In this hour, stories of female strength and empowerment. Independence at any age, refusing to participate in sexist societal conventions, and the complicated layers of motherhood. This hour is hosted by The Moth's Executive Producer, Sarah Austin Jenness. The Moth Radio Hour is produced by The Moth and Jay Allison of Atlantic Public Media.

Storytellers:

95 year old park ranger Betty Reid Soskin squares off with an intruder.

Purity Kagwiria chooses a name for herself.

Timothy Bell discovers that there are more layers to his mother than meets the eye.

Musih Tedji Xaviere attempts to get her first novel published.

Nya Abernathy discovers who gets lied to the most: pregnant women!

Black women are often “the onlys” in their organizations, putting tremendous pressure on them in uncertain times, but also offering unique opportunities.

Women make up nearly one-third of the manufacturing industry workforce today.

Manufacturing Institute now accepting nominations for annual STEP Ahead Awards.

Women are increasingly sought in manufacturing, a field now prioritizing inclusivity and diversity. Employers recognize that diverse perspectives boost creativity and morale, and they are actively showcasing opportunities for success in this dynamic industry.

The Women in Energy Association launched a new website: wewomeninenergy.com. The website supports the group’s mission to connect and empower women working in the energy industry. They do this by providing career resources, creating networking and mentoring opportunities, promoting educational courses, and developing strategies to minimize obstacles women may face in the industry.

Members of the Women in HVACR board work with the executive team to guide the organization’s direction, oversee financial management, and ensure legal and ethical integrity.

All of these women have made a mark on the HVAC industry and continue to do so. While they serve in different areas of the industry, each is making a contribution to both improve the industry and make it a more welcoming career for females.

The most rewarding aspects of working in the HVACR field is being able to solve comfort and efficiency issues for homeowners. I love to look back at a job upon completion and say, “Yeah! We did that!”

During my time in this industry, I think we’ve done a really good job of adding more women across different fields. Women don’t always think about HVACR, but it’s an industry that needs good leaders just like any other.

Women entering the trades as technicians must overcome the perception that they aren’t strong enough or mechanically inclined enough to be a service tech. Even though women have worked in the skilled trades industry for decades, there is still a stigma about women working as HVAC technicians, plumbers, or electricians.

Like anything you really want to achieve, I think bringing more women into this field needs to be an active and purposeful exercise.

I love fixing things. I always have. But what is super exciting to me is the frontier. This field is changing daily, and new technology is everywhere.

We don’t have enough women in this industry. The largest challenge is that I still see so many rooms that don’t have diversity that represents the communities we operate in.

I aspire to mentor young female professionals in the HVACR space. Especially the women that desire to advance professionally while carrying the load as single parents.

This is a great industry. We need to keep spreading the word. Features (like this) with such wide readership are a huge help. I think that mentorship and participation in national organizations also provide a camaraderie that many women don’t find in the day-to-day.

Don’t be affected my any negative feedback or comments you may receive. If you’re passionate about what you do, you will succeed.

My advice is simple: Don’t be afraid to pursue this industry if you have a passion for it. The HVACR field is full of opportunities, and your technical skills, creativity, and leadership can make a significant impact.

I strongly believe that there should be more bold and in-your-face advertising campaigns directed towards women in the trades. This marketing strategy needs to drive it home, to everyone, that there are massive and inclusive employment opportunities in the trades.

Make sure you have some thick skin and don’t take offense to social biases that you’ll eventually run in to. Women can do anything they set their minds to — just set your mind to it and do it.

Though getting enough people to work in the HVAC industry has been an issue for quite a while, women have been greatly underrepresented. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 2% of the HVAC workforce is women. Amy O’Grady from Women in HVACR talks about what needs to happen for more women to get into the HVAC industry.

The recent Women in HVACR conference offered sessions aimed at advancing attendees' knowledge on industry topics such as the refrigerant transition, as well as building their leadership skills.

