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13-04-24 12:54 PMInterviews with two smart, powerful women | The Bay Observer
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May-Marie Duwai-Sowa
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Interviews with two smart, powerful womenPosted by: Katie Stoneman March 19, 2013 in Business Leave a comment
International Women’s day marked it’s 100th year this month. As a celebration of strong women, the BayObserver separately interviewed two very smart, professional, and powerful women.
May-Marie Duwai-Sowa is the publisher and editor-in-chief of lifestyle e-magazine Illuminessence. Shewas born and raised in Sierra Leone, West Africaand grew up in the midst of civil war until sheimmigrated to the United States in 1999. Duwai-Sowa is passionate about promoting social changeand equity in both her personal and professionalundertakings. In 2003, Duwai-Sowa immigrated toCanada, where she currently resides with herfamily in Hamilton, Ontario.
“Hamilton has a tremendous network of dynamicand remarkable women who are doingphenomenal things that need to be celebrated. They exude a refreshing dose of positive energy
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13-04-24 12:54 PMInterviews with two smart, powerful women | The Bay Observer
Page 2 of 5http://bayobserver.ca/interviews-with-two-smart-powerful-women/
Barbara Stewart
and I am extremely delighted to be a part of such a thriving community, which is only going to keepblossoming with time,” said Duwai-Sowa
Duwai-Sowa is a skilled professional specializing in community development strategies, public policyimplementation, diversity, equity and inclusion. She holds an Honors Bachelor’s degree in Sociology fromRider University in New Jersey and a Masters degree in Sociology and International Development fromUniversity of Guelph.
Duwai-Sowa is currently the Accessibility and Equity Specialist for the City of Hamilton but has held manypositions including: Community Developer with Hamilton’s Centre for Civic Inclusion, EconomicDevelopment Adviser with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
An avid volunteer, she is a member of many different organizations and committees including theInternational Honor Society in Social Sciences, Equal Voice Canada and Hamilton Positive SpaceCollaborative.
Barbara Stewart is a shareholder of Cumberland Partners Limited in Toronto, the parent company ofCumberland Private Wealth Management Inc. Before she worked with private clients she advised clients
on the foreign currency-trading desk for one of Canada’s majorbanks.
Stewart has finished a series of three research papers regardingpowerful women and the way they are investing not only theirmoney, but also their time. She is currently launching her thirdinstallment of the Rich Thinking series entitled, How Smart Womenare Investing/Spending their Resources in 2013. This paper is alogical follow up to the previous one examining how womenlearned about money and finances while growing up. She spoke toover 100 smart and powerful women and collected direct quotesfrom them about how they achieve success in their busy,demanding lives.
Stewart is passionate about financial literacy, and exhibits aparticular interest in the ways women use their money and money-
knowledge. She speaks internationally on the subject of financial literacy and is passionate abouteducating the public on the topic.
Stewart is a CFA charterholder who specializes in Financial Counseling and Portfolio Management; TheCFA Institute is association whose goal is “to serve the greater good by creating an environment whereinvestors’ interests come first, markets function at their best, and economies grow.”
Barbara and her husband, Duncan live in Toronto with their Bernese Mountain Dog, Sam. Barbara’sinterests include hiking, swimming, yoga, reading and travel.
The Questions:Katie Stoneman: What kind of advice would you give to a woman to achieve success?
Barbara Stewart: Success = having the freedom to define, create and finance your own future. […] Myadvice to any woman is to make sure you have your own work – something that you are passionateabout. Whether this is your day job or whether your day job affords you the opportunity to make acontribution in your spare time, do something that is yours. Work provides a feeling of confidence andover time this leads to the freedom to choose your own lifestyle and future.
May-Marie Duwai-Sowa: Women must understand that achieving success is a journey and the first stepstarts with taking a leap of faith to follow your passion or gut instinct to fill a void or satisfy a need. It isunderstanding that success is a process which involves having the courage to venture into a verychallenging, daunting and sometimes untrodden path. What is important is that women take time to reallylearn and enjoy whatever they pursue. Women should also accept that success holds different meaningsfor different people, so defining success within a narrow or rigid lens is not practical.
