The first summit on The United State of Women represented an important moment for women and girls domestically and internationally, as well as for all proponents of gender justice and equality. Following the summit, The United State of Women remains committed to giving a megaphone to the importance of gender equality and providing a platform for addressing these critical concerns. The summit may have concluded, but our work is far from over.
The United State of Women focuses on six pillar topics:
The following is a recap of the last Forum Series – held by the United State of Women.
Equality doesn’t happen overnight. It happens day by day, conversation by conversation. We’re fueling these conversations with a series of forums that give the megaphone to women spearheading change in our six pillar focus areas. Last week, we kicked off the series at Tumblr HQ with Valerie Jarrett and authors, bloggers, and podcasters all creating and promoting female narratives in media.
Megan Smith, Chief Technology Officer of the United States, kicked off our second forum at 1776 DC that hosted badass CEO’s advancing the #StateofWomen in tech and entrepreneurship.
If you missed the forum, catch the replay here, and check out our three takeaways:
“Forget the pitch, tell the story. To anyone who’ll listen”
We heard from Tiffany Norwood, founder and CEO of Tribetan, that entrepreneurship wouldn’t be possible without telling your story. After all, you never know who is in the room! As Megan Smith told her own story, she reminded us that “women have always been an equal part of every story, just maybe not written down.”
Empowering women with capital is everyone’s responsibility
Nathalie Molina Niño, CEO of the new BRAVA Investments, a platform that invests in high-growth businesses that both do well for investors and improve the economic lives of women, reminded us that “my business partners are some of the most well-known, well-respected white male investors in the world and I think that we shouldn’t let them off the hook. They should be part of the solution.” For women, obtaining capital to start a business can be a huge obstacle. To give you a glimpse – there has been a 67% increase in black women-owned businesses, but black women still receive less than 1% of venture funding in America today. To learn more, head over to the National Women’s Business Council.
Leadership is being redefined every day
Kimberly Bryant, founder of Black Girls Code, challenged us to change the conversation about women in tech: “my goal is to change the paradigm, and even rewrite the frame, on what it means to be a coder, so that the world sees women and girls of color as leaders.” Let’s follow Kimberly and challenge the stereotypical (and outdated) image of leadership by encouraging all the women and girls in our lives to raise their voices!
“The Global Connections for Women Foundation (GC4W) — supports this movement and we encourage our supporters and followers to make a pledge and lets continue to grow the impact of The United State of Women Worldwide,” said Lilian O. Ajayi, Founder and Executive Director of GC4W.
Join the conversation on twitter @USWomen2016 or visit www.theunitedstateofwomen.org to learn more. Remember to make a pledge on www.theunitedstateofwomen.org/pledge-generator/
Repost provided by the United State of Women.
