Читать книгу Out Front - Deborah Shames - Страница 9

1 INSPIRATIONAL ANDPOWERFUL FEMALE ICONS

There have always been women who had the moxie to stand up and speakout. Today, many women are making unique contributions in politics,entertainment, and business.

As a college student, I embraced an alternative lifestyle. Before my junior year, I changed majors from education to anthropology and transferred from Northern Illinois University to the University of Wisconsin–Madison. It was the 1960s, and the pass/fail grading system at UW allowed me time to protest the Vietnam War and participate in campus politics. Even my decision to study cultural anthropology was about making a contribution to the world rather than making money. Thank goodness my parents gave me a long leash, especially when they very much wanted me to graduate, get a job, and become financially self-sufficient. But I believed that going corporate, owning property, or driving a gas-guzzling car was being co-opted by the establishment and just plain wrong. Ah, college and the naiveté of youth.

This narrow perspective severely limited my career choices. But when you’re twenty-one and on your own for the first time, anything and everything seems possible. And I was fortunate to have powerful female icons who served as role models, both personally and for women worldwide.

In 1972, Gloria Steinem co-founded Ms. Magazine and took a stand on women venturing out on their own. She popularized the phrase, “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle,” which resonated with me.²

I was equally impressed with the chutzpah of authors such as Germaine Greer, who wrote The Female Eunuch and railed against the conservatism of the day. Greer was described as an “impulsive, fatally naive diva of feminism who made the world a better place in spite of herself.”³ Or Erica Jong, author of Fear of Flying, who celebrated women’s newfound sexual freedom. As you’ll read later, I picked up her banner with the genre of films I produced. Now Jong’s book Fear of Dying completes the arc of time.⁴ Aging has a way of giving us perspective on the totality of our lives.

In politics, I was moved by the eloquence of Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, the first black woman to serve in the United States House of Representatives. Two of Jordan’s talks are included in American Rhetoric’s list of the 100 greatest speeches of all time.⁵ At the 1976 Democratic National Convention, Jordan delivered a moving and powerful call to action. Hard to believe it was forty years ago. Following is an excerpt: “And now—now we must look to the future. Let us heed the voice of the people and recognize their common sense. If we do not, we not only blaspheme our political heritage, we ignore the common ties that bind all Americans. Many fear the future. Many are distrustful of their leaders, and believe that their voices are never heard. Many seek only to satisfy their private work—wants; to satisfy their private interests. But this is the great danger America faces—that we will cease to be one nation and become instead a collection of interest groups: city against suburb, region against region, individual against individual; each seeking to satisfy private wants. If that happens, who then will speak for America? Who then will speak for the common good?”⁶

I also admired the outspoken U.S. Representative Bella Abzug, who wore her trademark floppy hat on the House floor to avoid being mistaken for a congressional assistant who might be asked to fetch coffee. In her words: “When I first became a lawyer, only 2 percent of the bar was women. People would always think I was a secretary. In those days, professional women in the business world wore hats. So I started wearing hats.”⁷ Abzug provided many quotable statements, but this one says it all: “We are bringing women into politics to change the nature of politics, to change the vision, to change the institutions. Women are not wedded to the policies of the past. We didn’t craft them. They didn’t let us.”⁸

At the opposite end of the spectrum was the soft-spoken yet effective Patricia Schroeder. In a sea of male congressional representatives, Schroeder was the first female representative elected from Colorado, as well as the first woman to serve on the male-dominated House Armed Services Committee.⁹ I’ll bet she wasn’t popular for publicly stating that “When men talk about defense, they always claim to be protecting women and children, but they never ask the women and children what they think.”¹⁰ Always the strategist, Schroeder realized that a light touch would allow her words to carry more weight. For example, “When people ask me why I am running as a woman, I always answer, what choice do I have?”¹¹

There were also role models in my personal life. For these specific individuals, I will refer to them by their first names because they became my friends. While studying at the University of Wisconsin, I was introduced to Ada Deer, an advocate for indigenous peoples. Among her many accomplishments, Ada served as chairwoman of the Menominee Restoration Committee (the interim tribal government). Later, appointed by President Bill Clinton, she was the first woman to serve as assistant secretary of Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior.¹² In her confirmation hearing, she said she wanted the Bureau of Indian Affairs to be a full partner in fulfilling the Indian agenda developed in Indian country. “The best way we can do this is for the tribes to decide what needs to be done and for the tribes to do it on their own terms, with our enthusiastic support.”¹³ Here again, a female leader advocated for self-determination.

Shortly after graduating college in the early 1970s, I volunteered to work with Ada and the Menominee. I accompanied tribal representatives to Washington, D.C. We lobbied to reverse the federal policy of termination—a law intended to pilfer tribal resources including timber, oil, and fish by ignoring long-standing treaties with the U.S. government. The Menominee and a handful of other, more wealthy tribes were desperate to save what was left of their land and regain tribal status.

