Posts Tagged ‘Gloria Feldt’
Has Allen West gone too far?
No introductory remarks needed here. This guy busted himself. Your thoughts?
Arena Asks: Amid the House budget debate Wednesday freshman Republican Rep. Allen West dispatched a scathing personal email to Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, calling her “vile, unprofessional ,and despicable,” “a coward,” “characterless,” and “not a Lady,” and demanding that she “shut the heck up.”
Does West owe an apology to Wasserman Schultz? Or were his remarks in line with reasonable political discourse?
Read MoreMy Answer:
Wasserman Schultz spoke about substance, whether one agrees with her or not…
She and He Are Doing It: Earl and Suzanne de Berge Lead Their Dreams in Guatemala, Part I
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Read MoreThis week’s “She’s Doing It” column features both a he and a she: a couple who have worked together throughout their adult lives in their Arizona-based business and now are devoting their skills to amazing community development work in rural Guatemala. First of a two-part series.
Suzanne and Earl de Berge founded the public opinion research firm Behavior Research Center in 1965, with Suzanne running the business end and Earl the research end. Politically independent, I met them when BRC began doing opinion research for Planned Parenthood in Arizona in the early 1980’s. They were usually correct in their recommendations, helping us win ballot initiatives and score some big wins in a tough political climate. Here’s Earl’s description of what they are doing now, why this is their dream, and how they are leading–not following–it.
Friday Round Up: You Work Hard for Your Money But Do You Manage It Well?
Just two weeks ago, I was greeting the morning as I walked along the sparkling oceanfront in Santa Barbara. I’d spent the day before at the most remarkable Leadership Workshop put on by She Negotiates. Oh it was so beautiful, so restorative. I needed that hour of free flowing bliss before I strapping myself back into the plane for the seven hour trip back to New York. I spent most of the trip back thinking about the workshop.
Though I’d given the keynote and led part of the workshop, I was also there as a learner, wishing I’d had the negotiating skills She Negotiates partners Vickie Pynchon and Lisa Gates taught the group when I was starting out in my career. Do you know that failure to negotiate first salaries aggressively costs women on average $500,000 over our lifetime earnings? And that the more education you have and the higher on the career ladder you are, the more it costs you–as much as $1,000,000!
Well, here’s the good news: there’s a new surge of women determined to help us not just negotiate about money better but also to be a lot smarter about managing what we have. This week’s roundup is a collection of some of the best. Check them out, and learn.
Read MoreSeriously? Must a Woman Be Like a Man to Get Ahead?
That question comes up every time I speak with women about their career aspirations.
A second question just as surely follows: if we can’t be authentically who we are, why would we want to “succeed” in male-dominated organizations or professions? Many women who leave the corporate world to stay home with children or enter entrepreneurial or nonprofit fields—or alternately, remain quietly in their jobs put only to find themselves doing the work but not getting the promotions—say they do so because they don’t want to become like men.
Yet all signs point to a potential breakthrough moment for women even as we debate the pros and cons of taking on male camouflage.
Read MoreShe’s Doing It: Mallika Dutt Defines Her Terms for Global Human Rights
Read More“You have to meet Mallika—she’s amazing!” my friend Lynn Harris enthused. She was so right. There are few people with visions big enough to encompass human rights on a global scale and then create breakthrough ways to advance them. Mallika Dutt did just that, and she tells her story in this week’s “She’s Doing It.” President and CEO of Breakthrough, the global human rights organization she started is based in New York and India and uses the power of arts, media, and pop culture to advance dignity, equality, and justice. Read on and be sure to watch the powerful video’s they’ve produced to deliver the message.
She Negotiates Leadership Retreat
Check out the pictures from this wonderful event!!
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Santa Barbara, CA Thurs. 6/30 @ 8:00pm Keynote presentation She Negotiates Spa Retreat Fess Parker’s Double Tree Resort Download this PDF to learn more about this event! |
9 Ways You Can Find No Excuses in Your Neighborhood
Remember studying Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in high school? Did you go around warning your friends to “Beware the Ides of March!” like I did?
Fortunately, I have lots of good news this March 15. There are at least 9 Ways I might get to see you at a book reading or other event soon. I extend a warm invitation to you to attend events in your area. And will you help me out by sharing this information with your contacts and on social media? Thank you!
This Week in the Midwest:
I just love Women and Children First bookstore in Chicago. One of the great independent, feminist bookstores. Join me there this Wednesday, March 16, at 7:30pm, at 5233 N. Clark Street. Click here or call 773-769-9299 for more info.
Cleveland is next up: Friday, March 18. I’m excited to keynote and conduct a 9 Ways Power Tools workshop for Rita Singh’s Elite Women Around the World conference, “Scaling Up…Can I Dream Big?” The answer is “Yes!” 8:30am – 2pm at the Crown Plaza Cleveland South. Register here.
