." (5. Life Is Not a Popularity Contest)

Matei began caring for these young girls when a policeman asked her to let three "prostitutes" stay at her home because their allotted ten days for "re-integration" had expired. The girls were 14, 15, and 16 years old, "frozen, badly dressed and starving"; there was no official welfare service available to help them recover from the trauma of being locked up in a brothel and forced to work the streets.

Matei is so devoted to her young charges that she even adopted three year-old twins who had been the children of one of the young girls that she had recently rescued. Fortunately, the 52 year-old Matei has plenty of energy.

Matei's dream is to own a self-sustaining hotel where the girls can work, learn skills, and earn a living. Currently, though, she houses them in the small shelter she runs. While the Reader's Digest Award contributed $5,000 towards her goal, the Make Way Partners in Birmingham, Alabama also helps fund Matei's shelter.

Over 400 young girls have looked to Ms. Matei as a real life heroine. Thanks to her, they are able to heal the wounds inflicted by the traffickers, society at large, and (all too often) their no-longer-loving judgmental families.

If you would like to help support the work of this brave, nurturing woman, visit the link below to learn more about the Make Way Partners. And, in case you wondered, all three of the teenagers Matei picked up at the police station are now married and have children of their own.

https://www.makewaypartners.org/index.php

Looking forward to your comments...

83: The Self-Empowered Woman: Stacy Schiff

2010-10-19T11:47:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

As you know, it's important to me to introduce readers to remarkable women-- regardless of how many of the 17 traits that appear in their lives.

The latest woman who has caught my attention is Pulitzer-Prize winning biographer Stacy Schiff. The recipient of an excellent education (Phillips Academy, and Williams College -- class of 1982), Schiff was a Senior Editor at Simon & Schuster until 1990.

In 2000 she won the Pulitzer Prize for her biography "Vera (Mrs. Vladimir)Nabokov): Portrait of a Marriage, the wife of the man who wrote "Pale Fire" and "Lolita". Five years later she was a Pulitzer finalist for her biography of Antoine de Saint Exupery. In 2005, she wrote "A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America," which was published as "Doctor Franklin Goes to France" in the UK.

As if all that brilliant writing weren't enough, Schiff has won fellowships from John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the 2006 Arwen Taylor book prize, the Ambassador Award in American studies, the Institut Francais's Gilbert Chinaid prize, the 2006 George Washington Book prize, and 2006 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Whew!

Now Schiff has a new biography out about Cleopatra, whom she fells has been misrepresented for years. When recently asked by the New York Times if Cleopatra had "slept her way to the top," Schiff answered "...it has always been preferable to attribute a woman's success to her beauty rather than brains. We seem convinced that men strategize while women scheme. Men are authoritative while women are shrill."

Those of you who have heard me lecture about how my library trips as a young girl helped me identify the 17 traits of Self-Empowered Women, will find Schiff's comments of interest: "...I was nostalgic even as a child. I was happiest in my hometown library in Adams, Mass., where nothing seemed to change... I notice in retrospect that biographies for kids seemed to be about women who are famous for their disabilities, delusions or sensational deaths. The big three were Helen Keller, Joan of Arc and Isadora Duncan...I fear that sudden demises always help. Think Lady Di or Amelia Earhart or Sylvia Plath."

The undeniably brilliant Schiff has an unusual lifestyle. Her husband, Marc de la Bruyere, is a real-estate developer who spends large chunks of time in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, while she and their three children live mostly in New York City.

Schiff's articles, essays, and book reviews have also appeared in The New Yorker, The Times Literary Supplement, and The New York Times.

Looking forward to your comments...

82 The Self-Empowered Woman: French Women

2010-10-14T12:06:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

Who would argue with the idea that French women are undeniably amazing? Those of us who've spent time in Paris know how amazing French females seem -- slim, well-dressed and oozing sophistication from every pore. I've always wondered how they learn to work magic with a simple scarf...

Naturally, when I read Katrin Bennhold's article in The New York Times titled, "For Women In France, Dim Outlook on Equality," I was amazed. Here I'd spent a lifetime thinking that their lives were effortless and enviable, when in fact they have struggles of their own.

To wit, Valerie Toranian (who is editor-in-chief of French Elle) observed that "French women are exhausted. We have the right to do what men do -- as long as we also take care of the children, cook a delicious dinner, and look immaculate. We have to be Superwoman."

On average (according to INSEE, The National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies), French women spend five hours and one minute each day on child care and domestic tasks; men spend two hours and seven minutes. And a recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center revealed that three out of every four French people believed that men have a better life than women. People in 22 different countries were surveyed and this was the "highest share" of any respondents.

According to the European Union's statistical agency, French women have more babies (1.89 per woman) than any other country in Europe (for example, Italy is 1.38 and German is 1.32), but they also are Europe's biggest consumers of antidepressants.

The majority of French medical school graduates are female, but most hospital department heads are male. Overall, French women earn 26% less than men, and in 2009, even childless French women who were in their 40s still earned 17% less than men. Eighty-two percent of French women aged 25-49 are employed, but 82% of National Assembly members are male.

The French Government spends 5.1% of its gross national product (twice the European Union average) on family, childcare and maternity benefits. Women are encouraged -- via tax benefits and childcare assistance -- to have children. According to Genevieve Fraisse (an expert on gender history), "French mothers have conditions women everywhere can only dream of. But stereotypes remain very much intact."

France ranks 46th in the World Economic Forum's 2010 Gender Equality Report, which means its lower than the U.S., most of Europe, as well as Jamaica and Kazakhstan. In theory, the French Republic made equality a founding principle, but women were not able to vote until 1944!

Years ago, the French philosopher, Bernard-Henri Levy observed that "France is an old Gallic macho country."

Looking forward to your comments...

81: The Self-Empowered Woman: Ntozake Shange

2010-10-04T15:59:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

Sorry I haven't posted as regularly as normal, but the hunt for CCSVI treatment has entered an exciting new phase. If I'm lucky, I may be able to receive the procedure in Albany before the end of the year; anyone who knows what it's like to live with MS (Multiple Sclerosis) will understand my scattered state of mind as I wait for a date...

Today's blog is prompted by the news that on November 5th, Tyler Perry will release his new film "Colored Girls," which is based on the play "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf." This Obie Award-winning play has long been considered Ntozake Shange's signature work, and it was produced on Broadway in 1976, when she was 28 years old.

The film is expected to be successful (like most of Perry's productions, but Shange's new novel, "Some Sing, Some Cry," which she co-authored with her sister (Ifa Bayeza) is getting lots of positive press and is expected to become a national bestseller. It took the two women almost 15 years (7: Magnificent Obsession) to complete the story of seven generations of black women who - with the help of music - overcome the violent challenges and heart breaking roadblocks that stopped them from reaching their dreams.

As Kaiama L. Glover wrote in the New York Times "[the authors] give us generation after generation of black women whose greatness and potential for happiness are undone, or nearly so, by men...If any of the Mayfield women managed to realize some measure of success, it's despite-or to spite-the men in their lives...After every near defeat, these women pick themselves up, sometimes literally off the ground, and take the next impossible step."

