Elevate Women, Elevate the World: A Book Review by Christina Low

A review of Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide  by Nicholas D. Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn 

“Women hold up half the sky.” – Chinese Proverb

As YWiB’s resident bookworm, I read a lot of books.  Many of them are good.  A few have been not so good.  And every once in a while, a book will find its way to my bedside table and stay with me long after I’ve put it down.  Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide is one of those books.

Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist couple Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Half the Sky is a startling, no-holds-barred look at what the authors cite as “the paramount moral challenge of the 21^st century” – the oppression of women and girls in the developing world.  Have you ever read a book and actually cringed, or furrowed your brow, or wrinkled your nose in bewilderment, indignation or plain disgust?  That’s what I did, several times, while paging through the incredible stories told by Kristof and WuDunn, weaved from firsthand interviews and visits with women all over Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa, among other places.  This book is not for the faint at heart – the anecdotes are grim, describing in graphic detail the plight of girls as young as ten (!) sold into sexual slavery and prostitution, women who suffer horrible, life-threatening injuries from childbirth, and the consequences imposed on those who choose to speak up or offer support.  It was almost an assault on my mind and my heart, because I’m female, and the only difference between me and the twentysomething victim from India is where we live.  If I came away with anything from reading this book, it’s that I am so, so thankful for the opportunities, the laws and the life I’ve been given simply by being born, raised and educated in Canada.

By the same token, that twenty-something victim who survived a gang rape in Pakistan also did something unheard of for someone of her status.  Her name is Muhktar Mai, and she fought back, applying for redress for the crime inflicted upon her, and soon afterward catching the attention of the country’s then-president, who compensated her with $8,300.  She used that money to open the first school for girls in her Muslim village, which is still thriving today.  She was named one of Glamour magazine’s Women of the Year in 2005, and has since started a women’s crisis centre in Meerwala, Pakistan.  So that’s another lesson I took with me – it’s that some of these stories do not have to end hopelessly or in despair.  Some of these appalling problems can not only be solved, but done so by the very women who endured the torture in the first place.  Inspiring, yes?

This book, while brutal and harsh and violent, is probably one of the most important books I’ve read.  It opened my eyes to issues that I didn’t know much about; it is at once an awareness builder, and a call to action.  It is living testimony that opportunity can, and does, arise from tragedy.  It also shows us that when women and girls are given the chance to reach their full potential, amazing things can happen for their children, their partners and their communities.  The key ingredient to achieving this “girl effect” is empowering girls with education, which teaches them that “femininity does not equal docility.”  Education nurtures assertiveness.  When girls learn what they are capable of, everyone around her benefits.  Elevate women, and you elevate the world.  Go read this book now.

Channeling Wonder Woman

Happy Friday everyone! Aside from TGIF, nothing sparked more excitement for me growing up then superheroes. Growing up with a younger brother, there was never a lack of comic books lying around or a Sunday morning superhero cartoon missed. I watched them all, you name it; Batman, Spiderman, X-men, etc. However, even at a young age, I noticed the lack of female leads, super heroines I could play out in the backyard. Sure there were the Bat Girls, the Jean Greys and the Storms and Rogues of the comic book world, but all were part of a bigger team or a side kick to stronger male lead. The notion was disappointing until I discovered Wonder Women.

Wonder Woman was all kinds of special. She was strong, intelligent, assertive, independent, beautiful and kicked major butt all while sporting some killer red boots. To top it off, she had her own show and managed to inspire many girls (and boys) out there to take action during playtime, even throughout their lives. Wonder Woman may not be a breathing role model but she’s become a symbol synonymous with all the adjectives mentioned above and above all, female empowerment. It’s strong female leads like Wonder Woman that make an impact in our early lives, make us question societal norms, makes us push for something more out of life. It’s thought provoking characters like these that made stories like “The Paper Bag Princess” such a big part of my childhood too.

But, at the end of the day it doesn’t take super powers to inspire others or the next generation. Before my discovery of Wonder Woman or the Paper Bag Princess, my role model, the person I pretended to be, was my mom. The fact is we all have the potential to be a Wonder Woman to someone. We all have a lady in our lives that seems to be otherworldly and don’t be surprised if others believe the same thing of you. The good thing is, due to the progression of time, positive examples and the strides made by those before us, the next generation of girls doesn’t have to wait for new super heroines to be drawn since we already exist. :)

