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Katie Lambert summitting Mt. Proboscis. Photo: Ben Ditto

March is Women’s History Month, a month-long celebration of groundbreaking women observed nationally in the United States, Australia, and Canada.

WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH is about women’s rights and the fight to make the world safer and better for girls and women everywhere. But it’s also about badass ladies who made advances and achievements in the arts, sciences, and sports. (Take this quiz to see how many you know.)
All month, students will study the legacy of female pioneers, and cities will host events where influential women currently making a difference — on community, national, and international levels — speak and inspire us. The theme for this year’s national awards, decided by the National Women’s History Project, is “Women Inspiring Innovation Through Imagination: Celebrating Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.” As Amy Poehler says, Smart Girls Have More Fun.

At Matador, we are proud of publishing articles that celebrate strong, groundbreaking women. In the spirit of Women’s History Month, here is a collection of pieces run at Matador over the years that tell the stories of traveling women, taking risks and breaking records.

Photo: Jessica Watson

1. Jessica Watson

In 2009, we interviewed Jessica Watson, a 16-year-old who was getting ready to break the world record and become the youngest person to sail solo around the world. On preparing mentally for the journey, she told Matador, “You do what you can. You talk to the right people and you get all the advice and you can do your practice runs and all that. But when it comes down to it, there’s no way you can prepare yourself in your head for eight months alone. There’s no test for that.”

2. Katie Lambert

Matador Ambassador Katie Lambert was part of the second ever group to free climb Mt. Proboscis in a single day. She writes about the ascent, the view from the top, and the long trip back to base camp. “With less experience in this kind of setting, and as the only woman, I was concerned I would be the weak link — that I wouldn’t be able to handle the environment, that I wouldn’t like it, that it would be too cold, too hard, too much. My mind changed daily until finally I decided that I couldn’t pass up the opportunity or the adventure.”

3. Shannon Galpin

Shannon Galpin is the first woman to mountain bike in Afghanistan. In 2010, she crossed the Panjshir Valley and last year shared photos and details from her trip with Matador readers. “Afghanistan is one of the few countries in the world where women are not allowed to ride bikes.” Shannon is another Matador Ambassador and is also behind the Afghan Dreamers Project, which works to “amplify voices and broaden the view of Afghanistan at a time when most people in America want to turn their back on the region.”

4. Paige Aarhus

In Notes from a white girl journalist in Kenya, Paige Aarhus explores being a white woman in a male-dominated field, embedded in a country with a male-dominated culture. On recognizing the danger she might place herself in on the assignment, Paige asks herself, “There are always questions of: How far do I want to push it? Which risk is worth taking?”

5. Marjan Kalhor

Iran sent its first female Olympic athlete to the games in 1996, but it wasn’t until 2010 in Vancouver that a female Iranian athlete competed in the Winter Games, where she was the only woman representing her country. Marjan Kalhor, a 21-year-old alpine and slalom skier, began skiing when she was four and has been winning major awards since she was 11.

6. SheJumps

We profiled SheJumps, a nonprofit dedicated to encouraging women who want to “jump” into trying something new, in 2010. “This may mean putting on a pair of skis for the first time or working up the courage to travel solo.” Their goal is to highlight achievements by women, create a community to support each other, and provide gear and other help for women who want to try new sports.

7. Liz Clark

When David Miller interviewed Liz Clark in 2010, she had been living aboard her sailboat Swell for four years. She spent her time sailing, surfing, traveling, blogging, and meeting people wherever her boat docked. About her lifestyle she said, “The one thing that keeps it all in perspective for me is the fact that, despite being as busy as a New York stockbroker, I get to be surrounded by nature the majority of the time.”

8. Polonia Ana Choque Silvestre

Polonia Ana Choque Silvestre is a 40+-year-old indigenous Bolivian wrestler and the subject of the documentary, Mamachas del Ring, by filmmaker Betty M. Park. When Mamachas premiered in New York City in 2010, Julie Schwietert spoke with Polonia Ana, who goes by Carmen, on how wrestling has changed her life, the documentary, and the next logical step in her career: politics.

9. Muriel Johnston

In 2009, when she was 84, Muriel Johnston joined the Peace Corps as a Health Educator. In an interview with Matador before she left for Morocco, where she planned to serve for 27 months, Muriel made it clear that as a “mature” volunteer she had life experiences to draw on to enrich her volunteering, but that she was also looking forward to new experiences.

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With Obama’s second inauguration approaching, it’s time to hold him to his campaign promises–especially those he made to women. There’s been a lot of discussion about Obama winning reelection because of women; now we need to start discussing specific actions Obama can take to create the future he imagined.

The Obama campaign began focusing on women long before politicians started making inappropriate remarks about rape, bringing women’s rights to the forefront. Last May, the Obama campaign introduced us to an avid supporter of the president named “Julia.” Julia is a fictitious young white, middle-class woman featured on the website Obama launched called “The Life of Julia.”

Now that Obama is starting his second term, I thought it was worth spending a little more time with Julia to check in and see if she still has such an optimistic viewpoint. After all, now that we’re certain for awhile that politicians won’t be moving us back to the 1950s, it’s time to hold Obama to his campaign slogan promise to move us “forward.”

