Glass Ceilings, Glass Cliffs & Broken Rungs

broken rung

The words we use to describe the upward struggle of women in the workplace feel a little shaky. It’s no wonder that integrating gender diversity best practices has been an uphill battle — and women are still underrepresented at junior, mid and senior levels. Even when they’re diligently encouraged to, ‘lean in.’

The problem begins the first time a woman is passed over for a managerial promotion, otherwise known as the ‘broken rung.’ When few women become managers, even fewer can be promoted at a higher level.

According to LeanIn.org:

“Women are less likely to be hired and promoted to manager: For every 100 men promoted and hired to manager, only 72 women are promoted and hired. Men hold 62 percent of manager-level positions, while women hold just 38 percent. The number of women decreases at every subsequent level. One-third of companies set gender representation targets for first-level manager roles, compared to 41 percent for senior levels of management.”

Women not getting promoted at the junior level is only one part of the problem. As you can see from the above statistics, stepping over that broken rung is just the first hurdle.

Mid-Level Attrition and the Glass Cliff

Once a woman makes it past the broken rung, she’s not out of the woods yet. While a managerial promotion gives someone a ‘head start’ to future promotions, it’s mid-level attrition that is the most difficult threshold guardian to pass — especially for women in tech.

Even when someone has been promoted at the junior level, the road through mid-level positions can still be disheartening. And no amount of ‘leaning in’ can help her.

Many women see their male counterparts promoted ahead of them. They’ve heard the ‘diversity hire’ whispers and caught accusing stares one too many times. They work harder to prove themselves. They hide personal information about their families for fear others might have false assumptions about their ‘availability.’

They’re accused of failing to ‘lean in’ to opportunities as they come.

And when the struggle feels like it has become too much to handle, they are offered a position that they haven’t been groomed for — one that is destined to fail; otherwise known as a glass cliff. Or, they are passed over altogether.

Luckily, the solution for mid-level attrition is the same as it is at the junior level: women-only mentorship Power Circles and sponsorship and promotion from superiors (both male and female).

How to Repair the Broken Rung

The two-pronged solution for repairing the broken rung, preventing mid-level attrition and avoiding glass cliffs is the same: sponsorship and promotion from superiors and peer mentorship circles.

Helping Women ‘Lean In’ on the Ladder

Women can only lean in so far. At some point, male allies and organizations need to meet them halfway. They can do this by offering women the same training, mentorship and sponsorship offered to their male counterparts — at all levels.

First and foremost, women need equal sponsorship and promotion from their superiors. But this is easier said than done.

Men subconsciously (and often consciously) receive sponsorship and promotion through superiors, colleagues and out-of-office organizations. These sponsors generally act as ‘talent managers,’ speaking on behalf of employees and making the social and network connections needed to claim future opportunities.

Women-only peer mentorship programs give participants the confidence and the advice they need to seek out, apply for and land promotions. When men apply for a promotion, they (on average) possess only 60 percent of the skills required; women won’t apply unless they have 100 percent.

Peer mentorship circles help women stay on track and encourage them to keep advancing upward.

Male Allies: An Important Piece of the Diversity Puzzle

When everyone has the tools they need to succeed in their jobs, it’s a win-win. Everyone benefits. Yet, we can’t move forward and fix something when many can’t even acknowledge there is a bias.

Male-only support circles can help male allies understand how to help their female counterparts. These types of circles can offer empathy and insight into the world of discrimination women face in the workplace.

The good news? Employing mentorship circles and superior sponsorships is just as effective as one-on-one mentorship, making this solution cost-effective.

In a study conducted with one Fortune 100 company, participants reported that after 25-to-30 hours of virtual meetings with their Power Circles and ‘check-in’ time with other circle members, in addition to being paired with a sponsor within the organization, we were able to reduce attrition rates by 49 percent, saving the company $1.25 million in recruiting costs per cohort of 30.

While we don’t expect things to change overnight, these initial results point to an approach that promises the advancement of women at exponential rates.

