So goes Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina’s searing satirical piece, entitled ‘How to Write About Africa’, which appeared in Granta magazine in 2005 and subsequently went viral.
The article offered comic relief to many Africans who had bottled up resentment to the centuries-old narratives about the ‘Dark Continent’, which were more often than not shaped by non-Africans.
In recent years, many more Africans have joined Wainaina’s ranks – evangelists trampling these stereotypes and spreading the gospel of ‘Africa rising’.
As part of this new narrative, the news media constantly reminds us that Africa is home to six of the world’s 10 fastest-growing economies. This year, The Economist declared Africa “the world’s fastest-growing continent”, while Time noted Africa is “the world’s next economic powerhouse”. A few years back, a McKinsey &amp; Co report described our economies as “lions on the move”.
Indeed these lions have newfound assertiveness, thanks to a period of relative political stability, a decade-long economic surge, changing geo-political relations on the back of China’s growth, and access to social media platforms.
In this mission to redefine the long-battered image of Africa, Kenya offers an interesting case study. Much of the country’s confidence comes from its status as a regional economic hub, political heavyweight and technology leader.
Kenya is also, arguably, leading the African pushback against Western media’s tendency to cover mostly coups, wars, famine, hunger and diseases on the continent.
“These are the images that we must aggressively seek to banish from the global media space and sphere about Africa. Not because they do not exist, rather, that they will belong to a past, an inglorious past, that we seek forever to consign to the annals of history,” Kenyan leader Uhuru Kenyatta declared on World Press Freedom Day earlier this year.
With Kenyans at the forefront of Africa’s tech movement, it’s no surprise that the younger generation is using social media to challenge stereotypical images. In the lead-up to the March general elections, KoTs (Kenyans on Twitter) were increasingly vocal about which stories Western media chose to cover.
KoTs used #someonetellCNN to force the broadcast giant to apologize. An international correspondent had allegedly stage-managed  a report showing some Rift Valley residents planning retribution attacks for the 2007/8 post-election violence.
Not only are Kenyans challenging Western narratives, they are also producing their own. For many Kenyans, one of the lasting images of the media coverage of the election is that of NTV anchor Larry Madowo’s ‘helicopter journalism’. On election day, Madowo started off with a live report from a polling station in Nairobi. A short while later, he was reporting from Garissa Town, then Lamu, then Tana River County.
Another example came after the poll. Kenyan student Waringa Kamau, who is studying at the Washington and Lee University in the United States, wanted to find out if KoTs’ concerns that Western media deliberately portrays Africa in a negative light extended beyond her fellow Kenyans. Her documentary, Africa in Western Media, shows that the students she interviewed agreed with KoTs.
With the growing optimism, there is also an increasing concern that the news media is under pressure to downplay any negative accounts. Kenyan media has been criticized by Kenyans themselves for trivializing some of the violence and irregularities that occurred during the run-up to the elections.
Even the broader ‘Africa rising’ narrative has been condemned. It is accused of implicitly concealing the fragility of Africa’s economic growth and the various challenges that could hold the continent back from genuine, inclusive development. Some of these are ongoing aid dependence, governance issues and the fact that the economic surge is largely driven by the extractive industry, as Rick Rowden points out in his Foreign Policy article, ‘The Myth of Africa’s Rise’.
So, while a shift from the ‘hopeless Africa’ narrative is long overdue, Kenyans and their African sisters and sisters may need to move into a new paradigm, where happenings on the ground are examined more closely.
We need to find the balance when telling our own stories, otherwise the image of Africa rising will not hold and the journey to inclusive development may be stalled before it starts.

A new story about

Former South African president Nelson Mandela, in his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, puts it best when he says,
“I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
“I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come.
“But I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not ended.”
These words resonate when assessing just how far women have come since the advent of democracy in South Africa, almost 20 years ago. And more importantly, how much more still needs to be done to realize gender equality and the fundamental transformation for women.
Looking back, there is no denying that change, even if it is slow and patchy in some areas, has impacted for the better, on the lived realities of women in Africa’s largest and most diverse economy.
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Today, women are sitting at the head of the table in politics, business, the judiciary and almost all aspects of society.  South Africa’s Constitution and Bill of Rights wiped off the statute books several laws which sought to make African women in general and black women in particular the appendages  of their husbands, brothers and fathers.
It also restored to women their cultural rights, and ensured that these rights are protected by law. This provides some respite from the negative implications of some aspects of various cultures, which often see women pulling the short end of the stick.
