Voice of Experience: Robin Cohen, Partner, Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman

sm_robin_cohenBy Michelle Hendelman

“I knew very early on that I wanted to be a lawyer, but the path to where I am today was somewhat accidental.” Robin Cohen fell in love with law in elementary school when she participated in a program that gave her the opportunity to get firsthand experience in the legal field. “Students were able to leave school twice a week and do something that you were interested in pursuing later in life. I worked downtown in a common case court where the judge tried a lot of criminal cases.” This experience served as the foundation for Cohen’s bright future in the courtroom.

Career Path

Cohen left law school unsure of the career path she wanted to follow, but she very quickly developed a passion for litigation. “When I got my first assignment, and was told it was an insurance case, I assumed I would be representing the insurance company, but in fact I was representing the policyholder,” said Cohen. She continued, “This really fit my personality. I enjoyed being the plaintiff and moving litigation forward.” Since then, Cohen has been a key player in the insurance coverage area, representing big organizations in complex, and sometimes even groundbreaking cases.

The last trial Cohen prosecuted in December definitely stands out to her as one case of which she is particularly proud. “The trial team consisted of attorneys I have practiced with for a very long time. We work together like a well-oiled machine. It was a complex case and the jury came back within five hours and found in favor of our client.” She continued, “From the culmination of all the mentoring work I had put into the team, I was so proud of them and the success we achieved.”

Another source of pride for Cohen in her career came when she was about seven or eight years out of law school and an important client asked her to be lead counsel on a big environmental coverage case. “I was very young to be doing this,” recalled Cohen, “and it was one of the first environmental coverage trials in the country. The client so was happy with the outcome of the trial, they gave us a party at the Rainbow Room. And it was as a result of that case that I was able to develop so many clients.”

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Voice of Experience: Hilarie Bass, Co-President, Greenberg Traurig

sm_bass_hilarieBy Michelle Hendelman

Hilarie Bass, Co-President of Greenberg Traurig, emphasized the importance of defining your personal level of success and mapping out a career path that will enable you to get to that level.

According to Bass, all lawyers should look at their careers through a long lens. “Think about what you want to achieve in five years and create a vision for what that definition of success will look like,” explained Bass. “Being a really good technical lawyer is a precondition to any level of success in the practice of law. That being said, technical ability in and of itself is not enough,” she added.

Career at Greenberg Traurig

Bass has a unique career path in that she has spent her entire career at one law firm. “I came to Greenberg Traurig as a summer associate, accepted a job offer on the spot, and have been here for my entire legal career,” explained Bass. She became a shareholder in 1987, and in the mid-nineties Bass became the head of the Miami Litigation Group.

After leading the litigation group in Miami, Bass spent eight years as chair of the Global Litigation Practice for Greenberg Traurig. She then became Global Operating Shareholder for three years, which gave her the unique opportunity to work with the chairs of all the practice groups at the firm.

Since February, Bass has been getting up to speed in her new position as Co-President. “In this role, I have a lot more opportunities for interaction between our lawyers and our clients,” said Bass.

“The achievement I am most proud of in my career, outside of practicing at Greenberg Traurig, is having served as the chair of the ABA litigation section, which is the largest section of the American Bar Association.”

She continued, “The other moment I am proud of is my work on a pro bono case in which I represented two foster children that led to the finding of unconstitutionality of the statutes that prohibited gay people from adopting in the state of Florida. We raised the legal issues from the perspective of two fit children rather than the adopting parents.”

“It was great to be able to use the law in the way I have always thought about it,” Bass said, “which is a tool for social change.”

Currently, Bass is approaching the end of almost four and half years of litigation in a major case involving Chinese drywall. She explained, “Post-Katrina, it made economic sense to import drywall board into the US. Between the real estate boom and the post-Katrina reconstruction, there was a high demand for drywall. As it turned out, the imported drywall contained an excessive amount of sulfur, which will deteriorate anything made of copper or silver in the house.”

Bass continued, “I represented many of the big public builders across the country who repaired their homes on behalf of their homeowners. We have had a lot of success reaching settlements with various parties. I am glad we are coming to a positive end on this case.”

