Business

Saturday May 9, 2009

Empowering women

SIDEWAYS
by ANITA GABRIEL


LATE last year, when Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, announced her Republican vice presidential candidacy in US, it sparked a raging debate among working Moms and mounting criticism on whether or not she would be able to raise her five children as she pursues her high-powered political job.

Her biting retort: ”To any critic who says a woman can’t think and work and carry a baby at the same time, I’d just like to escort that Neanderthal back to the cave”. Yes, a pit bull with lipstick, indeed.

Sarah Palin

Okay, so this is also the same lady who came up with a cringe-inducing performance over a live interview with news anchor Katie Couric when she used the sole fact of Alaska’s proximity to Russia to attest to her foreign policy credentials.

But I’m sure if you think hard enough, you may recall one or two (or maybe more) cringe-worthy remarks you have uttered, which you had wished dearly you could take back.

The co-relation is irrefutable. As women’s economic role has rapidly progressed in recent decades, so has the debate on its impact on family values and children’s well being.

It appears that while the gender lines have been crossed in the work force, providing many women with strong earning power and powerful positions, the traditional qualities associated with women as mothers and primary care givers remain intact.

But it’s not something that all successful women have a beef with at all.

Indra Nooyi, CEO of global beverage giant Pepsico and ranked as the world’s fifth most powerful woman by Forbes, has openly confessed: “I’m a mother first, then a CEO.”

Indra Nooyi

In my circle of friends, I know of a few women who are successful by most measures, who would celebrate the fact that even as they are tasked with major responsibilities in large organisations, their role as mothers remain unmatched.

There is a whole raft of talented women who have made their mark in the work force, who have fought hard to balance their professional and personal aspirations.

Truth is, working mothers face similar triumphs and pitfalls with their children as stay at home Moms. In Malaysia, women make up half the population and half the workforce.

More needs to be done to support working mothers – single or otherwise – who struggle every day to keep their jobs and meet their family commitments.

And while there are many women who hold key and powerful positions in the corporate arena, clearly, it is still very much a male-dominated society. More women should be empowered, not encumbered by the glass ceiling.

When I have a deluge of e-mails to sieve through, I, not unlike many of you, pick and choose my messages based on the subject headers that pique my curiosity most.

I came across one that was interesting enough for me to peruse over the week. It read: “Create a big idea and investors will throw money at your manicured feet.”

Basically, it involved a programme empowering women (mostly) towards financial freedom – a topic that is close to a lot of women’s hearts for the absence of that (and I do not say this to offend any group of people), there is always a greater risk of vulnerability. There ought to be more of such programmes.

As a society, we owe it to ourselves and the great women who are our mothers and our circle of admirable women friends, to empower and encourage women who have dreams to pursue, be it at home or in the office. Be it the pursuit of success at home or at the workplace, the decision ought to be respected, not judged. We ought to celebrate the ability to make that crucial choice.

Happy Mother’s Day.

·Business editor Anita Gabriel would like to bestow her admiration and gratitude to her mother for “empowering” her five daughters. She also wishes the work and family dilemma would ease up.


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