A Message From The Creator
Women’s News: Makeup For Work Isn’t As Necessary As You Think, Says Elle Editor In Chief
Women’s News: How I Moved Beyond the Label ‘Somewhat Aspirational’
Mika Brezinski
Co-host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”
I remember four years ago, I was asked to fill in at the very last minute to host at an event full of cosmetics CEOs (Leeza Gibbons had cancelled). One powerful guest — a woman high up in the world of “beauty” — was surprised to see me. She hadn’t heard about the last-minute changes.
“Ah well,” she shrugged, “you’ll do fine for us as a fill-in, because you are what we call ‘somewhat aspirational.'”
That’s stuck with me for a long time.
Somewhat aspirational. I loved it. Didn’t know what it meant. But I found it to be hilarious and cuttingly honest, which I admire. I considered getting a T-shirt with the words typed out across my chest. I wondered at the time what it was that made me “somewhat aspirational.”
Maybe it was that I had written a great deal about the challenges professional women face, both at home and at work — and revealed my own failures along the way (including a sleep-deprived tumble down a flight of stairs that left my 4-month-old in a cast) — perhaps that made me more approachable.
Or could it be simply that I was at the end of a 16-hour day and had swooped in to bail out Leeza. Maybe my vulnerability was raw and apparent. Maybe it was that. Since then, I have dug deeper and defined the label myself.
I was only “somewhat aspirational” because, while I had accomplished so much, I had yet to begin to crack the code on the Third Metric. I’m talking about questions many women are left with when they achieve financial security, gain power or success — or all three at once. Here are the questions. Think about them for yourself:
What about me?
When do I sleep?
Am I happy?
Am I mentally healthy?
Am I physically healthy?
Am I giving back?
Am I remembering where I came from?
What about my friendships?
My answers to those questions were “maybe” or “no” or “I DON’T HAVE TIME TO THINK ABOUT IT!” I now more than “somewhat” aspire to figure out the Third Metric. I have to. I have two daughters, and I truly believe we can do better.
Arianna Huffington and I have set out to find it, with the help of some incredible women, and a few good men, too.
A few years ago, I noticed Arianna on the set of Morning Joe, and she looked especially rested for six in the morning. She told me she had slept seven hours, even though she had to get up at 4 a.m. for the show. How was that possible?
“I make sleep a priority,” she told me. In fact, “I think every woman should sleep her way to the top.” She actually means sleep. And with that, she started to worry about me, offering advice and opportunity.
Arianna is a modern-day, hot, fairy Godmother. She shares her success with other women, expecting nothing in return but the joy of being able to do so. Together as friends, we have addressed sleep deprivation, overmedicating, food issues, marriage, relationships, parenting, exhaustion, and every other challenge that successful, but overstressed working women face every day. We came up with the idea for the conference at a hastily put together breakfast in Washington, D.C., during the inauguration, after weeks of having to reschedule in our home base of New York City.
We were having a tough, deeply personal conversation about life, relationships and our many work projects. Arianna confronted me about my ability to take care of myself while balancing so many different challenges and opportunities. I had few answers, if any. Mostly, I stuttered and hemmed and hawed — a sign that trouble was on the horizon for me if I didn’t learn fast.
So what did we do? We made a plan — a plan based on our friendship and hope to help others — to solve this terrible riddle together. Out of that conversation at breakfast, “Redefining Success, the Third Metric” was born. The goal: to share success with others, but to also share secrets of success, especially secrets behind achieving the Third Metric. I will be moderating panels all day next Thursday and can’t wait to see what we all learn.
Mika Brzezinski is co-host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, a columnist for Cosmopolitan and a three-time best-selling author, most recently of Obsessed: America’s Food Addiction — and My Own.
Women’s News: Makeup For Work Isn’t As Necessary As You Think, Says Elle Editor In Chief
The Huffington Post | By Rebecca Adams
“Beauty, to me, is about being comfortable in your own skin. That, or a kick-ass red lipstick,” Gwyneth Paltrow is said to have quipped — and we’re sure many women can relate. For most of us, adding that pop of color to our lips or that extra shading to our cheeks is enough to arm us with enough confidence to get through the work day.
But is that a problem? In an interview with Into The Gloss, Robbie Myers delves into the vicous cycle that is wearing makeup to work. The Elle editor in chief says that while makeup may give you confidence, it’s best to avoid wearing makeup at your job for as long as possible:
Here’s the problem with makeup at work, and I tell this to people in my office: if you start wearing makeup when you’re young, you’re going to be wedded to it. You get used to seeing your face that way and then you feel naked without it.
And that feeling of vulnerability isn’t as misguided as it sounds. In a 2011 study conducted by Harvard University, researchers found that women wearing more makeup were judged to be more competent and likable. So is that reason enough to hit the bathroom for regular makeup touch-ups throughout your work day?