(1) The “broken rung” is the biggest obstacle women face, LeanIn.org – 2019 https://leanin.org/women-in-the-workplace-2019

(2) Leveraging the Power of We, Emerging Women – 2019 https://emergingwomen.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/r9-EW-003-White-Paper.pdf

(3) Sheryl Sandberg: The Gender Gap Isn’t Just Unfair, It’s Bad for Business
– 2019 https://www.wsj.com/articles/sheryl-sandberg-the-gender-gap-isnt-just-unfair-its-bad-for-business-11571112300

(4) Tara Sophia Mohr: Why Women Don’t Apply for Jobs Unless They’re 100% Qualified – 2014 https://hbr.org/2014/08/why-women-dont-apply-for-jobs-unless-theyre-100-qualified

Special Gift for Early Birds: Tara Mohr’s “Playing Big”

“You know that woman. She’s a good friend or a colleague from work. She’s smart and insightful. She gets it: whatever the situation at her company, or in her community, or in the news, she has great ideas about what needs to happen. She’s high integrity too—no greed, no temptation to corruption, no big hunger for power. Sometimes, you listen to her talk and think: if only people like her were in charge…

So here’s the thing: the way that you look at that woman? Someone looks at you that way. In fact, many people do. To us, you are that talented woman who doesn’t see how talented she is. You are the woman who—it’s clear to us—could start an innovative company, improve the local schools or write a book that would change thousands of lives. You are that fabulous, we-wish-she-was-speaking-up-more woman.”

“Playing Big is about bridging the gap between what we see in you and what you know about yourself.”twitter

That’s a passage from Tara Mohr’s new book, Playing Big: Find Your Voice, Your Mission, Your Message. Slated for release by Gotham Books on October 14, Playing Big is about bridging the gap between what we see in you and what you know about yourself. It’s a practical guide to moving past self-doubt and creating what you most want to create—whether in your career, your community, or in a passion you pursue outside of work. It’s playing big according to what playing big truly means to you. And if you don’t know what playing big looks like for you yet, the ideas and tools here will help clear away the blocks so you can discover that.

Does Tara’s message of playing big with your calling resonate with you? It sparks a fire in us, and we want to share that fire with our community. That’s why when you sign up for Emerging Women Live ’14 before the Early Bird deadline, you’ll receive Playing Big as a special gift at the conference. Be among the first to get your hands on this powerful guide.

“I want women in touch with what they feel called to do at a soul level.”twitter

We agree with Tara when she says, “I want women in touch with what they feel called to do at a soul level and to help them play bigger with that.” We hope this special offering helps you take the leap into your next emergence as a woman ready to change the world with your work!

To register for EWlive14 and to reserve your BONUS copy of Playing Big, sign up HERE before July 31, 2014. Books will be hand-delivered at the conference.

Join us for an experience that will last far beyond the four days we spend together. Learn more here>>>

About Emerging Women Live 2014:

Emerging Women Live aims to support and propel the emerging movement of women who are stepping up and changing the world. #EWLive14 is a one of a kind conference that helps women to harness the power of the feminine, rock the business world, and create a new paradigm for success. Learn more HERE.

And tell us below, dear emerging women, where will you PLAY BIG?

Power Practice #09: When You Don’t Feel Ready

Are you easily able to discern the difference between your true voice and your inner critic?

Tara Mohr, women’s leadership expert and author of Playing Big: Find Your Voice, Your Mission, Your Message and 10 Rules for Brilliant Women, says brilliant, creative women are often really, really bad at this.

In this week’s practice, Tara invites you to uncover what you might be holding an “I’m not ready yet” story around, and suggests an interesting way to reframe the question to get an answer that comes from your wisest self.

Play the Power Practice:

“Women often don’t know what they’re ready for yet. Brilliant women especially.”

Tara Mohr is an expert on women’s leadership and well-being. Her work helps women play bigger in their work and in their lives. With an MBA from Stanford University and her undergraduate degree in English literature from Yale, Tara takes a unique approach that blends inner work with practical skills training, and weaves together both intellectual rigor and intuitive wisdom.

Tara has a deep commitment to amplifying women’s voices. She is the creator of the global Playing Big leadership program for women and the co-creator of two anthologies of contemporary women’s writings, The Women’s Seder Sourcebook and The Women’s Passover Companion.  Her 10 Rules for Brilliant Women have struck a chord with tens of thousands of women around the world. In 2010, Tara was honored as a Girl Champion by the Girl Effect organization, which supports girls’ education in the developing world.

Tara is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post and has been featured on The Today Show, BigThink.com, Whole Living, CNN.com, USA Today, the International Business Times, Ode Magazine, Forbes, Beliefnet, and numerous other media outlets. She is also a poet, and the author of The Real Life: Poems for Wise Living.

