Advancing Women Podcast

In continuing with our January focus of transcending barriers and achieving goals this episode is all about success systems and how to assess and strengthen our mindset, skillset, and toolset. “You do not rise to the level of your goals, but you fall to the level of your systems” (James Clear, 2018, Atomic Habits). Too often we spend a lot of time creating and focusing on goals, when what we reall...

What is an accountability partner? Why do you need one? How do you find one? Check out this week’s episode where we talk about the qualities that are essential in an accountability partner and how accountability partnerships can be the very thing you need to keep those New Years Resolutions and to achieve your bold, radical, audacious goals. Accountability is a skill which can be developed, but it...

The new year is often a time for resolutions, and I would argue a time for bold, radical, audacious goals. What if brag - this year - wasn't something we see or do on social media, but rather that for 2022 brag could be an acronym for bold, radical, audacious goals. Bold: of a person action or idea, showing an ability to take risks. Confident and courageous. This episode addresses how we must inte...

In last week’s episode I talked about calmness, harmony, comfort, and joy during the holiday season. This week though, as we wrap up 2021, many of us are shifting our mindset. It is the season of setting resolutions, a time for setting goals. A time to be inspired! So, in this episode we’ll ring in 2022 with words of wisdom from 22 powerful, brilliant, and inspiring women. Their poignant quotes pr...

In the winter nature rests. Yes…even Mother Nature rests in the winter. Nature is resting, sleeping, taking it easy – it’s not worrying about blooming – it’s just being. We need to take a lesson from mother nature. For most women…we get busier…much busier in the winter. We feel more stressed with all the holiday prep that so disproportionately drains women of our time and our calm. Of our comfort...

Bias against women creates conflict among women. If there is only one slot for one woman to advance (tokenism) women, of course will feel like they must compete against each other. This is just one example of how gender bias in the environment fuels conflict among women. With so much of the social media messaging focusing on women empowering women and women supporting women, how do we explain Quee...

Women in the workforce, consistently report a very real sense of disparity and otherness. But it’s more than just otherness, we have problematized and even pathologized women to individualize the reasons for gender inequity. Blame the women…Fix the women…rather than address the societal, cultural, and organizational norms that create the barriers. And one of these problems women are constantly tol...

Tis the season…to flex your consumer power and help support women and women’s advancement. This episode encourages us all to think intentionally and strategically about the choices we make with our dollars and how our choices can impact gender equity. We talk about the inequities women face in every episode of the Advancing Women Podcasts and an important part of that conversation is the economic...

Everyone loves the idea of a level playing field. This expectation of fair competition underlies assumptions that the workforce is a meritocracy. A meritocracy is a system in which power, growth and advancement are vested in individual people based solely on talent, effort, and achievement…that advancement in such a system is based solely on performance as measured through objective criteria and d...

We've all heard the adage “Hindsight is 20/20”. It's an expression that suggests it's easier to understand something after it has already happened, that we have a level of clarity when we look back at a situation event or decision. Today's podcast is my 25th episode on my 50th birthday and it is about the wisdom and clarity of fifty. What my 50-year-old self wishes my 20-year-old self knew. I invi...

With special guest nationally recognized money expert, Stephanie O'Connell Rodriguez Too often women's success is attributed to luck rather than hard work and ambition, and even worse, if women are acknowledged for their ambition, it can be seen as aggressive. Ever feel like ambitious men are meant to be celebrated while ambitious women too often are criticized and experience backlash? Or that wom...

Warrior Women…Together we rise! This means ALL WOMEN. There are still many societal structures, norms, and even laws that inhibit women’s opportunities, advancement, and economic potential. We see it here in the United States, but it exists across the globe, and it is much worse in many parts of the world The United Nations has called Gender Equity the “unfinished business of our time.” Women and...

