Two admirable Women of Nerve
Source:Island
Leelananda de Silva lent me the copy of Nerve he had been gift-posted by one of the book’s authors with the inscription ‘To Leelananda and Rukmal: two people who have known me from the time I was a child! For your love and support – Thank you!’ signed Indira, dated Sept 2021.
Martha Piper and Indira Samarasekera authored this book titled Nerve – lessons on leadership from two women who went first published by ECW Press, Toronto, in 2021. It carries a Foreword of three pages by The Right Hon Kim Campbell, 19th Prime Minister of Canada. (Avril Phaedra Douglas ‘Kim’ Campbell QC, was PM from June to November 1993, and is politician, diplomat, lawyer and writer, only woman PM of Canada so far). 297 pages of text are followed by fairly extensive Notes and Index. It is a truly wonderful book containing loads of advice to women of all ages – mainly career women. They differentiate between men’s and women’s attitudes in going far and forward in careers; present general opinions on various issues while quoting from what has been said and written about such issues. Much autobiographical details of both Piper and Indira delightfully personalize the book and ensure avid reading. Style of writing too contributes to this plus factor of the book.
Martha C Piper, Canadian academic and administrator, was 11th President and Vice Chancellor of the University of British Columbia from 1997 to 2006 and innovatively guided the university to be one of the best. She was the first woman President of UBC.
Indira Samarasekera was on the Faculty of the university and was nominated by Martha to the post of Vice President /Research. She considers Martha to be one of her chief mentors. From UBC she moved to the University of Alberta as 12th President and Vice Chancellor in 2005. In 2015 she left her post but has served on several prestigious committees and boards.
The book – Introduction
The Introduction, written by both authors we presume, starts with the sentence “Women are notoriously ambivalent when it comes to leadership. They often ask us ‘Should I seek or accept this leadership opportunity or should I forego it?’” The authors then proceed to clarify what they have to say. “. …for women there is a recurring thread connecting these three phases of leadership: nerve – developing your nerve to lead, drawing upon your nerve when leading and finding the nerve to reinvent yourself when you no longer are leading. Nerve is the personal attribute that we believe is not only required to lead but also is often missing in women… Nerve to be true to yourself, nerve to take a path less traveled; nerve to go first, nerve to act decisively, nerve to redefine yourself.” Toward the end of the Intro they write: “We propose that nerve not only needs to be acknowledged but also actively cultivated by woman leaders. Without nerve, women worry about being liked and keeping everyone happy. Without nerve, women are prone to avoiding the tough decisions and to forgoing their principles in the face of adversity.”
The final paragraph clearly sums up their intention and aim in collaborating on authorship. “This book is a reflection on leadership, how it differs for women and men and what it takes for women to excel as leaders. It is also part memoir… It is our hope that by sharing our experiences as women leaders who went first, we will encourage the next generation of women to find the nerve to step up and lead with confidence, strength and conviction.”
Format
Martha and Indira have adopted a unique style of arrangement of the text. It is in three parts under the titles; Developing the nerve to lead; Leading with nerve and Life after leading: the nerve to redefine yourself. Each of these is sub-sectioned to chapters; Part 1 having 5, Part 2 and 3, 6 chapters each; all sequentially numbered 1 to 16. In each chapter you get a general section: opinion of both etc. Then each tells the relevant section of her life under subtitles Piper, Samarasekera. This scheme is often repeated in each chapter. Finally is a Lessons Learned section, which carries guidance, directly and indirectly.
Content matter is excellent and completely relevant to the stated aim of the authors – to help women to develop sufficient nerve to progress and reach heights not only in their careers but in life and living too. The most outstanding fact is that they don’t make taking career risks and going forward easy or simple. They deal with risks and throughout the book compare men and women in their attitudes, ease of upward mobility (no ease but difficult all the way for women). They instruct too but certainly not as prideful women who succeeded through brains, experience and qualifications, and having plenty of nerve of course, but as two women with attendant frailties, admittedly far less in them than in most women.
To me, now past going up the hierarchical ladder of career success and all that, the autobiographical sections were most eagerly read and appreciated. They reveal trials and tribulations met and crossed; obstacles over-reached and worries overcome; never mentioning their superior natural attributes. Career development and raising and caring for families and support of husbands go hand in hand. However, they do admit to serendipity shedding winning surprises. Martha Piper had and is in a very happy marriage with two children. Indira had marital problems through insidious incompatibility though on the surface her husband and she – brainy, academically qualified persons – seemed ideally suited to each other. She truthfully tells us how she made a trip to Sri Lanka to consult her parents and grandmother when contemplating divorce; the father advised giving preference to personal and career advancement; her grandma hinted an unhappy marriage was not worth continuing. But not by even one sentence does Indira blame her husband or belittle him. Fortunately their divorce was amicable and they continue to maintain strong family ties as parents with their two children and their families.
The authors make clear distinction between issues, terms and of course men and women in careers and life. For example in Part I the terms ‘mentor’ and ‘sponsor’ are clearly explained and demarcated.
Each chapter is prefaced with a quotation. I personally love quotations. Those in the book are culled from various sources ranging from William Shakespeare, Eleanor Roosevelt, Henrik Ibsen, Marilyn Monroe, Steve Jobs, Bill Clinton and several others.
Style of writing
The manner in which they write is excellent and thus makes for eager, absorbed reading. It is conversational, never pedantic or ‘written from above’. Though vocabulary of both is extensive, the use of the correct word or term does not deter a near beginner-of-understanding- English, to read with full understanding. Many instances of using standard expressions (I avoid the word clichés) enrich the language. Examples abound: “The feminine revolution was in full swing”; “I was over the moon.”
In their Lessons Learnt sections in each chapter they advice but with not even a trace of preaching or indicating they had no issues to struggle against. They don’t really write from a distance but speak one to one, like older and more experienced sisters speaking to younger ones.
Both authors make much of the term serendipity, particularly Indira whose entire future career materialized from a chance meeting with a friend of a friend of her father’s. The most used word in the book is ‘nerve’. Not very far behind is ‘serendipity’.
The Sri Lankan author
You can read plenty on Indira Samarasekera in Internet. I will briefly sketch her bio. Born in Colombo on April 11, 1952, to ENT specialist father – Dr A C Arulpragasam, she was the first of four siblings. Her great-grandfather is Dr S C Paul, first Ceylonese surgeon practicing in Ceylon. The family moved to London when her father went over for further qualifications. She was three years old and loved school there. In 1958, on return to Ceylon they were confronted with racial turmoil and shifted to Jaffna. She schooled at Chundukuli briefly and then went to Vembadi Girls’ School; in 1973 moved to Ladies’ College, Colombo.
She excelled in math and physics and entered the Engineering Faculty, University of Moratuwa and graduated brilliantly. Winning a Fulbright Scholarship she moved to Davies, University of California, now married at 23 to co-doctorate student “Sam” Samarasekera. She met a friend of a friend of her father’s who invited the couple to Canada assuring Sam employment. This meeting they almost missed saying they were too busy to go out for lunch. She studied metallurgy, and did ground breaking research in steel. I need not say she reached the pinnacle of academia; it’s obvious from the little I have written. She is a grandmother now, ‘reinvented’ with nerve.
The two authors selected to quote Kamala Harris in their concluding chapter: “While I may be the first woman in this office, I won’t be the last.” Their example and advice is to those others and all women. Nerve is a must read, particularly by our career conscious girls and women, not only because it is most interesting and instructional but because one of the authors – a brilliantly successful woman – is one of our own.
