(This article first appeared in Universitas in the fourth quarter of 1997.)
Dr. Beatrice Tschoepke debunks the superwoman myth. To put it simply, she is a person who loves what she is and what she is doing.
The Director of UA&P’s Master of Science in Management Program is a wife and a full-time mother. Dr. Beatrice Kaamiño-Tschoepke is also a professor at the UA&P School of Management, teaching Marketing, and was part of the faculty of the Asian Institute of Management Graduate School of Development Management.
The shift from teaching graduate to undergraduate students called for modifications in her teaching methods and expectations: “I have to give more leeway or adjust to the capacity of the students in analyzing data. Graduate students have more to say. But it is fulfilling to input a lot. I just don’t read a book. I lecture it to them. I also input what I have experienced in the outside world.”
Getting into the wavelength of a younger crowd is also an exercise in creativity and innovation. “I give them assignments: go to one of the malls and observe what (the) strategy of that store is. Compare it with the competitor.” Easy!
Yet, the bigger challenge lies not in school, but at home.
Dietrich, Dr. Tschoepke’s German husband, works in a mining consulting agency in Essen, Germany. He visits his family only three to four times a year. “I’m a single mother most of the time,” she kids. But she quickly adds that her husband always makes it a point to support her despite the distance. He supports every career move she has made and whenever he comes to the Philippines, he always stays with their children. Her two sons, Adrian Philip, nine, and Patrick Daniel, five, are both studying, which allows her to work Mondays to Fridays. However, weekends are strictly for the family.
Dr. Tschoepke likewise cleverly hit upon the idea of getting a job near her home and sending her sons to a nearby school, Lourdes School of Mandaluyong. In this way, she takes lunch at home and gets to join her youngest son at table. “I go home at 5:30 p.m.; (by then,) they would be back from school. I join them for a review of their assignments. At 7:00 up to 7:30, sometimes until 8:00, we have dinner. At 8:30, they know they have to be in bed.”
It is no wonder then that she is perfectly attuned to her latest study, “Women at Work as Entrepreneurs.” Through case studies, this paper aims to demonstrate the Filipina’s entrepreneurial genius. “Probably we are very much underestimated in our capacities, especially in the Philippines. However, this is the irony of it all: women in the Philippines are already established as entrepreneurs…Perhaps when I have already produced these outputs (cases), we can learn from their experiences. That’s the ultimate goal. And then we can use this material in class for our courses.”
So much to do and so little time! Dr. Tschoepke proves that a working mother’s survival in the 90s is nothing genetic. It is a question of perseverance, prayer, and a lot of love for one’s family, work, and self.
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