Justice, dignity and hope are what the colors purple, green and white aim to signify as the theme colors of International Women’s Day, March 8 in its 110th year of gatherings around the globe. With the theme of #ChooseToChallenge, what faces women in a post-COVID culture and economy is aptly challenging.
Read MoreIn the popular CBS-TV show, “All Rise,” Lola Carmichael, a Black judge who is newly appointed to the bench, fights for justice with her female-led, diverse and inclusive team. They all wear gorgeous outfits and tend to their complicated and fulfilling personal lives outside the courtroom. They share wisdom, prevail at work, network, laugh; they are all perceived as powerful.
Read MoreRecognizing that there are infinitely more than 10 brilliant Black Women in 2021 to celebrate, acknowledge and learn from, we at Take The Lead looked at the latest contributions from only some of the multitudes of Black women leaders who are making a difference—in politics, economics, literature, business, science, academia, sports and retail.
Read MoreWomen were hit the hardest in the pandemic economically and women can reshape the recovery “to build back better,” says Cherita Ellens, president and CEO of Women Employed.
Ellen was one of six women leaders who set out to offer as many solutions as possible in one lunch hour zoom panel sponsored by the Chicago Foundation for Women in the recent, “Rising Above The Shecession: Concrete Steps To Ensure Women Emerge Stronger.”
Read MoreThroughout history, very few women have avoided the rudeness label for speaking up and speaking her mind on important issues.
Read More2020 came dancing in with such hope.
2020 was going to be Take The Lead’s year to scale up after seven years of building our credibility, developing our unique methodology of accelerating women’s advancement in leadership, and proving that it works. We’d earned the opportunity to grow exponentially. We had an amazing year of programming planned. Symbolically, 2020 being the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution giving women the right to vote after seven decades of struggle, seemed like the perfect time.
But just as the suffrage amendment was flawed by not assuring voting rights to Asian, Indigenous, and Black women, 2020 brought to light many deficiencies. Like those punching balloons that keep popping back up for more, it seemed like every time we thought it couldn’t get worse, it did.
Read MoreAmanda Zelechoski not only practices what she preaches; she practices what she researches.
As an attorney, licensed clinical and forensic psychologist specializing in child and adolescent trauma, she co-founded the site and resource, Pandemic Parenting, to help others and herself as a mother of three young boys.
During COVID lockdowns with remote work and remote schooling, “The stress at home can be bad,” says Zelechoski, associate professor at Valparaiso University, where she directs the Psychology, Law and Trauma Lab, and whose sons are 11, 8 and 5.
Read MoreThe 2020 election season has been divisive, distressing, uplifting, unprecedented and crucial for American women and their families and communities.
“During this moment, I feel that we still need to be emancipated. There are still freedoms that need to be protected. There are still laws that need to be revised. There are more people that need to be included. There are more things to achieve. There is more space for change and growth.”
Read MoreIssue 145 — October 18, 2020
A physicist friend once told me that everything in the world is ultimately just energy particles. In my non-scientifically trained mind, I visualized tiny pieces of matter dancing around amiably and without focus.
While my friend was referring to the physical world, the principle that everything is ultimately energy applies as well to leadership and to our individual career arcs. That’s because everything we give our time and attention to takes — energy.
Read MoreAn Adrienne Rich poem inspired the title for the nonprofit, All We Can Save Project.
“My heart is moved by all I cannot save: so much has been destroyed/ I have to cast my lot with those/ who age after age, perversely,/ with no extraordinary power,/ reconstitute the world.”
“That is my drumbeat. To have truth, courage and solutions, the trifecta,” says Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, marine biologist, policy expert and founder of Urban Ocean Lab, who also co-founded All We Can Save with Dr. Katherine Wilkinson, author and editor-in-chief of Project Drawdown.
Read MoreIssue 143 — September 28, 2020
She was tiny. She was mighty. She was a brilliant legal strategist. She was lovingly dubbed “notorious” for her groundbreaking advances for women’s equality, autonomy, and therefore our power within society.
Yet U. S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg broke boundaries gently. Never wavering from her revolutionary vision of gender equality, she believed in making big change in small increments.
“Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.”
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