Fang Cheng would not change her name. Not to make it sound less “Asian,” not to make it what investors told her would make her job as a tech innovator and entrepreneur easier.
One advisor told her to change her first name to Fiona. And when she married, another advisor told her to take her husband’s last name, because it was Jewish and not Chinese.
Read MoreCourtney Love, Hilary Clinton, Madeleine Albright, Marcia Clark, Tonya Harding and The Spice Girls taught women as much about how to be as how not to be
Read MoreSure, we can all agree that sexual harassment and Mad Men-era sexism have no place in a modern office. But what about when, say, someone jokes about women being overly emotional—that’s all in good fun, right? And women who get offended by it need to calm down and get a sense of humor, right?
Read MoreOn May 13th, journalist Jessica Bennett sat down with Take The Lead president Gloria Feldt for a Virtual Happy Hour chat on “manterrupting”—that is, “unnecessary interruption of a woman by a man.” If you’re a woman in the workforce, you’ve probably experienced it at least once, and Jessica shared her insights on how best to deal with it, gained from both her years of writing about gender and business and her own personal experience.
Read MoreYou can’t make this stuff up: during a SXSW panel that focused on diversity in tech, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt and Steve Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson repeatedly interrupted fellow panelist Megan Smith (the CTO of the United States of America, no less)—and then were publicly called on that behavior by Judith Williams, the head of the Unconscious Bias program at Schmidt’s own company.
Read More“Dad, why does that sign say ‘Men Working’? Isn’t that sexist?”
My thirteen-year-old daughter and I are driving to the store, and there is road work ahead.
“Yes,” I sigh.
“Then why does it still exist?”
Read MoreThere’s an experience as universal to women as death, taxes, and overeating on Thanksgiving.
Andrea shares an idea at a meeting. No one responds. Ten minutes later, Andrew offers the same idea. Everyone jumps on the bandwagon. Andrew gets credit. Andrea is frustrated. She feels undervalued. And she probably is. Her pay for the same job with the same experience is 22% lower than Andrew’s. She gets exemplary performance reviews but is told she is abrasive. He gets the promotion based on his potential. Or, if she’s an entrepreneur, she gets less than 10% of the venture funding. He gets the rest.
Read MoreChances are, you’ve heard of Emma Watson’s #HeforShe speech at the United Nations on Sept. 20. This address centered on a major, popular falsity that feminism is all about raging a war against men and creates an intense dichotomy of women against men. This is an inaccuracy that needs to be clarified and as Watson proposes, men must realize that feminism is an issue that affects them, too.
Read MoreWith hindsight, this 2013 article all but predicted Jill Abramson’s unceremonious fall.
Though according to the New Yorker rendition, her demise was precipitated when Abramson, the New York Times’ first female executive editor, confronted her boss, publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr, after learning her pay was significantly less than her predecessor, I point the finger of firing fate much toward implicit cultural biases that influence behavior much more than any of us want to believe.
Read MoreI don’t believe men don’t want a better world for women. I suspect a lot of men (and plenty of women, too) just REALLY don’t know how to get there. And how could they? Most men in leadership positions are largely working without us. There aren’t many of us in Congress, on boards, leading major businesses and institutions. You can’t see what you can’t see… And if the world is working for you the way it is now, why change things?
Read MoreEver get tired of talking? Wish you could talk about what you really wanted to talk about? Get frustrated with people who just don’t listen?
Read MoreOn Tuesday I participated in the Take The Lead webinar, 3 Surprising Power Tools for Women To Accelerate Your Career.
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