Join us for An Evening with Jodi Kantor on Feb. 6th!

Join us for An Evening with Jodi Kantor on Feb. 6th!

Jan 15, 2018 | Media, Political, Vermont, Work

Tickets are going fast! Buy them here! $20 general admission | $10 students
All proceeds go to the Vermont Women’s Fund to support women and girls in Vermont.

Jodi Kantor is one of the New York Times investigative journalists who broke the Harvey Weinstein story last October, sparking a national conversation about gender and sexual harassment – and she’s coming back to Vermont! The Vermont Women’s Fund (VWF) – Change The Story’s partner and funder – is hosting A Conversation with Jodi Kantor on February 6 at the Davis Center at UVM.

Download the invite PDF.

About Jodi Kantor:

Jodi Kantor is an award-winning journalist and best-selling author who writes about gender, politics, and workplace issues among other topics.

Ms. Kantor’s story on the class gap in breastfeeding in 2006 inspired the launch of Burlington’s Mamava, a company that designs and manufactures freestanding lactation suites. More recently, she has reported on the treatment of women at Harvard Business School, on Wall Street, and in the Mormon Church. She was lead reporter on the August 2015 article, “Inside Amazon,” which received national attention.

She covered the world of Barack and Michelle Obama starting in 2007, also writing about Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Elizabeth Warren, Mitt Romney, and Sonia Sotomayor among many others. She is the author of The Obamas, which centers on the First Couple’s time in the White House. It was published by Little, Brown in January 2012.

On October 5, 2017, Kantor and fellow New York Times reporter, Megan Twohey published an article describing film producer mogul Harvey Weinstein’s three decades of sexual harassment and paying settlements to several women. The story sent shock waves throughout the entertainment industry as more women began coming forward with additional accusations of sexual harassment and assault by Weinstein. Weinstein was subsequently fired by the board of his production company, and his membership of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was revoked.

The discussion quickly spread beyond the entertainment world with women using the social media hashtag #metoo to describe their common experiences of sexual harassment in and out of the workplace. Her reporting has opened up a national debate on the subject of sexual harassment as wave after wave of reported violations of sexual harassment have resulted in the firings and resignations of many high profile men in politics, journalism, and Silicon Valley.

Kantor and Twohey are co-authoring a book on the Weinstein scandal that will be published in the spring of 2019.

Jodi Kantor was the keynote speaker at the Vermont Women’s Fund in May of 2016, speaking on the impact that journalism has on culture and workplace issues.

Knowledge at Wharton: Why Corporate Gender Equality Could Take 100 Years

Knowledge at Wharton: Why Corporate Gender Equality Could Take 100 Years

Nov 21, 2016 | Corporate, Leadership, Political

Source: Knowledge at Wharton

“It will take more than a century to reach gender parity in the C-suite, and a quarter-century to achieve equality even at the senior VP level, according to a report by McKinsey & Company. “We’re moving at a glacial pace,” said McKinsey associate Rachel Valentino. “We need to be doing more to address this issue faster.” Among the 50 new CEOs hired by Fortune 500 companies over the past year, not one is female.These and other surprising statistics can be found in the report “Women in the Workplace 2015,” which Valentino presented at this year’s Wharton Women’s Summit. The report concluded that “corporate America is not on a path to gender equality” and revealed that “women are still underrepresented at every level in the corporate pipeline.”

The study is part of a long-term partnership between McKinsey and LeanIn.Org, the nonprofit founded by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg in 2013. The research analyzed 118 companies and nearly 30,000 employees.

Valentino asserted that advancing women up the corporate ladder, besides being the ethical thing to do, would boost the U.S. economy by $2.1 trillion. Forty percent of the economic gain would come from increased workforce participation, 30% from increased full-time employment, and 30% from a changing sector mix. Gender parity in business would represent 10% more U.S. GDP growth through 2025 than business as usual.”

[x_button shape=”square” size=”regular” float=”none” href=”http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/corporate-gender-equality-take-100-years/” title=”Read the full article.” target=”blank” info=”none” info_place=”top” info_trigger=”hover”]Read the full article.[/x_button]

 

Someday: the long fight for a female president

Someday: the long fight for a female president

Nov 14, 2016 | Economic Security, Leadership, Political

A short film about the women who claimed a place in American politics.

Source: Vox

Updated by Joss Fongjoss@vox.com

“In 1788, Thomas Jefferson wrote that American women shouldn’t “wrinkle their foreheads with politics.” A century and a half later, when Hillary Clinton was born, that attitude still prevailed.

That year, 1947, the US had zero female senators, zero female governors. The Supreme Court, and the Oval Office of course, had only ever seen men. It was only really in the past 40 years that women learned they could lead and men learned they could be led by women.