Want “Mohr?” Check out her Emerging Women podcast, “Playing Big: the Work of Our Time.”

Juicy Bites: The Power of Choosing Your Words Wisely

“Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habits. Watch your habits, they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.” ~ Lao-Tze

 

This week in Juicy Bites, we discover:

 

  • The case for getting creative when meeting women and girls
  • A writer who won’t change her words for the patriarchy
  • 3 language habits that take power away from our words, according to Tara Sophia Mohr
  • The importance of bringing awareness to self-talk
  • A visual aid to make sure your body language backs up the power of your words

 
At the end of this post, we encourage you to join us for a conversation. This week’s Juicy Bites question for you, dear emerging women, is:


 

1. How to Talk to a Woman Without Saying, “Great Boots”: A Guide for Women via Slate

 

When meeting women or girls for the first time, what are you likely to ask them? The easy go-to is often a compliment about their appearance. We women have great style, it’s true, but there’s a lot more substance to us than our spectacular shoes. This article invites us to get creative when striking up conversations with our fellow females, and outlines why it’s so important to make the effort.
 

[‘Great boots!’] is a scourge not just because of what it says to girls about what we value about them, but also because girls absorb this mode of interaction and use it for the rest of their lives.”

 
Continue Reading …


2. I Am, I Am, I Am: Writing While Black and Female via The Toast

 
Has anyone ever suggested that you water down your words in order to appear more marketable or to appeal to a larger (younger, whiter, etc.) audience? Writer Vanessa Willoughby takes inspiration from bell hooks and refuses to write small.

 

“Why should I back down? Why should I be made to feel ashamed for pursuing a writer’s life that speaks to my experiences?”

 

Continue Reading…
 


3. Communication mistakes with big impact via Tara Sophia Mohr

 
Tara Sophia Mohr, expert on women’s leadership and well-being, identifies common communication mistakes that keep women from “playing big.” She also offers insight into the motivations behind these mistakes and suggests new, stronger language habits we can form instead.

“Our words are our opportunity. That opportunity is bigger than ever before because women are more literate than ever before and have access to technology — from laptops to email — that amplify our communication.”

Continue Reading…


4.  From Stupid to Silly with Self-Love via Huff Post Women

 
It’s not only the words we say that have power, but also the words we think. Self-love advocate Dayelle Deanna Schwartz addresses the problem of negative self-talk and the power of a simple word substitution to shift our self-perception.

 

“While this incident didn’t stop my habit of immediately berating myself for a mistake, it did raise my consciousness to begin a new habit — using gentler words when I did something I didn’t like.”

 

Continue Reading…


5. 10 Body Language Tips Every Speaker Must Know (Infographic) via Entrepreneur.com

 
We’ve touched on the language of our speech, writing, and thoughts, but what about the language of our bodies? If actions speak louder than words, we might all want to take a look at this infographic to make sure we’re sending the signals we’re intending.

 

“Your words may give the audience one message while your body sends quite another.”

 

Continue Reading…

 

We are excited to start a conversation and learn more from YOU, dear emerging women. Please join in with a comment below:

Tara Mohr: Weaving Spirituality into Business

This is a transcript from my conversation, “Playing Big,” with the wonderful and talented Tara Mohr.

Tara is an expert on women’s leadership and well-being. Her work helps women play bigger in their work and in their lives. With an MBA from Stanford University and an undergraduate degree in English Literature from Yale, Tara takes a unique approach that blends inner work with practical skills training, and weaves together both intellectual and intuitive wisdom. Tara has also been a speaker and workshop leader at multiple Emerging Women Live Conferences. 

Tara Mohr at Emerging Women Live 2013

Chantal Pierrat: I’m so excited to have you today—half an hour or 45 minutes all to myself. I think I discovered you about a year ago or a year and a half ago. I’ve been getting your blogs and I read your poetry. And the thing that struck me the most was here was a woman who was diving into business, clearly very, very articulate and wise in the business world, but who was overtly—and I’m putting some emphasis on that because it’s unusual—spiritual. And I’m just so excited because it’s such a rare combination, and I would love to dig in a little bit more about your background and how that came to be and how you came to combine these two worlds that seemingly are very separate. So maybe we could just jump in there.

