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Marie Wilson
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An advocate of women’s issues for more than 30 years, Marie C. Wilson is founder and President of The White House Project, co-creator of Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work ® Day and author of Closing the Leadership Gap: Why Women Can and Must Help Run the World (Viking 2004).

In 1998 while President of the Ms. Foundation for Women, Wilson founded The White House Project in recognition of the need to build a truly representative democracy -- one where women lead alongside men in all spheres. She left the Ms. Foundation in 2004 after two decades, to devote her full energy to The White House Project.

In honor of her work, the Ms. Foundation created The Marie C. Wilson Leadership Fund, which will be under her sole advisement. She is also an honorary founding mother of the Ms. Foundation for Women.

Since its inception, The White House Project has been a leading advocate and voice on women’s leadership. Under her stewardship, innovative research and initiatives have been hallmarks of the organization. Highlights of the last seven years include groundbreaking research on young women’s political participation, an analysis of women’s appearances as guests on the influential Sunday political talk shows, the convening of women CEOs and executives for two national leadership summits, a bi-coastal conference of international women leaders, a partnership with Girl Scouts to launch the Ms. President patch and initiatives to influence popular culture.

In conjunction with Wilson’s national book tour for Closing the Leadership Gap in 2004, she announced the launch of The White House Project’s Vote, Run, Lead™, providing a roadmap for addressing the issues she raises in her book. Through this innovative initiative, The White House Project equips women across the nation with the tools they need to vote, run and lead. In 2005, she launched The White House Project’s Invite a Woman to Run campaign which encourages the public to tap women they think are presidential material to run for the nation’s top political job or other important offices from school board to U.S. Congress.

Over the last thirty years, Wilson’s accomplishments span becoming the first woman elected to the Des Moines City Council as a member-at-large in 1983, co-authoring the critically acclaimed Mother Daughter Revolution (1993, Bantam Books), and serving as an official government delegate to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China in 1995. And in 2000, in conjunction with Mattel, Wilson brought the world President Barbie.

Wilson has been profiled in The New York Times “Public Lives” column, has appeared on The Today Show, CNN, National Public Radio and other national programs and is quoted widely for her expertise. Born and raised in Georgia, Wilson has five children and four grandchildren. She resides in New York City.

Blog Entries by Marie Wilson

The Best Mother's Day Present of All: Technology

(1) Comments | Posted May 10, 2012 | 9:01 AM

Ad inserts for Mother's Day gifts tumbled out of the New York Times last Sunday featuring the headline: "Latest Technology for Mom" -- iPads, cameras and computers. Not surprising, right? Women, after all, are a major market for this equipment.

An article by Laura Donovan in The Jane Dough,

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Men Behaving Badly: It's Not All Bad For Us

(10) Comments | Posted June 13, 2011 | 11:25 AM

This has not been a good month for men or women: The head of the International Monetary Fund stands accused of sexually assaulting a maid, which has brought to light other similar allegations against him. There's Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), whose name alone became a running joke after he tweeted...

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What About the Boys

(1) Comments | Posted April 28, 2011 | 12:10 PM

It was April 1993 on the very first Take Our Daughters to Work Day, of which I am a founding mother. I sat in front of the television after a long and satisfying day, watching media reports that documented a massive entrance by girls into the American workplace. What we...

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The Politics of Motherhood

(4) Comments | Posted February 25, 2011 | 10:42 AM

The front section of February 18th's edition of the New York Times is peppered with stories about women as mothers -- Sarah Palin is quoted as saying, characteristically, that women, and moms specifically, are most qualified for handling the trials of the American presidency. And Michele Bachmann criticizes Michelle Obama...

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Why Mo Mowlam Matters

(0) Comments | Posted February 3, 2011 | 12:30 PM

"Confidence. The one thing I have learned in government that makes a difference is to be confident. Now some people learn it at Cambridge and Oxford and public schools in England, but we've had to teach ourselves." - Marjorie "Mo" Mowlam

I have heard many wonderful and fascinating things come...

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A New Kind of Toughness?

(3) Comments | Posted August 16, 2010 | 2:56 PM

Ever since Sarah Palin captured the nation's attention with the juxtaposed images of her toting a baby and toting a hunting rifle, there has been a growing cadre of tough-as-nails women in our popular culture. We see it on the big screen in the popularity of Angelina Jolie's wild spy...

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The End of Men? Reports Are Greatly Exaggerated

(18) Comments | Posted June 24, 2010 | 11:15 AM

Hanna Rosin's cover story "The End of Men" has created quite a stir (The Atlantic July/August 2010). Attention-grabbing title aside, Rosin makes the case that women surpassing men in the labor force and in academic achievement is the tidal wave that will finally change the dynamics of power between the...

