Have a mentor.

This is something The White House Project stresses in all of our training’s. It’s so important to have someone above you that you want to emulate in the workforce and on a personal level. While this mentor may not be your direct boss, or even work in your office, they stand as a positive influence for you along the way. Foster a relationship so your mentor can give you advice, hold you accountable, and offer valuable pieces of wisdom that you wouldn’t have gotten from anyone else.

Ask for a review-even if it isn’t review time.

Many people have a set time where bosses and managers weigh in on their work for the year, but people who excel in the workplace are always keeping tabs on their progress. Challenge yourself to check in with your supervisor at least once a month and ask “how am I doing?” Hearing your weaknesses isn’t always easy, but being conscious about them makes it easier to fix and work on them. Hearing your strengths will be a big ego boost and that jolt of confidence will keep you on your positive track. There’s always room for improvement, and your supervisor will see your initiative as a positive thing.

Write down your goals. 

Think of this as your life’s to-do list. Sure, you have goals for your work-related tasks. “Finish that report, meeting at 2:00, get the draft out by Friday.” But what about life goals? Do you want a promotion by February? Do you want a meeting for possible mentor-ship with the Senior V.P.? Do you want a job at a start-up company? Do you want to go to Paris for the first time? Whatever your goals, your dreams, your aspirations-write them down. Having weekly, monthly, and year-long goals will help keep you motivated and inspired. These goals will also help you align yourself with projects that will further your plans. If you become complacent your work and personal life will suffer. Try new things and always be looking ahead and up.

Stay Informed.

Whether you are in the non-profit sector, food service, childcare, or anything in between, there is always something new happening in your field. Research, review, and reflect on updates surrounding your area of interest as it related to your job. In Monday’s meeting you may be the person who knows most about the new smart phone app that can streamline your database on the go, or the people you help in your retail store will be thrilled when you let them know that emerald-green is the new color of the season. Whatever field you want to excel in, make sure you know the most about. The internet is a powerful tool-so get off Facebook and start reading!

Believe in yourself.

This is something The White House Project speaks to all the time. We love when women leave our training’s feeling empowered and secure. But after they leave the confines of the safe space of the training, they enter back into boardrooms and office spaces that may not reflect the confidence that we have in them. We at The White House Project believe in you-so it’s important to believe in yourself. If you seek validation from others, you may never find it. Make sure you take care of yourself. Whether it’s a run in the park or a cup of tea and a book, make sure you take time with yourself so you know what you want and how you intend to get there. Solidifying those goals, and believing wholeheartedly that they will happen, makes taking the leap that much easier, and that much more exciting.

Tiffany and Marie spoke on the difficult but necessary task of transitioning-specifically the transition of power and title of President of The White House Project from Marie to Tiffany. Tiffany explained that “no matter what the event in life, transitions are always challenging.”

To many millennial women, this must have struck a chord. Because as a millennial woman myself, I felt a connection to the “transition phase” that these two women were talking about. As recent college graduates I, and many of my peers, are at a point in our lives that our mothers and grandmothers never necessarily had to deal with. Post-grad in a not-so-ideal economy, we are armed with knowledge and a skill set and not, necessarily, a direct path to an end goal. Marie says it’s important to “know your role,” but with so many definitions of what it is to be a Woman in America, it’s hard to see what that role is in a clear, concise way. I started to wonder,  where do I fit in? How do I grow into a person I want to be, what do I even want to be? Self reflection is hard to schedule in when you’re racing for a diploma.

When Tiffany said “we are the same in our vision of a world in which women’s gifts and women’s voices are fully harnessed for the benefit of all of us,” I felt a real connection, nodding my head in agreement. Because, after assessing where I wanted to be after college I realized I shared that vision. Women’s rights, and involvement in politics, was something I studied and worked towards at school. Discovering that through education was one thing, but hearing that other people, like Tiffany Dufu, shared these goals-and had careers in the field-was something more.  I am deeply passionate about women’s empowerment. And now, I am in a field that empowers me and empowers others. It’s a beautiful thing.

