The Stanton-Anthony Lecture Series


I had the great honor of keynoting the Susan B Anthony/Elizabeth Cady Stanton Lecture at the University of Rochester’s Meliora weekend, October 15, 2010. As you can see, I got into the spirit by wearing my Susan B. Anthony outfit, black clothing with a red shawl. The 19th century women’s civil rights leader always wore black and her red shawl became her identifying trademark.
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Busboys and Poets: Washington, DC

The Busboys and Poets audience was fantastic! There was standing room only. I saw many old friends and made lots of new ones. Thank you DC! And is this the cutest stage ever? Love the pumpkin!

From the Left:
Reading from No Excuses

Jenna Mellor and J. Schmitz told their stories and we discussed power tools “tell your story” and “embrace controversy.”

Jodi Jacobson, editor in chief of RH Reality Check introducing the program at Busboys and Poets. Special thanks to Tamara Kreinin and the United Nations Foundation Women and Population program. UNF, RHRC, and the Women’s Campaign Forum co-sponsored the event.

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The Strand: New York, New York

Left: Jenn Pozner, founder and executive director of Women in Media and News asks a question while journalist Jessica Wakeman and filmmaker Therese Shechter look on.

Center: Talking about No Excuses and the 9 Ways at The Strand in New York

Right: Jenn Pozner live tweets while Liz Abzug tells us how her mother Bella used her power. (Bella used to say, “We want it all but we’ll take half.”)

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OFFICIAL BOOK LAUNCH! Barnes & Noble: New York, New York

The corks were really popping at the official book launch of No Excuses! The store was packed, and we had a lively panel discussion with young feminists talking about how they are integrating the 9 Ways into their lives. A big thank you to Jan Goldstoff for taking such lovely photos at the event, and to Shelby Knox for live tweeting the discussion.

Left: No Excuses officially launches! My reading at Barnes and Noble Lincoln Triangle in New York.

Center: (Left to right) author of Black Women’s Lives, Kristal Brent Zook; media commentator Keli Goff; and Feed Fund co-founder Lauren Bush share their stories and discuss the 9 Ways power tools with me at the launch of No Excuses, Barnes and Noble Lincoln Triangle on 10/5.

Right: Surrounded by fabulous young feminists: Elizabeth Camuti, Jamia Wilson, and Shelby Knox

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Back By Popular Demand: WomenGirlsLadies at UMKC

WomenGirlsLadies made a return visit to UMKC last week, thanks to the invitation from Women’s Center Director Brenda Bethman. Rather than a single event, this year’s Starr Symposium featured a series of community conversations about the “Work/Life Balance in a Woman’s Nation. Deborah Siegel, Courtney Martin, Kristal Brent Zook, and I kicked off the event with our WomenGirlsLadies panel, where we provided intergenerational perspectives on work and life choices.

“Nobody loves you better because you have used yourself up for them,” was just one of the points that resonated with the crowd.


Immersed in conversation about when we felt powerful

Here’s what Rita Arens has to say about the event over on BlogHer:

I tend to lack a governor. I would write myself into an early grave if it weren’t for my family.

Balance, which I’ve written about before, is tough whether or not you live with other people. I don’t think for one minute that single people don’t have balance issues — in fact, if I were living alone, I would actually have more balance issues than I do now, because I would have to depend on myself to tear me away from the blinking screen . . . I am trying lately to avoid using myself up.

Rita came up to me after the panel and told me that she wished she had had someone like me to talk to when she was 15. I told her that I wish I had had Gloria Feldt to talk to when I was 15!

Here’s what Talyn Helman has to say in her Young Feminist’s Point of View.

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Burlington Book Festival: Burlington, Vermont

The Burlington Book Festival was the second stop on my book tour. It was an honor to appear with authors like Peter Galbraith and Ann Hood. You can read more about it in the Burlington Free Press.

Left: Signing books after my presentation at the Burlington Book Festival, I met this amazing women who told her “power to” story: younger sister to five brothers, she told her mother she wanted to be a scientist. Her mother told her her brothers could become doctors and she could be a nurse. She persisted and became a scientist, one of few women in scientific research at the time. Her power to moment came when the men she worked with attempted to take the credit for her findings. She insisted that they give her equal billing–and they did.

Center: This woman is unlimited. She’s founder and CEO of a wind power company. Maybe the female Bill Gates is on the way?

Right: You can’t get there from Burlington except by Greyhound. After speaking at the Burlington Book Fair, I took the bus for Boston to attend a Jewish Women’s Archive board meeting.

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Blogher 2010 Conference

At the 2010 Blogher Conference, I was a keynote speaker on closing panel, called “How to Use Your Voice, Your Platform and Your Power.” Need to Know PBS anchor Alison Stewart moderated a powerhouse panel: Marie Wilson, Founder and President of The White House Project (and creator of Take Our Daughters to Work Day), and P. Simran Sethi, Emmy Award-winning journalist, blogger and environmentalist.

Empowerment is a constant theme at and on BlogHer. All signs point to others recognizing our power – as a group and as a demographic. How are we leveraging that power as individuals? How should we be?

Now that we know marketers and advertisers seek the opinions of women (who make over 80% of consumer purchases) and their blogs, how can we control what we are being sold? Now that we know having a unique presence online has turned us into “personal brands,” how can we use it to our best professional advantage? Now that we’re each part of the large BlogHer community and many sub-communities, how can we harness and strategically focus that collective power? How and when and for what can and should we turn on the power spigot?

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WomenGirlsLadies on Ronnie Eldridge Show

Three of our WomenGirlsLadies inter-generational panel members, Deborah Siegel, Courtney Martin, and I (we were missing Kristal Brent Zook, who couldn’t change her teaching schedule to appear on the show) had a chance to talk with Eldridge and Co. host Ronnie Eldridge on her CUNY television show.

Click the photo above to see the video. We covered the inter-generational waterfront, from the state of the women’s movement, what happens when feminists disagree about political candidates, how we’re going to get work-life balance policies and actual practice, and what we all have in common to how the women’s movement has changed men too.

Our next public event will be Sept. 28 at the University of Missouri Kansas City. We’d love to come speak to your group too! Contact me and I’ll be delighted to give you more information.

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