Unfortunately, as a 19-year-old female college student trying to launch my career, I’m not convinced that Julia’s idyllic life will be quite so easily achieved by myself or my peers.
At age 18, Julia receives a Pell Grant for college, as well as an American Opportunity Tax Credit for up to $10,000 over four years. However, the average cost of a four-year university went up 15 percent between 2008 and 2010, with public universities in states such as Georgia, Arizona and California suffered increases of 40 percent and more. These fee increases, fueled by state budget cuts for higher education, have put an added stress on families like mine, a stress that a tax credit does little to alleviate and even Pell Grants can’t cover.



I attend Scripps College, a California private school, on a half-tuition merit scholarship.  I’m one of the lucky ones who’s able to afford the education I’m receiving, and so is Julia. At age 25, Julia is well on her way to paying off her college loans, since Obama capped income-based federal student loan payments and kept interest rates low. Julia “makes her payments on time every month,” which she is able to do after starting her career as a web designer at age 23.

I hope to be so fortunate when I begin my career, for many college grads aren’t so lucky. Fifty-three percent of recent college grads are jobless or underemployed, making regular loan payments much more difficult than they are for Julia.
Even if one manages to enter the career of her choice, circumstances remain challenging for women. Among recent college graduates, full-time working women earn an average of 82 percent of what their male peers earn, according to a study released in October by the American Association of University Women. This remains true even after the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act that Obama signed at the beginning of his first term. It is crucial that Obama continues to support the Paycheck Fairness Act as well, which was voted down unanimously by Republicans in Senate in June.

By age 27, Julia has been working for four years as a web designer, and “her health insurance is required to cover birth control and preventive care, letting Julia focus on her work rather than worry about her health.” Four years later, Julie “decides” to have a child–and this word underlines that it’s a woman’s decision when or if to have a child. The word also reflects the empowered women Obama supports, as when he thanked his wife Michelle in his acceptance speech as “the woman who agreed to marry me” (an interesting contrast to Mitt Romney’s reference to his wife as “the best choice I’ve ever made” in his concession speech).

During Julia’s pregnancy, she is portrayed with her hand resting slyly on top of her stomach so as not to reveal any ring. While I respect Julia’s privacy, the real world is not as accepting of such ambiguity. Just this year, the private high school my boyfriend attended allegedly fired a teacher for getting pregnant without being married. The lawsuit is underway, but a tarnished reputation is hard to clean and a hostile employer is hard to return to.

So, while visiting with Julia has calmed my fears of a future reminiscent of The Handmaid’s Tale, I’m still afraid. I fear for entering the job market not only as a recent graduate during an economic downturn, but also as a woman. I fear for those women less lucky than white, middle class Julia and me, who can’t easily pay off their student loans or rely on their parents’ health insurance.

I’m afraid, but I’m also proud. Julia’s experience may be a privileged one, but it is also hopeful. Julia has been criticized as pandering to women, but Julia isn’t just one in a binder full of women. Julia stands for a set of promises Obama has made about the future, and it’s up to us to stand with Julia to make sure women and men of all races, classes and sexualities can get there together.

Taken from here.

 
Today, one of my best friends embarks on a new adventure. After spending nearly two decades in a high-powered Wall Street career, she’s starting her own business. She’s hoping to achieve a new kind of success, one that includes plenty of quality time with her kids.

She was the last holdout among our group of friends—the last one with traditional, benefits and 401K kind of career. Every single one of the seven women who started our book club nearly a decade ago has dropped out of the corporate life to forge a new, more flexible career.

I left my fancy-office and expense-account editorial job six months after I became a mom, tired of the political intrigue of the office and too many nights where I didn’t get to kiss my baby good night. And as kids came into the picture, more and more of us grew tired of a dictated 9 to 6 (or in my friend’s case, often 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.) schedule, of missing out on preschool parties and arguing with our mates over who was taking the day off to tend to a croupy kid. And so, one by one, we bought into the 21st-century version of having it all—sacrificing job stability and benefits for the greater flexibility and autonomy that freelancing provides. We are now all guns for hire—a TV producer, a writer/editor, a personal chef/caterer, a grants writer, a content strategist, an instructor and now, a corporate communications consultant. (By the way, this isn’t just a “mom” thing—even our childless-by-choice member ditched the corporate career a few years back.)

I think we all finally realized that all that time we were sacrificing in pursuit of our ambitions wasn’t necessarily going to pay off the way we hoped. In fact, Forbes columnist Meghan Casserly pointed out that women are often are viewed as workers who value their home lives more than their work. “To prove this notion wrong, women often feel compelled to demonstrate their commitment to the extreme.” And what comes of that extra time we were putting in, to the detriment of our families? Often, nothing more than exhaustion and burnout. It’s no wonder that Forbes reports that nearly a third of women who graduate from the Harvard MBA program drop out of corporate work within 15 years of graduation. (Most of them, because of the inability to get a good work-life balance during their kids’ formative years.)

