WONder Woman Ann Doyle Honored by Women Officials Network (video)
(Crystal A. Proxmire, May 1, 2015)
Reflecting back on her childhood life-size cut-out of Linda Carter, Ann Doyle shared what she thought being a WONder Woman meant.
“It reminds me that being a wonderful woman is just the beginning. I think it’s equally important to be full of wonder,” Doyle said. “Wonder about how the human race and our civilizations can continue to evolve. Wonder about how we as individuals can help. And not just wonder about it. Not just talk about it. Not just to complain about it. But to roll up our sleeves and get to work and do something about it.”
Doyle was one of five women honored at the Women Officials Network (WON) WONder Woman Celebration on April 30.
And indeed, her life has been full of wonder. She traveled the world with her sports anchor father and college professor mother, and also helped care for six other children in the family. Her brother Vinny presented her with the award, sharing stories of how she rode horses and learned to sew before she blossomed into a young adult.
“The 70s came… There was women’s lib and the ERA. Ann was in Washington on the front lines. She wanted to do everything the boys had been doing while she was helping at home,” he said. “She grabbed a mic and a camera and made news.”
Doyle has worked as a journalist, a councilperson for Auburn Hills, and a speaker on women’s empowerment. She travels internationally to speak with major companies like PepsiCo, General Motors and Ernst & Young, and in 2015 the US State Department sent her to speak about women’s leadership in Trinidad, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. She’s bein inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame for her work in sports journalism, and she wrote the book Powering UP! How America’s Women Achievers Become Leaders.
In her WONder Woman acceptance speech Doyle said she’d love to see women make up at least 33% of elected officials. “33% is the magical number when a minority group begins to have a voice,” she said.
“I believe that brainpower, the talent, and the judgment of women is really the world’s greatest untapped natural resource.”
The Women Official’s Network is one of many ways Doyle has been a part of connecting women with resources and with each other. “I’ve been a member of this organization a number of years and its always been the meetings, the great speakers we have, the women who are members who I’ve gotten to know and discover what they’re doing and that has always been an ongoing source of energy to me, to keep my shoulder to the wheel.”
For all of her feminist spirit though, Doyle credits her family for being “my lifetime sandpaper, smoothing out all my rough edges,” and in particular her 23-year-old son Kevin. “I have a son who softened my heart from the many gender-based wounds that I carried for so long,” she said. Taking after his mother, the young man is quick to point out if she is ever unfair to men in the things she says.
With maturity and grace Doyle does more speaking than picketing, more heart to hearts than chants, but her work for equality continues on. “Although I am softer on the outside, I am as committed and passionate on the inside,” she said.
Five women were added to the ranks of WONder Women, and their stories will be added over the next few days:
Anne Doyle
Sheryl Mitchell
Ann Heler
Kelly Garrett
Nanci Grant
For more on the Women Officials Network go to http://www.womenofficialsnetwork.org/.