 "Photo: Jen Ross")
Women breaking gender barriers in law, philosophy, engineering and the military shared their experiences to audience members Tuesday afternoon in the Student Union.
The Office of Global Perspectives hosted the forum entitled “Women and Leadership in the Evolving 21st Century World,” in the Cape Florida Ballroom, which included a four-member panel of leaders who have broken barriers for American women.
Retired Lt. Gen. Claudia Kennedy, the first woman to achieve the rank of three-star general in the U.S. Army, made strides for the Women’s Rights Movement and is now passing the baton to women of a younger generation.
Kennedy said one of the major reasons underdeveloped countries are not growing is because women are not valued as contributors to their economies.
“When women are part of this growing economic development in these countries, life for both men and women improve, and improves in ways for future generations,” Kennedy said. “A woman in general, who is a client of opportunity, is more likely to invest in her children’s education, where the men are more likely to reinvest in their business.”
Robin Buckelew, the director of the Applied Sensors, Guidance and Electronics Directorate at the Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center for the U.S. Army, also spoke on the panel. Buckelew said when she was a young adult, it was considered inappropriate for a woman to pursue a career that was not in nursing or teaching. She broke this mold by pursuing engineering.
“I was told ‘We’re not going to hire you because you’ll just get married and quit.’ I had a friend who was married and was told ‘We’re not going to hire you because you’ll just have a baby and quit.’ I had another friend who had a husband, two children and had graduated in the top 15 percent of her class; she was told ‘We’re not going to hire you because your husband will just take a job in another town, and you’ll quit,’” Buckelew said.
Other panelists included Mary Rawlinson, a philosopher and editor of numerous academic publications, including “The Voice of Breast Cancer in Medicine and Bioethics,” and Winifred Sharp, the first woman appointed to the Florida Fifth District Court of Appeals.
Rawlinson spoke about a paradox she sees cross culturally. She said women in some cultures, especially in the Middle East, must cover the majority of their bodies, which creates a loss of identity and dehumanizes women. She said there is an equal but opposite effect in American culture, where women are overexposed and exploited in the media, rarely portrayed as leaders or professionals.
Rawlinson said in order for societies to improve, including America’s society, people need to change their way of thinking.
“If we are really going to break barriers, we are going to have to reorganize the working family,” Rawlinson said. “We need to invest in women internationally.”
Jasmine Richardson, a sophomore political science major, said she was intrigued by how Kennedy overcame prejudice in a male-dominated military and by the accomplishments she has made.
“My dad is a retired Air Force colonel, and colonels were a dime a dozen, but you rarely ever saw female generals,” Richardson said. “The Air Force was considered an ‘old boy’s club,’ and so minorities and females have a hard time getting up to general or even colonel.”
Frank Hegedus, a senior political science major, said it is important for not only women but also men to be aware of issues that affect women.
“We have to break that barrier mentally. It needs to change, and positions of power being both for men and women,” Hegedus said. “This is a good way to spread the idea that women are just as capable and just as qualified and shouldn’t be discriminated against in any aspect of society.”
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