About a month ago, my friend Maureen called me for advice. A young family friend, April, was entering college, and she was getting a lot of pressure to be a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) major from family and teachers. She excelled at math and science, but she loved her English...
Gender Equality
The Elephant in the Gender Equality Room: Masculinity
By: Kaitlin Rattigan Just as women and girls are expected to follow ridiculous, degrading and constricting ideas of what it means to be feminine men and boys face, albeit different, but just as restricting expectations for what it means to be masculine. So, let’s talk about it. Miss...
Senate Women – A Glimpse of “Grait-ness”
Consider these New York Times headlines: Senators Near Fiscal Deal and Senate Women Lead Effort to Find Accord The current U.S. government impasse has been a grit-fest. It’s been like watching “Godzilla Meets King Kong” – two opposing beasts slugging it out to the death, laying waste to...
The Dollars and Sense of Women and Work
As a career coach and seminar leader, I’ve met hundreds of “stay-at-home mothers” who spend months—or even years—weighing the pros and cons of returning to work. Though the immediate assumption would be that these women can easily afford never to work again, I’ve learned that even in affluent...
The Surprising Reason We Need More Women In The Global Workforce
By: Katerina Sokou Could getting more women in the workforce be the key to a stronger and more stable global economy? Some leading thinkers, including at the International Monetary Fund, argue exactly that. “Growth is the lens through which we view the issue of female labor force participation, as...
Are You Drowning in Unsolicited Advice?
By Victoria Pynchon In recent days, it’s been suggested to me (the generic woman) that I find a way to strengthen my voice(Executive Presence); jettison my womanly emotions in the workplace (don’t cry!); eliminate question marks and exclamation points from my email communications (??!!???); act...
Myth #2: Women Can’t Get Investment Dollars (Part 1: How the Investor Side Works)
Some say you need money to make money. That’s not necessarily true. An entrepreneur creates a business out of an idea and a lot of time and effort. And last I checked, ideas and effort are free. Time is costly. And maybe material product, but that’s different. We have a perception that women can’t...
Women and the Non Profit Sector: A Drastic Need to Rewrite the Narrative
We think of women as the primary drivers behind the giving and charity sectors, but it's not necessarily so from a leadership point of view. Thanks to Kaitlin for reminding us that the women doing some of the most important work in the world should be celebrated. - InPower Editors By: Kaitlin...
Do You Confuse Emotions with Emotional Intelligence (EQ?)
It often surprises my executive coaching clients how important their emotions are to their workplace success. Most of us have been trained to keep our emotions out of the office, so we let lag an ongoing investment in our Emotional Intelligence (EQ). Part of the problem is that investing in...
Surviving the Wolves’ Den: Leadership Character Through a Woman’s Lens
How is a woman’s perspective on her leadership identity different than a man’s? This question goes DEEP, but Dana uncovers a fundamental distinctions between inner and outer definitions of leadership that often leave women at a disadvantage in identifying how traditional leadership advice applies...