Power Tools
They're Doing It: AAUW and NASPA Honor 5
Ever work so hard that you forget to take time to celebrate what you’ve accomplished? I do it all the time.
So today, here’s a shout out to the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and the National Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (NASPA) who on May 31 will take time to celebrate six outstanding women.
Women who are clearly doing it for themselves and other women.
These women are innovators in media, advocacy, politics, and business, and they will be honored at the National Conference for College Women Student Leaders (NCCWSL).
Read MoreLeading With Intention
Not long ago I sat down with freelance writer Corine Garcia for this interview. The article originally appeared as a blog post at Womenetics.
Years ago, as a teenage mother without a college education, one could only imagine that Gloria Feldt felt somewhat limited in career options. But with the right amount of optimism, the proper use of power and her penchant for saying “Yes” to every opportunity, Feldt paved her way to leadership success as the former president and CEO of Planned Parenthood.
Now, after recently being listed as one of “America’s Top 200 Women Leaders, Legends, and Trailblazers” by Vanity Fair magazine, Feldt’s latest bestselling book “No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power” offers well-founded advice to other women.
Womenetics: Vanity Fair named you one of “America’s Top 200 Women Leaders.” To what do you attribute your success as a leader?
Read MoreShe's Doing It: Katie Couric's Advice for Making Media Breakthroughs
At the start of this video interview with Katie Couric, the first female major TV network evening news anchor, Katie politely but pointedly calls out interviewer Katie Corrado for introducing her initially as “the lovely Katie Couric.” Much like her interviewee, Corrado is perky and cute. She appears to be a generation younger than Couric.
That Corrado needed to be called out is cause for concern about what lessons are being transmitted from one generation to another, and how the dominant cultural narratives imprint even an obviously intelligent young media professional.
Fortunately, Katie’s willingness to apply No Excuses Power Tool #9 Tell your story, is the best antidote for those women whose consciousness needs to be raised about the remaining barriers to gender equality.
Corrado then asked a stereotypically leading question about whether women compete or support each other in the cutthroat media business.
Read MoreI'm Doing It: Wireless Activism for Social Change
Being an activist does not always mean being political. Recently, I served as the moderator for a panel of media innovators who discussed how wireless technology is bringing about social change.
It was exciting to explore the tools currently being used, invented and dreamed of to create a better world at CTIA Wireless 2012, the international wireless association conference in New Orleans. CTIA hosts this premiere industry conference for wireless, telecom and broadband as well as the key vertical markets that have entered into wireless. Forty thousand service providers, manufacturers, developers, retailers, enterprise end-users and media attend the conference.
The all-woman panel on “Wireless Activism”, presented by the Women’s Media Center, focused on how wireless tools are used by activists to create local and global transformation.
(Click here to read the full article)
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She’s Doing It: Lily Finds Women Revolting and a 9-Year-Old Feminist
You met Lily Womble in last week’s She’s Doing It and learned that she attended the AWID (Association for Women’s Rights in Development) international forum in Istanbul.
There, she recorded video interviews with a number of women from around the globe. Besides the two in this post (watch them to learn what the post title means), you can see more on Lily’s YouTube channel.
Now back in college in Mississippi, 19-year-old Lily reflected on her experience:
Read MoreShe’s Doing It: Meet Lily Womble Out Loud, Part 1
“I am a college woman living in the worst state for women: Mississippi (as determined by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research), and I am passionate about empowering our women and girls!”
So began the e-mail that made my day, March 29 to be exact. It was from Lily Womble, whom I’d never met but immediately knew was a force to be reckoned with. In a very good way.
Lily told me about her blog, Smart Girls Out Loud and her plans to attend the AWID (Association of Women’s Rights in Development) conference in Istanbul April 19—22.
There is no way I could tell you this whole story in one post. So this is part one of a two-part series. Here I’ll introduce you to this very out-loud and proudly feminist young woman whose declared intention
Read MoreShe’s Doing It: Elisa Parker Creates Movements Every Day
Elisa Parker, this week’s She’s Doing It, is the visionary co-founder, president and host of the award winning radio program, See Jane Do.
An activist for women, social justice, and the environment, Elisa’s work takes her around the world to discover and share the extraordinary stories and solutions in each of us.