Shange was born Paulette L. Williams in Trenton, New Jersey; her father was an Air Force Surgeon and her mother was a Psychiatric Social Worker. As a little girl her family moved to (segregated) St. Louis, and she was bussed to a white school where she experienced racism. After completing high school in New Jersey, Shange attended Barnard College (where she graduated Cum Laude in American Studies) and USC (for her Master's Degree in the same field).

During her first year in college, Shange married, but the relationship ended bitterly; reportedly, several suicide attempts followed (15: Forget About Prince Charming), and soon after she adopted her Xhosa/Zulu name which - roughly translated means - "she who walks with her own things" and "she who walks with lions."

Shange is no stranger to challenges. In 2004, she learned that she had suffered a series of minor strokes, which at one point left her unable to read, speak, or write (12: Hard Times). Today her balance and speech are still mildly impaired, but the playwright and poet who calls herself "A Black Feminist" is ready for a new chapter in her life to begin.

Looking forward to your comments...

80: The Self-Empowered Woman: Eileen Nearne

2010-09-24T16:49:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

Not all remarkable women receive the standing ovations that they deserve. Today's blog is about a remarkable Self-Empowered Woman who embodied honor, bravery and fortitude, but died penniless and alone.

Eileen Nearne was 89 years old when she died in the English seaside village of Torquay. Because she had lived alone for many years, and had few friends, and there was no one to pay for funeral expenses after her body was found. Council officials, while in the process of looking through her things in an effort to find a relative, discovered that she wasn't just another little old lady who had lived--and died--alone.

The book and movie "Charlotte Gray" (the film starred Cate Blanchett) was rumored to be based on Nearne's life, and the London Times posthumously referred to her as a real-life Eleanor Rigby, the spinster who died alone in the Beatles' song.

In fact, when she was 24 years old Eileen Nearne had had a remarkable career as a young spy during World War II. She was dropped behind enemy lines near Chateauroux in occupied France, and was assigned to transmit wireless radio messages to London from Paris in order to help the Allies keep track of Nazi activities. During her five months in Paris she sent 105 messages--including one that told the British that the Germans had hidden 2,000 rockets in a stone quarry located north of Paris.

Three times during her career as a young spy, Nearne was captured by the Gestapo. Her two other female British contacts were executed, and the Nazis used that era's form of waterboarding--holding Nearne underwater in a bathtub full of near-freezing water--but she never admitted her involvement with the British. She was sent to Ravensbruck and Markleberg prison camps after being arrested by the SS (the Schutzstaffel), but eventually convinced the Nazis that "Mademoiselle du Tort" was simply a shop girl who knew nothing about military matters.

The woman whom the British War Office referred to as "Agent Rose" walked to Leipzig, where a local priest let her hide in the belfry of his church. When she saw white flags being flown on April 15, 1945 she went to greet the liberating Americans.

Nearne returned to the UK, where her mental state remained (understandably) precarious; her older sister took care of her until Jacqueline accepted a job offer at the United Nations. From that time on, Nearne was essentially a woman who retreated into herself.

When the War was over she admitted that what kept her going was "The will to live. Will power. That's the most important. You should not let yourself go. It seemed that the end would never come, but I have always believed in destiny and I had a hope."

In the picture at the top of the page, she is attending a memorial service at Ravensbruck where she had once been a prisoner. The medal on the left is the Croix de Guerre (from the French government) and the one on the right is the MBE (from the British government.

She received a pension from the British government until she travelled to Paris to stay with friends, at which time her stipend was terminated. The British population was justifiably irate that a true war hero had been forced to live in poverty. She was buried three weeks after her body was found, and her funeral expenses were ultimately paid by the Royal British Legion, whose motto is "Lest We Forget."

Looking forward to your comments...

79: The Self-Empowered Woman: Ruth Gruber

2010-09-12T12:52:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

Today I would like to introduce you to a truly remarkable Self-Empowered Woman named Ruth Gruber who was born in 1911, and still lives in New York City. She grew up in a Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, and devoted her life to working on behalf of the underdog (7: Magnificent Obsession). Her parents were Russian-Jewish immigrants (3: Belief in the Unbelievable), and they encouraged her to get as much education as possible.

Gruber entered New York University when she was only 15 years old, and three years later she won a post-graduate fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (13:More Than Meets the Eye). Gruber had been so inspired by her German professor that she learned the language and studied the culture thoroughly enough to win another fellowship from the Institute of International Education to study at the University of Cologne.

While in Cologne, she became - at 20 years old - the youngest person in the world to receive a doctorate. Her Ph.D. (believe it or not) was in German Philosophy, Modern English Literature, and Art History. During this time, she became close friends with Virginia Woolf.

While in Germany, Gruber witnessed Nazi rallies, and when she returned to the U.S. she worked to make Americans aware of the dangers of Nazism. Her writing career began in 1932, and in 1935 she wrote a series about women living under Communism and Fascism for the New York Herald Tribune. And while working for that newspaper she became the first foreign correspondent to fly through Siberia into the Soviet Arctic (11: Risk Addiction).

Gruber was appointed Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior (Harold L. Ickes) during World War II, and was asked to conduct a study that would permit G.I.s to homestead in Alaska after the war. In 1944, she undertook a secret mission to bring 1,000 Jewish refugees and wounded American soldiers from Italy to America. Ickes made her "a simulated general" so that if her plane were shot down the Nazis (under the Geneva Convention) would keep her alive. Her book Haven describes this harrowing journey, and a 2001 film of the same name was based on the book: Natasha Richardson portrayed Ruth Gruber. Sadly, it took two years for the government to allow the quarantined refugees to apply for American residency.

Gruber returned to journalism and continued to work to help displaced Jewish refugees, particularly those who wanted to move to Palestine. She met and photographed many of those who were on the 1947 ship Exodus as well as the prison ship Runnymede.

When she was 40 years old, Gruber married, then had two children, but continued her career as a journalist. Her column for the Hadassah Magazine, "Diary of an American Housewife," was a particularly popular feature.

In 1979, when she was 68 years old, she won the "National Jewish Book Award" for Raquela: A Woman of Israel, which was about an Israeli nurse; Gruber had spent an entire year in Israel researching Raquela Prywes' life.

In 1985, Gruber travelled to Ethiopia, and later wrote a book about Ethiopian Jews called Rescue. Gruber has written over 18 books and received awards from the National Coalition Against Censorship and the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance.

This brave, talented woman is now the subject of a documentary film "Ahead of Time," which chronicles her amazing life. Gruber's story reminds us all that age is just a number, compassion can be more than a virtue, and hard work can be the most rewarding rejuvenation tonic ever.

Looking forward to your comments...

78: The Self-Empowered Woman: Elizabeth Gilbert

2010-09-09T15:45:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

Today's blog is slightly different in nature, however, it continues my perpetual theme of Philogyny (i.e., admiration for women).

As many of you know, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert was made into a movie this summer that starred Julia Roberts. The film may not have been a huge success, but the book has been on the New York Times Best Seller list for close to 200 weeks! Gilbert is a mesmerizing writer who has won a variety of awards for her magazine articles, which is not all that surprising in light of the fact that she grew up on a rural Christmas tree farm in a home that had no record player or television. Reading and writing little books and plays was the primary source of entertainment for Gilbert and her older sister.

Because I loved the book, I could hardly wait to get my hands on Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage, her next book. I thought I'd be learning about her relationship with Felipe, which I did. But I didn't expect to be given (as a bonus) a history lesson as well as a mini-memoir.

