By Tralonne R. Shorter
Washington, DC is home to our world’s leading power elites in politics, law, journalism, diplomacy and high society. As satirically portrayed in the movie Wall Street, Washington, DC (much like Manhattan) is a town where even interns have mastered the art of exchanging business cards. For women, Washington, DC is a town where a women’s place is not just relegated to the kitchen, but to Speaker of House of Representatives, Secretary of State and Chief Executive Officer at leading corporations. This month Bravo TV will air its debut season of “The Real Housewives of Washington, DC” and it is only befitting that KerygmaWord celebrate real Washingtonian women who are breaking the glass ceiling while juggling family life and community interests. I asked one woman what was the secret to achieving overflowing success.
Women are Natural Energizers
According to the 2000 U.S. census women outnumber men by 6 million (140 million women); and in Washington, DC there are nine-tenths of a man for every woman (according to a 2006 Washington Post article entitled, “For This D.C. Woman, Nine-Tenths of a Man Is Not Good Enough”). Perhaps it’s the genetic advantage that female sperm have over male sperm as they are long distance swimmers. Regardless, Washingtonian women are certainly proving that the rat race is not given to the swift or to the strong, but to those who endure until the end.
Women are Natural Energizers
For instance Genette Agba, CFRM, is a 40-something Northern Virginia business owner, wife and mother. By day Agba is the Chief Executive Officer of Comfort Consulting & Management (CCMS), a boutique certified fundraising company; and by night she is wife, mother 
to three children ranging in age from 16 to 32 as well as guardian to her mentally-disabled younger sister. Agba indicates the key to achieving success and finding her flow is two-fold: “choose happiness,” a motto posted on her Facebook page and “be mindful of the outcome of your choices.” Prior to attaining success in philanthropy in which she has raised more than $30 million for nonprofit organizations, Agba was a teen-age mother who left her rural hometown in Georgia in pursuit of boundless opportunities of city life in Washington, DC (with her infant daughter in tow). After a stint at Howard University, Agba graduated from Trinity University with a degree in Public Communications. During the period before becoming CEO of CCMS, Agba recalls surmounting many hurdles and distractions along life’s winding road. Agba’s greatest challenge was learning how to rebound after losing her job as a senior executive at a nonprofit organization due to a company reorganization. Humbled and hurt by this setback Agba states, “As I sat there on the sidelines blaming all those who wronged me, I discovered me by doing something that I could control the outcome.” She further states, “I discovered that the same energy that I gave away so freely to my past jobs, I could give this energy to me and create my own business doing what I loved so much—fundraising for worthy missions.
Agba realizes while climbing the career ladder she regrets the time she spent away from her family. Working fourteen hour days she missed attending her children’s track meets as well as soccer and basketball games. Agba also indicates that her career was a contributing factor to the demise of her marriage. Today Agba, who has remarried, is grateful for the work-life balance allotted by being CEO. She advises other women to make their health and family the priority. She concludes, “yes, it’s still hard and I have a way to go to get there. I started a walking program to lose weight and become healthier. I am actively engaged with my family. I am in control. “
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Tralonne R. Shorter is a contributing writer for KerygmaWord and the author and creator of Dearly B. Loved, a blog devoted to redefining the social dialogue around healthy relationships. Click here to read more about her.
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