That revolution in American culture is still ongoing, but the idea that women are naturally unfit for government is now so alien to younger generations that many feel uncomfortable even considering the gender of a political candidate. The realities, however, lag behind the attitudes. Women make up only about 20 percent of the US House and the US Senate, and about 25 percent of state government.”

[x_button shape=”square” size=”regular” float=”none” href=”http://www.vox.com/2016/11/10/13590590/someday-woman-president” title=”Read the full article and watch the 15 minute video.” target=”blank” info=”none” info_place=”top” info_trigger=”hover”]Read the full article and watch the 15 minute video.[/x_button]

 

Vermont Woman: Changing the Economic Story for Vermont Women

Vermont Woman: Changing the Economic Story for Vermont Women

May 4, 2016 | Leadership, Political, State Initiatives, Vermont, Work, Workplace Diversity

“Did you know that in Vermont that 43 percent of women who work full-time do not earn enough to cover basic living expenses as defined by Vermont’s Joint Fiscal Office? That single women with minor children are nine times more likely than women who are married to live in poverty? That the median annual Social Security income for women in their senior years is only $10,000—half that of men?

These and other startling statistics were recently revealed in “2016 Status Report: Women, Work and Wages,” a new brief released in January and produced by Change The Story (CTS), a multiyear initiative dedicated to significantly improving women’s economic status in Vermont. Spearheaded by the state’s three most active and influential women’s organizations—the Vermont Women’s Fund, the Vermont Commission on Women, and Vermont Works for Women—it aligns philanthropy, policy, and program to dig deep into the underlying reasons why women continue to lag behind their male counterparts in almost every area of economic activity and to uncover key leverage points and gender issues that should be considered in future planning for education, employment, and state spending.”

[x_button shape=”square” size=”regular” float=”none” href=”http://changethestoryvt.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Vermont-Woman-article.pdf” title=”Vermont Woman: Changing the Economic Story for Vermont Women” target=”blank” info=”none” info_place=”top” info_trigger=”hover”]Read the full article[/x_button]

 

What Happens When You Elect Women, According To Science

What Happens When You Elect Women, According To Science

Apr 29, 2016 | Leadership, Political

“Women are front and center this election, in part because a woman, Hillary Clinton, is front and center. Online, the conversation plays out again and again: What’s the real significance of electing the first female president? Is the symbolism itself revolutionary? Are the young women who don’tendorse Clinton betraying the sisterhood — or conversely, are the women who do support her following her blindly? What should it mean to voters that she could be the first woman in history to lead the United States?

“Women in politics,” however, means far more than just Hillary Clinton herself. America is 50 percent female. Congress, currently at a record high for gender diversity, is still only 19 percent female (and just 6 percent women of color).

This year has a potential to be a watershed for women’s representation: Hundreds of women are vying for Senate and House seats. Six women are running for governor. Not all of them will make it to November, but even so this election has the potential to bring more women to national leadership positions than ever before.

Plus, there’s evidence that electing more women is something that could make a real difference for the country as a whole. Here’s what we know from the recent research in psychology, political science, and economics…”

[x_button shape=”square” size=”regular” float=”none” href=”http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/04/29/3772383/science-of-why-electing-women-matters/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tptop3&utm_term=3&utm_content=53&elqTrackId=a589f8c86045498f895c07602d19ab76&elq=1eb4a78a188e4e928fd64285ae7b87d0&elqaid=29967&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=5532″ title=”What Happens When You Elect Women, According To Science” target=”blank” info=”none” info_place=”top” info_trigger=”hover”]Read the full article[/x_button]

April 12th is Equal Pay Day

April 12th is Equal Pay Day

Apr 5, 2016 | CTS in the news, Political, Vermont, Wage Gap, Work

What is Equal Pay Day?
Throughout the U.S., women’s organizations observe Equal Pay Day each April, symbolizing how far into the new year the average American woman would have to work to earn what the average American man did in the previous year, due to the gender wage gap. 
In Vermont, median annual income for women working FT year-round is $37,000.
That’s $7,000 less than the median annual salary earned by men. This translates to a 16% wage gap in Vermont.
On the morning of April 12th, the Vermont Commission on Women will joinBusiness and Professional Women, the League of Women Voters, members of the Women’s Caucus of the legislature, and other policy leaders at the Vermont State House for Equal Pay Day.
 
At 10:00 a.m. the Vermont House of Representatives will be called to order and soon after a resolution honoring Equal Pay Day will be read.  At 11:00 a.m. the Governor will sign an Equal Pay Day proclamation in his ceremonial office. 
 
All are welcome to join us!  
Get the latest stats and information about Vermont’s wage gap: read our latest report: 2016 Status Report: Women Work and Wages in VT.

[x_button shape=”square” size=”regular” float=”none” href=”http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/equal-pay-day-start/” title=”April 12th is Equal Pay Day” target=”blank” info=”none” info_place=”top” info_trigger=”hover”]Read the history of Equal Pay Day[/x_button]