Truth...Mahatma Gandhi

“Truth never damages a cause that is just.”

--Mahatma Gandhi

Show What You Are Made Of...Jill Abramson

"And now I’m talking to anyone who’s been dumped! You bet! Not gotten the job you really wanted or received those horrible rejection letters from grad school. You know the sting of losing or not getting something you badly want. When that happens, show what you are made of. 

…it was the honor of my life to lead the newsroom."

--Jill Abramson, Executive Editor of the New York Times (2011 – 2014)

*You are invited to join WOMEN AT LIBERTY for a Twitter Chat Friday, 5/23, 3-4 pm to discuss girls and women succeeding leadership. #WWYD2H (What Would You Do To Help) We will also discuss why the Nigerian girls becoming "smartgirls" made them such a threat to terrorists in Nigeria.

How To Make Decisions...Roy Disney

“It's not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.”

--Roy Disney 

Every Tuesday, WOMEN AT LIBERTY provides a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage, and strengthen women leaders. Today's Leadership Tuesdays video features Audra Bohannon at the Black Enterprise's Women of Power Summit.  Ms. Bohannon talks with BE's correspondent Tai Beauchamp about taking time for self and how to be a great leader.

Ms. Bohannon is an author, business consultant and senior partner at Korn/Ferry International, a leading executive search firm. Her experience has been in the airline, banking, financial, health, and technology industries.  She is also considered an subject-matter-expert in diversity and individual development.

To view the video, go to the Women Making History Facebook page and look for the 4/15/14 posting. For more information on Leadership Tuesdays, click here. 

__________
You may also see the following link to view today's video: Black Enterprise video featuring Audra Bohannon

Celebrating Differences: Is It Possible?...Hillary Clinton

“What we have to do... is to find a way to celebrate our diversity and debate our differences without fracturing our communities.”

--Hillary Clinton

Is It Possible??

Honoring The Sacrifice...Nona

May the way we live our lives honor your sacrifice and the sacrifice of countless others whose names and faces are not so well-known, but whose work was no less effective.

I'll Start Tomorrow...Terri Guillements

When it comes to eating right and exercising, there is no "I'll start tomorrow." Tomorrow is disease. 

--Terri Guillemets

Image credit: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/255086766364644905/

Character Adds To Beauty...Jacqueline Bisset

Character contributes to beauty. It fortifies a woman as her youth fades. A mode of conduct, a standard of courage, discipline, fortitude, and integrity can do a great deal to make a woman beautiful.

--Jacqueline Bisset

Wisdom For A Leader Who Aspires To Greatness!

"If you have some respect for people as they are, you can be more effective in helping them to become better than they are."

--John W. Gardner

Every Tuesday, WOMEN AT LIBERTY provides a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage, and strengthen women leaders. Today we are featuring current statistics and information on women in leadership. From today's article, "Women’s Leadership by the Numbers" by the Center for American Progress, we are made aware of the following:

Women make up a majority of the U.S. population: women are 50.8 percent of the U.S. population. They earn almost 60 percent of undergraduate degrees, and 60 percent of all master’s degrees.

• They earn 47 percent of all law degrees, and 48 percent of all medical degrees. 
• They earn more than 44 percent of master’s degrees in business and management, including 37 percent of MBAs. 
• They are 47 percent of the U.S. labor force, and 59 percent of the college-educated, entry-level workforce. 

However, women are still 14.1% of executive officers and 8.1% of top earners. The facts are just that, the facts. In order to change "the facts", we must all commit to doing everything within our power to advance women leaders. That "we" includes both women and men.

Here are some questions to ponder:

• Do you speak up to encourage other women to become leaders or aspire to leadership positions? 
• Do you seek out qualified women for leadership positions or recommend women for leadership training programs within your organizations as often as possible? 
• Do you vigorously advocate for other women in your workplace? 
• Do you encourage young girls and young women to see themselves as leaders and don't limit themselves to the traditional confines that society can put on women? 

To read today's article, click here. For more information on Leadership Tuesdays, see here.

Good Monday Morning!...@vnona

Good Monday Morning! Be accountable! Don't bully! Apologize! Be a person of integrity and your word! Don't take credit for someone's else work! Have a great week! #leadership

You Are God-Purposed!...Lisa Tait

If we ever hope to become "Women of Destiny" we must begin the very difficult journey of self-discovery (God-Produced); finding our place in the world (God-Positioned); and finding others who will journey with us (God-Partnered). However the journey doesnt end there, you must also come to understand that you are God-Purposed.

