You may have heard the joke that goes like this (and you can fill in the blank): How do you know if a man (won an award, got a job promotion, attended an Ivy League school…)? Answer: Because he will tell you. Women, not so much. A new study called The Self-Promotion Gap of more than 1,000 men and women shows that 69 percent of women would rather downplay their accomplishments than talk about them.
Read MoreThe biggest lesson for women in today’s world that I believe is flush with opportunity despite persistent remnants of implicit bias, stereotype threat, and culturally learned barriers in our own minds is this: no one can break the pattern of silence as assent but us. No one can set our #dontmesswithme boundaries but us. No one is likely to speak out against patterns of gender-based abuse and violence unless we start the conversation.
Read More“Too black.” Apparently actress Gabrielle Union was fired from her position as a judge on “America’s Got Talent” because as an African-American woman, her hairstyles were deemed not appropriate or comfortable for some audiences to watch, according to reports.
Read MoreSo you don’t want to organize something that involves ugly holiday sweaters, because that is so 10 years ago. If you are in charge of creating or even contributing to the workplace end of the year event—and 82 percent of workplaces do have a holiday event—why not make sure it is memorable, safe and perhaps even advances your mission?
Read More“Remember the ladies,” future First Lady Abigail Adams implored her husband, John, in March 1776 as the Continental Congress was crafting the U.S. Constitution.
“All men would be tyrants if they could,” she wrote. “If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.”
Read MoreI hope you had a meaningful Thanksgiving and are rolling joyfully into the rest of the holiday season. Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday, when you will be besieged with fundraising appeals. But this year, with gratitude still on our mind and Take The Lead decided to have Thanking You Monday instead.
Read MoreTaylor Swift had it right. In her performance at the recent American Music Awards, where she won Artist of The Decade as well as Artist of The Year, she sang, “The Man,” with particularly fitting lyrics. “If I was the man, I’d be the man,” she sang, surrounded by a choir of young girls. Alas, she is not. And the gender gap in all music is wide.
Read More“Oh, OK, I invented Post-Its,” Michele, the Lisa Kudrow character blurts out in the 1997 movie, “Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion.” She gets found out, of course, even if she slides through an explanation involving viscosity. But most people get caught with resume and experience enhancements. Recently, U.S. State Department official Mina Chang was discovered to have lied on her resume, and with some big lies, including a fake Time magazine cover. She has resigned.
Read MoreVirginia Woolf famously said, “For most of history, anonymous was a woman.” A new effort launched by Take The Lead’s 50 Women in Journalism Can Change The World cohort, Women Do News, is out to give credit to women journalists where credit is due, particularly in the pages of Wikipedia.
Read MoreIf you weren’t in this “room where it happened,” you’ll definitely want to be there next year. I’m talking about the World Woman Summit where I had the honor of being the opening keynote last week. But it almost didn’t happen, for me at least.
Read MoreThe Merriam Webster dictionary defines badass as “informal + sometimes offensive : ready to cause or get into trouble” as a noun. As an adjective, informal + sometimes offensive as in “of formidable strength or skill such a badass guitar player.”
Read MoreI have been secretary of almost every organization I’ve ever belonged to. It started with when I was a Girl Scout. I suppose I was chosen to be secretary because throughout elementary school I carried around a notebook and pencil to write stories. And I quickly learned that she who holds the pencil gets to tell the story of the meeting her way, even with the constrictions of Roberts Rules of Order.
Read More
