Today, March 8th, is International Women's Day, a day to celebrate women and how far we have come toward equality and autonomy. It's also a day to contemplate how much still needs to be done to further equal rights for women, both in the United States and around the world. Even President Obama is quoted in The New York Times as saying that there are "opportunities that are still beyond reach for too many young women and too many of our brothers and sisters - too many of our sisters and mothers and aunts..."

Each year, there is a theme. Themes are not global, however. Each nation that participates in the movement can choose their own individual theme. The theme adopted by the UN and its members this year is "Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities: Progress for All". In light of this day and its theme, I thought it would be fitting to publish excerpts of an interview I did a while back with Carol Evans, president of Working Mother Media. Ms. Evans has been a working mother of young children herself. She has seen the social trends and the obstacles that have affected women over the 30 years she has been associated with Working Mother, a publication that, according to Evans, "is all about serving women, minorities  people in general in either finding support for their lifestyle within the companies they work for or finding ways to give themselves the best ideas and solutions for their own personal lives."

Entrepreneurial Women Still Struggle

Evans believes that women, as entrepreneurs, have come a long way. She believes that women have become more savvy, now knowing how to find capital to start their businesses and hire the employees needed to make those businesses thrive. She sees that there are more women entrepreneurs today and that the businesses they are starting are larger and more encompassing than they once were. But Evans still feels there's a long way to go. She says, "It’s still hard for women to get as much capital as male entrepreneurs. It’s hard to scale up because they have so many other financial commitments with their families, and women’s businesses tend to stay smaller than men’s due to less comfort going out to ask for the money." Even Evans had a tough time herself in obtaining capital when she bought Working Mother Media in 2001. "The big difficulty for me was getting capital, getting the more male oriented financial system to believe in me as a woman."

Working Mother: A Supporter of Women

Evans loves the magazine business and is particularly proud to be associated with Working Mother, a publication that has strived since its inception to bring the issues facing women in the workforce to the forefront. An example of how the magazine, that just celebrated its 30th anniversary, has changed America is its yearly 100 Best Companies campaign. The prestigious list has been around since 1986. Evans says that it, "helps companies to not only understand what working mothers need, but it helps to push companies to excel in their support and understanding of working mothers,  and that all goes to the support of our Working Mother readers. It’s a nice circle - it’s like a circle of change!

Views on the "Mommy Wars"

Carol Evans has a lot to say on the subject of the long-standing war between stay-at-home moms and working moms. According to her, "I think the mommy wars are somewhat exaggerated by the media. A lot of moms are working in a corporation one year, another year they’re working from home. Another year, they’re gonna go get back on the corporate ladder. I think what’s important is that they have choice in their career and that their careers are multi-faceted. So I think that what a lot of what happens is that the mommy wars are a product of our own self-doubt." That self-doubt comes about when women become insecure about what the other has or what she knows. Evans points out that working mothers often feel bad about not knowing what's going on in the neighborhood, while stay-at-home moms may find themselves feeling inadequate because they aren't up on career issues. But in the end, "We shouldn’t be battling each other; it just doesn’t get us anywhere.", says Evans. In my opinion, truer words have never been said.

Isn't this video a hoot?  It was sent to me by a PR person who asked me to post it here on my blog.  At first I wasn't sure whether I wanted to endorse Momtourage, but after exploring the site, I am enthusiastically in favor of singing its praises.  Besides the fact that the video is just hilarious, the content on this site for moms is beyond compare!

Momtourage is powered by iVillage, an authority in connecting women, so I knew the site was worth looking into.  What I found was fantastic content, everything from great advice to fun stuff for moms to take a little break from realilty for a bit.  I loved it.  There are blogs from some well known folks, like HybridMom, and great articles on topics important to women.

Head on over to Momtourage and look around for yourself.  Also, I'd love to hear about YOUR Momtourage!

There is an article in the August issue of O, The Oprah Magazine that I have been contemplating for a few weeks now.  I've been meaning to write about it a while, but other topics have come up.  However, it's still been lurking in the back of my mind, so I've decided that it's something I'm meant to explore.

"YOU Are an Excellent Woman!" proclaimed the headline on the cover.  Well, who could resist picking up the magazine and flipping through it, right?  I've been interested in women and identity formation since taking an Introduction to Women's Studies course my freshmen year of college.  What an eye opener it was to learn about concepts I had always intuitively known and to have them validated by other like-minded women!

Back to the magazine article, titled "Women and the Negativity Factor."  The writer, Aimee Lee Ball, discusses her own personal experience with feeling not "good enough", and she reminds us of a line in the movie Pretty Woman in which Julia Roberts responds to a compliment from Richard Gere, "The bad stuff is easier to believe."

Why?  Even the strongest, most intelligent, spectacular women I know are prone to silly, stupid insecurities.  We tend to let fear hold us back or we add qualifiers to our sentences such as "It wasn't too hard" or "Anyone could've done it".  Why don't women give themselves full credit when receiving compliments?  Why do we worry that our flaws will be exposed?

According to a neuropsychiatrist quoted in the article, "It turns out there's an area of your brain that's assigned the task of negative thinking."  There's also a phenomenon called "the drive for self-verification" involved, in which we desire others to "reflect the beliefs we hold about ourselves".  It's this drive that causes the bad experiences to override the good and makes it easier to believe the negative.

The good news from the article is that scientific findings state the brain is forever changing and that it is likely to adapt to modifications in our negative thinking.  The more we work to turn our thinking around, the easier it will be for our brains to process our experiences in a positive way.  The experts quoted say that a change in thinking won't occur overnight; it will take time to outweigh a lifetime of ingrained experiences.  They liken this change in thought process to that of the change in your body after engaging in a regular workout regimen - just as your body will become toned and lean, your thoughts can become more positive and forgiving.  It's nice to see a scientific angle to the psychological approach I've taken both personally as well as with former clients and students.  I firmly believe that thoughts drive actions and behavior.   The trick is to practice the positive thinking to bring about the feelings we desire.