--Dr. Lisa M. Tait, Author, Minister, Entrepreneur

DrTait.com

Just Do It...Marlee Matlin

"What parent has it easy? I just never make the difficulty of it an obstacle. I just do it."

--Marlee Matlin

Spring Will Come...Mary Anne Radmacher

In spite of unseasonable wind, snow and unexpected weather of all sorts - a gardener still plants. And tends what they have planted ... believing that Spring will come.
 
--Mary Anne Radmacher

Good Health...Anne Wilson Schaef

“Good health is not something we can buy. However, it can be an extremely valuable savings account.”

--Anne Wilson Schaef 

Plan But, Allow For The Impossible Too...Lupita Nyong'o

"What I will say is that what I have learned for myself is that I don’t have to be anybody else; and that myself is good enough; and that when I am being true to that self, then I can avail myself to extraordinary things such as this, you know, that I didn’t think was necessarily possible, but I didn’t cancel it out of my realm of possibility, and I think that’s the thing. You have to allow for the impossible to be possible.”

--Lupita Nyong'o, 2014 Oscar Winner--Best Supporting Actress for "12 Years A Slave"

*Photo credit: DuJour Magazine, ootdmagazine.com

The Right Kind Of Success...Michelle Obama

"We learned about honesty and integrity - that the truth matters... that you don't take shortcuts or play by your own set of rules... and success doesn't count unless you earn it fair and square."

--Michelle Obama

Every other Tuesday, WOMEN AT LIBERTY presents Leadership Tuesdays, a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage, and strengthen women leaders. From a very early age, our parents or guardians teach us the foundational principles of what's right and what's wrong. As we get older and begin to mature, we find out that life can present us with some situations where we have to decide whether we will compromise our values and do the easy thing or buckle down and do the work required to accomplish our goals.

Success, everybody wants to be successful. Everyone wants to be admired and respected by their peers, and more importantly, richly rewarded for their efforts.  The question is, is all success good success? If I don't play by the rules and no one finds out, does it really matter? What's fair to you, may not be fair to me. How do I really know what the right thing to do is?

Our Leadership Tuesdays' features today help us with just those questions. Michelle Freeman, CEO/President of the Carl Freeman Companies and the Freeman Foundations, tells us in a brief video snippet that sometimes when negotiating business deals involving large sums of money, we can be tempted to step "over the line" and take shortcuts to achieve our end goal. But, she says, "that might make it easier, but that does not make it better." 

In a blog entitled, "Ethical Behavior Coupled With Integrity"*, Dr. Surya Ganduri stated that research has "found that companies displaying a ‘clear commitment to ethical conduct’ consistently outperform companies that do not display ethical conduct". In the long run, it is more profitable to do the hard thing and achieve "good success" than it is to do what may be easier and achieve short term success that may cost the organization considerable more in the future.  As First Lady Michelle Obama says in the quote above, "success doesn't count unless you earn it fair and square". Dr. Ganduri's blog also offers five principles that will help leaders champion an organizational commitment to integrity.

To view the Michelle Freeman video snippet, click here.  To read the blog referenced above, visit the Women Making History Facebook page and click on the 3/25/14 posting.

*You can also view, "Ethical Behavior Coupled With Integrity", here: http://embcblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/ethical-behavior-coupled-with-integrity.html 

Women Are Good Motivators...Bridget Macaskill

Women are naturally good motivators, good at juggling different projects and issues at the same time, and more cooperative rather than aggressive and confrontational.*
    
--Bridget A. Macaskill 

*Quote from Women in Business Quotes at http://www.finestquotes.com/select_quote-category-Women%20in%20Business-page-0.htm

Let's Stay Together...Happy Black Marriage Day!

I, I'm so in love with you

Whatever you want to do is all right with me

'Cause you make me feel so brand new

And I want to spend my life with you

Let me say that since, baby, since we've been together

Loving you forever is what I need

Oh let me be the one you come running to

I'll never be untrue

Oh let's, let's stay together...

_________________________________________________________

Happy National Black Marriage Day!!

