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glass ceiling

2 black women quietly made NBA history. Here's how.

This month, two basketball referees made sports history.

Danielle Scott and Angelica Suffren became the first two black women to referee an NBA game, making for an intersectional feminist win.

Marc J. Spears, a senior writer for ESPN's The Undefeated, noticed the women during the July 3 summer league game between the Miami Heat and the Los Angeles Lakers.

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After Twitter users applauded the women, NBA spokesman Mike Bass confirmed that the news was indeed a historic moment in NBA history.

It comes more than two decades after one of the first barriers in women's refereeing was broken.

In 1997, Violet Palmer shattered the glass ceiling by becoming the league's first woman referee. On October 31 of the same year, she became the first woman to officiate an NBA game, a match between the Vancouver Grizzlies and the Dallas Mavericks.

Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images.

Women have been quietly breaking barriers in the league for years, and this type of representation is needed now more than ever.

As women demand equality in all athletic roles — pay, leadership opportunities, and respect — it's imperative that women are represented in all levels of sport professions, including sports management, sports journalism, and game officiating.

As we continue telling girls and women that they can indeed do anything, seeing two black women in a predominantly male league and industry sends an important message:

When women are given the chance, they can — and will — excel.

A few weeks ago, 8-year-old Michele Threefoot walked into school on "Superhero Day" dressed as her personal hero — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

It's superhero day at school. Michele has been reading the heck out of "I Dissent" and decided to dress as Ruth Bader...
Posted by Krista Wujek Threefoot on Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Michele's mom, Krista Wujek Threefoot, posted a photo of her daughter in costume on Facebook.

It has been shared nearly 2,000 times.

The photo even caught the attention of a prominent government official — someone who is a premiere authority on what it means to embody the chic style and scrappy spirit of Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg:

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg herself.

Ginsburg sent Michele a handwritten note praising her costume for its accuracy and encouraging her to keep loving books, the Huffington Post reported.

"Dear Michele," Ginsburg's note reads. "You look just like me! May you continue to thrive on reading and learning."

Needless to say, Michele and her mom were thrilled — and are sending love right back at RBG. "This wouldn’t have gone where it has if [Ginsburg] weren’t such an admirable person," Krista told HuffPo.

"I also want to thank her for taking the time to make a little girl really, really happy."

Now more than ever, we need women like Ginsburg in visible leadership roles, encouraging the next generation to rise up and fill their shoes.

California Senator Kamala Harris, one of four female freshmen senators in the new Congress. Photo by Aaron P. Bernstein.

For millions of women across America, Hillary Clinton's failure to win the White House showed that, despite decades of struggle in the name of equality, the glass ceiling endures.

Reminders are everywhere: American women continue to earn less than men, women made up only 20% of the last U.S. Senate and 19.3% of the last Congress, and women report having a harder time securing mentorship than their male colleagues.

Mentorship from women who have defied the odds can make a difference.

It can make a difference even on a small scale, like a simple, encouraging note received at a young age.

Photo by Allison Shelley/Getty Images.

Ginsburg's "thank-you" letter won't change the world, but it just might give one young woman the courage to grow up and fight the good fight.

That matters.

After this divisive election, I want to take a moment to speak directly to young women in this country. I’m sorry.

I’m sorry we failed you. I’m sorry you have woken up to a reality where you believe not only can a woman not be president, but in place of a competent professional woman, we’ve selected a man who treats women badly and speaks about women in such a degrading manner. We as a country have sent you a terrible message, and I want to apologize for that.

You are beautiful.

Despite what you’ve heard, you are not defined by a number on a 1–10 scale. Beauty is not defined only as a Barbie doll with a certain breast size, five-inch pumps, and perfect hair — although that’s what you will be led to believe by the comments he has made and the choices he has made in his personal life. I assure you that is not the case.

Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes and colors. If the magazines you’re reading tell you any different, stop buying them. If the fashion brands you’re wearing tell you any different, stop buying them.

