Press Release: Fast Pitch

“This month’s publication of  Time 100: The World’s Most Influential People featured five women Leaders and Revolutionaries fearlessly forging ahead on bold political paths for women, including French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, new U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the new Chair of the TARP Oversight Committee Elizabeth Warren, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel and Saudi Minister Norah al-Faiz, appointed earlier this year to the position of Deputy Minister for Women’s Education in Saudi Arabia,” notes Jacqueline Wales, author of The Fearless Factor: Living Your Best Life Now

Wales observes that while power brokers Clinton and Merkel have been in the public eye for awhile, and Warren’s White House appointment, along with Lagarde’s status as the first female Finance Minister of any G-8 nation, affirms that women will be key to restoring the health of the global economy; it is the advent of the first woman minister in Saudi history that is truly ground shaking. Al-Faiz comes from an average middle-class family from the country’s central region, got her undergraduate degree in sociology from  King Saud University in Riyadh in 1978 and then accompanied her new husband Sulaiman Al Suwlai to the U.S.  where she received a master’s degree in education from Utah State University in 1982.  On her return, al-Faiz worked as a teacher in public schools before her promotion to educational supervisor and then numerous management positions in the field of education.

“It remains to be seen how much real authority al-Faiz wields in her new post because the society and bureaucracy remains very conservative,” said Wales, “and there is a real possibility that her appointment may end up as a symbolic gesture.”  Yet even symbolically, she concludes, al-Faiz’s appointment remains a first step for a better future for women in Saudi Arabia where women still are denied the right to drive and are recognized as the property of men under Saudi law.

As Wales points out, “It’s a beginning and it takes great courage to break barriers. I applaud her willingness to embrace change.”

One more examples of how fearless women take control of their lives.

For more information on becoming fearless go to The Fearless Factor