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Intrepid Woman: Yesi Morillo-Gual, Founder and President, Proud To Be Latina

rsz_morilloThe Glass Hammer is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month by featuring profiles of Hispanic Women Business Leaders all week long!

By Michelle Hendelman, Editor-in-Chief

As a successful senior level Latina at one of the largest global financial services firms, Yesi Morillo-Gual recognized that she was one of few Latinas to hold a Director position. This was one of her primary motivations for starting her Latina networking organization, Proud to Be Latina, three years ago.

“I have been in Corporate America for twenty-one years,” said Morillo-Gual, “starting at the administrative level and working my way up to where I am now.” She continued, “I started Proud To Be Latina because of some of the challenges I faced in my own career. These included things like not knowing how to navigate the landscape, not knowing about the unwritten rules, not having a lot of support, and also not really believing that I belonged because the majority of my colleagues did not look like me.”

As a result, Morillo-Gual found herself creating individual barriers that she admits, in hindsight, probably did not exist. She explained, “I saw other women around me doing this same thing, and that is not to say barriers did not exist, but we were creating more barriers for ourselves. This motivated me to create a platform of empowerment for Latinas to learn from one another, empower, and encourage each other to reach their full potential.”

One of the most important ways Morillo-Gual carries out the mission of Proud To Be Latina is to be a role model and mentor for other professional Latinas who also feel like they are the only Latina in the room at times. The organization also has several programs [PDF] designed to bring professional Latinas together to network and share experiences.

Networking Opportunities for Latina Professionals

Morillo-Gual said, “One of these programs is the EmPower Hour, which is a conference call held on the first Monday of every month. We bring in experts in a field or topic and individuals on the call can ask important questions and discuss relevant issues.” Morillo-Gual mentioned topics discussed in previous EmPower Hours include how to build wealth, learning how to say ‘no,’ and how heritage can be a source of strength for advancement.

“Some Latinas think they have to leave their heritage behind to succeed in corporate America, which is not true at all,” explained Morillo-Gual.

Another program Proud To Be Latina hosts is EmPowered Latinas Connect, a networking event held three to four times a year. At their most recent event, which took place last Friday, they addressed the issue of the unconscious bias Latinas have created against each other and how to overcome this. “We had a really honest conversation about what our responsibilities are to other Latinas,” said Morillo-Gual. These events offer a safe space for professional Latinas to express themselves on these important issues impacting their career advancement.

Finally, Proud To Be Latina hosts an annual Latina EmPowerment Conference to help women bridge the gap being Latina, being American, and never compromising their identity to succeed in their careers, according to Morillo-Gual.

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Thought Leader: Pamela Ravare Browne, National Chief Operating Officer, ALPFA National Office

Pamela Ravare Browne

“I consider myself to be a southern girl with big dreams and a lot of faith that they would come true,” said Pamela Ravare Browne regarding the career journey she embarked on before joining ALPFA as the Chief Operating Officer in 2010. She continued, “I have been very blessed as an executive leader with over twenty years of professional experience to utilize my skills and talents as well as my passion for non-profit.”

Ravare Browne was born in California, but spent her childhood in Germany. “This was my first introduction to the international world and gained the perspective that the world is so much bigger and broader than what we see,” she recalled. After growing up overseas, Ravare Browne returned to the United States and completed her undergraduate degree in Marketing and graduate school education at Louisiana State University, earning an MBA with a concentration in Marketing and International Business.

An Unlikely Career Path

“I recognized my desire to pursue higher education and became very passionate about it after being one of the few members of my family to complete a MBA degree,” said Ravare Browne. She continued, “I worked in the corporate arena for a few years at General Motors, IBM, and Proctor and Gamble in the marketing division at each firm.” While Ravare Browne felt very privileged to be working at these Fortune 100 companies, she felt like she was not tapping into her true passion. She explained, “There was something from a contribution standpoint that wasn’t quite gratifying for me.”

After spending some time in China, Ravare Browne came back to the United States and accepted a visiting professor position at the University of Miami-Ohio and began to consider the option of returning to school herself to pursue a Ph.D. “I realized that I loved sharing knowledge and giving back to younger individuals who needed guidance and mentoring,” she said. Ravare Browne continued to pursue her teaching career, accepting positions at other universities across the country, including the University of Dallas. Here, she became the Director of the Pre-MBA program where she had the opportunity to interact with international students from over ninety countries.

