Sarah Deal Burrow/Marine Corps Library
Do smart, committed and empowered girls grow into Mighty Relevant Moms? You bet! With Mother’s Day still fresh in our minds and our hearts, let’s look at a few of today’s highly influential and accomplished leaders—in fields ranging from politics to entertainment to finance— and see what they have to say about careers, motherhood….and life!
Lieutenant Colonel Sarah Deal Burrow is the first female aviator in Marine Corps history. She earned her wings in 1995 and served on active duty until 2004 when she transferred to the reserves. Named to Working Mother Magazine’s list of “Most Powerful Women In The Military,” Sarah now flies the its largest helicopter, the CH-53E Super Stallion---wow! She and her husband have three young sons. Says Sarah, “Some days, a word from home or a video is what gets us all through the hard stuff.”
Who holds the no. 1 spot on the Forbes list of the world’s 20 most powerful moms? Former U.S. Secretary of State and presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton! In her soon-to-be released memoir, Hillary, mother of Chelsea, writes, "From the moment I first held Chelsea in my arms in the hospital in Little Rock, I knew my mission in life was to give her every opportunity to thrive. Now that she's expecting a child of her own, I'm preparing for a new role that I've looked forward to for years: grandmother." Say Awwww!
Lieutenant Colonel Sarah Deal Burrow is the first female aviator in Marine Corps history. She earned her wings in 1995 and served on active duty until 2004 when she transferred to the reserves. Named to Working Mother Magazine’s list of “Most Powerful Women In The Military,” Sarah now flies the its largest helicopter, the CH-53E Super Stallion---wow! She and her husband have three young sons. Says Sarah, “Some days, a word from home or a video is what gets us all through the hard stuff.”
Who holds the no. 1 spot on the Forbes list of the world’s 20 most powerful moms? Former U.S. Secretary of State and presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton! In her soon-to-be released memoir, Hillary, mother of Chelsea, writes, "From the moment I first held Chelsea in my arms in the hospital in Little Rock, I knew my mission in life was to give her every opportunity to thrive. Now that she's expecting a child of her own, I'm preparing for a new role that I've looked forward to for years: grandmother." Say Awwww!
Kerry Washington Kerry Washington is more than a gifted and successful actress (as if that isn't an amazing accomplishment in and of itself!). In addition to appearing on Working Mother Magazine’s list of the 50 most powerful moms of 2015, Kerry served as ambassador for an organization that empowers domestic violence and financial abuse survivors, and is also among a group of advisors to V-Day, the global movement to end violence against women and girls. Kerry says, “The thing that has changed the most about me since I became a mom is that my heart keeps getting bigger and bigger.”
Raised in a small town in Virginia, Sylvia Mathews Burwell graduated from Harvard cum laude and became a Rhodes scholar at Oxford. Her latest gig is Secretary of Health and Human Services, which means she’s in charge of a range of important U.S. agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sylvia is one busy mom! “The first time I held my daughter and son, I knew I wanted to do everything I could to give them a healthy start in life,” she says. “In a world of unknowns, we can all make sure that our families don’t have to needlessly suffer from easily preventable diseases. That’s security that every child deserves.”
Raised in a small town in Virginia, Sylvia Mathews Burwell graduated from Harvard cum laude and became a Rhodes scholar at Oxford. Her latest gig is Secretary of Health and Human Services, which means she’s in charge of a range of important U.S. agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sylvia is one busy mom! “The first time I held my daughter and son, I knew I wanted to do everything I could to give them a healthy start in life,” she says. “In a world of unknowns, we can all make sure that our families don’t have to needlessly suffer from easily preventable diseases. That’s security that every child deserves.”
Zhang Xin
A true “rags-to-riches” story, Zhang Xin was a poor factory worker in Beijiing, China who became the seventh-richest self-made woman in the world. She saved for five years to have enough money to go to London, where she eventually earned a master's degree at Cambridge. After a career on Wall Street in New York City, she returned to her native country, where she met her future husband and business partner. Together they formed SOHO, now the largest real estate developer in China. "I think women of our generation went through Cultural Revolution, went through hardship, coming from nowhere, and suddenly see China's amazing opportunity," said Zhang, who has two teenage sons. "So women just seized the opportunity."
Ranked by Forbes as one of the world’s most powerful women, Sri Mulyani Indrawati is COO and managing director of World Bank Group, an international financial institution that offers help, advice and resources to more than 100 developing countries. Its goal? To end extreme poverty within a generation! Sri spends a lot of time advocating for gender equality across the globe. “When women succeed, they bring diversity into policy making and inclusiveness into policy,” she says. “They are powerful drivers of growth and formidable fighters of poverty. In other words, they are a force no country, no society, no company, and no family can afford not to unleash fully.”
We couldn’t agree more!
Of these amazing moms, who do you admire most? Why?
Leave a comment below, tweet us @MightyFingers, send us a message on Facebook, or email us at [email protected]!
Ranked by Forbes as one of the world’s most powerful women, Sri Mulyani Indrawati is COO and managing director of World Bank Group, an international financial institution that offers help, advice and resources to more than 100 developing countries. Its goal? To end extreme poverty within a generation! Sri spends a lot of time advocating for gender equality across the globe. “When women succeed, they bring diversity into policy making and inclusiveness into policy,” she says. “They are powerful drivers of growth and formidable fighters of poverty. In other words, they are a force no country, no society, no company, and no family can afford not to unleash fully.”
We couldn’t agree more!
Of these amazing moms, who do you admire most? Why?
Leave a comment below, tweet us @MightyFingers, send us a message on Facebook, or email us at [email protected]!
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