Inflection Point with Lauren Schiller

What’s going on with men? Why is it so hard to negotiate the gender power dynamic in everyday situations, like work meetings? Can masculinity exist without its more toxic forms? And why can men get away with sexual misconduct---and even end up seeming like the “real” victim when they’re accused?

Today we’re taking a look at the conversations we’ve had over the past seasons of both shows and comparing notes to see if we can find some answers--together.

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Author Ruth Whippman has been studying the self-improvement industry for years. She’s come to the conclusion that empowerment feminism is, well, BS.

According to Ruth, systemic change doesn’t come from trendy girl-power t-shirts or aspirational Instagram quotes. In fact, Ruth thinks the conceit that women could make equality happen if we just...empowered ourselves more shifts the blame for a system of injustice to individuals with the least power to effect change.

So how women are supposed to get power if we can’t simply take it for ourselves? I sat down with Ruth to gain some perspective on this whole question of empowerment---and what exactly needs to change for empowerment to lead to power.

Ruth Whippman is the author of "America the Anxious. How Our Pursuit of Happiness Is Creating a Nation of Nervous Wrecks."

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Dr. Safiya Noble was studying Library Science when an academic colleague suggested she google ”black girls.” The top search results were images that perpetuated negative stereotypes, misogyny and exploitation. That discovery was the beginning of an investigation that eventually became Safiya’s book, “Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism”.

Immediate access to powerful search engines is seen as an empowering force in this world, but what if our reliance on search engines is perpetuating oppressive ideas and hateful ideologies--even swaying elections? Find out in this episode.

And when you’re done, come on over to The Inflection Point Society, our Facebook group of everyday activists who seek to make extraordinary change through small, daily actions.

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There’s a reason that women are angry. Since the founding of this country, we have been faced with men in power who are set on shutting us down, and shutting us out.

Revolutionary fury isn’t just for the founding fathers. And ladies, even though we’ve been stewing in our ever-growing anger for the past 242 years, we have just begun to fight.

Listen to my conversation with Rebecca Traister, author of the New York Times Bestseller, Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger.

This conversation was recorded live in Berkeley, CA on October 10th, 2018 as part of Women Lit, a program of the Bay Area Book Festival.

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At age 32, Minnesota State Representative Erin Maye Quade is positioned to be at the forefront of a wave of progressive political leaders representing a new generation of voters.  

She made history while running in the Twin Cities suburbs as a deeply progressive, biracial, openly queer, anti-gun violence, anti-racist, pro-social justice candidate.

There’s no doubt she’ll rise high and go far. The question is: as an unprecedented amount of women run for office and have a good chance of winning, will the powers that be yield to the kind of change politicians like Erin will bring to office? Or will they double down and fight dirty?

Organizational psychologist Dr. Barbara Adams says there is transformational power for everyone in diversity and inclusivity, but initiatives like employee training days and inclusive hiring aren’t enough.

Listen to my conversation with Dr. Barbara Adams, author of the new book “Women, Minorities and Other Extraordinary People” to see what’s broken about current organizational diversity initiatives and what we can do to create a workplace that works for all of us.

And when you’re done, come on over to The Inflection Point Society, our Facebook group of everyday activists who seek to make extraordinary change through small, daily actions.

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Ask any woman who’s sat through a long meeting surrounded by men, and she could tell you how exhausting it can be: we struggle to make ourselves heard while carefully avoiding accusations of being ‘bitchy,’ ‘strident,’ or ‘shrill.’ We rarely have the kind of permission to fail that our male counterparts get. We want to take ownership of what little power is tossed our way, yet we’re always at risk of being punished for wielding such power.

Which is why Julia Rhodes Davis decided to form an all-women board for the non-profit, Vote.org. The question is, can the empowerment that takes place in an all-women board meeting translate into actual, world-changing power once they step outside the boardroom?

And when you’re done, come on over to The Inflection Point Society, our Facebook group of everyday activists who seek to make extraordinary change through small, daily actions.

Subscribe to “Inflection Point” to get more stories of how women rise up right in your feed.

Thank you to care/of for their support! Get 25% OFF your first month of personalized daily vitamins at takecareof.com when you enter INFLECTION at checkout.

It’s 2018 and women are more empowered than ever. But how do we turn that into actual power?

We’re living in the era of the Women’s March, #MeToo, the surge of women in politics and t-shirts proclaiming “the future is female.”

Then again, Roe vs Wade is under threat of being overturned, confessed sexual harassers get standing ovations at comedy clubs, and female political candidates of all parties are threatened and harassed on a daily basis.

This season, the podcast Inflection Point with Lauren Schiller is taking a journey into the whole “empowerment” thing and how that turns into actual power. Lauren will go way past the buzzwords, asking questions like:

How did we get to the double standards women live with today?

Are women-only spaces preparing women for leadership... or are they keeping women cloistered?

Is there a place in the world where women, especially women of color, genuinely have power without living on the margins?

And explore what’s possible when women are really in charge…

And what can go wrong…

Check out the new season of *Inflection Point with Lauren Schiller *from KALW and PRX. And subscribe!

inflectionpointradio.org

After Brief But Spectacular creator Steve Goldbloom filmed 94-year-old retired English teacher Flossie Lewis and “Black Girl Magic” poet activist Mahogany L. Browne, their short segments on PBS NewsHour went unexpectedly viral. Although they come from entirely different backgrounds, the two women share a deep passion for language and an appreciation of its power to heal and to harm. Join our live conversation, recorded at the Commonwealth Club to learn how, despite our differences, we can find connections that bring us together.

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At age 35, Stitch Fix founder Katrina Lake became the youngest female founder and CEO to take a company public in 2017. Stitch Fix is now worth over two billion dollars. She has not only changed the way many of us shop for clothes, but she’s also changing how we think about leaders. Find out how she learned to embrace her history-making role as the youngest woman to take a startup to IPO, in this conversation at INFORUM at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.

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