As volunteers, we supported the Menominee by taking care of tasks, everything from logistics and travel arrangements to writing press copy and speeches. As a twenty-something, I found it thrilling to be part of this historic movement. Like many young people without a trust fund or other financial backing, I waitressed at night so I could volunteer during the day.

During that time, Ada introduced me to Nancy Lurie, Head Curator of Anthropology at the Milwaukee Public Museum. Author of books on Native Americans, notably Wisconsin Indians, Nancy put me up in her home and guided me through the process of documenting the Menominee struggle to save their land. The result was a book called Freedom with Reservation, published in 1972. As the coordinating editor, I had a range of duties including overseeing the distribution of 10,000 copies to build public awareness and drive momentum for our lobbying efforts.

Our reward was seeing the historic passage of the Menominee Restoration Act, signed into law by President Richard Nixon in 1973. This act officially returned the Menominee Reservation (and those of ten other tribes) to federally recognized status.¹⁴ What was initially considered a hopeless campaign turned into a victory led by the Menominee, supported by the National Congress of American Indians, Native American Rights Fund, and a few of us outsiders.

Being encouraged by Nancy and Ada bolstered my self-confidence and was instrumental in shaping my career path. First as a student and then as a young professional, I was protesting injustices, and that instilled in me the belief that what I had to say mattered. Ada and I remain fast friends. She calls me her sister from another tribe.

These brave women made a difference by speaking out. I didn’t know all of them personally, but I saw them testify in Washington, speak on television, or deliver statements to the press. As a young woman, I responded to the power of their words and the raw emotion that revealed a determination and vulnerability much like my own.

Bella Abzug poked fun at herself when she said, “I’ve been described as a tough and noisy woman, a prize fighter, a man-hater, you name it. They call me Battling Bella, Mother Courage and a Jewish mother with more complaints than Portnoy.”¹⁵ Abzug frequently used humor to get her point across. Paraphrasing President Theodore Roosevelt, she said, “Women have been trained to speak softly and carry a lipstick. Those days are over.”¹⁶

Fifty-some years later, I’m not so sure. I’ve noticed that few women share their unique perspectives. Moreover, women often second-guess themselves and, when challenged, fail to successfully defend their positions or deflect criticism with humor.

Are women who speak out criticized (and discounted) because human nature tends to fear the new and unfamiliar? Or is it because these women challenge our perception of how women are supposed to behave? Judging from history and personal experience, I’d say it’s both. Women’s fear of public speaking involves more than our own inhibitions. We’re overcoming centuries of programming about our rightful place in society and what’s expected of us.

Thankfully, there have always been courageous women who lead the way and do what’s considered unladylike, immoral, and even illegal. The list includes Benazir Bhutto, Indira Gandhi, and Ernestine Rose, an early suffragist who served as the role model for Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

There have always been courageous women who lead the way and do what’s considered unladylike, immoral, and even illegal.

In a time when women were rarely, if ever, engaged in public speaking, Susan B. Anthony traveled the world advocating for women’s rights, and gave seventy-five to a hundred speeches a year. I doubt I could have withstood the withering criticism and ridicule she received, including the accusation that she was destroying the institution of marriage. Thankfully, Anthony persevered and was able to see sweeping change during her lifetime—in 1920, women were given the right to vote in the United States.

But it was Elizabeth Cady Stanton who, according to Anthony’s biography, “provided the ideas, rhetoric and strategy” while Anthony “delivered the speeches, circulated petitions, and rented the halls. Anthony prodded and Stanton produced.”¹⁷ Their partnership activated each other’s skills.

One speaker who has inspired me and many others in this century is Malala Yousafzai. When she was only eleven years old, this young Muslim woman stood up for the education of girls in Pakistan when the Taliban forbade it. Even after she was pulled off her school bus, brutally shot in the face, and spent months in a coma, Yousafzai didn’t stop.

Less than a year after the attack, this teenager spoke at the United Nations, calling for worldwide access to education. In 2014, she shared the Nobel Peace Prize as the youngest-ever Nobel laureate. It’s remarkable to me that someone so young has such maturity and insight. Yousafzai said, “When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.”¹⁸

In repressive societies around the world, women such as Yousafzai know they can be killed or ostracized for expressing their views and yet they do it anyway. I don’t know how they brave extreme danger to be out front. But because they do, their passion inspires us and their words motivate us. They change the course of history.

Their passion inspires us and their words motivate us. They change the course of history.

