Women Leaders Archives

COVID: Our Last Dress Rehearsal on Climate Change

Editor’s Note: The following essay is by Tory Dietel Hopps, Managing Partner of Dietel & Partners, where she assists grantees with strategies, resource development and capacity building.

As the past weeks have unfolded, I have found myself thinking about the choices I will make regarding what I will not go back to after COVID-19. I believe that we are essentially having a dress rehearsal for what must be our new normal. This pandemic has made it abundantly clear that as a human race, we are truly globally interconnected.

climate change — (Image Credit: Martin Sanchez at Unsplash)

This has been the message of climate activists for decades, but the esoteric nature of those conversations clearly were not getting us to move quickly enough. It took a real life and death situation to make us realize we can change our behavior on a dime if we need and want to. We have an opportunity to come out of this pandemic with a new normal where we don’t go back to how we functioned before. This is an opportunity we cannot afford to squander.

Uncertainty Is the Mother of Invention

Uncertainty Is the Mother of Invention – S. Mona Sinha

How do we respond in uncertain times? A colleague shared these lines from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring: ‘I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo. ‘So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘And so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.’

I have found the simple principles that underlie what we do at Women Moving Millions – Learn, Listen, Connect, and Collaborate – to be valuable tools to guide us towards gender equality and to keep us grounded. In these times of uncertainty, this framework works for me as I try to make sense of my own emotions and how best I can share my skills in this world. Ironically, a month ago, I wrote an article titled, ‘Discovering the Highest and Best Use of my Worth’, and today, it seems more relevant than ever before.

Ms. Foundation Announces Four New Board Members

Angela Glover Blackwell, Danielle Moodie-Mills, Lauren Embrey, and Wade Davis to Bring Expertise in Racial Equity, Public Policy, and Diversity and Inclusion to Distinguished Board

NEW YORK (March 26, 2020) – Today, the Ms. Foundation for Women announced Angela Glover Blackwell, Danielle Moodie-Mills, and Wade Davis as new members of its distinguished Board of Directors, and Lauren Embrey as a returning member of the Board. The four Board Members bring expertise in racial equity, public policy, diversity and inclusion, and more to the board of the nation’s oldest women’s foundation.

“I am thrilled to welcome Angela, Danielle, Lauren, and Wade to the Ms. Foundation board,” said Teresa C. Younger, President and CEO of the Ms. Foundation for Women. “We are incredibly lucky to have the experience and expertise of these four individuals – from working to further LGBTQ inclusion and investing in communities of color, to advancing racial and economic equity as heads of organizations or as journalists. Their input will be crucial as we continue to center our work on women and girls of color in order to establish full social, political, and economic equality for all women. We could not be more grateful to have them as partners in the fight for gender equality.”

Female Entrepreneurs: Apply to Red Backpack Fund by April 12

Fashion and feminist philanthropy find a new intersection with The Spanx by Sara Blakely Foundation. In response to COVID-19’s impact on woman-owned small businesses, the Foundation donated $5 million to GlobalGiving to establish the Red Backpack Fund.

1,000 female entrepreneurs, majority women-owned businesses, and nonprofits in the United States will receive a $5,000 grant, totaling $5 million in funding from The Spanx by Sara Blakely Foundation. Funds go toward majority women-owned small businesses’ immediate needs in the face of coronavirus, as well as supporting their long-term recovery once the crisis has passed.

On April 3, 2020, SPANX’s Sara Blakely announced her $5 million commitment to supporting female entrepreneurs through the Red Backpack Fund. (**Image Credit:** GlobalGiving and Sara Blakely)

“My hope is that this gift will help alleviate some of the pressures caused by this horrible pandemic,” Blakely wrote in her Instagram announcement. “I know first hand what it’s like to be a small business owner. As a woman it can be lonely and scary, especially during a time like this. Small business is the backbone of our culture and I want to help.”

How’s Rhode Island Managing the COVID Crisis?

Editor’s Note: The following interview is with Melissa Jenkins Ph.D., clinical neuropsychologist and clinical assistant professor at Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

How would you describe Rhode Island’s response to the crisis?