How does gender neutrality differ from gender tolerance, and what does that mean in a culture of androcentrism, where male is often seen as the default? Simone de Beauvoir, the writer, and philosopher said “humanity is male, and man defines women, not in herself, but as relative to him. She is not regarded as an autonomous being. He is the subject. He is the absolute, she is the other.” Don’t thin...

In this episode I talk about Antifragility, a powerful concept introduced by Nassim, Nicholas Taleb in his bestselling book, Antifragile: Things that gain from disorder. Think the oppositive of fragile is resilient? Nope! Fragile is negative and resilient is neutral. The oppositive of a negative is a positive, so the opposite of fragile is antifragile. Antifragility is increasing in capability and...

This week I talk with Dr. Holly Catalfamo who shares her findings about her book The invisible rules: What's really holding women back in business and how to fix it (by Holly Catalfamo and Paul Harrietha). We discuss why the advice so often given to women to get ahead doesn’t work. We expose the inequitable hidden rules and discuss how to transcend, and advance based on the authors research findin...

I am extremely excited to have Lisa Gillette with us this week on the Advancing Women Podcast. Lisa is an equal pay activist, DEI advocate, keynote speaker, and certified executive coach (ICF PCC) focused on women’s leadership. Lisa is intimately familiar with the special challenges all women face in the workplace, having spent 25 years climbing the corporate ladder, the last ten as an executive f...

This episode addresses what mansplaining IS and what it is NOT. If we see mansplaining as synonymous with being condescending, then of course – the immediate response will be “but what about womensplaining”? Women can be condescending too, of course, but retorting with “what about womensplaining” fails to consider historical context in terms of men speaking for women in politics, in the media, and...

Diversity training is aimed at interrupting problematic behaviors that can sometimes lead to a hostile workplace and inequitable opportunities, or lack of opportunity for certain groups. It’s meant to create a more culturally competent environment, to improve morale, help workers feel more committed to their jobs, help companies recruit and retain a diverse workforce and even increase productivity...

We are still, too often, trying to “sell” people on gender equity. First, we must prove that we don’t already have it. This idea that “things have gotten so much better” persists and with it, the idea that the work is done, when the data just don’t support that. The work is far from done! Next, we must prove that gender equality is not about accommodating women, a narrative that is the opposite of...

Have you ever been “in the zone”, the highly focused mental state conducive to optimal creativity and productivity? In positive psychology, this is known as the Flow state, the mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process. Coined by Hungarian American Psychologist and author Mihaly Csikszen...

This episode is focused on male allies for gender equity in the workplace and why male allyship is so crucial in the advancing women movement. This isn't about men being in a savior role. We're not damsels in distress. It’s about shifting the conversation from empowering women (spoiler alert – women are already powerful!) to empowering male allies to be at the forefront of leading inclusive, respe...

You’re in for a real treat on this week’s #advancingwomenpodcast. I am delighted to have communication expert Dr. Pat Sanders as a guest this episode talking about how communication can be our superpower! We discuss how the power of a good story, and a good narrative can impact our advancement. When people are willing to really listen and hear and understand, they're much more likely to be on your...

Work and Family Decisions and the Impact on Women’s Bargaining Power Women’s workforce decisions, whether to work full time, work part time or stay at home (after starting a family) can have a significant impact not only on our economic wealth over our lifetime, but also on our agency, voice, and bargaining power. This episode explores the full complexity of our roles, our bargaining power and our...

Do you ever feel the overwhelming need to scream ENOUGH! I’M DONE! If you’ve felt the frustration of  not only the constant managing of every small task, but also managing your feelings and emotions and frustrations when nobody seems to understand all you do. And managing other people’s emotions to ensure you keep everyone else comfortable and happy. The physical tasks, but also all the invisible...

Of all the advice given to women, almost nothing is as oversimplified as the advice to say no to service work, or volunteer work. Unpaid work. This episode goes beyond creating boundaries and controlling our own narrative. We consider with compassion why saying no, while difficult for many people, can be especially difficult for women. We examine the very real patterns of bias, social norms and ex...