The Tony Award-winning play, loosely based on Alicia Keys’ childhood, falls into the same trap much theatre does, failing to depict the nuances of Black trauma.

Long harmed by patriarchal, casteist norms within the legal system, women in India are implementing women-centered forms of grassroots justice.

Journalist Sonali Kohli’s new book centers the life and work of three young women of color who refused to let powerful elites shape their lives and communities.

Sex education is often taboo in close-knit Druze communities, but a new generation is creating its own care networks.

In the months prior to Vice President Kamala Harris’ nomination to the Democratic presidential ticket, I felt a lingering fear in my body about what it would mean for Black

In an Election Day conversation, Serene Khader reflects on how women were mobilized by attacks on their bodily autonomy, and what post-election organizing can look like.

Celebrate International Women's Day on March 8th - explore representations of women in film and promote female role models with our online resource for ages 11-18.

R&R celebrates Women in Restoration by asking about a few of their favorite things.

R&R celebrates Women in Restoration by asking getting their advice for fellow women in the trades.

R&R is officially accepting nominations for the 2022 Women in Restoration Award through January 10. We are also excited to introduce an all-new award to the restoration industry, honoring restoration technicians! 

11/14/2024 - 3:30 PM - Venue: Temple Baptist Church

11/14/2024 - 10:30 AM - Venue: SteamPlant Theater and Annex

Discover what inspired these six professionals to pursue careers in packaging and their advice for young women considering the same.

Women comprise nearly half of the working population (47.5 percent), yet they are underrepresented in the manufacturing industry — making up only about one-third of the manufacturing workforce in the United States.

The record of women in colonial Virginia begins with Native Americans and gradually includes European and African women. The experiences of these women differed widely depending on their ethnicity, their status, and the gender roles defined by their culture. In the colony's early years, survival, not tradition, influenced the roles of men and women, whether white or black, free or unfree. Planters' wives, indentured servants, and slaves labored in the tobacco fields alongside one another, while an unmarried woman with land could engage in business the same way a man might. As Jamestown grew from a fortified outpost into the capital of a permanent colony, colonists began to envision a stable society based on the patriarchal system they had known in England, where men held authority over their wives, children, and other dependents. But the uneven sex ratio, the scattered nature of settlement, the high mortality rate, and frequent remarriages made the transfer of such ideas difficult, if not impossible. Historians agree that a society with less emphasis on gender roles gradually ceded to the traditional patriarchal system, but the exact timing of this change is not entirely clear. By the mid-seventeenth century, the colony's lawmakers began to use ideas about gender and race to codify two distinct roles for Virginia women: the so-called good wife, typically free and white, who performed domestic work in her home and raised her children; and the agricultural laborer, typically enslaved and black. By the end of the seventeenth century, members of the planter elite had separated themselves from the rest of Virginia's residents with their landed wealth, enslaved laborers, and wives who managed their homes. Although middling women (women of moderate means) continued to work alongside their husbands in the fields and operate taverns and other businesses well into the eighteenth century, all classes of women became relegated to the private sphere while their husbands increasingly dominated the public world. By the end of the colonial period, women, whether rich or poor, urban or rural, were expected to skillfully manage a household and provide an example for their children—acts that bolstered patriarchal authority in colonial Virginia.
Thu, 29 Oct 2020 18:30:23 EST

Washington, D.C. -- #GALSNGEAR, in partnership with the National Association of Broadcasters, will host an in-person Women’s Leadership Summit and other content and networking events at the 2022 NAB Show in Las Vegas, Nev.. #GALSNGEAR® works to ensure women in media, entertainment and technology gain visibility, as well as facilitates high-level learning and networking opportunities at industry events.

Two architects, Dr. Helen Sun of Oracle, and Dr. Karine Ishkhanova with TFA Wise Applications, Inc., describe their career paths and what drew them to the their respective roles.