It is not OK for someone to grab you. Ever.

That hand that slips into the back of your cocktail dress at an event. That hand on your thigh at the bar. That boy who pulls your pants down in gym class as a joke. That boy who rips your shirt off in school as a joke. That guy on the street who puts his hand on your shoulder and tells you to smile. That guy on the train who pretends it’s just crowded. None of it is OK. And don’t let anyone tell you any different.

You are not defined by your relationship to a man.

It is disappointing that the only real woman presidential candidate our country could stomach was launched into the political sphere through her husband. For some reason, too many people in this country still feel “It’s OK, as long as he’ll be there with her calling the shots.” We need to redefine that. First lady cannot and should not be the only plausible path to the White House.

Be smart. Be a badass.

The questions should be: What do you want to be when you grow up? What do you want to do? Not what you want to look like, what size you want to be, what bag you want to own, who you want to marry.

What do you want to do?

If you’re smarter than the boys, be smarter than them. Don’t dumb yourself down to not intimidate them. If you can kick their ass in sports, do it. Don’t worry about being feminine or girly or worry about whether a boy will like you. Do what you love. Be who you are. And don’t apologize.

Make it rain glass.

We’ve done it wrong. We’ve walked it off too many times. We’ve awkwardly giggled when dealing with harassment in the workplace because we’ve thought that anything else would leave us out of the conversation.

We’ve been timid. We’ve tiptoed. We’ve played the game. No more.

I said during the third debate there was a moment I felt it and could see in Hillary’s eyes 30 years of biting her tongue, of being held to a different level of scrutiny, of that constant anxiety of not getting too loud or too emotional lest you be branded a bitch, or aggressive. I saw that feeling of being a woman in a man’s world.

My favorite post this week was from a woman who said she was catcalled on her way to vote. Her response: “Grab your umbrellas, boys. It’s about to rain glass.”

Just because Hillary did not win does not mean we need to lose that feeling, that bravado, that fearlessness.

Do not back down now. Make it rain glass. Mothers, tell your daughters. Be an example. Make it rain, little girls. We are deflated but not defeated. Instead, it’s time to make it rain.

Let's even the playing field a bit and celebrate the ladies of business.

True

For a lot of history, business has been the sphere of the bros.

Much to-do has been made of the fact that many panels, business boards, advisory committees, venture capitalists, CEOs ... the list goes on ... are dudes.

And with good reason!

This is a board for a philanthropy organization in 1918. Two ladies! Frustratingly, at the top of many businesses, it's looking like even 2018's will still look a lot like 1918. Image via Center for Jewish History/Flickr.

Among 500 top-ranked companies in 2015, only about 14% of the highest leadership positions were held by women, and just 4% of the businesses' CEOs were female.

Because the odds are not so hot that you'll learn about a fantastic, inspirational lady boss today, we're gonna fix that!

Here's a sampling of some of our favorite female entrepreneurs and lady bosses.

1. Sara Blakely

Image via Gillian Zoe Segal/Wikimedia Commons.

While trying to get a little-bitty undergarment company called Spanx off the ground, Blakely was rejected a LOT. Good thing she persevered, both for the sanity of us ladies in formalwear and for her net worth: She is now a billionaire. Female-centric products might not always meet open financial arms at first, but that doesn't mean they're not "every celebrity on the red carpet wears them" viable.

2. Diane von Fürstenburg

Image via David Shankbone/Wikimedia Commons.

Aside from just seeming really cool, von Fürstenburg's wrap dresses changed the clothing game. In a time when most ladies' clothing was burdened with zippers, buttons, seams, bows, and ruffles, von Fürstenburg created a jersey wrap dress. It might not seem like a huge deal, but think of the simplicity of the men's suit and how this wrap dress affords ladies the same level of workplace dress sophistication coupled with ease. It makes that wrap dress feel pretty dang liberating.

