Women Rising in Japan

In the decades that we have worked to grow programs to empower women leaders, we have seen equality movements build across the world and east Asia is no different. This July we partnered with the newly created Academy for Gender Parity, an organization built by two well-known gender researchers, Professors Mari Miura and Ki-young Shin, with the aim to train and inspire women to run for office throughout Japan. Currently, Japan is ranked 158th globally in women’s political representation, with the lower house comprised of only 10% women.  

Japan offers a beautiful and rich culture, but also one that continues a strong legacy of patriarchy which allows for distinct challenges for women advancing into their own career and self-identity. While we were struck by the sophistication and efficiency the Japanese people command, we were also introduced to young women’s stories about hate speech online, challenges to retain their own name in marriage, and difficulties with expectations about being a mother while also building a professional career. Like everywhere in the world, each culture offers its own menu of challenges impeding a context that actually appreciates and values women in leadership.

Supported by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, we conducted a weekend training that brought together women from across Japan to teach nuts and bolts skills to run for elected office.  Our hope was to share our stories of how we have built women’s political programs through our previous work at National Democratic Institute (NDI), Running Start, and Women Under Forty Political Action Committee, and to share our experience with the women’s movement building in the United States and globally.  It is important for us, wherever we speak, that we ensure our audience knows that they are not alone. We are there to support their leadership journey, but also to share that there are many women around the world who face similar circumstances.

We were inspired by the women we met. Considering that everyone was fairly new to the idea of running for office (for the most part) the confidence and passion to lead was palpable. The issues the women raised  -- domestic violence, economic strife, gender discrimination, educational access -- all came with personal stories and an understanding that they were working on issues that impacted their sisters, their mothers, and their friends.  We hope to continue the work we have started in Japan. The women there are ready and desperately needed to lead in an important time of economic stagnation and an aging population.

After experiencing a week of near perfect efficiency, we experienced a difficult exit from the country. Our co-founder Jessica Grounds was pumping breast milk the whole week to keep her milk supply up while she was away from her 6 month old baby. In the final days she kept her milk frozen at the hotel to bring back and replenish the milk supply used while she was away. But she was stopped at the airport by Japanese security and was not permitted to bring the milk on board because she didn’t have the baby.  After an hour and a half of arguing with security she gave up. While we have already elevated this issue with the airline executives and encourage our friends in Japan to change this policy, it was an “in your face” example of how the lack of women in leadership impacts everyday people. It is a rule that penalizes working moms who want to continue to breastfeed while they are away for work travel.  It was a stark contrast from our week of hospitality and efficiency, but an important example that having women in leadership matters and our work is more important than ever.

Mine The Gap Heads to Japan

Our co-founders have been invited to Tokyo, Japan by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation to speak at a public forum discussing “Women and Politics in the Time of Trump."  Kristin and Jessica will share their experience working with women political leaders over the last two decades and the current state of women's political leadership in the United States. They will also share their insights about the upswing of women running for political office in America in the wake of the last presidential election and how the #MeToo movement has impacted the conversation around women's rights in the United States and globally. 

While there, Jessica and Kristin will also conduct a women's political leadership training for the newly formed Academy of Gender Parity and SPF. They will be training women who aspire to run for elected office in Japan. 

For more information on the public panel discussion, visit: https://www.spf.org/en/seminar/list/20180619.html
 

Keynote Address for Women in Aviation

Our co-founder Jessica N. Grounds shared a keynote address about the power of women's leadership at the Professional Women Controllers (PWC) 40th Anniversary Conference in Alexandria, Virginia.  

The organization encourages women to enter the air traffic control profession; assist in professional and personal development; maintain accountability, responsibility, and professionalism; and promote a better understanding, cooperation and coordination among individuals toward the continual improvement of aviation safety.

You can read more about PWC here. 

Founders Guest Lecture Course @ Georgetown University

Mine The Gap's founders will teach a one-day course on women's leadership and gender at Georgetown University's Continuing School of Education.  The course is entitled: Mining the Gender Gap: Research, Tools & Tactics and will take place in March of 2019.

