Look who picked me up. Come join us and tweet your opinions at the #InterGenFem tweet chat 1/31 at 2pm eastern. Read the details below:

Intergenerational feminism.

Does it exist? Can we do a better job?

Why does working together across differences (generation is just one of many, including race, class, gender, sexuality, ability) matter for the cultural and political goals feminists are looking to achieve?

These conversations keep happening, and the idea for this TweetChat grew out of a great conversation that happened spontaneously on Twitter between @AndreaPlaid, @erintothemax, @ShelbyKnox, @StephHerold, @veronicaeye and @WentRogue. Along the way we picked up @GloriaFeldt and now we’re hoping to pick up YOU (yes, YOU are enthusiastically invited!) to join us for a broader conversation that is intended to be productive, solutions-oriented and totally helpful to your personal and professional endeavors to realize justice in this lifetime.

Some of the themes to discuss:

• 1. “Young feminism” – what does it mean?
• 2. Organizational feminism – what is and isn’t connecting with different age groups?
• 3. How does race and racial privilege intersect with intergenerational issues in the movement?
• 4. What is the unfinished business of feminism?
• 5. What does sharing power look like?
• 6. What can we all do to better support each other?

Is there more that needs to be discussed? Good. That’s another reason for you to join, so you can bring it up.

TweetChat is Thursday, Jan. 31. Use the hashtag #InterGenFem.

#InterGenFem + YOU = Join In!

Be there 2-3 p.m. and tell your friends.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

I meet the most fascinating people when I speak to groups! Lifestyle brand maven Claudia Chan [LINK]  invited me to be part of a panel at Anheuser Busch Women in Beer [LINK to event post] in (of course) St. Louis. There, I met this amazing woman who went from being an abandoned child in South Korea to running her own construction company in. I’m inspired and think you will be too!

GF: The first question because I am fascinated with women’s relationship with power is this: When did you know you had the power to_____? You fill in the blank. 

Describe the moment or series of events that let you know you had the power to_____. What did it feel like? 

NSB: Assert myself.

I realized I had this “power” when I was around 16 years old and very active in 4-H on a state level. I decided to run for state treasurer which meant, I was to give a campaign speech to an audience of about 500 in the Jesse Auditorium of the University of Missouri campus. When I started speaking, it was the first time I could hear myself outside of my own ears. I did not recognize the voice, the tone, and especially the confidence I heard. In case you are wondering, I did win!1990 4-H State Council Jesse Auditorium of the University of Missouri campus.

GF: Tell a little about your background, your family and how you grew up, and what led you to your current work.

Happy New Year! Time to pull out that spanking new calendar and start filling in 2013’s highlights.

Women’s History Month—March—is always a big highlight for me. I blog almost every day. Or when I’m smart, I recruit fabulous guest posters, like Liz O’Donnell and Deborah Siegel.

Why? Let’s face it—history has largely been defined through the male lens, recorded by male pens, with men as the main protagonists, and women, if noticed at all, in supporting roles. As the saying goes, you can’t be what you can’t see.

The converse—you can aspire to that which you can imagine—is why I created six new speeches for Women’s History Month, March 2013. I had fun cooking up these new ideas to make women’s history interesting, relevant, and inspiring to corporate, professional, civic, college, and nonprofit groups of all kinds:

—“The Power of Sheroes: Why Women Want Role Models, Mentors, and Sponsors, and How to Get Them”

—“Remember the Ladies: 3 Surprising Mistakes of the Women’s Movement and the Leadership Lessons They Can Teach Us”

—“On the Waves: Celebrating Top 10 Highlights of Women’s Advancement – and Envisioning the Journey Still Ahead”

—“Is This the End of Men or the Beginning of Women?”

—“What Will It Take for Women to Reach Parity in Leadership?”

—“Seriously, Henry Higgins? Must a Woman Be More Like a Man to Succeed?”

All my presentations are customized to address the group’s goals, and they can be delivered as keynotes or accompanied by a 9 Ways Leadership Power Tool Workshop.

Last fall, I taught my Arizona Sate University course “Women, Power, and Leadership” online for the first time. I had a chance to learn webinar skills. If you are interested in exploring a digital version of one of these speeches, we can talk about that option.

On Thursday, December 6, I’ll be delivering a No Excuses Power Tools speech and mini-workshop at the amazing Massachusetts Conference for Women in Boston.

I’m told they expect over 7000 women this year, making it one of the largest women’s conferences in the country—and I think it will be among the most exciting.

