What I learned in My First Year as a Female Startup CEO

How often do you hear about the dearth of women in technology, especially leading start ups? And then comes the litany of complaints about how awful it is to be a woman CEO in the testosterone-driven tech culture. That’s why it was so refreshing to read Yunha Kim’s smart take on her experience, concluding that it either sucks or is awesome depending on how you frame your own perspective. Take The Lead thinks its time we change the narrative to the awesome part. Read on for Yunha’s insights.

Inspirational Role ModelsYunha KimMay 2, 2014CEO, entrepreneurship, perspective, women in technologyComment

5 Women Who Lead Authentically, On Purpose, Every Day

“Authenticity” is an overused word for a pretty interesting and important idea. For most of us, it only starts to feel exciting when we see it in practice. Authenticity isn’t just an idea then. It’s something we do. And it’s something we better understand if we want to follow through on our goals for ourselves or our organizations or those ideas we have for the world (often that the world needs badly).

Women Making History

On the last day of this Women’s History Month in 2014, I wanted to commemorate some women making history in the present day. While it is always important to celebrate the women who have paved the path and laid the foundation for my fellow sisters and I to continue to blaze trails and break glass ceilings, history is in the making every single day, and the women’s movement looks very different now in how women are choosing to rewrite the narrative. Women’s leadership takes many forms and I want to share with you three women who are using their power to advance women and change the conversation:

“Born Leader” Betsy Rafael Is GoDaddy’s First Female Board Member

When GM’s new, and first female, CEO Mary Barra moved quickly and publicly to recall cars with the company’s potentially lethal ignition switch problems her predecessors had known but failed to address for a decade, you could feel the fresh air.

Florence Nightingale: One of the World’s First Feminists

Florence Nightingale is widely recognized as the founder of modern nursing. What’s far less known is that Florence Nightingale was one of the world’s first feminists.

Spotlighting Women Making History: The Suey Park Edition

March has been celebrated and officially recognized as Women’s History Month by the United States government since 1987. Each annual celebration has a dedicated theme, and “Celebrating Women of Character, Courage, and Commitment” belongs to all the 2014 ladies, and those who came before us.

Champion of Change Shares "Thought Leader" Strategy

Denise Brosseau realized she was a thought leader when the media kept calling 15 years ago. And they haven’t stopped since.

Brosseau helped found two organizations that help direct women entrepreneurs toward investment: first Watermark, then Springboard — which can claim to have brought $6 billion to women’s businesses. The White House recently named her a Champion of Change.

Inspirational Role ModelsAmy-Willard CrossMarch 13, 2014Change, Risk, Role Models, thought leadershipComment

My First Female Hero: My Ahead-of-Her-Time Aunt Faye

March is Women’s History Month and to commemorate it I want to introduce you to a few of the women I most admire.

My first female hero was my father’s older sister, my Aunt Faye, who was born in 1908 on the Lower East Side of New York, the first child of newly arrived immigrants from Poland. I’ve spent my entire life working to advance social justice, and the social consciousness that set me on that path came alive in the early 1950s sitting around my Aunt Faye’s dining room table.

Auto-motivated: how Mary Barra can really take the lead at GM

When Mary Barra was named CEO of General Motors in December 2013 – the first woman to head a major automaker—my friend and leadership expert Leslie Grossman declared on a LinkedIn group: “Experience Trumps Gender!”

Inspirational Role ModelsGloria FeldtFebruary 12, 2014inspirational women, leadership parity, pay gapComment

What Will It Take to Make a Woman President?: Take The Lead's Interview with Marianne Schnall (Part 2)

I interviewed Schnall to learn more about her approach to putting together the book, her thoughts on the progress women and men have made on the issue thus far, and what she’s learned from nearly 20 years working for gender equality. This is part 2 of our conversation. Read part 1 here.

What Will It Take to Make a Woman President?: Take The Lead's Interview with Marianne Schnall (Part 1)

During the 2008 presidential election, Marianne Schnall’s then 8 year old daughter asked her, “Why haven’t we ever had a woman president?” Unable to provide an answer, Schnall set out on a journey to find one. A widely published writer and interviewer, and Founder of Feminist.com, Schnall interviewed influential leaders and thinkers across all sectors for her book, What Will It Take to Make a Woman President: Conversations About Women, Leadership and Power (Seal Press, November 2013). These conversations explore what needs to change in order to finally elect a woman into the White House.

Women Like You Take The Lead: Danielle N. Lee

Dr. Danielle N. Lee blogs at Scientific American’s website as The Urban Scientist, writing on issues of urban ecology, evolutionary biology & diversity in the sciences. In 2009, she was named the Diversity Scholars Award recipient by the American Institute of Biological Sciences for her contributions to science and promoting diversity within the field.

Inspirational Role ModelsJen OlsonJanuary 13, 2014 Comment

View Newsletter Archive

Info

Action