“It is like boiling the ocean.”
Anita Hill, lawyer, advocate, author and professor, explained to a crowd at the recent Chicago Humanities Festival that the enormity of the problem of gender violence in this country is as vast as an ocean. And the process of addressing and eliminating all its forms is as complicated and slow as heating such a vast body of water.
Read MoreShe will be Black, female and serving on the highest court in the land; the first time in its 232-year history. Coincidentally, the nomination will be official at the end of February, Black History Month and fulfills a 2019 campaign promise by President Joe Biden.
Read MoreSometimes a surprise email makes your day, or week, or year.
Take Lead Co-Founder and President Gloria Feldt opened this email recently from Erica Miles, a leader in tech.
“Gloria, you are my inspiration,” Miles writes. “Because of my work with you, your 9 Power Tools, and the Take the Lead training, No Excuses, I made a leap for a promotion. Thank you for your leadership; you encouraged me to step out, market myself and personally drive the next step in my career. I was getting stuck and not realizing my own value. I am hoping that all the inspiration I received from you will be realized by all your training participants, so they also realize their own worth.”
Read MoreIt is likely that if many of us had a nickel for every time someone questioned our authority or expertise, many of us would not be too concerned about having enough saved for retirement.
Yes, those moments when your title and role are announced and the naysayers shrink in the back of the room, can be satisfying, but the consistent presumption of a lack of authority and credibility based on gender is far too prevalent and costly. It hinders not just acknowledgment, but advancement, opportunity, income and quality of life.
Read MoreTreat yourself before the holidays or treat a close friend as a gift for the holidays with one or many of these new books from authors you have grown to revere and perhaps a few whose work is new to you.
Before the year ends, you will want to dive into this curated collection of the latest fiction, nonfiction, business, leadership and books that offer lessons in leadership, life, work and more. This sterling and diverse selection of essays, novels, memoirs, biographies and instructional guides span a range of interests and deliver the immense talents of writers we already know and those we want to know better.
Read MoreNow vice president and head of strategic partnerships at Amex Digital Lab, Stephanie Schultz recalls it was not all that long ago starting her career at American Express, when she thought maybe it was time to get an American Express card herself.
And now she spearheads the innovation hub at this Fortune 100 company, creating new ways for customers to interact with Amex digitally across all platforms and apps.
Read MorePerhaps the writing was on the wall from the time she was a teen.
At 16, Heather H. Wilson was a national officer for Future Business Leaders of America as a student at James Wood High School in Winchester, Virginia, where her mother was a teacher. Her father was an art teacher at an elementary school in town.
“I was raised by two educators who set very high bars and standards,” says Wilson, CEO of CLARA Analytics, the leading provider of artificial intelligence technology in the commercial insurance industry.
Read MoreWe all have them and COVID-19 plus the ongoing pandemic of racial injustices complicated many people’s relationships with Power Demons, or the beliefs and ideas that rob them of the chance to become what and who they intend.
In her latest book, Intentioning: Sex, Power, Pandemics, and How Women Will Take The Lead for (Everyone's) Good, Gloria Feldt, co-founder and president of Take The Lead, demonstrates an indisputable case with specific tools to maximize your intentioning and annihilate the Power Demons.
Read MoreWomen’s Equality Day is one day on the calendar, but for Take The Lead it is the forever goal on the horizon—moving closer each day. Progress is in process, but so are biased hinderances and backsliding internationally for all those identifying as female. So take the day—Women’s Equality Day—to continue toward the goal by joining in for Take The Lead’s Women’s Equality Day Concert August 26.
Read MoreThe pandemic has been particularly difficult for women with children in the workforce. Over more than a year of economic uncertainty, remote work, remote learning for children and largely unavailable childcare, women have toasted two Mothers Days—2020 and 2021.
It is time to celebrate the mothers among us who are facing, meeting and managing these challenges.
Read MoreLike so many great ideas, this one started in the ladies room.
Claire Wasserman, the founder of Ladies Get Paid, a global community that champions the professional and financial advancement of women, had retreated to the restroom at a festival party in Cannes, France. She was there for the Cannes Film Festival in 2010, as she was working as a producer to promote a nominated short film, “Snovi.”
Read MorePerhaps it is no coincidence that her high school classmate at Niles West High School in north suburban Chicago Was Merrick Garland, the recently appointed United States Attorney General.
It seems Suzanne Lerner similarly had her sights set on bigger issues, justice and a global mission. In high school, she participated in Project Wingspread, an exchange program with students from urban and suburban high schools.
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