Hows & How-Tos

For me personally, Madeline Kunin's Pearls, Politics and Power resonated with me far more than Marie Wilson's Closing the Leadership Gap did. While trying to pinpoint what it was about Kunin's book that particularly inspired me I took the time to carefully read through everyone else's posts on the blog. I found everyone's insights to be incredibly stimulating and loved hearing the parts that stuck out to everyone else and seeing how they compared with what stuck out to me. Like Emily mentioned, I too found Kunin's call for changes in education, laws and culture to be particularly inspiring. I think Kunin was very successful at detailing some specific thought processes and actions that can be undertaken in order to effect change. However, as Emma pointed out, her focus on running for office as the main avenue for enacting this change did seem to exclude what could be some other possible routes. I think the notion of professional development in itself is very important for cultivating strong women leaders and is an example of a tangible action that could make a big difference.

I think the biggest challenge for me in reading books about this topic and in thinking about how we can get more women in leadership and discussing the issues and barriers is that I am a fairly action oriented person. I like to think about the nuts and bolts of what can be done to improve the situation. I hate leaving questions like "how?" and "why?" unanswered. While Kunin did a good job of directing the conversation towards answering "how" it was far from a 'how-to manual' on the topic. (I should note that I recognize that these issues require individualized approaches and that a solution to one aspect of a problem may not be applicable to the solution to another aspect).

One quote from Kunin that I really loved was her description of the challenges of getting young women involved: "That is the challenge," she says "to convince oyung people not only that the tools of social change are available but also that they must be used by more women if we are to change the policies that frustrate them" - Kunin p.200. The word "tools of social change" got me thinking about social media in general. I think harnessing the power of social media could be an excellent way to truly engage a younger generation. This could be a solid "how-to" to compliment Kunin's "how"s. For example take the issue that Sharon brought up in her post: "Does the fact that women earn significantly less money on the whole when compared to men have any bearing on the dearth of female politicians?" Kunin mentions at times the problem that many people have noted that younger generations don't necessarily understand the significance of issues that other generations fought for. I guess for me personally the issue of equal pay is not something that I have encountered in my life and I know many women my age who feel the same way. For many of us who have graduated from college in the past few years getting any paycheck has been our primary focus. However, I recognize the importance of the issue of equal pay -- I feel like through open and frank conversation facilitated through things like social media the challenges of different generations can be addressed and examined. If only every young woman who had political inclinations could have the opportunity to blog and discuss political issues with other individuals willing and eager to achieve the same goals -- maybe that would help change the face of government today.