Posted on Monday, October 6, 2003

WOMEN'S EXPO 2003 BRINGS SUPER SERVICES AND SPEAKERS
By Ann Parker (Special to the Santa Cruz Sentinel)

On October 8, attendees of the first annual Santa Cruz Women’s Expo at the Cocoanut Grove can take advantage of excellent networking opportunities and visit a wide range of vendors offering information from financial planning and parenting to skin care and clothing. They can enter a drawing for an Ultimate Spa package and other prizes and enjoy a fashion show and health and fitness demonstrations.

They’ll also learn the answer to that burning question, “If Kryptonite can defeat Superman’s mighty powers, what’s the greatest challenge to his female counterpart, Superwoman?”

The answer is Superwoman herself, say Karin Strasser Kauffman and Peggy Downes Baskin, co-authors of the lively new book, “Beyond Superwoman: 25 Top CEOs show Us How to Get a Life.”

As the keynote speakers at Santa Cruz Women’s Expo 2003, Kauffman and Baskin will share observations, theories and secrets they discovered while interviewing 25 women at the peak of their fields in the mega-male bastion of Silicon Valley.

”We purposely picked Silicon Valley,” says Karin, “because it’s considered the toughest work arena in the world for a female to prove herself.”

Highly successful themselves, these two women were the perfect team to attempt such a daunting task. Peggy Downes Baskin, Ph.D., is the co-founder of an innovative program to aid re-entry women, a political scientist specializing in The Presidency and Women and Power, and a teacher of Women’s Studies at UCSC. Karin Strasser Kauffman describes herself as “a political scientist by profession, a political activist by inclination.” A teacher of political science and Women’s Studies for over 20 years at universities including UCLA and Whittier College, she served as Monterey County Supervisor for two years and established a “Women Mentoring Women” program at Monterey Peninsula College. Both women are long-time residents of the Carmel area.

This dynamic duo ventured into private inner offices – often escorted by security – and even into women’s homes to interview such pinnacles of power as Barbara Beck (senior vice president of Cisco Systems), Donna Dubinsky (co-founder of the Palm Pilot) and Susan Hammer (former mayor and mover – shaker of San Jose).

The 25 women were all asked questions centered about a key concept: how to have it all? How can a modern woman juggle being the poised professional, the mega-mom, the faithful friend, the vital volunteer and the dutiful daughter, all at once?

She can’t say the Silicon Valley superstars, and described their own histories of concessions and change. Downes and Kauffman chronicle a new paradigm replacing the “be it all and have it now” precept that drove women in the ‘80s and ‘90s to attempt the impossible in their professional and personal lives.

Instead, “Beyond Superwoman” tracks extraordinarily successful women who have prioritized and sacrificed, deferring some life goals while pursuing others full-force. Their stories demonstrate leaving the Superwoman superhighway for a more independent fast lane, looking toward the future and planning their lives more realistically.

”We wanted real-life, practical advice,” says Kauffman, “and we got it.”

Baskin agrees, and credits much of the one-year project’s success to the extensive work that preceded it.

In fact, she says, resources leading to the new book go back as far as 1995 when she co-authored “The New Older Woman,” a book that evolved from a series of conversations organized at Big Sur’s famed Esalen Institute.

Two years ago, in direct preparation for “Beyond Superwoman,” Karin and Peggy gathered what they called “a F.E.W. (Focused, Energetic and Wise) Good Women,” 15 Bay Area women at the top of their male-dominated fields. Those participants included such influential females as MRC Greenwood, chancellor of UCSC; Sister Julie Hyer, president and CEO, Dominican Santa Cruz Hospital; and Anna Caballero, Salinas mayor and attorney.

With input and inspiration from the “F.E.W. Dream Team,” most of whom had self-avowed Superwoman histories; the authors devised a questionnaire to use with their Silicon Valley Counterparts.

Armed with that list of questions, Kauffman and Baskin addressed the challenging task of requesting time from 25 spectacularly busy businesswomen with calendars they cheerfully described as “schedules from hell.”

”We were met with openness and surprising candor,” says Karin. “And it was hard work. But we found tremendous rewards.”

The two also found some surprises, including similarities between the three resource groups despite age differences (the Esalen group ranged from 55-89 and the F.E.W. women were 40-65, while the “silicon 25” averaged about 30-44).

Notably, nearly all of the women shared similar male mentor or role models, usually their fathers – not illogically, considering their male dominated fields of expertise. And one shared aspect the researches noted repeatedly: all of the women have a love of what they do and a passion to do it well.

However, the Silicon Valley women also demonstrated decided differences, from external (these top echelon executives often work in jeans and no makeup) to internal: the younger group all shared an extraordinarily high sense of self and self-determination not always shared by their older counterparts.

”For my generation,” says Baskin, “the future was our destiny, not something we planned.”

In the preface of “Beyond Superwoman,” Gail Sheehy (author of the 1976 landmark book, “Passages”) praises Kauffman and Baskin as “two smart and gutsy women” whose work unearths “painfully honest advice” for its readers.

Some of that advice can be distilled into a few basic guidelines:

• Concentrate on one thing at a time, sequence your life.

• Prioritize and re-prioritize constantly.

• Make choices and sacrifices, then move on.

• Look to the future – take the long view.

• Expect, prepare for and embrace change.

• Build a strong support system and network.

• Take care of your body and listen to it.

• Be true to yourself and your ethics.

• Maintain your personal work style.

• Learn when and how to “say no for now”


What do Karin Strasser Kaufmann and Peggy Downes Baskin think of the Santa Cruz Women’s Expo 2003’s networking possibilities and information everything from mortgages to parenting?

”I think it’s high time for such an event,” says Karin. “Women at every level need to find products and services that best serve them. I’m also looking forward to meeting new people – there’s no substitute for face-to-face discussion.”

Peggy is enthusiastic about the audience feedback they’ve learned to expect. “Women come up to us with wonderful stories; we learn so much from them,” she says, noting that an essential aspect for any woman is strong support systems, from childcare to professional networking.

Sponsored by the Santa Cruz Sentinel, the Santa Cruz Women’s Expo will be held 3-7 p.m. on Wednesday, October 8th at the Cocoanut Grove, 400 Beach Street in Santa Cruz. The event offers a variety of information and services, with a number of organizations and nonprofit agencies represented.

Every $5.00 Expo admission donation will be contributed to the Walnut Avenue Women’s Center in Santa Cruz; proceeds from the opportunity drawing, with the grand prize of the Ultimate Escape spa package from the Claremont Resort, benefit the American Cancer Society’s Breast Cancer Fund.

Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel

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