What would Bertha do
women belong in all places
where decisions are being made the
famous quote from the late justice
ruth bader ginsburg a fearless visionary
in gender equality and a true driving
force for change
now today i’d like to tell you a story
about another remarkable woman in
history
who was also driving change and her name
was bertha benz
she was a pioneer and inventor who
transformed the motor industry
she was an inspiring woman who
fearlessly challenged the status quo of
her era
and in doing so challenged the world to
think a little differently
the bertha ringer was born in 1849 in
southern germany to a wealthy family
and went on to marry engineer carl benz
once married as the law dictated at that
time
bertha ceded control of her money to her
husband but karl was a good man
and with her ambition and vision and his
engineering expertise
together they developed a prototype of
the world’s first automobile
now initially carl was concerned that it
wouldn’t be a success
people had deemed the design a horseless
carriage something ghostly and sinister
so in the early hours of the 5th of
august in 1988
frustrated with the lack of progress
bertha decided to take her two sons aged
13
and 15 years old at the time and sat out
on a 66 mile journey to her parents home
she had it off behind her husband’s back
and despite the uncertainty of their
community
she took this unique device that had
never been tested in this way before
that could easily have broken down or
exploded at any time and they hit the
road but for every problem that she
encountered
she found a solution with classic female
ingenuity
when a spark plug wouldn’t ignite she
used her girder to create insulation
she used her hair pin to declug the fuel
line and the brakes started to fail
she stopped at a cobbler asked him to
apply leather thus creating the first
ever brake pad
and then when she got low on fuel she
visited a pharmacist and requested lid
grind solvent
establishing what is now the world’s
first ever fuel station
now along that journey she was laughed
at and mocked but she persevered because
her goal was clear
her goal was to prove her vision of
success for her and carl’s invention
her journey took around 12 hours and was
talked about far and wide
now this may seem a small journey for us
now but it was one historic leap
for both women and mankind bertha benz
is an example of a woman
literally generating power she drove
more than a car she drove an industry
because she believed in herself
now it’s incredible to think that around
the same time
and only a few generations ago women had
no authority to vote
no authority to hold their own money to
own property or even in some cases of
custodial control
over their own children our mothers
grandmothers and great-grandmothers
were being controlled with unjust and
unforgiving laws and traditions
that actively pushed them into getting
positions
against them getting into positions of
power it is these great women
that have gone before us and stood up to
the inequalities they faced we boldly
challenged the societal norms
blazing a trail of empowerment for us
all
they demonstrated fearlessness
confidence
and an inspiring willingness to act but
people will say now
but we’re in 2020 surely all these
things are different we’re all equal now
this whole equality stuff is sorted out
it’s done and dusted ancient history
but let’s look at the facts because the
facts speak for themselves
out of the 193 countries in the world
only 21 of them
have a woman as their leader only seven
percent of the fortune 500 companies are
female-led
and of the millions of people who are
illiterate across the world two-thirds
of them are women
and this hasn’t changed in the last 20
years these are shocking statistics
so the big question is this what is the
next step
well i think that our guiding
inspiration should be birth events
she was a woman ahead of her time so
let’s ask herself
what would bertha do i believe
that it is the behaviors and cultures in
society that are holding us back
so we need to challenge them we need to
change them and we need to play our part
in this movement
the way i see it there are two places
that we can spark this change
number one is within the home because as
parents and guardians
we can inspire the minds of our next
generation and secondly within the
workplace where we can create an
environment
where we can empower and allow us all to
thrive
firstly it starts within the home
because home is where the heart is
home is where the foundations of our
behaviors attitudes beliefs and values
are built
now i grew up on a farm and for mana
with ferns
that i now look back and see were very
forward thinking of their time when
social attitudes were very traditional
they treated the girls and the boys
equally they were focused on education
and us all having equal opportunity but
no matter how evolved in terms of
equality they were
i still needed to challenge change from
time to time so let me tell you a little
story about how i did just that so way
back then
one night many years ago i brought my
boyfriend home
and on that particular evening a
neighbor with very traditional views had
also called to visit
now the idea was way back then was that
man sat around and chatted whilst the
women waited on them hands and
hand and foot serving up a steady stream
of tea and biscuits
but that night we decided to shake it up
a little bit so i asked my boyfriend to
take the lead
with the kitchen duties well i went off
and sat next to my outraged neighbor
with my feet up for added effect as he
watched in disbelief
now i know bertha bends but from a very
early age i was aware of the
inequalities that women faced and i
wanted to challenge for change and i
certainly did
now in hindsight you might say that this