Yet today, do women prefer working behind the scenes, believe they can be more effective by speaking less, or fear a backlash? In 2011, Victoria L. Brescoll, associate professor of organizational behavior at Yale School of Management, asked business professionals to evaluate the competence of executives who voiced their opinions more or less frequently.¹⁹

She found that male executives who spoke more often than their peers received 10 percent higher ratings of competence. But when women executives spoke more, both men and women punished them with 14 percent lower ratings.²⁰ What the research also reveals is that when it comes to leadership skills, although men are more confident, women are more competent.²¹

Other studies demonstrate how silencing women deprives a company or organization of valuable ideas. Anita Woolley, a professor at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon, partnered with professors from M.I.T. and Union College to test the value of teamwork and find out whether some teams were smarter than others, as measured by how well they performed a variety of tasks. They found that smart teams had three defining characteristics: members who participated more equally in discussions (i.e., no single person dominated), members who scored higher on reading the emotional tenor of their colleagues’ faces, and more women than men assigned to the team.²²

But we’re not there yet. Ethan Burris, a University of Texas researcher, found that when women challenged an old system and suggested a new one, team leaders viewed them as less loyal and were less likely to act on their suggestions.²³

Sheryl Sandberg, author of Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, put Burris’s findings into perspective in an opinion piece co-written with Adam Grant for the New York Times. They wrote, “Even when all the team members were informed that one member possessed unique information that would benefit the group, suggestions from women with inside knowledge were discounted.”²⁴ In addition, they wrote that research shows “women who worry that talking too much will cause them to be disliked are not paranoid; they are often right.”

So while we move past our own insecurities and what holds us back from becoming powerful speakers and communicators, it’s important not to place all the blame on ourselves. We are making progress—just not quickly enough, in my opinion.

There are hopeful glimmers. In the music industry, 2014 was referred to as the year of confident, unapologetic young women. Singers such as Ariana Grande, Meghan Trainor, Taylor Swift, and Iggy Azalea would never be called shy or passive.

Meanwhile, female comediennes including Amy Poehler and Tina Fey have mega-star careers as writers, performers, and show runners—with three Golden Globe Award hosting gigs under their belts.

In early 2016, Samantha Bee premiered her talk show, Full Frontal. After twelve years as the longest-serving regular correspondent on The Daily Show, Bee decided to venture off on her own. Her sharp political humor has found a new home and her position as the only female late-night television host has the potential for great influence. Yet it’s no accident that in her very first episode, she includes a skit where reporters only ask what it’s like being a woman in a world of male talk-show hosts.²⁵ In a February 14, 2016, interview in the New York Times Magazine, Bee was asked: “Which do you think men find more threatening: a funny woman or an angry woman?” Note her response: “I think angry women are so easy to dismiss as crazy or shrill. It’s harder to dismiss a funny woman.”²⁶ Amen, sister.

There is a top-ten list of female TED speakers, which means women are well represented when it comes to conveying innovative ideas, insights, and experiences. Two of my favorites are Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor’s speech “Stroke of Insight,” about surviving a massive stroke,²⁷ and researcher Brené Brown’s presentation, “The Power of Vulnerability.” Brown has a genuine, self-effacing quality that makes her easy to listen to and helps her connect with an audience. Her statement “Maybe stories are data with a soul” beautifully combines art and science.²⁸

According to a 2012 study conducted by the Los Angeles Times, women make up only 18 percent of producers in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.²⁹ Young women take their cues from movies on career choices, fashion, role models, and what’s cool. Did you ever wonder why there are so few multidimensional female characters and heroines in movies? The answer lies in the paucity of women producers, directors, and writers. When women’s voices are limited, the trickle-down effect can affect generations.

When women’s voices are limited, the trickle-down effect can affect generations.

There’s still a shortage of women running large corporations. As of December 31, 2015, there were only twenty-two female CEOs leading Fortune 500 companies, including Mary Barra (General Motors), Marillyn Hewson (Lockheed Martin), Indra Nooyi (PepsiCo), and Ginni Rometty (IBM).³⁰ Looking downstream at those who will follow, Sandberg was optimistic: “As more women enter the upper echelons of organizations, people become more accustomed to women contributing and leading.”³¹

One unexpected arena where women are changing the norm is the world of video games. In January 2016, women outnumbered men in the University of Southern California’s graduate video-game design program—rated number one in the United States. Tracy Fullerton, a game designer and director of the Joint USC Games Program, who oversees this curriculum, said, “Young women need characters to have as role models . . . It’s important. The more that games become a key medium, the more important it becomes for this to happen.”³²

As we continue to claim our rightful place in the world and enlist followers through our impassioned words, I’m hopeful that Sandberg’s prediction becomes reality. In my twenties and thirties, I chose a career in film directing because I believed it was the best way to deliver positive stories to as many people as possible. Now my mission is to inspire young women, just as brave women inspired me.