Summer 2016 Event Report

Jacksonville branch members attended two significant events related to issues of great interest to AAUW. The first, on May 17, was the Women’s Center of Jacksonville’s “Women, Words & Wisdom” with Melissa Ross, host and producer of WJCT’s First Coast Connect, and Recognition of 10 Unsung Sheroes. Ms. Ross spoke on the topic “The Road to True Gender Equality: Achievements and Challenges in the 21^st Century”. It was exciting to hear her call for women and girls to be given permission to exhibit the full range of human qualities, including holding power and having full agency over our own bodies. The movement for salary equity and transparency needs to gain ground. She called for an enlarged definition of what it means to be a man, creating a culture where men feel comfortable with such accommodations as flextime and taking on family responsibilities. Pat DeWitt and Marjorie Broward attended.

On June 2, the Florida Times-Union presented the first annual EVE Women’s Summit to complement their traditional EVE Awards. This was an interactive event moderated by Cynthia Bioteau, FSCJ President, featuring both speakers and an opportunity for table discussion. The overall theme was women’s leadership, pursued by Donna Orender (women’s leadership scoreboard), Danielle Snyder and Jodie Snyder Morel (young women entrepreneurs), and an entrepreneurship panel composed of Pat Blanchard, Ita Ekpoudoum, Dane Gray, and Kate Stewart. Ideas to promote women’s leadership included actively recruiting women to run for office and creating a directory of women qualified to serve on corporate boards. We need to include men as allies in our organizations. Susan Cornehl, Carolyn Smith, Marjorie Broward and Pat DeWitt attended (pictured above: Marjorie, Pat, Cynthia Bioteau, Susan.)