This fervent ideology that I and many others fight for is what creates visibility within us and among us. Visibility is something that women, and many other minority groups in American history, have had to fight strongly for. The story of Marie “seeing” Tiffany and fostering her growth as the new President of The White House Project is something we all want and need. Within a short amount of time working at The White House Project,  I felt Tiffany had “seen” me, and having someone acknowledge my passions in line with their own is a very validating feeling.

Women need to recognize fellow talent and encourage others to grow, and reach out to people who will help them become better versions of themselves. For so long, we have been fighting against the powers that be, and against each other, in order to prevail as the woman on top-because there has usually only been room for one. What Tiffany and Marie’s talk highlights is that there is room now due to previous “legs of the race” for women to advance with other women as opposed to advancing instead of them. Their honest banter  and their obviously close and candid relationship shows that women can trust and learn from each other. The confidence and honest communication that comes from strong female relationships can only create powerful role models and will put more women in leadership positions.

That’s some visibility we’d all like to see.

That is my response after reading “The War on Men,” an article that Fox News recently published apparently without any peer editing, or staff editing, or really any editing at all. Maybe they just published it! But it’s gone viral. So let’s back it up and review.

Now, I try not to take too seriously things that people say when they proudly proclaim they “accidentally stumbled upon” something when they write a sweeping article about it and then publish it via a major news media site. But maybe I just don’t know what I’m talking about. Because, apparently, there is a shortage of the “dearth of good men,” also known as “marriageable men”. (And by the way, is that term even grammatically correct? Who knows?) Oh, and this shortage is the fault of women. Why? Because “women aren’t women anymore.”

Suzanne Venker gets some of it right. She explains to the uneducated reader that gender relations have shifted since the 60s, and the way women and men interact has changed. “Thank you for the update!!” said my grandma who hasn’t left her kitchen in 40 years and is now happy to stop making sandwiches! My issue with Venker’s article is her blaming women, mainly feminists, for displacing men and leaving them with “nowhere to go.”

Let’s get real. Feminism, at its core, does not preach the cave-person-esque ideal of “women good/men bad” that she proclaims. Call up Gloria Stienem and ask her. Feminism preaches equality for all. Venker thinks “in a nutshell, women are angry. They’re also defensive, though often unknowingly.”

You know what!? Why can’t women be angry? Why can’t we be upset that the majority of Fortune 500 companies are run by men? Why can’t we be upset that a ‘landmark year’ for women in politics means that a meager 20 percent of Congress is made up of women while the other 80 percent are mostly white, upper to middle class males? Why can’t we argue when someone says we don’t have leadership capabilities, or we can’t have standards for higher pay because we can also bare children? Does that sound ridiculous? That’s because it is. But it happens. Everyday.

Men, apparently, have the right to be angry, though. Even though they still earn more, and still are over-represented in politics and business, they are so angry! Men just want to “love women, not compete with them. They want to provide for and protect their families—it’s in their DNA. But modern women won’t let them.”

The modern women I know appreciate the fact that men want to work and they want to work alongside men, or above them, because they’ve earned it—regardless of gender or class or religion or sexual affiliation.

Besides Venker’s disregard for (or ignorance of?) feminism, she blames women for being “front and center” in the media and beyond. She explains that we, the women lose, by disregarding “male nature” and that women need to “surrender to their nature—their femininity –and let men surrender to theirs.”

My femininity is exactly that—mine. And the revolution that women ‘demanded’ all those years ago has allowed me to claim it. So if Venker, and whoever else, believes that placating the male nature means ignoring what I feel, and what I need, and what I believe in, so I can be ‘feminine,’ I’ll pass. Maybe these angry men have nowhere to go because women have changed, and we are on more of an equal playing field than we (ever) have been. Maybe men should take a look around and realize something—women are happy. We are happy forging our own path, our own way, identifying with and holding true to our own definitions of femininity and leadership. That, to me, should be celebrated, not trampled upon. It took us a long time to get here, and we have a long way to go. So, men and women—everybody—we’re going to have to figure this out. To those who support advancement regardless of gender—or any other socially constructed identity—keep fighting the good fight. And for those worried about ‘marriageable men,’ good luck with the imminent and awesome changing dynamics of America, as well as your grammar.