Gilbert needed to get rid of her gun-shy feelings about marriage in order to build a new life with the man she loved, and her research (which is every bit as valuable and informative as Gail Collins') helped her do just that.

As with so many developments today, being a wife in the 21st Century is a piece of cake compared to what women experienced hundreds of years ago. Gilbert write about the European system of Coverture, which was the belief that a woman's individual civil existence is erased the moment she marries. Gilbert writes that "If there is one word, by the way, that triggers all the inherent terrors I have ever felt about the institution of marriage, it is coverture...It wasn't until the year 1975, for instance, that the married women of Connecticut - including my own mother - were legally allowed to take out loans or open checking accounts without the written permission of their husbands."

Gilbert also writes about the "Marital freedom movement," where people began to marry whom and how they chose, regardless of what society thought. She tells of Lillian Harman (a suffragette) and Edwin Walker (a journalist) who fell in love in Kansas in 1887. They created an "autonomistic marriage" with their own wedding vows, but without a judge or minister or license. As a consequence, they were arrested on their wedding night because "...what they wanted was the liberty to define their own relationship based on their personal interpretation of love."

Gilbert writes touchingly about her remarkably selfless grandmother and the other women in her family: "They cut up the finest and proudest parts of themselves and gave it all away. They repatterned what was theirs and shaped it for others. They went without. They were the last ones to eat at supper, and they were the first ones to get up every morning, warming the cold kitchen for another day spent caring for everyone else. This was the only thing they knew how to do. This was their guiding verb and their defining principle: they gave...And if I were to tell you that this...has not shaped forever my feelings about marriage, or that it has not forged within me a small, quiet sorrow about what the matrimonial institution can take away from good women, I would be lying to you."

Happily, Gilbert and Felipe survived all the "issues" addressed in Committed, and had a real, albeit casual, wedding (including a flower girl). I'm willing to bet that Hollywood won't be interested in turning this book into a movie, but Gilbert has given us a priceless, multilayered look into both the institution of marriage and the evolution of her own heart.

Looking forward to your comments...

77: The Self-Empowered Woman: Sarah Bernhardt

2010-09-06T16:47:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

As you know, I enjoy sharing the stories of a wide variety of women. To me, the era, country of origin, type of talent, or passion are not what's important. What matters is the struggle to fulfill a dream or survive challenges, and there seem to be an unlimited number of women who capture my attention ( and, hopefully, yours as well).

Today's woman worth knowing is the legendary actress Sarah Bernhardt, who was born in 1844 in Paris, and died 1923. She has often been called "the most famous actress the world has ever known."

Her birthname was Sara-Marie-Henriette Rosine Bernard; she was born in Paris as the illegitimate daughter of a Dutch courtesan - she never knew who her father was (1: No Paternal Safety Net). Much of her early life was spent in a convent (3: Belief In The Unbelievable).

When she was thirteen years old she entered the Conservatoire, the government sponsered French school of acting (2: An Early Sense Of Direction). In 1862, she entered the Nationaal Theater Company, the Comedie - Francaise, but the next year her contract was cancelled because she slapped a fellow actress (5: Life Is Not A Popularity Contest).

She left Paris and moved to Belgium where she had an affair with Henri, Prince de Ligne and had his son, Maurice, in 1864. Because his family disapproved of their relationship they ended their love affair. In later years she married a Greek-born actor (Jacques Damala) who became addicted to morphine, and had affairs with a number of men including Victor Hugo and the Prince of Wales (15: Forget About Prince Charming).

By 1866 she was back in Paris, and was soon popular not only in Europe but in New York, as well. She was known as " the Divine Sarah". In 1905, she was performing in Rio de Janeiro when she injured her knee during a performance. It never healed properly, gangrene set in, and her right leg had to be amputated. In spite of her loss, she continued to act even though she couldn't really move around the stage (12: Hard Times).

If you would like to know more about the amazing woman who was known around the world long before jet travel and the internet were available, I recommened Sarah: The Life of Sarah Bernhardt by Robert Gottlieb (Yale, $25.00).

Looking forward to your comments...

76: The Self-Empowered Woman: Bibi Aisha

2010-08-30T07:58:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

There were a lot of celebrations last month because 90 years ago, women in America were (finally) given the right to vote. And even though I was one of the women "publicizing" this important anniversary, it's important to remember just how lucky we are to live in America, rather than in a country where women really are (and probably always have been) undervalued.

Bibi Aisha is a perfect example of what can happen to a woman who refuses to "obey" the cultural norms of a repressive society. Today, Aisha is a teenager from Afghanistan who is living in Calabasas, California at the Grossman Burn Foundation. Aisha is there to undergo surgery needed to repair her nose and both ears. She lost them because she refused to stay with the man her father had chosen--when she was only twelve years old--to be her husband. It is expected that it will take about six months to complete her reconstructive surgeries.

Aisha and her younger sister were given to the family of a Taliban member as part of a "Baad," which is a customary form of settling tribal disputes in remote areas of Afghanistan. Aisha's uncle had killed a relative of the "groom" so her father gave his two daughters to the victim's family as compensation.

When she reached puberty, Aisha was married to the Taliban fighter, but actually spent most of her time living with her in-laws because he was in hiding or in combat. Aisha and her sister were essentially slaves, and were beaten repeatedly in retaliation for her uncle's crime.

When Aisha fled, her husband and his brother (some say it was his uncle) tracked her down in Kandahar and took her back to Oruzgan, the province where his family lived. In the Pashtun culture, a man who has been "shamed" by his wife is considered to have "lost his nose." So, in retaliation, they took her to the mountains, where one held her down and the other cut off both ears and her nose. They then left her on a mountain side to bleed to death.

Somehow, she made her way to safety, and American aid workers took her to the Women for Afghan Women shelter in Kabul. Aisha cannot read or write, but the group helped her learn to do handicrafts. I've written before about my admiration for Greg Mortensen and his work to establish schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. But with the Taliban's increasing strength, some of the girl schools are being forced to close.

As one member of Parlament, Haji Farid said recently " Why our people focusing on education and sending girls to school? Boys walk three, four, five kilometers to their school. How can a girl walk two, three, four kilometers? During a war you cannot send a girl beyond her door. No one can guarantee her honor. So it is hard to send her daughter to school. "

The United Nations estimates that nearly ninety percent of women in Afghanistan face some sort of domestic abuse, and in an entire country there are fewer than a dozen women shelters. And a popular Kabul TV channel accuses those shelters of being sites for prostitution!

Aisha's damaged face appeared on the cover of Time magazine this summer, and her story prompted Christiane Amanpour of ABC to ask Nancy Pelosi if America was "going to abandon the women of Afghanistan?"

Looking forward to your comments...

75: The Self-Empowered Woman: Carrie Chapman Catt

2010-08-14T05:30:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

Today I'd like to introduce you to Carrie Chapman Catt, a woman who worked tirelessly to make life better for women, but has sadly slipped into the dusty pages of history books instead of becoming a household name.

It is worth getting to know about her because later this month (on August 26) we will celebrate Women's Suffrage Day. That is when - 90 years ago -the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote in 1920, officially became part of the U.S. Constitution.

