International Women's Day 2023: Embracing Equity with Paula Boggs

Every March 8, International Women’s Day celebrates the achievements of women and encourages further conversation about the advancement of women in the world. We believe this is a vital issue in the corporate travel industry. While Deem is proud to have three women in its seven-person executive leadership team and 100% gender pay parity throughout our organization, so much of the industry is not there yet.

“As an industry that feels workforce pressure, we need to do better for women who want career advancement,” says Peggy Berg, chair of the Castell Project, of the hospitality industry. “The companies that perform best in the new post‐pandemic market will be companies with diverse leadership.”

“Overall, the Castell Project finds that the odds of women reaching the executive leadership level were one woman to 5.9 men at the end of 2019. At the end of 2020, the odds were 5.7 men per woman.” —Phocuswire

On the aviation side, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) is helping to champion more women in aviation. Its 25by2025 campaign is a global initiative to change the gender balance in the aviation industry, with a  goal of “increas[ing] the number of women in senior positions and under-represented areas by 25%, or up to a minimum of 25%, by 2025”.  

IATA also shares on its site that “with a large number of airlines and industry partners already committing to 25by2025, we are paving the way for an industry that recognizes  female talent and creates opportunities for women in which they can thrive.”

There are, of course, other areas of the business travel industry, but these examples show the larger segments recognize the problem. Even better, there are some efforts to start correcting it. But there’s a long way to go for women to reach the same levels of leadership long enjoyed by men. By continuing the conversation and paying forward  to others the lessons women leaders have learned, we hope to add to equality efforts in a meaningful way. 

By continuing the conversation and paying forward  to others the lessons women leaders have learned, we hope to add to equality efforts in a meaningful way. To that end, we invite you to view our latest video celebrating International Women’s Day with Deem’s CRO, Christina Woronchak, and our guest, the extraordinary Paula Boggs.

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Video Transcript:

Christina Woronchak – CRO, Deem: Thank you so much for joining us, everyone. It's International Women's Day 2023. The theme this year is Embrace Equity. I have the incredible honor and privilege to have Paula Boggs here joining me. There are so many ways I could describe her because she's such an accomplished person who has done so many things over the course of her life. So, Paula, it would be awesome if you could tell us a little bit about all of the different things that you've done because you have such a diverse background.

Paula Boggs – CEO & Founder, Boggs Media LLC: I'm really happy to be with you, Christina, and everyone who's watching or listening. I am a big champion of International Women's Day, so it's really cool to be part of your program and celebration of this important day. 

When I think of how best to describe myself, I am someone who has lived long enough to have several chapters under my belt; they include living in Jim Crow, Virginia, living as a kid in Europe, attending some of our nation's best schools, serving my country a couple of different ways as an Army officer and then as a federal prosecutor.

And then there was the chapter of being in private practice and working for corporations before leaping to what I am doing now. For the past ten years, I've been the front woman for an Americana band. We call it Seattle Bluegrass. The Paula Boggs Band has been touring all over the United States and Canada, trying to delight audiences as best we can.

The start of an incredible journey 

Christina: Well, that's an incredible summary. And it's an incredible life and an incredible journey. You've done so many different things. I’d like to go into some of those different areas of your life because I think they're a huge inspiration. And I think that's what International Women's Day is all about, really paying it forward and sharing our own experiences and helping other women along the way.

So you talked about the early days. Tell me a little bit about the beginning. A big change occurred in your life when your mom took you and your siblings and moved you to Europe and you were exposed to jazz and to musicians. That just sounds like an absolutely incredible experience. How did that prepare you for the life that you've had?

Paula: I think about the courageous steps my mom took back then, but what makes it even more courageous is the chapter that preceded her doing what she did. You know, for a lot of people, where you're born and those formative years can really shape you or break you. And in my case, they shaped me greatly even before I got to Europe.

And there are a couple different ingredients to that which I think about quite a bit w hen I think about the gifts and luck of the draw, if you will, and me being born me. So IAnd there are a couple different ingredients to that which I think about quite a bit when I think about the gifts and luck of the draw, if you will, and me being born me. So I am the daughter of educators. My dad was the first zoology PhD recipient from Howard University, a historically black college, which was back then widely considered the “Black Harvard”.