Juliet Critsimilios is an avid fighter for Lady Rights and works with the Community Manager to increase visibility of The White House Project in New York City and beyond. A graduate of the University of Vermont, Juliet holds a dual degree in Political Science and Women’s and Gender Studies.

While I was watching the election results, and the record number of women elected to office kept climbing and climbing, I just couldn’t help myself. I jumped right into the air, exclaiming, YES!

As I was jumping for joy, I suddenly had a flashback to another time of celebration: 1992—the Year of the Woman—when Patty Murray was the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from my home state of Washington. Holy cow! That’s 20 years ago. It was an incredible time for me, having just transferred from a private all-girls school to a large co-ed public school. Hillary Clinton was also stepping out on the national scene. I was also getting ready to step up my own leadership, both as editor of my school paper and executing my final project for my Girl Scout Gold Award. I remember watching Patty and the other newly elected women and thinking: Yes, let’s do this! I am on my way too!

And I felt the same way on election night this year, only about a thousand times more! As our President Tiffany Dufu said last week on NPR, the real headline here is the diversity of women coming to the table. I was overjoyed to see our sisters in Hawaii showing their Aloha strength—Mazie Hirono and Tulsi Gabbard are going to Congress as the first API women from their state, and the first Buddhist and Hindu to head to Washington.

But seriously, 1992 was 20 years ago? No way!  So how far have we come? In a few months, The White House Project and The University of Denver will release the second Benchmarking Women’s Leadership Report looking at women in top positions in 15 different industries across the country, including government. Even with this record-breaking election, with women taking 20 percent of the seats in Congress, we’ve still gotta go the distance to hit the tipping point. We’ve got to hit our milestones along the way. I didn’t join Girl Scouts at 6 years old because I thought I could change the world overnight. And I didn’t get behind The White House Project because I thought I could change the landscape overnight.

So, I’d like to stop and just simply jump for joy all over again, and celebrate. It’s Thanksgiving after all. Celebrate—we have more momentum to keep us going. This feels more powerful than the collective frustration over partisan behavior, doesn’t it? Celebrate your mom, your auntie and all of the women who came before you. Celebrate your friend who stepped forward with her own leadership and asked for a promotion, stood up for herself, uplifted her community through her decisions, galvanized community action. For me, that means celebrating women like Noel Frame and Gale Tarleton who ran for office in my hometown.

I’m celebrating because The White House Project has an 15,000 alumnae base full of Tulsis and Mazies coming up strong, through our community.

At the White House Project, we always say: ask someone to run, to step it up, advance yourself. This week, think of someone who did just that—who took a critical step in her own leadership, and tell her you are celebrating her! I’m not just talking about Tammy Baldwin or Mazie Hirono, I’m talking about your immediate circle. Is it the woman who sits next to you at work? Call her and tell her you are grateful for her actions.

I’m grateful for every conversation that I shared this year at our Go Connect gatherings—to every woman who said, I can do this, I want to thank you for inspiring me.

I’m grateful for every friend who said to me, get out on the field, you can do this. For every mentor and sponsor, and for my mom and relatives who said, believe in yourself—I thank you. I am grateful for you. Who are you grateful for this season?

Contribute to the momentum, support The White House Project by clicking here.

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Kirsten Henning,Vice President Communications & Strategy

Why she chose the selection, entitled “If Women Ran Hip-Hop”:

“Immediately took me back to those summer days when I sojourned to 7-11 to buy Now & Laters. Everything was pink: the flowered bike, my jelly sandals and bracelets, even the beads that swung from my braids. But the Queen Latifah/MC Lyte/Salt&Pepa rhymes blasting from my Walkman became the soundtrack for my feminism”

Explore all the information on this selection here.

Why she chose the selection, entitled “Two Million Women Leaders and Counting”:

“Whenever someone suggests that The White House Project should go international I smile and say, “Have you seen the US world ranking for women’s political leadership? I think we need women from other countries to come teach us how to start our own revolution!” I have so much appreciation for women globally who lead with courage in the midst of tremendous adversity.”

Explore all the information on this selection here.