if the shoe fits: a review of Start Something That Matters by Blake Mycoskie

I bought my first pair of TOMS last year.  I chose the black canvas, and wound up traipsing around Western Europe in them.  With each step I took through the back alleys of Venice and cobblestoned streets of Berlin, I silently thanked TOMS founder (and Chief Shoe-Giver) Blake Mycoskie for engineering such a soft shoe that was easy to pack and – bonus! – a do-good piece of footwear I was proud to own.  So when his book, aptly titled Start Something That Matters, appeared on my desk at work from my boss, no less, I was excited to dive in. The appeal of TOMS, I realized as I flew through Mycoskie’s 185-page tale of finding passion, profit and meaning, is in its simplicity, both in the company’s product and its underlying philosophy of One for One.  When you buy a pair of TOMS, Mycoskie donates another pair to a child in need – One for One.  In fact, when you buy a copy of Start Something That Matters, a new book is provided to a child in need as well.  TOMS is one of the fastest-growing shoe companies the world has ever seen, and for good reason – there really is a certain kind of beauty in its sheer ease of both style and philanthropy.  I think that in times like these, the simpler the concept, the better.  That goes for shoes and giving.

There isn’t anything earth-shattering in Mycoskie’s book – let’s know this.  But again, sometimes things aren’t meant to be earth-shattering in order to have an impact.  TOMS shoes themselves aren’t all that fancy.  They’re made of cloth, more or less.  And yet, TOMS has sold over one million pairs of shoes and given that same number to underprivileged children in more than 30 countries.

In Start Something That Matters, Mycoskie offers his readers six core lessons he learned while building his shoe empire from such innovative organizations as charity: water, FEED Projects, and (local shout-out!) the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure.  He writes in a fairly engaging voice, and I finished the book in a few days.  If you have, say, Malcolm Gladwell or Seth Godin on your bookshelf already, I doubt you’ll find anything super-mad-crazy-inspired or pivotal in Start Something.  But if you’re looking to flex your entrepreneurial muscle for the first time, or you just want to know how your red TOMS got to be on your feet, go on and pick this up for a quick and generally satisfying read.  Mycoskie, ever the minimalist, lives on a boat.  If there is anything to be taken away from his story, it’s that simplicity, simply put, works.  If the shoe fits, wear it!

Carving Your Path- event wrap up post

Last Monday we held an event: Carving Your Path, with Andrea Scott of skoah & Deanne Schweitzer of lululemon. The event focused on finding or creating a workplace based on your values and passions, and creating goals to achieve personal and professional success. We had a great time at the event and you can check out our full take-aways here or check out the tweets under #CYP. One of the things we really value at our events is hearing from our awesome attendees on how it went, what they loved, and what we can improve for future events! We've compiled all the feedback (thank you all so so much for taking the time to provide it, we had 95% of attendees provide their thoughts) and have gone through it- follow this link for the full list of all the feedback points given (we like to be super transparent with our events- after all, that's how we make sure we & you can hold us accountable to keep improving!).

To summarize:

• you loved our speakers and the topic we talked about, some great take-aways came out of it
• the atmosphere & feel of the event was super comfortable and open
• next time, we need to make sure the space we hold our event at is comfortable for all and everyone can see & hear clearly
• keep thinking about how we can balance the length of the event with providing additional networking and interaction activities
• always include the answer to the questions of "how" to apply what we're learning (I'll throw it out there and say that asking someone from a prospectus company out for coffee will tell you a lot about their culture- just ask them what they think the company's goals, mission, and priorities are- you'll learn lots!!)

Thank you for joining us for another great YWiB event! :) we can't wait to see you at future ones and as always, if you have any questions, please give us a shout! And if you're interested in hosting your own YWiB event, check this out.

when I learned to love what I do...

When I started my job, I was not happy, and my boss will be the first one to tell you: I wasn’t doing well at it either. I was kicking myself for not taking the corporate job with the big telecom company, where at least I could complain about it and everyone would nod and sigh, ‘ya, the corporate world is tough’.

But I stuck it out. Stubbornness? Yes –definitely. Persistence? Definitely. Fear of failure – TONS. But what was I afraid to fail at? Something I didn’t like anyways? Didn’t really make sense.

I learned to love my job because of the people I work for and with every day I saw through the situation into the person behind it–me. To quote Jim Collins (Good to Great) – I was in the completely wrong seat on the bus.  So I changed seats. Simple as that. Amber Rae (Hey Amber Rae!) posted on this exact topic recently and I was inspired to share my story about how this has changed my outlook and what I’ve observed about myself.