Tara Mohr: Yes. I’d love to begin there. That’s certainly been a big part of my journey. I was raised in a fairly unique way, hopefully a way that’s becoming less unique.

My mom was very much a spiritual seeker, and had a huge passion for psychology. So our house was full of books from all different religious traditions, from the mystical side of all different religious traditions, and she was always busy reading them. She was up at 5 a.m. writing about spiritual topics, really just for her own journey. She raised me, every morning, at the breakfast table, asking me what did I dream the night before, and having me diagram my dreams out, the Jungian interpretation, on a yellow pad while I was having my oatmeal or my Cheerios or whatever it was at the time.

And truly, I can remember incidents like being teased on the playground in kindergarten and coming home, getting into the car, my mom picking me up and saying, “Mom, so-and-so teased me, and I really hate him.” And she would always say one of two things in that scenario. She would say, “Well, what do you think is going on for that person at home that would make them tease another kid?” Or she would say, “How do you think God looks at that person?”

So this was the milieu I was raised in, and it was particularly remarkable because it wasn’t attached to any organized religion. I grew up with this access to inner life and to spiritual concepts that I think children are ready for and can understand, but we often underestimate how much and how early they can understand it. So I would say that was one track that I was on from very early in life.

“I grew up with access to inner life and to spiritual concepts that I think children are ready for and can understand, but we often underestimate how much and how early they can understand it.”

And yet, at the same time, my parents were middle class, professional, Jewish family who really valued education, and they were saying to me, “You’re bright and you have a lot of potential and we expect you to work hard in school and do well in school.” And school was a world that felt like the opposite of all that stuff I was just talking about. Because, of course, at school, nobody was asking what God thought about any of the other kids. [Laughs] Nobody was thinking about what dreams meant.

School felt very hierarchical. I was always aware of, “Oh, you can get a good grade or a bad grade.” And yet, my mom was saying every child was divine and special. So those things were at odds. In school, we would learn about, “This war happened because this country disagreed with this guy,” and no one was looking at the inner side of anything.

So for much of my life, I would say these two different domains felt very distinct, and I felt, often, like an outsider in both. In one I felt too sensitive and too spiritual, and in one I felt like I was sometimes saying, “Come on guys, let’s do a reality check,” or “Let’s bring a little more intellectual rigor to this.” And it’s really only in my adult life that I have begun to find a way to advocate for the message that these worlds do not have to be separate. And it’s where I can have the joy of people like you saying, “Hey, this is actually something special about you and wonderful that you combine these two things,” instead of them feeling like two different languages, where I was often trying to interpret or translate but that that was really hard.

CP: Yes, that’s why I put the emphasis on “overt,” because I was surprised to see how much you really do—that’s part of your work, that you’re combining both. And it seems like you have a lot of receptivity in the audience that you work with to this particular mix.

TM:Yes. And one thing I’ve found—and I know you have a lot of entrepreneurs listening, so this might be particularly interesting to them from the angle of their entrepreneur hat as well—is that what we tend to think of these different audiences—the spiritual audience, the secular audience, the creative, the corporate people. I even came into my business with some of that, and sometimes I would get caught up in, “Well, who am I talking to? Am I talking to the woman who has a holistic massage therapy business? Or am I talking to the woman who is a professor? Am I talking to the woman who works in the corporation?” And I had assumptions for each of those groups and how “spiritual” I could get with the content.

And what I have found is that those are total stereotypes. Every time I talk to my customers—I do a lot of just getting on the phone and doing one-on-one customer interviews on an ongoing basis because I like to stay in touch with who’s really listening. And every time I do that, and every time I read a bio of someone participating in my program, I find that there’s no stereotype that they match up with. There’s no demographic segment or psychographic segment we could even make up that they match up with. Most women are something we couldn’t predict. I just think about, in the past few weeks, talking to a woman is in my Playing Big program who is an emergency paramedic on an ambulance in a rural area, and wants to play bigger in sharing some of what she’s learned from that. That’s not someone I could ever predict that would be in my programs.

“There’s no demographic segment or psychographic segment we could even make up that they match up with. Most women are something we couldn’t predict.”

Or someone who said, on one of our first calls, “It’s my last day in the military, and tomorrow I’m going to be a civilian. Here’s what I want to play big with as I become a civilian and that’s why I’m here.” All the way from that to the life coaches and the holistic healers and the corporate people and the tech entrepreneurs.

