2-0-2 GO.

From polls to power: checking in on women rising through the ranks, gut checking the idea that ill-informed men get to vote on women’s bodies, and some legendary women keeping democracy on track….

As US election season heats up it's a perfect time to check in on some commanding strides women have made in shaping democracies worldwide, then a content cleanse with a much needed laugh, and a bit of inspiration to round out the update. pSoiler alert - Dolores F&cking Huerta. For real tho - what a badass…..

2 Steps forward:

As early voting is gets underway, its worth reflecting on some exciting progress in U.S. politics. 2023 set a new record with the highest number of women serving as governors across the country—12 in total. I know, I know. That number is crap. But it is progress. The good news is that progress was seen in both parties. Still a lot of work to be done. 12 is not 25. It is not zero. But it is not 25. We are going to keep this in the good news category anyway. Got our eye on the prize this week…

Globally, a record 29 women are serving as heads of state, reflecting a historic shift towards in global leadership. This group includes notable figures like Kaja Kallas, Prime Minister of Estonia; Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh; and Zuzana Čaputová, President of Slovakia. In 2024, Mexico celebrated a milestone with the election of its first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, signaling a transformative moment for the country. Still a lot of work to be done. 29 is not 96. It is not zero. But it is not 96. We are also going to keep this in the good news category.

0 noooo he didn’t:

In today’s "Oh No He Didn't!" section, we are calling out…… soooooo many guys. Like. Most of them. Tiffany Springle is doing a helluva job pointing out the jaw-dropping absurdity that clueless male voters get a say on women’s bodies. Incredibly clever, Roe v. Bros is a viral series that puts men on the spot with basic questions about women's reproductive health, exposing their serious gap in knowledge as they prepare to vote. Check in on Tiffany Springle or check out the Roe vs Bros insta account here .

all men opining, via a vote, in a manner that might effect women’s reproductive health without basic prerequisite knowledge? yellow card.

 2 kick ass people driving change:

Meet LaTosha Brown: LaTosha is the co-founder of Black Voters Matter an organization dedicated to increasing voter engagement and amplifying Black voices in the political process, particularly across the Southern U.S. Co-founded. This nonprofit is laser-focused on boosting voter engagement and building political power in marginalized Black communities, especially across the South. She is completely badass.

Meet Dolores Huerta, the unstoppable force behind some of the biggest victories for women and Latinx communities in the U.S. for decades…. Dolores is co-founder of the United Farm Workers. She has been shaking up the status quo for nearly 100 years. ONE HUNDRED FUCKING YEARS! This civil rights legend has been a lifelong champion for social justice, and she's still in the fight—now with her Dolores Huerta Foundation, focusing on getting women to the polls and making their voices heard. As Dolores famously says "Sí, se puede!" (Yes, we can!)

GO:

“The true republic—men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less.”

Susan B. Anthony

2-0-2 GO.

Sports, Cars, and Outer Space: stupid gender stereotypes

2 Steps forward:

Gender parity on the field of play will be achieved at the Paris Olympics. For the first time EVER, there are equal numbers of female and male athletes competing in the Olympics this summer.  Women competed for the first time at the Olympic Games in 1900 (also in Paris).  In 1900, women represented 2.2% of all participants and this summer they will represent 50% of the athletes. As the Committee says, “Let’s celebrate the moment but not stop the journey.”

Craig Sneesby, Managing Director at u&u Recruitment Partners, a top recruiting firm in Australia, announced the first of its kind Childcare subsidy for their staff in an effort to help reduce the gender pay gap. Sneeby notes in his LinkedIn announcement “Childcare costs in Australia are officially out of control and forcing many families to make the difficult decision to not return to work.”  The company will make a contribution of $10,000 per child per year to help ease the financial burden of childcare and make it easier for women to return to the workforce if they choose to do so.

O noooo he didn’t:

On one level, what I am about to delve into is petty, nonsense, and gossip.  On another level, it is a supremely important conversation about what we value, protect, hold sacred, and reward in our society. About who and what we are willing to stand up for.  

Fucking Tom Brady.  Amirite?  We thought it fitting to teach an American football player proper yellow card technique in our inaugural newsletter issue.  In case you missed it, Tom Brady agreed to participate on a roast on Netflix live.  He allowed comedians to mock the two women with whom he co-parents his kids.  But, when a fellow roaster made a joke about Robert Kraft (the owner of New England Patriots) getting an er…. “massage”….. Brady approached the stage and yellow carded the speaker.  Perfectly fine use of yellow card EXCEPT that he extraordinarily used it to protect his old, white guy business partner while letting belittling jokes about his exes go unchecked.  Here is the real kicker – in interviews after the roast, Brady expressed surprise and regret as to how the jokes affected his kids.  For real?  Tom Brady can play out the strategy of an entire football season in his head on any given day but can’t connect public, demoralizing shaming of the mother of his children to the wellbeing of those same children? Seriously?

Do I really care about Tom Brady’s roast?  No. Do I care that men – in very public ways value, protect, and defend their coaches/manager/teammates while enabling the demeaning of their female life partners/co-parents? For a paycheck? Yes. Very much so. In this case, 13.8 million viewers were just informed that these social norms are just fine.  Fuck that.  Tom Brady – that’s a yellow card.   

