Posts Tagged ‘leadership’
She’s Doing It: Carolina Pichardo Leads Young Urban Moms to See They Are Not Alone
“Before I got pregnant, I was full-steam ahead in life,” said Carolina Pichardo, cofounder with Mary Targia of the educational and inspirational New York-based organization and website YUM (Young Urban Moms). 
“I’d received a partial scholarship to New York University, after traveling abroad and interning at the New York City Public Advocate’s Office and Tor Books Publishing.”
But when she found out she was pregnant, the resulting harsh remarks and judgmental looks threw the slim, stately Harlem-born Pichardo off her track—for a while: “I just became angry. I didn’t know what to do with that anger, so I simply worked hard to prove those around me wrong.”
With some of the same rebel instincts that had propelled her parents to immigrate to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic—where her mother was a teacher and her father a doctor—she stayed in school through most of her pregnancy. She took a semester off after her daughter Lyanna (known as Lulu), now age 11, was born. Then she returned to earn her bachelor’s degree in communications from NYU “with leaky boob stories galore.”
Read MoreThe Young Politica: Will Your Vote Count? How to Make Sure Even if You Vote Absentee
Growing up, I always asked Mom lots of questions. Questions like “What does ‘superfluous’ mean?” and “What’s an endocrinologist?” were common, and quite commonly, Mom replied:
“Look it up in the dictionary.”
Nowadays, I still have questions. They’re a little more difficult for Mom to answer, so her reply is more like:
“Look it up on the Internet.”
It’s very easy to give up on answering a question when the answer is not easily found. From questions in an exam, to solving a problem with university administration, to learning how to vote, I’ve found myself at bottomless pits of questions that don’t have answers on SparkNotes.com or FAQ pages.
I was in this predicament when I attempted to vote through an absentee ballot. I didn’t know how to get a hold of a ballot or where to vote or what to send. I was clueless! I expected that all of the information would be readily available on one government website, which would make it easier for college students.
I was wrong.
Read MoreDid ‘Mom-in-chief’ Michelle make her case for Barack?
Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic National convention last night was brilliant rhetorically and substantively. It was delivered with the passion of someone speaking her truth, the spark of a woman deeply in love, and the skill of a lawyer who knows how to build an arc of persuasion.
There was no ridiculous “I love you women!” moment in Michelle’s speech. There didn’t need to be because she actually communicated with women how her husband’s policies—from equal pay to reproductive rights—demonstrate that he respects and values them.
When Michelle said of Barack, “Being president doesn’t change who you are; it reveals who you are,” she drove the ball straight home with voters. And she touched the hearts as well as minds of anyone watching.
Read MoreThe Young Politica: Introducing Maegan’s New Column!
I’m delighted to announce exciting news here on Heartfeldt: a weekly column by Maegan Vasquez. She introduces herself in this first post (a smart and sassy one, I think you’ll agree), so I’ll only say how pleased I am to have her young woman’s lens on all things political. And from a fellow Texan, no less! Join the conversation with Maegan every week and share widely. Take it away, Maegan:
Welcome to my new column!
My name is Maegan Vazquez. I was born in Laredo, Texas, and I am currently a sophomore at New York University, majoring in journalism.
This weekly column aims to shed some light on college-centric politics. It’s an effort to educate prospective first-time female voters on issues that are pertinent to their demographic. The pieces are part investigative journalism, part Q&A, and part self-discovery.
It’s not that the college-aged female voter needs to be coddled into learning the basics of the political arena.
She just has to be informed so she can make a smart decision, because that decision has the potential to dramatically change her life.
Read MoreCan Ann Romney Cover for Mitt’s Agenda?
Last night as expected, Ann Romney’s speech covered her husband’s image in warm fuzzy love.
The New York Times suggested that Ann Romney’s speech, which highlighted the hard work she put in to raise five boys and battle two serious illnesses, may have zapped some of the energy away from her husband.
How and why any woman can drink the Kool-aid Ann Romney served up is a topic for another day. But no amount of Ann’s love and charming demeanor can obscure the realities of Mitt Romney’s intent if elected.
Politico Arena asked me whether Ann Romney’s speech at the Republican National Convention would persuade voters, including women, that her husband is someone we can trust.
Indeed, Americans can trust Mitt. There was never any doubt, and it didn’t take a speech by his wife to tell us the many ways we can trust him:
Read MoreShe’s Doing It: Eve Ellis to Komen Leader Nancy Brinker: Relinquish Power for Real
Former Susan G. Komen for the Cure NYC board member Eve Ellis became devoted to the cause of finding a cure for breast cancer after her sister, sister-in-law, and one niece all battled breast cancer. They survived.
