Guest Expert: Diana Kapp –

It’s Women’s History Month! So how about a podcast episode on women who have been inspired by the past– while bringing us into the future? These are the women leaders of NOW. Although hidden from many history books, where credit wasn’t provided, or downplayed in media where coverage skewed towards gains boys and men were making, women have been making strides, creating useful inventions and running companies for longer than we know. But credit needs to be revealed if we are going to ensure that girls and boys have strong female role models and understand that women bring greatness, innovation, indomitable spirit, focus, ingenuity and leadership to this world in many of the same ways—and in different ways than do men. Without women’s creativity and persistence, we wouldn’t have some of the greatest inventions that we completely take for granted! Just dip back into history for a moment and we can reveal, for example, that the first dishwasher was developed by a woman. The Brooklyn Bridge? Woman. Windshield wipers, the game of monopoly, the brown paper bag? All developed by women. And today, we also have incredible examples of motivated, innovative women that are positive examples of taking risks, trying again, working hard, knocking off the negative self talk and forgetting about perfectionism on the way to success. We can learn a lot from these women- and today, we are going to discuss how we can use their stories to help inspire children when we are having conversations about such topics as success, persistence, risk-taking and perfectionism. And for that, I have invited author, Diana Kapp, on the show today.

Diana Kapp’s work has taken her inside San Quentin prison and to Afghanistan. Her path to writing has been circuitous. She’s worked for a senator and a biotech start-up, made ads for Nike, and helped launch women’s sportswear retailer Lucy.com. She went to Stanford and got an MBA. She’s lived in Kenya, and the Haight. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle ELLE, Marie Claire, MORE Magazine, O the Oprah Magazine, California Sunday Magazine, Sunset, ESPN. Her first book Girls Who Run the World came out in October.

The podcast provides:

• Why so few women are becoming CEOs—and what it means for our girls who are coming up through school today looking for how to frame their future.
• Some of the key hands-on everyday strategies inspired by these women that can help our girls today.
• What we can learn from these women in terms of risk-taking—and how we can talk about it with girls
• What qualities we can celebrate in these women that can inspire today’s girls.
• How girls can pick up some business-savvy from these CEOs.