Left to Right: Gloria Feldt; Carol Jenkins; Carolyn Maloney; Zakiya Thomas; Jamia WIlson; Hale Lickstein.

One hundred and one years is enough. Now is the time to pass the Equal Rights Amendment in all 50+ states to honor the fair and equal legal rights of women and publish it in the Constitution.

“I am so excited to present the Leading Advocate Award to the ERA Coalition,” said Gloria Feldt, co-founder and president of Take The Lead, at the Power Up 2024 Conference on Women’s Equality Day in Washington, D.C.

It has been a century plus one year since the Suffragists successfully worked to gain women’s right to vote, and yet so much more needs to be done. “The fatal flaw of the Suffragist movement was thinking getting the right to vote was the end,” Feldt told the audience of more than 200 gathered in person and virtually for the Together We Lead event. “But voting is just the beginning.”

“The fatal flaw of the #Suffragist movement was thinking getting the right to vote was the end. But #voting is just the beginning. — @GloriaFeldt1 #getoutthevote #womensrights”

Accepting the award was Zakiya Thomas, President of the ERA Coalition, along with Jamia Wilson and Carol Jenkins, board co-chairs of the ERA Coalition.

“We are going to get ERA over the finish line this year,” Thomas said. The national efforts are in pursuit of “constitutional equality where we are afforded the dignity of full personhood,” she said.

Wilson, chair of the Fund for Women’s Equality at the ERA Coalition, and vice president/executive editor at Random House, said it is so important to organize people on campuses nationwide because “this is integral in shaping this intergenerational movement.”

The work of the ERA Coalition, Thomas said, “is a continuation of the civil rights movement. It’s about all of us working together. She added, “If we want our rights back, we have to take them.”

“The work of the @ERACoalition is a continuation of the #civilrightsmovement. It’s about #workingtogether. If we want our #rights back, we have to take them. — @ZakiyaEra #fightforourrights”

Carolyn Maloney, former congresswoman, explained, “The best career on earth is public service in an elected government position.” For 30 years she said, “A top priority was the ERA.” Now she is working fulltime as a lobbyist for the ERA, and 120,000 people to date have signed a petition to pass the ERA.

Carol Jenkins, former TV broadcast and Co-chair of the ERA Coalition, was the founding president of the Women’s Media Center, and is now working full time on the passage of the ERA. She added that in her career, “I spent my first 25 years in the news business,” then decided this movement needed more of her attention.

Haley Lickstein, political consultant and civic influencer, said, “I think this is a huge organizing effort for young women.”

Maloney responded, ”Haley and my two daughters have fewer rights than I did.”

Getting messaging out and the need to push for ERA passage is important at a time when it is essential to “counter misinformation and disinformation in society,” Wilson said. “One of the things as a storyteller is to have people understand and know the facts.” She added, “If you’re an educator or a storyteller, it is important to know what the stakes are and use our voices.”

Lickstein agreed and added,” Young people get their information online. You’re meeting your community where they’re at. We need to leave people with one call to action that needs to be so simple and so easy.”

Wrapping up the panel’s discussion, Feldt said, “Every action you take does make a difference. You may never exactly know how it has an impact, but it does.”

“Every #action you take does make a #difference. You may never exactly know how it has an #impact, but it does. — @GloriaFeldt1 #foodforthought”

In a innovative move to embrace AI, Stacey Engle, Take The Lead board member, founder of Authority Lab and CEO of Twin Protocol, revealed the creation of Feldt’s Digital Twin. “I am here to answer any questions,” said the digital double of Feldt on a screen at the conference.

“Trained with her powerful speeches and her books, Ms. Feldt’s digital AI twin will provide motivation and inspiration to women in their efforts to achieve advancement and gain leadership positions within their organizations. Twin Protocol’s technology will make Ms. Feldt’s messages and insight more resonant on an ultra-relatable, one-to-one, human-like basis, available at anytime, anywhere,” according to Twin Protocol.

With her full schedule in real life, Feldt’s digital twin is now capable of answering questions about Take The Lead and women’s leadership resources, as more leaders in a multitude of industries are creating digital twins through AI to broaden the reach of their companies and their mission.

Learn more about Gloria Feldt’s Digital Twin

"Gloria is already an incredibly influential expert and with her AI twin, her influence will flourish, empowering women around the world to achieve their goals. It is extremely humbling to have our digital AI twin technology play a role in helping Gloria get her message out to an expanding universe of women and allies," Engle said.

Felicia Davis, CEO and founder of Black Women’s Collective, presented the Employ Every Medium Power Tool Award to Nicole Haggard, director, Mount St. Mary’s Center for The Advancement of Women. “She has mastered the art of an influencer,” Davis told the audience.

“I bridged academia to the real world,” Haggard said earlier.

Introducing the Thought Leadership Panel, Dr. Nancy O’Reilly, philanthropist and founder of Women Connect4Good, as well as past chair of Take The Lead’s board of directors, told the audience about her creation of Women Connect 4Good in 2012. “It started out with women being ignored, then saying that the more I succeeded, the less I was appreciated.”

““It started out with #women being ignored, then saying that the more I #succeeded, the less I was #appreciated.” — @DrNancyORilley on the her creation of #WomenConnect4Good ”

So she set out to find women who think as she does to create her organization. “Sometimes the simplest things in our lives create the most amazing things in your life,” O’Reilly said.

Dr. Sheila Robinson, author, founder and president of Diversity Woman Media said, “I was so accustomed to being in rooms where I have to prove I belong there.” She added, “I had to fight a battle to rise to corporate leadership roles and I turned diversity into opportunity.”

“I was so accustomed to being in rooms where I have to prove I belong. I had to #fight to rise to #corporateleadership roles. I turned #diversity into #opportunity. — Dr. Sheila Robinson of @DiversityWomen”

Robinson said, “The only color they saw in me was green—because I was making them money.” She added, “I am a transformer and my mission is to make women leave at a higher level than when I came there.”

As her university is set to celebrate 100 years of educating women at Mount St. Mary’s, Haggard reported that her department creates the report: “The Status of Women & Girls,” and has for 13 years. Each year, she asks, “How do we move people to change? How do you inspire people to do something about it?”

Artist and Emmy-nominated Filmmaker, Tiffany Shlain added, “I feel like publishers and artists need to show what needs to be happen in a creative way.” With her new film debuting in New York this month, called, “Dendrofemonology: A Feminist History Tree Ring,” Shlain said, “Trees are a living clock and this is a feminist history tree ring.”

“I feel like #publishers and #artists need to show what needs to happen for change to occur in a #creativeway. — @TiffanyShlain #womeninfilm #artistsforfeminism
”

Concluding the panel, O’Reilly reminded the audience, “You need to lift as you rise.”

Leadership Takeaway of The Week:

“Every action you take does make a difference. You may never exactly know how it has an impact, but it does.”

Gloria Feldt, co-founder and president, Take The Lead

Featured

About the Author

Michele Weldon is editorial director of Take The Lead, an award-winning author, journalist, emerita faculty in journalism at Northwestern University and a senior leader with The OpEd Project. @micheleweldon www.micheleweldon.com