That's where my parents met. But they didn't meet in a vacuum either. My mom is from Washington, D.C., and her parents were part of the Great Migration. It's interesting because tonight I'm going to see the author, Isabel Wilkerson, with my mom. One of the books she wrote was The Warmth of Other Suns. It documents quite extensively what to this day is the greatest migration story of the United States of America.

My grandparents were part of that. And importantly, they were homeowners and they weren't the first homeowners in my lineage. So I was born in this petri dish of, yes, I was black in America and with all that implies, but I was also the child of educators. I was the child of people who had owned property. 

By the time I came around for all of the 20th century, my family had owned property and we were Roman Catholic, which in the South was an interesting phenomenon because, for your watchers and listeners, only 10% of black people are Roman Catholic.

And so even though I was living in the segregated South, I was a minority within a minority that way. And I was certainly a minority in terms of where I went to school because I was attending a Catholic school. It was the only integrated school in the city of Petersburg, Virginia. I share all of that because of the drama of getting on a plane, flying out of the United States to Germany, my mom and her four children landing in Frankfurt, then West Germany, not having a clue where we were going to live in Germany.

We learned that after we landed, we would live in Karlsruhe, West Germany, and really had no experience with the U.S. military. My mom was poised to be a teacher for the children of military personnel. So all of this new culture was, in some respects, overwhelming. But I think the chapter that had preceded it had already taught me how to navigate multiple cultures and figure out how to fit in whether it was a black Catholic in the black community or a black person in the Catholic community or someone whose mom was not Catholic (she was African Methodist Episcopal).

So toggling between two very different religious traditions, all of that had happened before we got to Europe. But to your point, until I got to Europe, there were a tremendous number of things that I experienced for the first time, including living with white and multiracial neighbors, seeing an interracial couple for the first time, really learning things about the military well beyond what I had gleaned from watching TV shows of the day like Hogan's Heroes and Gomer Pyle.

On the point of jazz, I didn't even know what jazz was before we moved to Europe. It wasn't something I played in my home. It was through, interestingly, the parents of white friends that led to my deep exposure to jazz in my pre-teen and teen years. And I'm forever grateful for that.

Learning to accept help

Christina: That sounds like such an incredible foundation, Paula. All the different things that you were exposed to really set you up for all of the things that you've been able to achieve in your lifetime. It seems like your mother was pretty courageous to make that step and for you to join the Army. One of the things that I read was that you were afraid of heights and jumping out of airplanes. How did your mom's courage influence you or help you be courageous in some of the things that you've pursued?

Paula: A footnote there; my mom, at 86 years old, continues to be courageous. Only last year, she moved next door to us. She had been living in San Antonio, Texas, for 25 years and made that leap to move halfway across the country at 85. So, you know, she's still doing it. 

In terms of me going to airborne school and what effect my mom's example placed on that, it most certainly was subliminal, because when my professor of military science suggested/demanded that I go to airborne school, it was in response to me not being a very serious cadet. I was at Johns Hopkins University at the time, and I was a serious student. But I was not a very serious cadet. 

I was pretty much going through the motions and it was through his impatience and frustration with me that he took me by the shoulders. He literally shook me and said, you are not serious, you are about to enter this man's army, and that is exactly how he put it. “You need an edge. You need to go to airborne school.” And in response to that, I said, “Oh, no, sir, no, sir, you don't understand. You've got to be confused with someone who's not afraid of heights.” And I was. I still am. I still am afraid of heights. But he talked me into going. He convinced me that I was physically fit for this challenge. 

I ran track and cross country. I was very physically fit. And he also convinced me that despite the reason he was suggesting it in the first place, I had the emotional ability to do what it took to be successful at airborne school. Essentially what he said to me was, “Look, you're going to suffer a lot of emotional abuse. They are going to yell at you. They're going to make you do push ups. They're going to make you do a lot of stuff that makes you feel bad. But at the end of the day, it's designed so that when they say jump, you will jump and will land safely.” 

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Well, the irony of that, Christina, is that I didn't land safely on my first jump. I was the first one out of the plane. I was small and they do it by weight. And I was one of only 12 women out of a class of 450 who had made it to that point of actually jumping from a plane. But I sprained my ankle and was what they call recycled. In other words, they said you can no longer do it. 