Rhode Island is an amazingly interconnected place. Even when we can’t be physically close to one another, I see all of my neighbors and friends reaching out to donate whatever assets and unique talents they have to help neighbors get through this crisis. We have incredible leadership in this fight. Right now, in living rooms across Rhode Island, little girls are setting up pretend podiums to play ‘Giving the Daily Briefing’, and they’re all saying the same thing. “Knock It Off.”

Riki Wilchins: Gender Norms and Intersectionality

Editor’s Note: This interview in our Feminist Giving IRL series features Riki Wilchins, executive director of the nonprofit TrueChild and author of, “Gender Norms & Intersectionality: Connecting Race, Class and Gender.”

What do you wish you had known when you started out in your profession?

I wish I’d realized how difficult and slow social change is. I think when you’re younger, you’re a bit more optimistic. But, any kind of real change takes years, maybe decades, of constant effort and attention.

What is your current greatest professional challenge?

Our goal is getting people to think intersectionally, so they connect race, class and gender norms. The challenge is two-fold: most organizations don’t know how to talk about gender norms, or if they do, they disconnect it from factors like race and class.

Lesbians Who Tech Launches Online Series in Response to COVID

Lesbians Who Tech & Allies Announce: Your (Not IRL) Squad Series

(March 25, 2020) — Lesbians Who Tech & Allies announces its “ (Not IRL) Squad Series,” bringing its community the content it loves in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. The Squad Series will bring together Lesbians Who Tech & Allies’ favorite speakers for intimate conversations, workshops and sessions focused on technology trends, career growth, and personal wellness. This comes weeks after Lesbians Who Tech & Allies made the difficult decision to postpone its flagship San Francisco Summit.

Lesbians Who Tech is launching a new streaming series after the difficult decision to cancel its annual San Francisco Summit. (Image credit: Lesbians Who Tech)

“It’s important that LGBTQ people have a direct connection to the larger queer community, and we are helping make that happen with our Squad Series. It’s never been more vital,” said Leanne Pittsford, Founder and CEO of Lesbians Who Tech & Allies. “We made the difficult decision to postpone our San Francisco Summit and immediately got to work on how we can bring our community the programming and connection they need right now in this difficult time.”

Dominika Kulczyk Commits $5 Mil to COVID Response in Poland

Dominika Kulczyk commits millions for COVID-19 response in Poland

Dominika Kulczyk, a Polish philanthropist, journalist and entrepreneur, has today announced an approximately $5 million commitment (PLN 20 million) in support of Polish doctors and health workers working in response to the global coronavirus public health emergency.

Funding will be made available through the Doctors for Doctors Foundation (Fundacja Lekarze Lekarzom), created by the official trade body – the Chief Medical Council – representing doctors in Poland.

This vital financial support will promote further testing, and build capabilities and capacity to identify and mitigate the spread of the disease in the country, ultimately helping the global health community to minimise the effects of the pandemic.

Rihanna’s Foundation Donates $5 Million to Fight COVID-19

Editor’s Note: The following announcement is from the Clara Lionel Foundation, founded by singer/songwriter Rihanna.

When we first began this year, never could we have imagined how COVID-19 would so dramatically alter our lives. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you’re from, this pandemic will affect us all. And for the world’s most vulnerable, the worst may be yet to come.

The Clara Lionel Foundation, started by Rihanna in 2012 and named after her grandparents, Clara and Lionel Braithwaite, is giving $5 million to an array of global organizations to address the COVID-19 crisis. (Image Credit: CLF)

Over the past five years CLF has been one of the first organizations to respond to some of the world’s most devastating natural disasters, and we’ve seen firsthand the profound and unintended consequences of not being prepared.

How Canada is Pushing for Better Mental Health Care for Women

Editor’s Note: This edition of our Feminist Giving IRL (in real life) series features Dr. Vicky Stergiopoulos, Clinician Scientist and Physician-in-Chief at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Canada’s largest mental health hospital and a global research leader. She is the clinical lead of CAMH womenmind, a new effort from CAMH to close the gender gap in mental health. She is also a Professor and Vice Chair Clinical and Innovation in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto.

1. What do you wish you had known when you started out in your profession?

Category: Women Leaders