South Africa has provided women leaders to Africa in the form of Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who is now the chairperson of the African Union Commission. South African women also serve the globe, with the appointment of former deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka as the head of UN Women. These are just two examples of quality leadership developed and home-brewed in South Africa.
The economic rights in the country’s Constitution, at least on paper, also give legal recourse and protection to the indigent and marginalized. And given that poverty, disease and inequality remain feminized, this inclusion of second-generation rights is of particular significance for women.
While head-counting alone in the political arena is not always a true yardstick by which to measure gender equality, it does reflect critical mass, and marks just how important the visibility of women in leadership positions ought to be.
In the South African Cabinet, women are well represented, holding key ministries such as transport, defense, agriculture, home affairs and international relations. Of the nine provinces, five are led by women premiers, and the country’s massive police service is headed by Riah Phiyega.
One of the newest political parties  to contest the 2014 general elections, Agang, is headed by Dr. Mamphela Ramphele, a medical doctor and acade-
mic, who at the age of 65 has decided to run for political office.
Looking at the economic baro-meter, the picture is not as rosy, but it does show some slow progress. The 2012 Women in Leadership Census is a report conducted by the Business Women’s Association. Based on a survey of JSE-listed companies, state-owned enterprises and government, it shows that women in private enterprises occupied 4% of CEO or MD positions, 6% of board chair positions, 17% of directorships and 21% of exe-cutive management positions.
The report also found that women in executive management positions were more likely to be white than black, but that women holding directorships were more likely to be black.
Women are also lagging behind in the judiciary. South Africa’s justice minister, Jeff Radebe, says women continue to be under-represented as judges in the country’s court system, with only about a quarter in permanent posts.
He has also pointed out that of the 233 permanent judges appointed to different superior courts in the country, only 65 are women. Of that number, 45 are black and 20 are white.
This under-representation is not limited to judicial appointments. The allocation of legal work and briefs to legal practitioners is another area where there is almost a complete absence of women.
But change is afoot, according to Radebe, who plans to radically overhaul the criminal justice system to ensure gender parity and greater equality for women.
During Apartheid, however, women had to fight to make change happen.
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On August 9, 1956, 20,000 South African women embarked on a march to demand the scrapping of the hated Pass laws. Marching in their thousands, their war cry rang out clearly: “Wathint’ abafazi, Strijdom! Wathint imbokodo uzo Kufa! (Now you have touched the women, Strijdom! You have struck a rock! You have dislodged a boulder! You will be crushed!)”
Even then, women made it clear that they would defy any efforts to prescribe their place in society. Even then, when repression was at its peak, women were determined to bring about change that would eventually see them participate as equals in the drafting of the country’s covenant, regarded as among the most progressive in the world.
This is why South Africans celebrate not only International Women’s Day on March 8, but also National Women’s Day on August 9. And as a mark of just how important gender equality is, the entire month of August is commemorated as Women’s Month. It not only allows for celebrating the gains made, but is also an opportunity to reflect on the drawbacks, the impediments and what more ought to and should be done to deepen gender equality.
Former South African deputy president, Baleka Mbete, who also serves on the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), remembers the key role women played in negotiating the new dispensation. She says that even in the ruling African National Congress (ANC), women still had to battle to have their voices heard.
“Even in the ANC, it wasn’t smooth sailing. The key was to be visible. Activism was at the root of what women were about. We had to do a lot of convincing to impact on the process. What we realized was that we needed to work together as women.”
Former Constitutional Court Judge Yvonne Mokgoro says the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are the two single most important documents that have changed women’s lives in South Africa.
“Poverty, as you know, is feminized, so too is indignity. For me, our Constitution and Bill of Rights are of particular relevance to women.
“Our Constitution is a covenant between us as a people. We didn’t sit in dark corners when it was drawn up. We – and I include us as women – negotiated that Constitution.
“What we need to do when we give life to what is contained in our Constitution is to dig deeper, do more. Set up monitoring mechanisms to ensure proper delivery of those services for people, but also for women in particular,” she says.
While the political struggle has seen great dividends, change in South Africa’s boardrooms is slow and often resisted. Back in 1994, Gloria Serobe, together with Wendy Luhabe, Louisa Mojela and Nomhle Canca, started a company called Wiphold, specifically to grow women’s investments. They believed that political emancipation without economic gains in the boardroom would constitute a pyrrhic victory for women.
