Breaking the gender barrier.

AuthorRoot, Rachel L.

Introduction

I used to believe that gender was the issue that held me back from moving forward in my career, Conducting. Conducting has been largely a man's arena. But the old gender conflict represented in the tennis match between Bobbi Riggs vs. Billy Jean King is no longer relevant, either in sports or music. What is relevant is that the individual (in my case, a woman) perceives that what she is capable of is of equal benefit to herself and her career, and that she is responsible for what she produces. It is my argument, that what would be a very convenient excuse for women, gender inequality in higher education and elsewhere, is really not the pink elephant in the room.

Let me use an example to explain. My conducting professor at the University of Washington, after a conducting class, met with me to review my video-tape of the conducting that I had just finished. While watching the video tape I became crest-fallen, feeling that my conducting was, for lack of a better word, "wimpy" or not strong enough. I immediately thought in my mind, "If only I were a man!" I voiced this last statement to Abraham Kaplan, and further cemented my victimhood status by whining, and finished my statement with, "I should conduct like a man!" Kaplan, asked, "Why do you think this way about your conducting?" I answered, "Because I am not being effective." He said, "Being effective has nothing to do with whether or not you are a man or a woman. The measure of a fine conductor has nothing to do with male or female." His words hit me like a hammer, for I had always believed my premise to be true. I had known many women colleagues in the conducting world that had changed their conducting to reflect a greater masculinity and less femininity. If his statement was true, then everything that I had based my assumptions upon was no longer relevant.

In my career years, nine since that moment in time, I have revisited this conversation many times in my mind. I have realized my professor's statement to be true. It is much easier to blame your inadequacies upon something or someone else. It is easier to accept your weaknesses as being produced by another or caused by another. What I have learned, and have continued to learn, is that I create my own beliefs about myself and the world around me. What I believe about myself and what my belief systems hold about the world around me are both how I am perceived and how others perceive me.

Joan of Arc, Hildegard Von Bingen, Mother Teresa, and Teresa of Avila are all examples of women who were not held back by their belief systems, or by so-called gender issues. Compared to us today, they had many more gender issues to deal with. Yet, it did not hold them back. I use these women as examples because while they also were in religious communities often viewed or thought of as greater gender discriminators, these women had an incredible influence. Why and how did this happen? My response to this question is that so-called gender issues may never really have existed in their reality. A belief system is only true if an individual or society holds it to be true. What happens when an individual no longer accepts a commonly held belief system? What happens when an individual is able to make a significant impact upon a commonly held belief system? Does the belief system control the individual, or does the individual control the belief system? What power does the individual have in determining the outcome of a particular event, or belief? Given a specific event, is it the event itself that determines the outcome, or is it the individual's response to the event?

This paper will examine the lives of four women, what they were able to accomplish, why they were successful, and how we can apply their collective wisdom to break the gender barrier.

Mother Teresa

In The Missionary Position, a book by Christopher Hitchens, Mother Teresa and her missionary focus is the brunt of Hitchens' criticisms. He grimly points out her unwavering sufferings, aids, abortion, and living the Christian life, which for Mother Teresa meant due pietism in living sacrificially. Unfortunately, this often meant for her and others around her, extreme poverty, simplicity, and fervent dedication and discipline to a strict religious routine. In defense of such a position, I would state that most successful people, whether male or female, are imbued with an extreme focus towards a specific goal. This focus leads individuals to live a life completely dedicated to the goal, whatever it may be. While these individuals are successful, there is often the shadow side of the goal which creates a type of joyless mechanical discipline in which the individual surrenders to a greater good, and totally leaves the individual bereft of personal enjoyment or individual satisfaction. All of the women examined in this paper, Hildegard of Bingen, Joan of Arc, Mother Teresa, and Saint Teresa of Avila, struggled with personal relationships, the fine line between personal success and individual piety. They sought to lift up the church, the cause, and the goal above and beyond their own personal gain. Mother Teresa, while not wishing to be political, found herself involved with political issues and personalities. She struggled with receiving billions in donations, yet maintaining her religious piety. Again, it may be established that she had a focus which was undying and relentless in its pursuit of religious piety, to the fault of allowing individuals to suffer for the cause of Christ, to identify with his sufferings to endure life, and to experience pain and suffering for the benefit of self-discipline in order to gain Christ. This type of personal piety led many to question the church and its actions with regard to monies received on behalf of Mother Teresa, and the many ways in which the monies were put to use.

While that is not the subject of this paper, what is important here is that Mother Teresa was relentless in pursuing what she felt was her place in the world: to attend to the poor and their needs. She forgot all else in her world except for that one goal. She remained faithful until her death in attending to those in need. This was not without personal unhappiness and great emotional pain on her part. She experienced a tremendous faith crisis, which is common for those who pursue such a single minded goal with such dedication. Despite her own convictions to not be a political figure or to be put on a pedestal, she became a symbol of religious piety, humility, and God's grace to the poverty stricken world. She met many people of status and privilege. They sought her out. She was good publicity for them. Did she know this? I believe that Mother Teresa was far smarter then she appeared, or was given credit for. To a certain extent she had to be aware and consciously making decisions that would enable her cause. Sometimes this meant accepting gifts of money, from sources that would be questionable.1 As was previously mentioned in Hitchens' book, The Missionary Position, Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice, there is amongst the obvious criticism of the author, picture after picture of Mother Teresa with everyone from Charles Keating, to Queen Elizabeth II. There is also a picture of Mother Teresa accepting the Nobel Peace Prize.

Now, while Mother Teresa was not a perfect individual, as I am sure she would readily acknowledge, let's examine what made her tick so to speak. She lived simply, with a simple focus, determination, passion, and zeal. She had a strong belief system that fueled her ministry and served as the foundation for all that she did. While she deeply questioned her faith, and went through many dark nights of the soul, she continued to persevere towards achieving her goal, which was giving to the poor and the dying in society. While her seeming ignorance of money was glaringly apparent to Hitchens, she nevertheless associated with some of the most important figures of her time. She was able to harness a great deal of attention, money, and effort towards focus upon those who were less fortunate in our society. That really was her intent. This effort was undergirded by her obvious faith, which she tried to live out for the duration of her life. Even when her doubts surfaced, she continued to pursue what she believed to be the right direction. This unwavering devotion to a faith position is what allowed her to be so successful. In this case, there are several points to be drawn. First, gender had nothing to do with what she was able to accomplish. In fact, gender should have kept her from any notoriety at all. Second, gender had nothing to do with her perseverance, devotion, faith beliefs, and tenacity to care for the sick and dying. Third, her life was very simple, devoted to one cause, thus extreme focus and energy was directed to a specific outcome. This also had nothing to do with gender. Fourth, she was able to impact society as a whole, from the bottom up, or from the less fortunate to the extremely rich. Gender was not a factor in succeeding to cross boundaries of wealth, status, and position in society. Fifth, even though she was in a religious institution with definite gender bias, it did not seem to affect her with regard to her goals or her impact upon society. I think sometimes we use gender as an excuse. It might be easier for us as women to blame our lack of energy, focus, and the like, on gender, rather than focus on the hard work, perseverance, and dedication it takes to be successful at anything we choose to do. What Mother Teresa does prove is that we as women can be in a position to affect change, no matter what the culture, no matter how strong the bias, and no matter how much we have monetarily. My point here is that gender really does not restrict or defeat such passion and intended focus. On the contrary, gender as a barrier is based upon a belief system. But if a person does not choose to live by that belief...

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