Why she chose the selection, entitled “Never Too Old to Run”:

“Our republic wasn’t designed for any of us to sit on the sidelines and Granny D has literally walked across the entire country. I’m sure in the dictionary next to civic engagement is her photo. Until our political leadership reflects the diversity of American perspectives the biggest crisis we face is a crisis of leadership. Granny D reminds us that we are the leaders we wish to see in the world.”

Explore all the information on this selection here.

Read the full article on Tiffany’s work and assisted curating with the International Museum of Women on their website.

Women were breaking records before the results were even announced. Women ran for federal office at levels that had never been seen before, but the question that still lingered before last night’s results:  is this a historic year for women? Will there be record breaking numbers of women in the next Congress? The answer is YES!

Let’s start with the Senate – about half of the 33 Senate races had a female candidate, which is record breaking on its own.  At this moment, a record number of 20 women will serve in the Senate. All of the six female incumbents who were up for reelection won their races, and there is a very strong possibility that one-fifth of the Senate seats will be held by women, a great victory over the previous record of 17 women serving. In the House, 77 women have won their races so far, breaking the record set in 2008.  Two women are ahead in their districts in Arizona, but the races are still too close to make a decision.  If those women are announced as the victors, the total of 79 female U.S. Representatives will set another new record, bringing the percentage of women in the House to above 17%.  And that’s only for Representatives!  So far two women, from Washington, D.C. and Guam, have won their races, and we’re still waiting to hear how the female candidates from American Samoa and the Virgin Islands did in their respective races.  Their victories increase the visibility of women, with the potential of 80 women serving in the House.  These may seem like small gains, but the point is that the number of women in political leadership is on the rise.

Equally as important are the gains individual female candidates made in diversifying Congress. Perhaps one of the most high profile campaigns of the night was Tammy Baldwin’s Senate race in Wisconsin where she became the state’s first female senator, and more notably, the first LGBT woman to ever serve in the U.S. Senate. Tammy Duckworth, who will represent Illinois in the House of Representatives, became the first disabled female veteran to be elected to Congress and Mazie Hirono, who will become the first female senator to represent Hawaii, is also the first Asian American female senator in U.S. history. Hirono breaks a third record by becoming the first Buddhist to serve in the Senate, and Tulsi Gabbard, also from Hawaii, won her race for the House, becoming the first Hindu to serve in Congress.

And the good news continues! Maggie Hassan, the only woman to run for governor in the general election this year, won her race in New Hampshire. Her victory is matched by the two new female Representatives (the only two representatives for the state in the House), and is joined with two female senators that were not up for reelection.  All of these successful women made history by making New Hampshire the first state to ever have an all-female congressional delegation with a female governor.

Other firsts resonate on a smaller state level. Elizabeth Warren will become the first woman to represent Massachusetts in the Senate and in New York, Grace Meng won her race for the House, making her the first Asian American woman to represent her state in Congress.  Indiana elected two women to Congress – until now, the state has never had two women serve at the same time. As it would be impossible to delve into the history behind the thousands of woman who ran at all levels, I leave my mind open to the exciting idea that there are many more “firsts” for local female leaders across the country.

I truly believe these “firsts” are so important to celebrate because of the path they leave for seconds and thirds. They set the stage for a future where women are equally represented in all levels of leadership. And that’s really the goal, isn’t it?  These women and their accomplishments should be celebrated because they are the trailblazers for a future where women as politicians – as LGBT persons, persons of color, persons of all religious faiths – are not the outlier, not the exception to the rule, but understood simply as leaders.  So, congratulations are in order for all of the work women across this country put in to support women’s political leadership this year. To all of the remarkable women who helped make 2012 the new Year of the Woman – those barrier-busting victors, all women who ran, every woman who helped campaign, and of course to everyone who voted – we did this!  The political future for women has never seemed brighter.

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Kate Sotos is the current Communications and Research intern working for TWHP out of Denver, CO.  She plans to graduate in June 2013 from the   Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver with a Masters in International Human Rights.  In 2007, she received her BA in Anthropology from the University of Virginia.  Originally from northern Virginia, Kate hopes to return to Washington, D.C. to work as an advocate for human rights.

