Quote from Mary Wollstonecraft

"She declared there to be no greater misery, besides, than loving someone whom reason cannot respect."

Intro

Hi!

I'm Starr (adored nicknames include, but are not limited to: Starrshine, Starrlight, Starrfish, Starrissocoolwhoa)-

I'm from Gainesville, FL. I moved down here on my own 1.5 years ago to get a Bachelor's (and eventually a Master's) in Accounting.

I'm a senior now, I graduate with my Bachelors in May! I had two specific classes left to take, and I wanted to go full time. Hence I am taking one graduate level business law class (it's pretty interesting), two required business/accounting classes (important to my major), and Women and Leadership purely because I believe it will be interesting and teach me what thoughts are out there about women leaders, and ways to potentially work with and improve the situation for women leaders in the work force. It's also neat (and a little scary) to break out of the standard line of business classes.)

I work as a waitress part time, I love cats (I have three), I love to blog and take pictures and write the occasional Harry Potter fanfiction. I'm in an accounting organization and I love being involved in their funny recruiting videos (I like to make people laugh). I rent a room out of a house with a lot of cats, I love my roommates. My family lives far away (Ohio and Arizona).

I'm so used to business classes now this is quite new! Sitting in a circle, discussing, writing, MLA format (ah! It's been so long)-I'm excited, though.

I'm interested in women's leadership because I am a woman and I have and will be in all sorts of leadership roles in my life. I work at Steak n' Shake as a server, and I see women lead as managers, or experienced waitresses, or any waitress for that matter-as a server you are responsible and in charge of taking care of customers, navigating and multitasking the many steps of a meal and payment for said meal, not to mention socializing and creating a positive environment on behalf of the company you work for.

I see leadership in my family-my mother and step mother, my sister (she is the cook in the family). I see my teachers (all are women this semester) as inspiring leaders. I see leadership in the local grocery store (mothers, managers, a female cashier.) All these women to me are confident and know that they're capable to be in a position of power-why shouldn't they be? I feel that even the most stereotypical of adjectives to describe women as leaders "emotional, bitchy" - can be their greatest strength.

I view leadership as well-rounded when it comes to women-although I am biased. I feel a woman can sometimes lead in an even more thoughtful way (more sensitive to group member's feelings and ideas) than some men can. In any case, whatever your gender, leading is intense. To communicate and take control of a situation, lead people, encourage, motivate, spread knowledge and succeed-it's a lot of responsibility. If a woman is emotional, she can see others emotions and help to transform them into being helpful for the group's cause-or know when a group member needs support. A woman acting "bitchy" can simply mean that she is showing who's boss, or the leader-and since women aren't as commonly in leadership positions, this can be a change for some people-and change can be scary.

All in all, I'm looking forward to reading, writing, discussing, meeting and hearing other people's ideas, doing community service, and furthering my knowledge about women in the world.

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