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Have you noticed lately how many truth-tellers — commonly known as “whistleblowers” — in this country are women? A star example is Cassidy Hutchinson, the young former White House aide whose volcanic testimony in June riveted viewers watching the public hearings of the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack. A whistleblower of another…

In 1979 I met Julia Child, the iconic “French Chef” of television and cookbook fame.  She and her husband, Paul, came to a reception in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to meet the new class of Nieman Fellows, mid-career journalists who had been selected to study at Harvard for an academic year.  I was lucky enough to be…

The cri de coeur from U.S.  Supreme Court nominee Kentanji Brown Jackson at her confirmation hearings earlier this spring pierced my heart, too. “I’m saving a special moment in this introduction for my daughters, Talia and Leila,” now-Justice-Elect Jackson said.  “Girls, I know it has not been easy as I’ve tried to navigate the challenges of juggling…

One of my granddaughters is a topnotch volleyball and basketball player at her middle school.  Her younger sister is a crackerjack softball player and also a superlative gymnast.  Does this mean these girls might be more interested in running for public office one day than their not-so-athletic friends?   Perhaps — particularly if they continue playing…

When I was a kid growing up in suburban Detroit, I loved to watch my Detroit Tigers play baseball.  I couldn’t wait to tune in to their games on television or listen to them on the radio. My father, a true sports fan, often took me to see “the Boys of Summer” at the team’s…

Traditionally, the new year is viewed as a time of rebirth.  We’ve taken stock of our losses and are ready to begin our lives anew – with vim, vigor, and vitality.  And hope. Except that, after enduring two years of death and disruption caused by the coronavirus, a new, extremely contagious variant called Omicron has…

The year 2021 was a mixed bag for women, with momentous gains notched alongside disheartening losses.   On the plus side, we saw the first woman – who is also the first woman of color – sworn in as Vice President of the United States. We saw a historic number of women take their seats in…

The poet Maya Angelou mentored Oprah.  At her Chicago law firm, Michelle Robinson mentored the young Barack Obama, who later married her.  In Hollywood, Audrey Hepburn mentored Elizabeth Taylor. I don’t remember ever hearing the word “mentor” when I was growing up in the 1950s Midwest. Sister Deodata, though, my high-school social studies teacher, certainly…

Women are 51 percent of the population, yet we are still less than one-quarter of our country’s leaders.  Ms. Magazine has done a compilation of fascinating articles (see the section here) that details the quest to increase the number of women in leadership positions in the U.S.  Head here to read about Kathy Hochul, the…

What does a leader look like?   Organizational psychologists will point to well-known workshop exercises where executives are asked to draw a picture of an effective leader. In terms of gender, the results are nearly always the same.  Both men and women almost always draw men. This apparently unconscious assumption is downright depressing.  Still, as more…