Issue 2900 -October 20, 2026
The Grace Hopper Celebration is canceled, and the internet is acting as if the sky has fallen.
The news is ricocheting around the web like a billiard ball run amok. The organizers say their usual sponsors didn't come through and ticket sales were weak.
Welcome to my world. Welcome to the world of every women's conference in 2026.
Everyone has a theory. Some blame the inclusion of men in recent years. Others blame the weak economy.
Here's what I saw running Take The Lead's Power Up Conference this year: companies stopped sponsoring conferences and buying their employees' tickets because their courage ran out. A few years ago, they were beating their chests about DEI and women's advancement. At the first whiff of political pushback, some revealed they never meant it. The rest decided to feed the crocodile and hope it eats them last, Winston Churchill's picture of an appeaser.
In the era of “fake news,” the power of the media to shape our understanding of reality is undeniable. Sexist news coverage is nothing new for women, but in an election year, it’s crucial we remain vigilant and outspoken. In this episode, Gloria urges us to be conscious, careful, and critical about women’s representation in the media and gives us concrete tips for how to recognize and leverage our own power to change the narrative.
Women and men in the workplace must speak up and stand for Jane Doe in any and every reported account of sexual harassment, discrimination or sexual violence at work or work-related functions.
The brutal account enumerated in a lawsuit brought recently by Jane Doe, a Cornell University student who names seven male fraternity brothers in her accounts of sexual assault in 2024, underscores the urgency for systems in place to end sexual harassment and assault everywhere, including the workplace.
Stories of workplace sexual harassment seem as old as time, going back to Hollywood representations including the 1937 film, “Ever Since Eve,” the role reversals of Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe in the 1959 blockbuster “Some Like It Hot,” the 1980 blockbuster, “9 to 5,” as well as the 2022 “She Said,” about Harvey Weinstein.