Because my mother was a teenager at that time, I've always been attuned to the fact that the right to vote didn't happen automatically. Anglophile that I am, the story of the British Suffragette who threw herself in front of one of the King's racehorses (and died) in the struggle spearheaded by Emily Pankhurst to give women the vote.

Here in America the two names most often associated with women's right to vote are Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, but Carrie Catt (who was born in 1859) was the only one of the three who actually lived long enough to cast a ballot in a nation election.

Those of you who've heard me speak about how The Self-Empowered Woman began will remember that as a little girl I was baffled by the fact that boys had more life choices than girls. When Carri Catt was thirteen she asked why her mother wasn't getting dressed to go into town to vote with her father and the hired hand who worked on their farm. Her question was met with laughter and she was told that voting was too important a civic duty to leave to women. From that day forward her life had purpose (2: An Early Sense of Direction and 7: Magnificent Obsession).

When Carrie graduated from high school in 1877, her father refused to pay for more education so she taught school and saved enough money to enter Iowa State Agricultural College (now Iowa State University), where she supported herself by working in the college kitchen and the state library(17: Dreaming Your Own Dream). When she graduated, Carrie was valedictorian and the only woman of her class (13: More Than Meets the Eye).

In 1885 Carrie married the editor of the Mason City Republican. She had been forced to stop teaching because married women were not allowed to teach (!), so she began writing a "Woman's World" column for the newspaper. When he lost the paper she moved to San Francisco to find work, but caught Typhoid fever. Carrie left by train, but he died before she arrived; she was 27 years old and had lost her home, her income and her husband (12: Hard Times).

She stayed in California and worked as a freelance writer. She soon met a former college friend, George Catt, who became her husband in 1890. By that time she had begun lecturing and working tirelessly for women's rights . In 1900, Susan B. Anthony at 80 years old retired as the head of the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA), and Carrie Catt became the new president.

In her long life (she died in 1947 at the age of 88) Carrie also worked hard on behalf of the United Nations and she established the Protest Committee of Non-Jewish Women Against the Persecution of Jews in Germany; she is the first woman to win the American Hebrew Medal. By the time of her death, women in most developed countries around the world had equal voting rights (8: Turning No Into Yes).

Looking forward to your comments...

74: The Self-Empowered Woman: Elena Kagan

2010-08-08T16:23:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

Regardless of your political persuasion, the fact that Elena Kagan has been sworn in as a Supreme Court Justice this week is a noteworthy event. She is only the fourth female Justice in the Court's history, and for the first time ever there are now three female Justices. Kagan is the eighth Jewish Justice to be appointed to the highest court in the land.

Elena Kagan began displaying traits of a Self-Empowered Woman from an early age. She was the middle of three children (the only daughter), and her mother taught fifth and sixth grade at Hunter College Elementary School and her father was an attorney.

Independent and strong-willed as a girl, Kagan went toe-to-toe with her family's Orthodox rabbi over the details of her bat mitzvah because she felt that it was no less important than the ritual bar mitzvah (5: Life is Not a Popularity Contest).

Kagan also had a clear idea of how she wanted her life to unfold. In the 1977 Hunter College High School yearbook, she is pictured wearing a judge's robe and holding a gavel, and one of her classmates remembered that her goal was to become a Supreme Court Justice (2: An Early Sense of Direction).

She attended Princeton University, where she majored in history, and in 1981 she graduated summa cum laude (10: The Critic Within). Her perfectionism continued when she attended Worcester College, Oxford University where she earned a Masters of Philosophy and when she graduated from Harvard Law School magna cum laude. Her father, who had earned his law degree at Yale was deeply disappointed that she chose Harvard over his alma mater (17: Dreaming Your Own Dream).

When Kagan joined the faculty of the University of Chicago in 1991, she immediately became popular with her students. Several faculty members felt that she had not published enough to gain tenure, but it was awarded in 1995 (8: Turning No Into Yes).

Soon Kagan was lured to Washington to work in the Clinton White House, even though she would risk losing her teaching position and tenure if she stayed more than two years - which she did (11: Risk Addiction).

After leaving Washington, Kagan became a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and in 2001 she was named full professor. Two years later she was named the first-ever female Dean of the law school.

In January, 2009 President Obama nominated Kagan to be Solicitor General even though she had never argued a case at trial or appeared before the Supreme Court. Again, she was the first woman to hold this post and some critics questioned her experience. Fifteen months later she was nominated to fill the seat of Justice John Paul Stevens, and last week her nomination was confirmed by a vote of 63 - 37. Kagan is the first Justice in almost 40 years with no prior experience as a judge - William Rehnquist in 1972 was the other (13: More Than Meets the Eye)..

Looking forward to your comments...

73 The Self-Empowered Woman: Blog Hop 2010

2010-08-06T12:22:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

As so many of you know, my blog has been sharing news about women of achievement from a wide variety of cultures, countries and eras. And this seemed like a perfect time to introduce you to another blog (Pensieve) that is written by an accomplished woman for females who are on the move -- both emotionally and intellectually.

My blog (and book) centers on the fact that it's amazing that a young woman in Cambodia, a retirement-age woman in South Africa, a deceased author in England and an Academy Award winning American actress would have so many things in common.

Most remarkable women just happen to be amazing mothers. And chapter 16 of The Self-Empowered Woman explores that issue and, hopefully, helps inspire all of us to accept that making our mark in the world and being successful mothers are not mutually exclusive.

My fifth non-fiction book, The Self-Empowered Woman, was inspired by my life-long interest in what women could do even though they faced obstacles. That interest (some call it an obsession) led me to study the lives of women as diverse as Isak Dinesen (remember the movie Out of Africa?), the singer Sade, the author Agatha Christie, the aviator Amelia Earhart, and modern-day women like T.V.'s Meredith Vieira, film director Nancy Meyers and Teresa L. King, who happens to be the first female Commandant of the Army's Drill Sergeant School.

I hope you enjoy The Self-Empowered Woman blog as well as the book (which is available on Amazon.com), and I look forward to many more stories that can inspire women of all ages and all interests.

Looking forward to your comments!

72: The Self-Empowered Woman: Work and Women

2010-08-04T16:07:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

Instead of writing about one individual woman today, I'd like to share information from New York Times economic write David Leonhardt. In today's paper he wrote a thought-provoking article about mothers and the labor market that punishes them.

Leonhardt uses the Supreme Court as a prototype for the job market. He points out that the last three men nominated to the court were all married and had seven children among them. But the last three women have all been single and childless.

He reminds us that only 15 Fortune 500 companies have a female chief executive, and men dominate the next executive rung as well. Sadly, full-time women workers earn almost 25% less than male employees. And, many experts think it's because there is a price to pay for not following "the old-fashioned career path." And according to Jane Wadfogel, a Columbia University professor who studies family and work: "Women do almost as well as men today as long as they don't have children."

A University of Chicago study found that shortly after graduation men and women usually worked the same weekly hours and had nearly-identical incomes. But 15 years later, the men were earning about 75% more than the women. The only group of women who kept pace with men were those who had no children and (therefore) never needed to take time off. This may explain why so many mothers stop working - since there are few options for part-time work, the switch is made to full-time parenting.

Leonhardt closes his column with this observation: "For almost 200 years, the Supreme Court did not have a single woman on its bench. Sometime later this week, it is likely to have three."

