by Chloe Mandell
| “If you have come here to help me then you’re wasting your time. But if you have come here because you realize that our fates are bound up in one another, then let us work together.” - Lilla Watson |
The unrestrained voices of 5,000 women and allies filled the landmark Shrine Auditorium to the brim. Faded yellow and red silks, chipped paintings of camels and palm trees, and dimly lit chandeliers hinted at the lustrous times when the Shrine would host the Academy Awards. We were all movie stars in that room, and we were about learn what to do with that star power to address the harsh reality of inequality.
I was attending the United State of Women Summit (USOWS) in Los Angeles on May 5-6, a second year event designed to “amplify the work of organizations and individuals at the forefront of the fight for women’s equality, and provide tools, access and connections that help women see and step into their power to break down the barriers that hold women back.”1
The room (mostly women, over half of whom were women of color, and about 10% men) was buzzing with energy, excited for the incredible lineup of speakers leading the conversation about women in our nation, topped by none other than Michelle Obama. But the palpable energy was about much more than just fandom.
That growing tension that nagged each one of us enough to fly, carpool, bike, or bus to this summit was the reaction to a deeper current that had begun long before our lifetime, cresting into a groundswell of “aww hell no,” Black Lives Matter, and #metoo.
We’ve been conditioned to question the sustainability of landmark changes. A moment that is sure to fizzle like the dot com boom, the housing market, or the bitcoin bubble. But perhaps there is space for something more.
In the words of Tarana Burke, founder of the Me Too movement (started in 2006, not 2016), what people are feeling now is a discernable shift between simply bringing up the inequalities against women and doing something about it.
“The women who came before us fought for basic rights and human dignity, for inclusion and recognition, but today we’re launching a new fight,” added Ai-jen Poo, Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. “Our activism in the past has changed the country but we’ve never run the country. We have changed the rules, but we never made the rules. We have changed the culture but we have never set the culture. From the boardroom to the state house, from the media to the white house, it’s our time to run it all.”
I was attending the United State of Women Summit (USOWS) in Los Angeles on May 5-6, a second year event designed to “amplify the work of organizations and individuals at the forefront of the fight for women’s equality, and provide tools, access and connections that help women see and step into their power to break down the barriers that hold women back.”1
The room (mostly women, over half of whom were women of color, and about 10% men) was buzzing with energy, excited for the incredible lineup of speakers leading the conversation about women in our nation, topped by none other than Michelle Obama. But the palpable energy was about much more than just fandom.
That growing tension that nagged each one of us enough to fly, carpool, bike, or bus to this summit was the reaction to a deeper current that had begun long before our lifetime, cresting into a groundswell of “aww hell no,” Black Lives Matter, and #metoo.
We’ve been conditioned to question the sustainability of landmark changes. A moment that is sure to fizzle like the dot com boom, the housing market, or the bitcoin bubble. But perhaps there is space for something more.
In the words of Tarana Burke, founder of the Me Too movement (started in 2006, not 2016), what people are feeling now is a discernable shift between simply bringing up the inequalities against women and doing something about it.
“The women who came before us fought for basic rights and human dignity, for inclusion and recognition, but today we’re launching a new fight,” added Ai-jen Poo, Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. “Our activism in the past has changed the country but we’ve never run the country. We have changed the rules, but we never made the rules. We have changed the culture but we have never set the culture. From the boardroom to the state house, from the media to the white house, it’s our time to run it all.”
Before age six, girls believe they can be anything, explained a representative from conference sponsor Mattel, makers of Barbie. But, much to our detriment, these girls will only see women in 4.8% of the CEO positions at Fortune 500 companies 2, 19.6% of the seats of the U.S. Congress 3, 25% of the tech industry 4, 36% of all legal professions 5, less than 30% of research positions 6, and the list goes on.
What are we told that form our beliefs around gender, sexuality, and consent? What are the significant moments in our lives that shaped us to be who we are today? Is life one giant behavioral interview, where past performance dictates future behavior? Or can we unlearn limiting beliefs and accept that what we walked in the room with is a sunk cost? 7
Let’s just call it how it is: the system is flawed. It’s not broken. It’s working exactly as it was built,8 without nearly enough, if any, representation at the table.