2 kick ass people driving change:

Patricia Banks: Talk about driving change. Um. Literally.  If you find yourself in Upper Darby Pennsylvania, just outside Philly and you are in need of auto repair – check out  Girls Auto Clinic.  Patrice Banks left her lucrative job at DuPont to bust down a few stereotypes.  She learned how to fix cars (the only woman in an otherwise male all male class) and then she opened an autoshop.  Fuck yes she did! Catering to women - clients get free WiFi access, snacks and beverages, an ample supply of books and magazines to peruse and they can get their nails done while they wait.  When the car is assessed clients are not only told what is wrong with their vehicle but how the diagnosis was made – what the mechanics were looking for in order to diagnosis the problem etc… Its’s the first time I have ever been wishful that a franchise might come to a town near us…

Aisha Bowe: In high school, Aisha Bowe, was advised by her counselor to become a cosmetologist. For real tho.  Aisha had other plans (let’s pause here and yellow card that counselor #genderstereotype) At community college Aisha discovered her love for math and science.  Fast forward a few years, Aisha became an aerospace engineer at NASA and the first black woman in space. She then founded STEMBoard, a tech company that creates smart systems for federal and commercial clients.  Paying it forward, she also founded LINGO, to make STEM education accessible for kids around the world, especially those kids from backgrounds underrepresented in STEM.  Her non-traditional path is redefining the typical narrative of how engineers build and advance their careers. So that’s all awesome but why are we talking about Aisha today? Because that “little” tech company that Aisha founded? It recently received a nearly billion-dollar contract (billion with a B). Um. Oh hell yes.

GO:

"We are the ones we have been waiting for."  ~  June Jordan

Bonus:

If you are interested in a little more context for this quote from June Jordan….here you go!

June Jordan was a Jamaican-American writer, poet, playwright and essayist; a fierce human rights and political activist. She taught at Yale, Stony Brook, and the University of California-Berkeley, where she founded Poetry for the People. 

This quote is an excerpt from a poem written to commemorate the 40,000 women and children who protested apartheid on August 9, 1956 in South Africa.  The poem was presented to the UN on August 9, 1978.

Poem for South African Women

Our own shadows disappear as the feet of thousands
by the tens of thousands pound the fallow land
into new dust that
rising like a marvelous pollen will be
fertile
even as the first woman whispering
imagination to the trees around her made
for righteous fruit
from such deliberate defense of life
as no other still
will claim inferior to any other safety
in the world

The whispers too they
intimate to the inmost ear of every spirit
now aroused they
carousing in ferocious affirmation
of all peaceable and loving amplitude
sound a certainly unbounded heat
from a baptismal smoke where yes
there will be fire

And the babies cease alarm as mothers
raising arms
and heart high as the stars so far unseen
nevertheless hurl into the universe
a moving force
irreversible as light years
traveling to the open
eye

And who will join this standing up
and the ones who stood without sweet company
will sing and sing
back into the mountains and
if necessary
even under the sea

we are the ones we have been waiting for

a quick ramble from the founder…

It’s hard to know where to begin.  When a lifetime of professional frustration spills onto the pages of a book/website/podcast etc… it is difficult to organize the thoughts into something more than a long- winded, multiplatform rant. Sure it feels better to get it out of our head and “onto paper” but we still have to wake up on Monday morning, put on our big-girl business pants/skirts, and head into the office to deal with same bullshit that we have had to deal with for the last forever. 

After millennium of functioning economies, “old white guy culture” has not relinquished its tenacious grip on our professional lives and it remains, to this day, the norm, the status quo, the seemingly immovable mountain. The tenure of old white guy culture is not due to the fact that it is working brilliantly. Spoiler alert: not only does old white guy culture generally suck, but extensive research shows it does not lead to optimally functioning workplaces. I know, I know.  Duh. 

So what gives?  Why do we have to get up, pour ourselves a cup of ambition, and waltz into a workplace that fosters the same misogyny, micro-aggressions, incivilities, and biases that have plagued us for decades? Rather, for centuries?  Worse.  Why do we have to watch the next generations, our daughters, or in some cases our granddaughters, face the same lunacy? 

The short answer is that the solutions being purveyed to “cure” corporate culture are not solutions that change the underlying problem.  Most of the proposed tools of change are focused on changing us, not on changing old white guys themselves or the workplaces they have built.  Sure we can learn to “lean in.”  But what are we leaning into exactly? Are we leaning into a room filled with different thoughts, ideas, and solutions coming from people of diverse backgrounds and experiences?  Are we leaning into a welcoming room that is inspiring and rewarding? A room that is filled with integrity and honesty? A room that is tough but fair? A room where hard work in the board room is rewarded more than funny jokes on the golf course?  Are we leaning into a place where a great idea that delivers results is heard regardless of whether we put on make-up on that particular day, or the color of our skin is white, or our voice is sufficiently baritone, or the idea is delivered with a smile?  Sure, there are nascent efforts to change workplace culture. There are trainings (generally speaking they don’t work).  There are grievance mechanisms (generally speaking they don’t work).  There are lots and lots and lots (and lots) of leadership books (generally speaking… well, you get it).  To summarize, the bulk of the work, the change, the focus, the blame has been placed…misplaced…on our shoulders for far too long and most efforts to drive change beyond changing us have been ill conceived, hastily applied, and often laughably ineffective.

Despite centuries of setbacks, there is every reason to be hopeful that change is not only possible but probable and that change is, in fact, imminent.  Why such optimism in the face of rather continuous and pervasive defeat?  Well, it is a whole new world complete with new tools, old tools used in new ways, and new generations at the table who have brought with them better values and less patience. While there are still not enough women in leadership, there are enough women in leadership who have started talking to each other, listening to each other, and validating each other’s experiences.  That networking, that sisterhood if you will, has enabled the collective outrage to aggregate into a ball of fury that is increasingly unpredictable and scary AF to old white guys in charge.  Ultimately, we know, we profoundly understand, that unacceptable words and actions should not be – can no longer be – tolerated much less accepted.

There is a lot to unpack.  There are a lot of solutions to explore (yellow card chief among them).  There are actions to take.  So let’s dive in.  Let’s honestly and authentically assess the present state of play and let’s redefine the fuck out of the future.