On Wednesday March 26, MATC welcomed Ms. Bernadette Greenwood as a guest speaker to highlight International Women’s Month. OMG, WTF (Oh My Goodness, Where are the Females?) is a presentation provided to help us gain an understanding of the current statistics on women in leadership and academia. The focus was on trends, potential barriers, and identifying domestic violence and mitigation measures.
Engaging the audience she shared her personal life story as a working military mom, and divorced woman diligently pursuing her education and career path. “It took me 23 years to get my bachelor’s degree,” says Greenwood. “Through children, marriage, military, divorce, and the many obstacles that life handed me.”  As she shared some of her life experiences being abused as a child, it was more than evident that Greenwood is a true prodigy of an inspiring woman in our society.
In one hour Greenwood was able to cover a wide array of subjects providing examples of some eye-opening statistics that place women in our financial demographic. Women earning a bachelors degree are only worth $1.9 million opposed to men with a bachelor’s degree are worth over $2.5 million during the course of their career. A woman would have to have a Ph.D. to meet or surpass a man’s income potential. “Women are so under represented,” says Greenwood, “I’ll be 127 years old at the rate society is going before women are represented equal to men.” It’s a harsh reality that women many times work just as hard as their male counterparts, and are not equally rewarded. Our focus as a society needs to be on closing the gender gap, and countering the difference between stereotypes and barriers. As women in leadership we have to ask for what we deserve, being careful but not afraid, with patience and tenacity.
What are some of the current issues women face? Why are women treated differently and in some instances considered the “outsiders”? Greenwood pinpointed domestic violence as an influence and a “scary” topic. As she shared her own personal story and clearly defined the many types of abuse such as physiological, emotional and economic, it is clear that these types of abuse have played and still are playing a role in how women are viewed and how they view themselves in the workforce, socially and emotionally.
The presentation ended on a refreshing note as women from the audience shared some of their own inspiring stories of accomplishment and other women in their lives that have influenced them to reach gratifying heights of fulfillment and pursuit. Greenwood closed with a thank you and a positive take away, “Take full ownership of your destiny; independence permits dreams.”