"I'm a classic from BILBAO"
Carmen Miral, President of Women Siglo XXI
by Elena Marsal
Pamplona of birth and Bilbaina of adoption (has been here for more than thirty years), Carmen Miral is a consulting partner and attorney Procurator. He greets Me in his office, in which many AZs and cabinets of all kinds create a whimsical architecture of towers on tables and shelves; However the whole transmits sense of order and organization. Lively and fun, of these people who are in continuous movement, teaches me the local, several photos on a ledge, and a pristine office where we settled to talk about what concerns us. Because Carmen is also the president of the Association of Women Entrepreneurs and professionals SIGLO XXI. In fact, he is the creator of the invention, which he began to walk twenty-one years ago, back in May 1996.
What is the purpose of this association?
The association is born from the fruit of an illusion of different women entrepreneurs, to support their presence in the environment. Its objective is the exchange of professional and business relationships, and socio-cultural and economic experiences.
And who are they?
We are a heterogeneous group of women from different fields, professionals of the law, of the medicine, of the communication, of the education, company directives, risky autonomous professionals… Currently we are a hundred members, excited and committed to the same goals from the beginning. Siglo XXI is characterized by its great potential and its ability to relate to the different groups that make up society.
Why only women?
Because, although it seems to be a lie, some women today still have an absolute recognition in their professional environment, and there are still problems in achieving total equality.
Have you met those problems?
I don't, because I exercise a liberal profession, and I've never worked for others. I've always felt respected. But I do see discrimination in many who are employed.
Every two years the address is renewed, by statutes; And now you're going back to the presidency what can we expect from this new stage?
Innovation is one of the bets of this new mandate. We are now going to create a board of directors advisory board between well-known men and women who can help us to the greatest dissemination of our goals, and greater presence. And that 21st century woman is an exceptional and unique association… And to empower women 10!
Carmen miral with Mayor Iñaki Azkuna and Magdalena Mugica
Take it now! And you keep doing a very nice thing, which is the annual delivery of the golden pin.
Yes. It is a hallmark of the association with which a woman who has distinguished herself for her professional, business, cultural career is rewarded… And some of them have come by their own means. We've already given eighteen. (For my pasmo begins to recite from memory all the names, and I swear that by rigorous chronological order). To the sculptor Cristina Iglesias, Ainhoa Arteta, Mercedes de Miguel, Carmen Iglesias, Margarita Salas, Paloma Gómez-Borrero, Ana Diosdado, Concha Velasco, Ángela Arregui (posthumously), Inma Sahara, Ana Rosa Quintana, Elena Ochoa, Baroness Thyssen, Rosalía Mera, Elsa Punset, Nuria Espert, Delfina Entrecanales (the artistic patron, who came from London), Rosa Oriol… As you can see it is not exclusive for Basque women, but international.
Carmen Miral and Concha Velasco in the delivery of the golden Pin
If you had to give the gold pin to a man, who would you give it to?
(He looks at Me scared) But… Well… What a question! Men are not worthy of the golden pin.
That's great! You just gave me a great headline.
Nooo! Don't you dare! I mean that men… Men… (We looked at each other with Guasa and ended up bursting into laughter. We almost cried with laughter). What I mean is that the PIN is exclusive to the ladies. But we did reward men. Before we gave the Bilbotarrak awards, which, by the way, stopped being done, but we recovered them from this year; And we have rewarded Mayor Azkuna, Jon Ortuzar, Iberdrola, Caritas, Petronor, Edurne Pasabán, the Casa de Alba Foundation and the magazine ' Enboga '. But the goal of the golden pin is to reward women.
With all this paperwork I see you have here and the 21st century woman, do you have time for pure and hard leisure?
Yes! I'm very ' programmed '. I live in the sands… But I just go there to rest. I spend the day in Bilbao. In fact, never like home, I usually eat around here in a place of homemade food for a lifetime. I am very innovative in mind… But very traditional to eat and drink. I'm a classic from Bilbao.
And you like Bilbao.
I love Bilbao. It is very cosmopolitan, culturally has grown a lot, and in thirty years has had an important evolution, especially in the sociocultural issue. And we, from 21st century woman, have contributed to it. Although it also seems to me that it closes all too soon, and at night there is little life.
Well, let's see if we still catch something.
We left already late, after making a few pictures and lots of laughter, and with a lot of Garrapateados folios. But before we say goodbye we go to a bar to take a pot and a pintxo: that the polite does not remove the brave, and the bilbainismo must be exercised every day.
