Month: November 2016

Sommelier profession has been male-dominated

“The sommelier profession has historically been a male-dominated industry,” admits Andrew McNamara, chairman of the Court of Master Sommeliers in the Americas. But it’s evolving.[1]

There are 230 professionals worldwide who have received the title of Master Sommelier since the first Master Sommelier Diploma Exam. There are currently 23 women who have passed the difficult exam. [2]

Mexico has a very long history of making wine from before the Spanish arrived bringing new wine strains in 1517. Vinicola Urbana, an urban winery in the middle of Mexico City, is working to foster the country’s wine culture and teach people about Mexican wine. Today, three out of ten uncorked bottles of wine are Mexican wines, says Sandra Fernandez. She is a female wine steward in Mexico. “A glass of wine brings people together. It connects you with history, culture and geography. Every wine has a different story.”

Sandra says “It took me time to understand that it was possible for a woman to make it in an industry dominated by men.” More women are finding jobs in the wine industry in many areas. Sandra studied and worked hard to become a sommelier, who are experts in wines.

A sommelier has been a man’s job for a very long time. It still is. Fifteen years ago, female sommeliers didn’t exist in Mexico. I was a pioneer for connecting women and wine, a pioneer for being a female leader in a men’s industry.

Machismo can’t beat knowledge. That is why I have always tried to show my knowledge and prove myself.

Yes, I had to fight for it. Being a leader requires sacrifice. As a female leader, you have to sacrifice even more to play your role. I had to leave many things behind. I wanted to be outstanding in my job and I am still fighting every day to reach that goal.

It wasn’t easy. But in the end it was worth it. I enjoy the great privilege to love what I do. If you live your passion, every sacrifice will be worth it.

Being a Master Sommelier is a very hard process for men and women. A good movie about becoming a Master is “Somm“. Less than 15 percent of the master sommeliers in the world are women.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUunwFZFqZo

Reference:

Wikipedia on Sommelier

[1] Women sommeliers story on Bloomberg (July 2015)

[2] Master Sommeliers

Sandra Fernandez

Link to story on CCTV America (November 20, 2016)

Link to a video interview of Sandra Fernandez about wine (in Spanish)

You can be anything, even an Engineer Princess.

When you think “Engineer”, then imagine young women like Debbie Sterling.

She is an engineer, who has made it her mission in life to tackle the gender gap in science, technology, engineering and math.  She wants to help other young girls find the joy in being an engineer and using their creativity to build and make new things from their ideas.

Speaking at TEDxPSU in 2013, Debbie tells how she was encouraged to pursue a major in Engineering by a female high school teacher. She discovered while pursuing her degree at Stanford University that “engineering is really a boy’s club” and can be difficult for a woman to fit in. She wondered why there weren’t more women in her classes.

Only 20% of undergraduate degrees in engineering and tech and science are awarded to women and only 11% of engineers in the US are women. Using Kickstarter for funding Debbie produced a toy aimed at developing spacial skills of young girls and keeping them engaged with more choices than the “pink aisle” selection. GoldieBlox, toy company, has a goal to inspire the next generation of female engineers.

Engineers are making some of the biggest advances in our society
With half the population being female, we deserve to have the female perspective. It will only get better with the female perspective.

GoldieBlox has a book series+construction set that engages kids to build through the story of Goldie, the girl inventor who solves problems by building simple machines.  Debbie’s company has also branched into making mobile apps to help encourage young girls to learn programming skills. Girls needs more choices in toys than just dolls and being a princess. Girls can be a Princess and also an Engineer.

It’s a fun way for kids to learn how to invent creative stuff.

Little girl playing with Goldie Blox toy

From Goldi Blox

We believe that femininity is strong and girls will build the future — literally.

Debbie writes and illustrates Goldie’s stories, taking inspiration from her grandmother, one of the first female cartoonists and creator of “”Mr. Magoo.”

Toy Hackers is a show (on Youtube) about toys who build toys with the cartoon character,  Goldie Blox. Described as “toy unboxing” met “DIY how-to-build” videos.

