Join the Strong Women Alliance, led by Founder, Ellen Schned who will host an All-Star Virtual Panel on International Women’s Day, March 8, 2021 at Noon-1pm PST. STRONG WOMEN LEAD will feature leaders in various sectors who stand up, speak out and get it done for their communities, even more so now during the pandemic. For information and to RSVP go to www.strongwomenvote.com
Ellen Schned is a 30-year media veteran. She is lawyer who advocates in Washington, DC for the underdogs – independent cable networks, women, and minorities. Her career has spanned from an FCC attorney to representing Viacom, Court TV, CBS College Sports and others.
Ellen, Tell us about the Strong Women Alliance.
Strong Women Alliance was created in 2020 to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of women’s right to vote, to urge women to use their “vote as their voice” and empower women by spotlighting women leaders and providing career resources during these challenging times. It features inspiring virtual panels of women leaders and men who support the advancement of women.
FWM: What can we expect from the panel?
We will hear how a diverse array of leaders give back to their communities, ranging from media and telecom executives to the heads of HR and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, to everyday people who step up to make thousands of masks for frontline workers. Despite how busy these CEOs, Board members, writers and activists may be, they’ve prioritized helping their communities even more during the pandemic than usual.
FWM: Your All-Star panel are leaders who stand up, speak out, and get it done, helping with needs across communities. Tell us briefly why these women were on your radar.
While these leaders are known to be stand-outs in their professions, they are humble “quiet giants” with respect to their public service. They put the emphasis on the folks they help, not themselves. We will find out things about these women their colleagues and friends may even be unaware of, from the nonprofit boards they sit on, the extent to which their companies give back to the communities, and more.
Kathleen Abernathy is a high-power attorney and former FCC Commissioner has her hands full on three boards, including Dish Network. However, she prioritizes her work with Crittenton Services of Greater Washington, empowering teen girls to make positive choices and achieve their dreams.
FWM: Kathleen, you are an attorney, Former FCC Commissioner and serve on several boards. But you still make time for community service. Crittenton Services of Greater Washington and others. What is it that drives that commitment?
I appreciate that I have been incredibly blessed in my life and this is the least I can do to give back in some small way. I am always happy to give financial donations to various groups but that does not address the need I have to actually DO something more. Crittenton provides me the opportunity to engage with committed counselors and leaders who spend their days helping at-risk girls navigate through their teenage years. It is truly a privilege to be on the board and learn from these committed individuals and it reminds me not to take anything for granted.
FWM: When did you learn the value of service?
I learned the value of service from my mother and my church. We were always told to think about others and give to those in need. To put this in perspective, I grew up in Kentucky, one of five children and we were never hungry or without a roof over our heads or clothing. But we lived in a small house and there was one bathroom for seven people. At the same time, we knew there were others who had less and from an early age we were expected to help raise money and give to those in need. Thanks for asking this question because I never really appreciated the importance of these early life experiences when it comes to giving back.
FWM: I see you support women’s groups. This initiative is “Strong Women Alliance”. What is it that makes the bond of women supporting women so important? Particularly now?
We face different challenges than men and we need our sisters to help us through challenging times. This past year has meant that some of the Crittenton girls have become the primary breadwinner for their families. While it is virtually impossible for me to put myself in the shoes of a guy suffering PTSD following a military deployment, I do understand the pressures teenage girls face and I want to do what I can to prepare them for a lifetime of success as they become the leaders of tomorrow. The girls served by Crittenton are already resilient and they are asking for help by coming to Crittenton — we just need to be there to give them the tools to survive and thrive.
Ellen Gavin A writer, producer and activist, Ellen is all about community. Standing up, speaking out, and getting it done, the topic of this panel, is something Ellen does year-round. So being there for those in need during the pandemic was a matter of course. Gavin has made over two thousand masks for farmworkers, nursing homes, Native American reservations, detention facilities and homeless shelters with the group “Aunties Sewing Squad”. She is on the Advisory Board of the National Advocacy Organization “Farmworkers Justice” and was awarded their “Social Justice Volunteer Award” by Teresa Romero, President of the United Farm Workers in 2020.
FWM: Ellen, When did you learn the value of service?
