Being a powerful woman has always meant creating your own narrative and being able to make decisions independently while breaking from the traditional status quo set up for women.
In almost every measure of success in today’s world, we see the odds disproportionately stacked against women but every year, we see more women rising up to take challenging leadership roles across every major sector in the world.
Women like Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala are rising and are opening more possibilities for more women to rise too.
Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, a Nigerian-American economist and International Expert has challenged and inspired women, especially in African countries, by becoming the first woman and first African to win the Director-General post of the 164-member World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Nkiru Olumide a Nigerian female enthusiast has outlined five lessons every working girl should learn from NOI, as the former Finance Minister is fondly called.
The first being how she helped her country Nigeria to come out of the $30 billion dollars of external debt from the Paris Club in 2005 as a Finance Minister. Which she termed accomplishments by impact. As such every working girl should strive to create an impact in whatever role they find themselves in.
She advised that people should stop thinking that politics is a dirty game. Young girls shouldn’t give up on their dreams on the grounds that they know nobody or they can’t penetrate the system. She noted that Ngozi Iweala engaged and lobbied at the highest level and as a result, many presidents backed her up publicly. She instructed young ladies to always try and wherever they find difficulties, they should get others to help them.
Olumide brought to attention how Dr.Ngozi Iweala used the power of the media to attain her goal. She was able to communicate her message to various people who not only heard her voice but also supported her and her beliefs. And when the race was tough, she kept her hope alive and continued with her life. So, every working girl should emulate her style.
Dr. Okonjo-Iweala believed in herself by declaring to the whole world that she was the right person for the job. And despite other competing resume, she stood out with her faith and confidence. Thus, every lady working on something or aiming at anything should always believe in herself. Nkiru noted that NOI declared herself just like any man would. A self-declared “doer”.
When women are given more opportunity to participate in building the economy, it gives rise to benefits and results that extend beyond the women’s community to impact societies and nations as a whole.
In past years, women were particularly concentrated in the more invisible activities and job roles but with the increase in the rise of more women taking up challenging roles in the workforce, the status quo has changed. And women like Dr. Ngozi Iweala have overtime become world changers and role models for growing and aspiring working girls.