Other speakers   include former Ogilvy and Mather CEO Charlotte Beers , vulnerability scholar Brene Brown, and actor Kristin Chenowith who starred in one of my all-time fave Broadway shows, “Wicked,” among many other roles.

Come if you can, and if you do, please stop by and say “hello.”  Even if you can’t, consider this Power Tools Worksheet my gift of intention to you for your “power to” do whatever you want to achieve.)  Bookmark it so you can reuse it any time you need to think through a problem or plan to achieve a goal.  And if you need a quick refresher on the 9 Ways Power Tools, here’s a one-page summary.

The next great leap for women is money and wealth building. If we understand its power. I’m excited to be joining Now Street and its fabulous founder Dara Albright plus a stellar lineup of speakers for this December 11 symposium, “Women Transforming Our Financial Markets.” It might be cold outside, gut I guarantee the wisdom in this room will be hot. Here are the full details.

NowStreet Media, leader in financial markets’ reform, is pleased to announce the agenda for its much anticipated “Women Transforming Our Financial Markets Symposium” being held on Tuesday, December 11th at Chadbourne & Parke’s conference center at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City.

Presentations, workshops and panel discussions during an extensive full day program will address how new legislation, including the legalization of crowdfund investing and general solicitation, is transforming the financial markets and creating the optimum climate for America’s women to launch new businesses and maximize investment returns.

Amy-Willard Cross knew her historic mission and found her power to achieve it was right there, within her. She tells 9 Ways how and she founded the media company Vitamin W, “100% Kardashian-free.”

Knowing her personal history enabled Amy-Willard to create the future of her choice. How’s that for using the old Power Tool #1?

Read and be energized…then sign up right here for Vitamin W’s free newsletter and they’ll donate $1 to one of five fabulous women’s charities. Here’s Amy-Willard:

Gloria Feldt: When did you know you had the power to start a woman-owned media company? What did it feel like? 

Amy-Willard Cross: I tried to start a magazine—a Pariscope kind of guide for LA. I was just out of college and had never worked at a magazine, so I got a partner. Soon, though, I gave up and took a regular starter job which turned into decades of working in magazines.

Fast forward to the mid-aughts. I started a site of women’s oped—thinking that, like Dooce, I’d put something up and the world and advertisers would flock to me…but I missed that boat by a few years.

After a few years of watching the not-for-profit feminist blogosphere, I determined that the world needed a woman-owned media property that would promote women in every respect—our businesses, our nonprofits, ALL our stories—and gather together the 11 million women who support women’s organizations into a powerful audience.

My definition of leadership is someone who gets something done. Read on for the inspiring story of Ashley Riley who saw something that needed to get done and did it in her Silicon Valley community. And watch, I think Fit Kids will be coming to a schoolyard near you soon-maybe because you’ll be the leader to make it happen.

As we all prepare to overeat those Thanksgiving goodies, what better time to promote kids’ fitness?

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, I thought it would be appropriate to pay homage and give thanks to Ashley Riley, one woman, a busy mom of four children under 11(!), who is “doing it” – that is, creating a movement to bring health and fitness through active play to all kids.

I met Ashley in late August of this year.  It was kismet – my good fortune.  I had decided to look for part-time “community organizer” work, and she was looking for someone to help with her 5th child, her precious baby, Fit Kids.

Ashley founded Fit Kids in January of 2011 based on a simple premise that healthy activity and food should not just be for the affluent kids on the west side of the Peninsula but a right of all kids – regardless of ethnicity and socioeconomic or immigration status.

“Why?” Ashley pondered, “should a child born on this side of Highway 101 have different access to healthy activity and nutrition than their brothers and sisters in East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park (aka Belle Haven)?

The post-election buzz is all about how 2012 was a pivotal year, the demographic shift toward non-white voters and millennials finally kicked in, women finally exercised their electoral power, and yada yada. This is true, and we deserve to celebrate for a few minutes.

But elections come and go, pendulums swing, and no shift happens by itself—people have to make it happen.

That’s why social movements are forever, if they remain relevant and keep them. I was honored to be interviewed by NYU’s Margaret Sanger Papers Project regarding my views of the woman who started the American Birth Control Movement and the organization that would become Planned Parenthood, her work, and what I learned from her leadership. Here you go—let me know what you think.

They’re Doing It: Teen Activists Madison and Rhiannon Take on Girl Scouts to Save Orangutans