And so many women, especially in our time, are embracing this hybrid where, “I’m a transportation engineer, but I do Native American art every weekend and that’s my passion.” Or, “I’m a college professor and physicist and I do angel card readings and I’d really like to do more of that.” I see so much of that. So I think, unfortunately, in the business world and the publishing world, there’s been an oversimplification of the audience that’s just not true to women today.

“I think, unfortunately, in the business world and the publishing world, there’s been an oversimplification of the audience that’s just not true to women today.”

CP: I so appreciate that, and I love how you’re really taking a stand and are unapologetic in an area like business that can be considered risky. I’m also curious if you’ve ever had people that said, “Well, I just want your Playing Big”—and we’re going to get into that—“I just want the business side of Playing Big. This other stuff makes me uncomfortable.”

TM: It may be that some of those people just click away from my site, and that is probably happening more than—I don’t hear about it too much. And I think people know, if they come to my site, that they’re not going to get pure secular business tactics.

For me, I don’t get excited about helping women develop those because I feel if we’re just helping people to play more effectively within a patriarchical system, that’s certainly not serving the mission I care about. I want women in touch with what they feel called to do at a soul level and to help them play bigger with that. That’s what’s going to change the world for the better. So I feel like there’s plenty of other experts out there who just help women skill up with a very neutral point of view about whatever their skills [are being used for, and] that’s fine. But I’m coming from a different place.

“I want women in touch with what they feel called to do at a soul level and to help them play bigger with that.”

CP: Tell us more about Playing Big and the essence of the work.

TM: Well, I’ll begin my sharing just how I started to use that term, “playing big,” in my work. I used to do a lot of one-on-one coaching with women. Now I do more large group programs, but when I was starting out and I was doing one-on-one, I was seeing a pattern again and again in the women that were showing up in my practice.

I always think about one of my first clients who worked in the social sector and was pretty young, early in her career, and had such incredible ideas about what needed to happen in her organization and her industry. She was on top of every journal and cutting edge conversation in the field. She was constantly reading and linking and thinking about interesting things. And nobody in her organization knew it, and nobody in her field knew it because she just couldn’t act on and speak for her ideas.

And I was so pained by seeing that, and then I started seeing the same thing in client after client. So many of the women I was seeing, in one way or another, had such brilliance to share, had something really important to share, and they didn’t see themselves as ready to share it. They didn’t see themselves as ready to take on a major leadership role. They didn’t think they were expert enough, they were being held back by their inner critic. And of course, part of the reason I was attracting that particular theme and noticing that theme was because I had certainly grappled with all of those issues myself and was still grappling with them.

Tara at Emerging Women Live 2013

So that kind of became a focus of my work. And as I mentioned, I’m always trying to be in touch with my customers. And at a certain point a few years ago, I was doing a survey of my blog readers, and in the survey I asked my readers “What is the biggest challenge you’re facing in your life?” That’s such a good market research question—you want to know what people are grappling with. It was a multiple choice question and I listed all the things that we typically think of as so hard in women’s lives: work/life balance, not enough time, stress, I don’t know what I want, financial constraints, unsupportive people—all this stuff. And I threw in, just on a whim, “I’m playing small” as one of the choices. And when the responses came back, that was the most popular choice.

CP: Oh my. Wow.

TM: [Laughs] And I was fascinated because it was so stunning to me that that was so widespread, but more so that people knew, all these women were walking around with the same feeling I was having, like, “I’m not even sure what I mean by that, but I know I’m playing small.”

CP: Right.

TM: So out of that, I knew that I would then package the work I had already been doing with women on these issues under the term “playing big.” And what the work of that is, for me, the approach that I take, it begins with understanding what you feel called to do in your life right now. Because again, what we want to play big with is not our ego’s ambitions or the world’s ideas of success, but our true calling. So there’s a process of identifying what you’re called to now and accepting that, and then learning a variety of new ways of being that each allow you to stop holding back your voice.

“What we want to play big with is not our ego’s ambitions or the world’s ideas of success, but our true calling.”

So we do a lot of work around mastering our awareness of self-doubt and the inner critic, and beginning to separate that from the other voices within, and connect more strongly with what I call the inner mentor, which is your older, wiser self. We look at unhooking from praise and criticism, so becoming less sensitive to what other people think. And a number of other tools like that, all of which support women in playing bigger.

