She’s like a bride and a bridesmaid. Rosie Napravnik was the featured woman of the day yet she didn’t go home with the prize. When the 23-year-old jockey finished ninth in the 2011 Kentucky Derby in May she became the highest-finishing female rider in the premier thoroughbred horse race. The Run for the Roses as [...]
Posts Tagged as ‘empowerment’
May 29, 2011
Grete Waitz: A True Road Warrior
Memorial Day weekend is the official start of the summer vacation season in America. This weekend, when millions of Americans take to the road, seemed like a particularly appropriate time to recognize Grete Waitz. The Norwegian-born woman who died of cancer on April 11 at the age of 57 of cancer knew a lot about [...]
May 11, 2011
It Took 35 Years for This Woman to Rediscover Her Voice
Who hasn’t had a moment when they felt like yelling? What if you couldn’t? What if you weren’t able to say anything? Those among us who are able-bodied often take our abilities for granted. Jan Christian hasn’t taken the power of her voice for granted for a long time. She recently found hers after a [...]
April 27, 2011
Becca Stevens Changes Lives:Beauty Products with a Social Purpose
Becca Stevens looks the part of a beauty product entrepreneur. Stevens created a natural bath and body products business advertised as good for the Earth as well as the body. Becca, an Episcopal priest, established the business to benefit the women who make the Thistle Farms products. The women who work at Thistle Farms are [...]
April 12, 2011
Not Tickled Pink: It’s Barbie’s World and We Have to Play in It!
Barbie’s a middle-aged gal. She’s been a model citizen since 1959. Barbie may not be a spring chicken but she’s no lame duck. She’s got her own Web site. It features an “anthem” for her. Mattel’s motto for Ms. Fashionista? “It’s Barbie’s World We Just Play in It.” Her fictional biography describes Barbra Millicent Roberts [...]
March 10, 2011
Daddy’s Little Girl Is Finally Free to Tell Her Story
Stacey Lennert thought she was daddy’s little princess. Her fantasy turned into a nightmare when at the age of nine, daddy raped her. Stacey didn’t tell her mother. When her parents eventually got a divorce, Stacey stayed with her dad. Somehow the girl who was now 12-years-old had learned to dissociate the abusive man from [...]
February 18, 2011
Brave Women Speak Out Against Violence
Shocking! CBS correspondent Lara Logan was beaten and sexually assaulted while covering the recent uprisings in Cairo. The violent acts against her have been attributed to a male-dominated society; to men unleashing their passions after living thirty years under a repressive government. Statistics, however, suggest otherwise. Aggression against women in Egypt is not an isolated [...]
January 9, 2011
World Class Percussionist’s Deafness Challenges Stereotypes
Evelyn Glennie is a Grammy award-winning percussionist. She’s performed with international symphonies, and a wide range of musicians from premier banjo artist Bela Fleck, Icelandic singer Bjork, and the Japanese Kodo Drummers. Evelyn has platinum credentials as a musician and she’s a humanitarian too supporting such causes as Able Child Africa and the interPLAY company, [...]
January 3, 2011
Today’s Challenge: Are You an Angry or a Quiet Woman?
Q. Are you a “quiet” or an “angry” woman? Ana Lewis, founder of WomenontheVerge.net, is troubled by these descriptors. Ana feels both give women a “bad rap.” Ohio State University professor Nan Johnson wrote in the journal Philosophy and Rhetoric that in the late 19th century the ideal woman was a “quiet” woman. Dr. Johnson [...]
October 25, 2010
Girl, 20, Takes Law into Her Own Hands!
In a lawless area of Mexico where police officers frequently quit because of low pay and high risks, where police chiefs and mayors are regularly murdered, and where drug cartels seem to be in control, one town’s solution to these problems is more remarkable than any movie I’ve ever watched. The town of Praxedis G. [...]
