Here was my latest toastmasters speech.  I memorized the whole thing and delivered it nearly flawlessly.   The feedback was that I should have added in a personal story, but for this speech I wanted it to be tight and professional.   Plus I hate writing about my personal stories.   One of these days I'll write about my experience as a broker, but for now here is my speech........

 

 About BPW 

In the immortal words of Margaret Mead, renowned women’s activist:  “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

Those words are as true today as they were in the early part of the 20^th century when women like Alice Paul, Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton fought for the equality and the respect that American women command in the new millennium.   Business and Professional Women USA is an organization that is emblematic of the commitment and perseverance of the indomitable women that came before us.   

 Business and Professional Women---“BPW”  was started in 1919 as a by-product of WWI when the US Government (comprised of all MEN-I might add) recognized the need for a cohesive group to coordinate women’s skills and help mobilize them into action, not on the front lines of  war, but in the front lines of our factories and businesses.  Since that time BPW has been an advocate for building powerful women, with federations in all 50 states and local organizations serving thousands, in communities across the nation.  BPW remains a driving force for working women.  

BPW-Building Powerful Women, Professionally, Personally and Politically. Professionally, Personally and Politically,  that is some mandate.  And BPW continually rises to this challenge in many ways—and has---For the last 88 years.

 BPW’s primary mission is to help educate and inform women, helping them to improve their job skills so they can reach they’re full potential.. With programs like the Virginia Allen Young Careerist and Individual Development , BPW helps women improve  vital skills like public speaking, communication and networking.  Classes like “work-life balance”  “leadership”, “negotiation”, “stress management”, “conflict resolution”,  “time management”. “meeting facilitation” and “mentoring” just to name a few, help develop women so they CAN achieve in the workplace and ultimately improve their lives both personally and professionally. 

 BPW’s charitable arm sponsors organizations like the BPW Florida Education Foundation and the BPW Orlando UCF Scholarship House.    The Education Foundation uses its resources to build and maintain university scholarship-based housing for young women in financial need.   The UCF facility, for example,  houses 15 young women who otherwise may not have been able to afford campus housing.  The 15 women living in the house participate in BPW educational and networking events, giving them early entry into the business community.

 But Education alone cannot  help women achieve equity in the workplace, and it is for this reason that BPW USA’s political arm is actively involved in legislation that has helped shape the fate of American women over the last 88 years.   BPW women have been at the forefront of American politics, driving all of the major legislation that has been credited with improving the lives of women:  

-the Women’s Suffarage Act.

-the Women’s Equal Pay act

-the Equal Rights Amendment

-Title IX

More Recently:

The Pay Equity Employment Act

the Paycheck Fairness Act (introduced in 1997)

 Today BPW is actively supporting several legislative bills around:

Workplace Equity

Work-Life Effectiveness

Civil Rights

Women’s Health

 And politically minded members across the nation, in the spirit of BPW Florida’s own Janet Reno, are influencing the American culture by choosing to hold public office.

TODAY   Women make up 46% of the US workforce; But only 5% of senior executives. Women earn 77% of their male counterparts and less if you are an African American Women or a Latina.  This statistic has moved little of the last 30 years.  Since 1963, when the Equal Pay Act was signed, the wage gap has closed by less than half a cent per year.

Admittedly, the plight of American women in the work place has immensely improved.

But we are not done: Toastmasters, on the eve or Women’s history month I’d like to remind all American women that they MUST continue to fight …….

• for their rights in the workplace
• to be paid equally for comparable work,
• to be equally considered for promotions and job opportunities
• to be free from sexual harassment and discrimination,
• to be granted fair time off for family needs without fear of job loss.   

 Where would women in Florida and across the nation be without an organizations such as BPW tirelessly working to help all women achieve their potential.   I am reminded of the words of Hillary Clinton. 

  What we are learning around the world is that if women are healthy and educated, their families will flourish. If women are free from violence, their families will flourish. If women have a chance to work and earn as full and equal partners in society, their families will flourish. And when families flourish, communities and nations will flourish. As long as discrimination and inequities remain so commonplace around the world - as long as girls and women are valued less, fed less, fed last, overworked, underpaid, not schooled and subjected to violence in and out of their homes - the potential of the human family to create a peaceful, prosperous world will not be realized.”

 So please remember this March is Women’s history month, and take a moment to reflect on where we’ve been, how far we’ve come and how much more we have yet to achieve.    And remember Business and Professional Women, BPW, building powerful women, professionally, personally, and politically.