Dr. Helen Sun of Oracle, and Dr. Karine Ishkhanova with TFA Wise Applications, Inc., discuss the role of gender in IT and offer career advice to women interested in IT architect careers.

IT professionals Natalie Delemar (Senior Consultant at Ernst & Young, President, Board of Directors, ODTUG), Heli Helskyaho (CEO at Miracle Finland), Michelle Malcher (Security Architect at Extreme Scale Solutions), and Kellyn Pot'Vin-Gorman (Technical Intelligence Manager for the Office of CTO at Delphix, President, Board Of Directors, Denver SQL Server User Group) join panel organizer and moderator Laura Ramsey to share insight on what motivated them in their IT careers, and how they lend their expertise and energy in driving momentum in the effort to draw more women into technology.

The Panelists

• Natalie Delamar, Senior Consultant with Ernst & Young, and a former president of ODTUG, the Oracle Developer Tools User Group
• Oracle ACE Director Heli Helskyaho, CEO with Miracle Finland, and an Ambassador for EMEA Oracle Usergroups Community
• Oracle ACE Director Michelle Malcher, Security Architect at Extreme Scale Solutions and a former president of the Independent Oracle Users Group
• Kellyn Pot'Vin-Gorman, President Of The Board Of Directors of the Denver SQL Server User Group, and Technical Intelligence Manager for the Office of CTO at Delphix
• Laura Ramsey, Manager, Database Technology and Developer Communities, Oracle America

The fourth in a series of five OSCE-supported training seminars for women entrepreneurs working in the field of green technology started on 29 July 2016 in Arnasai village, Central Kazakhstan.

The training seminar, organized by the OSCE Programme Office in Astana in close co-operation with the Coalition for Green Economy and G-Global Development brought together some 20 participants from rural areas of the Central Kazakhstan region to raise their awareness on the use of modern green technologies in effective horticulture, such as energy and water-saving methods, drip irrigation, solar greenhouses and vermicultivation.

“We believe that the role of women in promoting green businesses in the rural areas is crucial and enormous. This is due to the fact that most of them are involved in agriculture and household management activities, which nowadays remain one of the few opportunities to support the family and community in remote regions,” said György Szabó, Head of the OSCE Programme Office in Astana. “Thus, the Office stands ready to provide its continuous expert support to such initiatives aiming at better information- and technology-sharing.”

The event is part of the Office’s multi-year efforts to promote green growth, environmental security and women’s empowerment in economic activities.

Related Stories

• OSCE supports water co-operation in southern Kazakhstan
• OSCE launches series of anti-trafficking seminars for law-enforcement officers and social workers across Kazakhstan
• OSCE Programme Office concludes series of training seminars on National Preventive Mechanism Implementation in Kazakhstan

30 female local council candidates from Batken and Osh regions will participate in a training course on methods, procedures and legislation held in the framework of the OSCE Centre in Bishkek-supported Women Leadership School, organized by the United Nations Women Programme and Women Support Centre.

The event aims to promote capacity building, raising awareness of women in elections and provide them with legal and mentorship support. The training will be focused on the election system and legislation, women leadership, strategic planning, political pre-election platforms, campaigning, analytical reports and other issues.

The local council elections are planned for this coming fall.

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• Study tour of the specialists of the Kyrgyz Ministry of Emergency Situations to Slovenia
• OSCE Centre supports the 3rd training for prosecutors on effective investigation of cases of torture in Kyrgyzstan
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The OSCE Mission in Kosovo and the OSCE Mission to Serbia, for the second consecutive year, will organize the Dialogue Academy for Young Women as part of the Follow Us initiative. The initiative gathers prominent women from politics, academia, media and civil society from Belgrade and Prishtinë/Priština and supports the process of dialogue, reconciliation and confidence-building between the two societies.