And then there’s a little bit of tactical work—where I bring back that left brain side and my MBA side—where after we have that foundation of inner work, there’s some training in things like negotiation and communication and pitching your work to the media. Because those things are great. It’s just that if we only get that tactical training, and we don’t change the inner dynamics of our playing small, we can’t even use the skills we learned because our fears will get in the way.

Liking what you see? Give your ears a treat. Listen to the recorded version of this interview HERE.

Juicy Bites: Wisdom from Presenters at Emerging Women Live 2013


 

This week we learn:

 

  • Embracing vulnerability with Dr. Brené Brown
  • Making stress your friend with Kelly McGonigal
  • Emerging into being with Tami Simon, founder and CEO of Sounds True
  • Writing a novel no one expects — a profile on formidable Elizabeth Gilbert
  • Identify your leap and learn to play big with Tara Sophia Mohr

At the end of this post, we encourage you to join us for a conversation. This week’s Juicy Bites question for you, dear emerging women, is:

Juicy Bites Great Books
 

1. Brené Brown – Embracing Vulnerability – a free video teaching via Sounds True

 
Check out this video featuring Dr. Brené Brown, a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. She has spent the past twelve years studying vulnerability, courage, worthiness, and shame. Her groundbreaking research has been featured on PBS, NPR, CNN, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. Dr. Brené Brown was also featured on Oprah’s Emmy award winning show — Super Soul Sunday. Brené is the author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead (Gotham, 2012). In Daring Greatly, Brené dispels the cultural myth that vulnerability is weakness and argues that it is, in truth, our most accurate measure of courage.

Brené Brown – Embracing Vulnerability from Sounds True on Vimeo.

Dr. Brené Brown will be a featured presenter at the 2013 Emerging Women Live Conference, October 10th-13th in Boulder, CO.
 

2. Kelly McGonigal: How to make stress your friend via Ted Talk

 
Kelly McGonigal, PhD, is a health psychologist and award-winning lecturer at Stanford University. A leading expert on the mind-body relationship, her work integrates the latest findings of psychology, neuroscience, and medicine with contemplative practices of mindfulness and compassion from the traditions of Buddhism and yoga. She is the author of The Willpower Instinct and Yoga for Pain Relief.

Kelly McGonigal will be a featured presenter at the 2013 Emerging Women Live Conference, October 10th-13th in Boulder, CO. She will share with us The Science of Change.
 

3. Tami Simon — Emerging into Being: Leading with Trust, Authenticity, and Presence via Grace & Fire Podcast

 

We are excited to share with you a new Grace & Fire podcast. This episode’s guest is the inspirational and accomplished: Tami Simon. Tami is the founder of Sounds True, a multimedia publishing company dedicated to disseminating spiritual wisdom.

In this episode, Tami Simon and the host, Chantal Pierrat spoke about:

  •  Handling the everyday fear
  •  “Everything depends on how much you trust”
  •   Authenticity and its acceptance in society
  •   Mentorship and the best way to mentor
  •   The energy of tenacity and will and when to let go

 

Listen Here…

Tami Simon will be a featured presenter at the 2013 Emerging Women Live Conference, October 10th-13th in Boulder, CO.
 

4. Eat, Pray, Love, Get Rich, Write a Novel No One Expects via New York Times Magazine

 

Jeremy Liebman for The New York Times
Jeremy Liebman for The New York Times

This is a great read! A fantastic profile on Elizabeth Gilbert. Next month, Viking will publish Gilbert’s sixth book, a novel titled “The Signature of All Things.” It’s like unlike anything she has ever written in her 13 years career as a writer.

“Gilbert had withstood the narcissistic onslaught of fame, found stability in her personal life and laid claim to the biggest prize of all: the feeling that she had nothing to lose with her next project.” – Steve Almond

Elizabeth Gilbert will be a featured presenter at the 2013 Emerging Women Live Conference, October 10th-13th in Boulder, CO. She will share with us the “Big Magic: Thoughts on Creative Living”.

5.  It’s Time to Leap by Tara Sophia Mohr

Tara Mohr is an expert on women’s leadership and well-being. Her work helps women play bigger in their work and in their lives. With an MBA from Stanford University and her undergraduate degree in English literature from Yale, Tara takes a unique approach that blends inner work with practical skills training, and weaves together both intellectual rigor and intuitive wisdom.
Take a moment to check out this fantastic video as Tara shares her wisdom and encourages women to play big.

