Connected Women Leaders Forum 2019
What’s possible when women leaders from around the world come together, listen and learn from each other, make connections and commit to actionable solutions? Read my dispatch from the Connected Women Leaders Forum that Ronda Carnegie and I convened in April at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio conference center on Lake Como.
Read MoreLegendary New Orleans chef Leah Chase passed away this week at the age of 96. Ms. Chase spent seven decades serving her signature gumbo and hospitality to everyone from Martin Luther King Jr. to James Baldwin to Barack Obama. In 2017, I had the absolute pleasure of interviewing her about her life’s work on the TEDWomen stage.
Read MoreTitles are tricky — both the personal titles that often follow our names in an introduction and certainly, titles of books which, according to my book editor, can make all the difference in whether potential readers see value in what a title promises. I had an opportunity to go public with my new "title" of dangerous woman earlier this month as a commencement speaker at the University of Miami.
Read MoreI had the absolute pleasure of interviewing CNN Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour last night at the Skoll World Forum in Oxford. I’ll share our entire conversation later, but here are a few video outtakes from social media.
Read MoreThis month, in partnership with The Rockefeller Foundation, I’m convening a women’s leadership forum at the Rockefeller conference center in Bellagio, Italy. Along with Ronda Carnegie, one of the TEDWomen co-founders, we’re gathering a group of women leaders from all over the world on the frontlines of change in culture, media, business, social enterprises and government.
If you know the history of this struggle, you know that an ERA amendment was passed by Congress in 1972. But in order for an amendment to become part of the Constitution, it needs three-fourths of the states to ratify it and that hasn’t happened yet. But momentum around ratification is building and may happen very soon.
Read More
Organizers Kyra Gantois, 19, and Anuna De Wever, 17, at Brussels school strike on January 10, 2019 with over 3,500 marchers. The movement is growing. Earlier this month, the Brussels march included over 12,000 students. (Credit: Instagram)
One of anthropologist Margaret Mead’s most famous quotes instructs us to “never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” We might amend Mead’s observation to honor a group of thoughtful, committed teenagers across the world standing against climate change.
Read More
Robert Redford spoke at the opening news conference for the 2019 Sundance Film Festival at the Eccles Theater in Park City, Jan. 24, 2019. (Credit: Getty Images)
At SFF 2019, along with the most positive “buzz” I can remember about the films, the words often heard were “most diverse,” “most inclusive” — it was all that and more.
Read MoreIn an informative, bold TEDWomen talk, Project Drawdown author Katharine Wilkinson shares three key ways that empowering women and girls can help stop global warming. "Drawing down emissions depends on rising up," she says.
Read MoreLast year, I had the privilege of attending Roar Africa's inaugural Roar & Restore Retreat. Roar Africa is a woman-owned and -led company that offers specially designed experiences that combine Africa’s best safaris with adventures not included on the usual tourist itineraries. Experiences that are designed with purpose to go deeper, connecting participants with local communities and good work.
Read MoreOne of my favorite quotes is from the British writer Gilbert Chesterton: “Thanks are the highest form of thought and gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” My happiness is indeed doubled by the wonder-filled work that is creating change for individuals, communities and the small, fragile world we share.
As Congress became a lot more diverse and female earlier this month, our president lashed out at women of color in the press. Meanwhile, the women of the 2019 Congress got to work in Washington, redefining how representation works.
Read MoreFor too long gender has determined who holds the decision-making power in this country and around the world — and that needs to change. Here’s hoping that tomorrow is the start of something.
Read MoreEarlier this week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tom Hanks about his new collection of short stories, Uncommon Type: Some Stories as part of the MJCCCA Book Festival in Atlanta.
Read More
Taping with Veronica Dagher earlier this month in The Wall Street Journal studios.
This week, I’m a guest on Veronica Dagher’s Wall Street Journal podcast talking about the importance of mentorship for women, my work with the Women's Media Center and the Sundance Institute, and my own career.
Read More
Ashley Judd (center), chair of WMC Speech Project, with New York Times journalists Megan Twohey (left) and Jodi Kantor (right), at the 2017 Women’s Media Awards, where Judd received the WMC Speaking Truth to Power Award from Gloria Steinem.
A new report from The Women’s Media Center analyzes the impact of the #MeToo movement rising on news coverage in the nation’s major newspapers. In Year Two, there’s room for improvement in how the media reports on sexual violence and survivors.
Read More
Sign from the Women’s March in London, Jan. 21, 2017. (Photo: Caroline Gunston, Flickr / CC 2.0)
In her must-read new book, writer, activist and director of the Women’s Media Center Speech Project, Soraya Chemaly, explores why all of us — women and men, alike — are so uncomfortable with women expressing their anger and argues that women’s anger is one of the most powerful tools for creating lasting change.
Read MoreCity of Joy premieres on Netflix on September 7, 2018.
This month, a film close to my heart comes to Netflix. City of Joy is the story of the profound resilience of the human spirit witnessing Congolese women's fierce will to reclaim hope, even when so much of what was meaningful to them has been stripped away.
Read MoreLast month, I spoke with two activists, India’s ElsaMarie D’Silva and Agnes Igoye from Uganda, about the work that is being done to make women safer around the world. In this year of unprecedented attention to women, we are increasingly aware of their vulnerability to sexual violation, trafficking and other forms of abuse. Will we make those commitments?
Read More
The Tale stars Laura Dern and Isabelle Nelisse and is available on HBO now.
This week I want to offer space on my blog to a woman I admire very much. Jennifer Fox is a very talented independent filmmaker. For her most recent film, The Tale, which has two Emmy nominations, Jennifer took enormous risks and they are paying off with impact that is changing people’s lives.
Read More
My new global interview series goes in-depth with awe-inspiring women who have changed the world. Recent interviews include Gloria Steinem, Christiane Amanpour and Thandie Newton. More to come!