The purpose of the Academy is to empower young women by educating them on issues relating to women’s role in promoting dialogue, reconciliation, and co-operation. The 2016 edition of the programme builds upon last year’s experience and success whereby 22 young women from Prishtinë/Priština and Belgrade had the opportunity to participate in a series of instructive lectures and team-building exercises and be part of a wide network of activists and experts in the fields of women empowerment, women in politics, dialogue and reconciliation.

This year, 24 female students of social science and young professionals in the areas of media, politics, and civil society will be attending the Academy programme from 30 September to 9 October 2016, organized at the Peace Castle Schlaining, Austria. 

Graduates from the Academy will become Dialogue alumni and are expected to create their own alumni network which will enable them to design and implement joint projects, following the example of the 2015 OSCE Dialogue Academy alumni.

For more information on the application please click here.

Related Stories

• Mini-Olympic Games 2016
• OSCE Mission-organized Junior Basketball Tournament
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The final public consultations on the content of the new National Action Plan (NAP) for the implementation of the UN SCR 1325 – Women, Peace and Security (2016-2020) was held on 10 June 2016 in Belgrade at the premises of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia.

The OSCE Mission to Serbia, jointly with the Serbian Government's Office for Co-operation with Civil Society, and the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities, supported the Working Group in the drafting process of the NAP by organizing public consultations across Serbia.

The consultations were held in the towns of Nis, Vranje, Novi Pazar, Krusevac, Novi Sad and Belgrade. During the meetings, participants welcomed that the new NAP raises the profile of local activities and that it places an emphasis on improved co-ordinated action, both at the local and national levels.

The main objective of the new NAP is to improve the safety and security of women through the implementation of UN SCR 1325 in the areas of prevention, participation, relief and recovery, and to increase involvement of women at the local level.

Participants included some 250 high-ranking officials of the Serbian Government and representatives of civil society organizations, and the media.

Related Stories

• More than 1,000 local inspectors in Serbia successfully complete OSCE-supported online training course
• OSCE Mission to Serbia and ODIHR launch joint Report on peer elections for High Judicial Council and State Prosecutors’ Council
• Regional Conference on Legal Remedies in Criminal Proceedings: Laws in the Region and Their Application

The role of women in creating safer communities was the topic of a roundtable discussion organized by the OSCE Mission to Skopje in co-operation with the Sector for Internal Affairs Kumanovo that took place in Lipkovo on 3 June 2016. Fourteen women from different ethnic backgrounds who engage with the community on a regular basis discussed how they can contribute to policing, safety and security in the communities.

The event is part of the Mission’s programme to support the Ministry of Internal Affairs in developing a professional police service in line with democratic policing principles and international human rights standards.

A second roundtable discussion will be held in Kumanovo on 15 June. 

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• OSCE Mission to Skopje organizes two-day workshop on multi-ethnic policing
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• OSCE Mission to Skopje organises workshop on hate crime for police managers

The Head of the OSCE Mission to Skopje Nina Suomalainen attended an Iftar (fast-breaking) dinner on 20 June 2016 in Skopje, organized by the local NGO Woman Affirmation Association with the support of the Mission.

The event brought together women from different ethnic and religious backgrounds who sent a message of mutual respect, harmony, and understanding.

“Empowering women, providing equal opportunities for both women and men and integrating gender equality into policies and practices is one of our Mission’s main goals. By organizing this Iftar, you foster dialogue and respect among the different religious and ethnic communities and learn more about each other’s cultures and beliefs,” said Suomalainen in her address, wishing the Muslim community a blessed and joyful Ramadan.

The Woman Affirmation Association works on the affirmation, protection and development of the rights and position of women in society.

Related Stories

• OSCE Mission to Skopje organizes two-day workshop on multi-ethnic policing
• OSCE Mission to Skopje organizes workshop for national Police Union on countering gender-based discrimination
• OSCE Mission to Skopje organises workshop on hate crime for police managers

The fourth in a series of five OSCE-supported training seminars for women entrepreneurs working in the field of green technology started on 29 July 2016 in Arnasai village, Central Kazakhstan.

