110: The Self Empowered Woman: Saudi Arabia/Women Drivers

Dear Followers,

This photo is of women in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia hailing a taxicab, which is one of the primary ways that Saudi women get from point A to point B. The other way is to rely on private chauffeurs, which costs about $600 per month. Women in Saudi Arabia are denied the right to vote, cannot leave home without a male guardian, and are not allowed to drive. In fact, Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that bans women from driving motor vehicles.

Two local movements ("Women2Drive" and "Saudi Women for Driving") are trying to change the government's position on female driving. Several weeks ago a 32 year old female computer technician, Manal al-Sharif, posted a video of herself driving on YouTube. As a result, the authorities held her for ten days, and she was forced to sign a form promising to not speak in public and not drive in the future.

Other women in the Middle East have been taking part in anti-government demonstrations, for example in Yemen and Egypt. But in Saudi Arabia those who oppose women driving argue that 1) women should not be thrown into bad driving situations, 2) they should not be legally held responsible for driving accidents, 3) driving would lead to "the public mingling of the sexes," 4) give women "too many freedoms," and 5) put the 800,000 male drivers who now work out of a job.

Back in 1990, 47 women staged a similar pro-driving protest by driving in a convoy of 15 female-driven cars to Riyadh. Clerics called them "amoral," and the Royal family confiscated their passports. The women who worked for the government were fired, and most were ostracized by family and friends.

Saudi women are veiled, segregated, prevented from getting their own identity cards, and must get written permission from a male relative in order to travel abroad. Last week, Amnesty International called on the kingdom to stop treating women as second-class citizens and permit females to drive.

Looking forward to your comments...

109: The Self-Empowered Woman: Barbara Pym

Dear Followers,

http://www.barbara-pym.org/Index.html

I've been asked so often about where I get ideas for The Self-Empowered Woman Blog. Often I read about high-achieving women in newspapers or magazines, and sometimes I'll learn about someone amazing on TV. Today's subject, however, came to me courtesy of my brother-in-law, David Yuratich, who was visiting from California. We were discussing "worthy" books and authors, and he told me about the amazing British writer, Barbara Pym (1913-1980).

Pym's mother, Irena, was the assistant organist at the Parish Church at Saint Oswald in Oswestry, Shropshire, England. Church life, vicars and curates became a part of Barbara's daily life. These Anglican characters surface in many of her books (3. Belief in the Unbelievable).

Pym started her first novel when she was only 16 years old (2. An Early Sense of Direction), and after her graduation from Oxford in 1934, she returned to her hometown determined to become a published author.

During World War II, Pym worked for the censorship office in Bristol and had her heart broken during a painful romance (15. Forget about Prince Charming). During the war years she joined the WRENS (Women's Royal Naval Service), and spent of that time in Naples. After the war she worked for the journal "Africa," and in 1949 her first book was accepted for publication.

For the next 12 years her books were published on a regular basis and readers embraced her stories of "unassuming people leading unremarkable lives." But in 1963, her publisher rejected her work because it was "out of step with the times." Devastated by this unexpected disappointment, she revised the book ("An Unsuitable Attachment") but 20 different publishers refused to publish it.

This grim period of her life was called "the wilderness" and she considered herself trapped in a literary limbo. In 1970, she wrote "I get moments of gloom and pessimism when it seems as if nobody could ever like my kind of writing again." She began a romance with an antique dealer who was 17 years her junior, and the book she wrote about that sort of love affair was also rejected by a variety of publishers (12. Hard Times).

Just as her professional life had begun to sour, her health also began to suffer in the 1970s. She endured breast cancer, a mastectomy, and a stroke. And in 1976, again, her latest novel was soundly rejected. In spite of over a decade of literary dead ends, Pym refused to accept defeat and kept writing (7. Magnificent Obsession).

Everything changed in 1977 when both Philip Larkin and Lord David Cecil wrote in "The Times Literary Supplement" that Barbara Pym was "the most underrated novelist of the century." After 16 years of struggle, she was catapulted to fame and acclaim. Macmillan even reprinted all of her books, and in America E.P. Dutton began publishing all or her novels, as well (8. Turning No into Yes).

She was only able to enjoy her heightened popularity for two years before her cancer returned. She died in Oxford at the age of 66, but Pym's legacy is kept alive by "The Barbara Pym Society," which was founded in 1994.

Looking forward to your comments. . .

108: The Self-Empowered Woman: Christine Lagarde

Dear Followers,

Many of you may have heard about the scandal surrounding the former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn while he was staying at the Sofitel Hotel in Manhattan. As a result of his indictment, the important financial position is now open and may, for the first time ever, be awarded to a woman.

Christine Lagarde is the stylish 55 year old French Finance Minister, and the first woman to ever become finance minister of a large (G8) industrial country (13: More Than Meets the Eye). Lagarde's father, Robert, was a university lecturer who died when she was 17 years old. Christine and her three younger brothers were raised by their mother, Nicole, a teacher (1: No Paternal Safety Net).

As a teenager, she was on the French National Synchronized Swimming Team, and spent time in the U.S. as an intern on Capitol Hill. Even though she was turned down twice by the elite French civil service college (ENA), she still trained as a lawyer. At 25, she used her law degree to join the International law firm Baker & McKenzie. By the time she was 43, she became chairman of the company at its headquarters in Chicago - the first woman to ever hold that post (8: Turning No Into Yes).

Lagarde has outspoken (and sometimes unpopular) opinions about "the testosterone-fueled mood of male-dominated hi-tech trading rooms." In her words, "...men have a tendency to show how hairy-chested they are compared with the man who is sitting next to them. I honestly think that there should never be too much testosterone in one room." She has gone on record as feeling that men, if left to themselves, will usually make a mess of things (5: Life is Not a Popularity Contest).

The 5'10" Finance Minister is divorced (15: Forget About Prince Charming); she has two grown sons, 22 and 24, and cooking for them and spending time together is her "delight" (16: Intensive Motherhood).

This high-profile barrier-breaking woman routinely wears Christian Louboutin high heels and has zebra-print carpeting in her official office. As Maureen Dowd wrote "Perhaps a woman who dominated without being domineering is just what is needed at the IMF."

Looking forward to your comments...