And so I really feared that after all this work, I would not earn my airborne wings. I left Fort Benning, I went to another military training and then through the grace of people looking out for me, I was able to return to Fort Benning and complete the remaining four qualifying jumps.

And that experience taught me a lot of things that keep showing up in my life because my initial try at it was failure. And success was not ordained. I really had to be incredibly entrepreneurial and then rely on luck and the support of others to get back to Fort Benning. I could not have done it alone. And that is a lesson I've internalized and remembered not only for myself, but in my mentoring of others. You know, so many times we need help.

Learning from failure

Christina: Yes, we do. It's interesting. I think sometimes people think that failure's the be-all and end-all and don't realize that it can be a gift. It gives you an opportunity to keep trying. And I always say you learn more from the things that didn't go so well in your life than you do from the things that do. Do you agree with that?

Paula: I absolutely agree with that. And in fact, I'm 100% an example of that. You see, when I first graduated from law school and was beginning my active duty military career, I almost failed to cross the starting line because I ended up failing the bar exam multiple times. And it was an incredibly dark and embarrassing place to be because I had been accepted into an honors program in the Pentagon. 

I was the first black woman who had ever been accepted into this program. And the thing about being the first, or only, when you fail, it’s not just a personal failure. You feel the weight of having screwed it up for everyone else l because it has opened the door for the negative forces to say, well, we tried that and it didn't work.

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And so I felt all of that. It wasn't just my failure. I felt the weight of failing people I didn't even know, people who would come after me. But what I can say to your watchers and listeners here is I am 100% convinced, had I not failed and failed in such a big way, I never would have become Starbucks general counsel 20 plus years later.

Why am I so resolute, so confident that is true? Well, those failures forced me to be very entrepreneurial.  I had to figure out how to remain in the Pentagon, short of being a member of somebody's bar. I had to literally talk myself into jobs that did not exist. And I did that.

The thing about trying something you've never done before, the second time is easier than the first time. And for me, that became a cultural norm for me to sort of bob and weave and perennially asked the question, why not? Why not me? And try to figure out how to sell me to someone who might be a doubter and because of my situation and being forced to do that, ultimately the next job was one that opened tremendous doors for me. The job after that even more. 

On continuing past setbacks

Christina: Thank you so much for being so authentic and so honest about that, because anyone looking at your LinkedIn profile or your biography would assume that you've never had any setbacks in your career. And to your point, I've learned so many things through all the mistakes that I've made in my life, where things didn't quite work out the way that I had intended. 

Often as I mentor other women, I always say, just because this didn't work out doesn't mean that it's the end of your life. This could be actually a really good thing. Maybe the next door is so much better than what you could have anticipated. 

You've talked about forging ahead and continuing to push. I read that one of your favorite quotes is, “Winners never quit and quitters never win”. Those words inspired you. Where did that come from? Was that from your military background or where did you pick that one up?

Paula: I first heard that phrase in high school. My high school track coach was the source of that for me. The context was, look, you've got to literally cross the finish line. And I never forgot that. I never forgot those lessons from high school and being a scholar athlete in high school because there are so many times when it is literally hard to cross the finish line. But it is so important to press on, even if you're the last one to cross the finish line, and I really consider it a gift that I had that kind of mentoring and those experiences at such a young age. 

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Not so long ago, I had the good fortune of speaking at a university and focusing mostly on Title Nine. The fact that I am literally a Title Nine baby, I am a member of the first generation of women to benefit from the law that said, look, you've got to provide equal athletic opportunities for girls and young women in order to receive federal money. Well, that's my generation. It just enjoyed its 50th anniversary and I have known women who preceded Title Nine.

And these women who are now in their late sixties and seventies and eighties and so on, who did not have those opportunities. And there is a marked difference between those two generations and the benefits that flow from girls and young women having the opportunity to compete in soccer and basketball and, in my case, track and field and those skills that that we acquired through participating never leave us.

The art of overcoming uncertainty

Christina: So you've had such a varied background in military, corporate, global, legal leader, successful musician and entrepreneur. So many women I talk to are afraid of trying new things because of the uncertainty and some of the apprehension around change. What is your advice for women based on your own personal experience about that?

