One of my oldest friends is a highly intelligent engineer. She’s worked very hard, studied very hard, and because of this she has been very successful in her career. This friend is also a bit of a hippie; she likes Vancouver, dogs, being outside and organic clothing. That’s just a side note.

Anyway, recently she wanted to enhance her skills and enrolled in a project management course. In this course, there was a group of four engineers that each took turns leading various fake projects. When it was her turn to lead, her project was based on a new design for a fake ski hill. I realize you’re reading this and you’re probably thinking what’s the point to this story, well here it is: when she took the helm, one of the engineers in her group had a total hissy-fit with the instructor and walked out of the room.

Why did he walk out of the room? Because she’s is a woman. Yes, you heard me, it’s 1950 and a man will not take direction from a woman. What’s that all about?

The man who caused all this drama was in fact from another country where women are treated as less than second class, which would make some rationalize his actions. HOWEVER, he is not in his home country. He’s in ours, where women are suppose to have the same rights as men; where women are supposed to be appreciated for their intellect and where women are allowed to be as amazing as they already are! Unfortunately this is not always the case, but at least we are working on getting there.

Also, it dumbfounds me that in the 21st century there are countries where women are not at minimum ‘technically’ equal. How is this still possible? How can this still be happening? Women are amazing. We’re smart, we’re hard working, we’re logical, we’re loving, we’re emotional. We carry babies for goodness sake. Babies. If it weren’t for women there would be no men, so really, those backward-ass countries need to get their act together and get with it.

In fact, Plans’ Because I’m a Girl actually focuses on empowering girls because it’s proven that investing in girls is key to eliminating poverty. ‘Empower a girl and she’ll change the world’. http://becauseiamagirl.ca/

The power of girls

“And yet research is also clear that when girls reach their full potential, through improved status, better health care, and education, it is the most effective development tool for society as a whole. As a country’s primary enrollment rate for girls increases, so too does its gross domestic product per capita.”

– Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General

That’s two huge things: eliminating poverty and increasing the GDP. Even if you have no heart and only think about financial prosperity, you would still think that empowering women was a good idea. With all of the above, I think that stupid engineer should go back to school to relearn the power of women, learn to respect women and learn how to behave like a proper, civilized human being. OH and what’s great about her story is that her project ended up scoring really well and had great reviews and that a-hole had to go back to his company and explain to them why he didn’t complete the expensive course they enrolled him in. I hope he gets fired. 🙂

Happy International Women’s Day!