Within years, Ravare Browne was promoted to become the Executive Director of International Relations at the University of Dallas. This appointment set the stage for Ravare Browne to spend a lot of time working abroad in different countries facilitating the process of getting international students to come to the United States for their graduate education. “I fell in love with working in a non-profit and academic arena,” said Ravare Browne.

Once again, she started thinking about the possibility of furthering her own education by earning a doctorate, but these plans were placed on the backburner when she was approached by The National Society of Hispanic MBAs, ALPFA’s sister organization, where she accepted a position in the office of the CEO.

Ravare Browne was eventually approached by ALPFA, and three years ago, she moved out to their headquarters in Los Angeles to serve as the Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and was quickly promoted to her current position as Chief Operating Officer. She said, “My journey has been a fabulous mix of corporate American, academia, and non-profit.” She attributes her success in all of these different fields to the cross-functional skills acquired in business school, but ultimately Ravare Browne knew she would be the most effective in the industry for which she is the most passionate. “I found my niche in the non-profit sector because I had the desire to give back,” she explained.

Carrying Out ALPFA’s Mission

“The mission of ALPFA to build Latino business leaders is very clear,” said Ravare Browne, “and I was very attracted to the work ALPFA was doing, especially in the graduate space.” With 22,000 professional and student members, 41 professional chapters, and 120 student chapters, ALPFA is not only the largest Latino business organization in the United States, but also the oldest. “We build leaders through the work that we do,” explained Ravare Browne, “and ALPFA is a safe space for our members to develop their leadership skills and take on professional roles that may not be available to them yet within their own companies.”

Ravare Browne is proud that ALPFA is able to develop leaders who can then go on to work for some of the biggest companies in the world. “We provide talent to major corporations and they view ALPFA as the premier organization for recruiting Latinos in accounting, business, and finance,” she said. “On the other hand, we also bring in the best of the best in executive leadership to our programming. Our members are exposed to top leaders from many different industries.”

Women of ALPFA is one of ALPFA’s core programs that was established about ten years ago and has been instrumental in developing Latina business leaders through networking, training, and development. “We are continuing to expand our programs to serve our female members,” said Ravare Browne. She noted that fifty percent of ALPFA’s national chapters have female presidents.

ALPFA began as a professional organization that evolved to include programs for students at the high school, community college, and university levels. ALPFA also has over 2,000 members who are in graduate school. “We have outreach programs that impact all levels of the pipeline,” said Ravare Browne.

Career Advancement Tools for Latino Business Leaders

According to Ravare Browne, any non-dominant group will face challenges in their professional careers. The mission of ALPFA is to equip Latino business leaders with the tools they need to advocate for themselves and move forward in their careers. “Communication and relationship building are two hurdles that our members encounter, especially our student members,” said Ravare Browne. “Learning how to network as a professional in a room can be intimidating for anyone. It is a common anxiety, but a very real one that can hold someone back in their career if they don’t master these skills.”

One of ALPFA’s goals is to have a positive impact on the percentage of Latino leaders at the highest corporate levels. This underrepresentation results in a somewhat limited network for emerging leaders in the Latino business community. Ravare Browne said, “ALPFA helps to tighten these networks and helps members facilitate valuable business relationships and connections.”

Ravare Browne places a lot of emphasis on the importance of sponsors to the career advancement of high potential talent, and this is a message she works hard to deliver to the members of ALPFA. “Many of our members don’t have that inside edge, so we provide mentoring and coaching in addition to connecting them with individuals who will be sponsors for them within their own companies,” explained Ravare Browne.

She continued, “Culturally, it is not common for Latinos to self-promote themselves. By creating this mentoring and sponsorship concept within the organization, it helps them to see the importance of having both in order to advance in their career.”

Going forward, Ravare Browne hopes that ALPFA will continue to grow and evolve as much as it has since it was established 41 years ago. By continuing to focus on building strong executive leadership programs, she is confident that ALPFA will be increasingly instrumental in ushering strong Latino business leaders through the leadership pipeline over the next 40 years and beyond.

