June 2022 WPLN Newsletter

Dear friend, 

As we reach the end of June I wanted to share an important deadline with you. We have until this Thursday, June 30, to have all donations MATCHED by a generous supporter! That means any gift you can make to support our work will have double the impact! 

This moment is an opportunity for our team at WPLN to reflect on the tremendous growth we've experienced these past few years. We've launched online training, hosted quarterly events for officeholders, brought together hundreds of women for our first-ever National Summit, and more. This year, we are also launching a new nonprofit management fellowship to equip the next generation of women leaders with critical skills while scaling the work of our partners on the ground. This work is rewarding, but it takes resources from folks like you.

Whether you were able to join us for an event, accessed our resources online, looked forward to our newsletter each month, or simply support the mission to bring more center- and right-leaning women into the fold, we are asking you to chip in any amount — $25, $50, or $100 — before tomorrow! 

We are so grateful for any amount of support you can give. Thank you for investing in our vision and for helping to create lasting impact.

Onward,

Larissa

WPLN President and Co-Founder

WPLN has announced its first-ever Fellowship program! We have just launched an application for a cohort of Fellows to support 4 of our nonprofit partners across the country. Interested in non-profit management experience and building the next generation of women leaders while expanding your own network? Apply now! The deadline to apply is tomorrow, June 30, and all students for the 2022-2023 academic year are encouraged to apply! Learn more and apply here.

At the recent American Farm Bureau Federation ACE Summit, WPLN President and Co-Founder Larissa Martinez and WPLN Board Member Dee Dee Bass Wilbon both spoke:

Larissa highlighted the importance of ensuring that decision-making tables include strong leaders with a diversity of backgrounds, particularly because women make so many choices for their families and households. She also emphasized women can make an impact at various levels and in various ways: "Most of the power is in your local communities and at your state level," said Larissa. "You can lead in any way -- there are a lot of different options, ways to get involved."

Dee Dee’s session was titled: “If Not You, Then Who?” As Dee Dee said, you can and should — and have — to “cheer for yourself"! Your voice and experience matters, so don't be shy about believing in yourself.

WPLN Director of Development Maureen McInerney joined the Pocketbook Project's Jennifer Nassour on the Political Contessa podcast to discuss women in politics. Listen here.

19th NEWS | "Stepping in after tragedy: How political wives became widow lawmakers": "Forty-eight women have gained political power in Congress through something experts call “widow succession,” a term used to describe the fairly successful avenue to elected office, according to data from the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP)." Read more.

THE SATURDAY EVENING POST | "The female war correspondent who sneaked into D-Day": "On June 6, 1944, [Martha] Gellhorn did not receive official clearance to attend the Allied invasion of Normandy (as [husband Ernest] Hemingway had), but she sneaked onto a hospital ship and locked herself in a bathroom until it began making its way across the channel. They arrived on Omaha Beach, and Gellhorn became the first female reporter on the scene, disguised as a stretcher-bearer. She arrived in Normandy before Hemingway, wading to the beach to collect casualties and assist medical teams." Read more.

FORBES | "Opal Lee, Grandmother Of Juneteenth, shares the importance of using your voice to activate change": "I don’t know if I’ve gotten over the fact that each one of us needs to be responsible for making our country the country it needs to be... We can’t leave it to the government and to other people to do it. Make ourselves a committee of one to address the things that are happening that we know can be erased. That’s all I need to see. I hope people will listen that we can do this." Read more.

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED | "50 Years of Title IX: The defining moments of women’s sports": "Without Title IX, it’s difficult to imagine that women’s sports would be what they are today. From the youth level to college to professional, the success of girl and women athletes today can all be directly tied to a law passed in 1972. Though there is still progress to be made, here are the moments that have defined the growth of women’s sports." Read more.

19th NEWS | "'I’m planning on working until the day I die': Older women voters are worried about the future": "Devastated, worried, disappointed, disgusted, frightened, discouraged and — most of all — unseen. That’s how more than 50 women over the age of 50 responded when asked how they felt about the way things were going in the country." Read more.

With the 50th anniversary of Title IX taking place this month, we're taking a look at how this civil rights law has benefitted women. While the law doesn't specifically mention sports, women's sports is among the areas it's made the most significant impact.

