[PHOTO Purchased]

Let me begin with a perfect example…

This Says It All, Y’all

Once upon a day Jo Diaz’s phone rang.

She: “Hello, Diaz Communications.”
He: “I’d like to speak with Joe Diaz.”
She: “This is she.”

Really pregnant pause……. (as we used to say in radio)

I’m now thinking to myself, laughingly: He thinks I’m a man. That’s so funny,” sarcastically to myself.

He’s thinking, “Damn, Jo, Chris, Pat… Oh, great. Who’s next?”

He: “Oh,” as he regains composure, then continues…

“My name is blah, blah, client, blah, blah, head hunter blah, blah, blah, looking for PR rep, blah, blah, winery manage PR.” He went through the motions (which we both knew were his lame attempt to recover and get off the phone), “And hey, I’ll get back to you.”

I’m think, “Yeah right, like that will ever happen.”

He did get back to me, though.

Good News/Bad News

Bad News, I didn’t get the job. (LOL)

Good News, a letter arrived from this dude: “Dear Pat, Although you’re so accomplished, we regret to inform you that you didn’t get the………”

Dude, I have my own agency. Really do your homework next time, okay, and play fair.

 

[PHOTO below: left to right: Emma Swain, Lauren Pesch, Karen MacNeil, Sarah Fowler, Regina Weinstein]

 

Continuing with Karen MacNiel’s earlier post

A Day in the Dust Like “You Had to Be There, Man” ~ Rutherford Dust Society

The All Female Panelists Included 

• Emma Swain, CEO, St. Supery
• Laren Leeds Pesch, Partner with Leeds & Pesch Vineyard Consulting, and Chavez & Leeds Family Vineyard
• Karen MacNeil, Author, The Wine Bible, and Wine Speed
• Sarah Fowler, Winemaker for PEJU
• Regina Weinstein, Director of Marketing, Honig Vineyard & Winery

[PHOTO Purchased]

Thoughts

This was meant to be an empowering panel and it was all that, perhaps even more. What it wasn’t… was a male bashing session. Not only did every woman in the room know that women are always physically challenged by men who need to have a patriarchal stance, who ONLY see women as lesser beings. It works for them, too, if women continue to allow that as their only way to think and live accordingly.

As time has evolved, since World War II… All of the Rosie the Riveters had to fend for themselves in the workplace, if their husbands/boyfriends went to war. The day the soldiers returned, many women weren’t ready to again become the Stepford Wife they had been. So, women have marginally been in the workforce since then. There’s an entire middle of the story here. Just follow the history dots to women slowly emerging.

As I listened to the panel, arranged by the Rutherford Dust Society, I was thinking of my friend Barbara Lyons Stewart:

In Yin, there’s female energy, based on the theoretical. It’s dark (black presentation) and mysterious. It has a negative magnetic field; notice within the Yin there’s also a dot of Yang.

And in Yang, there’s masculine energy, based on pragmatics. It’s light (white presentation) and straight forward. It has a positive magnetic field; notice within the Yang there’s also a dot of Yin.

PHOTO: Tyler Nix

As regards the attendees: it seemed to be about half and half male and female – Yin Yang

And we were all there to learn. Modern times equals a more modern understanding and some pretty modern men.

This took me to much deeper understanding into the balance of life. Perhaps it will for you, too. Perhaps you’re there already… To me, this proved that we’re now in an auto correct for more balanced female/male energy. There have been tribes where women have held and still hold high regard with secure men, who respect what women bring to the table. Everyone enjoys life more, with less stress. These women have had collective resolve.

 

There’s still one nagging question, though, and that’s equal pay for equal work. I once watched a documentary, I can’t even remember what it was, right now. The gist of it:

Women who moved via covered wagons to the plains originally didn’t work. They had just arrived and they had to tend the farm n order to eat. Men hunted and tilled the soil. Then, those who weren’t married or had any children (yet) were given the task of becoming teachers. In the beginning single women were living with their parents. So, they had a home. The guys setting up how much they’d pay women for teaching their children took into account that these women were already being cared for. Consequently, the salary was minuscule, compared to what men were earning for the same amount of hours.

Perhaps these women might even marry in time. That would be the leap from home to being under another protected roof. That’s the American history of women coming into the work place, at the end of World War II.

Women have slowly – ever so lowly – been migrating into the work force. In 2018, it isn’t about the battle of the sexes, when it’s about the fairness. Many men are becoming much more in tune with women just getting the job done, and maybe even paying them equitably.

Everyone, though? No.

More? Yes.

As evidenced by the men on the Rutherford Dust Board, for instance? The male members on this board are now outnumbered by women. Hence, the way the Rutherford Dust presented it’s annual Event/Meeting. When women lead a panel today, it’s still about education. It’s still about education, curiously, as evidence by this panel. Just look at their job titles:

• Emma Swain, CEO, St. Supery
• Laren Leeds Pesch, Partner with Leeds & Pesch Vineyard Consulting, and Chavez & Leeds Family Vineyard
• Karen MacNeil, Author, The Wine Bible, and Wine Speed
• Sarah Fowler, Winemaker for PEJU
• Regina Weinstein, Director of Marketing, Honig Vineyard & Winery

OVER-ALL OBSERVATION:

 

All female panel focused on education over ego issues. Perhaps it’s because men see themselves as always having to compete, like life is a constant football game. Meanwhile, women see their jobs as educating… Because that’s what this panel did… It educated the attendees, had more warmth, and wasn’t competitive with their peers on the panel. Each had a job to do and was self assured. It was a very subtle paradigm shift, but it was a powerful one.

Past Rutherford Dust days… Men asserted their competence, talked about their wines, their vineyards, it all had a “what I do” element to it. “As a woman, I appreciated the change, and the direction that the Rutherford Dust Society took this year. A great experiment will be to watch when a blended panel happens with both men and women, to watch what each sex has to say,a nd how much they get to say it. Will one sex talk over another sex?

Women on this Rutherford Dust panel all shared these same qualities:

• Quiet leadership
• Passion for what they do
• Complete competence
• Ever expanding curiosity
• Fairness to others

The men in the room also shared these same qualities, because they were all modern men, equal – and not threatened – by these powerful women.

[PHOTO Purchased]