The Glass Hammer is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month by featuring profiles of Hispanic Women Business Leaders all week long!

By Michelle Hendelman, Editor-in-Chief

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Voice of Experience: Kelly Brennan, Managing Director, Securities Division, Goldman Sachs

Kelly BrennanThe Glass Hammer is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month by featuring profiles of Hispanic Women Business Leaders all week long!

Kelly Brennan, Managing Director in the Securities Division at Goldman Sachs, graduated from UC Berkeley with a Liberal Arts degree and a minor in Biology. Her intention at the time was to follow the Pre-Law or Pre-Med track. Instead, Brennan decided to go to the financial industry right out of college when she accepted a position as a junior trader at Susquehanna Trading Group.

“I was one of three women in the incoming class of fifty-five people,” recalled Brennan. She continued, “As a junior trader, I was the only woman at the desk and I learned pretty quickly that instead of trying to fit in by thinking and acting like the men, I could have a true competitive advantage by approaching things in a slightly different way.” As a woman in this male-dominated culture, Brennan realized that she could bring a unique perspective to the table.

Brennan noted, “I learned very early how to lead with content and this has helped me at every level of my career, from being a junior trader to more senior roles.”

At Susquehanna International Group (SIG), Brennan moved her way up the ranks from assistant trader to trader, eventually becoming the only female specialist at SIG on the NYSE. In 2005, Brennan joined Goldman Sachs as an Associate in the Prime Brokerage area on the Securities Lending desk. She was promoted to a Vice President in 2006, and then to Managing Director in 2010.

Brennan pointed out that throughout her career there have been many small achievements as well as a few very poignant moments. “One of the proudest moments of my career happened earlier this year when I returned to work after my first maternity leave. I heard a lot of feedback about how my team had really stepped up while I was out. It was rewarding to hear that the team that I helped to recruit, train, and mentor had not just survived while I was out but managed to push the business forward and excel in my absence. It was validating to see that my role in that was valued and acknowledged.”

The evolution of technology and its application to the trading world is one thing that excites Brennan about the future of financial services. “It leaves a lot of room for innovation in trading and thinking about how we communicate information to our clients via a whole new mechanism of technology that we haven’t seen before in the industry,” said Brennan. She is enthusiastic about building new trading platforms based on new technologies.

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Voice of Experience: Yvonne Garcia, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Client Solutions, Investment Manager Services, State Street Corporation

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The Glass Hammer is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month by featuring profiles of Hispanic Women Business Leaders all week long!

yvonne_garciaBy Michelle Hendelman, Editor-in-Chief

Yvonne Garcia, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Client Solutions for Investment Manager Services at State Street Corporation, wishes she understood the value of professional networking and the reward associated with giving back early in her career. Although the knowledge of these important factors came along with experience, Garcia is building a strong foundation for her career on these professional tenets.

She explained, “It is at this point that it truly sinks in that you need to have access to resources, connections to decision makers, and supporters, as they will be critical throughout your professional and personal journey.”

Garcia is a true example of a professional woman who is being proactive in making sure future generations have access to the resources she identified as being so valuable to career advancement at any level. In addition to her SVP role at State Street, Garcia also serves as the National President for ALPFA, the largest Latino Professional Business Organization in the United States.

Career Path

Prior to joining State Street, Garcia served as the Director in Marketing and Distribution Strategy for Liberty Mutual’s Agency Corporation. In this role, she had the opportunity to contribute to the growth and development of new products and channels. Additionally, she was responsible for organizing a global team to ensure that all team members were delivering a consistent message true to Liberty Mutual’s brand.

Previously, Garcia also served as Vice President for Bank of America’s China Construction Bank Strategic Assistance. In this role, Garcia, along with her team, successfully created and implemented over eighty wealth management centers all throughout China. As a fully certified Six Sigma Black Belt, Garcia develops and adheres to well-planned processes and strategies and prides herself on delivering value to her clients at State Street using new approaches that are not typical within the financial industry.

In her current role at State Street, Garcia is primarily responsible for developing new client relationships, deploying cutting-edge technology and operational processes, and delivering complex consulting engagements for existing and potential State Street clients. She formulates client-focused strategies that enhance ROI for the prestigious list of the global clients she serves and creates business value for State Street.