Serobe, an accomplished and savvy businesswoman, who is wise in the ways of the world of commerce and high finance, says she and her co-founders realized that “true economic empowerment would require a process of wealth mobilization and accumulation, and that this would be especially important in the case of women’s empowerment”. She says this led them to explore the use of women’s investment clubs as ‘empowerment vehicles’.
Using workshops and educational forums, they crisscrossed the country, ratcheting up support from women across various socio-economic groups. The founders, after raising seed capital of $50,000 formed the WIP Four Company, Wiphold in microcosm. The company listed in the Investment Trust sector on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange five years later.
“Wiphold is the first organization dedicated explicitly to women’s economic empowerment to achieve a JSE listing. All board members are women. Voting control rests  with the Wiphold Investment Trust. In early 2000, value created for the Trust stood at $6.85 million,” Serobe says.
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Wiphold later delisted from the JSE, but Serobe points out that of all the empowerment companies formed back in the 1990s, Wiphold is “still standing”.
Mbete and Mokgoro concur that South Africa in 2013 is a much better place for women in politics, business, government and in the social sphere. They are also united in the belief that the journey which started 56 years ago, when those courageous women marched against the Apartheid system, has to continue. Especially if women in South Africa are to achieve a real and qualitative shift – not only on paper, but also in behavior and attitude towards greater freedom, equality and gender parity.

SA women’s journey

Just about every self-help movement from spirituality to leadership to parenting extols the virtue of being more present. We’re told to cultivate being introspective, still, and to pay attention to what we’re doing at the time we’re doing it. If we focus on the person or task in front of us, we give them, and ourselves, a gift. I wholeheartedly believe this is a good and positive thing.
But man, do I struggle with it.
I am a master multitasker. I’m a business owner, a mother of two school-age kids, and involved in a bunch of outside activities. I feel like my days are often a race against time, with dates and details bouncing in and out of my head like super important ping pong balls. That’s not even talking about the electronic devices, social media, and emails I keep up with. (I am admittedly a news and good TV junkie. Here’s looking at you Breaking Bad.) Uh oh, I digressed.
Yes, I want to be more present. I want to tune out work when I’m home, and be more often in the moment. I’m regularly trying new ideas that push me along in that direction — and I’ve made some decent progress (with focus and effort.)
For all you sworn multitaskers, take heart. That efficiency you’ve cultivated can be coupled with an intent to be present with lots of positive benefits. Not only will being more present help you feel less stressed and promote better relationships, studies show that mindfulness can also benefit your physical health and even increase your lifespan.
Here are some ideas for how to go from distracted to mindfully present:
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<h4>1) Turn off electronics and email</h4>
No surprise that this one tops the list; it’s my own Achilles heel. The Energy Project’s Tony Schwartzhas found that 80% of us are rarely, if ever, disconnected from our email. There are many advantages to being constantly reachable, but in the long term, in addition to causing stress and unnecessary distraction, it can also alter the way we think and behave.
As Schwartz says, “it isn’t overload we’re battling anymore, it’s addiction — to action, and information, and connection, but above all to instant gratification.” We no longer know how to wait, and our activities are tainted by listening for that ping that tells us we have a message.  If you want to be more present, turn off your electronics and stop checking your email when you’re having a conversation with someone, working on a project that requires concentration, or even when you just want to enjoy the moment.
Schwartz, for example, is a major proponent of an electronics-free lunch break. Leaving your smartphone in the car until after dinner or checking it at the door are other options. I’ve learned that if my phone is in front of me, I’ll check it. Better to put it away.
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<h4>2) Center before a conversation</h4>
Centering is a key skill that coaches learn before meeting with a client. To be a good coach, you need to be fully present and actively listening — which requires tuning out any static or energy from whatever came beforehand. The process is simple. Before you begin a conversation or meeting, take a moment and get intentional about how you want to show up. I also take a few deep breaths and remove distractions. If I’m at my desk, I move so I’m away from my workspace.
This allows me to come into a coaching session calm, open and present. Consider the opposite. We all know what it feels like to have someone enter a room stressed, distracted, and still reeling from their last meeting.
When you practice active listening, it’s far easier to stay in the moment as well.  Active listening is what it sounds like: not only do you listen to someone, but you actively ask questions and engage in the conversation.  In a helpful article, psychologist John M. Grohol lays out some basic active listening tips and techniques. These include restating what you’ve just heard to be sure you understand it clearly (“So you think office policy about PTO needs to change?”) and sharing your observations about what the person has said (“You seem frustrated.”)