Lessons & Observations:

1. When you love your job, more opportunities come your way.

When I used to speak about what I did (while I hated it), I would look down, go quiet, and quickly say what I did, followed by a tsunami of excuses about why it wasn’t sexy or important and that I was hoping to maybe move at some point. This instills NO confidence in you or for you– as an employee or a person. I came across as timid and as someone who was unable (or unwilling) to take a stand in my own life and change my situation. Apathy = ick.

Now, I speak about my job with excitement and enthusiasm. I speak about the same company, but now instead of putting it down, I rave about it! I focus on what I get to do everyday and how it’s a privilege to work with such incredible people on such interesting projects. This instills confidence. Your audience gets excited and they want to hear more about you, or your company, or both. They want to do business with you. When I talk about what I’m learning and what challenges I face, I sound confident, capable and assertive. Proactive = yes!

2. When you love your job, you learn more.

I recently started taking a class again at UBC and I LOVE IT. I love learning. But I don’t remember loving learning quite as much when I was an actual student working towards my undergrad. And that’s because I never had a prof who engaged me quite like my current one does.

When you’re engaged and excited, you’re ready to learn and ready to take on more. A happy attitude makes for an open mind, and you become like a sponge. When you’re unhappy, friendly advice can sound like nagging and critical feedback can sounds like criticism. When you enjoy what you do, you’re open to learning more – so you do!

3. When you love your job, you have time to enjoy other elements of your life.

Unhappiness and the stress that accompanies it are time-consuming. I found that instead of making the time for the things I enjoyed, any spare time I had I was obsessing about how much I hated what I was doing. I would complain and had an ongoing feeling of anxiety and stress about Monday morning, when I’d have to go back at it. It was cluttering my mind and I put everything on hold – I stopped swimming, I stopped reading, and I even stopped contributing to YWiB (gasp!).

When I switched seats, I felt light and felt a huge weight lifted from my shoulders. I suddenly had space in my mind to think about other things – exciting things! I rediscovered what I loved and what I loved to do. I was biking more. I was hiking more. And I was YWiB-ing again. I don’t find it a burden to balance being busier now that I’ve re-added things to my life. In fact, if I wasn’t this busy, I’d be unhappy. I need everything I have in my life to feel complete. I need my work, my time for play (activities!) and my YWiB time.

SO WHAT’S THE BIG LESSON?

Don’t be afraid to ask to switch seats on the bus.

And if your boss isn’t open to it – you need to make a switch. Find a company that loves you for you and is willing to work to find the right seat for you.

meet our Beyond Pink 2012 co-chairs!!

we're so excited to share that our new co-chairs for Beyond Pink 2012 are.... Janelle Chung & Iva Gatcheva! 

this phenomenal duo comes from two different backgrounds- Iva completed her Bachelor of Arts at McGill, majoring in Political Science and English Literature. Since then, she's been the Project Coordinator for TED Conferences, webmaster for Y.E.S., and worked with the department director at the Engineering Student services.  Janelle is finishing her Bachelors of Science in Behavioural Neuroscience with a minor in Commerce. Last year she co-chaired the Beyond the Bsc. Conference (inspired by her time at BP2010), coordinated a 3-Course Connection Dinner conference, and interned at the Burnaby Mental Health and Addiction Clinic.

As part of the application process, we asked each applicant to submit a "creative" piece. We loved the ones these girls came up with! Janelle showed off her creativity & tech skills by creating a BP2012 Inspiration Board on Pinterest, and Iva wow-ed us with her hidden poetic skills by writing a poem about BP2012!

We also asked the girls to fill out the YWiB {my story} and we loved some of their answers and could tell right away, they would get along! Check out some of their answers below.

Q: what is your retreat?

A: snowshoeing at a North Shore Mountain (Janelle) | a mountain hike and crisp air any day (Iva)

Q: childhood ambition?

A: to learn how to fly (Iva) | to be a physicist (Janelle)

we're incredibly excited to welcome Janelle & Iva to the team and we know they will bring back the magic and make Beyond Pink 2012 full of surprises! if you're interested in getting involved, keep your eyes on our blog- opportunities to join their team and lend a hand with BP2012 will be posted in a few short weeks!

chatting with...cybele negris

Cybele Negris learned to juggle at grade 7 camp.  Okay, maybe not, but she certainly does keep a lot objects in the air!  Cybele is a founding partner and President ofWebnames.ca - Canada's original domain registrar and a one-stop convenience for the online needs of individuals, small businesses, nonprofit organizations and corporations. Cybele has diverse experience in both management and operations, including prior directorships and officer positions in several public and private companies. Before Webnames.ca, Cybele ran her own management consultancy, working closely with crown corporations and private companies.  Cybele has been a recipient of numerous awards: Canada's Top 100 Most Powerful Women (2011), Business in Vancouver's Influential Women in Business Award (2010), PROFIT W100 - Canada's Top Women Entrepreneurs, (2004 to 2011), Finalist, YWCA Women of Distinction (2006), Finalist, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Pacific (2005); and Business in Vancouver’s Top 40 Under 40 (2003).

name three people you'd like to have a dinner party with. Richard Branson – he’s the epitome of entrepreneurial spirit and has fun doing it! I think he’d be a blast to hang out with and learn something from at the same time.