Additional resources:

Business Insider: Goldie Blox toy inspiring future engineers

Goldie Blox blog has women “Engineers in the Wild” giving examples to inspire girls with women role models

More women are in construction business

 

Construction has not historically been a business run by women.

Nellie Torres says that men still dominate the construction business, but women are more common than when she started in the industry over 20 years ago. Her company employs 17 full-time employees and tries to encourage female staffers to “climb the ladder”.

Nellie Torres is CEO of ProjectsSpan based in Brooklyn, New York started in 2003. Her company was featured in Inc. magazine in 2015 as one of the top women-owned businesses in New York City.

ProjectSpan provides support services for complex transit and airport infrastructure projects, including safety and quality management, specification and procurement, program management, construction management, installation support, and public safety.

Nellie is the 6th of seven kids of a Puerto Rican family. She grew up in a tough section of East NYC. She managed to work full-time, put herself through college and graduate school while raising her child. She says that it “was not easy getting here”. Building her construction business and breaking into the old boys’ network required her to have a “higher bar” just to compete.

In my view, I had to be better. I had to be earlier, I had to be on point. My numbers had to be perfect. Maybe not perfect all the time, but most of the time and definitely more than my male counterparts.

She feels her rough childhood toughened her to make her able to “break down walls” and get to “where I’m at” now.

There is major growth in women-run businesses. In the construction industry there have been a lack of role models and this industry lags behind. In New York City only 15% of construction businesses are run by women.

You have to be very, very, very tough – have very tough skin – and not be willing to take ‘no’ for an answer. You will hear ‘no’ a lot. You will hear ‘you can’t’ a lot. You will hear ‘you don’t belong here’. You just need to recognize that ‘yes, you do belong here’. You need to get educated. You need to get experience and you need to forge ahead.

Torres participates in a mentoring program for minority and female run businesses to help other entrepreneurs break into the construction field. The pay is 93.4% of what men make, if women can get into the career.

Reference:

Nellie J Torres on LinkedIn

Link to PBS story on Nellie Torres (transcript included)

NYC Women entrepreneurs article (March 2016)

Sarah Hale – Thanksgiving Day

New England Travels Blog [1]

Sarah Josepha Buell Hale (October 24, 1788 – April 30, 1879) campaigned for a national day of gratitude and family celebration, which was first proposed by President George Washington in 1789.

Sarah Hale portrait in “Godey’s Lady’s Book” [2]

Sarah was a writer and also the ‘editress’ of the popular woman’s magazine, “Godey’s Lady’s Book”. In her editorials she campaigned repeatedly for the national holiday gathering popular support.

“We are most happy to agree with the large majority of the governors of the different States–as shown in their unanimity of action for several past years, and which, we hope, will this year be adopted by all–that the LAST THURSDAY IN NOVEMBER shall be the DAY OF NATIONAL THANKSGIVING for the American people.”[3]

She petitioned six different US Presidents for the national holiday. Finally Abraham Lincoln in 1863 after receiving a letter from Sarah issued a “Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving”. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law in 1941 that the fourth Thursday in November would be officially “Thanksgiving Day”.

Jean Leon Gerome Ferris: The First Thanksgiving [4]

On Thanksgiving Day we should thank “Tisquantum” of the Patuxet tribe, aka “Squanto”, for aiding the Pilgrims of Plymouth, Massachusetts in November 1620.

References:

[1] Historical marker for Sarah Hale

[2] Portrait of Sarah Hale (public domain)

[3] Excerpt from November 1858 Godey’s Lady’s Book

[4]The First Thanksgiving painting (public domain)

National Woman’s History Museum – Thanksgiving Holiday: One Woman’s Crusade

Godey’s Lady’s Book (text) provided by The University of Vermont

Wikipedia on Sarah Josepha Hale

Biography of Sarah Hale

Article about Godey’s Lady’s Book

History of Massachusetts: The First Thanksgiving:

History of Massachusetts: About Pilgrim William Bradford’s journal

Pilgrim Hall Museum story: Sarah Hale (PDF file)

History channel: About Abraham Lincoln and Sarah Hale

Text of Sarah’s letter to Lincoln and the Proclamation by Lincoln

Holographic image of Sarah’s letter to Lincoln (Library of Congress)

National Park Service: Thanksgiving

Other interesting fact:

Sarah Hale is the author of the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb“.