Not quite, says Myers. In fact, she’s seemed to notice an opposite trend in the fashion industry:
It’s interesting — the fashion business takes women who wear no makeup very seriously, which I think is kind of great. If you look at what you’d call the more “senior” members of the fashion class, they don’t wear a ton of makeup. So… do you have to wear makeup to be taken more seriously? No. It’s just a matter of what your look is and how you feel about it.
Some major, barefaced fashion players that come to mind include Sally Singer,Kelly Cutrone, Tonne Goodman… a pretty powerful bunch, if we say so ourselves. But what do you think? Do you see makeup at work as a non-negotiable or would you consider giving up cosmetics?
Women’s News: Paris To Have First Female Leader In 2,000-Year History After Election
PARIS — One thing is certain in the race to lead France’s cultural and political center: A woman will be mayor of Paris for the first time in the city’s 2,000-year history.
The outcome of the conservative primary that begins May 31 is all but decided – Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, or NKM as she is often known, is widely considered the only candidate with a realistic chance. Her Socialist opponent in the March 2014 election will be Anne Hidalgo, the current mayor’s designated heir.
The two have already begun to spar indirectly, notably over security and tourism in Paris, where ugly riots erupted earlier this month during a celebration to honor the French soccer club Paris Saint-Germain. But they have distinctly different visions of how Paris should serve its 2.3 million residents and the 29 million people who visit each year.
The race also includes other female candidates from smaller parties who are considered unlikely to win.
Kosciusko-Morizet has called for stores in the city’s main tourist districts to open on Sundays, saying that Paris is losing tour groups to London on the weekends because of requirements that shops close for a day. She also wants to crack down on the pickpockets who swarm the subways and major attractions such as the Louvre and Eiffel Tower.
“We have something to learn about hospitality,” she said.
Hidalgo counters that the French system works for its residents, saying that she doesn’t want Paris – which virtually shuts down on Sundays and in the evenings – to “look like Anglo-Saxon cities working 24 hours a day.”
Kosciusko-Morizet, 40, is an engineer with deep family roots in France’s political world – her grandfather was once ambassador to the United States and her father is mayor of a small town on the outskirts of the capital. She herself was mayor of the Paris suburb of Longjumeau until this year.
Kosciusko-Morizet also led the wide-ranging ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development, Transport and Housing under former President Nicolas Sarkozy, where she was seen as a tech-savvy and ambitious star in the conservative UMP party. She was the spokeswoman for Sarkozy’s failed presidential re-election campaign last year and remains a deputy in the National Assembly.
In contrast, Hidalgo, deputy to Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, who is retiring after 12 years in office, is more reticent in public. At a recent visit to a street market, she remained firmly surrounded by aides who handed out literature. She refused multiple requests for an interview with The Associated Press, and only rarely appears on television or comments in French newspapers.
But Hidalgo, 53, whose parents emigrated from Spain when she was 2, could benefit from Delanoe’s popularity and Paris’ system of indirect voting, in which the mayor assumes power upon the vote of leaders of individual neighborhoods.
Hidalgo was holding the first public meeting of her campaign Tuesday night in a trendy concert hall.
Just five of the 40 French towns with populations greater than 100,000 have female mayors, testament to French women’s difficulty in getting top political jobs.
In 2000, France passed a law requiring gender parity among candidates, but the country still ranks low in global comparisons for women’s political empowerment. The UN’s 2012 Global Gender Gap survey placed France at 63 in the world, between Ethiopia and Chile.
“I’m happy there are a lot of women in this Parisian battle – it’s proof that Paris has evolved as a city. At least, those criticisms we often hear about the credibility or competence of women won’t be an issue,” Hidalgo said after one debate.
“It’s true that there aren’t enough women in French politics. And I’m an engineer, there are also few engineers in French politics,” said Kosciusko-Morizet.
In truth, the two women share many positions: Both back public housing, mindful that Paris is among the most expensive cities in the world. Both are calling for limits on diesel vehicles and both support gay marriage, which was recently legalized in France.
“This situation – where most of the candidates are women_ is unprecedented in France,” said Gael Sliman, a political analyst who also runs the polling agency BVA Opinion. The candidates “are quite young and vibrant, with a modern style – completely the opposite of the usual profile of the old, grizzled, lifeless politician. They totally fit the Parisian voters.”
Sandrine Leveque, an expert on gender issues at the Sorbonne University in Paris, agreed that Paris was the most likely French city to produce female mayoral candidates. Still, she predicted the campaign will take a toll on Hidalgo and Kosciusko-Morizet, saying French female politicians “are in an impossible situation.”
” When they act too much like women, we say they act too much like women,” Leveque noted. “When they don’t act enough like women, we say that they are not woman enough.”
LadyRomp 