Dedication to all of the families who are doing
what it takes to stay and grow together!

You Do You...Amy Dubois Barnett

“Stop comparing yourself to others. What she’s got, that’s fine for her. But you, girlfriend, are unparalleled. Your life and your path are your own. Learn from others’ successes and failures, but do you! 

-- Amy Dubois Barnett

Courage Is..Amelia Earhart

Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace.

--Amelia Earhart

How Much Would You Pay For Good Health?...Reba McEntire

All the money in the world can't buy you back good health.

--Reba McEntire

Let's all prioritize our health since good health is really priceless!

Deadline for 2014 Open Enrollment
March 31st

Be Persistent and Accomplish Your Goals!...Tyra Banks

“If you have a dream and you have a goal, and you knock on that front door, and they won’t allow you in, go in through the back door. If the back door is locked, go through the cellar. If that’s all boarded up, climb your butt through the window, but get in!” 

--Tyra Banks

Leadership Tuesdays: Competent And/Or Nice...Sheryl Sandberg

"If a woman is competent, she does not seem nice enough. If a woman seems really nice, she is considered more nice than competent. Since people want to hire and promote those who are both competent and nice, this creates a huge stumbling block for women. Acting in stereotypically feminine ways makes it difficult to reach for the same opportunities as men, but defying expectations and reaching for those opportunities leads to being judged as undeserving and selfish."

--Sheryl Sandberg, from the New York Times Best Selling Book, "Lean In"

For more info on "Lean In" and the organization behind the book, click here.

Every other Tuesday, WOMEN AT LIBERTY presents Leadership Tuesdays, a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage, and strengthen women leaders. It's March and that means it's Women's History Month. All month we have featured quotes by women and those who are supportive of women in leadership and women having an equal role in society. Today's Leadership Tuesdays quote is taken from Sheryl Sandberg's book, "Lean In", a New York Times Bestseller that was released one year ago this month.  

Ms. Sandberg's book and a subsequent campaign, Ban Bossy, which was launched last week, has definitely increased awareness about women leaders, the way women lead and the different expectations society has on girls and boys. She is not the first to talk about women in leadership or women aspiring to be high-powered executives while yet maintaining fulfilling family lives and a "life" outside of work.  I was especially encouraged in the early days of Leadership Tuesdays by a McKinsey video that was published in 2008. In this video, Shelly Lazarus, then CEO and chairman of Ogilvy, talked boldly about how she managed the demands of her career and family life. Check out her quote that inspired the Motivational Moment, "Be Who You Are".  To see the McKinsey video that includes former CEOs Shelly Lazarus and Andrea Jung, click here. 

As I reflect on Leadership Tuesdays and the three years it has been in existence, I continue to be inspired by the wisdom of women leaders like Ursula Burns, Ann Fudge, and Madeleine Albright. For more information on Leadership Tuesdays and our recent features, please visit our website, womenatliberty.com.

Launch!...Grace Murray Hopper

“A ship in port is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.” 

--Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper* (December 9, 1906 – January 1, 1992), Pioneering Computer Scientist

 

*Biography: http://www.history.navy.mil/bios/hopper_grace.htm

God is…

God is…Someone who understands your past, believes in your future, and loves you just the way you are.

--Unknown

Continue To Climb...Ella Wheeler Wilcox

"Always continue the climb. It is possible for you to do whatever you choose, if you first get to know who you are and are willing to work with a power that is greater than ourselves to do it."

--Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Never Give Up...Ruth Gordon

“Never give up. And never, under any circumstances, face the facts.”

---Ruth Gordon

 

A Healing Force Within Us...Marianne Williamson

There is a healing force within each of us, a kind of divine physician seated within our minds and in communication with every cell of our being. This force is the intelligence that drives the immune system. 

--Marianne Williamson
 

http://www.marianne.com

Time Will Tell...Nona

Time will tell if we really believe the philosophies that we preach to others.  Will we hold ourselves accountable to the standards that we have called others to live by? Time will tell...
 
