16. Sawyer and Kristof

Dear Followers,

This Labor Day weekend was a close second - excitement wise - from the one my boys and I shared way back in 1985. That was the Labor Day weekend when we (and 23 suitcases) flew from L.A. to London to begin our lives as expatriots in the U.K. At that time I'd already had two cardboard boxes full of research material about the project that eventually became The Self-Empowered Woman. The boxes travelled with us to London, and thanks to the opportunity I had to interview so many accomplished women (and men) when I was finally ready to write the book, there were interview tapes to add to the boxes that had (once again) crossed the Atlantic. No wonder Labor Day means so much to me!

Last week "bleader" SB Bingo commented about Diane Sawyer's promotion. Just thought the following excerpts from Alessandra Stanley in the NY Times might be of interest: "Women who let their ambition show too openly are usually punished for it. Ms. Sawyer, who is as relentless and driven as any of her peers, makes an art of coy deflection...Ms. Sawyer and Ms. Couric will outnumber their male counterpart two to one in an era when networks are losing their primacy and even their creative advantage over cable, and network news, in particular, is sinking in relevance and prestige....As in other fields, women seem to break through the glass ceiling just as the air-conditioning is being turned off in the penthouse office suites. Women ancors may turn out to be what women doctors once were in the Soviet Union, a majority without status or financial advantage."

"Half the Sky" continues to receive great reviews and kudos for focusing attention on the three problems that Kristof believes reflect the widespread undervaluation of female life: forced prostitution, honor killing and maternal mortality.

The next post will pose another quiz from The Self-Empowered Woman...