Get It, Girls

Tabitha Festo was a widow, an unemployed nurse, a mother of three, and apparently a badass living in her home in Kibera, Kenya in 2000. Tabitha approached UNC undergrad Rye Barcott asking for the equivalent of US$26, saying that with it she could make real change. Tabitha grew and sold vegetables to local woman, saved about US$130, and opened a medical clinic. 

Read about the success of the medical clinic today on the link.

Get it, girl.

I’m not so into declaring that traditionally male or female skills are worth more or less than one another, but I’m so into the under-understood point that women tend to possess valuable managerial, social, networking, mentoring, and connecting skills that businesses want.

I got this book for my sister for Christmas. Kate Engelbrecht sent out thousands of cameras and questionnaires to teenage girls all over the U.S.  The book is a collection of the photographs and questionnaire responses.  

Teen readers will be rewarded with a wonderful set of sincere, deep messages and the reassurance that they are not alone.  

All the big names, and some others who I’ll start paying attention to now…

Amanpour, Maddow, Sawyer, Couric, Huffington, Steinem, and some of the awesome NPR girls.

I think it makes you a better woman and a better partner to be able to take care of yourself and your family financially on your own (if and when needed).  Understanding estate planning is smart and empowering at any age. When you’re ready, get your estate and will together to send your emotional shit to the next generation in a good place.

An example of women using their strengths to achieve and lead in a still male-dominated business culture: social skills and networking help women ascend, says Forbes.

The conventional knowledge in Hollywood is that an unsympathetic female character can tank a movie.  I’m hoping that’s not true.  I’m knocking on wood really emphatically right now but honestly I have a lot of theories sometimes I wonder if it comes down to mommy issues. The idea of a cold, unlikeable woman or a woman who is not in control of herself is genuinely frightening to people because it threatens civilization itself or threatens the American family. 

I think Diablo Cody is really smart and that she has even better work to come. I haven’t seen this movie, but I will. I think what she’s saying about the portrayal of women is important.

There are some feminist voices which are outspoken about the portrayal of women in the media as overly sexual, unintelligent, objectified sort of things. I’m not into this portrayal for sure. Diablo makes another point about the portrayal of women which I think is also important: that women have flaws, and it’s ok. 

I don’t know why people are always willing to accept and even like flawed male characters.  We’ve seen so many loveable anti-heroes who are curmudgeons or addicts or bad fathers and a lot of those characters have become beloved icons and I don’t see women allowed to play the same parts.  So it was really important to me to try and turn that around.

Women are multi-faceted. And the facets don’t have to be limited to a) cute when you’re meeting your boyfriends’ parents, b) sexy in bed, and c) smart in an interview. We can also be disproportionately emotional (http://tinyurl.com/73zm6rt), angry, or overwhelmed. Seeing those facets in the media could relieve the pressure to be or to seem to be a certain kind of woman.