International Women's Day

Happy Women's Day to every women out there! (as if may nagbabasa ng blog ko...but if there is someone this greeting goes to you..if you are a woman :) )
We celebrated the International Women's Day here at the office with a breakfast and a small program with keynote speech from Ms. Linda Wirth, ILO Regional Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Well, I really went there beacuse of the free breakfast hehehehe. What a lame reason noh! But I was really inspired by the speech of Ms. Wirth. She was the author of a book with the same title. But this publication is just an update of that book. Her speech was titled 'Glass ceiling...Glass wall..Glass cliff'.
She defined the glass ceiling as a scenario where women who are senior executives, who can see what's going on at the top but can't really go to the top management...as if there is a glass ceiling preventing them from being in the top management. Cool huh! Glass wall is where there are women executives but only for some departments. She mentioned Personnel Department as an example. Most managers of Personnel Departments in different organizations are headed by women. A glass cliff is where a woman is given the position to head a company that is doomed to fail. Di ba kawawa naman tayong mga babae? We're not given the same opportunities as men. The speaker said kanina na it happens in organizations all over the world even in UN. She talked about why women are not chosen as leader of UN. They say because there are no qualified women to hold the job, while women say they are not given the opportunity to get the experience to be qualified for the job. So she said that it should really start real early in the career. That women should be given jobs that can prepare them, us, for top management work.
I remembered her mentioning that men leaders are linear, while women are emotional. We tend to focus on details while men see the big picture. She said that a good leader should possess both qualities. Leaders should base their decisions on facts but should also be intuitive. Kumbaga a combination of both the best qualities of men and women.
I was just inspired kanina. Women does not necessarily need to step back for men just because we need to take care of our family. Women are actually amazing especially those with careers and have family. But that doesn't mean women who only have their careers are anything less than special. Naisip ko lang, if there are women who wants to succeed in their respective careers and doesn't want to have a family then let them be. That's their choice, that's what they want. Kanya-kanyang choice lang yan sa buhay, kanya-kanyang priorities.
Makes me think tuloy what I really want to pursue for my career....hhmmmm.... Dati kasi after I graduated I applied in different jobs. When I was accepted in an life insurance company I decided I wanted to be an actuary. Kaso I got tired of all the f*cking exams! hahaha palibhasa kasi di ko maipasa ang course 3. Hay naku! Kaya ayan change career ako. Kaso ngayon parang hindi ko na alam kung san ako patutungo. Sana dumating na yung hinihintay ko para makapag-decide na ko. Dun nakasalalay ang lahat. =D