Blog posts

The Covid-19 pandemic has shown that “women’s work,” or the care economy, is essential work. In a recent article, I wrote about the essential infrastructure workers whose jobs were deemed too important to be halted in the pandemic but who are also usually underpaid, undervalued, and unseen. These roles are … Read more

In this era of the murder of George Floyd and the attention his death has brought to structural racism in this country, the story of Lieutenant Colonel Charity Adams offers a glimpse into structural racism in the 1940s in the United States Army to remind us how far we have … Read more

Some time ago, a woman coaching client asked me to name women in history who I admired. She was looking for role models and inspiration. I could name one or two, but I was basically stumped. I promised myself that I would read more about women in history so I … Read more

The coronavirus lockdown has pulled aside the curtain between family life and work life for women and men with children. Claire Cain Miller, writing for the New York Times, notes that parents, especially mothers, are expected by employers to keep family caregiving a private matter, not to be discussed or … Read more

This is the year, 2020, when we should be celebrating one hundred years since women won the right to vote. Actually, it was only white women who won the right to vote in 1920 as the white suffragists turned their backs on black women suffragists to get the votes of … Read more

The COVID-19 pandemic offers us a global case study in leadership, and women are proving to be significantly more effective leaders. Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, writing for Forbes, notes that “there have been years of research timidly suggesting that women’s leadership styles might be different and beneficial.” She points out that we … Read more

I have long been worried about a backlash against the #MeToo movement that could make things worse in the long term for women who experience and report sexual harassment and assault. I have worried and talked with others about the need for us to develop a consensus about what the … Read more

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic when businesses and social gatherings were shut down or restricted, only “essential workers” were allowed to leave their homes and travel to work. Who turns out to be “essential”? Campbell Robertson and Robert Gebeloff of the New York Times report that an analysis of … Read more

Over the years I have repeatedly noticed and wondered why the people who run for national office always seem to be wealthy. One of the exciting aspects about the 2018 election was the unusual number of women of color and working class people who ran and were elected to the … Read more

I remember when I first learned from a search firm that women over age fifty-five were considered “too old to hire” by many of their clients. I was leading a search for a new leader for an organization, and the search firm we hired asked whether we wanted them to … Read more