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman had an interesting post last week, about the work-life balance we lost in the decades as women entered the workforce. While in countries like France, more women in the workforce has meant that everyone’s working fewer hours and enjoying more vacation and time with the family, here in the U.S., it’s just meant that everyone’s working more hours outside the home. And more hours of work means fewer hours for living—less time for the day-to-day drudgery of cleaning and cooking and caring for our families, and much less time to squeeze in something fun with our kids, as fellow Parents.com blogger Nick Shell pointed out yesterday. Somehow, I don’t think that’s what the previous generation of feminists was aiming for when they wanted us to have it all.

I’m thankful that I have a supportive spouse (with some excellent health insurance), a person who believed in me and my talent enough to gamble our financial security on a dream of greater flexibility. And it paid off in spades—as I’ve been even more successful as a freelancer than I was as a full-time editor, and I still get to slip away on occasion to read to my daughter’s kindergarten class. But sometimes I wish I had simply pushed for greater flexibility and kept the stability of that full-time gig. Because if so many of us simply drop out instead of pushing for the changes that will make work-life balance better for everyone, it isn’t going to happen.

So today, I’m celebrating with my friend. But I’m keeping an eye on what our choices may mean for our sons and daughters tomorrow.

Photo: Working mom by Vikulin / Shutterstock.com

Taken from here.
 


GoldieBlox Inc. is a toy company founded by 29-year-old Stanford engineer Debbie Sterling that’s in an enviable position at the moment.
The company has already sold out for the first pre-order delivery of its signature toy, scheduled for February.
It’s currently taking orders and quickly selling out of toys for the second delivery in April.
What’s even more interesting is the company’s purpose: inspiring the next generation of female engineers.
GoldieBlox is built around a series of interactive books and construction toys starring Goldie. She’s a young, curious girl who, like her creator, loves engineering and wants to build things.



The book and toy combo uses a series of lessons to introduce girls to engineering concepts, and it was designed based on a year of research that included prototype testing on more than 100 children.
The first toy was awarded the Editor’s Choice award at the World Maker Faire in New York in September.
A GoldieBlox Kickstarter campaign raised more than $250,000 in 30 days, which helped production get under way on the first book+toy.



The series will be available also ase-book downloads for iPad and iPhone, along with narration and animation.
“I’m creating GoldieBlox so that girls, from a young age, can learn that engineering is for them, too,” Sterling said.
Sterling, who studied engineering at Stanford, writes and illustrates the Goldie stories.
Her inspiration comes in part from her grandmother, who was a creator, too – she was one of the first female cartoonists at Disney and helped create “Mr. Magoo.”




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The Pentagon might let women become infantry troops, but do most female soldiers and Marines actually want to be front-line war fighters? Does it matter? No. Framing the debate as "but the ladies don't even want to fight!" is offensive and besides the point. More »

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On this day in 1431, Joan of Arc was handed over to be tried for heresy; in 1793, abolitionist and feminist Lucretia Mott was born; and in 1987, Aretha Franklin became the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Thanks to the just-launched Radical Women’s History Project, you can learn quick facts like these about the lives and the accomplishments of the world’s women–especially those who have been most ignored–every day. Shelby Knox explains the project:

In short, women and men have been denied for far too long the history of half of the population. When we know what the women before did and overcame, it becomes more possible to see ourselves doing and overcoming.
But just as women have been mostly left out of the broad discourse we call “history,” women of color, indigenous, queer, trans, disabled and non-Western women (and women living within all the intersection thereof) have been further marginalized, mostly left out of or tossed in as an afterthought in feminist attempts to add women to existing history.

As Shelby acknowledges, this is a going to be a difficult project for one (privileged) woman to take on, so she needs your help. Send tips and sources her way, and hopefully RWHP will become a useful resource and source of inspiration for all of us.

Taken from here.
 


Many local and global companies make it a priority to give back to their communities, whether it is a core part of their mission or not.
This year, we've seen many companies go above and beyond to protect the environment, help people in need, and solve the world's biggest problems.
We compiled a list of the 20 most inspiring companies based on their actions for good this year. These inspiring organizations, listed alphabetically, are role models for their efforts in social responsibility year-round.

Airbnb

Who they are: A billion dollar startup which lets people rent out their apartments to other people for short periods.
Why they're inspiring: Last year saw some less than flattering headlines about destroyed or ransacked apartments, but the company's more than made up for it this year. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Airbnb not only waived its fees for hosts and guests in the affected area, but created a whole new platform for discounted and free listings for refugees.

Clever

Who they are: A startup launched in June of this year, which helps third party developers integrate school data with their apps.
Why they're inspiring: From attendance records to grades and test scores, students produce a great deal of data, which schools keep electronically. Unfortunately, there's no standard way that this data's organized. Clever is attempting to solve that problem and create an API for education, so developers can create products that are tailored to individual students.

