FEMALE EMPOWERMENT

FEMALE EMPOWERMENT

CASE STUDY: SUCCESSFUL FEMALES IN THE LARGE WORLD OF BUSINESS

Introduction 

     In this series of Female Empowerment, we’ll be considering females who have successfully made it in the large business world. Though it is commonly believed that the females have no place in the business world and that the males are the dominant species in the business world but I’d like to let you know that this is an inappropriate and primitive belief hence, it should be abolished. 

 The belief that females will forever be limited to the walls of a kitchen is unethical and degrading considering the fact that in our world today, we have millions, running into billions, of females who have successfully established a great empire for themselves and uplifted the names of their homes, despite the limitations set in front of them by the primitive belief and acts of the people of their various societies.

  Some of these influential and great business women include:

• Oprah Winfrey

• Indra Nooyi

• Folorunsho Alakija

• Beyonce

• Cher Wang

• Wang Laichun

• Arianna Huffington

• Sofia Vergara

• Sarah Blakely

• Susan Wojcicki

• Angela Merkel

• Debbie Fields

• Sheryl Sandberg

• Gina Rinehart

     

    The names listed above are nothing but a few of females who have made it in the business world and have successfully built great business empires. The females listed above are all successful in their respective career lines. Amongst all listed above, my focus today will be on our very own Oprah Winfrey.

OPRAH WINFREY

 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND EDUCATION

     Oprah Winfrey was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi on January 29, 1954. Her mother was an unwed teenage girl named Vernita Lee. Her father was a U.S. army private named Vernon Winfrey. Oprah's mother named her after a character in the Bible named "Orpah" from the Book of Ruth. However, her name was misspelled "Oprah" on the birth certificate and she has been called Oprah ever since.  When Oprah was still young, her mother moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to find a job. Oprah stayed in Mississippi and lived with her grandmother, Hattie Mae. Life with Hattie Mae was interesting. Young Oprah lived on a farm without running water. She had lots of difficult chores including getting water from the well each day and carrying it up to the house. She also learned to read and write by the age of three, mostly from studying the Bible. She started by reading the Bible and soon began speaking at her church. Later, she would recite memorized verses to her grandmother's friend.

  When Oprah turned 5, she started kindergarten. Because she already knew how to read and write, she was quickly moved into the first grade.

At 6 years old, Oprah's grandmother became ill. The young girl was sent to live with her mother and half-sister, Patricia, in a Milwaukee boarding house. While Vernita worked as a maid cleaning houses, there were times when she had to rely on welfare to support the family. Her job kept her very busy, and what little free time she did have with her children was mostly spent with Patricia.

Another Move—to Nashville

After a little over a year in Milwaukee with her mother, Oprah was sent to live with her father and stepmother, Zelma, in Nashville, Tennessee. They were happy to have the 7-year-old living with them because they could not have children of their own. Finally, Oprah could enjoy the experience of having her very own bed and bedroom.

Oprah was enrolled in Wharton Elementary School and allowed to skip a grade once again. The third grader was thrilled that her parents took her to the library and valued her education. The family attended church regularly, and Oprah found more opportunities for public speaking, even at this young age.

    After completing third grade, Vernon took his daughter back to Milwaukee to visit her mother. In the time since Oprah had left, Vernita had given birth to a baby boy named Jeffrey. The three children shared a room in the family's two-bedroom apartment.

Vernon returned in the fall to take Oprah back to Nashville, but she chose to stay with her mother and began the fourth grade in Milwaukee. In her mother's absence, Oprah turned to the television for company and had her first thoughts of being famous one day.

  

Oprah's Experience With Sexual Abuse

Oprah was 9 years old when she was first sexually abused. While babysitting Vernita's children, Oprah's 19-year-old cousin raped her, took her out for ice cream, and told her to keep it a secret. She did, but this would not be the end.

Within the next few years, she would face more abuse from a family friend as well as an uncle. She kept silent about all of it for years.

Oprah was unable to talk about her sexual abuse with her mother, and Vernita offered very little direction to the teenager. As a result, Oprah started to act out. She would skip school, date boys, steal money from her mother, and even run away. Vernita could not handle this behavior for long, so Oprah was sent back to Nashville to live with her father.

