“The biggest trick is... how do we teach women at any stage to keep knowing what they want and asking for that,” says Leanne Meyer, Program Director of the Carnegie Mellon Leadership and Negotiation Academy for Women. Meyer’s work focuses on two main components that inhibit women’s progress in the workplace: the environments at work and school, and the habits of women themselves. Meyer educates women on the stereotypes and biases holding them back; teaches them to network; how to seek out and make use of the support of sponsors and mentors; and how to understand their environments and not sell themselves short in negotiation.
How Femininity Can Save Humanity-Nina Simons, Co-Founder Bioneers
What if the root of all the world’s problems is the imbalance of masculinity and femininity in our leadership? Nina Simons, co-founder of Bioneers has spent over twenty years investigating the power of femininity to solve some of humanity’s greatest challenges. We discuss how she discovered that leading with the feminine can help anyone find their purpose and their passion.
And when you’re done, come on over to The Inflection Point Society, our Facebook group of everyday activists who seek to make extraordinary change through small, daily actions.
How To End Structural Racism in Tech-Laura Weidman Powers, Code2040
Why does the next civil rights movement involve people of color breaking into tech? Laura Weidman Powers, co-founder and CEO of Code2040, talks income inequality, how the jobs future is wrapped up with the tech industry, and how to keep things in perspective while fighting structural racism. Weidman-Powers is working to smooth the pathways for entrepreneurs of color, and in turn to give communities of color a place in the tech-driven economy.
How To Beat Perfectionism-Patti Niemi, San Francisco Opera Orchestra
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What if the thing you really love to do makes you so anxious it gets in the way of doing your job? For Patti Niemi, a percussionist with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, her first experience with anxiety cropped up while in her second year at at Juilliard, causing her hands to shake uncontrollably. Niemi wrote a memoir called “Sticking It Out. From Juilliard to the Orchestra Pit.” In this episode, hear how she rose to the top of the music world and above her anxiety.
Read more about Patti on Salon.com.
Decoding The Secret To Confidence at GE
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What does Parseltongue have to do with coding? The GE Women's Network put on a day-long STEM event for sixty middle-school girls last November which included design-thinking and coding exercises–with a Harry Potter theme. During this "bring your daughters to work day" the girls learned they could make magic with code. The girls share their #codelikeagirl experience in this piece by producer Megan Jones.
Learn more about GE Girls at ge-girls.com.
Do Successful Teens become Successful Women? - "Teen Hackz" Founders Lisa Allanson & Lisa McDonough
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Lisa Allanson and Lisa McDonough are the founders of Teen Hackz, a program designed to help teens (girls and boys) understand themselves and others--in order prepare for success in life and work. They've taken the principles of how to help adults work better together at companies, and tailored it for teens.
Open Recovery Closes the Door on Addiction Stigma, Fay Zenoff
Fay Zenoff is the Executive Director of the Center for Open Recovery in San Francisco. Her organization is committed to changing the way our culture thinks about recovery--from something secret to something to be celebrated. She shares her story of how this transformational approach to recovery applies to her own life as well. Listen to our conversation above, or on NPR One.
Bringing The Birth Control Pill Over the Counter, Samantha Miller
Deb Liu of Facebook Is Developing More Women in Tech–And Calling Out Sexist Language
Deb Liu is the VP of Platform and Marketplace at Facebook. She's working to address the challenges that women in tech are facing both on day to day basis, and through a non-profit she co-founded called Women in Product, which brings together women who build. Listen to our conversation here:
Deb also wrote and recorded a special "audio OpEd" for us about sexist language at work. Much of this language is hiding in plain sight. Want to take her challenge? Track how many of the words below you use or hear in a given day. Listen to her OpEd here:
"Male words"
Compiled by Deb Liu
Two-man rule
Man-on-man defense
Gentlemen's agreement
Old Boys Club
Man up
Ballsy
Two guys in a garage (starting a startup)
Right-hand man
That's his boy
Poster boy
Man bites dog
Manpower
Wingman
White man's burden
Strawman
Key man risk
Everyman
Middleman
Great man myth
Grow a pair
Big boy pants
Cowboy
Guys
Dude
Man hours
Man sprints
Quarterback
Manning a booth
Everyone and their brother
A Big Misunderstanding, From "B stories"
What happens when sexist language doesn't quite hit its mark? From B stories podcast comes "A Big Misunderstanding" by producer Megan Jones and field producer, Suzanne Ahearne.
B stories offers "unserious, non-political, lighthearted stories about boobies told by women and men. Illustrations courtesy of each storyteller." Check them out here.