Jen Lindsay #3

I feel like a movie star. I wrote last time about how surprising Indian hospitality is, but now it's even more so. We've now visited three Universities where we have been honored guests. One college actually clapped for us when we entered the room, and held a special wisdom lighting ceremony for us! We've been taken in by some Indian students who have dressed us head to toe in Indian culture. When we broke off for conversations with Indian students from the college, she informed me hospitality is an honor and they are proud to care for their guests. The student I spoke with was married (arranged by her parents) and has a two year old daughter. She lives away from her family so she can finish her graduate degree. Later in the afternoon, we met with a very powerful sugarcane CEO who expained her life and challenges she's had to face to reach the top. She also lives away from her husband, and during a q&a session explained how regardless of country, women must make sacrifices in order to succeed in their carreers. In both situations, the student and the CEO not only the women are making sacrifices, but their husbands and families as well. Women cannot become successful and care for a family without the support of their husbands and families. Especially in India, where extended family is so involved in caring for the home and children because no other aid (daycare) is available. I'm seeing more and more that although two countries on opposite sides of the world have drastically different cultures, women truely are facing the same challenges, having to make the same decisions, and making the same sacrifices in order to reach their highest goals. It is comforting to see such confident women in a culture that stereotypically undermines them. But even in the states, many stereotypes about women in power occur, which are becoming clearer all the time.