She is particularly excited about the internal and external opportunities associated with operating a global business. Garcia said, “One area I am interested in right now is how to foster corporate cultures that encourage intelligent risk-taking behavior and how best to lead that change and get others to realize the necessity of this given the global shift in demographics (i.e. age, culture and ethnicity).”

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Voice of Experience: Deborah Hammalian, Chief Compliance Officer, ING U.S. Investment Management

debbie_hammalian_ingBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

According to Deborah Hammalian, Chief Compliance Officer of ING U.S. Investment Management, setting career goals can help propel you forward. “Select a few goals and map the path for each. Identifying the path is a very powerful advantage toward reaching a goal.”

But, not everyone starts their career with a clear goal in mind – Hammalian included. Even still, she says, don’t stand still. “Have a clear goal, but don’t stop if you don’t.”

Hammalian began her career as a product support specialist, and her desire to grow and learn brought her to the legal and compliance world. Then, within a few years of starting out, her industry was in turmoil and her company was facing a huge round of layoffs. Nevertheless, she stayed flexible, and found a niche that suited her well. “My ability to adapt to and manage change has been a key to my professional growth,” she said.

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Movers and Shakers: Karen Catlin, Developing powerful women leaders in the tech industry

working on a computerIn college, Karen Catlin chose to major in computer science at Brown University, despite the fact that she was not extremely familiar with computers. But as it turned out, Catlin discovered early on that she enjoyed the challenge presented to her through her computer science studies. “I enjoyed solving problems and I loved math, so it was a nice combination that allowed me to explore problem solving techniques based on mathematics,” said Catlin.

After a successful career working as a senior executive in the technology industry, Catlin is now focused on making sure women working in tech today have the resources to be successful. “I want to make sure women in tech are not opting out of the industry for the wrong reasons,” explained Catlin. “I want women to feel empowered, educated, and encouraged to have the career that they aspire to.”

Highlights in Catlin’s Career

After graduating, Catlin accepted a job at Brown researching hypertext, which was an innovative function at the time. “This was a great opportunity for me get involved with this research that was growing at the time,” explained Catlin.

Catlin moved to London with her husband, who is originally from England. Here she had the opportunity to work at a Hitachi Research Lab that was based in the UK. “It was a great experience not only working in the UK, but also working for a Japanese firm,” Catlin said. “I highly recommend that everyone gains some international experience if they can. It teaches you the skills that you need in order to be effective in different environments and different cultures.”

Although her experience working abroad allowed Catlin to gain valuable knowledge and add essential skills to her toolkit, she and her husband, who is a software developer, both felt like if they were going to work seriously in the technology industry, there was only one place for them to be. So, they packed their bags and headed back to the US with their sights set on Silicon Valley.

Catlin immediately found a job working for Go Corporation, a company that was working on tablet technology long before anyone else. She recalled being intimidated at the time even though she had a great technical background and education in technology. “If I knew the term ‘Impostor Syndrome’ at the time, I would have definitely said that I had it,” said Catlin. “I wasn’t sure I was up to getting an engineering job, so instead I got a job writing software and documentation that would teach other engineers how to write code.”

While she loved teaching other engineers, Catlin also discovered that she also enjoyed the challenge of getting things organized. She explained, “At the time Go was experiencing a lot of changes to their software specs, and they needed someone to guide the development team through this process. So I become involved in technical project management. I transitioned from being a software engineer to a manager at that point.”

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Voice of Experience: Deborah Lorenzen, COO, BK University, BNY Mellon

deb_lorenzen_smBy Michelle Hendelman, Editor-in-Chief

Deborah Lorenzen, COO, BK University, BNY Mellon, recently celebrated her 20th anniversary with BNY Mellon. This milestone is enriched by a career that has been fundamentally involved in the growth, development and enrichment of the company’s structure, business strategies and corporate culture.

Lorenzen has taken on roles in many different disciplines, locations and business units at BNY Mellon including special projects, program management, and Corporate Trust. She’s worked in San Francisco, New York, Edinburgh and London. Now in her latest role as COO of BK University, Lorenzen hopes to be part of an exciting new era of transformative change at the global financial services company. BNY Mellon provides services and solutions across the investment lifecycle.