Looking forward to your comments...

71: The Self-Empowered Woman: Kankuben Lalabhai Parmar

2010-07-22T15:21:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

Today - thanks to Guy Trebay and the New York Times - I'd like to tell you about an amazing woman who has defied all odds and become an international business woman even though, for many years, she'd never traveled outside her own home.

Kankuben Lalabhai Parmar is from the village of Madhutra in the Indian State of Gujarat. To get to Manhattan, where her crafts are being sold at the Asia Society, her journey involved an oxcart, a trishaw, a jeep flatbed. an open-topped shuttle, and then her first-ever airplane ride.

Ms. Parmar officially belongs to a "scheduled caste," which meant that she was considered untouchable; the men were limited to their region or village, and the women were traditionally bound to their homes. She is now 50 years old, but never met a man who wasn't a close relative until she was an adult.

Married at 14, she is the mother of seven children, and her life changed dramatically when (two decades ago) the not-for-profit Sewa Project came to her village to help preserve native handicrafts and create "alternative employment."

Ms. Parmar creates patchwork embroideries that often include small pieces of mirror that she buys (as scrap) by the pound. Her pillow covers, for example, require almost a week's worth of sewing and sell for about $15 at her local market. Today, she earns about $60 a month, which has made her the family's chief breadwinner.

As she told Trebay, "When I was a girl, all the assets belonged to the father or the husband or the brother...now that I have my own business and make my own money, my husband shows me respect."

Ms. Parmar is an informal ambassador for Sewa and the Crafts Council of India; it's estimated that in India alone 40 to 60 million people earn part of their living making crafts.

In New York, Ms Parmar visited museums, bought gifts at CVS for her daughters, and enjoyed all the sophistication of Manhattan even though she is illiterate and must use her thumbprint for a signature.

Twenty years have made a huge difference in the lives of the once-untouchable women of Madhutra, India. Their quiet and dignified example of global feminism should inspire us all.

Looking forward to your comments...

70: The Self-Empowered Woman: Gloria Allred

2010-07-14T15:11:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,Lately these blogs have been introducing readers to accomplished women from a variety of nations, but today I'd like you to meet a home-grown Self-Empowered Woman who has - for most of her life - been comfortable with controversy.

Born in Philadelphia on July 3, 1941, Allred is possibly the most famous female attorney in America. She has consistently welcomed clients and cases that many other attorneys would avoid. According to Allred "My work is not about popularity contests...women can't enjoy equal opportunity if they are sexually harassed at work...[and] the defense just hopes the woman doesn't hire Gloria Allred (5: Life is Not a Popularity Contest).

In the 1960s, after her daughter was born Allred and her first husband divorced and in 1987 (after 19 years of marriage) she and her second husband divorced (15: Forget About Prince Charming).

Allred's daughter, Lisa Bloom, who is 20 years younger than her Mom, worked at the same law firm for nine years and the two are very close (16: Intensive Motherhood).

Thane Rosenbaum, a law professor at Fordham University has described Allred as a "moral attorney" because she accepts cases with no concern for her own reputation or for her (often unlikely) chances of winning (11: Risk Addiction). She has made her (7: Magnificent Obsession) defending women who have been taken advantage of by people in power.

Perhaps the key to her passion is that she was - at age 21 - a divorced single mother with no child support. When she was 25, she was a teacher at a high school in Watts (a volatile neighborhood in Los Angeles) and took a vacation to Mexico. While there, she was raped; after undergoing an illegal abortion she almost bled to death, but a nurse in the intensive-care unit told her "This will teach you a lesson." (12: Hard Times). It was that experience that made the young Ms. Allred begin to fight against the systemic way that women were treated in America.

Allred has her share of critics in both the legal and media communities and Comedienne Chelsea Handler has been critical of Allred on both her blog and her late-night talk show and has accused the lawyer of "...setting the women's movement back 100 years." But what other people think (like when a California State Senator called her a "slick butch lawyeress") rarely seems to bother Allred.

Looking forward to your comments...

69: The Self-Empowered Woman: Somaly Mam

2010-07-08T17:54:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

I am frequently asked how I "discover" the amazing women who become part of The Self-Empowered Woman blog. Not surprisingly, the answer almost always has something to do with reading. But I was introduced to today's heroine when I read the wedding announcement in the New York Times of Michael Raymond Angelo and Scott Michael MacDougal. I was impressed that they were both involved in New York's Somaly Mam Foundation, which works to end child prostitution and sex slavery, particularly in Southeast Asia. The couple met Ms. Mam in New York and even traveled to Cambodia to visit one of her shelters. Their efforts on her behalf aroused my curiosity, so I did a little research in order to share her story with you.

Almost all of us have complained at one time or another, but when you learn about the amazing story of Cambodia's brave Somaly Mam you'll realize how lucky you are to have your "problems" rather than the ones she has faced!

Somaly Mam has endured enough in 40 years to encompass several lifetimes. She never learned who her parents were (1: No Paternal Safety Net) because she was abandoned; she was first raped at the age of twelve. By the time she was 14 she was sold into a forced marriage to a man who beat her, and eventually sold her to a Phnom Penh brothel where, in her words, "we were treated worse than dogs."

While there, Mam was repeatedly gang raped and tortured (12: Hard Times) and the awful things saw and experienced led her to make rescuing young powerless girls her life's work. The acronym for her organization is AFESIP (the English translation would be Acting For Women In Precarious Circumstances) and it works to rescue young girls from the pimps and brothels that abuse them.

In Cambodia, a five or six year old child can be sold into slavery for as little as $100, and the going price for a young girl prostitute is less than $2. So far, Mam has rescued over 5,000 girls and her shelters offer medical, psychological and educational care for the young girls who look to her for help.

According to the Cambodian Ministry of Women's Affairs there are over 1o0,000 prostitutes in Cambodia, almost half are under 16, and more than half are HIV positive.

The reason Mam was able to escape sexual slavery and work to help others is that her appearance was not appealing to Khmer and Chinese brothel customers. They prefer plump, light skinned girls, but she is tall, slim and dark skinned; the brothel eventually let her go. Since that time Mam's mission has been to help other girls (7: Magnificent Obsession).

Mam married a French expatriate, but they have divorced (15: Forget About Prince Charming). She is a devoted mother to her three children (16: Intensive Motherhood). Thanks to her and the shelters she has established in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, girls who otherwise had no future have been taught to read, write, and acquire skills to support themselves without having to sell their bodies.

Looking forward to your comments...

68: The Self-Empowered Woman: Juana Bacallao

2010-06-23T16:55:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

Do you ever find yourself feeling tired? Ever wonder what it would be like top retire or take a permanent vacation? When you learn about today's Self- Empowered Woman, it just may reframe your thoughts about being too old (or too tired) to follow your dream...

Juana Bacallao is a Cuban diva who still performs (in a blond wig and a slinky red dress) almost every Friday night at the Havana nightclub Gato Tuerto (One-Eyed Cat) even though she is over 80 years old.

Nobody knows exactly when she was born, but some people suggest that she may be 93 years old. Her birth name was Neri Amelia Martinez Salazar and (1: No Paternal Safety Net) she was orphaned at the age of six. At that time she was sent to a Catholic boarding school (3: Belief in the Unbelievable).

