Common Wealth, Common Wisdom

In addition to her feature piece about Ann and Roger Huntley, Jenn Sibert chose to profile local entrepreneur Maggie Wood, age 17. Jenn says: "Maggie's story and creative genius is unique and it was such a pleasure to interview her. At an early age she discovered her passion for crafting jewelry and clothes from recycled materials. She goes through great lengths to connect with her surrounding community despite living in a small town and taking online classes instead of attending the local high school." Listen as Maggie explains her sources of motivation, inspiration, and her life as a young entrepreneur.

Labels: audio features, Entrepreneurship, experience, geofeed, Jennifer, North Country

Last week, the Common Wealth, Common Wisdom team spent a day at the St. Lawrence County Fair in Gouverneur. When we managed to pry ourselves away from the games, the animals and the maple sugar candy, we set up an informational booth and conducted interviews with some local entrepreneurs.

Labels: Entrepreneurship, geofeed, gouverneurfair

Today's economy is a point of obsession- talked about by every news station, and worried about by nearly every person in the country. But when I follow recession news, there's one big question on my mind: How are women being affected differently than men?

In today's recession, more jobs are being lost by men than women. This is because more jobs are being lost in the construction field, where the typical worker is male, and because it costs less to keep a woman on as they are payed less. To give you an idea, the median annual income for an unmarried woman is $12, 900 and $26, 850 for a man. This is part of the reason single mothers need more government assistance, such as food stamps, than single fathers.

However, while men are losing more jobs, women are still having a harder time in the recession. People are falling back on savings when they can't pay the bills with a paycheck, and women have less savings because they make less. To this day women make only 76% of what men make, and face discrimination in the workforce when applying for jobs. A decrease in salaries across the board isn't helping: Men's earnings are down .5%, and women's down 3%.

It's shocking to read these facts knowing the progress we have made-- why is it so hard to make the final leaps towards equality? Why is equal pay still a problem in today's modern society? But I think the bigger question is, in the face of statistics like these, why have women's rights become such a tired topic?

Ruth Garner tells me that when she started thinking about a career in the 1930s, a woman could be only a teacher, secretary, or nurse. And while those continue to be the most common jobs for women, they are no longer the only options. However, being allowed to apply for the same job as a man does not mean gender doesn't play a role. Look at the new Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and how much focus was put on the fact that she is a woman, instead of simply her ideas.

One thing I realized when talking with Ruth is that we have made immense progress in the past seventy years. Ruth has broken the glass ceiling three times over: She opened a hairdresser's business, a funeral home, and became mayor.

Click on the audio player to hear a story about unequal pay from Ruth's life. And to hear more of Ruth's story, come to our final event on Friday at the Silas Wright House from five to eight p.m.

Labels: Brenna, cwcw, Entrepreneurship, gender, geofeed, Ruth Garner

Labels: Entrepreneurship, hands, Kolby

Labels: Brenna, Brushton, Business, Depression, Entrepreneurship, geofeed

Sitting on his patio in downtown Brushton, Mayor Don Barney shares some of his accumulated wisdom with the CWCW crew. The eighty year-old retired Agway representative shares his circumstances growing up on a farm in Malone during the Great Depression. Don says that although his family was poor, "we never went without."

Don pauses, considering what he's about to say. "I usually don't tell people this," Don says, "but I don't have a high school education." In a household of five children, Don explains, "If there was work to be done at home, you stayed home and you done it… Most of the time we made our own money. We might have gone out to nearby farms and we'd pick corn and pitch hay and we'd do anything to make a dollar." He grew up with a notion of hard work and independence as his family "raised everything on the farm."

Don's self-reliance has taken the place of education and I begin to understand how, in combination with education, that character trait can lead to great economic prospects. "I don't think in life I really could've done any better if I had a high school education or college. But I had the experience and the good reputation to be able to get one of the best jobs."

It was inspiring to learn that Don served on various school and town community boards despite his lack of formal education. He reminds us that education "opens doors but doesn't solve all the problems." Many youth today are choosing education as a safe-haven from the reality of living independent, but having a college degree doesn't automatically ensure success. Don Barney's emphasis on education in combination with will power is powerful advice for young people today. The current economy of may appear bleak but Don says with a grin, " I think you gotta have that positive attitude, that’s all. Yeah, and a little bit of luck of course."

Labels: Brushton, Business, Entrepreneurship, geofeed, Jennifer, positive