The roots for BK University and Lorenzen’s involvement in the project were actually planted in the late nineties when she received an unexpected phone call at her desk. “One day my phone rang and it was Gerald Hassell, who had just become president of the company. He was calling because he wanted someone who could figure out how to launch a corporate University. And it took some time to get here, but I am now the COO of BK University. At the time, we weren’t ready for this on an institutional level, but now we are,” recalls Lorenzen.

On Defining a Career Path

When she looks back at her career path, Lorenzen agrees that it was not the most linear. However, she feels that her deep vault of experiences is what has shaped her and prepared her for her current role. Lorenzen said, “My interests are in how we run this company and becoming part of the leadership team that helps drive this company forward. Perhaps there could have been a more direct career path, but for me it was really important to understand a number of different disciplines and to be a more effective and well-rounded leader with the perspective to go along with the global nature of our business.” She continued, “Every single opportunity I took has helped me to understand our business more deeply.”

For Lorenzen, taking advantage of the opportunities presented to her throughout her career has contributed to her success at BNY Mellon. “I believe the greatest risk you can take in your career is to stand still,” said Lorenzen, “You have to move and you have to put yourself out of your comfort zone because that is the only way you learn. You don’t regret the things that you do. You may regret the things you don’t do.”

Impacting the culture of her company in a positive way is something that has always been a source of pride for Lorenzen. “One of the things I am most proud of is the time that I have spent connecting people,” explained Lorenzen. “I once spent six months in Edinburgh working with 400 employees of a business we had just acquired. I helped them understand how we got things done in this organization and explained the culture of our company. I enjoy making those linkages for people so that they can be more successful.”

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Intrepid Woman: Robin Morgan, Co-Founder Women’s Media Center and Host of “Women’s Media Center Live with Robin Morgan” Radio Show

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robin_morganBy Michelle Hendelman, Editor-in-Chief

“Despite all of the myths of women’s competitiveness, we know how to stick together,” said Robin Morgan. To Morgan, this is one of the things that make women so special. “Solidarity is not just an abstraction to women,” she continued, “it’s a practical reality, day in and day out.” It is this unique element, according to Morgan, that keeps the women’s movement going strong in the 21st century.

Morgan stated, “I am extremely proud of the fact that I have had the opportunity to be a political activist in what is the most important social and political movement on the planet, at this point in history.”

Forging Her Own Path in Activism

Morgan explained, “I had been active in the antiwar movement and in the Civil Rights movement during the sixties and seventies, and like many young women I assumed we were all fighting for equality for everyone. I thought we were going to march with our brothers, arm-in-arm, toward this great revolutionary transformation– only to find that it didn’t include women.”

She continued, “Women were expected to make coffee, not policy. It was a complete mirror image of the patriarchy we were supposed to be fighting.” This realization was a radicalizing experience for Morgan, and influenced her involvement in founding the first feminist caucus in the Civil Rights organization SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), together with now-Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton. Morgan and women in other feminist caucuses of New Left groups faced staunch opposition from men, who pelted them with tomatoes, eggs, and even rocks when they tried to speak in meetings. This backlash was a major catalyst for Morgan’s decision to distance herself from what she came to refer to as the “male left.”

Another key moment for Morgan occurred in 1968, when the Democratic National Convention was being held in Chicago, and was expected to draw (and did) a significant amount of protest activity from radical groups. Instead of joining these protests, Morgan had already decided to organize what would become a historical protest at the annual Miss America Pageant. Here, during this nationally televised event, Morgan and other members of New York Radical Women brought attention to the Women’s Movement by outwardly protesting against symbols of female oppression.

In her final public display of separation from the male left, Morgan published a piece in an underground newspaper, entitled, “Goodbye to All That,” in which she named popular male leaders of the left and called them out for their degradation of women being no different than men of the odious right. “Being a writer, first and foremost, the pen was my most powerful tool. Depending on how you look at it, this piece became very famous–or infamous,” said Morgan.

“That shut the door,” she recalled. From here, Morgan went on to publish Sisterhood Is Powerful, one of the most popular and critically acclaimed books of the 20th century. Many people credit this collection of women’s essays with starting contemporary American feminism.

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