Code for America

Who they are: An organization that pairs professional coders with city governments to create accessible and efficient apps.
Why they're inspiring: Code for America brings innovative ideas and cutting-edge technology to local government. Programs like these are increasingly important for areas looking to serve their citizens well with reduced budgets.
The group's professional coders have already developed 28 apps for cities from Philadelphia to Chicago and beyond. This year, the organization launched an accelerator for disruptive civic technology startups and over 235 companies applied.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Police in Africa's last absolute monarchy Swaziland have banned women from wearing miniskirts and midriff-revealing tops, saying they provoke rape, local media reported on Monday.
Offenders face a six-month jail term under the ban, which invokes a colonial criminal act dating back to 1889.

"The act of the rapist is made easy, because it would be easy to remove the half-cloth worn by the women," police spokeswoman Wendy Hleta was quoted as saying in the Independent Online news.
The ban also applies to low-rise jeans.
"They will be arrested," she said.

Hleta said women wearing revealing clothing were responsible for assaults or rapes committed against them.
"I have read from the social networks that men and even other women have a tendency of 'undressing people with their eyes'. That becomes easier when the clothes are hugging or are more revealing," Hleta said.

However, the ban does not apply to traditional costumes worn by young women during ceremonies like the annual Reed Dance, where the ruling King Mswati III chooses a wife.
The flamboyant king already has 13 wives.
During the ceremony, beaded traditional skirts worn by young bare-breasted virgins only cover the front, leaving the back exposed. Underwear is not allowed.

The law was enforced after a march by women and young girls last month calling for protection against a spate of rapes in the impoverished kingdom, almost entirely surrounded by South Africa.
According to the media report, the march was blocked by police.

Copyright (2012) AFP. All rights reserved.

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For Christmas, four-year-old Gavyn Boscio of Garfield, N.J., wants a miniature dinosaur and an Easy Bake Oven.
But despite his professed love of cooking, Gavyn says that "only girls" play with the classic toy. In response, His big sister McKenna Pope, 13, is leading an online campaign to get Hasbro to phase out gender-specific pink and purple Easy-Bake Ovens and to feature boys in the toy oven's commercials and packaging, which have traditionally been geared towards girls.

The Change.org petition, addressed to Hasbro's CEO Brian D. Goldner, has 40,874 signatures to date.
After seeing McKenna's YouTube video about her little brother who loves cooking, Top chefs including Micha…

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More About: change.org, holidays 2013, online petition, videos

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Sun protection – Dionne putting Zinka on the Wahines’ faces. Photos: Author

Meet the Wahines.

“A 12-year-old girl once told me that when she surfs, she feels like she can do anything,” Dionne Ybara, founder of the Wahine Project, said to me while sitting on the beach in Punta de Mita, Mexico. I was helping Dionne out as an instructor at a couple of the clinics close to where I live.
She tied her shoulder-length, curly black hair into a ponytail, looked out over the ocean, and smiled. We were waiting for the Wahines (Hawaiian word meaning “girl” or “woman”) to show up for the 4pm surf clinic. Gentle waves lapped against the shore. The water was a brilliant blue even though clouds stretched across the sky.

The goal of the Wahine Project is to break down financial and geographical barriers that prevent girls (ages 7-17) from participating in the sport of surfing. By providing them with resources, education, and travel opportunities, the initiative offers them the chance to progress in their surfing. At the same time, they improve their health, self-esteem, leadership skills, and sense of social responsibility.
“The original idea for the Wahine Project was inspired by an organization called Skateistan,” Dionne told me as she picked up a piece of coral. “Oliver Percovich, based out of Afghanistan, started a skateboard program and included girls.” In Afghanistan, and other Muslim countries, hard-line Islam dictates that girls can no longer participate in sports after the age of 17, and in some cases as young as 12. Religion, Dionne realized, was just one of the many barriers that prevent girls from participating in sports.

One of the only waves of the day

Every Saturday from 9am-2pm, Dionne hosts a Wahine surf clinic in her small beach community of Pacific Grove, California. The mother of one local Wahine — whom we’ll call Mary — emailed Dionne to tell her about the improvement she saw in her 14-year-old daughter. Mary had been failing in school, getting into fights, talking to older guys, and at one point even ran away. Her mother noticed a change in Mary’s attitude after her first day with the Wahine Project: “Every week she counts down the days until Saturday when she gets to surf with the Wahines.”
During the Wahine Project’s recent South Swell Tour this past summer, Dionne hosted one-day surf clinics in numerous towns along the coast of California, followed by a week of clinics in Mexico. Dionne travels to Mexico about four times a year. Most trips she stays for one to two weeks, but over the winter holidays she spends a whole month in Mexico.

The Punta de Mita Wahines

A group of six girls, and one little boy, skipped along the sand towards us. The girls were aged about 7 to 10. We greeted the kids with smiles and hugs. One of the smaller girls, probably about 7 years old, wore red footless tights and a t-shirt for a bathing suit. I made a mental note to ask Dionne to bring some more swimsuits and board shorts down here — standard surfing attire. Most of the girls’ families can’t afford bathing suits. Some of the girls work every day to help support their families.
While Dionne applied Zinka, a thick, colored sunscreen, to the girls’ faces, another group of seven girls showed up. They were a bit older that the first, about 10 to 13 years old. One of the older girls, Juliana, was tall and slender with long, sun-bleached hair. She attended the first ever Wahine clinic two years ago and has participated in every clinic since. Juliana goes to the PEACE alternative school and works afternoons and weekends to help support her family. “One day when we were in Punta de Mita, a couple of years ago, Juliana couldn’t surf with us until she sold all her donuts. So, we bought all of them and she got to just be a kid for that afternoon.”