My hometown is Lawrence Massachusetts, the home of the historic Bread and Roses Strike of 1912 that put an end to factory child labor in a raucous three-month strike led by women. So I became an activist in college when I learned of this history and was exposed to social justice movements of the day. I went on at 19 years to start a food coop that still exists, a battered women’s shelter and a feminist theater in San Francisco that I ran for decades. I’ve been involved in social justice movements my whole life.
FWM: You are a Writer, Director, and Activist in LA. Your film and TV scripts were inspired by your time as one of the first women firefighters in the country. Tell us more.
I was one of the first women in the San Diego fire department and worked there for 3 years. It was difficult dangerous work, with the additional pressure of being a woman, a lesbian. It has inspired a play, screenplay and now a TV series I’m pitching. Just as police departments have to change their ways from homogenous white guy behavior, so do fire departments! I find a setting where you work and then sleep next to, and eat with your coworkers, as an endlessly dramatic and fun one.
FWM: Who has been your inspiration? How is she forever present today?
My activist life has been inspired by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, a lifelong activist who organized the women of Lawrence.
Here’s what inspires my mask-making, from an anthology coming out soon.
I hadn’t sewed since the seventh grade, so I bought an inexpensive Singer in honor of my grandmother. Blanche’s ancient treadle Singer rat-a-tat-ted through my childhood; she was the hardest-working, most loving person ever. Little did I know this challenge would lead me to six months of sewing 2000 masks for vulnerable communities across the country.
My great-grandmother Sophia had eight kids, and although illiterate, she ran a boarding house and a business. She pulled Blanche out of the sixth grade to sew 50-60 hours in the textile mills for three bucks a week. It must have been spirit-crushing and exhausting for a twelve-year old, but she’d exchange her paycheck stub for a smaller one, to buy herself stockings or snacks. Most children of Lawrence lived in extreme poverty and hunger, riddled with rickets and TB. When fifty thousand workers went on strike in 1912 for a 54-hour work week, a pay raise and an end to child labor, they were met with international solidarity. Their slogan became a Joe Hill anthem—Yes we fight for bread, but we fight for roses too! and the strike won all of its demands.
Blanche graduated upward through factory floors stratified by ethnicity and skin color—Greeks and Syrians handled dirty wool in the basement; Italians, Germans, Lithuanians, Poles on the looms; a few French, Irish, and a girl named Blanche made it to the top as “expert spares”, fine sewers on individual machines. Blanch spent 60 years in factories, transitioning to circuit boards for Honeywell and Raytheon when the mills closed.
I make my masks in Blanche’s honor. I used to brag that the Bread and Roses Strike ended child labor in the US, but Latinx friends and my own activism taught me that young children in California were putting food on our tables today the way kids put clothes on our backs a century ago. Living and working in crowded, expensive and unsafe conditions, migrant farmworker families today are in dire peril in the time of COVID-19. So I keep sewing for those who can’t afford a mask, for those in fields and nursing homes, in prisons and shelters, on Native reservations.
In her 80’s, my grandmother could be found repairing her roof or tending her beautiful roses. And when she died, each of her eight grandchildren received a bank book with $1800, a fortune for us at the time. Blanche had made a deposit of $5 for each child every other week for decades. It was all stamped in the books. As with mask-making, the value wasn’t just the money, it was the time, the thoughtfulness. Blanche’s journey to the bank, eight bank books in hand, was made with love and intention for each of her grandchildren’s health and happiness. She started every day at dawn with a prayer for each of us too.
I am reminded of this truth—each mask is a simple pure act of love and solidarity. Our government has failed us, but we have not failed each other.
About the Strong Women Alliance.
Created in 2020 to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of women’s right to vote, Strong Women Alliance is designed to empower women by spotlighting women leaders, providing career resources and promoting women’s mental health and wellness. It features inspiring virtual panels of women leaders and men who support the advancement of women. It is a 501C3 and 501C4 organization with a strong Executive Advisory Council, set to launch a Career Resource Portal and Cross-Industry Executive Mentorship Program in Q3 2021 and a fundraiser to support women’s mental health in Q4 2021. For more information, see www.strongwomenvote.com
