Women of strength: power comes from within. It is anchored by the strength of our mind, body and spirit. M & F HERS celebrates the strength of women by introducing you to four women who wield power in very different ways

Muscle & Fitness/Hers, May-June, 2003 by Michael Das, Beth Sonnenburg, Adam D. Retsky

Never one to shy from challenging situations, Sanchez, 43, pulled her first major political upset by defeating longtime incumbent and staunch conservative Bob Dornan for the coveted seat of the California 47th Congressional District. "I won by 984 votes--that was the difference. Then he [Dornan] accused me of cheating," she says, laughing. Sanchez's revolutionary win came on the heels of her hard work--literally. "I walked door to door, to 65,000 houses, to talk people into voting."

Entering the D.C. political machine, she continued to shake things up, even in the weight room. She works out in the men's gym, where she initially ruffled a few feathers by choosing this well-equipped facility over the smaller women's gym.

Sanchez's demanding schedule is a huge obstacle to her fitness regimen. She explains that for every breakfast, lunch and dinner she'll have five functions--for each. "It's all food, food and more food!"

Sanchez defines power as "the ability to have choices, to feel that you get to choose what you want to do." She relishes her ability to encourage women to find their own power. She has inspired many women to run for elected office and is constantly shattering stereotypes, both of women and of Hispanics. "Women are capable of doing anything," she says confidently. "Most of the time the biggest block is what we put on ourselves."

Herself a Head Start child, Sanchez has a passion for education, which is one reason she fought for an additional billion dollars of Head Start funding. She got motivated to run for Congress when her ideas about education were ignored. "I went to visit my congressman and he refused to see me," she explains. "So I went home and said to my husband, 'I'm going to run for Congress.'"

She warns of a dangerous undercurrent in the U.S. against women's rights. "Women don't understand what kind of attack is happening on their choices," she says. "There are really people who believe a woman's place is in the home.

"Look, I think it's great if a woman wants to be at home ... or if a woman wants to have kids ... but I don't want you telling me that's the only thing I can do. I go back to, what is power? Power is being able to have choices. If I choose [to stay home] then I'm powerful. If I choose not to, and to be a congress-woman, then I'm powerful because [either way] I made the choice. That's what I think power is: Being able to choose for yourself."

LIESL CLARK

Conqueror of the Tallest Mountains

Chances are, on any given winter weekend in Massachusetts, you can find Liesl Clark 'skinning,' or uphill skiing. She does it wearing a heavy pack--while everyone else is cruising downhill. And she does it to train for even greater feats of endurance. Clark, 36, is the writer, producer and director of several notable NOVA-series documentaries centered on the scientific aspects of high-altitude mountain climbing.

A native and current resident of Massachusetts, Clark earned her degree in Comparative Literature from Harvard University. Her true love is writing, and she soon discovered that it translates seamlessly into film production. "Film is all writer-based, all about communicating ideas," she says. After college and a stint as a sports-fashion model in Aspen, Colorado, she answered a help-wanted ad for a production assistant on the ESPN-documentary series Expedition Earth. Within a couple of years, she was producing and writing her own documentaries.