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I’ve spent close to two months in Richmond, spending time with my daughter Rasa and her husband Lewis, and my sweetest of granddaughters, Lina.  While here I also made friends with Dougie Bowman and her husband Bob Scudder. 

Let me tell you about Iron Butterfly Dougie. She and her husband invited 15 top executive women of Richmond to a cocktail party so that I could talk about my book and start a different converstion. It was an amazing group of women, diverse professionally and by age. Some of them had never met. Three things struck me. Talking to them, I had their full attention; no fidgeting, distraction, they were completely with me. The second thing was that the conversation took a turn into deep waters when one successful and wealthy woman said she prostituted herself to get there. That opened the door for others to talk about their price of success, such as two failed marriages, stroking male egos, dealing with being called “kitten.”  I don’t think this was a conversation many of them had had before. It was so refreshing to speak truth. No whitewashing. The third inspiring moment was that the women are going to gather again to discuss the ideas in the book. The conversation continues. Women supporting women, joining together with intention to shape the era of women. A start of an Iron Butterfly chapter?