Important points that came up – watch for more! You’ll see different perspectives on all these things across the generations. What a great conversation & thank you to my InPower panelists!
Emily Bennington, Gloria Feldt and Eva Swanson – You guys rock!
Highlights from the video
- Is feminism about more than equal rights? Yes…. it’s about social change, social justice
- Emily gives a brief history of feminism (Wave 1, 2 and 3)
- Feminism is about choice? Yes… but let’s not forget that diverse populations we’re working to help, some of whom don’t have the same kind of choices “we” do. We noted that while we’re diverse across generations, we’re not socio-economically and ethnically diverse on this call.
- Great dialog about whether the word “feminist” is getting in the way of our agenda. Is it a barrier to working to bring men into the discussion? Is it misunderstood? Does it demand special rights because of gender? Do feminists still need to be militant?
- There is value in controversy for raising awareness. Thank you, 2012 election! Thank you, Sheryl Sandberg! Thank you, Anne-Marie Slaughter! Thank you Marissa Mayer! Debate and discussion helps us all clarify our values and language.
- Maybe we can’t draw men into the conversation until we women figure it out. Emily cites the backlash against Sheryl Sandberg as keeping some men at bay.
- Men who call themselves feminists get more sex! (Apparently this is true! Thanks for that info, Gloria.)
- Feminism should be like the first amendment – I may not agree with you but I will fight for your right to BE that. That said, the choices we make do impact other people.
- How do we have a diverse conversation about feminism? Let’s start by being comfortable with more diverse voices in the dialog without asking each voice to represent everyone. Does Marissa Mayer really have to represent EVERY working mother? Do we have to hold her to that standard?
- How can we deal with the story we’re all told which is that we have to be nice? Is it a different skill to address this question in the workplace vs. in the feminist movement? Do we have to choose between being nice and being bitchy?
- We have to be gender bilingual to work in many groups comfortably.
- When we work in both and learn to solve the puzzle of what authentic feminist leadership looks like so that we can model for other women.
- Is Sheryl Sandberg right? Is feminism stalled? Yes, No, maybe? Feminism is still playing an important activist role, for example in the Stubinville rape cases. But the numbers don’t lie, women are not at parity in leadership by a wide margin. Gloria gives us insight into where feminism is in the context of how “movements” evolve.
Set up Blog Post
Sheryl Sandberg’s call to “Lean In” has got women buzzing about the state of modern feminism. Is it time to Lean In to feminism again?
The answer seems to be “yes, but….”
We no longer have to “prove” that women have the capabilities and desires to be leaders in our businesses and society, in fact research shows us that women hold the keys to peace and prosperity in many ways. But the culture we live in hasn’t caught up. We still don’t have equal rights under the law, we still aren’t represented in leadership in numbers anywhere close to our percentage of the population or the workforce, and women and men both still have a hard time “seeing” women as leaders.
In this situation, some believe women should pull together and keep “fighting for our rights” and representation, and yet there is a broad ambivalence among other women about aligning with this traditionalist feminist platform. Many women – especially professional women – are uncomfortable calling themselves a Feminist. I struggle with this too. And while I care about women’s rights, I don’t believe we will fully leverage the rights we have until we put as much energy into accessing our personal power as we do fighting to gain more external power.
This discussion of feminism is important, and it’s especially important that we engage in it across generations. If feminism is going to help a broad spectrum of women it has to include a broad spectrum of women.
So today at 3pm Eastern, I’m bringing together women from (almost) every generation for a discussion panel about the modern state of feminism. In this live Google Hangout (which you can watch here) I’ll host Gloria Feldt, author of No Excuses, co-Founder & President of Take The Lead and past president of Planned Parenthood, Emily Bennington, author of Who Says It’s A Man’s World (and InPower blogger) and Eva Swanson, student at the College of William & Mary. We’ll explore the questions of what the fight for equality means today, whether feminism needs a reboot and how to engage more men in the conversation. Come back to this page to watch the live broadcast. (If you want a reminder email and link to the replay, register here.)
If you have questions you’d like us to address, leave a comment on this page, or register for the reminder and reply to the confirmation email.
I think we’re going to have fun and I hope you can participate!
Check out the resources in the InPower Coaching EQ at Work and Soft Skills Research Index.