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<h4>3) Break from the madness</h4>
As I’ve mentioned before, studies have shown that taking a short break between tasks helps the mind recharge and refocus. Zen teacher, CEO, and author Marc Lesser has this advice for how to integrate breaks to reduce stress and a speeding mind. The first is to “rest mentally and physically in between or outside of your usual activities, perhaps instituting a regular practice of meditation, retreats, breaks, and reflection. In the midst of a busy life, a full work day, go for a walk, do yoga, read some poetry.”
If yoga or poetry isn’t your bag, Lesser suggests taking a few moments to breathe deeply and reflect. Anyone can do this without leaving their desk.
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<h4>4) Schedule important</h4>
discussions without a hard stop
When we’re in back-to-back meetings, it’s difficult to be present because we’re also thinking of what happened before and what’s next. For important discussions, leave room for the conversation. Make sure to structure a situation where you can both focus on what the other has to say, perhaps even out of the office. This also means not having a hard stop or starting a conversation at the end of the day.
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<h4>5) Consider (and verbalize)</h4>
what you’re saying no to
For everything we say yes to, we’re saying no to something else. When you reflect on that and verbalize it, the decision is much easier. i.e. “I’m saying no to my kids so I can respond to a non-urgent email” or “I’m saying no to planning this pivotal project so I can say yes to surfing Twitter.” When you put it out there, the distinction often makes the real choice laughable. What’s taking away our full and focused presence doesn’t deserve it at all.

The  Multitaskers’

Some race reductionists have argued that black people cannot be racist. According to this argument, black people are so dominated by whites in every sphere that they could not possibly be racist, even if they tried.
To be racist, goes their argument, a group must possess state or economic power to collectively subjugate those of a different group, those who do not look like them.
At best, blacks can despise whites for all the pain they have caused since their ancestors first left Europe in search of new lands and resources some 500 years ago.
As you might imagine, such an argument has the ability to raise passions, regardless of which side of the debate one chooses. It is also, of course, a nonsensical premise. Blacks are human, and from time immemorial, human beings have had prejudices based on all sorts of things, from which side of the river one hails to the color of their hair.
There is an equally flawed theory, based on more or less the same sentiments, held by the ‘blacks cannot be racist’ brigade. This time, it is led by women, who think that by merely being women, they possess the magical skills to manage people.
Women bosses are allegedly more compassionate, consensus-orientated and, unlike their male counterparts, not overly competitive.
Really?
Before we get ahead of ourselves, let me hasten to add that I have no doubt that there are women leaders out there like that. By the same token, however, there are women leaders who are everything but.
To assume, therefore, that for no other reason than they are blessed with
more X chromosomes, that they bring to boardrooms, the shop floor and wherever else they manage people, a divinely ordained insight into how to get human beings to be more productive, get on with each other and go home to be excellent partners and parents, is ridiculous.
It is no better than the delusion that blacks are incapable of racism simply because they are black. It may make women feel better, but it is bigoted, for it attributes to women, characteristics that they acquired by mere membership of a group they had no say in joining and therefore cannot escape.
Anyone who believes that the biological factors they possess – the color of their skin, eyes or the dominant hand they use – give them special powers and advantages over other human beings, is on the road to nowhere.
One would think that people with some experience in the workplace and the boardroom have seen that both great and lousy leaders come in all shapes, sizes and genders.
Political correctness demands that we believe women bring a ‘softness’ and more ‘heart’ to the boardroom, as if women in business are recruited from the convent rather than the coalface where business leaders are made. We are told that their maternal instincts (and goodness knows what else) gives them the abilities that their peers around the boardroom table do not share.
As is the case with black people, by now women should refuse to be treated as if they are monolithic judged on the performance of those who look like them. They should not only refuse this association when it is negative, but should reject it altogether when told they are the better species for no other reason than they are women.
To accept, as some women have, that their gender gives them some advantage is to deny their own humanness and the effort and skill it takes to climb the corporate ladder.
The ‘I am a great boss because I am a woman’ brigade denies the role of training, mentoring and old-fashioned hard work that makes excellent bosses excellent. It tells men that kindness and empathy are feminine traits and they should therefore play them down, lest their masculinity be questioned.
It is up to women to correct this ever-growing misconception that it is something to do with gender and not abilities and skills that makes them excellent leaders.
If the women’s movement has learnt anything from centuries of patriarchy it should be that sooner rather than later, those who imagine themselves to be virtuous because of who they are rather than what they do, are eventually caught out and put in their place.
