I 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 MoreFor anyone who has been told she is “difficult,” “tough,” “has a big personality,” and needs to tone it down, calm down, be a little less whatever, all this popular rhetoric on being your authentic self at work can be, well, inauthentic and not true. Research shows that authentic works at the top, perhaps, and in some company cultures where inclusion is a value, not a hiring tool.
Read MoreIt was the first of many smart choices for the team that created Unqork, a software development app, that recently raised $80 million in venture capital and has grown to 160 employees in two years. Jane Tran, vice president of strategy, says that the url name “Uncorked.com” costs $500,000, and the url “uncorq” cost $14.99 on GoDaddy.com.
Read MoreThe last seven days have been nothing short of amazing. So my column this week is largely a pictorial with brief commentary on several categories of advances for women and gender equality unrolling before our eyes if we can only see and appreciate them. Yes, I know the news is full of narratives about difficulties and disparities women face, and they are real.
Read MoreThis pre-holiday and holiday season, women are dominating the big screen and hopefully the box office with fictional and historical characters. They are good and evil and a little bit of both and are fighting crime and committing a few. At Take The Lead we decided it was worth suggesting a few of these feature-length efforts may be worth your time, energy and popcorn to witness. Especially since three of the seven (almost half) have female directors and all have leading ladies.
Read MoreVery few women have the resources of Melinda Gates to commit billions to causes they believe in. But every woman can have a cause to believe in and commit to it. That commitment can include pooling together small donations for a larger impact, donating valuable time and services and volunteering time to be a board advisor, mentor or someone who gives her professional acumen and services to help the cause and organization for free.
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