The women style of being

Lucyanna made a comment about "Powerful women with male characteristics".

These women mastered how to play the game, to act by the rules of men. I don't blame them, they attempt to gain recognition within the existing rules.

But sometimes, we see women put in positions of power, because of specific female abilities. Other times, women make strange declarations that men could never think of.

Christine Lagarde

One example that comes to my mind is Christine Lagarde, when she formalized her candidacy for the general direction of IMF in May 2011. She is currently the 9th most powerful woman in the world, according to Forbes. 'The selection of the head of the IMF or the World Bank should be based on merit, competence and transparently', hammered Pranab Mukherjee. It turned out that among her assets, the fact that she had less testosterone than most people among candidates was a decisive element for her.

So an excess of testosterone is not recommended in high positions of power... (ie sex). Male attributes were disqualified, and for the first time, a woman has been positioned as DG of IMF.

Gunilla Carlsson

My second example is something that caught my attention last year.

Sweden launched on April 4, 2011 a website that allows taxpayers to see what happens to public financing money, in regards to development aid projects. This website aims to fight against corruption.

“You have transparency or not,” said Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation Ministry for Foreign Affairs Gunilla Carlsson at a Bank-IMF Spring Meetings open data event. “It's like being half pregnant. You can't be half pregnant. This is something we have to do.” (ref Open data opens bank)

Gunilla Carlsson used the female experience of motherhood to make an association to the concept of transparency!

Gilda Farrell

My third example is the great woman who is behind the Edgeryders project, Gilda Farrell, Head of the Social Cohesion Research and Early Warning Division, Directorate of Democracy at the Council of Europe. I admire her and I love listening to her talk. There is much wisdom and experience in her words.

When the platform was launched, back in November 2011, blog posts were written to present the Edgeryders team members. I really enjoyed how Gilda Farrell talked about her son. (ref, Meet the team: Gilda)

'Lastly, there is a personal reason for my involvement (at Edgeryders). I am a mother. I have a son who is an engineer and I found myself having to encourage and support him when going through tough selective processes to become employed after graduation. Rather than encouraging him, the first experiences destroyed his self-confidence. Employers were requiring abstract leading and cooperation skills while his technical knowledge was not valued. And now that he’s eventually succeeded, he told me that he would’ve wanted, whilst in university, to be trained in managing human relations and in dealing with hierarchical positions and communication at the workplace. He had to learn all of these through experience.'

Her experience with her son gave her the necessary determination and I am convinced that it helped her persuade the Council of Europe to agree to set up the experimental Edgeryders project.

When women are themselves, when they are true and when they speak with their hearts, it gives rise to opportunities, which differ from the manners laid out by men.