Here's something interesting.
Take a few minutes to flip through the women on this list.
It's interesting that so many of the world's most powerful 100 women are not American. At the risk of sounding feminist I'd like to point out that it's a little sad and strange that Chile, New Zealand, Jamaica, Bangladesh, Israel (vice pm), Finland, Phillipines, Liberia, Latvia, Greece, South Korea, Jordan, Mozambique...on and on, all have presidents or prime ministers that are women. I didn't intend for the list to be so long, but once I got going, it was a bit startling. Perhaps I'm acting under stereotypes I've created in my own mind, but many of those countries do not immediately strike me as the kind of places that encourage women to succeed and move forward.
Note also that countries like Afghanistan, China, Singapore, Nigeria have women in positions of serious power! Not to mention all the female leaders in the UK and other European countries (France! Hel-LO)!
Two American leading women that caught my attention were the host of the "Today Show," and the executive for Playboy. Yay America. What's our problem? Why do women of Third World Countries and countries that (in our minds) are completely anti-feminist (I think if I tried, I could come up with a better way to describe it, but you know what I mean), end up as the movers and shakers of the world--absolutely no pun intended--while American women are powerful because of their jobs on TV or at Playboy?
(To be fair, there are some impressive American women on the list, too...but that defeats my point.)
Just a thought.
Now, I have mixed feelings on this, because I have to wonder--what have these women sacrificed to succeed in this way? Have they given up satisfying and fulfilling lives as wives and mothers? There are things that I will never sacrifice for any job or career. I could never be happy as the president of any country or corporation--I lack the killer instinct. What is the appeal for these women?
That's my weekly rant...or something. Do scroll through the list. It's really interesting.
In other interesting news, Milwaukee ranks as the nation's drunkest city, followed closely by Minneapolis-St. Paul. Nice.
4 comments:
This is a topic that is hard for me to form my feelings on. I agree that America is in a downhill slide in regards to how people gain importance (i.e. being on Tv makes you "achieved" somehow.) But I also think some of that goes on in other countries as well. Just as there are women in America who truly are achieved and have worked hard to get where they are. They truly deserve the title of "important."
But the thought that struck me the most was--Are these women really fulfilling their role as "women." Which in turn begs the question 'What is the role of women?'-- a subject I am not willing or knowledgable enough to delve into right now.
You sound surprised that midwesterners are oh-so-drunk. Come on, Erin, you lived in Eau Claire -- the city with the highest ratio of bars to people in the whole country. :)
Haha--I know. In all honesty, I'm not all that surprised. I DO find it amusing, though. There's nothing to DO around here in the winter! (At least that was a good excuse through college, right Sig?? Oh, how I miss the Joynt!)
Preach it sister! I beleive it's something about having to prove yourself twice as good as a man in a 3rd world country that brings out the best in women who can prove themselves 10 times as good.
No that I'd want to live there, but when you think about what they have to overcome vs. what we have to overcome- wow.
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