At Global Wizards we are committed to making this day much more than just a day, but a change at all levels.
Ágata Fornasa
I always thought that my ideal job would be helping people that had fewer opportunities in life than me. That shaped my career.
Technology, as many other business areas, today is still subject to patriarchal standards where women are routinely excluded from the central positions. I believe that to fight these structures and compromise with the role of women in tech both women and men need to open themselves to a broader perspective, beyond just remembering Women’s Day.
When this actually changes there will be no more glass ceiling. Women have infinite potential, even if that scares us.
I would like to tell them that the struggle is real for every one of us, and that they should keep going on despite the hardships, always bringing more women into the workplace.
This day we honor women who gave their lives for this, and a way to honor them is respecting ourselves on a daily basis.
Amy M. Baker
I work in the arena of sex and conflict to make these topics/behaviors/motivators easier for others trying to navigate them. It is messy and challenging, and my business goals are predominantly organized around spreading a positive message how these two areas underscore nearly every aspect of a society, focusing especially on its microcosms, the family system and the couple dyad.
Some of the things I am often in awe of are:
– A thriving mediation and therapeutic practice in Beacon Hill, Seattle, and internationally on video conference.
– A growing men’s group, Man O’Clock, where men of all ages can drop in and talk
– Becoming more known by men and women as someone who can contain and assuage their pain as they walk through fire.
– A women’s group, to talk, solve, own & grow.
Fernando is my web & SEO guy, and I am a little embarrassed answering this question to him…
I am not quite a Luddite, but I am an old enough X’er that learning new technology makes me feel like a curmudgeon and makes me very tired. That’s just ME, fortunately. I have the luxury to care about a technology that I know is the stream for the messaging I wish to disseminate and NOT have to learn it, so while off-handedly, I might say I don’t care about technology, I also recognize its inherent power and need as a tool.
When technology does not come to low-income places—like the internet, for instance, as a public utility—it makes those communities SUFFER. I live in a neighborhood in Seattle where houses routinely go for well over a million bucks, but the infrastructure in it is left over from the days (not long ago) when my neighborhood was redlined. Access to and education in technology feels very much important for achieving equality in much broader terms than simply gendered politics, but let’s be real: When women are left out of any equation, there is already inequity and inequality.
I would not agree that technology helps women break the so-called “glass ceiling” because this assumes that women should be part of tech in order to have a seat at the table. There are many, many things women do in our worlds that may have nothing to do with tech, but that doesn’t mean that our interests do not have merit or value. The “glass ceiling” exists mainly for women trying to rise in a male-created paradigm.
Power is about Knowing yourself and Owning who you are with grace and temperance, especially through any kind of adversity or growth edge. This applies to all genders. Equality does not mean everything looks exactly the same. To me it means that we stop, as women, trying to operate on the playing field created by men and create a conversation where our narrative is not about labor for wages or any other thing that points out scarcity and frustration with this playing field created by men. ~amy baker
“THERE IS UNBELIEVABLE POWER IN OWNERSHIP, AND WOMEN SHOULD OWN THEIR SEXUALITY. THERE IS A DOUBLE STANDARD WHEN IT COMES TO SEXUALITY THAT STILL PERSISTS. MEN ARE FREE AND WOMEN ARE NOT. THAT IS CRAZY. THE OLD LESSONS OF SUBMISSIVENESS AND FRAGILITY MADE US VICTIMS. WOMEN ARE SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT. YOU CAN BE A BUSINESSWOMAN, A MOTHER, AN ARTIST, AND A FEMINIST—WHATEVER YOU WANT TO BE—AND STILL BE A SEXUAL BEING. IT’S NOT MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE.”
— Beyoncé (OUT Magazine, 2014)
Lucía Santangelo
In so many ways that it would be hard to pinpoint. However, I like to think that there is a common substance in the ‘personal’ experiences of all women. And this is the need to strive harder than others in order to get to somewhere or to achieve certain objectives.
And I think that this common experience is what recently is bringing so many changes in the workplace. Personally, it keeps challenging me to keep opening new paths for those who will come after me.
Technology always has had the potential to equalize conditions and break barriers in many ways. However, the glass ceiling is much more than a metaphor, it is an onerous symbol of oppression that exists due to ableism and poor education.
Hard sciences and technology have been historically denied to women. This is why it is so important to remember women who were able to open a path for themselves and others, through countless adversities, leaving something more for humanity even if they never got credit for their work.
I think this is part of the education that should be given to girls in order to get more women into STEM paths.
The road is long and not always fair, but you are never alone. Look behind and you will see the women that pioneered this path for you, look into the future and you will see those who will walk in your steps, look around you and there will always be someone ready to help you go on.
Margaretha Smit
I am an immigrant from Holland and went through the immigration process. I know how it feels to be an “alien” and treated differently. Also, I learned to speak five languages and it allows me to communicate with people from all over the world. This sets my business apart from others.
Easily accessible and widely used technology and communication tools enable women to work remotely and avoid rigid office settings. Technology that enables rapid decision making and flexible, smarter working regardless of time or location, will help women who want to reach the top positions in their industry, ensuring they can be productive anywhere, at any time.
“She was powerful not because she wasn’t scared but because she went on so strongly, despite the fear”. Atticus.
Sarit Arbell
I believe in empowering business owners and help them grow their business. I believe that having a Team that supports you and help you grow is a more effective and enjoyable way to grow. That is what I am helping our BNI Members create.
Technology helps people have more access to knowledge, to other people, to opportunities. Technology enables women to be inspire and to inspire other women. When a woman sees another woman who is doing something big, she can internalize the fact that she is capable of doing it as well. Technology is very important in giving people – men and women opportunities and knowledge.
If it’s meant to be it’s up to me.
Celeste Martínez
I think it helps me drive my professional career forward.
A very important one. Technology can make our voices heard!
Evelyn Sondergaard
Yes. It encourages me to keep going on and makes me believe everything is possible.
Technology connects us everywhere, in seconds. I don’t think anyone should have any sort of ceiling in their lives, everyone should do whatever makes them happy.
Believe in your dreams and work hard for it.