It is women who must call the likes of Margaret Thatcher to order for saying: ‘if you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman’. It may be a great quote, but it brings with it seeds of counterarguments and examples of how the opposite is true.
Nature and nurture have provided men and women with different ways of seeing the world. That, however, is no excuse for allowing how we have been socialized to determine what it takes to be an excellent business leader.

Women are not inherently good

When South Africa marks 20 years of democracy next year, it will not be alone in celebrating. Wiphold, Women Investment Portfolio Holdings, will also mark 20 years of existence as the country’s first women-owned investment company.
In the early 1990s, after winning the political battle to ensure all South Africans had equal rights, the country’s leaders had to deal with an important challenge: how to include black South Africans meaningfully in the economy.
Louisa Mojela, Wendy Luhabe, Nomhle Canca and myself founded Wiphold to make sure that the women of South Africa were not excluded from this life-changing conversation.
Our women political leaders had done their best to ensure that gender rights featured in the Constitution. However, as a worldwide phenomenon, big business does not seem to be comfortable including women in executive discussions.
When we founded Wiphold, my colleagues and I were well aware of the challenges involved in including women in the mainstream economy.
Using our rare, privileged position, championed by the South African government’s policies, we deliberately tried to rearrange boardroom conversations all over the world.
Over the past two decades, I think it is fair to say that Wiphold has met its ambition of being a force to be reckoned with. The company is fully entrenched in its chosen industries: financial services (Old Mutual and Nedbank); coal mining (Sasol) and infrastructure (the construction of a cement plant). Wiphold has also left its mark on consumer goods and services, and on tourism and leisure. While there were many highlights during this 20-year journey, some experiences stand out as particularly memorable.
When we started out, we needed seed capital of $50,000. For young professionals from not-so-rich backgrounds, this was a lot of money, and family and friends came on board to help us. I remember that my young brother-in-law, Lazzy, who had just started his law articles, delayed buying himself a car in order to loan me $500.
Early on, when the South African government introduced Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) legislation to include black South Africans in the white-dominated economy, Wiphold approached a gold company. We offered ourselves as a unique BEE partner, trading on the fact that women are known consumers of gold. The CEO was impressed with our presentation and kindly offered us a rose garden project, which the company had undertaken as a corporate social initiative. We have never forgiven him.
Another BEE company was so impressed with Wiphold, that it offered us a merger. This was very flattering, except that the company had an Net Asset Value of almost $500 million, while Wiphold’s was a mere $3.5 million in comparison. It would seem that we were a nuisance that needed to be removed from the BEE playing field.
Perhaps the highest point in my career is when Wiphold listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 1999. It was the first women-owned company to do so; further proof that we were pushing the boundaries.
Another high point was Wiphold’s decision to build a cement plant. Construction is traditionally a man’s domain – it is no rose garden – and I am proud that our company is comfortable enough to enter the sector.
Over the years, there have also been disappointments. A continuous frustration is what I see as women’s lackluster efforts to carve out a space, to coexist alongside men, in the world of business. I see it happen time and again here in South Africa and elsewhere in the world. We are not getting the traction we believe we deserve – and there are plenty of reasons why not.
It is not enough to complain that our male counterparts are not taking us seriously. In the end, this is a fight for survival, for women’s economic and financial independence. When it is successful, it translates into more harmonious relationships with men, free of financial dependency.
In the South African context, women have battled long and hard for emancipation – some have even given their lives in the fight for equal rights. The next phase is economic emancipation – and it is impossible to argue that there are no opportunities or a lack of economic platforms on which to do so.
As a pioneer in South Africa, Wiphold did not have the luxury of failing. The burden of the next generation of women entrepreneurs was on our shoulders. Success and excellence were not optional, but necessary.

How Gloria cracked the

PRECIOUS GOES GLOBAL

Our annual snapshot of the 100 women with the most impact are top politicians and CEOs, activist billionaires and celebrities who matter. In roughly equal measure you’ll find next gen entrepreneurs and media mavens, technologists and leaders in philanthropy – all ranked by dollars, media momentum and impact.
We’ve selected women that go beyond the traditional taxonomy of the power elite (political and economic might). These change-agents are actually shifting our very idea of clout and authority and, in the process, transforming the world in fresh and exhilarating ways.
