Yes, the best man for the job is a Wisewoman

A dear friend of mine a couple of months ago gave me a book entitled Why The Best Man For The Job Is A Woman, authored by Esther Wachs and published in early 2000 by Harper-Collins. It is exciting reading for every career woman, or for any woman for that matter. For we know that for millennia, all over the world, women have lived in repression, and of course, one cannot deny, male domination. It is also true that even to this day and age women are severely repressed, so repressed in fact that in some parts of the world, they are not even allowed to have an education and know more about the world outside their surroundings.

The book is made more exciting by the inclusion of Loida Nicolas-Lewis, chairman and CEO of TLC Beatrice International Holdings, Inc. on the list of 14 women out of so many in corporate America, who are new paradigm leaders that have been redefining stereotypes of how women guide companies and illustrate every day that they can play with and beat the big boys at their own game. Loida’s husband, Reginald Lewis, who had been one of the most successful African-American businessmen in US history, died suddenly and his nearly $2 billion food conglomerate, TLC Beatrice, struggled. Time magazine had at one time described the company as America’s largest minority-owned enterprise. With no business experience to speak of at all, being a lawyer from the UP College of Law, Loida, now it is being told, hardly seemed the candidate to make the company come to terms with itself, restructure priorities and whip TLC into shape in a male-dominated industry, with what was called "a pack of sharklike shareholders" breathing down her delicate female neck and wondering whether she, who started every meeting with a prayer, would be any good.

Loida was the first Asian to pass the bar exam in the US (prior to 1974, non-US citizens could not take the bar). She also sued and later worked at the INS and wrote bestselling books on US immigration. Even though she was an accomplished lawyer, she had no MBA and was not even on her late husband’s radar screen for the job.

She displayed "courage under fire" as the book narrates, and was able to "achieve something her legendary husband had not accomplished." At age 56, she successfully, and with determination and grit, engineered the turnaround of this failing global food manufacturer, distributor and retailer, and added value to underperforming assets, then sold them at a premium. And she prevailed over great resistance from unsupportive shareholders. One feminist statement of hers (her late husband authored the book Why Should White Guys Have All The Fun?) is the title of her own book, Why Should Guys Have All The Fun?

Loida’s great adventure in trimming company fat, lessening corporate expenses and restructuring the business placed the company on its most solid foundation ever. As the Esther Wachs book puts it, "She essentially saved her husband’s creation and her family fortune." To her great credit is the fact that Forbes magazine labeled her a "better manager than her flamboyant husband was." She is the Philippines’ and the United States’ best argument to support the thesis in the Wachs book that "the best man for the job is a woman."

From the book Megatrends for Women, a collaborative effort between a female, Patricia Aburdene, and a male, John Naisbitt, the very tangible concept of the "Wisewoman" was conceived, not for the first time, I am certain, for the Wisewoman is not an automatic proposition but a life test whose meaning is hinted at in mythology. The status of the Wisewoman can come only through validating one’s self, and/or from other women. Female leadership, the book proposes, requires the archetype of the Wisewoman who grows beyond motherhood, who reintegrates with her source of being and has the courage of her convictions. It suggests that the mature woman who judges herself powerful, competent, loving and sexual, is prepared to meet men on her own terms as colleagues, competitors, or lovers. Loida Lewis is Wisewoman personified! I was privileged to meet her personally in New York a couple of years ago at the centennial celebration of Philippine Independence. She is an extremely poised and unruffled person, very attractive and unassuming and does not wear her brilliance on her sleeve. And I liked her instantly...a Wisewoman indeed, this lady lawyer from the UP law school, eminent member of the WILOCI (UP Women Lawyers’ Circle).

And a couple of months ago, on the 30th of May 2002 to be exact, I was completely overwhelmed by the experience of seeing so many Wisewomen at a WILOCI meeting at the Mandarin Hotel where some of the most high-powered lady lawyers assembled to pay tribute to four Wisewomen: newly-appointed Supreme Court Associate Justice Ma. Alicia Austria-Martinez; Chairwoman Haydee Yorac of the PCGG, undoubtedly an outstanding archetype of the Wisewoman; Purificacion Valera-Quisumbing of the Commission on Human Rights; and Judge Ofelia Arellano-Marquez, RTC Branch 216 Quezon City. WILOCI members who had the privilege of introducing each one of the housewives were Judge Thelma Piñero-Cruz, Atty. Fely Aquino-Arroyo, Joker’s better-half, extremely chic as usual, who introduced Haydee, these two ladies are favorite WILOCIs of mine. What I remember from Fely’s introduction was her statement that Yorac "takes an all-or-nothing-approach to integrity." Also doing the honors of introducing were Attys. Chita Angeles and Teresita Gatmaitan.

The WILOCI president at that time, Eva Policar-Bautista who holds a Master of Laws degree from Yale University, welcomed this army of Wisewomen. Sharing the table with me were several noteworthy Wisewomen – newly appointed SC Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales, extremely elegant and good-looking, my UP Law classmate, the venerable Judge Nenet Florendo-Lorenzo and the younger but already Wisewomen, honorable judges Victoria Isabel Paredes of Caloocan; Cielito Mindoro-Grulla of Manila and, of course Court of Appeals Justice Marina L. Buyon; private practitioners Rosario Jurado-Benedicto of the Legal Department of the Bank of the Philippine Islands; Vicky A. Villaluz, tax expert of SGV & Co. Looking around the table therefore gave me that great feeling that the UP lady lawyer is a natural Wisewoman.

No one will doubt the fact that my dear friend Atty. Katrina Legarda, now a TV star, is a Wisewoman. Neither could anyone deny the fact that as Congresswoman Bellaflor Angara-Castillo, widow of Greg, our class valedictorian and bar topnotcher, walked into the hall, there was the extremely well-dressed Wisewoman right then and there.

It was, however, the sight of the venerable lady lawyers like Lourdes Lontok-Cruz, Ester Sison-Cruz, Pacita R. Phillips, Rizalina Bonifacio-Vera and Carol Griño-Aquino, widow of my late professor and former SC Justice Ramon Aquino, all still very attractive Wisewomen, that bit a nostalgic strain in me. One of those at the table with them was Atty. Cleofe Verzola who has not forgotten how I "rescued" her from an avalanche of EDSA II rallyists not too long ago.

Seeing mother and daughter Wisewomen: Atty. Tessie Cruz-Sison, WILOCI stalwart, and her daughter, new WILOCI president Atty. Ma. Teresita Sison-Go together in the same assembly, the mother looking merely like an older sister, brought back good memories of an extremely dynamic woman who always tried, perhaps unsuccessfully, to get me involved in WILOCI affairs – Tessie Cruz-Sison is still a member of the Judicial and Bar Council, and Tessie Jr. is a brilliant immigration-lawyer. Tessie Sr. is married to Dr. Tony Sison, whose mother was the first lady doctor in Philippine history, the original Wisewoman.

This event was also the occasion when the new members, fresh out of the UP Law School and the bar exams, were inducted as new members. The group was led by Atty. Ma.Theresa U. Ballelos and the inducting officer was that truly great lady, one of the most brilliant lady lawyers of all time, a lady of utmost grace, my role model, former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Ameurfina Melencio-Herrera, looking simply great!

These are but some of the Wisewomen of today who have found the wherewithal within themselves to act and to succeed on equal terms with the members of the supposed stronger gender. A member of this gender, Dr. Christopher Lasch, well-known sociologist in the ’80s, once said: "Whatever women do, they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good, and luckily, this is not difficult." This time the deck seems to be indeed stacked in favor of the Wisewoman of today.