The training seminar, organized by the OSCE Programme Office in Astana in close co-operation with the Coalition for Green Economy and G-Global Development brought together some 20 participants from rural areas of the Central Kazakhstan region to raise their awareness on the use of modern green technologies in effective horticulture, such as energy and water-saving methods, drip irrigation, solar greenhouses and vermicultivation.

“We believe that the role of women in promoting green businesses in the rural areas is crucial and enormous. This is due to the fact that most of them are involved in agriculture and household management activities, which nowadays remain one of the few opportunities to support the family and community in remote regions,” said György Szabó, Head of the OSCE Programme Office in Astana. “Thus, the Office stands ready to provide its continuous expert support to such initiatives aiming at better information- and technology-sharing.”

The event is part of the Office’s multi-year efforts to promote green growth, environmental security and women’s empowerment in economic activities.

Related Stories

• OSCE Programme Office trains notaries and advocates on countering money laundering and financing of terrorism
• OSCE concludes series of training seminars on implementing the National Preventive Mechanism in Kazakhstan
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The annual Best Women Entrepreneur for 2016 Award ceremony was held in Yerevan on 29 June 2016 under the auspices of the Armenian Prime Minister. The award aims to inspire women entrepreneurs’ creativity in economic development and to highlight their achievements.

The OSCE Office in Yerevan presented a prize to the Network of Women Resource Centres (WINNET Armenia) for their project to develop handicraft skills and enhancing women’s opportunities in Syunik region of Armenia. The Office also presented a prize to the Armenian Women for Health and Healthy Environment non-governmental organization (AWHHE) for their project to improve entrepreneurial skills and income generating capacities of female farmers through the use of solar fruit- and herb-drying equipment and technologies.

Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan gave awards to twelve women entrepreneurs in the following categories: best employer, innovative entrepreneur, brand, young entrepreneur, start-up and exporter. Two winners were selected for each nomination: one from Yerevan and the other from Armenia’s region.

The OSCE Office in Yerevan together with other international partners presented awards to local partners that have promoted good and innovative practices through project activities.

The Armenian Ministry of Economy in close co-operation with the Small and Medium Entrepreneurship Development National Centre (SME DNC) has organized the awards ceremony, which attracted 140 nominations this year.

The official awarding ceremony was followed by a short discussion on the problems of development of women entrepreneurship in Armenia.

The event was co-organized with the financial support of the OSCE Office in Yerevan.

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• OSCE organizes multi-agency training course on combating domestic violence in Armenia
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• Awards for promoting universal rights in Armenia presented by OSCE and international partners

The OSCE Mission in Kosovo and the OSCE Mission to Serbia, for the second consecutive year, will organize the Dialogue Academy for Young Women as part of the Follow Us initiative. The initiative gathers prominent women from politics, academia, media and civil society from Belgrade and Prishtinë/Priština and supports the process of dialogue, reconciliation and confidence-building between the two societies.

The purpose of the Academy is to empower young women by educating them on issues relating to women’s role in promoting dialogue, reconciliation, and co-operation. The 2016 edition of the programme builds upon last year’s experience and success whereby 22 young women from Prishtinë/Priština and Belgrade had the opportunity to participate in a series of instructive lectures and team-building exercises and be part of a wide network of activists and experts in the fields of women empowerment, women in politics, dialogue and reconciliation.

This year, 24 female students of social science and young professionals in the areas of media, politics, and civil society will be attending the Academy programme from 30 September to 9 October 2016, organized at the Peace Castle Schlaining, Austria. 

Graduates from the Academy will become Dialogue alumni and are expected to create their own alumni network which will enable them to design and implement joint projects, following the example of the 2015 OSCE Dialogue Academy alumni.

For more information on the application please click here.

Related Stories

• Mini-Olympic Games 2016
• OSCE Mission-organized Junior Basketball Tournament
• OSCE Mission trains legal professionals from northern Kosovo on fair trial rights