--Nona

Leadership Tuesdays: The World Needs Women's Equal Representation

'...the world needs “women’s equal representation in leadership positions, in peace making, in communities, in politics, in business and in religious institutions.”'*

 --Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuk, United Nations Women Executive Director 

Every other Tuesday, WOMEN AT LIBERTY presents Leadership Tuesdays, a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage, and strengthen women leaders. In celebration of International Women's Day on March 8, 2014, Vital Voices, headquartered in Washington, D.C., hosted a Global Mentoring Walk in several cities including Washington, D.C. Leadership Tuesdays was on location talking with Gigi Scoles, Human Rights Director, about the event and their organization. To see the brief video, click here.

Last week, we featured Ms. Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization responsible for the OSCARS. She is the first African American and third woman to lead this prestigious organization that has been around since 1927. To view the article and get the link for the NPR interview, click here. On the WOMENATLIBERTY.com website, an video of Ms. Ann Fudge, former Young & Rubicam CEO, is featured where she gives advice to women who want to lead in today's business environment. To view this video, click here. For more information on Leadership Tuesdays and our recent features please visit our website, womenatliberty.com.


*Quote excerpt from:
International Women's Day: Mainstream Messaging For The Radical Cause Of Full Economic Empowerment
 http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomwatson/2014/03/07/international-womens-day-mainstream-messaging-for-the-radical-cause-of-full-economic-empowerment/

Success Is...Ingrid Bergman

Success is getting what you want; happiness is wanting what you get.

--Ingrid Bergman

I Have A God Who Hears...Kimber Engstrom

I have a God who hears me, I have a God who's near. I have a God who's waiting with a bottle for my tears.

--Kimber Anne Engstrom

Keep On Dreamin'...Sharon Freeman and Charito Kruvant

Our nation has always been about the urge to dream and the will to enable  it.

--Sharon T. Freeman, Ph.D. and M. Charito Kruvant

Listen, Your Heart Knows What You Should Do...Eleanor Roosevelt

Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do and damned if you don't.

--Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States (1933-1945)

Make Your Mark!...Freda C. Lewis-Hall

"And so, I began to think about it, and I learned the same lesson over and over about seeking to leave a legacy with doing so by leaving marks. The healthcare industry today has an opportunity, I believe, to leave some really significant marks. Our science is poised to answer some of the most vexing problems ever. Our assets for people who never would have seen meaningful healthcare is reaching up here and around the globe. We have a chance to deliver on the promise a single patient at a time."

--Freda C. Lewis-Hall, M.D., Executive Vice President & Chief Medical Officer, Pfizer (excerpt from her acceptance speech, 2011 Healthcare Businesswomen Association's Woman of the Year Award); Author of "Make Your Mark".

The Way To Right Wrongs...Ida B. Wells Barnett

 The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.

 --Ida B. Wells Barnett

Leadership Tuesdays: Women Taking The Lead To Effect Change...Barack Obama

Women are poised to shape not only their own destiny but the destiny of this century. 

--President Barack Obama, Barnard College, 5/14/12

Every other Tuesday, WOMEN AT LIBERTY presents Leadership Tuesdays, a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage, and strengthen women leaders. Today we present Ms. Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization responsible for the OSCARS. She is the first African American and third woman to lead this prestigious organization that has been around since 1927.

Ms. Isaacs has more than 30 years experience in the film business. She has been a governor representing the public-relations branch for 21 years. With her election last July (2013) as President, she has set as one of her goals to add more diversity to The Academy's membership.  It has been widely reported that current membership consists of over 6100 members, most of whom are white males. To hear a recent NPR Code Switch interview, click here.

Last week, Leadership Tuesdays featured Ms. Ann Fudge, former Young & Rubicam CEO, in a video where she gave advice to women who want to lead in today's business environment. "Be authentic" was one of Ann Fudge's core messages. In fact, she directed this advice to both men and women. To view this video, click here. For more information on Leadership Tuesdays and our recent features please visit our website, womenatliberty.com.

Live In The Moment!...Emily Dickinson

“Forever is composed of nows.” 

― Emily Dickinson

We Have Come...James Weldon Johnson

We have come over a way that with tears has
    been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the
    blood of the slaughtered.

James Weldon Johnson
Author, Educator, Lawyer, Diplomat, Songwriter, and Civil Rights Activist
Best known for writing "Lift Ev'ry Voice And Sing"

Defining Myself...Bell Hooks

“I will not have my life narrowed down. I will not bow down to somebody else’s whim or to someone else’s ignorance. ” 

--Bell Hooks

Image: WashingtonPost.com

Life's Invaluable Things...Myrlie Evers-Williams

“Don't measure your wealth by how many things you have. Measure your wealth by how many things you have that you wouldn't take money for.”

