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Five Ordinary Women Who Changed History |
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Wednesday, 02 June 2010 |
Susan notes: thanks to Louise Baker for this interesting guest blog. When she's not admiring women who changed history, Baker
writes about online degrees for Zen College
Life . She most recently ranked the best
college programs online.
The history books are replete with stories of women who changed history. Many of those women, from Cleopatra to Queen Victoria, were born into royalty or power, but there are many examples of women who started out as everyday citizens but went on to change the world.
Wangari Maathai
 Maathai, born in Kenya in 1940, is the first black African woman to win a Nobel Prize.
She left Kenya to attend college in the United States, but returned in order to pursue doctoral studies at the University of Nairobi. In 1977, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, an organization that has since spread beyond Kenya, whose goal was the improvement of the environment by enlisting village women to plant trees in order to counter desertification and to provide a renewable fuel source.
She extended her work to AIDS prevention and women’s rights, and won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2004 in recognition of her contributions to human rights and democracy.
Related Links:
More About
Wangari Maathai on Wikipedia
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The Butterfly’s Beauty Is The Result Of Struggle |
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Friday, 28 May 2010 |
 One day, as a young woman sat in her garden, she noticed a cocoon hanging from a nearby branch.
Before long, a small opening appeared in the cocoon. The woman watched for several hours as the butterfly within struggled to free itself from the envelope in which it had recently been transformed.
Then, it seemed to stop making any progress.It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could not go any further.
So the woman decided to help the butterfly: she took a pair of scissors and cut open the cocoon, from which the butterfly then emerged easily.
But, to the woman's surprise, the butterfly didn't fly away. Instead it crawled out onto the branch and sat there. As the woman looked more closely, she noticed the butterfly's body was withered, its wings were tiny and shriveled.
The woman continued to watch because she expected that, at any moment, the wings would open, enlarge and expand sufficiently to support the butterfly’s body.
Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a withered body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly...
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#1 Way To Do Positive Affirmations |
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Tuesday, 25 May 2010 |
Susan: we ALL need to do this every single day!
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16-Year-Old Jessica Sails Around The World |
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Monday, 17 May 2010 |
 Australians have gathered around Sydney harbour to welcome back teenager Jessica Watson from her record round-the-world sailing adventure.
The 16-year-old is said to be the youngest person to sail non-stop, solo and unassisted around the world.
But her record has been questioned with claims that she has not sailed far enough.
She will also not be recognised by the World Speed Sailing Record Council, as it has ended its under-18 category.
Wearing pink
Ms Watson sailed into Sydney harbour on Saturday, seven months after leaving on an arduous voyage some critics said was too dangerous for someone so young.
Thousands of well-wishers lined the harbour and watched from boats as Ms Watson sailed her pink, 10m (34ft) yacht Ella's Pink Lady over the finishing line.
Family, friends and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd have gathered to greet her. Many of the onlookers wore pink to match the boat.
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Body Building Granny Bench Presses With The Best |
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Monday, 17 May 2010 |
 Taut abs and rippling muscles aren't exactly the stuff grandmothers are known for. But then again neither are marathons and cell phones that play the theme to "Rocky."
At 73, Ernestine Shepherd is in better shape than most people decades her junior. Up at 3 a.m. every morning, she spends her days running, lifting weights and working out other senior citizens at the Union Memorial United Methodist Church in Baltimore. She also works as a certified personal trainer at her gym.
"I feel better than I did at 40," she said. "I am very, very happy."
In less than 20 years, Shepherd has morphed from a "prissy" woman who never exercised to the Guinness Book of World Records' oldest female bodybuilder.
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Monday, 10 May 2010 |
Susan notes: I stumbled upon this video the other day on guess where? Stumbleupon! I love it. Especially the parts about finding who you are and turning up the volume, and breaking the rules (I’m not one much for rules, as you may have guessed if you’ve spent any time on this website). Thanks to www.boxofcrayons.biz for the video and their cool site. I hope you love them both as much as I do.
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Malalai Joya Named To Time’s 2010 Most Influential List |
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Tuesday, 04 May 2010 |
 By Ayaan
Hirsi Ali
To be a woman growing up in Afghanistan under the Taliban and to survive is in itself a major feat. To be so lucky as to become literate in a place where girls are shrouded and denied even fresh air is close to a miracle. To start underground schools and educate girls under the noses of turbaned, self-appointed defenders of virtue and forbidders of vice is truly extraordinary.
But to get a seat in parliament and refuse to be silent in the face of the Taliban and warlord zealots shows true fiber. When Malalai Joya did this, her opponents responded in the usual way: expulsion from parliament, warnings, intimidation and attempts to cut her life short. She has survived all of it.
Malalai, 31, is a leader. I hope in time she comes to see the U.S. and NATO forces in her country as her allies. She must use her notoriety, her demonstrated wit and her resilience to get the troops on her side instead of out of her country. The road to freedom is long and arduous and needs every hand.
Related links:
More on Malalai Joya On AWR
Time’s 2010 Most Influential List
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Queen Rania Shares Her Views On The View |
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Monday, 03 May 2010 |
Susan notes: my favourite Queen: I love everything about her, but in particular I strongly support her initiatives with respect to the education of girls.
Related Links:
More About Queen Rania On AWR
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I Feel The Earth Move Under My Feet |
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Monday, 26 April 2010 |
 Susan notes April 27: over 210,000 people around the world "attended" #boobquake yesterday. As I write this, it's still ongoing in some places, and no doubt will cause tremors worldwide for some time to come.
AWR thanks all #boobquakers for making the event such a huge global success (:P), and equally celebrates #brainquake, which makes even more sense.
Sexy, intelligent women everywhere shake the world!
Susan notes April 26: Jen McCreight's response to the article below was to organise "Boobquake" to see if dressing immodestly would cause the earth to shake.
Some have taken offence to the bawdy nature of the protest, but this feminist says lighten up and have some fun with it! Breasts are beautiful and I've got no problem showing a bit of cleavage for a good cause:) And, oh yeah, small is beautiful :P
 Susan notes: this great Carole King tune and live performance are
dedicated to the looney toons cleric in Iran who says immodest female
behaviour causes earthquakes.
Read the unbelievable story from The Guardian below.... if it wasn't
so tragic, it would be funny.... However, I think it should be said, in all fairness, that this is likely NOT a view shared by the vaste majority of Iranian clerics..
"Many women who do not dress modestly ... lead young men astray, corrupt
their chastity and spread adultery in society, which increases
earthquakes," Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi was quoted as saying by Iranian
media.
From the Guardian article:
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Woo Hoo! Top 50 Women-Led Companies In US |
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Friday, 23 April 2010 |
 A supply-chain management company from Edison, N.J., has been ranked the No. 1 fastest-growing women-led company in the U.S., according to an annual ranking by trade group Women Presidents' Organization.
Argent Associates Inc., which specializes in the telecommunications industry, posted $115 million in annual revenues in 2009, a jump from $9.2 million in 2007. Founder Beatriz Manetta attributes the growth spurt, noteworthy in an otherwise stagnant economy, to an increase in clients' imports from China and India that are assembled in her warehouses.
WPO, a trade group for multimillion-dollar women-owned businesses, determined its third annual Top 50 Fastest-Growing Women-Led Companies list using a formula that combines percentage revenue growth and absolute growth. To be eligible for the list, companies must be privately owned, women-owned or led, and have generated at least $2 million by year-end 2009, among other criteria. About 400 companies applied for inclusion on the list.
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