Best of International Women's Day: Be a Front Porch Lady
How did you recognize the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day March 8? If you haven’t yet signed the “Million for a Billion” petition to tell Congress you want them to fund international family planning and save the lives of so many women and children around the world, please do so here. This is one meaningful way to honor the women who founded IWD to promote equality for women, including the right to vote and hold public office. Another is to reach out to help another woman. Today’s guest post from Kathy Korman Frey, entrepreneur in residence at George Washington University School of Business and founder of The Hot Mommas Project tells just such a story. Read on, and keep reading for a roundup of some of the best of IWD posts:
A dignified, beautiful, African-American woman stood at the podium during the Wake Forest Women’s Weekend. All eyes were on Esther Silver-Parker, one of the most senior former executives at Wal-Mart and now president of the Silver-Parker Group. Would she talk about women’s advancement to the C-suite? Would she share her secrets to success? That, she did. And one of them was not at all what we expected.
Silver-Parker grew up in rural North Carolina, in a two-bedroom house, with her parents and many siblings. She recounted a screenplay-like story about a group of women she called: The Front Porch Ladies. “The Front Porch Ladies were the women who sat on their front porches as we came home from school,” Silver-Parker said. “They would treat our business like it was their business.”
When Silver-Parker was accepted to college, imagine her surprise when the Front Porch Ladies showed up on her front porch. There they all stood, having brought with them a full set of blue luggage for her to take off to school. “From time to time at college, I would get letters from the Front Porch Ladies,” Silver-Parker told the audience. “They would write words of encouragement, and sometimes include a dollar or two.”
Read MoreKnow Your History–Create the Future of Your Choice
“If women want any rights more than they got, why don’t they just take them, and not be talking about it.” –-Sojourner Truth, 1797-1883, former slave, abolitionist
During the last 50 years, thanks to feminism and other civil rights movements, reliable birth control, and an economy that requires more brain than brawn, women have broken many barriers that historically prevented us from partaking as equals at life’s table. I feel privileged to be part of this amazing trajectory. All of my Women’s History Month posts come from a place of profound appreciation for the shoulders I stand on. Women like Sojourner Truth who had so much courage, clarity of vision, and leadership savvy.
I found feminism when I was a desperate housewife in Odessa, Texas in the 1960’s. After volunteering for civil rights organizations, I had the epiphany that women should have civil rights too. I “discovered” the new Ms Magazine. Then, I joined the National Organization for Women a few years after its 1966 founding, as an at-large member. Soon, I’d find the half-dozen other at-large members in West Texas’ expanse. It was a heady time of firsts for women; still, few of us could have predicted either the stunning advances or the discouraging setbacks ahead.
Fast forward to Hillary Clinton’s groundbreaking presidential campaign that didn’t take women into the presidency, but came close enough that no one will ever again ask whether women are smart enough or tough enough to do the job. Today even right-wing Republicans realize putting a woman on the ticket symbolizes electrifying change. Women earn 60% of college degrees, reproductive technologies have changed the power balance in personal relationships and we’re closer to parity in earnings than any time in history.
To be sure, women still don’t have full equality in any sphere of political or economic endeavor. Women hold just 17% of seats in Congress–the 2010 elections resulted in the first decline in over a decade–and under 25% of state legislative offices; 3% of top clout positions in mainstream media corporations and 15% of corporate board positions. We’re still waging a battle for reproductive rights, both at the state and federal levels. And despite gender equity laws, women earn 3/4ths of what men do while shouldering the lion’s share of responsibility for child rearing.
Still, the most confounding problem facing women today isn’t that doors aren’t open, but that women aren’t walking through the doors in numbers and with intention sufficient to transform society’s major institutions once and for all. Probing history, there seems to be a recurrent approach-avoidance pattern.
Read MoreDueling Reviews of No Excuses: Which Do You Think Has It Right?
Within hours of one another, two Google alerts bearing reviews of No Excuses hit my inbox. One reviewer lauded it, and the other skewered it.
“That’s what makes horse races,” I shrugged, recalling my father’s way of telling me differences of opinion are to be expected.
Then I reread both articles. And I realized that their diametrically different worldviews of women’s relationship with power reflect precisely the historic crossroads moment that had inspired me to write the book in the first place.
I was excited when asked to be interviewed for the Feminist Review, now known as Elevate Difference, by lawyer and global crusader to eliminate violence against women. Dianne Post and I originally met decades ago, because of our respective Arizona residency and involvement in women’s social justice issues. I recalled her as a bit of a contrarian but a passionate advocate for women. I was delighted to reconnect with her–so much so that after we spoke, I invited her to address my Arizona State University class on “Women, Power, and Leadership.”
During the interview, Post challenged my thesis that while some external structural barriers remain, women in the U. S. are at a moment in history where doors are open and it’s up to us to walk ourselves through them; that to embrace our power to do so, we must—and are able to–consciously overcome the remaining barriers, many of which are culturally learned, internalized ones.
So I wasn’t surprised when her acknowledged bias turned up in the review—understandably, seeing women as victims is an occupational hazard. And it’s a perspective that was accurate during the heady days of second wave feminist revolution, in which we both participated. Forty years ago, there were so many unjust laws to change and policy barriers to break.
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