Power Over vs. Power TO — Finally, It’s A Recognized Thing

Issue 233 — June 26, 2023

I took a class in Tai Chi last weekend. The teacher started by describing the practice as “intentional movement.”

Intentional movement is a useful framework for thinking about one’s own behavior as a leader and for interpreting or attempting to interpret the behavior of other leaders.

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What if Your Big RE Is to be a Waymaker?

If you had the courage to use your Power TO do what is your highest intention and all you deserve to be in the world, what would you do, Friend?

Tara Jaye Frank, a featured keynote speaker for Take The Lead’s hybrid Power Up Big RE Concert and Conference on August 26 believes every leader in every seat has the power to become a Waymaker to create sustainable change and equity for women.

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What Does MLK’s “I Have a Dream” Speech Say to You Today?

Issue 157 — January 17, 2021

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of convenience and comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

That’s my favorite quote from Dr. King. And I feel sure that if he were writing those words today, he would include “woman.” Because as he himself often noted, justice must always expand to be inclusive of all.

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The Sum – Meaning of the Week: Transform

The first responsibility of leadership is the creation of meaning.” —Warren Bennis. Word of the week is TRANSFORM. As in the women who transformed Rwanda. As in women transforming lives and communities through philanthropy. As is in a transformational confrontation with one’s power demons. Ever have one of those weeks when you have to, as I…

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The Sum Volume #4: Heat

“The first responsibility of leadership is the creation of meaning.”—Warren Bennis. Word of the Week is: Heat  I landed in Phoenix @ 120 degrees. Or 122, but who’s counting. Yes, it feels like putting your head in an oven even if it’s a dry heat. There’s lots of heat everywhere.  They say if you can’t…

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The Sum Volume #2

“The first responsibility of leadership is the creation of meaning.”—Warren Bennis. Welcome to the Sum, where I share my take on the meaning of sum of the week’s parts. I want your voice too. Leave comments here or @GloriaFeldt. It’s about power this week. Of course with me, every day of every week I’m obsessed with…

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Dana Kaplan: How Community College Helped Her Change Careers

Most of our talk about women’s career advancement seems to focus on elite colleges and high profile professions such as corporate leadership. Yet there are many jobs open to women who want to try less obvious routes to career success.
AAUW has long been a leader in workplace advancement and pay equity for women.

Their recent research into the higher student loan debt burden women experience due to the gender pay gap found that many women – more than 4 million – view community college as their best, and most affordable, option after high school.

Dana Kaplan’s story of how she succeeded in a typically all-male field is a fascinating example of how community colleges can help women change careers or to gain the skills they need to advance in any chosen profession.

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If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

Like a lot of recent graduates, Kaplan had trouble getting work in her chosen field — philosophy — after college. She realized she needed a change when she found herself stuck “9 to 5 in a cubicle. I couldn’t stand it.”Or, if you’re an auto mechanic and 2011–12 AAUW Career Development Grantee Dana Kaplan, try something completely different!

I asked Kaplan how she made the jump from one career to the next. “I always knew I wanted to work with my hands,” she said. For a while she considered going into construction, to which people generally responded, “You’re too smart; you’re too pretty [for a job like that].”

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Women’s History Month: How Rosabeth Moss Kanter Led the Way for Women in the Workforce

I remember how excited I was to discover Rosabeth Moss Kanter in the early 1980’s. She was one of the few females writing about leadership and organizational change management. I hungrily devoured The Change Masters as a relatively new nonprofit CEO navigating roiling changes in the healthcare and political landscape while learning to lead a complex organization toward continued growth.Kantor

This distinguished Harvard Business School professor’s influential theories about change in the workforce have permeated much of the thinking about organizational change. And unlike the men writing and teaching about it, Kanter infused her work with a lens on one of the biggest workplace changes of the 20th century: women breaking through workplace glass ceilings.

Kanter, former editor of Harvard Business Review and author of 18 books, has been named one of the “50 most powerful women in the world” by the Times of London, and the “50 most influential business thinkers in the world” by Accenture and Thinkers 50 research.

Her groundbreaking book Men and Women of the Corporation—I mean, who had ever mentioned “women” and “corporations” in the same book title?—remains a classic analysis of power distribution within organizations.

Kanter told the hard truth about women in the workforce, after conducting a five-year study on the American manufacturing company. She explained how women were tokenized to work in clerical jobs rather than management; and how even though there were plenty of women in large organizations, they rarely ran the show. She observed that the first women breaking through to leadership roles were still tokens in a male dominated workforce.

In 1979, she wrote:

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Join The Conversation: Is It Time To Lean In To Feminism?

A very interesting conversation between InPower founder Dana Theus and myself led to this upcoming webcast. I hope you will join and put in your two cents worth. Women are making history every day. But we don’t always realize that. On the other hand, we do love to analyze ourselves, and the topic of intergenerational communication about feminism is always a hot one. See all the details and join up for the live broadcast or via replay!

 

Join this Cross Generational discussion about where Feminism is and where it’s going. LeanInWebinar

Our Panelists include YOU and:

Gloria Feldt– Past President of Planned Parenthood and Author of No Excuses: 9 Ways WOMEN Can Change How We Think About POWER

Emily Bennington – Author of Who Says It’s a Man’s World?

Eva Swanson – Student and Women’s Advocate at the College of William & Mary

Dana Theus – Founder, InPower Women (Moderator)

Questions we’ll explore:

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