Becoming A Leading Woman

This semester, we learned specific ways to build our leadership capabilities by reading “How Remarkable Women Lead” by Joanna Barsh and Susie Cranston, researching Boston women leaders, interviewing a present day woman leader, and reading a group book. Throughout all of these resources and research, common themes of how to be a successful leader emerged. Not only did I learn more about leadership in general, but I also found ways to improve my own leadership without going too much out of my comfort zone. The important lessons of leading with perseverance, framing, and an activist's mindset thoroughly influenced my identity as a leader and gave me new tactics to grow as a person.

Overcoming my timidness may not seem like such an important deed, but when I look back, I recognize how much it held me back. The fear of speaking up crippled me and caused me to be unable to speak my mind. The black hole that consumed my life was my own insecurity. I started my first year of high school perfectly content living without a voice, as long as I was not the center of attention, I was at peace. During my junior year, I decided that it was finally time to face my challenge head on. I did the one thing that scared me most, I ran for treasurer for both the senior class and National Honors Society. At the time I made the decision, I knew that an important part of being an officer was speaking in front of my peers and teachers. I made

Since I was young, there was a communication barrier that existed between me and the outside world. My shyness led me to many downfalls on my academic side. Not understanding a topic would mean that I would never be able to clarify any questions that were on my mind. Until around 6th grade, I always considered myself introverted; I had the inability to blend in with strangers, peers and teachers.

You had great difficulty expressing yourself properly, leading to your current predicament: social isolation. You often made a conscious effort to avoid conversation in case your voice refused to respond or you stumble upon your words or if you sounded utterly stupid, but you put the same amount of effort to make sure you could hide your loneliness with plastered smiles and the "I’m fine" lie you repeat endlessly.

Me being an introvert as well, I can relate, where the absence of confidence has stuck. It seems to be really hard for me to openly share my opinions and my assessments to most topics. "Simon turned away from them and went the just perceptible path led him... Holding his breath he cocked a critical ear at the sounds of the island." (Golding 57) When wanting to be alone, Simon heads to a secret place to take in the silence. When I get frustrated or need calming down, I too find a quiet safe place for me where I feel comfortable to let out all the negative energy. While being in this mind set, there is a great deal of thinking and feeling happening.

There’s another reason why I felt uncomfortable in expressing my thoughts. In Nepal, people usually don’t share their opinion very often and they try to avoid arguments because they emphasize harmony and cooperativeness in the group. On the other hand, Americans tend to emphasize individuality. So here in America, a person who speaks less is thought to be a person with no opinion. I had been asked my opinion many times in class, but I didn't really know how to express my opinions and feelings. This depressed me very much and it’s one of the hardest obstacles to

I rarely spoke at a volume that startled people or echoed across the room without my legs shaking. However, the moment came in my middle school 8th grade art class where my inner voice finally spoke out loud at a volume that made people listen to me. It was the day my friend and I were targeted for speaking Spanish in the classroom. A student had commented that we were “wetbacks” and that we should speak English while the class laughed in the background. What surprised me more was my art teacher’s passivity and direction for us to stop speaking Spanish. While I heard these comments before, I could not let it go when the teacher, a figure who I respected as part of the academic institution, had made it okay for others to treat my friend and I in such a manner. I declared to the class that I will not stop speaking Spanish and I turned around to ask the teacher a simple “Why?” I wanted to why she said to stop and why she did not direct her comments at the other students instead. I stepped outside of the classroom and the teacher apologized. While this experience led me to advocate for myself, I still was not at the level where I could advocate for others. It was not until I entered college that I met an English professor that become my mentor and helped me find and refine my

My parents never told me specifically what I can or cannot do, but it seems like their comments regarding this topic are somewhat unconscious or automatic. Sometimes there would be a woman authoritative figure speaking in front of a crowed for a political broadcast. They would comment about how she lacks charisma, and is too soft spoken for a political career. “This is why men should do this instead,” they would say. Again, I challenge this from time to time. I feel like I have constructed some part of my identity from trying to challenge these notions, even if it was just within the realm of my

My Capstone will be about women in Leadership positions in America. Next, we will look at the obstacles that these ladies had to go through. Today a large amount of women work in leadership position will compare the salary for men in the same position.

I try not to act out for the fear that I might embarrass myself because I don’t handle it well. This been successful in the aspect of not embarrassing myself, but not so much in talking to others because it has given me more of an edge about it. Being lazy and uncaring has definitely not helped me because it sometimes prevents me from telling being things that are somewhat important. These things sometimes include school things such as grades, and I sometimes don’t tell my parents because I think I will get in trouble, but they find out anyway and I end up getting in more trouble because I didn’t tell

Condoleezza Rice, Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Nancy Pelosi are four women leaders who have broken the glass ceiling in the world of politics and leadership. The one specific, predominant, and common characteristic that three of these superwomen possess that may be the reason for their success is their diplomatic ways and mirroring styles. Condoleezza Rice, Hillary Clinton, and Nancy Pelosi are the three leaders who have strategically incorporated the ability to mirror those they have dealings with.

It is interesting how women's role has changed in society from generation to generation. For example, I have managed to graduate from college and accomplished things my mother was not able to do in her generation. My mother was very unfortunate, she only completed the third grade because her parents insisted that she did not need an education and that she should instead get a job. As a woman it was hard for me to attend college without my fathers support. My father is old fashion and felt that I as a woman did not need an education. I felt there was a need for me to get and education to be successful in life. In a speech title "Ain't I a Woman", Sojourner Truth gave before the Women's Right Convention in Akron, Ohio, in 1851, a very powerful sheech about women's rights. She argued," I have ploughed and planted and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman. I could work as much and eat as much as a man-when I could get it- and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman?". I agree with Truth's argument that perhaps society and tradition has been the main factor that has shaped peoples mind to believe that women were not capable of doing the same jobs as men. The fact is that women were and

There was a clear divide within this question across participants, extreme SD stated that they didn 't feel they could express themselves; however this was said to be due to “certain teachers” or “being ignored”. On the other hand, two extreme SA said they felt they could express themselves whilst one said sometimes. However, the main difference was that extreme SA acknowledge that it was not a clear cut yes or no, but in fact it depended on the context. More importantly they acknowledged that when they did feel as if they could not express themselves it was due to internal factors such as “pressure”. KJ stated that if they did feel as if they could not express themselves they would find the appropriate time to do so whilst JF stated that they may feel like that if

Talking to people(particularly females) socially seemed the key to solving my problem. “It 'll help you sort through your thoughts and clarify whatever is going on for you at the time. While all your stuff is internal, it 's hard to see how it really works. Once you 've had to say it out loud, it gets easier to get hold of.(ReachOut 1)” Talking to myself either mentally or aloud was my way to work around problems. However, the only time I would do this was during social problems, and then it didn’t help, making self-talk a fundamentally useless tool. Therefore, talking to others was a clear solution-whether I actually

The challenges I have gone through has made me the person I am today and has made me a stronger person mentally and physically. I’m more of an independent type of person because I’m not one to express my feelings to people I don’t trust or don’t know. I can tell my friends certain things, but when it comes to adults asking me about what’s going on in my life, I can’t open up to them. I feel anxiety every time an adult wants to talk to me because I don’t like to say what I’m going through or how I’m feeling. I’ll just tell them that everything is fine because I don’t want to be asked more or been told more about talking to someone about my problems. I just like to do things on my own so I don’t have to rely on having someone to be here for me whenever something is wrong.