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Thoughts On Being Rotary’s First Female Trustee
"Being the
“first” of anything is a mixed blessing. Being the
first female Trustee of the Rotary Foundation is a dream
come true for me. It is the Rotary dream job. I
believe that the last 18 years of my Rotary journey
inevitably led me to this destination. I do truly
believe that the work I have done for Rotary, the
experiences I have gained as a Rotarian, my professional
background and my personal life have prepared me to be a
fully participating and qualified Trustee. I hope that
Rotarians will feel that I belong on the board. The
worse part about being the first of anything is if
people think that you got the job because of whom you
are and not because of what you did. I don’t want
anyone to think I am a Trustee because I am a woman. I
am a Trustee because I
earned the
job. For the next four years, I will prove it. Having
to prove yourself is one of the mixed blessings of being
“first.”
Thoughts on Having Women in Leadership Positions
On the
other hand, being “first” gives one a unique platform
and visibility that can be used for the greater good of
the organization. Since my appointment, I have
represented the Trustees at a number of special events
in the United States, Canada and the Philippines. At
the regional event in the Philippines, I met Rotary
women from over 20 countries in south Asia. They were
so happy to have me there and so excited to meet me.
They were so proud of me. Meeting them made me realize
how much the women of Rotary had been waiting for a
woman to reach one of Rotary’s highest leadership
positions, and how much they needed to be able to see a
woman in such a leadership role. In the best of all
possible worlds, it should not matter if Rotary’s
leaders are male or female. But in the 18 years that
women have been members of Rotary, no woman has ever
held the position of Foundation Trustee or Rotary
Director. These women saw in me that the wait is over.
There is still room for more women to show their
leadership skills as Rotarians but the appointment of
the first female Trustee sends the message that the wait
is over and the door is open for them as well as for me.
The first and most important reason why women are needed
in leadership and decision-making positions is to send a
message to other capable women that there is a place for
them in the organization. There is a crack in the glass
ceiling. If an organization is going to retain its
strong, talented, capable members – male or female –
those individuals have to be able to believe that all
doors are open to them.
The next and
most obvious reason for having women in high places is
to get the benefit of their life experiences as women.
For some women, it may mean the experience of childbirth
and childrearing; for others it may be the experience of
being the homemaker and caring for elderly parents. Not
only do these experiences give women insight into these
particular roles but the assumption of these roles force
women to develop specialized skills. For example, no
homemaker could possibly succeed without being able to
multi-task: cooking, cleaning, shopping, carpooling,
budgeting, banking, social gatherings, corresponding.
The term “multi-tasking” has just recently made its way
into our daily vocabulary but women have been
multi-tasking for generations. Now they can bring that
skill to the boardroom."
CAROLYN E. JONES 2006 |
