Issue 41
OCTOBER 2018
Women’s History – Finding and Telling the Stories – Special Conversation Nov. 16
Women of Achievement, the signature local event celebrating and preserving women’s history in Memphis and Shelby County, will host a reception on Nov. 16 honoring two past honorees and announcing plans for the 35 th annual awards celebration.

Historians Dr. Beverly Bond, 2012 Woman of Achievement for Vision, and Dr. Janann Sherman, 2001 Woman of Achievement for Vision, will talk about how they unearth facts of women's lives and why they are determined to share those stories.

A reception will begin at 6 p.m. and the conversation will follow from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library, 3030 Poplar Avenue. Historian Dr. Gail Murray, retired from Rhodes College, will host the conversation and audience questions.

Beverly and Janann are co-authors of several volumes of Memphis history. In addition, Janann, retired from the University of Memphis, wrote biographies of Sen. Margaret Chase Smith and aviator Phoebe Omlie and extensively on women’s suffrage. Beverly, UofM associate professor of history, also co-authored two volumes on Tennessee women and writes frequently on black women in Memphis from the early 1800s to the beginning of the twentieth century with a focus on antebellum enslaved and free black women. 

The Nov. 16 event will be free and is handicap accessible. Students of all ages are especially encouraged to attend. For more information contact dclubb@memphiswomen.org.

On March 24, 2019, for the 35 th year, awards will be given and the stories told of seven remarkable, change-making community leaders at a reception at the Holiday Inn University of Memphis. These seven will join the roll of 249 women plus the Yellow Fever Martyrs and suffragists previously honored whose stories are collected on the Women of Achievement website.

In addition, a special women’s history project WA is undertaking in partnership with Shelby County Historian Jimmy Ogle will be unveiled.

Remember - nominations for WA can be submitted at any time but are due on or before Jan. 15, 2019. Find the nomination here.

To join WA and be part of the selections process and production of the awards event, find a membership form at the website or contact Deborah Clubb dclubb@memphiswomen.org. 
Memphis Says NO MORE Offered Safe Zone
at Mempho Festival
Photo by Deborah Clubb

Sisters Lia White and Shayla Purifoy, Shelby County Judicial Commissioner and Women's Council board member, circulated among concert-goers, two of the many volunteers who shared Safe Zone and Memphis Says NO MORE information. See the Safe Zone tent behind them.
Photo by Haley Graham

Memphis Says NO MORE got exposure on the huge concert screens during the festival. Counselors from Shelby County Crime Victim Center & Rape Crisis Center staffed the Safe Zone tent noon to midnight both days.
Photo by Haley Graham

Signs around the festival offered the Safe Zone and urged only consensual behavior.
Candlelight Vigil Nov. 8 Supports Sexual Assault Survivors
Join University of Memphis students and others for a powerful demonstration of support for survivors of gender violence called Take Back the Night on Thursday, Nov. 8.

At 5:30 -8 p.m. on the UC Alumni Lawn, a speaker and speak-outs from survivors and allies will be co-hosted by the Title IX Prevention Center, SAPAC, SafetyNet and Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.

Men, women, transgender and gender non-binary people of all ethnic backgrounds are welcome.

Take Back the Night candlelight vigils date back to the 1960s and continue to support survivors of all forms of interpersonal violence. Today, one in three women and one in six men worldwide experience sexual violence or intimate partner violence. 
New Study:
Companies Talk About Including Women
But Do Not Do It
A new report out by LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Company reveals that companies continue to claim commitment to gender diversity while “women continue to be vastly underrepresented at every level.”

“Women in the Workplace 2018” gathered information from 279 companies employing more than 13 million people.

The study found that so few women are in the corporate pipeline – being hired or promoted to manager – that “women in management will increase by just one percentage point over the next ten years.” If men and women were hired and promoted at the same rate, those same ten years could see parity in management – 48% women and 52% men.

Other takeaways from the report:

1) “Too few women results in too many ‘Onlys’—women who are the only or one of the only women in the room.   One in five women is an Only, and they are having a significantly worse experience than women who work with more women. They are more likely to deal with microaggressions. They often feel on guard, pressure to perform, and left out. And they are almost twice as likely to have been sexually harassed during the course of their career. “These negative experiences take a toll on women only. Despite having higher ambitions to be promoted and become a top executive, they are 1.5 times more likely to think about leaving their job than women who are not Onlys.

2) “Sexual harassment also continues to pervade the workplace: 35% of women have experienced sexual harassment at some point in their career, from hearing sexist jokes to being touched in an inappropriately sexual way... And just 32% think that their company swiftly acts on claims of sexual harassment.

3) “The report recommends concrete actions that companies can take right now to make progress on gender diversity and includes success stories from Allstate, Airbnb, Hilton, L’Oreal, Mozilla, Procter & Gamble, Sodexo and VMware.”

click here to support the Women's Council today
Memphis Area Women's Council
Deborah Clubb | Executive Director
dclubb@memphiswomen.org
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