A Call to Leadership - Transforming Your STEM Career Through Leadership and Innovation - page 8

venture, Linda's proposal was rejected by as many as six banks. Despite the
consistent rejection and challenges, she persisted. Her parents supported her by
mortgaging their house, in order to provide her with the initial capital. Today,
Linda's construction contracting firm, Alvarado Construction in Denver, Colo-
rado, is a fast-growing multimillion-dollar company.
Not only is Linda a successful entrepreneur, but also a corporate director of
three Fortune 150 companies, a recipient of numerous awards for her business
achievements, and the first Hispanic owner of a major league baseball fran-
chise. The examples of success in male dominated industries should be a source
of encouragement, inspiration and hope for women presently in these positions.
We have done it - succeeded in these fields. We can do it and you can do it.
Women in Politics
We need women not just in business, but also in politics; and not just any
women - we need women with backgrounds in STEM professions, women who
are educated to solve problems, answer difficult questions, and seek new ways
to address issues. A woman with this kind of education and experience has a lot
to offer in a political environment. However, there is an old adage coloring the
perspective of women as political leaders in some environments. This old adage
is that female political leaders will bring an end to war since no woman would
allow her son to go to war. While this phrase may seem heartwarming, this per-
spective can negatively impact opportunities for female leaders in governance,
despite the fact that female leaders all over the world have disproven this predic-
tion time and again. This puerile image, which ignores the many “iron women”
in the history of women leaders, is still prevalent today.
However, times do seem to be changing. There was a time when Golda Meir,
the prime minister of Israel and the world's first elected female head of govern-
ment, was considered an oddity. Then came India's Indira Gandhi, who was
considered an accident of history. Perhaps it was the long and successful tenure
of England's first female prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, which changed the
world's perceptions of what a woman could achieve. This Iron Lady, who was
paid the dubious compliment of being called the only man in her cabinet, was
one of the country's most successful leaders. Today, there are more women in
positions of political leadership than ever before. Currently, Chile, the Philip-
pines, Liberia, and Sri Lanka have female presidents. Germany, New Zealand,
and Bangladesh have women as heads of government. Although few in number,
these are welcomed developments.
One of the reasons for this growing acceptance of women in positions of
political leadership is that women are perceived by voters to be, by and large,
less prone to corruption and more open and willing to listen compared to male
leaders. A Voice of America report on Women Leaders in February 2006 [14]
talks about the changing perceptions among voters and in the world of poli-
tics. In this report, Colombian women's rights activist Luz Piedad Calceido