This year the list features nine heads of state who run nations with a combined GDP of $11.8 trillion –including the No. 1 Power Woman, German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The 24 corporate CEOs control $893 billion in annual revenues, and 16 of the women here founded their own companies, including two of the three new billionaires to the list, Tory Burch and Spanx’s Sara Blakely. Speaking of, this year’s class has 14 billionaires valued in excess of $82 billion.
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<h4>Here, a quick peek at Power Women 2013:</h4>
Newcomers: Among the 15 newcomers on this year’s list are South Korean President Park Geun-hye (No. 11); Lockheed Martin LMT +0.52% CEO Marillyn Hewson (No. 34); CEO Tory Burch (No. 69);  Spanx founder Sara Blakely (No. 90) and Baidu BIDU -1.28% CFO Jennifer Li (No. 98).
Old friends: At this 10th edition, attention must be paid to the 15 who appeared on the inaugural list in 2004 and are still here today:  Oprah Winfrey(No. 13), of course. Ditto for Hillary Clinton (No. 5). But there’s also  Christine Lagarde (No. 7),  Sonia Gandhi (No. 9), Indra Nooyi (No. 10), Helen Clark(No. 21), Nancy Pelosi (No. 22), Anne Sweeney (No. 24), Amy Pascal (No. 36), Queen Elizabeth II (No. 40), Abigail Johnson (No. 60),  Ho Ching (No. 64),Diane Sawyer (No. 73), J.K. Rowling (No. 93) andGreta Van Susteren (No. 97).
She’s No. 1: Chancellor Merkel has made the list eight times out of the past 10 years – seven times as No. 1.
She’s the first: Forty percent  of the women on the list are “female firsts,” such as African head of state (Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf), billionaire to sign The Giving Pledge (Sara Blakeley), and CEO at IBM (Ginni Rometty). Even more impressive are a the women who are multiple “firsts”, such as Judith Rodin, first president of an Ivy League and of the Rockefeller Foundation  and Hillary Clinton.
Hillary stays on: Clinton’s CV is chock full of firsts: The only first lady to become a U.S. senator turned viable presidential candidate turned secretary of state. Now a private citizen, she continues to be one of the most watched and listened-to women on the planet. All bets on that she will be the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate and the free world’s presumptive next leader. She’s done little to quiet the chatter, including hitting the speaking circuit last month at an estimated $200,000 fee per event and inking a reported $14 million book deal.
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Tech takes a second turn as a category on the Power Women list. Five tech women made the top 25 this year, including Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg (No. 6), Rometty (No. 12) and HP’s Meg Whitman (No. 15). There are 16 tech women in total, including also Susan Wojcicki, SVP of ads at Google (No. 30) and Sun Yafang, chair of Huawei Technologies (No. 77).
in South Africa. Joining the efforts of the U.N. are Angelina Jolie (No. 37), Shakira (No. 52), and Gisele Bundchen (No. 95). Beyonce (No. 17) rules the House of Dereon and Sofia Vergara (No. 38) co-owns LatinWE.
Businesswomen are booming in Asia: The whole region makes a strong showing, from China and Singapore to New Zealand and Thailand. Entrepreneurship is on the rise: see Zhang Xin (No. 50), The rising tide of female entrepreneurs:
A remarkable number of women are founders or owners of their own enterprises, not a few of whose eponymous companies are synonymous with high fashion. Consider Miuccia Prada (No. 58), Zara founder Rosalia Mera (No. 66), Tory Burch (No. 69) andDiane von Furstenberg (No. 74). Other self-made self-starters include Oprah Winfrey (No. 13), Arianna Huffington (No. 56), Chinese real estate tycoonZhang Xin (No. 50), and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, India’s first biotech entrepreneur (No. 85).
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The new celebrity role models: Sure, they’re famous but they deserve special attention for their outside work, be it ambassadors for meaningful causes or as business owners.
Oprah founded both Harpo Productions and The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls Sun Yafang (No. 77) and Solina Chau (No. 80). And Asian region women are showing their political might, from newcomer Park Geun-hye, the South Korean president (No. 11) and Burmese dissident and parliamentarian Aung San Suu Kyi (No. 29) to Australian PM Julia Gillard (No. 28) and Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra (No. 31).
Healing, feeding and educating the world: If they’re not topping corporations or state, the women on our list are heads of major nonprofits and NGOs and they wield as large budgets and impact millions, from Melinda Gates (No. 3) and IMF chief Christine Lagarde (No. 7) to Director-General of World Health Organization Margaret Chan (No. 33), World Food ProgrammeExecutive Director Ertharin Cousin (No. 49) and Harvard University’s Drew Gilpin Faust (No. 43).
