Monday, November 9, 2009

In honor of the Glamour 2009 Women of the Year

Time to celebrate women! You go girls!
This year's Glamour Magazine Women of the Year winners included:

  • Dr. Jane Aronson - This pediatrician is credited with bringing the plight of orphans to the world's attention. Her Worldwide Orphans Foundation has provided life-altering support to more than 20,000 orphans around the globe; in her private practice, Dr. Aronson works with adoptive parents--including Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt--to care for their children and reassure them that their new families can work.
  • Laura Ling & Euna Lee - These journalists made headlines earlier this year when they were arrested and imprisoned while reporting on the plight of North Korean women who cross into China to escape starvation.
  • Marissa Mayer - She helped make Google the number-one search engine, overseeing popular innovations like Gmail, Google Maps and Google Earth. Among her current goals as vice president for search and user experience is bringing more women into the high-tech field and moving them up the ladder.
  • Stella McCartney - She has become one of the world's most influential designers, thanks to her innate sense of what makes a woman look cool. A lifelong vegetarian and animal rights activist, she refuses to work in leather or fur, instead using man-made materials to create sexy stilettos and jackets that are coveted by the world's most fashionable women.
  • One Million Signatures Campaign - Started in 2006 by a group of Iranian women, the campaign calls for an end to gender inequality in Iran. The organizers risk their lives asking women and men to sign a petition demanding changes in the laws that make women second-class citizens. Their courage has emboldened women across Iran to speak out with a newfound voice, one that was heard loud and clear during last summer's post-election demonstrations.
  • Amy Poehler - A fearless comedian, she is currently the star and producer of NBC's Parks and Recreation. She inspires young girls with projects like The Mighty B!, her Nickelodeon cartoon series about a feisty Honeybee Scout, and Smart Girls at the Party, her Web-based preteen talk show.
  • Susan Rice - The first female African American U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, she is putting women's needs at the forefront of the American agenda at the U.N.
  • Rihanna - At just 21, this pop star boasts sales that have wowed even music industry veterans--and an incredible self-invented style. She started the Believe Foundation, a fund that provides educational and medical supplies to needy children; for the first time, she speaks out in Glamour about what she calls the "big secret" of domestic violence.
  • Maria Shriver - California's First Lady has redefined the role into a platform for change and leadership with her annual Women's Conference, multiple books, Emmy-award winning documentary on Alzheimer's and her groundbreaking study on "A Woman's Nation," which ignited a national conversation on the female role at work and at home.
  • Serena Williams - The tennis powerhouse has won more career prize money than any female athlete in history. Her Serena Williams Foundation gives grants to U.S. college students, and she recently opened a secondary school in rural Kenya.
  • Special Recognition: Michelle Obama - America's First Lady has brought the importance of mentoring to the national forefront. She has demonstrated a commitment to helping the next generation of girls expand their horizons by providing them with the information and inspiration to envision themselves as the leaders of tomorrow. 
And let us not forget the incredible and "phenomenal" Maya Angelou - A memoirist, poet, educator and civil rights activist, Dr. Angelou holds more than 30 honorary degrees for her many published works, including her latest, Letter to My Daughter, a collection of wisdom she has gathered throughout her life.

So in honor of these women, here's a poem written by Dr. Maya Angelou:

Phenomenal Woman
 Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the 
flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman

Phenomenally.
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 of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
 

1 comment:

  1. Fashion-haters need not comment on this site. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete