Please Give to Take The Lead. Here are 5 Great Reasons.

There’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.

Gender Bilingual Commu...Gloria FeldtDecember 1, 2014#GivingTuesday Comments

There’s a Conversation Brewing About Power that Needs #MoreVoices

One of the best pieces of career/organizing advice I ever got is this: “You’re never going to convince anybody about anything. Work with the already convinced or semi-convinced.” I try to keep this in mind. I also keep in mind one of my values that we must work with people we don’t agree with. Balancing the two is difficult, but worth it.

Lex SchroederNovember 24, 2014participatory leadership, PowerComment

Are You Making Career Decisions Harder Than They Need to Be?

Some problems are really difficult to untangle. The complexity of global supply chains and ending sweatshop labor, for example. Or how to solve the problem of voter suppression. How to fund things that need funding while including the voices and opinions of the people we aim to “serve.”

Career successLex SchroederNovember 11, 2014Career, culture, decisions, job, leading against the tide, life, systems changeComment

Voting Power 2014

When Shirley Chisholm broke both racial and gender barriers to become the first Black woman elected to Congress in 1968 and later the first Black woman to run for U. S. president, she leapfrogged over more barriers to power than any woman considering a run today can even imagine.

Was she conflicted in her relationship with power? Just the opposite as the quote above indicates. How did she get that way and what can we learn from her on Election Day 2014?

3 Reasons Why We Need More Women In Government

I love this time of year: Election Season. A time when videos emerge urging people, and more importantly getting people pumped, to vote. A time when I get to see political memes flood my Facebook newsfeed. A time where I feel powerful because I am invoking my right to vote for the decision-makers in my community.

It’s a great time.

We Want You for Our Science Gift Guide

Sure, a “science-themed gift” can be a little … geeky. And the assumption is that the latest gadget or doohickey is made by a guy — or “bro,” to use the parlance of Silicon Valley. But who says so?

Candice HelfandNovember 3, 2014engineering, gift, math, science, scintist, silicon valley, STEM, technology, WomenComment

Why You Should Care About the Declining State of U.S. Education

The vast majority— 76% — of American parents think their children are getting a good education, a national survey conducted by the Associated Press reveals. But recent reports comparing U.S. education to education in 39 other industrialized countries show that they’re wrong.

Susan Weiss GrossOctober 27, 2014College, competition, economy, education, equality, parenting, parents, universityComment

#HeforShe aims to give feminism new edge

Chances 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.

Women Would Be Crazy to Lead, Lead Anyway

There’s the cult of productivity ethic that tells you to do more, always more, for who knows what reason, often to your detriment. And then there’s going out and doing what you really want to do as a human being on this planet, day to day and in the long-term. These are different things.

Women Lead Best When They Are Unsure of Themselves

Most women feel that they need to be bold, decisive, and confident to lead well, especially when they feel how they lead is being scrutinized by men. On the outside, this appearance is important to convey. On the inside, women need to have the courage to feel unsure of themselves so they can make their best decisions and positively take the lead.

Ambition / IntentionMarcia ReynoldsOctober 24, 2014confidence, courage, success, The Discomfort Zone, tough questions, uncertainty, unsureComment

Why Flex Time Is the #2 Most Important Employee Benefit

A big barrier to women’s leadership parity was overlooked in the recent brouhaha about Facebook and Apple covering employees’ insurance for egg freezing.

These companies are not, as headlines screamed “paying women to freeze eggs.”

How Do You Develop a Thick Skin?

A recent study reinforces something I’ve learned the long, hard way: that to succeed in the workplace, we women need to desensitize ourselves to criticism and develop a thick skin because, inevitably, negative comments are going to come our way.

The study, conducted by linguist Kieran Snyder for Fortune Magazine, examined 248 performance reviews of people employed by 28 technology companies, 58% of whom were men, and 42% women.

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