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KS: How can a woman balance her home/personal life with their professional life? How have you achieveda balance in your personal life?
MD: It’s always a juggling act, which I am still trying to perfect. I hope to figure it out soon. For now it’smostly at the expense of sleep. I make a conscious effort to focus on my family when at home orspending time together. After everyone is asleep, I get back to work for a few hours to catch up onoutstanding tasks.
BS: From the research I have done, it is clear that the key to a feeling of balance is spending your time andenergy on a cause that is meaningful to you. This gives you a feeling of being grounded. […] My balancecomes from integrating my research work (my passion) with my professional career as a portfoliomanager.
KS: What was the most surprising trend you came across in your work?
BS: I always knew that some women were ‘having it all’. But what surprised me the most is just how manyof the women I spoke to are ‘having it all’. It used to be that people would work for years and years in ahorrible job hoping one day they would be able to do something that matters to them. […] But todaywomen aren’t waiting to retire or to move to the corner office or to finally get on a Board of Directors. Theyare spending their time, energy and/or money on personal causes. Lots of women are living all parts ofthemselves now. Women are not waiting.
MD: The most surprising trend I have come across in [my work] meeting with professional women is theirwillingness to share their experiences, resources and networks. They are also really interested innetworking and collaborating, which is quite refreshing.
KS: How are women making a difference in their world while going about their daily lives?
BS: The dozens of quotes in the white paper really speak for themselves. I put the causes into threedifferent categories: save your family, save the world and save your soul. In a way all three are similar. Forexample, investing in our children and passing along our core values is a great way to make the world abetter place. It is also good for our soul to know that we are investing our time on this and ensuring thatour children will become self-sufficient and independent.
MD: I think it speaks to the nurturing qualities of women because we [tend to] look for a deeper meaningin our actions and interactions. We feel that our lives and actions should have a bigger purpose so it [hasan impact] on our family, friends and acquaintances. So it’s easy to see why women seek to align theirpersonal values with their everyday life and business because it just makes it more fulfilling andmeaningful.
KS: How long did you work on the Rich Thinking white papers? Where did the idea come from?
BS: My original idea came to me four years ago while I was hiking in the Rockies. I was feeling irritated byall of the seemingly archaic articles in various publications re: women being “underconfident” or “riskaverse” investors. […] I decided to do my own research and see if I could set the record straight. Fromthere I have written 3 white papers on topics related to women and finance and all have been based oninterviews with accomplished women. […] I wondered what women were doing today with their money –what are they most passionate about?
KS: How did you decide to put the paper together in this way, focusing on all the quotes from the womenyou interviewed?
BS: I started out thinking I would write about all of the conversations in an organized manner. In theprocess of putting the paper together it became very obvious to me that the quotes were best left in theiroriginal form. […] I think the white paper reads in a more authentic way and my main objective is to getthese wonderful messages out into the mainstream so that women/money becomes the positive storythat in fact it is.
KS: How long have you been working on Illuminessence? What got you started?
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MD: The desire to establish Illuminessence stemmed from my passion to celebrate the remarkableaccomplishments of women. Since moving to Hamilton in 2007, I have come across a lot of youngprofessional women doing remarkable things and I felt that it would be great to have a platform toshowcase their accomplishments and utilize it as an opportunity to inspire others to emulate theirexample. Developing the idea in earnest started last summer and has evolved to what we have nowcreated. We’re still evolving and it’s quite an exciting process.
KS: How has the response been so far?
MD: Essentially, everybody we’ve approached has helped us in some capacity and that’s something youdon’t get easily. The willingness of others to help us nurture our idea and accomplish our goals is ademonstration of their commitment to our community’s growth and development.
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I’m a 20-something journalist living in Hamilton and passionate about the city’s life and culture. Iadore Hamilton, enjoy speaking to the people here, and I believe this city offers a lot of fun, enriching,unique, and creative experiences and people to have those experiences with. Steel City is making acomeback, and I want to write everything I can about it.
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