Leadership Ethics

First of all, I really enjoyed the pizza.  I ate many slices, which was a problem because I had already eaten dinner.  The panel had a certain spark to them last night, which is greatly due to the fact that they were all related.  It was quite amazing that each one of the women on our panel had opened and run their own business.  One of the woman actually re-opened her father's business, but none the less.  I appreciated that these women could tell us their entrepreneurial  stories.  I'm not sure I could ever open my own business, but I admire people that can.  I think it takes a certain amount of confidence to put you and your business out into the world with no reassurance that our product will sell. 

After words, I talked to one of the panelist's daughters about their crazy uncle.  Then this conversation ended and I started talking to another panelist .  We had an interesting conversation about gyrokinesis, which my dance teacher is one of the few people certified.  It was a small world situation. 

I'm really excited to meet my mentor next week.  I hope her and I have similar personalities and we both benefit from this placement.

Safety Blog

Not sure if I had to blog this week, but just to make sure here we go!  I attended the FYE event The Tunnel of Oppression.  One of the rooms talked about woman and the glass ceiling in the workplace.  Another room showed how hurtful words and media can be towards women.  I think these two rooms go right along with our Women in Leadership class.

The glass ceiling room just refreshed my knowledge of all the horrible statistics about women in the workplace, such as ow low women's salaries are compared to men's and how few women are in the CEO and top managers of Fortune 500 companies.  These statistics bother me and I hope that these numbers make an impact on other girls. 

The room about the media effects on girls was almost nauseating.  There were pictures of girls throwing up to become skinnier.  There were pictures of girls doing extremely dangerous drugs to take them away from the world that they live in now.  There were dehumanizing words along the walls.  It was a lot to take in at once.  Many people agree that the media needs to change, but it seems like no one is doing anything about it.  One of the problems is that nobody knows how to address this problem.  Companies are going to do whatever to get their products sold and if that requires a barely clothed anorexic woman, then so be it.  This needs to change, but that requires people's wants to change.  That change could be impossible, and if possible would take a extended amount of time because these "perfect" images are already ingrained in the minds of the youth today.

Well, wrapping up, I obviously had some strong feelings towards The Tunnel of Oppression.

Emerging Opportunities for Women

This week's class really had an effect on me.  That video that we watched was unbelievable in two different ways.  First off, it was amazingly well done.  The different scenes that the producers strung together was impeccable.  Secondly, I was so inspired to do something about women's position in society after only watching two-thirds of the movie.

All the comments about the women politicians were extremely distasteful.  It is disguisting that a women does not get judged on what she says, but what she is wearing. Also, it seems like a women's personal life is brought into the picture more often than men politicians.  "Who will watch the kids?" is often asked to only women.  For example, John Edwards had small children, but no one seemed to ask about childcare. Women are not taken seriously in politics which upsets me because our government is supposed to represent the ENTIRE population, not 49% of it.

Men are not fully to blame in the political circus.  Not only are women not running for any elections, they are not voting for women either.  My personal belief is that women are too smart to run for a political position.  The political arena is tough and women are just too intelligent to dive into that.

Anyways, everyone, woman or man, should watch Miss Representation!  Such a great movie!

Leading Myself

My views on leadership have dramatically changed since I started this class.  Above all else, the speakers and readings have just exposed me to all types of leadership.  I knew there were different kinds of leaders, but I did not know how many strategies or studies that have been done on leadership.  I have come to believe that anyone can become a leader; it would just take a bit more of an effort for some.  I learned that some are born leaders, some become leaders and some have leadership thrust upon them. 

I believe the most powerful type of leadership is authentic leadership.  Leaders that are authentic have such passion and can truly do whatever they want to achieve.

I've also learned that leadership is difficult; more difficult than I thought.  My biggest problem to overcome will be accepting the fact that not everyone will like you or your idea.  I've always been the kind of person that wants to make everyone happy, and when leading change everyone is not going to be happy.  People do not like change, and I just need to get over it.