After some stretching on the beach, we hit the water. The local surf shops had lent us six boards, so the kids had to take turns catching the small waves. Those without a board swam around in the shallow water, demanding it be their turn again: “Otra vez!”
An hour or so later, Dionne announced, “One last wave.” The kids scrambled to get one last ride in. From the looks on their faces, they didn’t want to get out of the water, but Dionne lured them back to the beach with promises of presents — t-shirts and royal blue flower leis.

Over the past two years, the Wahine Project has worked with approximately 500 girls in four different countries — the Philippines, Mexico, USA, and the Gaza Strip. Just this summer alone, they took over 150 girls surfing on the South Swell Tour — from northern California to northern Mexico.
Dionne’s advice for the surfer girls out there: “Keep surfing and don’t stop. Surf with girls who are better than you, learn from one another, support one another, and love one another.”

To learn more about the Wahine Project, check out: www.thewahineproject.org and their Facebook page.

Taken from here.
 


With the holiday season upon us, we're pressed to socialize with our coworkers and spend time with family all at once.
The folks on this list have found an easy solution to that time crunch—all year round. Their cofounders are their spouses.
It's a daring choice to launch a company with your true love. If things go wrong, your jobs and your marriage are both at stake.

On the other hand, marrying your cofounder has advantages, too. Running a company is an all-consuming thing. Why not share that with your beloved?
While it makes sense for the couples, risk-averse investors have sometimes looked askance at these arrangements. But Silicon Valley and Silicon Alley have rich histories of married cofounders including the founders of Cisco Systems, Len Bosack and Sandy Lerner; VMware, founded by Diane Greene and Mendel Rosenblum; Bebo, founded by Michael and Xochi Birch; and Buddy media, founded by Michael and Kass Lazerow.

Casey Sackett and Jennifer Wong, cofounders of Alt12 Apps

When Casey Sackett and Jennifer Wong were expecting their first child, Jennifer found no easy way to document the experience.
"I had a pregnancy journal to hand-write notes, a couple of reference books for health information, a few photos of my growing baby bump on my phone," she says. She wanted all this stuff on her phone as a few other things, like a contact her mom's support group for advice.
So in 2009, Casey Sackett and Jennifer Wong launched Alt 12 Apps with BabyBump, a mobile app for expecting mothers. They've since launched two more apps.
So far, so good for the couple. They raised $1.26 million in venture capital last spring and more than 1.2 million people have downloaded their app.

Susan Gregg Koger and Eric Koger, cofounders of Modcloth

High-school sweethearts Eric and Susan Gregg Koger launched Modcloth thanks to Susan's love of vintage clothing.
Susan couldn't resist buying cute vintage pieces, even if they didn't fit her. Eventually, she and Eric went off to college and her dorm room grew so full of stuff they decided to sell it online.
Today Modcloth employs 300 and has raised money from Accel and Norwest.

Erika Trautman and Cameron McCaddon, cofounders of FlixMaster

Erika Trautman and Cameron McCaddon fled the high cost of the Bay Area to launch their startup in the relatively affordable locale of Boulder, Colo., where they joined the 2011 class of TechStars, an incubator.
The company makes a product that allows for easy, Web-based video editing—a tool that typically has required expensive desktop software.
Since its launch a few months ago, FlixMaster has grown to about 6,000 users and has gained the attention of some big partners, like Sony.




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An American woman stranded in a freezing storm survived six days in the wilderness by eating tomatoes and snow, and sheltering in a hollowed-out tree, as her boyfriend died trying to find help.
Paula Lane, 46, and her boyfriend Roderick Clifton, 44, were reported missing after their Jeep Cherokee got stuck on a dirt road in the Sierra Nevada mountains on Nov 29.

A search involving a helicopter failed to locate them but Miss Lane, a mother of twin 11-year-old boys, was eventually found by her brother Gary, who had refused to give up looking.
He discovered her crawling through the snow as he searched for her in a rented digger.
Miss Lane's older sister, Linda Hathaway, told reporters at a hospital in Carson City, Nevada: "We couldn't stop him (Gary,) we just let him do what he had to do. He had a feeling. They have a special bond, they really do.
"Last night, I gave her the biggest kiss I could without hurting her. My sister may be little, but she's mighty. She is a survivor and she loves life. God was looking over her.
"All I can tell you, is she wants to get better so she can get home to her babies. It's been a rough haul, waiting all those days, trying to know if she'd made it or not."

