There’s nothing that a woman can’t do.

That’s what Jackie Andrewjeski says and believes, and it’s a talk that she walks daily.

Andrewjeski is a personal mythbuster for anyone who’s ever thought of women as the weaker sex. Not only does she hold down a job as a fitness instructor—for both men and women—at three local fitness centers, she’s also a certified teacher with a math and science background. One of her main missions is to show girls that they should never be afraid of pushing into traditional male-dominated fields. Back in her native New Zealand, she noticed that all the science and math teachers were gray-haired, bespectacled males. But she wasn’t about to let that stop her, and she was helped along by a publicity campaign trumpeting this fact: Girls can do anything.

This week marks the Valley Record’s fifth publication of our Women in Business yearbook, a tally of the Valley’s frankly amazing number of women entrepreneurs—I wouldn’t be surprised if there weren’t more women than men operating businesses here. It’s always been a venue to interview and publicize the Valley’s movers and shakers. It just so happens that a lot of them are women.

Women we’ve profiled include:

2008

• Hauglie Insurance’s Angela Donaldson, who balances a busy career protecting Valley families with raising her own children

• Patricia Bennett of North Bend, who partnered with her husband to build a software company

2009

• Kim Witkop, who rose to become a vice president at Snoqualmie Valley Hospital

• Portrait photographer Brenda Huckle, a Snoqualmie resident who runs her own business

• Cindy Walker, owner of North Bend Theatre, Emerald City Smoothie and a past Citizen of the Year

2010

• Mary Miller, self-taught portrait/scenic photographer

• The late Julia Harshman, owner of Fall City’s historic, homegrown telephone company

• Opthalmalogist Rebecca Dale, veteran of a humanitarian deployment with the U.S. Navy

• Carnation’s then-Mayor Lee Grumman

2011

• Business and volunteer leader Carol Waters

• Snoqualmie Elementary Principal Cori Pflug

• Ex-Mount Si Senior Center Director Ruth Tolmasoff, who just ended a 20-year career

When we talk to these women, we often explore the issues of balance, of maintaining an even keel and finding time for the people and things we love, even in times of challenge. Most of the women we talk to aren’t just employees, but mothers, friends, part of a wider community. They know there is more to life than just work. But they also understand that you can’t put off today what must be done before tomorrow.

There are good lessons for everyone, man or woman, boy or girl. Young people, especially, should take their examples to heart. No matter your background, no matter what lot you were born to, one person—you—is the arbiter of your future.

Join us in celebrating the Valley’s Women in Business.