Course Description:
Building a more gender-inclusive work environment benefits everyone, yet today, women comprise fewer than a quarter of executive and senior leadership positions.  This course will examine the current reality of where women stand in leadership across industries, provide cutting edge research to illuminate gender differences in leadership style that help us better understand this gap, and showcase opportunities to leverage the untapped talent of women. You will hear from leading experts in women's leadership on data-driven trends and will explore strategies that improve your awareness and ability to act on this information. During this two-day course, you will identify your own blind spots as an employee, manager or leader - or as a member of your community - and gain practical tools for tapping into the full human potential of your organization.

Designed for:

• Leaders who are interested in increasing awareness and knowledge of the role of gender in the workplace

• Leadership coaches who want to build distinctions to coach more effectively on gender-related matters

Course outline: 
This course will be highly interactive. Participants will explore the following topics:

• Gender concepts and definitions

• Impact of gender roles and biases across industries

• Leveraging the talent of women in the workplace

• Impact of gender on leadership and decision-making

• Viewing gender research, leadership differences, and work interactions as a strategic tool to better leverage talent in your company, organization, or practice

• Learn about ‘gender mainstreaming’: a process developed globally to integrate gender considerations into decision-making, allowing for a more inclusive and comprehensive approach to develop policies and practices.

Course Objectives:

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to: 

• Grasp and discuss cutting-edge research that shows the bottom-line impact of women's leadership and a gender-inclusive workforce.

• Build insight and an understanding of global and US workplace trends to analyze and promote greater women's leadership in your team/group/organization/practice.

• Leverage greater self-awareness about your own gender bias and assumptions that will make you more effective working with clients, employees and colleagues.

• Apply practical communication and management strategies in order to increase opportunities for women to lead.

The course offering will be available to sign up at the end of 2018.

State Department's Women of Courage Awards

This March, Mine The Gap participated in the Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage Awards.  The annual award recognizes women around the globe who have demonstrated exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equality, and women’s empowerment, often at great personal risk. Since the inception of this award in 2007, the State Department has honored over 100 women from more than 60 different countries.

First Lady Melania presented the 2018 Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage (IWOC) Award to a group of extraordinary women from around the world on March 23 at the State Department.

Jessica N. Grounds Wins “40 Under 40” Award

For Immediate Release
March 9, 2018

Jessica N. Grounds Wins “40 Under 40” Award

AAPC recognizes Jessica N. Grounds as one of the 40 best and brightest campaign professionals under 40 years old

Washington, DC. Mine The Gap is proud to announce that Jessica Grounds has been honored by the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC) as one of the 40 best and brightest campaign professionals under 40 years old.

“AAPC is honored to recognize these standout young achievers such as Jessica Grounds who have already proven their immense talent in the political and public affairs industries,” said AAPC President Tom Shepard. “We cannot wait to welcome these winners to Nashville in order to celebrate their great achievements and feature them as this year’s stellar 2018 40 Under 40 class.”

The AAPC will recognize the winners of the 40 Under 40 Awards at the 2018 Annual Pollie Awards & Conference on April 11, 2018 in Nashville, Tennessee. The Conference brings the leading political professionals in the world together to network and hear from top technology innovators, pollsters, pundits and service providers.  

AAPC Vice President Rose Kapolczynski also noted: “The competition for this year’s winners was intense as we received over 190 nominations. Our bipartisan team of judges reviewed the materials of these highly qualified individuals from across the political spectrum to determine this year’s remarkable class. We are proud of each and every one of these astonishing young professionals.”

Only 18 Republicans, 18 Democrats, and 4 nonpartisan operatives were named to this exclusive “40 Under 40” winners list. Award winners were graded on a 40-point scale and selected for extraordinary achievements in politics and public affairs. Contributions to the health of the political business community through volunteer work and other forms of philanthropy were also considered.  

Click hereto view the full list of the 2018 “40 Under 40” winners.

About AAPC
Founded in 1969, the AAPC is a multi-partisan organization of political and public affairs professionals dedicated to improving democracy. The AAPC has over 1,350 members hailing from all corners of the globe. It is the largest association of political and public affairs professionals in the world. For more information, see www.theaapc.org.