Depeche Mode – You’ve got to have entertainment at a dinner party so I’d love to have the whole band, but if not, then at least lead singer Dave Gahan!

Martha Stewart – Why not have the queen of entertaining at the party? I’d have her (and her team) take care of the planning, cooking, all of that. When it comes to the art of delegating, I say why not delegate to the best?

the path your career has taken hasn’t necessarily been linear – you tried a variety of different roles and industries, and ultimately wound up working for yourself.  what would you say was the biggest challenge you overcame, and how did you do it? I always had the confidence and the work ethic to get the job done no matter what the challenge was. Whether it was a new role, a new project or something I had never done before, I’d figure it out along the way. But the one thing that was always a huge issue for me was public speaking. I did not (and still don’t) like being in the spotlight. This fear was an impediment to me taking on leadership roles, speaking in front of the media or at public speaking engagements. I took the Dale Carnegie course many years ago and one of the keys to becoming a better public speaker is to just keep doing it. You need to get out of your comfort zone. It took many years and it is still not my “comfort zone”. I got to the point where in the past few years I was doing about fifteen a year and then last year it became even more than that…I think I did about eight in one month. Whether they are dynamic and engaging or not, I have huge respect for anyone who gets up in front of a crowd to speak.

you are the co-founder and president of the very successful Webnames.ca.  would you say there is an increase in the number of women working in the IT/web sector?  what can women bring to this industry? When I was President of Wired Woman Vancouver in 2006/2007, we saw our membership rising in terms of women who were looking to pursue careers in technology. However, many of those were in areas of marketing or graphic design rather than in systems or coding/software development which continued to grow but slowly. And the number of women in executive levels in technology were few and far between. Anecdotally, I’m not seeing a huge change since then.

Women can bring a lot to this industry. I hear often that women are more detail oriented or are better able to multi-task. I don’t like generalizations like this. I know plenty of men who are great in these areas too. What I think women bring is more diversity and another pool of talent who in the past may not have chosen technology as a career path. I would encourage young women to look at technology as a fun, high-paced, exciting and engaging career and not be afraid of the “lack of women” in the industry as an impediment. Look at it as an opportunity to stand out.

besides running your own company, you’re also a prominent member of the Vancouver business community and a mother.  how do you find balance between all the balls you juggle? I learned to juggle in grade 7 camp!  But seriously, I get asked this question about “finding balance” probably more than any other. Besides running Webnames.ca, I’m Vice-Chair of Small Business BC and I’m also on the board of two other organizations, the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and the Small Business Roundtable of BC. I was also on another board (the Vancouver Economic Development Commission) up until about a year ago and also chaired the annual Canary Derby (a charity event bringing together the Vancouver technology community to build and race soapbox cars to raise money for early cancer detection). And yes, I am a single mom of two young children and as part of the sandwich generation, helped my mom take care of my ailing father who passed away last year after a decade long battle with cancer.

So to me balance seems like this unreachable concept yet, if you put your priorities right and have the right team of people behind you to support you, then it is all doable. I’m known for not needing a lot of sleep (for many years I would sleep 2, 3, 4 hours a night for extended periods of time). I don’t watch TV and all my free time is spent on quality activities with the children. The rest is just time management. I do have a spread sheet where I have columns for each company/organization/activity I’m involved in and then line items in priority order of what I need to accomplish against each one every week. This helps me keep organized and not drop the ball on anything.

Every once in a while, you do end up with times of imbalance and your body will tell you. I ignored these signals for years but I am slowly learning to listen to my body more especially as I get older. After all, I need to be here for my kids.

why do you think YWiB and the YWiB philosophy is important for young women in the community? Networking, education and mentorship are key ingredients for success and YWiB facilitates all of these. I have personally seen YWiB in action having been involved as speaker, panelist and advisor. When you attend an event such as the Beyond Pink Conference, you can see, feel and breathe the energy in the room. Simply put, I recommend YWiB to every young woman I meet.