Man. I feel like a woman.
Don't get mad. Get everything.
What a time to be a woman, huh?
This last week has made many of us feel sad, angry, defeated. And we can be those things. But then we have to fight for progress. And I believe the best way to make America and the world at large a better place for women is by having more women at the top. More female founders, more female CEOs. More female lawmakers. And to get there, we are going to have to champion women.
For so many women, success is viewed as a competition — a race to get to the top before someone else does. As a result, women often don’t champion other women, because they feel like they should have gotten there first.
Here’s the thing though: There’s room for everybody at the top. When we have lots of women at the top, we’re better for it. So when you see a woman doing something amazing, applaud her for it. When you do something amazing, applaud yourself for that, too.
It’s something men do all the time, yet science shows that women are not great at self-promotion. And we really should be. We should promote ourselves and promote others — because that’s how we’re going to get more women in leadership positions.
Studies show that women offer unique perspectives, serve as stronger mentors than their male counterparts, and can multi-task better than men. Female leadership is also key to global development. So more women at the top = a better world for everyone. How nice!
This issue is devoted to the ladies. May we know them. May we be them. May we raise them.
May we fight to give them more rights than the ones we have.
Anna Weyant is such an incredible talent. A few years ago she was selling her paintings on a beach and now she’s the creme de la creme of upper-crust art circles. But it didn’t come without some serious setbacks, including a falling-out with her first agent (who convinced her to sell him one of her pieces for $15,000 and then promptly turned around and had it auctioned at Sotheby’s, where it brought in $1.6 million). The Wall Street Journal charted her incredible journey to success and how she’s getting back at her old dealer in part by dating her new dealer, 70-something-year-old millionaire Larry Gagosian. Get. That. Bag. Girl.
I have a big thing for Gabriella Crespi. Born in Italy in 1922, she earned an architecture degree (unusual for a young woman at the time!) before marrying a wealthy scion and still continuing her quest to create beautiful things. Her sculptures, objects and furnishings are the stuff of dreams — lots of bamboo and pencil reed, with a dose of bronze mixed in. And her Milan penthouse, designed in the 1970s, is that dream on steroids.
A 1973 bracelet, to add to your daily wrist stack.
Goop is pretty well-known for its candles at this point (like the “This is What My Vagina Smells Like” variety, which promptly sold out and elicited numerous headlines when it was first introduced). I have that one and it’s so fun but I also have this one, which helps to raise funds for the ACLU Foundation’s Reproductive Freedom Project.
It’s been a stressful week. What cuter way to de-stress than to pop one of these square red gummies (chock full of cayenne and blood orange) into your mouth?
Recommended reading:
A female behavioral expert on how to break the cycle of female rivalry.
Japan is set to make companies disclose gender pay gaps (allowing women to know with certainty just how much their male counterparts earn — and use that information to negotiate a higher salary, or look for work elsewhere).
This study published by Harvard researchers found that when men and women performed equally well on a math and science test, women described their performance less favorably than men (i.e. women used words like, “good;” men used words like “exceptional”). I wrote this at the top but it bears repeating: if you are a woman, go ahead and pat yourself on the back more often. Get yourself noticed. Men have been doing it for centuries.
The ACLU rounded up how people can join the fight to protect abortion access for women around the country.
And, finally, some levity, courtesy of the World’s Ugliest Dog Contest.
And I’ll leave you with this….