Harvard grad expounds on role of women in 21st Century
Women make up a largely untapped element of human capital in today’s modern world, according to a prominent writer and academic who spoke to an audience Tuesday in the TSC Auditorium.
“It was excellent, inspiring and familiar,” said Ronda Callister, of USU’s department of management and human resources. “It was just as I expected it to be. (She does things) with nonprofit organizations, which is the theme of her calling or movement.”
Margaret Wheatley, known for her promotion of female leadership in small communities, said people must work together harmoniously in order to advance the potentials of females around the world.
Wheatley earned her doctoral degree in administration, planning and social policy from Harvard University. She delivered a lecture about the role of women in the 21st Century. Her talk kicked off the 2011-2012 TSC Lecture Series.
Of those who attended, some expressed appreciation for the inspiring and thought-provoking subject matter that was presented. The fact that Wheatley’s lecture encompassed society as a whole but at the same time had an “underlying tone stating the role of women in society made it informational and surprising,” said Tyrani Bevell, a junior majoring in math and statistics education.
Wheatley began by quoting Kofi Annan, director general of the United Nations, who said “The future of the world depends on women.” She said this can be interpreted in two ways: First, that the future depends on more and more women assuming leadership positions throughout the world, she said. And the second, she asked, What is the plight of women and children in the world today?
“If we don’t start getting serious about what is happening to women and children, then we’re just defining ourselves as the stupidest species ever,” Wheatley said. She then asked, rhetorically, “What happens to a species that doesn’t take care of its children? Well, we know what happens, right?”
During the ‘60s in South Korea, Wheatley said she served in the Peace Corp. She is a member of several global-scale organizations that have “a common human desire to live together more harmoniously and more humanely,” she added.
The growth of women in leadership positions and is changing the world, one small step at a time, one small community at a time, Wheatley said. Good things happen to communities when women have leadership power, she added. She said she believes that when it comes to change, power lies in the community.
She then listed some of the things that are facilitated when women achieve positive economic means, which included improved community health, increased literacy, infrastructure is cared for, local economy prospers and children thrive in these kinds of environments.
Women help to cultivate an environment of love and nurture, Wheatley said. She continued by quoting statements from a quantum physicist: “Life’s basic building blocks are relationships.”
No matter how far back one goes in science, she said, life can only be understood if the relationships are understood. The point was brought up that you don’t hate someone who’s story you know, Wheatley said, and the world needs more leaders who pay more attention to the people.
“A leader,” she said, “is anyone willing to help. Leaders are made — not born.”
She asked the audience how it thought change can happen in the world, and said the answer is through networks of interdependent relationships.
“Younger people don’t know the power of being together,” Wheatley said. “We live in an era of judgements, where one can instantly judge whatever they read and whatever they see.”
Wheatley has also traveled to Western Africa and done research in Senegal. She said she once asked a group of Senegalese women why they didn’t have a problem with suicide in their small community.
“They looked at me like I was dumb,” she said. “‘Well, we have each other,’ was their simple reply.”
Wheatley said her experiences with the Peace Corp taught her several things.
“(I gained) a sense of how to be in the world and not feel out of place,” she said. She then said she had advice for women at USU: “Notice what you care about. Step forward. Take action. Be the change that you want to see.”
“I’m a really big feminist for all women’s rights,” Bevell said, before the lecture. “It will be neat to see how much it’s changed and see how far we’ll have to go.”
– amber.murdoch@aggiemail.usu.edu
– dan.whiteney.smith@aggiemail.usu.edu