What a Week: Making Women’s History and Future Every Day

Issue 254 — March 18, 2024

I absolutely love Women’s History Month. I love it as an opportunity to write into the generally known history the many women who have been overlooked or under-recognized for their accomplishments.

And increasingly, I focus on tomorrow’s history that we each make by our actions today.

Know your history and you can create the future of your choice.

This past week, I had so many opportunities both to celebrate and to join with other women and men to make the future of our choice, one where equality and parity are values that drive our decisions, our work, our policy actions. So this week, I’m sharing an inspirational sampling of Women’s History Month celebratory events and those creating the future.

Please share your Women’s History Month experiences in the comments or DM me. I’d love to know how you are celebrating and making history.

I’m going to stretch the week to start on March 8, International Women’s Day (IWD) because it was so awesome. The remarkable entrepreneur and investor Tanaha Hairston, founder of the RISE The Movement kicked off my day by sharing her knowledge with entrepreneurs from Take The Lead’s 50 Women Can Change the World in Entrepreneurship cohort. I learned so much from her about how we can create our own more prosperous futures by making impactful investment choices that align with meaningful causes and bridge the financial gender gap in the process. Game changer all around.

That evening, I had the privilege of attending the Women Economic Forum and G100 event at the Harvard Club. Over-the-top, powerful, inspiring, and beautifully done, the only problem was that there were so many women and men who support gender equality and were deserving of awards that we closed down the Harvard Club before we could give everyone their well-earned time to share their incredible work. Huge appreciation and love to the sister of us all, Dr. Harbeen Arora Rai, founder of these two organizations. And the force of nature Maria Fernanda who organized the event.

I had the honor of nominating former Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, now chair of the ERA Coalition, for the prestigious Woman of the Decade award, and presenting the award to her with my heartfelt gratitude for always showing up for women. Loved meeting the other Woman of the Decade honoree Barbara Winston too!

With Former Congresswoman, current ERA Coalition Chairperson, Carolyn Maloney, Woman of the Decade.

Dr. Harbeen Arora Rai, founder of the WEF and G100, with the other Woman of the Decade, Barbara Winston.

Saturday found me enjoying a Women’s History Month high tea (one of my favorite things) with Million Dollar Women’s founder Julia Pimsleur (center) and a tableful of women committed to helping other female entrepreneurs. So appropriate — women’s rights initiatives for over 200 years have been hatched over tea.

Monday morning I attended Coffee & Conversation with the First Lady of Iceland, Eliza Reid. As Iceland is known to be the most gender-equal country in the world, I was eager to hear that Iceland has closed 90% of its gender gap, making it the global leader in gender equity. She pointed out that there is a widespread belief backed up by data that gender equality is beneficial to everyone. When asked how to address the backlash against DEI, she said we have to persist and be intersectional about it, especially in leadership. (Sounds like Take The Lead Women to me :-)

She shared that at first she felt her identity as a professional woman was lessened as First Lady. Then she realized it gave her a powerful platform and she was determined to use it to advance causes like the Reykjavik platform for gender equality. Another example of using the opportunity before her to its best advantage.

Tuesday was Equal Pay Day. It found me at sparks & honey, a terrific event production venue, to hear from a both virtual and in-person panel. It featured the heroine of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act along with Gender Fair’s Amy Willard Cross; Illana Raia founder of Être; Dr. C. Nicole Mason, president of Future Forward Women; Kate Kelley, EVP at Lilly Social Action Campaign; Uma Iyer, Chief External Affairs Officer of the National Women’s Law Center; and Kristin Molinari Cohen, Chief Marketing Officer at sparks & honey.

I broke my “no breakfast meetings” rule by attending a Women’s Forum of New York early morning discussion of the future of nonprofits, sponsored by Amalgamated Bank courtesy of Forum members Priscilla Sims Brown and Sabrina Stratton. After that, I attended virtually the Women Connect 4 Good Foundation’s board meeting, founded by Dr. Nancy O’Reilly whose mantra is “Lift Women Up.”

Thursday was notable for meeting with an intimate group of G100 leaders and a welcomed guest, President of the Ecuador National Assembly Henry Kronfle, who shared that Ecuador has in its constitution that its political bodies must be gender equal, and has made that happen in fairly short order. Yes, it can be done.

Later that afternoon, I had the opportunity to be interviewed about Women’s History Month and Take The Lead’s 10th anniversary by an icon of New York media, Cheryl Wills, host of Spectrum NY1’s “In Focus.” Here’s the link to the interview.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were for the sheer joy of being in the company of women friends, each of whom in different ways are helping move the dial toward full gender social, political, and economic equality. The grand finale was a vigorous walk in Central Park with magical BETTY musician and social justice activist Alyson Palmer.

Between admiring the arrival of spring’s pink blooming trees and sunshine yellow daffodils, we made plans for Take The Lead’s 10th anniversary Women’s Equality Day Power Up Conference and Concert. Mark your calendars now for August 25 and 26 in Washington, D.C.

The theme is “Together We Lead.” I promise, we’ll make history together.

GLORIA FELDT is the Cofounder and President of Take The Lead, a motivational speaker, a global expert in women’s leadership development and DEI for individuals and companies that want to build gender balance. She is a bestselling author of five books, most recently Intentioning: Sex, Power, Pandemics, and How Women Will Take The Lead for (Everyone’s) Good. Honored as Forbes 50 Over 50, and Former President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, she is a frequent media commentator. Learn more at www.gloriafeldt.com and www.taketheleadwomen.com. Find her @GloriaFeldt on all social media.