Miss Lane was suffering from mild frostbite on her toes and was malnourished, but doctors said her condition was remarkably good after nearly a week in the mountains.
According to Undersheriff Robert Levy in Alpine County, California, Mr Clifton had been trying out the four-wheel-drive on a 1989 Jeep Cherokee he had just bought, and drove around a locked gate blocking a dirt road in an area with no mobile phone reception.
Such roads had been closed that day by the US Forest Service ahead of an expected storm.
The Jeep got stuck in mud near a lake in the frigid Hope Valley and the couple spent the night inside the vehicle.

The following morning Mr Clifton attempted to walk to a highway six miles away but did not reach it.
Miss Lane, from Gardnerville, Nevada, stayed with the vehicle for four days before eventually attempted to crawl to safety, taking shelter in a hollow tree along the way.
She ate tomatoes that the couple had with them in the Jeep.

Miss Lane later told emergency services that she had come across Mr Clifton's body while making her way down the dirt road. It was recovered by searchers on snowmobiles.
Dr Vijay Maiya said: "Once she found out her loved one wasn't coming back she knew she couldn't stay in the truck and attempted to then go and find help on her own.
"She realised after she left that she couldn't make it, so she had a blanket and tomatoes and stayed in a hollowed tree until rescued. She was lucky.
"She is currently in stable condition and recovering nicely. She has a long road ahead of her, both physically and emotionally."



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Katie Day is a first-time author of The High-Heeled Leader: Embrace Your Feminine Power in Life and Work. She sat down with The Grindstone to talk about her mission to help women achieve confidence, assertiveness and self-belief. Working as a business coach and personal style consultant, she offers 10 tips for women looking to be the best they can be in life and work. 

Know your values.
What is it that you stand for in life? What would you like people to know about who you are and what you represent? Denying your values can create unnecessary stress in your life so be clear on what’s important in your life and ensure that you honor them with everything you do.

Acknowledge your magnificence.
Make sure you take ownership of your talents and skills in every area of your life. Resist the temptation to take yourself for granted. People respond to you based on the messages you give them and those messages come from how much you value yourself. To honor other people we have to be the best we can be – make sure you know how awesome you are!

Communicate from your heart and not your head.
Connect with the world and everyone in it from your soul. Your head may lead you down the path of conflict, confrontation and angst. On the other hand, your heart will allow you to step into your authentic feminine power and become a magnet for others to follow.

Remember the oxygen mask!
Walk away from your inner martyr and stop putting everyone else’s needs before your own. When we fly, the cabin crew tells us that if the plane loses pressure to attach our own oxygen mask before helping others. They say that for a reason. If we don’t ensure we look after ourselves first, we are in no condition to help others. You are as important as everyone else.

Get out of your own way.
Be really honest – do you suffer from the ‘poor me’ syndrome? Take time to look at, and get rid of, any limiting beliefs you may hold about yourself that may be getting in the way of you being the woman you were born to be. Acknowledge the power of your thoughts and be kind to yourself.

Honor your personal brand.
Celebrate every aspect of who you are as a woman in the world and don’t be afraid to own your beauty. Get to know your fabulous body and make friends with it. Ensure your visual image always represents your personality, talents and fabulousness, from the colors you wear to the shape and style of your clothes.

Have a voice with impact.
Whether you lead a team, speak at events, attend or run meetings, or simply communicate with friends and family, you have a voice. A strong voice, that deserves to be heard. Be confident with your words, speak with passion and truth and acknowledge your right to be listened to.

Know where you are living and move if necessary.
By that I mean are you living in the past, the future or the present? You can’t change the past, so be thankful for the lessons you have learnt and move on. The future is compelling and exciting, but don’t sacrifice the here and now to try and get there quicker. ‘Right Now’ is the greatest gift we have – which is why it’s called ‘the present.’ If you blink, you might miss it.

Stop living in fear.
Fear is fantasy experienced as reality. There is no such thing as a dark night of the soul, just a dark night of the ego. The ego will try and keep you in fear, but don’t let it. You cannot communicate from your heart if you are living in fear. Guilt is the ego’s way to try to get you to make wrong decisions, so don’t listen to it.

Take center stage into your spotlight.
If you don’t believe in yourself, no one else will either. If you don’t believe you’re worth it, neither will anyone else. People need you to be magnificent… it’s the only way they really benefit. Don’t let anyone – or yourself – down. Accept your brilliance and dance with life.
Featured photo:  Sergej Khakimullin/Shutterstock.com

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10 Tips From The High-Heeled Leader On How To Achieve Work/Life Balance is a post from TheGrindstone - Where work comes to play.

Taken from here.



Every child is asked at some point, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” Sometimes its far-fetched such as an astronaut, president or spy. Other times the jobs are realistic like doctor, teacher, writer. No matter what job you chose as a child, your gender may determine whether you pursued that career or not. A new LinkedIn study revealed that men are more likely to end up in their “dream career” than women.

