She Persisted

We need to talk about Elizabeth Warren dropping out of the race for President.

This post isn’t all about politics but it is about women. That’s why I founded super.BUILD in 2019 to support early-career female-identifying professionals.

TL;DR We need more women in positions of power to make important decisions about the future.

Why do we need to talk about Warren ending her campaign?

I’m glad our Mom, Lynn Zeitlin (of blessed memory) is not living to see this day. She was a feminist who worked to pass the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970’s. Fifty years later, we are still choosing between old white men for the highest office in the land.

I imagine her crying, thinking about the state of the world that she worked so hard to leave her grandkids.

I miss being able to call her about the latest news, especially about politics and the way things are changing in the world. Our Mom was a force for change. She would have cheered Elizabeth Warren on when she persisted in the face of opposition.

I feel a responsibility to do even more because our Mom is no longer here to make calls, raise money, and knock on doors.

I believe that she would have been a huge supporter of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign for President. As a feminist, I believe that she would be even more in sync with Elizabeth Warren’s 2020 campaign.

She would be so angry that only two white men are left (apologies to Tulsi Gabbard) in the Democratic primaries in 2020. She would be calling me to ask why we couldn’t get behind candidates of color like Harris and Castro and Booker and Yang. She would ask what happened to the next generation of candidates like Buttigieg. And we would spend an hour getting our minds around what happened to the women: Warren, Klobuchar, Gillibrand, and Harris.

After a lot of head-shaking, we would agree: We cannot go on this way.

The way that we run our government, our businesses, our schools, and our healthcare organizations all need a new brand of leadership. I’m not just concerned about the effects of toxic masculinity on our society. We cannot afford to make complex decisions without emotional intelligence.

The future is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. Our leaders need to go beyond data analysis. There are no easy answers. They need to take complex, human factors into account when making decisions that shape the future.

Those of us with less power, particularly women, LGBTQ, and people of color, are underrepresented everywhere that decisions about the future are made. In addition, families with the least resources, due to poverty or illness, suffer the most from decisions made by leaders who do not know how overwhelming and all-consuming food insecurity, homelessness, or poverty are.

We need leaders who either understand these lived experiences or, at least, who listen more than they talk. We need leaders who are smart, not ones who think they are smart (and I’m not just talking about those who brag about their IQ). I’m talking about hubris displayed in all branches of government and on both sides of the aisle. We need more character strengths of humility and more curiosity (I call them “superpowers”) more than ever. When a leader thinks he “knows,” he immediately becomes less effective.

Where can we start?

I wrote in 2015 about how we can improve our families to raise the kick-ass kids the future will need. In 2019 I launched super.BUILD to continue the work we need for our future.

A woman who attended the Let it GO! Intro Talk this week asked why super.BUILD serves early-career female-identifying professionals. I asked her where the next Elizabeth Warren, the next Lynn Zeitlin, will come from.

super.BUILD is a space for women to learn from each other. It is a place to connect. We need more incubators for leaders and mentors. I am creating that community, starting with Free Intro Talks about harnessing energy (and not giving it away for free), becoming indistractable, and finding your tribe.

Our Mom would be proud of what I am building. Like Elizabeth Warren, Lynn Zeitlin persisted. She would feel the same urgency I feel. We won't have a female president in 2020 but we have a place to start and work to do.

Will you help me continue her legacy?

You can spread the word by sharing our Facebook page and find out more about super.BUILD here and here.