Carl Van Vechten / Library of Congress / Wikimedia Commons “None of us is responsible for the complexion of his skin. This fact of nature offers no clue to the character or quality of the person underneath.” ~ Marian Anderson I would like to mark Black History Month by honoring the late and beyond great … Continue reading MARIAN ANDERSON – THE VOICE OF AMERICA
Pixabay "I am woman, hear me roar In numbers too big to ignore And I know too much to go back an' pretend 'Cause I've heard it all before And I've been down there on the floor No one's ever gonna keep me down again Oh yes, I am wise But it's wisdom born of … Continue reading I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar
"Fashions fade, style is eternal." —Yves Saint Laurent With the trend toward dressing down at work continuing, it is important for women to remember that the power suit is still a thing. The Suit - The Great Equalizer The struggle for equality in the workplace is ongoing; but to make progress in all fields women … Continue reading The Power Suit – It’s Still A Thing
"You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today." ~ Abraham Lincoln With the voices of women echoing from the ranks of the entertainment industry and the chambers of Congress about the evils of sexual harassment, the jaw-dropping numbers of powerful men toppling from their pedestals and promises of severe consequences to perpetrators … Continue reading Will Corporate America Please Stand Up?
Dear Subscribers and Readers, Although I am not yet back from my summer hiatus, I am compelled to post the notice below from Bonnie Low-Kramen. No doubt you are familiar with Bonnie, who is the author of Be the Ultimate Assistant: A Celebrity Assistant's Secrets to Success and ultimate trainer of everything to do with executive … Continue reading Readers, Please Take Note
The opposite of talking isn't listening. The opposite of talking is waiting. ~ Fran Lebowitz A long accepted workplace practice when women and men are present in any kind of meeting -- regardless of the industry or setting -- is men speak and women listen, or women speak and men interrupt them. On the whole, women … Continue reading We Interrupt this Woman…
"I do not demand equal pay for any women save those who do equal work in value. Scorn to be coddled by your employers; make them understand that you are in their service as workers, not as women." ~ Susan B. Anthony, ca 1868 We sought justice because equal pay for equal work is an … Continue reading Women’s History Month – The Long, Long Road to Equal Pay – in 2152
"The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off." Attributed to Gloria Steinem In 1972, when I was a twenty-something single woman working in the book publishing industry, I became a charter subscriber to Ms., the groundbreaking magazine founded by Gloria Steinem and Letty Cottin Pogrebin. Not being a well-to-do suburban … Continue reading WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH – GLORIA STEINEM – TRAILBLAZER EXTRAORDINAIRE
Still from the "His Love Makes Me Beautiful" scene
from the 1968 movie, Funny Girl,
starring Barbra Streisand,
produced by Ray Stark, directed by William Wyler
and distributed by Columbia Pictures
When Barbra Streisand performed her famous Ziegfeld Follies scene from Funny Girl back in 1968, audiences found a pregnant bride a shocking -- and at the same time an amusing -- idea, even though the movie scene was set in the 1930s, where a real pregnant bride would have been even more shocking and maybe not quite so amusing. And, historically, rather than escorting his daughter down the aisle to meet her groom, the role of the father of an unwed pregnant daughter was to oversee the proverbial -- or actual -- shotgun wedding.
There never will be complete equality until women themselves
help to make laws and elect lawmakers. ~ Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906)
Although it took nearly three-quarters of a century, American women made good on Abigail Adams's threat in 1776 to her husband, John Adams, as he participated in the creation of the United States Constitution: "...we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.” Once underway, that rebellion -- begun at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 -- lasted another nearly three-quarters of a century, but it resulted in the Nineteenth Amendment, ratified in 1920, which guaranteed all women nationwide the right to vote. Prior to that, each state decided whether to grant women the right to vote, and, shockingly, some states actually revoked their right. But many states did grant women the right to vote, and it was in 1917 that a leader in the suffrage movement of one of those states, Jeannette Rankin of Montana, became the first woman elected to Congress.
Jeanne Nelson 