But her other niece, Hally Yaccino Steiner, wasn’t so fortunate. She died of breast cancer 6 years ago at age 36.
Every year since she became a Komen NYC board member in 2004, Ellis, a wealth advisor who lives in NYC with her spouse, theater producer Annette Niemtzow, raised money for them enthusiastically, and since 2006 she raised it to honor Hally’s memory.
Every year until this one, that is, joining many thousands of people who have withdrawn their support for Komen since it created a tsunami of protest by discontinuing funding of Planned Parenthood at the behest of a politically motivated staff and board members.
I wrote about the incident for the Daily Beast in case you need to review the gory details that saturated the media.
In that showdown, at least for the short term, Planned Parenthood won. And recently, founder and CEO of the national Komen for the Cure Nancy Brinker stepped aside from her top leadership post, no doubt under severe pressure. However, she remains chair of the executive committee.
So this year, instead of her annual appeal for funds, Ellis is asking people to sign this petition urging Brinker to step out of all powerful leadership roles.
I signed the petition and hope you will too. If you have reservations, here are Ellis’s reasons why she hopes you reconsider:
Read MoreVictory! Augusta National Golf Club Admits Women At Last
Martha Burke has balls. And thanks to her leadership, now at least two women will have the privilege of chasing golf balls around the Augusta National Golf Club’s manicured course.
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Carolina financier and former banker Darla Moore have become the first female members in the club’s 80-year history.
Burk, who for the last nine years persisted in organizing to gain membership for women in the club that represents the pinnacle of power and influence, can finally, deservedly, celebrate success.
Burk explained the history in Women’s eNews last April when the august male-only golf club once again refused to let a woman wear its vaunted green members’ jacket at its annual Masters Tournament:
Well, the big day for the big boys at Augusta National Golf Club came and went without a woman showing up in the green jacket that denotes membership. The particular woman in question was Virginia Rometty, CEO of IBM, the leading corporate sponsor of Augusta’s Masters Golf Tournament.
For those who don’t follow news of puffed-up men chasing little balls around a green course, the club has always been male-only, and resisted extreme pressure nine years ago from women’s groups, led by the National Council of Women’s Organizations, to open up to female members.
The debate raged for nearly a year, complete with death threats to the NCWO chair, yours truly.
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She’s Doing It: 5 Things Candy Crowley and Helen Gurley Brown Have in Common – and One Thing They Couldn’t
Aside from Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s frighteningly extreme position on Medicare, the top news this week has been all women all the time.
On Monday, August 13, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced that for the first time since Carole Simpson in 1992, a woman—CNN’s “State of the Union” host and chief political correspondent Candy Crowley—will moderate a presidential debate.
Crowley, 61, has won many awards for political reporting during stellar career. She graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College—my friend Amy Litzenberger is sure that women find their voices in all-female college settings—and rose from a Washington DC radio newsroom assistant through the Associated Press and NBC ranks before joining CNN news in 1987. Along the way, she covered every presidential campaign and convention since Jimmy Carter.
On the same day Crowley’s selection was announced, Cosmopolitan Magazine’s iconic former editor-in-chief and the author of the 1962 game-changing best seller Sex and the Single Girl, Helen Gurley Brown, died in Manhattan at age 90.
Read MoreSurprising Things Women in Politics Can Learn from Linda McMahon
This week three New Jersey teenage girls successfully campaigned to get—for the first time in history—an equal number of male and female journalists to conduct the upcoming presidential debates.
Also this week, women rule in Hawaii. Emily’s List congratulated U.S. Congresswoman Mazie Hirono (D-HI) on her U.S. Senate primary victory over former Rep. Ed Case and Congressional candidate Tulsi Gabbard‘s primary win over Mufi Hannemann for Hirono’s vacated seat. Hirono will face a tough general election race in November against Republican ex-governor Linda Lingle, while the Daily Kos is so sure Democrat Gabbard will be a shoe-in general election victory that they don’t even name her opponent.
And whereas Hillary Clinton was damned if she did and damned even more if she didn’t dress and act certain male-defined ways, in the Political Animals era, the time has come when women benefit from running as themselves rather than trying to show stereotypically male characteristics.
Read MoreRomney’s Ryan Pick: Evil Brilliance, Obama’s Opportunity
Ryan assures an even larger gender gap in November. And most likely a new age gap. So here’s a new prediction: Young women afraid of losing their access to birth control and seniors fearing loss of Medicare may well form the biggest new voting bloc in history. Let the games begin.
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