Tara will be a featured presenter at the 2013 Emerging Women Live Conference, October 10th-13th in Boulder, CO. She will share with us “Playing Big: The Work of Our Time”.

 


We are excited to start a conversation and learn more from YOU, dear emerging women. Leave a comment below:

Juicy Bites Great Books


Emerging Women Live is for women entrepreneurs and creatives who share a vision to change the world by living the truth of who they are. These are women who are burning with desire to to fully express themselves through the work they do, while promoting a new paradigm of success that leverages the incredible power of the feminine: collaboration, community, intuition, receptivity, sensuality and heart. Join us!

Juicy Bites: Women Heroines in Literature and Film

This week we find out:

  • Literature’s most beloved women heroines
  • Who is the first female Saudi Arabian filmmaker
  • What are 3 communication mistakes that you can easily avoid
  • The real meaning of self-compassion and how it differs from self-esteem
  • Messy or tidy — which is better for creativity?

 

At the end of this post, we encourage you to join us for a conversation. This week’s Juicy Bites question for you, dear emerging women, is:

1. Well-Read Women: Gorgeous Watercolor Portraits of Literature’s Most Beloved Heroines via Brain Pickings

 

The New-York-based painter and fashion illustrator Samantha Hahn is celebrating women in fiction. This book is a fascinating collection of expressive watercolor depictions paired with a memorable quote, of such literary icons as Jane Eyre, Anna Karenina, Holly Golightly, and Clarissa Dalloway.

JANE EYRE 'Jane Eyre' by Charlotte Brontë
JANE EYRE ‘Jane Eyre’ by Charlotte Brontë

Continue Reading…

2. Meet Haifaa Al Mansour, the first female Saudi Arabian filmmaker via Interview Magazine

 

This is quite impressive. Al Mansour’s first feature film called Wadjda, is the first movie to be filmed entirely in Saudi Arabia, and Al Mansour is the first female Saudi Arabian filmmaker.

“There are opportunities for women now, and you have to be able to stand up for yourself, for what you believe in. And the culture is opening up and there are pockets, windows for women. But a lot of women are shy to take them because the culture will not accept women working in a mixed environment; they don’t want women to travel alone and study abroad. It may compromise women getting married quickly. It is very much like America in the 1940s, but it is more [conservative]; women have to be completely covered.” — Haifaa Al Mansour

Continue Reading…

 

3. Three communication mistakes with big impact via Tara Sophia Mohr-Wise Living

 

Tara shares with us a super easy way we can play big this year. Learn how to avoid 3 common communication mistakes, and how to build your voice to be  strong, determined,  non-apologetic.

“Our words are our opportunity. That opportunity is bigger than ever before because women are more literate than ever before and have access to technology — from laptops to email — that amplify our communication.”

*Tara Sophia Mohr will be a featured presenter at the 2013 Emerging Women Live Conference, October 10th-13th in Boulder, CO.

Continue Reading…

 

4. Kristin Neff — The Real Meaning of Self-Compassion via Grace & Fire Podcast

 

This episode’s guest is the inspiring Kristin Neff. Kristin is a professor of human development and culture at the University of Texas, Austin, and she has practiced Buddhist Meditation since 1997. In addition to authoring numerous academic articles on self-compassion, she has written a new book titled “Self-Compassion,” released by William Morrow in 2011.

In this episode, Kristin Neff and the host of Grace & Fire, Chantal Pierrat spoke about:

 

  • The real meaning of Self-Compassion and how it differs from Self-Esteem,
  • The masculine and feminine aspects of mindfulness and self-compassion,
  • The researched results of self-compassion and what the findings mean for leaders, and women leaders in particular,
  • How self-compassion takes us from recognition, to action, and the power creating a practice of self care and love,
  • And finally, Kristen offers sage advice for those women on the precipice of their own emergence.

 

Kristin Neff will be a featured presenter at the 2013 Emerging Women Live Conference, October 10th-13th in Boulder, CO.

Listen here…

 

5. It’s Not ‘Mess.’ It’s Creativity. via New York Times

 

Olimpia Zagnoli
Olimpia Zagnoli

MESSY or tidy — which is better?