"What I think I sell with my clothes is confidence, so hopefully all my dresses, my accessories, are friends to the women. When you open the closet, and your eyes are swollen, and you don't like the way you look, you go to your friends." — von Fürstenburg to the Wall Street Journal

3. Madam C.J. Walker

Image via Scurlock Studio/Smithsonian Institution/Wikimedia Commons.

The first child after the Emancipation Proclamation to be born in her family — many of whom had begun their lives as slaves in pre-Civil War America — this woman rose to business heights at the helm of her hair-care line and manufacturing company, Madame C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company. She was unafraid to promote herself and even rebranded herself, changing her name from the delightfully American Sarah Breedlove to intriguingly French-sounding Madam C.J. Walker to give her hair-care products a more sophisticated vibe, thus making a more marketable brand. Her instincts were right; she was the first black and female self-made millionaire in America.

4. Lizzie Magie

Image via U.S. National Archives/Wikimedia Commons.

In 1935, Magie sold her patent for her game, The Landlord's Game, to Parker Brothers, and in 1939, the Monopoly board game was the result. Her role in this game's creation only recently surfaced. Ironically enough, Magie cared the most about economic fairness for women and for workers, and out of that passion she created — and patented — The Landlord's Game to teach people the perils of a monopolistic society.

5. Ayah Bdeir

Image via Ayah Bdeir/Flickr.

Bdeir is the founder of LittleBits, modular electronics that snap together with magnets. Think: electronic Legos that move. She's also a major supporter of the open hardware movement, an initiative mainly focused on keeping technological knowledge open to everyone. Bdeir created a product that teaches tech and supports a movement that keeps knowledge flowin' (and LittleBits has more than 65,000 followers on Facebook, so it's clearly doing something right). Cool!

"We are hoping ... littleBits will make electronics sexy, and when you see how empowering it is, then you will want to learn more, as opposed to thinking it’s too hard and boring," she told the online magazine We Make Money Not Art.

6. Nely Galan

Image via Richard Sandoval/Wikimedia Commons.

Galan, a first-generation immigrant, always worked in TV, and for many years, she struggled to get by. She kept up her hustle, consulting for networks, managing a TV station, and starting her own production company . And her perseverance and patience (and no doubt, ingenuity) paid off. When she was appointed president of Telemundo, she became the first Latina president of a U.S. television network. She's now the founder of the Adelante Movement, an organization committed to empowering Latinas in every way imaginable. Talk about paying it forward!

7. Robin Chase

Image via Paul Downey/Wikimedia Commons.

Chase is a cofounder and former CEO of the ride-sharing company Zipcar. Through her wildly successful startup venture that disrupted transportation as we once knew it, she's helping create a world with fewer cars, less pollution, and a greater sense of shared responsibility.

"Zipcar believes that you really can do well by doing good. ... Most people who own cars do not really need a car full time, especially if they take public transportation to commute to work. Zipcar allows people to live car less without being car free." — Chase to FastCompany.

As you can see, many of these lady entrepreneurs and bosses have created products and businesses that aren't just successful (because that's a duh), they've created ecosystems of commerce that take advantage of their potential for impact.

They raise voices, fill needs, empower, and represent.

Soon there will be a day when all businesspeople, both ladies and dudes, will not be singled out for their gender. And that will be an awesome day.

But until the playing field is a little more even, we'll be over here cheering for the smaller but mightier team of ladies in business.

From Your Site Articles

A girl quit chess for a very sad reason, and America Ferrera is not having it.

She nailed why we need more female role models.

Let's get real: Actor America Ferrera is a badass.

Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images for The Critics' Choice Award.

When she's not batting down sexist, racist interview questions and inspiring students to let their voices be heard at the ballot box...

Ferrera chats with students in Nevada about voting. Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images.

...she's nailing acceptance speeches at fancy award shows.

Like, for instance, at the Eleanor Roosevelt Global Women’s Rights Awards, put on by the Feminist Majority Foundation on May 9, 2016, in West Hollywood.

Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images.

Ferrera was one of four women honored at the event for having "contributed greatly to advancing the human rights of women and girls" across the U.S. and world.

And rightly so.

Her acceptance speech touched on several points — most notably, the importance of role models, particularly for women and people of color:

"It’s not easy out there for most of us who don’t look like the one thing you are supposed to look like in [the entertainment] industry — to find roles that honor our intelligence and our humanity and our passion, and our real-life roles," she said, according to BuzzFeed.

Ferrera shared a personal story about a young girl whose telling experience is a tough one to forget (emphasis added):

"I was moderating a conversation once among young women, and there was something that a young girl said that has really stayed with me. She stood up and she asked one of our panelists ... 'I was on the chess team. I was really good. But I was the only girl on the chess team, and it felt hard to be there, so I quit.' And I haven’t been able to shake that. Because if we can’t get our young girls to stay in the room for the chess team, how are we gonna get them to stay in the room to be leaders in business, leaders in politics, leaders in medicine, leaders in science?"

Ferrera gets it. Because we have to do a better job at showing girls they can be whatever they want to be — not just talking the talk.

Glass ceilings still exist in far too many places (even if most have a few cracks in them). And for women of color, sometimes that glass can feel more like concrete.

Women are underrepresented in most science and math fields. They're far outnumbered in business leadership positions. The entertainment industry Ferrera touched upon? Yeah, it's overwhelmingly controlled by powerful, old white guys. And although there's a record number of women in the U.S. Senate, that figure is still inexcusably low, at just 20 out of 100 available seats.

Elizabeth Warren is one of the 20 women in the U.S. Senate. Photo by Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images.

Sure, progress is happening across many of these fields but way too slowly. One recent study, for instance, found it will take another century for women to have equal representation in top positions of corporate America. (The big culprit? Gender bias.)

We have to get better at fighting back against sexismin the workplace and on our TV screens and make sure every girl knows there's a seat for her at whatever table she wants to sit at.

It shouldn't matter if it's the chess club or the White House — women should have more role models showing them that yes, they can. And it's on all of us to make it happen.

Let's take a hint from Ferrera — who'd been "a tiny Latina in California with an outsize dream that nobody really saw as possible for [her]" — and make sure every kid can see a glimpse of their best future selves in the world around them.

Photo by Jonathan Leibson/Getty Images for AOL.

Comedy Central's The Glass Ceiling game gets way too real.

Here's a funny video with an extremely valid point.

Remember how companies used to market board games in the '90s?

They were commercials filled with cheesy music, bad acting, and unrealistic expectations of how much fun you'd actually have playing the game. Last week, Comedy Central released its own board game commercial, promoting The Glass Ceiling game for girls. The hilarious parody video tackles those commercial hallmarks while hitting the girls in it with a harsh dose of grown-up reality about wage gaps and women in the workplace.

GIFs from Comedy Central/YouTube.

In the video, the girls start off with big aspirations, only to learn of some of the workplace's less-awesome aspects.

One girl is shown reading a card that says, "Your Ivy League education hasn't gone unnoticed; it makes your boss Doug feel emasculated. The promotion goes to Blake, who didn't even get a degree. Move back 1 space." Another one of the girls is made to wrestle with what she'd do if her boss sexually harassed her.

Womp-womp.

"It's funny because it's true" is a bit of a cliché, but — well — it's funny because it's true.

There's no shortage of evidence that the "glass ceiling" in the workplace still exists. Whether this is marked by the fact that while women earn nearly 60% of all undergraduate and master's degrees (clearly, they're ambitious), they make up less than 15% of executives and less than 5% of Fortune 500 CEOs, or whether it's the fact that 1 in 3 women aged 18-34 has been sexually harassed in the workplace — there's still a ways to go before we reach true gender equality.

Smash the glass ceiling!

Check out the smart, must-watch video below.

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