Paula: Change happens whether we embrace it or not. And in my life journey, I've had the good fortune of having people to support me, even when I didn't realize I needed that support. What do I mean by that? An example is when I first started at Starbucks as its general counsel, as chief legal officer, it turned out to be a job that lasted a decade for me.

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At the beginning of it, I thought I was pretty hot stuff. I'm in my very early forties and I'm working for this iconic company, a global company, with all this responsibility and so on. And so there it was six months into it. The CEO at the time, the late Orin Smith, called me to his office and he started with, “You know, Paula, you and I have a lot in common.”

I didn't know where he was going with this. “We both worked really hard. We've both made tremendous sacrifices, even in our personal life. And now I'm at the top of my profession, and you're at the top of yours, however…” And there was a however. “However, the skills and tactics that worked so well for us as we climbed the mountain may not be what we need now that we're here.”

Initially I was offended by this. I was like, what is he saying to me? He doesn't know me. What does he mean by this? But what he was saying to me was, look, it's not about you. It's about your team, it's about your organization. It's about how you lift them up to win. I didn't get that. I didn't get that right away. But over time, I did. 

The buzz word for it these days is “servant leadership”. I decided I wanted to be a servant leader, that I could be a servant leader. And those values became my values for my remaining time at Starbucks.

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At the beginning of it, I thought I was pretty hot stuff. I'm in my very early forties and I'm working for this iconic company, a global company, with all this responsibility and so on. And so there it was six months into it. The CEO at the time, the late Orin Smith, called me to his office and he started with, “You know, Paula, you and I have a lot in common.”

I didn't know where he was going with this. “We both worked really hard. We've both made tremendous sacrifices, even in our personal life. And now I'm at the top of my profession, and you're at the top of yours, however…” And there was a however. “However, the skills and tactics that worked so well for us as we climbed the mountain may not be what we need now that we're here.”

Initially I was offended by this. I was like, what is he saying to me? He doesn't know me. What does he mean by this? But what he was saying to me was, look, it's not about you. It's about your team, it's about your organization. It's about how you lift them up to win. I didn't get that. I didn't get that right away. But over time, I did. The buzz word for it these days is “servant leadership”. I decided I wanted to be a servant leader, that I could be a servant leader. And those values became my values for my remaining time at Starbucks.

Mentorship and sponsorship

Christina: That was a huge gift. One of the things that I often think about with Women's Day and just helping other women paying it forward is the support of allies and mentors. I saw the clip when you retired from Starbucks and Howard had so many incredible things to say about you as a leader. Tell me about some of the allies and mentors that made such a difference to you in your life.

Paula: One that continues to stand out again and again, and I think it's such a great example for women and others who may be more marginalized in the workplace, was my boss at the White House. On the surface of it, we didn't have very much in common. I was this young, skinny black army officer. He was this middle-aged white guy with a receding hairline. 

It didn't seem like there was much in common. He was a Republican. I was military and so apolitical. But he was a political appointee in Reagan's White House. Over time, we realized we were both Roman Catholic and had attended Catholic schools, him at Saint Louis and me and Petersburg, Virginia.

It doesn't really matter if you're attending Catholic school in Saint Louis, Petersburg, Virginia, or someplace else if you've had nuns. The experiences we've had are very similar. The nuns can be domestic terrorists no matter where you are. We bonded over these stories. And before we knew it, this guy could see his younger self in me, despite the differences in how we looked and our life journeys. And that's critical. 

Mentoring doesn't happen, not genuinely, unless the mentor somehow sees his or her younger self in the mentee. And that happened for me and I am forever grateful it did because Bill did two things for me that really altered the course of my life.

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One was mentoring and one was sponsorship. This example I think illustrates the difference between the two. So what was the mentoring? The mentoring was Bill persuading me that after leaving the military, I should become an assistant U.S. attorney.

That was a seed that, if not for him planting it, would not have crossed my mind. I wasn't even entirely clear what an assistant U.S. attorney was, but he had been one. And he saw in me the skills that he thought would result in me being a really good one. So that was the mentoring piece of that.

But then came the sponsorship piece of it. Bill didn't just talk to me about this career path. He reached out to the US Attorney's office in Seattle and persuaded them to hire me, someone who had zero trial experience. He persuaded them to do something they had never done before, urged them to do something that but for his advocacy, never would have happened. And so I was the beneficiary of Bill's sponsorship. They took a leap of faith on me, based on Bill's word.