Immigrants, people with disabilities, domestic workers, indigenous people, blacks, Latinas, LGBTQ individuals, Asian Americans, athletes, students, elders, survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, and school shootings. All these identities were represented at the USOWS, highlighting the important truth of intersectionality, which defines our very nation.
“Intersectionality is about the idea that we are not just our gender on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. And we are not just our race on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and then we take Sunday off,” USC Professor Ange-Marie Alfaro preached. “We are all of who we are every single day in every single way. And what Google won’t tell you is intersectionality is about power being built and shared in solidarity.”
Everyone wins when women are embraced for their differences. When women are in positions of power, we’re more likely to share that power, explained Ai-jen Poo. Women know how to speak the truth, declared U.S. Senator Kamala D Harris. Women reward not only those who take charge, but those who take care of others and themselves. “Women get the job done,” exclaimed L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti.
It’s time to stop playing someone else’s game! Jen Welter, the first female coach in the NFL, explained that she didn’t get the job to be as manly as her peers. She brought unique skills to the team that no one besides her could offer. Showing up as your true self not only supports those around you, but empowers others to be themselves too. 8
It’s going to take everything we’ve got, at capacity, to build something that hasn’t existed before. As many inspiring words and tweetable quotes were sung throughout the day, it was Michelle Obama who reeled it back in, explaining that there is still a lot of work to be done.
Joined onstage by actress and activist Tracee Ellis Ross, humbled by a 5-minute standing ovation and thunderous cheers, wrapping up a long day packed with world-class presentations, Michelle was thrown a softball. “Do you think young girls are dreaming differently today?” And instead of answering this leading question with whimsical words that would rise with the cheers then evaporate once the building emptied, you could tell she had the freedom to say what she wanted to say;
It’s going to take everything we’ve got, at capacity, to build something that hasn’t existed before. As many inspiring words and tweetable quotes were sung throughout the day, it was Michelle Obama who reeled it back in, explaining that there is still a lot of work to be done.
Joined onstage by actress and activist Tracee Ellis Ross, humbled by a 5-minute standing ovation and thunderous cheers, wrapping up a long day packed with world-class presentations, Michelle was thrown a softball. “Do you think young girls are dreaming differently today?” And instead of answering this leading question with whimsical words that would rise with the cheers then evaporate once the building emptied, you could tell she had the freedom to say what she wanted to say;
 | “I don’t know that young girls are there yet. We’re still at that stage where we’re trying to figure out what it means to be women. Sorry, in light of this last election, I’m concerned about us as women and what we think of ourselves and of each other. What is going on in our heads where we let that happen. If we as women are still suspicious of one another, if we still have this crazy bar for each other that we don’t have for men. If we’re not comfortable that a woman can be our president compared to ‘what?’ We have to have that conversation with ourselves as women. This isn’t an external conversation ‘cause that’s on us.” |
Michelle continued on to express her frustration with how girls are taught to be perfect. How she wished girls could fail as bad as men do and be okay. How women “are still too grateful to be at the table to really shake it up.”
I thought of my own experience, competitive by nature with an athletic record to show it. I would sit next to another woman at a coffeeshop, and without even knowing her name, I perceive her as a threat; this total stranger. Why? Because we have been conditioned to think that we live in a world of scarcity where women are pitted against one another. Breaking myself of this paradigm, I found my muscles relax, my mind turned toward compassion for this stranger, and I was liberated of this matrix where women hold each other back instead of helping to raise one another up. 9
A woman shouted out, “Michelle 2020,” from the audience. Michelle wouldn’t have any of it. “When I hear people say ‘you run’ it’s still part of the problem. We’ve got a lot of work to do before we’re focused on the who. We are the who! We are the answer to our own problems. It’s not finding the one right person who can save us from ourselves. It’s us.”
Let’s take the Me Too movement as an example. The hashtag facilitated a means to collect data that proved sexual harassment and assault is a pervasive problem. But Tarana Burke expressed a partial resentment toward its continued existence because it’s taking away from Step Two, which is to build a strategy to make change stick. The media is a corporate response to the movement, but it’s not the movement. “The work that has to happen is the work that happens after you say me too.” And what does that look like? Us. “We are the answers,” Burke affirmed.
