Dr. Janet Rose Wojtalik’s empowering message is to teach our daughters to be lifelong learners, to think for themselves and to respect their authentic self, instead of assuming the outward appearance created by society. This is how we grow strong girls and equip them for successful lives as leading women.
Raised by supportive parents who valued education, Janet was puzzled by her own fear of failure. Her search for where it originated lead her to research women and leadership for her doctoral dissertation. Her research won a Clark Scholarship Award and propelled her into serving as a parenting resource with a national speaking platform.
Dr. Janet finally realized that it was her own mother’s cautionary words during childhood warning her of the possibility of failure that caused her to fear failing even as an adult. Messages given out of love can create lifelong barriers that make it difficult for us to reach our potential. In fact, Janet warns parents that they must be aware of how critical both their actions and their words are in forming their children’s belief systems about themselves.
Leading Women Is for Women and Men.
Although Dr. Janet’s work focuses on girls and women, she stresses that we must serve together. It is the mix that is important. If men remain silent, they stop the effort to build leading women. In her research, she found one of the strongest leading women was raised by her father like one of the boys. She did not have the self-imposed glass ceiling Janet sees in so many women who fear to lead.
Dr. Janet serves on an administrative board where she is the only woman, but working with these men for 18 years has shown them all how important it is to have a mix of males and females. Their viewpoints balance each other. The fellow members rely on Dr. Janet to supply empathy and perspectives about long range effects of proposed actions.
Dr. Nancy adds that the book, Leading Women, is not gender-biased and Janet agrees and hopes that people don’t think it is a man bashing book. On the contrary both women discuss the need for men to read it as well, to discover the importance of mentors and positive messages to support and empower more leading women.
Parenting to Empower Women
To find out more about Janet’s important work on how to raise strong girls, read her free e-book, Seven Secrets of Parenting Girls, and her new workbook, Raising Successful Women from Childhood to Woman. Find out more about her and her chapter in Leading Women, “Seven Keys to Unlocking Female Leadership.” She has valuable lessons to teach about what stops girls from pursuing traditional male careers and how to get past those barriers.