Power Women

Modified October 18, 2012

A friend of mine forwarded me Forbes Magazine’s list of the 100 most powerful women of 2012 (shout out to Karim, who makes constant fun of me for being a feminist but knows I am a huge woman’s empowerment enthusiast; it was very sweet of him to think of me when he came across the list). I was very fascinated to see which women made the cut; of course, a majority of the top ten were dominant political figures from all over the world, but as I continued to go through the names, I found a variety of different women from different backgrounds and “powerful” for different reasons.  They ranged from celebrity icons to corporate leaders to even news anchoresses.

Reading this article really got me thinking “wow, look at where women are today compared to where we were 100 years ago.” Even though women have more voice than we once did, I know that in developing countries (and even in developed ones) there is still much work to be done in terms of gender equality. Regardless, women have more opportunities today than they once did, and I believe they are starting to be taken more seriously. We now have opportunities to hold leading political positions and we can use our voices to cast an influence over people through media, the internet, and other such tools. Not to mention, more and more women today are exercising their voices and even creating a difference, and I only hope their position continues to improve from here.

Considering all of this made me wonder...because the woman’s role in our society has changed so drastically in the last several decades, does that mean the character and meaning of womanhood has also changed? How does one define a woman’s “power” anyway? If a woman’s responsibility in the workforce and in world in general falls more and more closely to that of a man’s, does that mean she has power? Though I am not sure of the recipe Forbes used to conjure up their list, I do know to me, a powerful woman is one who is charismatic and able to hold the attention of an audience. She is able to move people with her words and inspire them to do things they wouldn’t normally do. But above all, she is able to succeed in this world as a woman (let’s face it, even with the vast strides we have made in gender equality, women still have to work harder than men to be taken seriously). What I mean is that if she chooses to have children, she can without giving up her career, and giving up opportunities to excel in her career. This definitely requires women and men work in unison; that men also learn how to support the family on a domestic level so women do not have to work tirelessly every single day to keep up with numerous responsibilities. 

That is why I was so disgusted by what Mitt Romney suggested, for women to have flexible working schedules so that they can go home early and cook for their kids. Families should not  be like that; they should be strong enough to share these responsibilities so a woman is not stuck working a double shift. To me, a strong woman has the best of both worlds if she chooses to, and it gives me great happiness to see that most of the women who are on Forbes’ list are successful yet also have children. I know that I want children one day and I want to be a great mother to them, but I also want to be a successful career woman that creates lasting changes for the world with the work I do. I want both of these things and I want them equally. That being said, I know many women are conflicted between choosing a family life or a successful career life, but I think she should be able to have it all. That one day society should be so equal in gender roles that she will be able to have it all.

Check out The Forbes Magazines list of 2012 Power Women 

A Day in the Life...

Hello friends! Just thought I would write a quick update considering I am falling fast into a routine of work life in Vietnam. First of all, my co workers are so great and so welcoming and I feel as if I’ve been working at the organization for longer than only a few days. Basically, my day goes something like this: I wake up and get ready for work, walk a couple blocks from our apartment to the bus stop, take the bus in the morning rush hour (which takes about 15 minutes longer than it should to maneuver through the crowded roads), and walk a few blocks to my work building. Along the way I run into numerous people, some who are getting ready to begin their work day at the street – side shops, and some who are travelling to get to work or drop their kids off to school (this list also includes strange men who beckon me to where they’ve parked their motorbikes – in those situations it’s better to just shake your head and keep walking haha). I start work at 8:30 am and leave at 4:30 pm to beat evening rush hour.  Our lunch hour lasts about an hour and half and at work everyone cooks together and eats together; it’s really quite niceJ. The first day at the office they made snail, so I can officially check “trying adventurous dish in Vietnam” off of my list, though I still plan on trying some more authentic foods (yes, snake is still on my list!).

I work for an organization that promotes the sustainable use of water resources but also does so much more. It educates the public on proper measures to take in the face of natural disasters, preparing them for great risks and even conducts research that directly involves the participation of the local villagers for whom the research is conducted in the first place (this local knowledge extraction is known as Thai Baan research, a participatory approach that helps local villagers collect information and build a database about how they interact with their own environment). For now, I’ve been doing some work related to hydro – power decision making in the Mekong River Basin and In October I will be doing some field work pertaining to Thai Baan research in the Cao Bang province (situated in Northeastern Vietnam, bordering China) in the Bao Lam district. Exciting huh?

After work I bus back home (though next week I am going to try biking) and hang out with Alyssa for the rest of the night, meet up with some friends for dinner, or just read J. Recently, Alyssa and I attempted to utilize our nice kitchen and cook our own food. We went to the grocery store, bought some veggies and noodles and cooked everything in a big pot – surprisingly it was quite delicious and we even had left – overs (score!).

The soup? Alyssa and I made...baby steps :P

Well that’s a little synopsis of my regular day at work (I promise the weekends will be way more exciting =]). Take care my friends!   

Tourist in Hanoi

Temple of Literature

I feel like I fall more and more in love with this country every single day. Still recovering from jetlag, I was up and about this morning at 6:30 am and kept busy by attempting to upload my first Vietnam video diary. The internet is kind of unreliable not to mention my laptop malfunctioned, so a successful upload did not quite happen in the morning but I managed to have better luck this evening (check out the previous post to watch the video!). At 9:30 am Alyssa, Vicky, and I met Dan and his roommates, one of which is a girl who has worked long term with WUSC, and the six of us spent the whole day visiting different tourist areas of Hanoi. Today was also the first time we took the bus in Hanoi, which I plan on taking more often considering it costs a mere 3000 dong (that’s not even 25 cents Canadian!)

Vicky and I at the Temple of Literature

 Our first stop was the Temple of Literature, which apparently was the first university constructed in Hanoi (perhaps even Vietnam, though I am not certain of this fact). The architecture was beautiful and an odd, yet flattering thing happened while we were there. Vicky and I were sitting on the steps trying to catch a breath from walking around all morning and all of a sudden, a Vietnamese girl asked to take a picture with us! Vicky later told me that she wanted to be in a picture with me because I looked foreign and she thought I was cute haha! Anyways, after the Temple we had lunch at a more western – style restaurant (I ordered pizza believe it or not!) and then we made our way over to another tourist area, a park sort of place if you will, but I can’t quite remember the name of it. We took some pictures there and then went to the Old Quarter. This is basically a large market filled with countless street vendors selling everything from clothes to shoes to bags to bedding to so much more! We stayed here for an hour or so and then finally made our way back to Vicky’s house for dinner.

Our biggest fan in Vietnam!

I am absolutely crazy about her hospitable and sweet family! We ate spring rolls with vegetables, fish sauce, mint leaves, and noodles and then gathered around her living room to have fruit. During my short time in Vietnam I have discovered yet another favourite fruit of mine (I basically eat fruit in bulk, and if I was stuck on an island with nothing to eat but different fruits, I think I would be okay) – pomelo or bưởi as said in Vietnamese! Vicky’s family made me feel like I was a part of it and this cross - cultural family experience is one that I definitely longed for prior to my arrival in Vietnam! Alyssa and I then made our way back home and ended off the evening by talking to our host mom’s eldest son (we live in an apartment on the 18^th floor with our host mom and her two sons, one who is in grade school and the other who is a bit older than us). All in all today was a tiring yet remarkable day, and Vietnam manages to steal a little more of my heart with every passing moment.