March Breakfast Meeting

March Breakfast Meeting

Women in Leadership:

Achieving the Learning Curve

with

Bethany Hoppe

While changes in the status of women in the world have changed dramatically over the last decade, and more recently in the media through high profile cases of oppression and even abuse  - there are still many questions left unanswered for women who work:  Why is the pay gap still in existence?  Why aren’t women in more leadership roles in major corporations and politics?  Why, when women are outpacing men in earning advanced degrees, do we not see more of them in high profile positions of power?

Today I will be discussing three aspects of why women are still working overtime to achieve equality based on research and on the writing of two successful women in business: Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook, and Gail Evans of CNN.  One – how has recent history impacted women and work?  Two – how does the millennial worker differ from the baby boomers and why?  And Three – how can women solve the most historical dilemma of balancing family and career?  

Because most research on this complex subject rarely combines research based on women’s experiences with disability, throughout my presentation I will be sharing facts and stats that impact specifically women with disabilities alongside women without disabilities.  After all, we are all women first.

Bethany Hoppe is Communication Studies instructor at Middle Tennessee State University, specializing in Public Speaking; Women, Leadership, & Communication; and Voice Diction.  She earned her Master of Arts degree in Communication Studies at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.  

Bethany is an advocate for the rights of women and girls with disabilities.  Through public speaking, writing, performance, and film, Ms. Hoppe teaches through action and daily self-advocacy the importance that education plays in elevating the status of women who also happen to have disabilities, towards independence, agency, and political participation.  Bethany is a 2014 TEDxNashville Speaker, and the current President-Elect of the President’s Commission on the Status of Women at MTSU.  She has been recipient of The Friends of Education Award for LSSD, Warren County (PA) Zonta Woman of the Year, and a former Ms. Wheelchair Pennsylvania.  Ms. Hoppe resides in North Murfreesboro with her husband of 20-years and their five year old son.