By the time she'd become a teenager she'd landed the job of cleaning houses. Fortunately, a powerful music director (Obdulio Morales) heard her singing while she was sweeping, and immediately decided that she had what it took to become a star (4: Supportive Someone).

When most of us think of a female Cuban chanteuse we think of Celia Cruz, but Juana never left the cabaret scene in favor of becoming a TV or recording star. And although she still has not received a visa to perform in the U.S., this year she will travel to Mexico and Moscow for performances.

The now-elderly singer has always been known for her "unpredictable" behavior (5: Life is Not a Popularity Contest). It's not unusual for her to interrupt her performances to adjust her wig or makeup or even taunt male audience members for staring at her too intently.

Juana makes no secret that retirement is not an option. She told the AP "I will never retire. I will only stop when death has come for me...I have no age" (7: Magnificent Obsession).

Obviously, there's no tonic like doing what you love.

Looking forward to your comments...

67: The Self-Empowered Woman: Beka Ntsanwisi

2010-06-19T19:20:00.001-07:00

Dear Followers,

These days it seems that everyone is paying close attention to soccer's World Cup Competition in South Africa. So I thought - in the spirit of Self-Empowered Women everywhere - that you might like to meet an amazing woman named Rebecca Beka Ntsanwisi.

She was born in 1968 at Nkowankowa Village outside Tzaneen in Limpopo, a province of South Africa. Her father was an educator, and as a youngster she was encouraged to work hard at school and help improve her community (2: An Early Sense of Direction). After graduating from high school she attended the University of Venda, where she studied music (9: Music).

In the 1990s, she began working at a radio station, and soon became the head of its social responsibility program. She has been particularly effective at helping those in rural areas, especially impoverished people.

In 2003, Beka was diagnosed with colon cancer and two years later was wheelchair dependant (12: Hard Times). During her illness she worked with the Department of Health to a) form support groups for people with cancer and b) fight the belief in witchcraft that still exists in some communities.

During her own treatment, she often visited public hospitals and was saddened by how many elderly female patients were treated. Many of them seemed lonely, depressed and/or confused, but Beka felt that exercise (particularly soccer) just might give these women the lift they needed.

Today, the group that Beka founded in 2005 is known as Vakhegula Vakhegula (Grannies Grannies) and includes 35 players from 49 to 84 years old. The team has become so well known that it has been invited to come to America in August to compete in the Veteran's Cup (for teams with players 30 and over) in Lancaster, Mass. (13: More Than Meets the Eye).

After Beka's husband died the Grannies helped her deal with grief, and another player who lost eight of her twelve children found that the soccer team became an extended, supportive family. When the Grannies were young girls playing on a soccer team simply wasn't an option, but today - thanks to Beka - these women have an acceptable athletic outlet (8: Turning No Into Yes).

Beka has won numerous awards including (five tines) the Black Management Forum Limpopo Woman of Excellence Award, the Limpopo Achievers Award, the Premier's Award and the Nkowakowa branch of the South African National Civic Organization honored her for her work to help the helpless.

Today, Beka's cancer is in remission, but she considers her work for the poor and Grannies Grannies to be her legacy.

Looking forward to your comments...

66: The Self Empowered Woman: Pearl Buck

2010-06-13T14:20:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

Today's remarkable woman, managed to combine the multiple careers of wife, mother, author and activist long before doing so was fashionable. Pearl Buck won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932 for her best-selling novel The Good Earth, and in 1938 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for her "rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces."

The daughter of Caroline and Absalom Sydenstricker, Buck was born on June 26, 1892 in Hillsboro, West Virginia, but moved with her parents to China so they could continue their work as Southern Presbyterian missionaries (3: Belief in the Unbelievable).

Her strict father was so committed to his work of converting the Chinese that she rarely saw him (1: No Paternal Safety Net). As a child, she learned to speak Chinese before English, and when she wrote "The Good Earth" she mentally composed it in Chinese first and then translated the story into English.

By 1911, she had left China to attend college at Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Virginia, from which she graduated Phi Beta Kappa (10: The Critic Within). In 1914, she returned to China and three years later married a missionary/farmer named John Lossing Buck. Soon after, she became unhappy in her marriage, gained a great deal of weight, and even described her gray-green eyes as "wild-beast eyes" (6: Life is Also Not a Beauty Contest).

The 1920s were difficult (12: Hard Times). Three years after they were married, the Bucks had a daughter (Carol) who was afflicted with Phenylketonuria, and the next year, Buck's mother died; soon her father moved in with the young couple and their ill daughter. When they returned to the U.S. for John's one-year sabbatical, Pearl Buck earned her Masters Degree from Cornell University before returning to China in 1925. In 1927, the "Nanking Incident" forced the family to seek asylum, and they were forced to move to Japan for a year. In 1934, they permanently left China.

Buck actually had two Magnificent Obsessions (7). One was her outrage at the cruel way women were treated in China. Wives could only speak if spoken to, and female babies (as in today's China) were considered far less "valuable" than males. Her second "cause" was the plight of "mixed race" babies born to Asian women wherever American soldiers were stationed in Asia. She became a critic of the "racial superiority" that she witnessed among the missionaries, and was brave enough to challenge racism and sex discrimination in both China and the U.S. (5: Life Is Not a Popularity Contest).

In 1935, she divorced her husband and married her publisher, Richard Walsh; after his death she chose an Arthur Murray dance instructor (Theodore Harris) to be her companion (15: Forget About Prince Charming).

Even though her children were critical of her, Buck appears to have been the Mia Farrow or Angelina Jolie of her era; her family included seven adopted children (16: Intensive Motherhood). In 1949, she established Welcome House, Inc. which was the first international, interracial adoption agency. She also established the Pearl S. Buck Foundation as well as Opportunity Center and Orphanages to "address poverty and discrimination faced by children in Asian countries."

Because of the way she portrayed Chinese peasant life, Buck was denounced as an "American cultural imperialist" during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. She was heartbroken when Madame Mao and Chinese government officials prevented her from accompanying President Nixon on his groundbreaking visit to China in 1972.

Pearl Buck, who wrote over 50 books, died in 1973 when she was 80 years old. She is buried in Green Hills Farm in Perkasie, Pennsylvania; she designed her tombstone, which is inscribed with the Chinese characters that represent the name Pearl Sydenstricker.

Looking forward to your comments...

65: The Self Empowered Woman: Ayaan Hirsi Ali

2010-06-08T17:43:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers:

Can't believe that it's already June! Today I'd like to share the story of a remarkable 40 year old woman who has risked everything in order to work as an outspoken, prominent critic of Islam.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born on November 13th (my birthday) in 1969 in Mogadishu, Somalia. Her father was politically active and because of his opposition to the Siad Barre government he was imprisoned (1: Non Existent Paternal Safety Net).

Her father had studied abroad and was opposed to female genital cutting, but while he was in prison Hirsi Ali's religious grandmother (3: Belief In the Unbelievable) submitted the five year old little girl to what most people refer to as genital mutilation. But she explains it by saying "I have the stitch-up part. If ...you should remain a virgin until your wedding night [your family is] going to apply the approach where you get sewed."