Danai Gurira: Giving African women a voice

Danai Gurira as Michonne in AMC series

Danai Gurira plays the character, Michonne, on AMC’s series “The Walking Dead”

Zimbabwean-American actress and playwright, Danai Gurira, talks about giving African women a voice. “Eclipsed” is a Tony-award winning Broadway play about African women by African women.

The play breaks the barrier of being the first Broadway play with an all female creative team of any color. The writer, the director, and the cast are all female, as well as all black.

Dana saw an article in “The New York Times” about women rebel fighters in 2003 at the height of the Liberian civil war. They were “formidable, frightening women of war.” She wanted to tell the story of these African women in war and give these woman a voice.

Mike Walter, of “Full Frame” on CCTV America, talks with Danai about the process of bringing the story to life through her researching and writing the play.

11:35 minute video by CCTV America

Dana is asked to talk about the emotional period of putting the story to paper.

The thing that is very important… I immerse myself in all the research, all the voices, all the experiences that I can and really allow myself to really be soaked and saturated with it. And then I have to allow myself to, and this is going to sound like an irreverent term, but I have to allow myself to play.

Because I have to allow characters to come to life that are full and rich and real and alive and whose voices I can hear, but they’re their own voices. And so that involves a myriad of emotions and the play involves a myriad of emotions.

I am showing women who are fully formed. They are women who have chosen to survive a brutal war zone and they have chosen to do it through ways you might find surprising.

You have to allow yourself to play and that means you navigate through several different experiences emotionally and yes, sometimes it should bring you to tears. You should weep and you should weep a lot.

Mike Walters asks “Do you ever think there is going to be this barrier and who is going to care about these women or did you just know I’m going to make them care?”

When you are born black and female…. the who is going to care question comes up, but you have to just ignore that. You have to have what I sometimes call your fairy god mommas, you know… your Maya Angelous, your Harriet Tubmans, your Cicele Tysons, … whoever.. but they are women who have broken barriers in the past. So that’s your legacy. That has to be your legacy.

You have to say “I care about this and I’m going to do it to the best of my abilities and I’m going to put it out there.” I believe there will be a response and I’m going to do it and that’s definitely something I decided before I even started creating narratives.

I saw the lack, I saw the dearth of narratives that covered from where I was from and I was going to put it out there. I can’t second guess it or edit responses before I create it. I have to do what I’m called to do just to be a creator of works. I have to trust that the right people will come along and receive those works and will champion those works.But I can’t stop myself before I start because then I’m denying someone of their voice.

Dana speaks four languages: French, Shona, basic Xhosa, and English. She currently best known for playing the character, Michonne, on the AMC show “The Walking Dead”.

Wikipedia entry for Danai Gurira

Wikipedia entry for play “Eclipsed”

“Eclipsed” Broadway play

In 2003 Christian and Muslim women joined forces to  work for peace. Leymah Gbowee won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 for her work leading the women’s peace movement that brought an end to the Second Liberian Civil War. They helped bring about the end to the ongoing brutal civil war by bringing sides to negotiation.

Women transform technology.

Women celebrate being part of Science Technology and Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) declaring “I am a Technical Woman”. Video taken at the SAP sponsored booth at the 2008 Grace Hopper Celebration.

The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is presented by the Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology and the Association for Computing Machinery.

Our hope for this video is that it will help inspire girls and women everywhere with the wonderful diversity of technical women. This video celebrates everything that is wonderful about all of you. It changes the image of technology by showing the world that women from all over the world belong in technical fields.