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<h4>Joyce Banda</h4>
Malawi’s first female president (and second on the African continent) spent her initial year in office pushing for rapprochement with the international donor community while grappling with spiraling inflation and an angry populace at home. With foreign aid accounting for nearly 40% of Malawi’s revenue, Banda urged global financial institutions to restore the dollars and Euros frozen during the autocratic regime of her predecessor. But her decision to devalue Malawi’s currency by 50% – to meet IMF conditions – has resulted in soaring costs for food and fuel and widespread protests. Her first 12 months were also marked by progress in decriminalizing homosexuality and major public health initiatives such as the $15 billion Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria.
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<h4>Sri Mulyani Indrawati</h4>
When Sri Mulyani Indrawati addressed the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in April, the Indonesian economist shared a curious insight: while high-income countries continue to suffer in the wake of the financial crisis, developing countries have come out relatively unscathed. The World Bank projects average global GDP growth of just 2.5% in 2013. Indrawati has served as managing director and the most senior woman at the World Bank since May 2010; as managing director, she oversees the World Bank’s operations in Asia and Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. After a series of deadly accidents in Bangladesh, the World Bank and the International Labor Organization have put pressure on the country to overhaul its labor laws.
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<h4>Liyuan Peng</h4>
China&#8217;s most public first lady since Madame Mao, Peng is the stylish second wife of new leader Xi Jinping. She toured with her husband during Xi&#8217;s first presidential trip abroad to Russia and Africa in March and was credited with putting a human face on the Communist regime; not for nothing, Peng is a member of the Public Diplomacy Association, an organized tasked to make China more appealing abroad. The former superstar folk singer is often joked about for being more famous than her husband: &#8220;Who is Xi Jinping? He is Peng Liyuan&#8217;s husband.&#8221; Fashion editors watch her for her (mostly) made-in-China style, but she&#8217;s also a U.N. ambassador for health and a Goodwill Ambassador for the World Health Organization focusing on TB and HIV/AIDS.
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<h4>Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala</h4>
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One year in office after a failed bid to for the World Bank presidency, Nigeria&#8217;s Harvard-educated finance minister produced a 6.5% increase in GDP from 2011 to 2012. Nigeria is the third largest economy in Africa with nearly $50 billion in foreign reserves.
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<h4>Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf</h4>
Johnson-Sirleaf is an African icon. She is the  continent&#8217;s first female head of state, a 2011 Nobel Prize winner for her work  n the global women&#8217;s empowerment circuit.
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The world’s 100 most powerful women

I go into everything with a huge ego,” DailyWorth founder Amanda Steinberg told more than 100 entrepreneurs this July. What she conceded could be seen as a huge personal defect in the social world turned out to be her biggest strength in raising well over $4 million for her powerhouse personal finance site that’s among the best of the web for women.
<div id="attachment_5676" style="width: 239px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5676" class="size-medium wp-image-5676" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/iStock_000003551208Large-229x300.jpg" alt="" width="229" height="300" />Plant vigorously sprouting from a pile of golden coins &#8211; concept for good investments</div>
Steinberg picked up the mic last month to talk to female entrepreneurs – in the room, on a conference call and streamed through Google GOOG +0.02% hangout (watch the whole thing, it’s totally worth it) – about the complex process of raising capital for young companies. “I’m going to keep it real,” she said as she regaled the audience with tales from the nine months it took her to raise the first $850,000 for DailyWorth in 2011. She was running on fumes, parenting two small children solo and going through a divorce. Real talk: it got ugly.
But Steinberg’s been-there-done-that advice was frank and refreshing and inspired me to tap other female founders in my network – from YC-alums fresh out of seed rounds to trailblazers with millions in the bank – to find more no BS counsel for entrepreneurs looking to impress investors and fill their own startup coffers.
Steinberg breaks down her top-level fundraising advice into four must-have items, and because her insight is on display on YouTube, we’ll keep it basic (but oh-so-helpful) in this space.
No. 1, a mentor (“Everybody and every website says you need one, but it’s true. You really do. There’s just so much you don’t know”), No. 2, the obvious: your deck (slides on core value proposition, the size of your market, who the customer is, competition, exit strategy, etc.). No. 3, your financial model (map out revenue and expenses with growth rate: “It really shows why you need capital – it’s the justification of what that cash is going to do). No. 4, an executive summary (think the most kick-ass cover letter ever, as in “Here’s why I’m awesome, here’s why it’s going to succeed, here’s why you should talk to me).