The company surveyed 8,000 professionals globally about what they wanted to be when they grew up. Boys typically said athlete, lawyer or pilot, while girls said jobs like teacher, journalist and nurse. The company found that 30.3% of all participants were in their dream job or a related field, but those numbers change when looking at gender in the U.S.  The study revealed that 33.6% of U.S. men were in their dream career or a related field, compared to 23.8% of women, according to cbsnews.com.
It is true that there is nothing wrong with choosing a different job than the one you wanted  as a child. The most common reason for ditching a dream career path, for both men and women, was that the respondent became interested in something else as he or she got older. But, the numbers also showed that more women regretted not following their dream path. 40% of women were likely to still dream of their childhood choices, compared to 33.3% of men.

Another major finding of the study was more women wanted careers in the creative field than men. A little more than 37% of women dreamed of such careers as chef, photographer or designer, compared to 16.9% of men. Despite what path they chose, both genders agreed (70%) that taking pleasure and feeling fulfilled in your work was most important in their choice of dream job.
Photo:Shutterstock

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Women Are More Likely To Ditch Their Childhood Dream Jobs is a post from TheGrindstone - Where work comes to play.

Taken from here.



Cameron Diaz got candid with the Sunday Times recently, making the controversial case for why “every woman does want to be objectified” – while also making feminists worldwide stare blankly like movie critics did at Bad Teacher.
Oblivious to the brow-raising reactions her comments could bring, Diaz tells the paper, “There’s a little part of you at all times that hopes to be somewhat objectified, and I think it’s healthy.”
She even goes as far as to say that she personally finds skin-tastic, risqué photo shoots to be “empowering.”

I’m not some young girl with the photographer going, ‘Will you take your clothes off?’ I’m like [mimes stripping], ‘How does this look?’ They’re like, ‘Today we’re not going to put anything other than bras and heels on you, and I’m like, ‘These heels are not high enough.’

Diaz adds, “I know what I feel comfortable doing and I know my sexuality.”
The truth is that I don’t fully agree with her, but I also don’t fully disagree with her. I think every warm-blooded woman wants to feel sexy, and the way that women choose to do that should be completely up to them based on their comfortability level. It’s one thing if someone tells you to take off your clothes and another if you voluntarily take them off proudly.
What do you think? Here are seven tweets that say it all.
Photo: Joseph Marzullo/WENN.com

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Women On Twitter React To The Cameron Diaz Comment ‘Every Woman Wants To Be Objectified’ is a post from TheGrindstone - Where work comes to play.

Taken from here.
 
Lately my life has gone into "busy mode", but as those of us who work for ourselves often say, it's the good kind of busy. Working from home I often work late into the night and then I'm right back at it the next morning (sometimes without enough sleep). I really love the work I do...I might even be a bit obsessed, and so often it's really hard for me to push away from my desk. While I enjoy the work, lately my apartment is beginning to feel like an office where I also sleep instead of the place I come home to. More

Read More...

Taken from here.
 


Business Insider just released the jobs that most psychopaths call home. As clarification on the term, author Eric Barker says, “psychopath doesn’t just mean someone who cuts you up with a chainsaw — though the majority of people who do things like that are psychopaths….Psychopathy is a personality disorder that has been variously described as characterized by shallow emotions (in particular reduced fear), stress tolerance, lacking empathy, coldheartedness, lacking guilt, egocentricity, superficial char, manipulativeness, irresponsibility, impulsivity and antisocial behaviors such as parasitic lifestyle and criminality.”

And, contrary to a past study we reported by the University of St. Gallen that said that stock market traders display similarities to certified psychopaths, hence American Psycho, that occupation actually didn’t make it onto the top 10 list provided by the recently published book The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success.

1. CEO
2. Lawyer
3. Media (TV/Radio)
4. Salesperson
5. Surgeon
6. Journalist
7. Police Officer
8. Clergyperson
9. Chef
10. Civil Servant

So, if you work in the above relevant industries, you may not be wrong about your boss being psycho or your coworker actually being crazy.
Don’t forget CNBC’s report that coworkers who repeatedly backstab you, steal your ideas, get the same haircut as you, wear white after Labor Day and manipulate you may actually be psychotic. Believe it or not, there are about 3 million Americans or 1% of the population walking around (not in jail) that have psychopathic tendencies and they may be working in your office. Some of these are lower-level criminals but they are not as intelligent as their white collar counterparts. According to Former criminal profiler Gregg McCrary this type of psychopath should be considered high-functioning. Unlike lower-level criminals who might rob a bank and leave behind evidence, white collar psychopaths are much harder to catch. They’re intelligent, have great interpersonal skills, powerfully persuasive and able to disguise themselves very well aka they are your superstar coworker. “A psychopath’s approach to life is all about manipulation,” McCrary said. “They make great natural psychologists. They read people well and look at them and businesses as being there to serve their needs. They’re always assessing, “How can this particular job or person meet my needs? How can I exploit them?’” McCrary said.

The good news? If you work in these professions, pychopaths usually steer clear of them: Care Aide, Nurse, Therapist, Craftsperson, Beautician/Stylist, Charity Worker, Teacher, Creative Artist, Doctor, Accountant.

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These 10 Careers Tend To Have The Most Psychopaths is a post from TheGrindstone - Where work comes to play.

A packing list for any adventure:

You just can’t argue with Tereza Jarnikova’s logic.