was something of a test
unfortunately he passed with flying
colours because we’ve now been married
for 30 years
we have seven children aged 29 to our
five-year-old twins
and we worked out the other day that by
the time our youngest have grown up
we’ll have been doing the school run for
over 40 years
far more driving than bertha benz could
ever have imagined
now with our own children
we continue to challenge these
traditional ways and we have raised them
all
as equals we are a team and we hope that
this sense of equality
at home in our actions and our behaviors
empowers our children as they step into
their own futures
i remember one night in particular we
were watching moana
my daughter who was five at the time was
singing along to all the songs
and one of the lines was i am the
daughter of the village chief and i
jokingly asked her
is daddy the village chief to which she
replied no mommy you’re the village
chief
so we’re certainly challenging some
stereotypes in our house
now the second place where we need to be
challenging behaviors and cultures
is the workplace my business has been
built on the founding principles of
flexibility
and freedom i believe as a leader that
you attract like-minded people into
positions of trust
who share your value values and your
vision now just recently
i was really thrilled when one of my
incredible leadership team come up to me
and told me that because i have created
a culture of empowerment within our
organization
it has given her the opportunity for
both personal and career growth that she
doesn’t
feel she could have achieved in any
other organization now that was a real
trade delight for me to hear a lot of
organizations however
due to the unrelenting and rigid
workplace structures it’s women with
children who often have to make those
tough choices
go part-time and too many cases have to
leave the workplace all together
now let’s be realistic how many men out
there are thinking to themselves when
they’re entering the workplace
workplace when i have a child when i go
part time
how will i manage to balance at all not
very many i suspect
but it it is difficult to balance and as
i’m sure my fellow mothers out there
will agree
there’s an ongoing notion in society
that you’re damned if you do and you’re
damned if you don’t
we’re criticized for working full-time
for prioritizing careers and allegedly
neglecting our families
or we’re given no value at all if we
choose not to work
society places less value on our
essential role as a mother and we end up
becoming financially dependent
and losing our career opportunities it’s
a no-win situation
i think about this the working week
as we know it today does it still work
for us it was of course
developed by a man and that man was
henry ford
he created the 40-hour working week in
1926 and introduced the concept of
weekends as a race period
whilst it was a significant improvement
at that time because people were
expected
to work as much as 100 hours a week
which definitely wasn’t good but it was
launched for men
working in factories and it hasn’t
changed in nearly 100 years
nowadays we have a more diverse
workforce
with new and exciting industries and a
continually changing evolving
professional mindset lifestyle
however we’re still stuck in the 1920s
and it’s time for us to challenge this
rigid routine
let’s create a more flexible working
environment based on productivity and
trust
people should have the ability to mold
their working day around when they’re
being most productive and around their
families were possible
and these ideas alone would open up a
whole new realm of possibilities giving
power back
especially to women to dictate their own
work week and therefore their life path
allowing them to raise their families
while building a career and still get
into all the places
where the decisions are being made
when we truly start to change culture
and behavior within the home and in the
workplace
that is when we will have real impact
the women that have gone before us
have fought for the law to be on our
side and it’s because of the struggles
of our four mothers
that we can now vote a financial
independence own businesses
and properties while still raising our
families let’s celebrate the strides
that we have made
but equally appreciate that our journey
is not over
for the next part of this journey i
believe that it’s critical that men and
women
now join forces to drive change the
research has shown time and time again
that an equal society is good for the
home and it’s good for business
according to the united nations gender
equality is not
only a fundamental human right but a
necessary foundation for a peaceful
prosperous and sustainable world
my birth is husband carl benz he
recognized the value of his wife’s
ambition and support
as critical to their collective success
in his
memoirs he said only one person
stood by me during those times when i
was heading towards the abyss
and that was my wife it was her courage
that enabled me to find new hope i
believe
that it’s when men and women begin to be
viewed as equals
act as equals and work together as
equals in all aspects of life
appreciating each other’s worth and
contribution
that is when we will have real power so
let’s all
be the change we want to see so i invite
you
both male and female to ask yourselves
what is the one thing that you can do
each day
whether that’s in your kitchen or your
boardroom to challenge the culture and
behaviors
to ensure that women will always be in
the places where the decisions are being
made
let’s drive that change as bertha did we
might get mucky along the way
we might even get some abuse but if we
use our garters or her pins our talent
and our determination
i’ve got no doubt that we can get there
and boy will it be worth it you