Women in Power Meeting

Another successful meeting at the Ecuadorian Ambassador's Residence. I was (partly) responsible for organizing it and getting one of the panel members (executive director of a foundation here in Quito) to come. One of the panelists was the former Vice-President of Ecuador, Rosalia Arteaga (who, by the way, should have also been the President when Abdala was kicked out), another was the U.S. Ambassador to Ecuador, and the other was the dean of students of a bilingual high school here. All the panelists were women and spoke about women in leadership roles.

A common thread that went among all four panelists was the fact that, as women, we need to believe in ourselves, remain truthful to our values/beliefs and families, accept people as they are and understand their strengths/weaknesses to better use them to our advantage, and focus on our work as professionals and role models rather than get caught up in the battle of the sexes. It was a very enlightening and enriching talk, and I was able to converse with some great people. The moderator did a wonderful job and everything came together so smoothly that you never would have imagined some of us were pulling our hair out to pull it off!

You don't know how hard it is to put together a meeting of this magnitude (and we only had 30 guests!) until you are part of the planning committee, so it is no wonder that some people sort of "take it for granted" and make trouble where there should be none. We almost found ourselves in a riot as some ladies got real upset that we are no longer going to email out the newsletter, but rather let them go to the web site and check it out (they seemed to think we were excluding them and playing favorites or taking away some inherent right they have to get the newsletter directly to their inbox). It is just a little embarrassing when older ladies, who are supposedly in it for their contribution to Ecuadorian society and charities, get into a shouting match at the Ambassador's personal residence over a newsletter...

Well, from what I've heard this has not been the first time and I doubt it will be the last...