And so I did. I became a really good assistant U.S. attorney, but I wasn't that at the beginning. I was green. I had no experience. I had to learn skills I didn't have. And that experience between me and Bill informed how I viewed talent that came before me. I was in a position to hire, to mentor, to promote, to retain talent.

Every day is a canvas

Christina: As I think about the theme this year and embracing equity, I love what you said about finding common ground, even with people that you might think you have absolutely nothing in common with. Oftentimes there is something if you're willing to scratch the surface and look for that. The other thing that I think is so impactful for women and something I'm very passionate about is the sponsorship part.

It took me a long time to learn that lesson. I didn't learn it until I was in my forties. But once I realized how important it was to have that sponsorship, it really changed the course of my career and it's something that I always have to remind women, who may not have been given it, so thank you so much for sharing that. I think it's very valuable to any of the women listening today. 

I want to go to your music for a moment. I tried to listen to quite a bit of your music because I love music. I always have. And I think music says a lot about a person. I love watching you perform because you just look so incredibly happy. And I can just see the joy. The album that I love so much is Elixir. There are so many songs that I love, but Sleepwalking really resonated with me. I'm going to read you a few of the lyrics that I paraphrased, but I think those words are so powerful.

You talk about cleaning your slate and that every day is a canvas. And with each breath that we take, we should look at that as a brush and use that brush well and not succumb to self-restraint. It sounds like I can hear it now that I know you a little bit better. I feel like I'm getting goosebumps. I feel like you're telling the story of everything that you've accomplished and not getting in the way of yourself. Am I on the right track? 

Paula: Yeah, you are. The chorus of that song, waking may scare you but sleep walking brings you down, right? It is something so important for me personally to never lose sight of and I try to impart that in the child I helped raise and people I meet and mentor on life's highway.

I think it was Woody Allen that said, “90% of life is showing up.” And I believe that's true. I've seen it. I've seen it in my music life where you'll have an incredibly gifted musician, technically excellent and with a decent work ethic too. But that person can't translate that into an artistic or economic win. They don't have the ability or training, if you will, to say, okay, this is an opportunity and I'm going to seize it.

In my newer industry, music, that is critical. Someone with less talent, with a less serious work ethic will win over the first person because they know how to identify the opportunity and then seize it.

Christina: I think we can all draw inspiration from that; Looking for the opportunity when it's presented to us. And I think that goes back to some of the comments that you made as well about different things that were presented to you that you hadn't thought about that were really helpful in terms of your own personal journey.

I'm going to wrap up because we're almost out of time, but as I think about International Women's Day 2023, as women were called on to imagine a gender- equal world, a world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination, a world that's diverse, equitable and inclusive, a world where difference is valued and celebrated. What do you think we can do, you and I and other women? What can we do to advance embracing this equity? And if you had to write a song about it, what would that look like?

Paula: Those are great questions. I think first of all, the hopeful news is that more women, more members of other marginalized communities are rising to positions of leadership. I see it all around me. There are more women leaders in every realm of society today than even ten years ago. And that's a good thing. And with that opportunity comes responsibility to not forget from whence one comes, right? I think that it is incredibly important. That's point one.

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Point two is when we remove bias and the artificial barriers to entry and things that frustrate the ability of one to reach his or her potential– that's inefficient. It's economically inefficient. It really is not as good from a business standpoint compared to the environment where talent rises regardless of race, gender or any of those other things that sometimes get in the way of having the best be the best.

In terms of a song, I think there is a lot of grist there–artistic grist there– because, though I may not see it in my lifetime, I think a lot of people really want it. And if you can, even through fiction, describe it through song, I think more people, not everybody of course, but more people will say, “Hey, maybe it is possible to do that”. 

Christina: We'll be looking for one of your next albums and maybe you'll take a little inspiration from that. But I want to thank you for bringing your whole self to this conversation and for sharing all of your insights. You're such an incredible inspiration and I so enjoyed getting to know you better and having this opportunity to ask you all these questions.

Paula: Thank you, Christina. Happy International Women's Day!

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You might also be interested in:

• International Women's Day 2022 — video
  
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• Web Content Accessibility and Why It Matters — blog
  

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