Women Empowering Women
Written by Melinda Ennis-Roughton Tuesday, July 27 2010
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The deep pine forest of Camp Timber Ridge, a Girl Scout camp in Mableton, Ga., is a gorgeous natural setting, but not the expected venue for 23 high-powered women executives. Although more at home at a polished conference table than in a rustic cabin, these Atlanta-based businesswomen gladly gathered in the woods, leaving BlackBerries and iPhones behind, to share life lessons with Girl Scouts from grades 9-12.
The five-day June event, Camp CEO, was a first for the Greater Girl Scouts of Atlanta, but will become an annual event. The purpose: to empower today’s young girls to be leaders of tomorrow.
“The Girl Scouts are known for cookies and camping, but our real mission is to build women of courage, confidence, and character who will become esteemed leaders in the future,” says Marilyn Midyette, chief executive officer of Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta. “Camp CEO connected our girls with accomplished businesswomen committed not only to a life of success, but also to a life of significance.”
American women typically gain empowerment by developing skills that help them balance purposeful careers, friends, and family. “Camp CEO and the Girl Scouts provide life skill development to be productive and competent leaders in the future," says Midyette.
Yet, despite the dawn of the 21st century, and the century-old fight for equality, women still often find themselves without a voice in the board room, or in Third World countries, without a voice of their own at all.
Barbara Pyle, an ex-Turner Broadcasting journalist, feminist, and activist, recently described the global potential of female empowerment: “There is no tool more effective for our planet than the empowerment of women everywhere.”
Pyle shared examples of how women across the globe have changed their communities and their personal fates. Speaking at Southface (an Atlanta organization that promotes sustainable living) she addressed a group of fellow alumnae of Newcomb College, a former women’s college at Tulane University in New Orleans. The women had gathered to raise awareness (and money) to address another “women’s issue” – the unexpected closing of their alma mater.