In a recent MLive article titled "Investing in girls’ sports will help more women become leaders, Michigan task force says," reporter Melissa Frick writes: 

"Women who participate in sports are more likely to enter leadership positions in their workplaces, making companies more inclusive, diverse and profitable, research shows."

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson serves as chair of the Michigan Task Force on Women in Sports. Recently, during the 2022 Mackinac Policy Conference, Secretary Benson said:

“Opportunities for women to play sports and have access to athletic opportunities often translates into more women leaders in every industry.

We know also that women and girls build stronger, more successful teams and organizations and gain skills that benefit them and everyone when they move into those leadership roles in all of society. We believe it’s critical for women and girls ... to be provided what they deserve: High quality, equitable opportunities to participate in sports as athletes, coaches, administrators and executives.”

Read more.

READING | Own Your Voice: 8 Emotional Habits That Empower Women to Be Seen, Heard, and Fearless by Margo Tirado: As fans of Brené Brown, we were excited to read this book on how to recognize and dismantle the obstacles that keep women from speaking up with confidence. This book is a must-read for any aspiring or current woman leader! Learn more.

WATCHING | For All Mankind on Apple TV+: We highlighted this show in one of our newsletters last year, and when the third and newest season premiered on June 10, it pulled us right back in. The show is set in an alternative history where the Soviet Union beat the United States to the moon and the space race never ended, pushing America to be "first" in other ways. This new season skips a decade forward after the second season, taking place in the 90s, and as a result of the push for diversity to compete with the Soviet Union, women are leading NASA — and being named major party presidential nominees. Learn more.

LISTENING TO | NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money: "What exactly are women doing at the C-Suite level that helps them achieve that kind of success?" That's the question NPR spoke with Villanova University professor of management Corinne Post to understand what happens to companies when their leaders include women. Learn more.

EXCITED FOR | Fourth of July weekend: This will be the first Independence Day in two years that the world is mostly back to normal. We always look forward to getting to spend time with family and friends while reflecting in our country's history and values.

• Hazel Dickens, bluegrass singer and songwriter (June 1)
• Martha Washington, the inaugural First Lady of the United States (June 2)
• Dorothy West, novelist and member of the Harlem Renaissance (June 2)
• Josephine Baker, performer and civil rights activist (June 3)
• Barbara Bush, former First Lady and one of only two women to be wife of one U.S. president and mother of another U.S. president (June 8)
• Helen Marot, writer and librarian who investigated child labor and working conditions (June 9)
• Phyllis Ann Wallace, economist who was the first woman to receive a doctorate of economics at Yale University and the first female tenured professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management (June 9)
• Hattie McDaniel, actress and the first Black American to win an Academy Award (June 10)
• Jeannette Rankin, politician from Montana who became the first woman elected to Congress in 1916 (June 11)
• Eleanor Norton Holmes, congresswoman representing the District of Columbia (June 13)
• Harriet Beecher Stowe, author whose anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19th century (June 14)
• Barbara McClintock, scientist who received the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the first woman to do so solo (June 16)
• Mary Katharine Goddard, publisher who was the second printer of the Declaration of Independence (June 16)
• Marita Bonner, essayist and playwright during the Harlem Renaissance (June 16)
• Susan La Flesche Picotte, doctor who is known as the first Native American to earn a medical degree (June 17)
• Sylvia Porter, economist, columnist, and author (June 18)
• Katherine Dunham, dancer, choreographer, and civil rights activist (June 22)
• Octavia Butler, science fiction writer and the first science fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship (June 22)
• Helen Keller, suffragist, speaker, and author who was the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree (June 27)
• Lena Horne, performer and civil rights activist (June 30)

JUNE 30 | Deadline for WPLN's Fellowship program: Are you, or do you know, a student looking to build management skills and expand your professional network? Are you passionate about women's representation in public office? Then apply for WPLN's Fellowship program by tomorrow! Learn more.

Support WPLN programs and resources by making a contribution today!

Women’s Public Leadership Network (WPLN) is a non-profit organization organized under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Donations are tax-deductible to the full extent provided by law.