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One Giant Oil Rig

(27) Comments | Posted May 26, 2010 | 6:23 PM

I had never paid too much attention to oil rigs until sitting on a panel with Deborah Meyerson of Stanford University. She described research she had conducted with Robin Ely of Harvard that explored how focusing on safety on these dirty dangerous places had allowed men to abandon behaviors traditionally...

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Tackle Inequity --Take Your Children to Work

(6) Comments | Posted April 22, 2010 | 10:28 AM

Eighteen years ago, only days before the first annual Take Our Daughters to Work Day, the Ms. Foundation for Women received a call from a New York City high school teacher.

The teacher said she had lined up an internship for one of her bright female students in a...

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Tackle Inequity -- Take Your Children to Work

(1) Comments | Posted April 22, 2010 | 10:28 AM

Eighteen years ago, only days before the first annual Take Our Daughters to Work Day, the Ms. Foundation for Women received a call from a New York City high school teacher.

The teacher said she had lined up an internship for one of her bright female students in a...

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From Right to Wrong: Daycare, Abortion and a Health Care Bill with Women at the Center

(54) Comments | Posted December 22, 2009 | 3:57 PM

I was stirring a pot of spaghetti sauce; holding one toddler, while the other clung to my knees and three others under nine were racing around our small kitchen in Des Moines, Iowa. It was 1971 and I had been lobbying for a piece of national child care legislation, The...

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Sarah and I

(118) Comments | Posted November 21, 2009 | 1:33 PM

This week, Sarah Palin burst onto the national scene yet again, with Going Rogue hitting bookshelves across the country. Given the work that I've dedicated my life to -- advancing women to lead, alongside men -- I've been asked repeatedly on my thoughts about Palin. Sometimes, I'm reminded of the...

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Add Women and Prosper

(0) Comments | Posted November 9, 2009 | 2:50 PM

News last week of the establishment of The Women's Leadership Fund, created by Switzerland's Naissance Capital, Ltd made the financial world prick up their ears. Naissance has committed that the fund will only invest in companies with women in management and on their boards. The Fund will also take an...

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Why Dont You Do It, Honey?

(3) Comments | Posted October 28, 2009 | 9:47 AM

Almost 11 years ago, when I first started The White House Project, some of the top minds in politics, business, film, and journalism came together for our inaugural meeting in Boston. Our mission was ambitious: to profoundly advance women's leadership in the U.S., all the way to the presidency....

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The Gathering Storm of Republican Women

(14) Comments | Posted October 14, 2009 | 3:17 PM

When Sen. Olympia Snowe commented this week on translating the "empathy of your experience into legislation," she made a profound statement on what is currently missing in American politics. The pinnacle of such indifference to the average citizen's plight is seen today in the partisan stalling of health care. You...

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Women and the Recession: A Chance for Some Creative Destruction?

(4) Comments | Posted September 29, 2009 | 2:49 PM

Are women about to become the majority of the paid workforce? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women are on the cusp of outnumbering men on payrolls across America. While the percentage of men working or looking for employment has been dropping, the opposite phenomenon is occurring amongst women...

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From Franklin to Snowe, Women Take Charge to Take Care

(5) Comments | Posted September 22, 2009 | 1:55 PM

There's an old adage that says, "Men take charge while women take care." While the statement is more stereotype than salient truth, there's a spin that's taking root across the U.S. - women taking charge to take care.

From Mayor Shirley Franklin and Senator Olympia Snowe, to the thousands...

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The Battlefield to the Domestic Front: A Note on Women's Equality Day

(0) Comments | Posted August 26, 2009 | 9:22 AM

"We literally could not have fought this war without women."

That's what John Nagl, a retired lieutenant colonel, recently said about the contributions of female soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet he could just as easily have been commenting on World War I -- a victory supported...

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The Inspiration of a Confirmation: What Sotomayor Means for Women and Girls

(2) Comments | Posted August 6, 2009 | 8:09 PM

Earlier this summer, I traveled to my home state of Georgia to help train nearly 200 women to run for office. I was met with the customary excitement and energy that imbues our Go Run trainings -- dozens of diverse women who are eager to learn from and with...

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Inspiration From the Putting Green: A Call to Third Act Women

(3) Comments | Posted July 21, 2009 | 3:26 PM

I'm not a huge fan of golf; in general, my Sunday viewing tastes skew toward the news cycle, not the sports channel. Which is why I was surprised this weekend to find my eyes inadvertently glued to the screen as Tom Watson staked his historic claim to victory at...

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