Business

Saturday June 20, 2009

Up close and personal with Irene Natividad

By TEE LIN SAY


The president of Global Summit of Women wears many hats. She believes it’s the Asian streak in her that drives her to get better.

IT IS not often we find a feminist who is not only influential in Corporate America, but who is also of Asian origin. That was before you met Irene Natividad, a recognised women’s leader who has made waves in the United States over the last 30 years.

She is president of the Global Summit of Women, an annual gathering of women leaders from around the world.

She co-chairs Corporate Women Directors International, which promotes the increased participation of women on corporate boards globally, and she also owns and runs GlobeWomen, a public affairs firm based in Washington DC.

That’s not all. She is a sought-after commentator, and is a regular panelist on the Public Broadcasting Service’s To The Contrary, a long-running, all-women news analysis series. To prepare for the show, Natividad says she reads everything, sometimes even three online newspapers every day.

“I never know what people are going to be asking. So I just need to know everything. I like to learn. Everything fascinates me. Maybe it’s the Asian streak in me – I am driven to get better,” she says.

On the Global Summit of Women, Natividad describes it as a gathering of best practises for women. She points out that there are few events in which women across the globe can meet and exchange views and information, without being overshadowed by governments, corporations and men.

“It’s a gathering for business and economic purposes. I don’t want to replicate the United Nations. We celebrated the 19th year of the summit in Chile last month. We had some 1,000 women from about 90 countries come together. I don’t consider this a job. This is my life,” she says.

Natividad is passionate about wanting to jump-start the lives of women. She does not accept that women have to start from zero. That is why she puts together the summit, hence allowing women to find business and economic partners globally.

“I had one woman from Bangladesh who was merely selling pashmina shawls. And through my summit, she now sells it to other women in Iceland and Japan! Now, how is that kind of networking possible without my summit?” she asks.

“We also had a 15-year-old South African teenage entrepreneur who was sent by South Africa’s Department of Trade and Industry. Can you imagine the exposure she gets, meeting such high-level people from all over the world, how that could have impacted her life?”

The more micro aspects of organising the event definitely gets Natividad’s attention. Being a women means caring about every little thing, from the coffee to the speeches to the itinerary. “Whether it’s food for the participants or if people are having a good time, I worry about everything,” she exclaims.

Nonetheless, Natividad says she is proud of women and marvels at how creative and determined they are. Despite all the setbacks and glass ceilings, women still make up half the workforce. “They have limited access to credit, yet half of them are business owners. Women have done it on their own,” she says resolutely.

International beginnings

Born in Manila in 1948, Natividad is the eldest of four. Her father’s work as a chemical engineer took the family from the Philippines to Japan, Iran, Greece, and India. Partly because of the frequent moves, Natividad speaks Spanish, French, Italian, Tagalog, Farsi and Greek fluently.

In Greece, Natividad completed her high school education as valedictorian of her class. “My mother only attended my college graduation when I informed her I was valedictorian of my class. Her only prescription for my future career: I don’t care what it is, just be number one,” she says.

In 1973, Natividad received a master’s degree in American literature and in 1976, a master’s in philosophy, both from Columbia University in New York.

She has only to complete her dissertation to earn her doctorate. She has been awarded honorary doctorates from Long Island University (1989) and Marymount College (1994).

Natividad’s first taste of politics came in 1968 when she distributed campaign leaflets for Eugene J. McCarthy’s presidential bid. She joined the working world during the 1970s, when she held faculty and administrative positions in higher education.

In 1980, Natividad served as founder and president of Asian American Professional Women and as founding director of the National Network of Asian-Pacific American Women and the Child Care Action Campaign.

She went on to serve as chair of the New York State Asian Pacific Caucus from 1982 to 1984, and as deputy vice-chair of the Asian Pacific Caucus of the Democratic National Committee.

By 1985 Natividad’s career as a political activist was in full swing. She was elected to chair the 77,000-member National Women’s Political Caucus, becoming the first Asian American woman to head a national women’s organisation.

Throughout her career Natividad has focused on using organisations to achieve her goals.

During her tenure, the caucus trained candidates and their staffs throughout the US on the basics of campaigning. The workshops covered topics key to running a successful campaign, such as polling techniques, fund-raising, grassroots organisation, and strategies for dealing with the news media. The caucus also gathered hard data to analyse factors influencing women’s congressional races and compiled an annual Survey of Governors’ Appointments of Women to state cabinets.

Through the work of the caucus’ Coalition for Women’s Appointments in 1988, Natividad was invited to meet with President George Bush to promote women candidates for administration posts.

An estimated one-third of all women appointed to high-level positions in the Bush administration had been recommended by the coalition led by Natividad.

In 1989, Natividad stepped down as chair of the National Women’s Political Caucus to pursue other interests.

“People may say bad things about the US, but in the US, I have the freedom to do what I want to do. US has that fluidity in society. It provided me a platform to become an advocate, and I feel some measure of success in it,” she says.

What women need

On her opinion of women, Natividad does not begrudge women and the choices they make. Right now, she feels women are still nowhere near equity in anything.

She says that women are products of their culture, and culture is something that is hard to change, especially in Asia.

“Two decades ago, women couldn’t even get into the workforce. Now they make up 50% of the workforce. Not too long ago, the status of a women depended on the type of husband she could get. Not anymore,” she points out.

“For women, it also depends a lot on how you view yourself. Right now, I have more single friends than married friends. I think it can be very frightening for guys to be with someone very accomplished. For women, it’s very hard to marry down.”

Her advice to women? You need to be financially responsible and invest for your future, she says. It is absolutely necessary for women to earn their own money, as more often than not, finances are the heart of a problem.

Natividad is adamant on finding a balance between work and family. She believes that until this issue is resolved, women cannot forge ahead.

“We need to break the notion that women are only responsible for children. I’ve been asking companies to get flexible schedules for people with children. I think younger men today want to be more involved with their family. I think some men are changing,” she argues.

“Does it really matter whether a person works at home or at the office, as long as she or he delivers? This is what I call ‘face time’. Do you measure success as a measure of ‘face time’ or results?” she asks.

On her domestic life, Natividad is married to Andreas Cortese, director of digital communications services for the Communications Satellite Corp. They married when she was 26. Because of her busy schedule, son Carlo Natividad-Cortese was only born a decade later.

Natividad describes her husband as someone who is extremely supportive. The couple take turns cooking and washing. “We respect each other, and have other interests. Because I’m always travelling, we have different worlds. So that helps and we don’t get bored of each other.”

And the legacy she would like to leave? “Hopefully I have put women in a better place. And I would like my summit to continue,” she says.

  • E-mail this story
  • Print this story