Ayaan's family moved from Somalia to Saudi Arabia, then Ethiopia, and then Nairobi, Kenya. During those years she received a Saudi-funded education, studied the Qur'an, and wore a Hijab with her school uniform. But after finishing secondary school, she enrolled in a secretarial course in Nairobi and became introduced to Western culture and values. And like other Self Empowered Women (Madeleine Albright, Sandra Day O'Connor and Sonia Sotomayor - among so many others)became a big fan of Nancy Drew mysteries.

In 1992, Ayaan's father instructed her that she would marry a distant cousin who she considered to be both a "bigot" and an "idiot." On a pre-wedding trip from Kenya to visit relatives in Germany, she bravely traveled to the Netherlands and requested political asylum (11: Risk Addiction).

Since that time she has worked tirelessly on behalf of battered females, especially Muslim girls and women. In 2002, she renounced Islam and became an atheist. After her book "The Son Factory" (which criticized Islam and Islamic culture) was published, she began to receive death threats. Today, wherever she travels she has armed escorts (5: Life Is Not a Popularity Contest).

Hirsi Ali's activism in the Netherlands has caught the attention of feminists around the world. Her 2007 memoir "Infidel" became a bestseller and last month her new book "Nomad: From Islam to America" showed signs of being equally successful.

Looking forward to your comments...

64: The Self Empowered Woman: Dayniah Manderson

2010-05-30T07:59:00.001-07:00

Dear Followers,

As the wonderful readers of this blog know, one of my objectives is to introduce them to a wide variety of amazing women. I'm always on the lookout for women from different backgrounds , with unique stories, and inspiring qualities.

2010 is my 20th year as a wheelchair-dependent person, so Dayniah Manderson's story affected me in a special way. I think you'll also be amazed by her story...

Dayniah, who is 30 years old, profoundly disabled, and dependent on home aides as well as her $35,000 motorized wheelchair, is a much-admired English teacher at the Urban Assembly Academy of Civic Engagement, a Bronx middle school. For most of her life she has been told that she couldn't do what she wanted to (13: More Than Meets the Eye), but that has never stopped her.

Dayniah was born in Jamaica, at the age of two was diagnosed by doctors at a Kingston clinic with Muscular Dystrophy. Her mother, Millie Williams, was told to "prepare a coffin," but instead chose to treat her daughter like any other little girl. When she was 15, a local doctor offered to treat her "evil spirits," and that's when Millie decided to bring her daughter to the United States.

Dayniah has Muscular Atrophy Type II. which occurs in one of every 6,000 children; they usually do not live beyond 30. Motor control diminishes, muscles weaken, movement is impaired, spines twist, and as the ribs become pressed breathing becomes ever more difficult. Fortunately, Dayniah and her mother met Doctor Roberta Shapiro at Jacobi Medical Center (4: Supportive Someone), who has become a confidant and a supporter.

Even though she was living in the projects as a disabled teenager in a wheelchair, Dayniah attended Theodore Roosevelt High School near the Botanical Gardens in the Bronx, and graduated sixth out of a class of 400 (10: The Critic Within). With the help of an overnight aide she lived in the dormitories at NYU, and even earned a Master's Degree.

Dayniah had been molested by a family member as a child in Jamaica, had an abortion when she was 16, and in 2004 married (now imprisoned) Ghandi Jackson, whom she'd met in Jamaica before his divorce (15: Forget About Prince Charming).

Against medical advice, Dayniah gave birth to a healthy baby girl named Akasha in November 2005, and three years later chose an extremely risky surgery with the hopes of extending her lifespan. Before the operation, she wrote a letter to her then two year old daughter: "I'm am going through this surgery only to have the opportunity to see you grow up...now that you are here, it is a life worth preserving." (16: Intensive Motherhood).

Hope you are as inspired by Dayniah's story as I am.

Looking forward to your comments...

63: The Self-Empowered Woman: Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen)

2010-05-16T07:54:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

In an effort to continue the international flavor of this blog, today's Self-Empowered Woman is Isak Dinesen (born Karen Christenze Dinesen) the Danish author who brought us "Out of Africa," "Babette's Feast," and "Seven Gothic Tales." While some of Dinesen's work was published posthumously, she is considered the author of 17 notable works of literature. She was portrayed by Meryl Streep in the film "Out of Africa," which won the "Best Picture" Oscar in 1985.

Dinesen's father traveled to America in the 1870s, and lived among Chippewa Indians in Wisconsin before returning to Denmark. In 1895, when Karen was nine years old, he hanged himself after learning that he had syphilis (1: No Paternal Safety Net).

In 1913, after a failed love affair with his brother, she became engaged to her second cousin Swedish Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke. The marriage gave her the title of Baroness, and gave him much-needed money.

They moved to Kenya and began the area's first coffee plantation, which was financed with money from her family and farmed by members of the Kikuyu tribe (11: Risk Addiction).

Bror was an unfaithful husband, and by the couple's first anniversary Karen was diagnosed with syphilis; the disease left her in fragile health for the rest of her life. The couple separated in 1921, and four years later were divorced (15: Forget About Prince Charming).

When he wasn't taking clients on Safari, big game hunter Denys Finch Hatton, who had become her lover, encouraged Karen to think of herself as a storyteller (4: Supportive Someone). He and Karen lived together at her farmhouse from 1926 until 1931; he died that year when his biplane crashed, and at the same time her beloved plantation failed when world coffee prices plummeted (12: Hard Times).

Movie fans today may find it hard to think of Karen Blixen without recalling the epic romance portrayed on screen by Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. But Isak Dinesen was a much-admired writer of her time, whose fans included Pearl Buck, Truman Capote, E.E. Cummings, Ernest Hemingway, Arthur Miller and Orson Welles. Part of what made her writing style so unique was that she wrote in English first (which was not her native language, and then translated her books into Danish). Literary critics praised her "precise " English (10: The Critic Within).

Karen Blixon died in 1962, at the age of 77, and is buried at Rungstedlund, Denmark at the family estate that her father bought in 1879

Looking forward to your comments...

62: The Self-Empowered Woman: Natalie Randolph

2010-05-11T15:21:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

Here's a story about a young woman who is a real trailblazer. There are 15,675 public and private high school football coaches in America today, but Natalie Randolph, 30, is the only woman to hold that position (11: Risk Addiction).

Back in 1985, Wanda Oates was named head football coach at Washington D.C.'s Ballou High School, but she only lasted one day because opposing coaches refused to play against her. She filed a sex discrimination lawsuit against the city's Board of Education, but it was dismissed. When Oates, who is 67, heard of Randolph's appointment she said "Football is the macho of all macho sports, and once we break that glass ceiling, there is no limit to what we can accomplish."

Randolph's appointment is not only unique (8: Turning No Into Yes)because of her gender, but because she won the job over 15 other highly qualified applicants. They included two former NFL players, as well as a former Army Brigadier General, but none of the men who wanted job of head coach at Calvin Coolidge Senior High School in Washington D.C. exhibited the same concern for her students' academic well-being. "I hope that they know that I really don't care about winning football games, but I do care about school....Athletes are just not made to do academics enough, and that's nationwide. But I'm going to change that."

The 5'5", 130 lb. coach was a track star at prestigious Sidwell Friends School and at the University of Virginia (2: An Early Sense of Direction), and she played six seasons as a wide receiver with the D.C. Divas, a professional team in the Independent Women's Football League. Today, the science teacher wears short dreadlocks and a whistle around her neck even in the classroom.

