Isabel Dos Santos

Societies have labelled women for generations confining them to the home and forbidding them from the public sphere but this did not stop Isabel do Santos from pursuing her dreams. She has proved that today’s African woman is strong, daring, and enterprising. Born on April 20 1973 in Baku, Angola Isabel is the first daughter of Angola’s former President Jose Eduardo dos Santos. She attended an all-girls school in Angola then attained a degree in electrical engineering at Kings College in London. For the past 20 years Isabel has held management positions in different companies listed on European stock exchanges.

 She was a project manager for Urbana 2000 which had won a contract to clean and disinfect the city. Following that she set up a trucking business and opened Miami Beach Club. In an interview with Angolan press she let out that her biggest motivation was people’s speculation that she wouldn’t make it. And even after she had proved them wrong by chairing many large companies do Santos had to prove to the world that she had attained all her wealth from sweat and effort not from her father’s position.

Through Isabel do Santos women all over the globe have been represented and the notion that they have to choose between the private and the public sphere has been discredited as she is a mother of three despite owning shares in a major corporations. Isabel do Santos has been named by Forbes as Africa’s first billionaire woman.

LESSON: Leadership is not gender specific and gender are just socially constructed duties of men and women and they can be changed. 

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