― Myrlie Evers-Williams

Leadership Tuesdays: What Women Should Know...Ann Fudge

"Sometimes women feel that they have to exhibit a certain male-like behavior in order to be successful, particularly as they move up to the ranks and find that there are less women. And I think that's the biggest mistake that women make. It's be yourself. And your smarts, your ability to relate with people, don't try to diminish that in any way because it's a combination of that intelligence and that ability, perhaps unique to women, to work with people, that I think gives us the edge over the long term."

--Ann Fudge, Former CEO of Young and Rubicam, Philanthropist

Every other Tuesday, WOMEN AT LIBERTY presents Leadership Tuesdays, a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage, and strengthen women leaders. Ann Fudge is the former CEO of Young and Rubicam (Y&R) Brands, a marketing and communications company specializing in advertising, and digital and social media, etc. A trailblazer, Ms. Fudge was the first African American to lead a major advertising firm. She led the global company, then worth $3.4 billion, from 2003-2006.

Before coming to Y&R, she was President of the $5 billion Beverages, Desserts and Post Division at Kraft Foods.  She managed many familiar brands including Maxwell House Coffee, Kool Aid, and Crystal Light.  Ms. Fudge also spent several years at General Mills where she started as a Marketing Assistant and rose to Marketing Director.

Currently, Ms. Fudge serves on the Board of several companies and organizations including General Electric, Novartis, Unilever, Morehouse College, Rockfeller Foundation and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. A philanthropist focused on education, she also serves as chair of the U.S. Programs Advisory Board of the Gates Foundation. She graduated with a B.A. from Simmons College and a M.B.A. from Harvard Graduate School of Business. She and her husband, Rich, are the proud parents of two sons and five grandchildren.

In this brief video, she gives advice to women who are leading in today's business environment. "Be authentic" is one of Ann Fudge's core messages. In fact, she directs her advice to both men and women. To view this video, click here. For more information on Leadership Tuesdays and our recent features please visit our website, womenatliberty.com.
 

Paying The Highest Tribute...Thurgood Marshall

"In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute." 

--Thurgood Marshal, First African American Supreme Court Justice

The Truth About Injustice...James H. Cone

The truth about injustice always sounds outrageous. 

--James H. Cone, B.A., B.D., M.A., Ph.D.

Professor James H. Cone, known as the founder of black liberation theology, is the Charles A. Briggs Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York. For more information on Dr. Cone, go to: http://www.utsnyc.edu/jamescone.

Professor James H. Cone, known as the founder of black liberation theology, is the Charles A. Briggs Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology at Union Theological Seminary. - See more at: http://www.utsnyc.edu/jamescone#sthash.g0KXvqk0.dpuf

Professor James H. Cone, known as the founder of black liberation theology, is the Charles A. Briggs Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology at Union Theological Seminary. - See more at: http://www.utsnyc.edu/jamescone#sthash.g0KXvqk0.dpuf

Professor James H. Cone, known as the founder of black liberation theology, is the Charles A. Briggs Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology at Union Theological Seminary. - See more at: http://www.utsnyc.edu/jamescone#sthash.g0KXvqk0.dpuf

Greatness Occurs...Quincy Jones

"Greatness occurs when your children love you, when your critics respect you and when you have peace of mind."

-- Quincy Jones, Record Producer, Conductor, Arranger, Composer, Television Producer, Film Producer, Instrumentalist, Magazine Founder, Record Company Executive, Humanitarian, and Jazz Trumpeter

Faith Is Necessary...Mary McLeod Bethune

"Without faith, nothing is possible. With faith, nothing is impossible."

--Mary Mcleod Bethune, Educator and Civil Rights Activist, Civil Servant, Founder of Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute (now Bethune-Cookman College) and the National Council of Negro Women

You Can Really Make A Difference...Marian Wright Edelman

You really can change the world if you care enough.

--Marian Wright Edelman

You Were Meant To Be...Benjamin Mays

Every man and woman is born into the world to do something unique and something distinctive and if he or she does not do it, it will never be done.

--Benjamin E. Mays, former President, Morehouse College