March 29, 2021

Welcome to spring BOSLadies!

I hope that wherever you are, you're enjoying the extra hour of daylight and feel the brightness and promise of the new season.

Thank you to Jenn for sending out the reminder for our April meeting on Tuesday the 13th at 7pm to discuss Why Men Love Bitches. Looking forward to it!

The Weekly Three

1. Something about “a job with no days off”: Listen to our dear Brittany Lynch being interviewed on an episode of LytePod about her experience as a working mom. She is candid about her experiences as a full time designer after the birth of her second child and about what the pandemic has shifted. Work and life are not siloed, as she puts it, it’s all a bowl of spaghetti. The prevailing toxic ideal worker expectation kept her from speaking up about her struggles until her former bosses approached her. She encourages anyone in a similar position by saying "you’ll be surprised at the feedback” that you get when you talk about what’s going on and emphasizes the need for working moms to know they’re valued. Thank you Brittany for sharing your story. 2. Something from Julie Brown about LinkedIn: Alexandra recently mailed me a copy of Julie Brown’s new book This Shit Works and I’ve never read anything more humorous and helpful on networking. While we are all still waiting to be vaccinated, the chapter "Connecting Virtually" was the first place I went. A sample piece of advice: “Never, never, NEVER send a generic ‘I’d like to connect with you on LinkedIn’ request” because “connecting on LinkedIn has all the same rules as connecting via email”. Do these things: “mention a mutual contact”, “let [the recipient] know why [you] want to connect”, and “initiate an action item”. 3. Something about feminist intersectionality: One of the goals that came from this year’s International Women’s Day challenge was to make my feminism more intersectional. Intersectional feminism comes from the 1984 work by bell hooks Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. She “advocated for women to acknowledge their differences while still accepting each other” and emphasized the importance of integrating men into the feminist movement. An incredibly prolific writer, professor and activist, hooks is also best known for the oppositional gaze.

Thank you for taking the time to read, Amber