She hosts her weekly show for nationally acclaimed radio station KVMR and is the co-founder of the Passion into Action™ Women’s Conference. She is an alumna of the Women’s Media Center Progressive Women’s Voices program & The White House Project’s Go Run program.
Elisa holds a BA in Communications from SF State and a MA in Organization Development at University of SF. She lives in the Sierra Foothills with her husband and two daughters.
I’ll be privileged to speak at the 3rd Annual Passion into Action Women’s Conference Oct. 12th-14th, 2012 in Grass Valley, CA, along with musician Holly Near, author activist Frances Lappe, Girl Scouts Rhiannon and Madison (of Roots and Shoots), and many more inspiring speakers.
Gloria Feldt: In No Excuses, I asked, “When did you know you had the power to_____?” What have you learned about your power to) during the past year or so?
Elisa Parker: I knew I had the power to be the solution from a very young age. Social justice has always been very important to me and I’m generally the one that will stand up for the underdog. I’m not one to hang on the sidelines but to go for the front line instead with the attitude of “if not me then who”.
Of course my Pollyanna attitude often creates a surge of anxiety for my husband. He’s never sure what I’ll do next. Considering that women still have a ways to go when it comes to gender parity, it’s not surprising that I’ve taken on the challenge of standing up for women just like myself.
I was recently reminded of one of my defining be the solution moments when I interviewed my long time hero, Lily Tomlin.
Read MoreWhat Do Boomers Want? Here's Boomer, Babe, and No Excuses
I was in Arizona last week, and who knew that a national radio program I’d been asked to do emanated from just across the valley from my Scottsdale home, in Youngtown AZ?
Youngtown being a euphemism for older folks, which Baby Boomers are quickly becoming in the millions—a very important segment of America. It was great to talk with Pete and Debra who are “Boomer and the Babe”
Listen to the interview right here and chime in with your thoughts in comments.
Open the podcast in a separate window here or listen now by clicking the PLAY arrow above.
Read MoreSlutwalks and Such: Who's Making Women's History Today?
Big thanks and kudos to Catherine Engh for contributing some terrific posts this Women’s History Month. As we end WHM for 2012, here’s one more from Catherine that I know you’ll enjoy, and I hope you’ll think about and take a moment to share your comments. I’ve written a different take on Slutwalk but Catherine has almost persuaded me…
This last year, women around the world made history, protesting victim-blaming online as well as on foot. The Slutwalk movement began after a Toronto police officer told a group of college women that if they hoped to escape sexual assault, they should avoid dressing like “sluts.”
Victim-blaming last year was by no means isolated to this public incident. A young woman who pressed rape charges against two New York City police officers could not be believed, in part, because she was drunk. When an 11-year-old Texas girl was allegedly gang-raped by 19 men, The New York Times ran a story quoting neighbors saying that she habitually wore makeup and dressed in clothes more appropriate for a 20-year-old. The maid who accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn of rape has been discredited for being a liar, and The New York Post claimed she was a prostitute.
The women and men who marched in Slutwalks in more than 70 cities around the world last year were fed up with this kind of symbolic violence. The Slutwalk movement was organized around one central message:
Read MoreShe's Doing It: Kristal Brent Zook Defines Her Own Chaos
Continuing the series of asking women I interviewed when I was writing No Excuses “What have you learned about your relationship with power since we talked?” here is a beautiful essay from Kristal Brent Zook explaining her answer about a very personal choice.
How Gloria Feldt’s No Excuses Reminded Me of My Power
Not long ago, my friend Gloria Feldt, author of No Excuses, asked me to take another look at her 9 ways women can embrace power to see if any of the strategies had resonated lately, in the year or so since the initial release of her book.
Since we all know how political the personal will always be, I thought immediately about the upheavals of the past year in my home life.
Last February, my husband and I decided—on a whim, really—to relocate from Manhattan to the suburbs of Long Island.
“Why not leave the city?” we asked ourselves. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Get some fresh air. A yard. A real house. It would shorten my commute to Hofstra University; and of course, we would be saving all that money.
A charming, two-story 1923 Colonial about 30 miles east of the city caught our eye: it was more than 5,000 square feet, with two sun rooms and front and back yards. The rent was $1,200 less than our midtown high-rise, and ditching New York City taxes meant another $1,000 a month in savings.
“Let’s do it!” we agreed excitedly, handing over a check for the first month’s rent.
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