From day to day, I have noticed opportunities to become a leader.  I've noticed that everybody seems to "talk the talk," but does not "walk the walk."  Other people will not take the initiative, I have to be that one person.  I've also learned to show my excitement more.  I used to keep all my emotions inside, making me seem unrealistic, which is not a good leadership quality.  People like someone that they can relate with.

I'm also the kind of person that loves being busy, so this balance of work and family that everyone keeps talking about makes me extremely nervous, yet excited! 

Another lesson I learned from the speakers was to raise your voice.  This is an area I have never been especially superb at, but I'm working on it!

I'm so glad that I decided to take this class.  It has definitely opened up my eyes to the real world.  Along with opening eyes, this class opens doors.  I'm thrilled to be getting a mentor, because at this point in my life I could never ask someone to do that for me.  I believe this class is giving me great opportunities that I plan on taking full advantage of.

Women and Diversity

I absolutely loved last week's class.  The panel was amazing!  I think I might have been super excited for the cookies though..  Even though it was a lot of fun, I still learned a lot.  I started looking at the world in a different point of view; trying to see everyone as an equal.  The story about the car company losing a million dollars over a simple mistake that could have been solved if someone had it was incredible.

I attended a FYS event tonight about alcohol decisions.  It was very interesting and I learned that alcohol can affect every aspect of some one's life.  It can be affected socially, emotionally, physically, economically and spiritually.  We also got candy at the end of the seminar.  My life recently seems to be revolving around food.

Yesterday, I went to a Dames Bond event with Dr. Krendl and some classmates.  Of course, there was food, but it was very informative.  There was presentations about Dames Bond, being eco-friendly, and making sure your business is not anti-social.  I met some important women and I thought it was a great opportunity!

Women and Politics

This week we had some very prestigious women come and talk to us about balancing politics, being a women, and life.  I could not believe that I was in the same room as the first woman Speaker of the House in Ohio.  She seemed like a truly powerful and influential woman.  I enjoyed her quote, "Think like a man.  Work like a dog.  Act like a lady.  Look like a girl."  I wrote it down and highlighted it!  I definitely hung on every word that came out of that women's mouth.  All five of the women essentially said the same thing; volunteer your time, work hard, take the high road, and perseverance pays off.

I'm pretty sure that I do not want to get into politics, but I can see myself volunteering at an political campaign or something of that nature.  I believe that staying up-to-date with political issues is extremely important.  One woman asked if we were all registered to vote and that every vote counts; I believe that fully.  I plan on voting in any election that I can.

We also talked about how the glass ceiling has already been broken and there are so many opportunities that we have today.  Also, how it is almost an obligation to reach and past the women that came before us.

Even though I find it contradictory to what our class stands for, I am SO excited to make cookies at Dr. Krendl's house next week.  I hope that this turns out to be a great experience!

Women and Business

Last week's class was all about Women and Business.  Since I'm majoring in business, I thought this panel would be quite interesting.  Not that I didn't find the information applicable or helpful, it is just that the information was not exactly for me.  The panel mostly talked about starting their own businesses.  I have such a high respect for people who can start their own businesses; I know I could never do such a daring task.  It takes a special kind of person to start their own business.  These people have to be comfortable with failure, something I am not okay with.  I thought the story told by the women who was entrepreneur of her own caster business was almost straight out of a movie.  She had some guts to confront the CEO of a huge car manufactuer. 

On Saturday, I attend the Otterbein Community Garden open house.  I had never been to the garden, so I enjoyed be able to see another part of Otterbein.  I got the chance to decorate pumpkins and sketch into leaves.  I also got to drink apple cider and try roasted red pepper hummus, which was surprisingly tasty!  WARM was an organization that had informational posters up and I learned about hunger within Ohio, and even right here in Westerville.  Supposedly, 1 in 6 children in Ohio does not have enough food.  That statistic was hard for me to believe.  Westerville is an affluent city;  I can't imagine the hunger in other cities around Ohio.  What about the urban areas in Columbus, Cleveland, Cinncinati, or Toledo?  What about the rural areas of southeast Ohio?  I plan on volunteering for WARM sometime in the near future.

This week's panel is about Women and Politics... This should be interesting!