Photo: dustinj

THOUGH IT’S OFTEN certainly fun to set off into the distance with nothing but a tunafish sandwich and boundless optimism (rather like Calvin and Hobbes) sometimes a bit forethought makes life much easier.

A notebook and writing utensil – A notebook is an indispensable thing to have. You can write down what time you have to be somewhere. You can remind yourself to buy eggs. You can write down the phone number of the attractive stranger with the cool hat who sat across from you on public transit. You can draw a map that will get you to the nearest post office. You can try to write a poem about taxis that look like sharks.
You can write yourself reminders to not be so neurotic, because though everything seems hectic and precarious right now, it will all likely work out. You can really write down anything you want, and you’ll probably feel better for having done so, and you’ll almost certainly quite like reading it later.

String – String is a very old tool. String is also versatile and darned useful. You can tie things together, replace your shoelaces, hold up your pants when your belt breaks, make a leash for a puppy, and play cat’s cradle (I can’t, but maybe you can). It’s a very easy thing to have around.
You can buy thin strong cord at any outdoor goods or climbing store for something like twenty cents a meter, roll it up, and put it in your pocket, just in case. Then, when string is needed, you can pull it out of your pocket, save the day, and instantly gain the reputation of being a sensible and resourceful person.

A pair of wool socks – I fully acknowledge that wool socks are not necessary in all climes- if you find yourself in, say, the Maldives or the Bahamas, you might not want to wear wool socks. However, I myself am from a rather cold climate, so I cannot overstate the importance of wool socks. Wool socks are a warm hug for your feet. Wool socks are pure comfort on a cold day. Wool socks are your mother telling you everything is going to be okay.
When I worked backcountry jobs, I would wear the same pair of pants without washing them for months on end but would go to great lengths to make sure I had two pairs of warm clean wool socks when I got out of bed every morning.

A book – A book resolves all sorts of suboptimal situations – long visa lines, the bus that isn’t coming, the bad weather day in base camp, the person you don’t want to talk to. If it’s a good book, it might also make you consider things you haven’t considered before or feel happy or feel sad or feel something else entirely. When you finish it, you can make friends by asking people you meet if they’d like to trade books with you. Books are great.

A means of legitimate identification – I struggle with this one. I rarely drive, so I don’t carry a driver’s license, and therefore I have found myself on several occasions trying to convince an impassive stranger to accept my Prague tramcard as proof of identity. Said tramcard features a smiling photo of me at age twelve, bowl cut and all, and said photo is crudely cut out of somewhere else and then laminated onto the card because the Prague Metropolitan Transit Authority really just can’t be bothered.

Sometimes, your travels and life situations in general run more smoothly if you have a means of convincing people that you are who you say you are.

Needless to say, it usually doesn’t work, and in light of this I’ve started carrying around legitimate ID. Sometimes, your travels and life situations in general run more smoothly if you have a means of convincing people that you are who you say you are.

Sturdy, well-made footwear – I currently only wear one pair of shoes. They cost almost two hundred dollars, which is more than I will willingly spend on just about anything, but I wear them every day and have done so for the past year and will hopefully continue doing so for the next several years. They are sturdy and waterproof and leather and unobtrusive-looking, and I put them on every time I leave my house.
I feel the importance of good footwear cannot be underestimated, especially if you are going on adventures. You want to be able to go great distances in comfort with dry feet. Therefore, invest in a good pair of shoes.

A water container – The human body is mostly water. Most people don’t drink enough water. Water containers are easy to procure and even easier to carry around. The options are many: Old plastic Coke bottle, jam jar, fancy water bottle you bought at a place that sells fancy water bottles, etcetera. The choice is clear.

The Last Chance Box – I believe the Czech Boy Scouts came up with this one. The idea is that you take a small sealable box (eg. a tea tin) and you fill it with things that might come in handy.
A non-exhaustive list: buttons and thread, a toothbrush with the handle sawed off, a pencil stub, a poem, loose change, a bus ticket, a calling card, a teabag, safety pins, packets of sugar, a pair of dice, band-aids, alcohol swabs, spare contact lenses, a razor blade, spare allen keys, a plastic bag, contraception, a pocketknife. I myself have never been a Boy Scout and anyway am not nearly organized enough to have a Last Chance Box, but the idea is a good one.

Sunscreen – There is no reason not to wear sunscreen. Sunscreen protects your skin from the sun’s harmful rays and prevents you from getting skin cancer, takes fifteen seconds to apply, and you can buy it at any drugstore. For me it’s always fallen under the category of things that are boring but good for you, but the pros (not getting skin cancer, protecting one’s skin) outweigh the burden of taking time to put on sunscreen. Anyway, it all depends on how you look at it.
A former boss once made sunscreen sound revolutionary and powerful and dramatic and cool with the following monologue: “Imagine UV rays. They are coming through the cosmos super fast and from super far away and their source is an inconceivably big ball of fire in outer space, and then they’re stopped by a mysterious blob of white goo.” This changed my perspective on sunscreen forever.

A yoyo – You don’t really need to carry around a yoyo, but why wouldn’t you?