After school, Randolph makes her players attend study hall for an hour (for SAT prep, tutoring, or homework), and each player must bring her a weekly progress report from his teachers. Failure to follow her directions results in extra running after football practice or exclusion from practices or games (5: Life Is Not a Popularity Contest).

Looking forward to your comments...

61: The Self-Empowered Woman: Mother's Day

2010-05-07T20:41:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

Even though Julia Ward Howe (the author of The Battle Hymn of the Republic) first made a "Mother's Day Proclamation" in 1870, the woman pictured above (Anna Jarvis) is considered to be the official founder of Mother's Day. Her own mother, Ann Marie Jarvis had been active in "Mother's Day Work Clubs," which had been established before the Civil War.

Born the ninth of eleven children on May 1st 1864, in West Virginia, Jarvis decided to make her own mother's wish come true. When Anna was only twelve years old (2: An Early Sense of Direction), she heard her mother say "I hope that someone, sometime will found a memorial Mother's Day commemorating her for the matchless service she renders to humanity in every field of life. She is entitled to it."

When Anna's mother died, in 1905, Miss Jarvis vowed that "...by the grace of God, you shall have that Mother's Day." And from that point onwards, she worked tirelessly to persuade business and political leaders to recognize a national day of honor for Mothers (7: Magnificent Obsession).

On May 10th, 1908, John Wanamaker held a Mother's Day service at the 5,000 seat Wanamaker store auditorium in Philadelphia, but to every one's surprise 15,000 people tried to attend. In addition to Wanamaker, H. J. Heinz also worked to get Congress to acknowledge Mother's Day (4: Supportive Someone). In May 1914, The second Sunday of May was officially declared Mother's Day by both Houses of Congress and President Woodrow Wilson approved the measure.

Anna Jarvis never married (15: Forget About Prince Charming) or had children, but spent the rest of her life and much of her money campaigning to fulfill her mother's wish. Jarvis died on November 24, 1948 at the age of 84 and is buried next to her mother in Philadelphia.

Looking forward to your comments...

60: The Self-Empowered Woman: Qatar

2010-05-01T11:57:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

Today's post is part of my never-ending quest to share stories about women's lives from all around the world. In the past 58 blogs, we've met amazing achievers from Cambodia, Chile, Cuba, England, Kenya, Nigeria, Yemen, and the U.S. among others.

The story of Hayat Khalil Hassan Nazar Heji is remarkable for a number of reasons. She is a 34 year old blind woman who lives in the conservative Muslim city of Doha, Qatar. Because of the woman pictured above (Sheikha Moza Bin Nasser Al-Mesnad, the wife of the ruler of Qatar), she has managed to change the way people in her country cope with (and treat) blindness.

Geography plays a major role in this story because in Qatar (a small Arab country in the Persian Gulf between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirate) marriage between very close relatives (heritage) is often the norm, especially first cousins. In most countries outside Africa and the Middle East this is considered a taboo, but not in Qatar. The result is that genetic disorders are often passed within families, many of whom have multiple blind children.

Dr. Heji suddenly lost her vision in the fifth grade. Her family sent her to London for surgery, but none of the three operations were successful. When she came home to Qatar (an oil and gas rich nation with the highest GDP per capita in the world with a population of around one million), she returned to a society that had no services for the blind.

Her father (unlike many other parents in Qatar) refused to keep his daughter separated from the rest of society (4: Supportive Someone). He and her sisters read books and lessons onto cassettes for her so she could do daily homework and study for exams. When she graduated from high school, she was ranked tenth nationally and enrolled at Qatar University in 1984.

Her father hired a special teacher to train her in Braille, and in two months she was able to read and write Braille in English, Arabic, Math and shorthand. When she graduated from college in 1998, she met Sheikha Moza Bin Nasser Al-Mesnad, who encouraged her to continue her education. It was the same year that the ruler's wife established the Al-Noor Institute for People with Visual Impairments. Dr. Heji worked there for two years and wrote the Arabic textbook for teaching Braille to young children and their parents.

In 2001, she moved to the U.S. and earned her Masters Degree from St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, and in 2007, received her doctorate in Education. Immediately afterwards she was named the director of the Al-Noor Institute. Her life has been dedicated to helping blind children overcome the challenges they face (7: Magnificent Obsession). Her school has developed a special tool to help teach Braille, as well as one to convey Math concepts. Vocational and independent living programs are part of the curriculum.

Dr. Heji's life is a perfect example of accomplishing far more than observers would have predicted (13: More Than Meets the Eye). While she was lucky to have the financial support of her country's government and emotional encouragement from her family, it was her own belief that problems "almost always have a solution" that helped her achieve her goals.

Thanks to Dr. Heji (who is single), 430 children - from preschool through sixth grade - are receiving an excellent education. In Qatar (where dogs, for cultural reasons, are not allowed in homes) Seeing Eye Dogs are impractical, but blind children are receiving Dr. Heji's best efforts to "instill independence."

Looking forward to your comments...

59: The Self-Empowered Woman: Edith Holden

2010-04-24T15:42:00.001-07:00

Dear Followers,

Today I'd like to introduce you to an artistic woman who was born during Queen Victoria's reign, died in 1920, and half a century after her death became known around the world for her posthumously published book "The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady."

Edith Blackwell Holden was born in 1871, and her family consisted of four sisters and two brothers. Her mother, a Unitarian, wrote two little religious books for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Before her marriage she had been a nanny, and encouraged all her children to read and pursue artistic hobbies. Both she and Edith's father had strong "spiritualist" beliefs, including "automatic writing" (3: Belief in the Unbelievable).

Edith and her siblings grew up near Birmingham, England, and they often walked in the countryside with their father to collect wildflowers that they would take home as gifts to their mother, whose health (after seven pregnancies) was frail. Flowers were a special delight for Edith's mother, and her enthusiasm for nature inspired her (already artistic) daughters (2: An Early Sense of Direction).

By the age of thirteen Edith was ready to enter the Birmingham School of Art, where she earned the highest grade available in freehand drawing, and by 19, her pictures were being accepted for the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists' Autumn Exhibition. During this time she decided to specialize in plant and animal painting, and spent hours exploring the countryside to find her models in their natural surroundings.

When she was 20, she moved to Scotland to study with Joseph Denovan Adam at his art school called "Craigmill." It was the first time she had been away from home and family, but it was the perfect environment to perfect her art.

For most of her adult life, Edith either worked as a part time art teacher or illustrated magazine articles or books. When she taught at the Solihull School for Girls, her students ranged from 14 to 17 years old. Edith encouraged her students to draw or paint flowers, twigs or berries and she "demanded" high standards from her students (10: The Critic Within).

In an era where most women were financially dependent on their father or their husband, Edith (and two of her sisters) became "self-supporting" artists.

When she was 39 years old she married Ernest Smith, a sculptor, who was seven years her junior. One spring morning in 1920, while gathering branches near Kew Gardens Walk, Edith fell in a backwater of the Thames and drowned. She was 49 years old.

Published in 1977, "The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady" was on the U.K. bestseller list for an amazing 203 weeks. It has sold over three million copies in thirteen countries, and over two million English-language copies. How wonderful that a quiet, introspective, nature-loving female artist had a positive impact on millions of people decades after her death.

Looking forward to your comments...