Can You See Me? Phenomenal Woman, That's Me.

Now you understand
Just why my head’s not bowed.
I don’t shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing,
It ought to make you proud.

I say,
It’s in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need for my care.
’Cause I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me

--Maya Angelou

Image Credits:

1. Natural Hair, women in grey--Kriskrüg https://flic.kr/p/5HvSyB
2. African American Woman--William Gantz https://flic.kr/p/cn6jE
3. Thank God for Black Girls--Roel Wijnants https://flic.kr/p/24reg1D
4. Make-Up Makeup--Audrey Xavier Brulu https://flic.kr/p/p5xqDv
5. The Real Black Magic Woman Mrs. Queen Sabine-Sabine Mondestin https://flic.kr/p/bAkoSJ

Words...Maya Angelou

“Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning.”

--Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

We Are All God's Creation...Maya Angelou

While I know myself as a creation of God, I am also obligated to realize and remember that everyone else and everything else are also God's creation.

--Maya Angelou

I'm Grateful...Maya Angelou

I’m grateful for being here, for being able to think, for being able to see, for being able to taste, for appreciating love – for knowing that it exists in a world so rife with vulgarity, with brutality and violence, and yet love exists. I’m grateful to know that it exists.

--Maya Angelou

A Positive Outlook...Maya Angelou

“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” 

--Maya Angelou

Remove This Burden From Their Lives...Maya Angelou

Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible. --Maya Angelou

Source: Wisdom from Karen Nemeth and Session Participants: Building Multicultural Multilingual Communities in ECE Programs,  http://www.earlychildhoodwebinars.org/2011/05/karen-nemeth/

There Is Beauty In Diversity...Maya Angelou

“It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.”  --Maya Angelou, Author and Poet Laureate

2012 U.S. Olympics Gymnastics Team

Every other Tuesday, WOMEN AT LIBERTY provides a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage, and strengthen women leaders. This week, we continue the discussion looking at the why women are not seeking advance degrees in business at the same rate as they get other professional degrees. Also the discussion seeks to answer why women are not proportionately represented in senior leadership positions in business. This is Part II of "Are We There Yet? My Climb and Journey" by V. Nona Ogunsula.
___________________
 

I remember driving to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in January 1996 like it was yesterday. I braved a wintry mix praying for at least two of the approximately five hours that it took to drive to Pittsburgh because my Toyota Camry ran out of windshield wiper fluid halfway through the trip. You see, driving was a last minute decision. Although snow had been in the forecast, I wasn’t sure if we’d really get any snow. U.S. Air was the only airline who flew non-stop into Pittsburghfrom the Washington, D.C. area and well, let’s just say, given the number of winter airplane accidents that had occurred at that time, I felt driving would be less stressful and safer. Nothing short of a blizzard was going to keep me from arriving in Pittsburgh for my orientation as a student in the Executive Masters of Business Administration (MBA) program at the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Graduate School of Business.

I was so excited to be beginning my MBA program. Months earlier I had been accepted into this program that was fully supported by my company, AT&T. An Executive MBA program meant that I could attend school full-time and yet remain employed full-time. I had ambition and I wanted...

To read the rest of the story, click here. For more on Leadership Tuesdays, click here.

Love Is A Super Hero...Maya Angelou

Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at it destination full of hope.

--Maya Angelou

Leadership Tuesdays: Ambition With Wisdom...Maya Angelou

"The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise."

--Maya Angelou

Every other Tuesday, WOMEN AT LIBERTY provides a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage, and strengthen women leaders. This week, Leadership Tuesdays presents a blog written by John T. Delaney, Ph.D., Dean of the College of Business and Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. Dr. Delaney's blog, "Hidden In Plain Sight" grew out of a discussion he and I had about the current state of women in the business world. The dismal statistics of women obtaining senior leadership, Chief Executive Officer, and Board of Director positions are well known. (See the introduction to the Leadership Tuesdays section at womenatliberty.com.) However in order for women to be hired and promoted into these positions, they must be prepared through education and experiences.

Dr. Delaney discusses in his blog some of the reasons why women are not choosing to further their education in business at the same rate they are choosing advanced degrees in, for example, law and medicine. Could their decision by influenced by the "glass ceiling" that caps advancement opportunities for women in corporate America, or the reported pay gap that exist between men and women who are doing the same job? (See Wage differences between men and women - sexist or functional? by Freek Vanmeulen, Forbes, 2/28/11) Could it also be a lack of ambition, called the "ambition gap", that has been talked about by Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer at Facebook? (See Sheryl Sandberg’s Ambition Gap: Are Women Really Less Ambitious than Men? by Morra Mele, Bostinno, 2/13/12)

Dean Delaney looks at these issues as well as some other factors, like entrepreneurialship, that could lead women to choose an advanced business education. Women are becoming entrepreneurs at a higher rate than men.

John Delaney earned his B.S. degree in industrial relations from LeMoyne College and A.M. and Ph.D. degrees in labor and industrial relations from the University of Illinois. Before coming to the University of Pittsburgh in 2006, he held teaching and management positions at the University of Iowa and Michigan State University.

To read his blog, click here. For more information on Leadership Tuesdays, see here.

My Great Hope...Maya Angelou

"My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return."

--Maya Angelou, Author and Poet

Never Be Defeated...Maya Angelou

We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.  --Maya Angelou

Phenomenal Women by Maya Angelou

I'm a woman, Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me. 

--Maya Angelou (excerpt from the poem, Phenomenal Women)