When she was just 14, Oprah realized that she was pregnant. She was able to hide this news from her parents until she was seven months along. She went into early labor on the same day she told her father about the pregnancy. She delivered a baby boy, who died within two weeks.

    

A change came about for 16-year-old Oprah when she first read the autobiography of Maya Angelou,  "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." 

This experience changed her outlook, and she began to get her life back on track. She concentrated on her education and returned to public speaking, a talent that would start to take her places. It began in 1970 when she won a speaking competition at the local Elks' Club. The prize was a four-year college scholarship.

Oprah's First Experience in Journalism

The next year, Oprah was selected to attend the 1971 White House Conference on Youth in Colorado. She represented Tennessee along with one other student. Upon her return, Nashville's WVOL radio station requested an interview with the enthusiastic teenager.

This led to another opportunity when the station asked her to represent them in the Miss Fire Prevention beauty pageant. Oprah became the first African-American to win the competition.

Oprah's first experience in journalism would come from this same radio station. 

After the pageant she was offered a job as a news reader on the local radio. She loved the job and knew then that her future was going to be in radio and TV. 

A Nashville News Anchor 

While still attending college, Oprah got a call from the CBS news station in Nashville. They wanted her to be their news anchor. She couldn't believe it. At first she thought she should turn the job down and concentrate on school, but then she realized what a great opportunity it was. She took the job and became the first female African-American news anchor in Nashville history. She was only nineteen at the time. 

Becoming a TV Talk Show Host 

In 1976, Oprah moved to a TV station in Baltimore, Maryland. At first she worked as a news anchor, but things weren't working out very well. She was moved to a TV talk show called People are Talking. The first day on the job, Oprah knew she had found her calling. She said it was "like breathing." Soon her show became very popular. She was then recruited to host a morning TV show in Chicago called A.M. Chicago. When she arrived in Chicago, the show was in last place in the ratings. The first place show was the popular Phil Donahue Show. However, in just a few months, A.M. Chicago had taken over first place. A few years later, in 1986, the show was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show and was shown all over the country. 

Fame 

With the launch of The Oprah Winfrey Show, Oprah became one of the most famous people in the country. Over 10 million people watched her show every day. Oprah also made a lot of money. Her show made $125 million the first year and Oprah's income was $30 million. She had come a long way from her grandma's farm without running water. 

Acting 

Even though Oprah's talk show was a huge success, she had always wanted to work as an actress in the movies. She got her first major role in the movie The Color Purple in 1985. It turned out that Oprah had a real talent for acting. She did such a great job that she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Over the years, Oprah has acted in other films such as The Women of Brewster Place (1989), Beloved(1998), The Princess and the Frog (2009), and The Butler (2013). 

     

      Besides her national talk show and acting, Oprah is famous for other activities. She co-founded the cable TV media company Oxygen Media and started a magazine called O: The Oprah Magazine. She even founded her own TV network called the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) in 2009. Oprah also started a charity called the Angel Network. She started her own production company called Harpo Productions which is actually Oprah spelt backwards.

        Oprah Winfrey’s net worth has been estimated to be around $3billion with no addition of the extra money she gets from other businesses she’s involved in. She was named the most influential woman in the world.

Conclusion

     Oprah Winfrey’s success story and biography shows that even females can be great in the large business world. 

You think of it, for her to be named the most influential woman in the world, then she’s attained heights unimaginable. 

Let’s use her success story to motivate our females and make them feel treasured and not like a worthless piece of rag. 

     Oprah had big dreams, in the same way, I’ve got bigger dreams and I think I speak for all females when I say

     WE ARE LEADERS AND WITHOUT US, THE WORLD WOULD LOOSE IT’S BALANCE.

 WITHOUT;

 A MOTHER

A SISTER

A FRIEND

A BEST FRIEND

A GIRLFRIEND

A FIANCEE

AN ESPECIALLY A SOULMATE AND WIFE…

The world would be thrown out of balance. So let's empower our girls to empower the world.

Having said that, let’s say 

“ NO TO GENDER DISCRIMINATION IN OUR SOCIETY”.

    

Thank you…..

 Next article …. Should females participate in politics???...

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