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<h4>Katia Beauchamp, cofounder and co-CEO, Birchbox</h4>
Beauchamp and cofounder/co-CEO Hayley Barna have raised more than $11 million for Birchbox, the company that set the subscription commerce trend in motion and has seen continued success since its 2010 launch. What they’ve learned from the process of fundraising while simultaneously scaling a business is the importance of time management – or more specifically learning what’s just a waste of time.
Their advice? Finding investors whose area of interest – or market of choice – is the most aligned with your business. You’re e-commerce and they invest in health tech? You might want to skip it – no matter how many mutual acquaintances you have. “Taking the time to find the right investors is a huge, huge part of the way to spend your time fundraising the most wisely,” Beauchamp told me in early August. “When you talk to VCs they should be someone in your wheelhouse – or for us someone who at least likes the idea of e-commerce.”
This helped in two ways. One, the Birchbox founders didn’t waste their breath on uninterested parties, but more importantly they didn’t spend hours explaining a female-focused business model to male investors who couldn’t – or wouldn’t – understand the consumer. “Pitching is a complex process,” she says, “But pitching to someone whose interests are so far from yours that you have to reeducate them adds a whole new layer.” Lesson learned: choose wisely.
<h4>Michelle Crosby,</h4>
<h4>founder and CEO, Wevorce</h4>
As far as Crosby is concerned, the key to raising capital – whether via angels or venture capitalists – is as much managing your own expectations as it is wowing investors with a flashy business plan. The former attorney applied her disciplined approach in the courtroom to build a structure that she used in every investor meeting. “It’s helped me to manage my own mindset,” she says. “And keep worry – and overwhelming eagerness – at bay as much as possible.” She laughs. “Well those things come anyway, but creating structure helps.”
So what is it? It starts, like any first date, with a bit of flattery. “I call it the bromance section of the meeting and it always comes first,” Crosby says. “I like to lead with a question—usually something I’ve researched before-hand, some nugget of uniqueness about this person –because neuroscience tells us that when someone feels listened to the same part of their brain lights up as when they feel loved.”
Once the meeting is formally underway and decks are on display, Crosby, whose business focuses on divorcing families, turns to cross-checking intention. “I’m focused on recognizing whether their intentions as an investor align with my intentions for the business. We intend to do well by doing good. So I’m looking for people who know that and believe in it from the moment we meet. And I do that by asking what they like the most about the company. If it’s ‘I want a healthy return,’ then cool – but they’re maybe not for us.”
The third prong is (by my own estimation) one of the savviest pieces of advice I’ve heard on the process. Ask this question: How do you see yourself being involved with the company? If the response is a blank stare, it’s a strong sign they’re not interested and, as Crosby puts it, you might as well know that right away. But the ones with clear ideas will stand out – and give you the opening for a strong close on your own terms.
“I always end by asking them about next steps,” she says. “Can I put you down for the round and for how much? If you’re going to think about it, I’ll say I’m holding your spot for X number of days and then release it.” That way you’re killing two birds: one, you’re giving investors and easy out with no hard feelings and two, managing those pesky expectations again. Waiting by the phone is the worst way to spend your time.
Crosby’s fellow YC-alum Deyle, whose Lollipuff auctions second-hand designer goods with the promise of authenticity, actually stopped fundraising mid-process earlier this year. “We received commitments from angels and also a few VCs,” she explains, “But ultimately felt that after putting so much effort into fundraising it was better as an already profitable company to keep our focus on the product.” She may have been right: after doubling users since June, Deyle says investors are starting to pursue them.
Despite that, Deyle and her two cofounders put a method in place that’s a useful piece of advice for all founding teams – provided they’ve got the manpower. “We decided up-front that it was important for one of us to stay back and focus solely on product,” she says. “Not just to keep the lights on, but to keep a real distance from the fundraising process.”
“It’s an emotionally exhausting time,” she says. “Because every time you receive a no – or even a maybe which is really a no – it’s almost as if someone’s telling you your baby is ugly. So ugly they don’t even want to look at it!” Having a cofounder who’s not poisoned by “nos” Deyle says, helped the team as a whole to stay grounded, and to appreciate what they’d built. In other words, to remind them that their baby wasn’t ugly – no matter what they’d heard in a bad meeting.

Author: Forbes Woman Africa

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA