Phoebe Eng says when she was a young girl, her mother encouraged her to earn a law degree because, "I want you to learn the language of power."
It was then, as a young girl, that Eng realized how powerless her mother felt, even though she had a strong presence in the home.
"When she crossed from the inside to the outside, she was seen as a little Chinese woman," Eng said. "She would often shrink back against the wall, into the background."
Speaking Friday at the Young Women's Christian Association of Salt Lake City annual Leader Luncheon, Eng asked those present to think about how powerless women who are children of immigrants, or the first in a family to go to college, or in any other situation, feel.
Eng, co-founder of national social justice organization The Opportunity Agenda, and author of "Warrior Lessons," said power isn't necessarily the ability to make others jump on call. It can be, instead, the ability to achieve a vision.
"To have that power denied, whittled away," she said. "Think of all the creative ideas we lose ... Think about the perspective that could make our work really groundbreaking."
Eng pointed to individuals within the YWCA as examples of leaders who helped to make the organization a powerful resource for Utah's women. She pointed to its family justice center for victims of domestic violence. And the organization is preparing to break ground on two new buildings.
Last year, 552 women and children escaping domestic violence received help at the YWCA's crisis shelter and 242 children who were victims of family violence received child-centered advocacy and services at the YWCA.
The annual luncheon serves as a fund-raiser and way to honor local women who have excelled in their fields, overcome adversity and inspired other women.
Those honored with outstanding achievement awards Friday were: Karen Crompton, executive director of Voices for Utah Children; Salt Lake County Justice Court Judge Shauna Graves-Robertson; State Superintendent of Education Patti Harrington; Colette Herrick, managing principal of Insight Shift, a health care consulting firm; Wilma Johnson, a registered nurse who works in Third World development; Kathleen Mason, who conducts dance and movement therapy with special needs students in Jordan School District; and Margo Provost, president and board chairwoman of the Log Haven Restaurant Group.
E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com