women

Under An African Sky

It has been too long since I’ve been under an African sky. More than 25 years have passed since last I breathed in this amazing continent. I left her with South Africa still under apartheid, AIDS unheard of and the Mozambican civil war endlessly raging.   Most of us think we know the narrative of […]

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Why Should Every American Care About Who Serves on Corporate Boards?

Morra Aarons-Mele, Founder of Women Online, Harvard Business Review blogger and life long advocate of women’s leadership, answers: “Women now hold 15.6% of the board seats of Fortune 1000 companies–but companies with a higher percentage of women on their boards perform better–it’s that simple.” On 12/12/12 people in almost 20 cities will hold lunch events to discuss […]

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Anne-Marie Slaughter and the Trade-Off Ratio of Work Life Balance

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Recently I was invited to apply for a CEO position for a very cool start-up targeting new mothers. I pondered over it for 24 hours, googled everything I could find on the company’s founder and backers, and thought long and hard about two key questions. Was something I could do (did I have the skills […]

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When Big Girls Have Slumber Parties

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Women sitting around a resort in the mountains bonding over blogs, twitter and motherhood at a social media conference can beg the question – is real business being done? Like any self-respecting corporate golf tournament, dollars and cents conversations are happening, deals are being struck and deep networking happening. It looks prettier and there’s way […]

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UN Foundation Infographic: International Women’s Day

Sometimes words just get in the way. Blessings to you this International Women’s Day. Welcome to to When You Wake Up A Mother. We’d love to see you again. Please subscribe via email or RSS. Or follow on Twitter or Facebook. What will you do today to wake up the world? We invite you to share your thoughts, your action and […]

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7 Reasons Not to Run a Half-Marathon and 1 Reason Why I Am

In case you’re wondering, we’re using the term “run” here in lose terms. More accurate would be half walk, half run, but I’m going to claim “run” for the purposes of this exercise. Back in October, as I stared down the barrel of another hated New England winter, I came up with a crazy plan. […]

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Do you still DANCE?! Busting a move beyond the kitchen!

. I was at a blogging conference over the weekend – the exquisitely and appropriately named Blissdom! Usually I am so busy listening and talking (and listening and talking) that I am too exhausted and miss the dance parties that close out these fabulous events. I love to dance. LOVE. But for the past few years, my […]

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Why causes? Why compassion? Why?

On More. And No More. Is it guilt? Is it a sense of over-arching privilege that compels us to reach outside of ourselves? Is it selfish, even self-righteous and narcissistic? Or is it pure, born out of the deepest well of charity, of true compassion? We give because we feel better when we do. Because […]

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Hey Mr. DJ, Turn Down That Stereotype!

The labels we so easily apply and attach meaning to, feel increasingly ridiculous and limited; frustrating in their inability to tell the whole story of a person. It’s much easier for everyone if we stay in our classifications. All this crossing over into different segments; it ruins our sound bite politics and mass generalizations. Heaven […]

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Mothering Me In My Mothering

“There is nothing like walking into a room of women where you feel completely safe and loved.” After a day of being bombarded by global problems and being inspired by some of the solutions at last week’s Social Good Summit for United Nations Week, I popped by my old church congregation to a lovely gathering […]

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