Each month SC Women in Leadership brings you a new episode that speaks to informing, inspiring, and involving talented women with diverse and inclusive perspectives to step into leadership roles at every level.
This month Anne Miller interviews author Jenna Arnold about her book Raising Our Hands: How White Women Can Stop Avoiding Hard Conversations, Start Accepting Responsibility, and Find Our Place on the New Front Lines.
White women are one of the most influential demographics in America—the largest voting bloc, with purchasing power that exceeds any other demographic, and when we unify to demand change, we are a force to be reckoned with.
Jenna Arnold criss-crossed the US to have conversations with white women about their identity and role in the country and found common characteristics— ones that get in the way of us becoming more engaged as citizens. We're so focused on checking off our to-do lists, or so afraid of getting it wrong, or so busy trying to sidestep conflict, that we are actively avoiding the urgent conversations we need to have.
Raising Our Hands is a reckoning call for white women. Jenna Arnold asks us to step up and join the new frontlines in the fight against complacency —in our homes, in our communities and in our own minds. She questions why so many white women sit idly on the sidelines, opting out of raising our hands to do, learn, and engage in ways that could make a difference.
In the interview she acknowledges that we can be furious about indignity and injustice and also admit to being complicit at the same time. Because of privilege and bias, white women have knowingly and unknowingly played by a certain set of rules and it’s time for us to be honest with ourselves about the contradictions in our society. We can no longer make excuses for why we don't have time or don't know enough.
About SC Women in Leadership
Moving South Carolina forward through informing, inspiring, and involving women in leadership has been the mission of South Carolina Women in Leadership (SC WIL) since our founding. Today, as a massive movement for social justice sweeps the country, our mission is more important than ever. SC WIL believes that as more talented women with diverse and inclusive perspectives step up to lead and to govern, gender and racial equality, as well as community equity, can, at last, become a reality. Learn more at www.scwomenlead.net.