Historically, the evidence has favored the tidy spaces. But then the obvious question surfaces: “If messiness is so bad, why do so many people tolerate, and even embrace, it?”

Kathleen D. Vohs, from Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, with two of her colleagues, conducted an interesting experiment and came to the conclusion that physical order produces healthy choices, generosity, and conventionality, whereas disorder produces creativity.
Here are a few of their predictions that led to their experiment:

“Since tidiness has been associated with upholding societal standards, we predicted that just being around tidiness would elicit a desire for convention. We also predicted the opposite: that being around messiness would lead people away from convention, in favor of new directions.” — Kathleen D. Vohs

Continue Reading…


We are excited to start a conversation and learn more from YOU, dear emerging women. Leave a comment below:


Emerging Women Live is for women entrepreneurs and creatives who share a vision to change the world by living the truth of who they are. These are women who are burning with desire to to fully express themselves through the work they do, while promoting a new paradigm of success that leverages the incredible power of the feminine: collaboration, community, intuition, receptivity, sensuality and heart. Join us!

Juicy Bites This Week: The Road to Accepting Your Feminine Power

This week we find out:

  • Tara Sophia Mohr’s interpretation of “purpose of life”
  • What are the 4 women’s issues that haven’t changed since 1911
  • How to unlearn in order to accept your feminine power
  • Why in order to succeed women need more ambition

At the end of this post, we encourage you to join us for a conversation. This week’s Juicy Bites question for you, dear emerging women, is:

1. Debunking the Whole “Life Purpose” Thing via Tara Sophia Mohr Wise Living

Tara Sophia Mohr believes that the traditional “life purpose” that each of us is searching for with angst, can actually be something that we don’t even acknowledge in our lives. In this blog post Tara also offers a short practice of how you can connect with your true purpose every morning.

“Here’s the truth: Your purpose is to bring more love to this earth. It is to heal where there is brokenness. It is to bring light where there is darkness. It is to restore sanity where insanity reigns, kindness where fear has taken over.”

Continue Reading…

2. Four Women’s Issues That Haven’t Changed Since 1911 via Huff Post Women

Over 100 years ago, radical writer and activist Emma Goldman penned the essay “The Tragedy of Woman’s Emancipation.” Goldman explored issues of equal pay, the tension between family life and home life, and the obstacles that inhibit true gender equality. Many of  the issues Goldman fought for feel nearly as relevant now as they must have then. Here are 4 of them:

1. Men dominate many of the most esteemed professional fields — and get paid more for their work.

2. Work stress disproportionately impacts women.

3. The “freedom” the workplace supposedly offers women sometimes doesn’t feel so free at all.

4. Women are doubling up on work at home and outside of the home.

Continue Reading…

3. Unlearning to find your way via Role Models Wanted

I had the great pleasure to be interviewed by Jenn Aubert, an entrepreneur, acupuncturist, business mindset coach, and writer. Her mission is to help women entrepreneurs get out of their own way so that they can live big. She helps female entrepreneurs bust through limiting beliefs, fears and self-doubts so that they can build and grow successful businesses.

In this interview we talk about the road to accepting your feminine power, and learning how to incorporate more feminine leadership qualities into your professional life; how to achieve true connection, collaboration and how to allow yourself to be vulnerable.

Continue Reading…

 4. Women Need More Than Confidence to Succeed, They Need Ambition via Huff Post Women

More than 70 percent of high school valedictorians in 2012  were women and it’s a well known fact that for decades, more female students than male students have graduated from college. Later on numbers drop dramatically for women: to 37 percent for mid-managers, and even lower, to 26 percent, for vice presidents and up. Women head slightly more than 4 percent of Fortune 500 companies. Continue Reading…

Dr. Peggy Drexler explains:

“Could bias, in fact, happen not only from the top down but also the inside out?It can. Persistent bias felt or perceived at any point in a woman’s career can erode her own ambition by causing her to feel less confident about her skills and abilities. She then strives for less. She doesn’t get the promotion or the raise not because it’s given to a man, or because she somehow doesn’t measure up, but because she’s voluntarily taken herself out of the running. It’s not confidence or ability that women are lacking, but ambition they’ve lost–or let go of–along the way.”

 

This week’s Juicy Bites question for you, dear emerging women is:

“How would describe, in one word, feminine power?”

Let’s start a conversation. We would love to hear from you! Leave a comment below.