It’s on each of us to take action, and that’s how the summit closed: with a challenge to put together one million actions for gender equality before the end of 2018. Here are just a few of the top ones I found most inspiring:
I thought of my own experience, competitive by nature with an athletic record to show it. I would sit next to another woman at a coffeeshop, and without even knowing her name, I perceive her as a threat; this total stranger. Why? Because we have been conditioned to think that we live in a world of scarcity where women are pitted against one another. Breaking myself of this paradigm, I found my muscles relax, my mind turned toward compassion for this stranger, and I was liberated of this matrix where women hold each other back instead of helping to raise one another up. 9
A woman shouted out, “Michelle 2020,” from the audience. Michelle wouldn’t have any of it. “When I hear people say ‘you run’ it’s still part of the problem. We’ve got a lot of work to do before we’re focused on the who. We are the who! We are the answer to our own problems. It’s not finding the one right person who can save us from ourselves. It’s us.”
Let’s take the Me Too movement as an example. The hashtag facilitated a means to collect data that proved sexual harassment and assault is a pervasive problem. But Tarana Burke expressed a partial resentment toward its continued existence because it’s taking away from Step Two, which is to build a strategy to make change stick. The media is a corporate response to the movement, but it’s not the movement. “The work that has to happen is the work that happens after you say me too.” And what does that look like? Us. “We are the answers,” Burke affirmed.
It’s on each of us to take action, and that’s how the summit closed: with a challenge to put together one million actions for gender equality before the end of 2018. Here are just a few of the top ones I found most inspiring:
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Sitting in red velvet chairs, eyes sparkling with the LA stage lights, we collectively filled the lungs of a national conversation around equal rights that had breached in 2017 with the relentless work of so many amazing figures who appeared throughout these two life-altering days.
We were told to get rid of our inhibitions, to trust ourselves, to be the change. A woman who yelled out from the crowd of thousands to share her pain was not escorted out by security. She was listened to, asked how the audience could help her (she had founded a nonprofit to support incarcerated women called Fierce Over 40), and thanked for sharing her voice. An attendee called out a panel moderator for selecting more white people than people of color during a Q&A. A young student sitting in front of me turned around and introduced herself, explaining that she and her classmates had received a scholarship to attend from a university in Minneapolis. She said she wanted to run for office.
In that room, we were safe. We were respected and saw the beauty in others. It’s time to make America that room, and it’s on each one of us to do something about it so that women can focus on more than just survival. We deserve to thrive. 10
We were told to get rid of our inhibitions, to trust ourselves, to be the change. A woman who yelled out from the crowd of thousands to share her pain was not escorted out by security. She was listened to, asked how the audience could help her (she had founded a nonprofit to support incarcerated women called Fierce Over 40), and thanked for sharing her voice. An attendee called out a panel moderator for selecting more white people than people of color during a Q&A. A young student sitting in front of me turned around and introduced herself, explaining that she and her classmates had received a scholarship to attend from a university in Minneapolis. She said she wanted to run for office.
In that room, we were safe. We were respected and saw the beauty in others. It’s time to make America that room, and it’s on each one of us to do something about it so that women can focus on more than just survival. We deserve to thrive. 10
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1. United State of Women
2. Catalyst
3. Center for American Women and Politics
4. United States Department of Labor
5. American Bar Association
6. UNESCO
7. TaMiya Dickerson, United States of Women Summit 2018
8. Brittany Packnett, United States of Women Summit 2018
9. Janice Levenhagen-Seeley, ChickTech
10. Yara Shahidi, United States of Women Summit 2018
1. United State of Women
2. Catalyst
3. Center for American Women and Politics
4. United States Department of Labor
5. American Bar Association
6. UNESCO
7. TaMiya Dickerson, United States of Women Summit 2018
8. Brittany Packnett, United States of Women Summit 2018
9. Janice Levenhagen-Seeley, ChickTech
10. Yara Shahidi, United States of Women Summit 2018
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