Overview
Over the past six months, the discourse has reignited over whether women can “have it all.” Anne-Marie Slaughter’s much-debated article in The Atlantic, the discussion over Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer’s ability to lead while parenting her first child, Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg’s insistence that young women “lean in” to their careers — all have collectively touched a nerve. Some believe that telecommuting and “work-flex” are the answers to gender discrimination in the office. Others see a dim future for workplace equality without more support from the government and a cultural shift in professions known for having a “glass ceiling.” Moderated by the host of WNYC’s New Tech City, Manoush Zomorodi, the event explores a range of questions:
* Have digital tools ushered in a new era of workplace flexibility?
* Is New York’s booming tech scene leading the way for gender equality and female entrepreneurship?
* Should we — especially women — embrace or battle the disappearing boundaries between our personal and professional lives?
* Are digital benefits limited to upper middle class professionals or will technological shifts eventually help all Americans find balance?
* Has the digital age permanently upended the work-life balance debate?
PANELISTS:
Jessica Lawrence is the Executive Director of the NY Tech Meetup, where she has worked since April 2011 to expand the capacity of the 30,000-member non-profit organization while also managing its day-to-day operations. Jessica is also a columnist for The Press-Enterprise and speaks and writes frequently about organizational culture, the application of psychology and neuroscience to work, the New York startup community, and non-profit management.
Cali Williams Yost has been pioneering ways to manage work and life in the new economy for nearly two decades. As a consultant, speaker, CEO and founder of the Flex+Strategy Group/Work+Life Fit — and one of Mashable’s Top 14 Career Experts on Twitter — she’s shown hundreds of organizations and thousands of individuals how to partner for award-winning flexible work success. She is a graduate of Columbia Business School and the author of the recently released Tweak It: Make What Matters to You Happen Every Day, (Center Street/Hachette, January 2013) and the previous, Work+Life: Finding the Fit That’s Right for You (Riverhead, 2004).
Marie C. Wilson founded The White House Project and co-created Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work ® Day. She is the author of Closing the Leadership Gap: Why Women Can and Must Help Run the World (Viking 2004). She also has served as president of the Ms. Foundation for Women. In addition, Marie was the first woman elected to the Des Moines City Council in 1983, co-authored the critically acclaimed Mother Daughter Revolution, and served as a delegate to the 1995 United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women.
Stacy-Marie Ishmael lives at the intersection of technology, media and finance. She leads product management at Percolate, a SoHo-based technology startup that builds software for Fortune 500 companies. Prior to joining Percolate, Stacy was an editor and journalist at the Financial Times where she helped develop the award-winning financial blog FT Alphaville. She is a part-time visiting lecturer at CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and a visiting fellow at the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.