Particular Passions

Particular Passions: Talks with Women who Shaped our Times

Marissa Mayer

A PROUD ALLIANCE: RIVALS HILLARY AND BARACK

Gloria SteinemLynn GilbertComment

"All who think cannot but see there is a sanction like that of religion, which binds us in partnership in the serious work of the world." — Benjamin Franklin.

Obama turned to his fiercest rival in an all out war for the presidency, and made her, Hillary Clinton, the most valued and visible member of his cabinet — Secretary of State. Modeling himself after Lincoln, who cleverly employed his rivals to form his team, Obama gained stature for America and himself through Hillary’s diplomacy, political skill, and relentless hard work and personal support.

One person’s achievement and success, draws upon the collaboration of many. The wise, like Obama and Lincoln draw upon the most qualified.

Hillary’s rise to the top of the political scene and a possible run for the presidency in 2016 is a reflection of the gradual emergence of women “seeping” into the upper echelons of power. Similarly, in the world of big business, Marissa Mayer’s becoming CEO of Yahoo is a giant step forward… for all women.

As Gloria Steinem said in Particular Passions: Talks with Women who Shaped our Times, “It wasn’t until late sixties, early seventies, that real feminist statements began to be made… This last decade (the ‘70’s) is so mind-blowing and exciting and angering, because we have realized we are living in a sexual caste system and it’s unjust…This decade has been about consciousness-raising and building a majority movement …for the basic issues of justice for women."

It is women like Gloria Steinem, collaborating with scores of others, who have finally enabled women to be perceived as equally qualified as men.  Now women are just starting to have the opportunity in shaping the world in which they live, an irony, considering there are more women than men.

Read a brief chapter, Steinem’s oral biography, from Particular Passions: Talks with Women who Shaped our Times, available for $.99. It’s a bargain and great read.

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MARISSA MAYER - A POWERFUL WOMAN

Betty FriedanLynn GilbertComment
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"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." — Winston Churchill.

Marissa Mayer, a remarkable person - male or female - became president and CEO of Yahoo at the youthful age of 37, ranking 14 on the list of 50 American most powerful Business Women of 2012.

Look at what she has accomplished. Google’s first female engineer as employee number 20, when she joined in 1999. She went on to play a key role during her 13 years with the company, rising from engineer, designer, product manager to become an executive, before taking over the helm as CEO of Yahoo. She broke the glass ceiling… and how! And... she just had a baby.

Marissa Mayer is celebrated on the cover of Fortune, not because she's a business woman who also had a baby, but for her business acumen and success.

We should congratulate her, bask in her success, and hope there are other young women who also have the ability and drive to succeed.

We’ve come a long, long way from what was happening to all women in the 60’s and 70’s. Listen to Betty Friedan:

"The shores are strewn with the casualties of the feminine mystique. They did give up their own education to put their husbands through college, and then, maybe against their own wishes, ten or fifteen years later, they were left in the lurch by divorce. The strongest were able to cope more or less well, but it wasn’t that easy for a woman of forty-five or fifty to move ahead in a profession and make a new life for herself and her children or herself alone." - Betty Friedan in Particular Passions, Wikipedia

Be inspired and read the chapter in Particular Passions on Betty Friedan who helped make it possible for all of us, or check out other of the inspirational stories in the book. Run, with your fingers, don't walk to Amazon: http://amzn.to/UH8KaH or Apple: http://bit.ly/S7rMDr   You wont be disappointed. And chapters are only $.99.

An excerpt from one of the many glowing reviews: "Tantalizing glimpses into the lives of women who have not only made a living at their own “particular passion,” but have become well known, even world renowned,  for doing work they love." —Christian Science Monitor.