More women are running for office in both the House of Representatives and the Senate than ever before. Candy Crowley was the first woman in twenty years to moderate a presidential debate, only the fourth woman to ever do so. Add in Martha Raddatz moderating the vice presidential debate, and this becomes the first time since 1976 – when Pauline Frederick and Barbara Walters became the first two women to moderate presidential debates – that half of the debates were moderated by women. If third party candidates had been allowed to participate in the debates, we would have seen Jill Stein, the female presidential candidate from the Green Party, on stage next to President Obama and former Governor Romney. And judging by the number of ”binders of women” Halloween costumes, there is no denying that women’s issues are a hot button issue and important facet of this election season..

No matter the outcome next week, we should celebrate the visibility of female political leadership.  If Marian Wright Edelman’s famous quote, “you can’t be what you can’t see,” holds true today (and I believe it does!), then there are millions of young women witnessing record numbers of women running for political office, watching successful female journalists question future leaders, and participating in the national political conversation. Of course I would like to see women win the election in record numbers as well, but I feel confident knowing the groundwork is being laid for the next generation of female leaders.

This may not be the new year of the woman in Congress, but I personally feel that  it is the year for women and leadership – as candidates, moderators, and especially as voters. No matter the outcome of the elections, the momentum and visibility of women’s political leadership should be celebrated now, and carried into the future.

How can you become part of this monumental time for women’s leadership?

1.)    Vote! Get more information on the importance of voting from our partners at Lifetime Network.

2.)    Inspire others lead, especially the young girls in your life. Take a look at our downloadable kit on Take a Girl to the Polls Day in partnership with Mattel and Barbie.

3.)    Invest in your own leadership by signing up for a Go Lead training or a Go Connect networking event on our calendar.

4.)    Join the conversations on Facebook and Twitter.

Only now do I realize how crucial it was for me to grow up in a world where women delivered the news, asked tough questions, and honed their craft with delicate precision. It was the perfect illustration of Marian Wright Edelman’s famous, excruciatingly true line, “You can’t be what you can’t see.” If I hadn’t seen women doing work I admired, it’s likely I never would have been able to articulate that faint calling I felt toward journalism. Had I not seen it, I would have dismissed it. I would have convinced myself otherwise.

Now, a new generation of girls may very well have experiences similar to mine, due to women’s role in press coverage of the 2012 presidential race. Though there are no female candidates, women are still highly visible as reporters, debate moderators, and commentators.

We first saw something stirring earlier this summer, when three teen girls from New Jersey started a change.org petition that called for a woman to moderate a presidential debate, something that hadn’t been seen since 1992. Last week, we witnessed ABC’s senior foreign affairs correspondent, Martha Raddatz oversee the vice-presidential faceoff. Tonight, we’ll watch CNN anchor Candy Crawley moderate the second presidential debate as the first female moderator in twenty years.

And we can’t forget about Ifill and Judy Woodruff acting as the first all-female team ever to spearhead a network’s convention coverage in August. The groundbreaking pair acknowledged their unique positions, while maintaining that gender was not at the center of their work.

“We’re not going to go on the air and say, ‘Aha, now is your chance to see two women on the convention.’ If others want to point it out, I’m very comfortable with it,” Woodruff said after the announcement.

“The fact that we’re both women is almost incidental,” Ifill said. “There was no question it would be Judy and me. It just evolved naturally.”

This may be why press coverage of the 2012 election is such a complete and intriguing case study on the status of women in America. Though Candy Crawley could have been asked to moderate a debate no matter what, the 122,344 people who signed a petition calling for a female moderator likely ensured Crawley’s job. Ifill and Woodruff, on the other hand, were simply seen as the most qualified journalists for the job. There was “no question” they would lead PBS’s coverage. These stories prove that women are making progress, but there is still so much work to be done. Sometimes women will naturally assume positions of leadership. Sometimes we’ll have to ask for it. Sometimes we’ll have to fight for it.

No matter how they get there, female journalists will be on television sets across America in the coming months. Girls who tune into a presidential debate, or catch a glimpse of a woman sitting behind an anchor desk, may feel the wheels inside their heads start to churn with thoughts of possibility. We can only hope, though I think it’s safe to assume, that a new generation of women reporters may be born out of the seeds planted at this moment in time in the media.

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Sarah Kess is a regular contributor to The White House Project blog and website.