Arianna: Merging the Mogul and the Mother
It's big news. The merger, I mean.
It's not big news that our country is still lacking in full equality for women---under-represented in Congress, boardrooms, the highest levels of the corporate structure. And it's no big news that in our youth obsessed culture, the older women get, we can become not only irrelevant, but also invisible.
The issue of "invisible women" is the latest piece I posted on the Huffington Post. So how ironic that while women are still commenting on my post, comes the news of the merger---news that demonstrates in a nano-second what women ---our age or any age--can do.
Arianna not only decimates the Invisibility issue; she also personifies another much-discussed theme for women: reinventing yourself. With the possible exception of Madonna, maybe no woman over 50 has done it better.
From the right to the left, from the spouse of a politician to seeking office herself, from a would-be politician to a powerhouse---the merger cements Arianna as an American institution, and a revolutionary in terms of the media.
And whether you love or hate her politics, it’s hard to argue with her business savvy.
Maybe most of all, she's provided a role model for women in using her power---the power we all have---to change.
Arianna is blessed with intellect and abilities that make her an outlier in many ways---yet what she’s done on a large scale is what women all ages, all over the country are doing---starting new careers, new businesses, taking a great leap into the unknown.
And though she’s a mogul, she’s also a mother, who makes it clear she's a woman playing what was once a man's game. As easily and as often as she shares her political views, she uses her platform to share the other side of her life---things men in her position don’t talk about---from shared vacations with her ex-husband to a video she just posted today. In the video she comes across as a typical mom, recommending something everyone reading this can identify with: the value of getting MORE sleep:
Though I’m a little surprised Arianna finds time to sleep-- especially today.
I've also always been surprised she chose to use her ex-husband's name for her venture--if she hadn't, we'd all be reading the Stassinopoulos Post.
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