Mine The Gap featured at Alice Circular Summit

Our very own Kristin Haffert was a featured speaker Alice Circular Summit. Circular Summit, held March 1st in Washington, DC, is an experiential event convening of high-growth female founders, investors, media, policymakers and ecosystem builders.  The summit is hosted by Alice, and provides participants with an action-oriented two days of workshops, activations, visionary talks, mentorship and network building to accelerate growth and close the gap for growth-oriented, role-breaking women entrepreneurs.

Kristin spoke about Mine The Gap's cutting edge work on gender in the workplace across sectors.  She spoke on a panel entitled: A New Playing Field where she and her fellow panelists spoke about inclusive entrepreneurship, shattering cultural barriers, and building a new playing field that works for all entrepreneurs. These fearless females are opening up opportunities for more women and business owners from underrepresented backgrounds to succeed through access to technology, resources and capital.

Fellow speakers: 
Sarah Jones Simmer, COO, Bumble
Laurie Fabiano, President, Tory Burch Foundation
Melissa Bradley, Managing Director, Project 500
Moderator: Geri Stengel, Founder and President, Ventureneer

Gender Analysis for Diplomacy & Development Course @ George Washington

Gender expert Kristin Haffert and development expert Jenna Ben-Yehuda will co-teach a new 1-credit skills course at GW entitled: Gender Analysis for Diplomacy and Development in summer of 2019. A link will be available to sign up for this course by the end of 2018.

ABOUT THE CLASS
Women comprise nearly half of the world’s population, but policies and programs are often formulated with little regard to their impact on women, often yielding diplomatic and development outcomes that can exclude or worsen women’s lives. More troubling still, when policies and programs are designed specifically to addresses women’s challenges, they often fail. Why? This 1-credit course will offer an overview of policymaking through a gender lens to gain a sense of why such policies have failed with attention given to case studies that highlight great successes.

The course will then guide students through an understanding of how to conduct a proper gender analysis to provide a framework for understanding the role that gender plays in international development and diplomacy. The tool will provide a systematic process for understanding gender-related needs and how programs and policies can address these dynamic needs, dependent upon a society’s cultural and social norms and expectations. The course will convey how gender analysis is used as a tool to strengthen programming and foreign policy decisions that may lead to more nuanced and effective outcomes. It will provide an opportunity to leverage the systematic tools required to examine case studies of organizations and diplomatic scenarios that measurably benefitted from applying a gender analysis.

Students will be given the opportunity to conduct an organizational analysis of a development implementer through a gender lens to test the application of utilizing proper gender analysis tools. Co-taught by experienced practitioners of gender in foreign policy and development, Jenna Ben-Yehuda and Kristin Haffert, this course will be directly beneficial to students of any gender identity seeking to deploy effective means of crafting successful gender-inclusive policies and programs in diplomatic and development spaces.

To Future Women Art Installation

Our Co-Founder Kristin Haffert spoke on a panel highlighting artist Georgia Saxelby’s project To Future Women, which asks participants to write a letter to women 20 years in the future.  The installation was on display at the Phillips Collection, in Washington, DC, earlier this year. 

The museum directors shared that what people wrote powerful and inspiring letters. In many of the letter they found common themes of safety for women, freedom of expression, and women’s leadership, which Kristin discussed as a panelist along with other leaders in the gender diversity movement.  

Kristin Haffert Speaks @ ACE Entrepreneurship Summit

Kristin Haffert, Co-Founder of Mine the Gap, spoke at the University of Florida on "Empowering Women in Entrepreneurship" a panel hosted by the Americas Competitiveness Exchange on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (ACE). The session was moderated by Kathleen Sohar, Assistant Director of the University of Florida Innovation Hub and Co-Founder of Empowering Women in Technology Start-ups (EWITS). The high-level delegation comprised of leaders with senior economic portfolios from Latin America and Israel was convened by the US Department of Commerce, the US Department of State, the Organization for American States (OAS), the International Trade Association and the Inter-American Competitiveness Network. Delegates explored innovation and leadership in North-Central Florida, a rapidly growing hub for technology, biotech and other areas of Florida's economy such as aerospace and agriculture.