Women in Power

Dee Dee Myers

Former White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers reflects on her career as she assesses the strengths that female leaders bring to the table. She looks at the challenges women face as they travel the path toward success. Ms. Myers describes how female participation in public life has already transformed our world.

Dee Dee: First you have to start with the definition of the word rule. Women shouldn't rule to the exclusion of men but alongside men because women bring different qualities, a different life experience, sometimes a different perspective on problems, different ways of resolving conflicts, different leadership and management styles. When you take all the qualities women bring and put them along male qualities we get a more complete look at the situation and bring more perspective to the table and find better solutions.

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Dr (Col) V K Wadia, India (email): Women are not short of being men's equal. However, with regard to child bearing and rearing, how do you think these biological issues influence female empowerment?

Dee Dee: Child-rearing demands have a profound influence on women's roles in public life. There’s no question that the work of child rearing falls disproportionately on women and I think that's a role most women embrace. One of the points in the book is that men and women are different and we need to accept those differences rather than try to minimize them. And I think that it means for women in public life they must have the freedom to make choices, whether it's working fulltime, taking time off while kids are young if they want to do that, or working part time in a more flexible way. Flexibility is tremendously important. I also think the workplace can be more flexible and it's in our interest to be more flexible. It's not in interest to leave half of the brainpower at home just because we can't figure how to accommodate women's different needs. The other thing is that it's important to acknowledge skills that parenting requires and develops. Parenting requires both parents to manage a lot of different personalities, to work together as a team, to set clear boundaries and set discipline, anticipate the future, to resolve conflicts and those are all incredibly valuable skills whether in the home or the workplace so we have to stop just saying raising kids is the most important work we have to do and we should embrace child rearing skills.

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Marcien Fossuo (Cameroon): What is/are the significant transformation(s) women have brought to the world already?

Dee Dee: Women have begun to bring significant change in all kinds of ways. Women are increasingly important in peace processes for example. They are instrumental not just in resolving and ending conflicts but also in rebuilding civil society, in healing the wounds and in sustaining that peace. In business, women have shown that they bring a different perspective. That’s true around the world. Certainly in politics female leaders have broadened the scope of the problems that we address in the U.S. and the world. I don't think all women are one way and all men are another so not every female leader brings particular focus on issues like women and children and my argument is for lots of women because it's important to change the culture.

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Thomas J. Corcoran, Sweden: How does it feel to read that any woman leader usually also has her outfit commented on or to be expected to automatically make the coffee and take notes at any meeting predominately male-dominated?

Dee Dee: There's no question women are judged on appearance in ways that men aren't. It’s both a simple example of the double standards that women still face and a reality that women have to deal with. Women have to be conscious of their appearance so they can take it off the table as a distraction. In my visible roles that's been the case. On the second part of the question, women are no longer necessarily expected to make coffee and take notes although there are times when they are. The solution to that is simply more women. When more women are in positions of authority and in the room then they are not always looked at to perform those tasks

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Dee Dee: having been raised Catholic, I think we're a long way from seeing women in authority in the church and that's an issue. I absolutely think that people both men and women can be powerful in very personal ways and women in particular but men too often choose to do that, to have influence in their families and communities but not necessarily the broader world. That power can be transformative and it goes to embracing choices. That said I’d still like to see more women in public roles because they can bring that same transformative power on all levels.

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Dee Dee: in developing countries it often begins by empowering women economically, because once women also contribute to the family's financial wellbeing they have more value. That’s why micro finance programs have been such an important tool for helping societies develop by specifically and intentionally empowering women

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Dee Dee: Oprah Winfrey comes to mind. She's authoritative but very comfortable being a woman and embraces qualities that women have too often undervalued. On the question of running for office someday, I never say never but it's not something I plan to do now.

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