While sitting through work meetings recently, 丽贝卡·富兰克林 ’20 couldn’t help notice something. “I was the only female in 99% of (the meetings),”她说。. 

It’s something she’s working to change. Franklin is teaching leadership skills in “Women Empowered to Rise,” a program she created as a doctoral student in 博彩平台网址大全’s Benerd大学. 

“Women tend to hold themselves back,富兰克林说。, an executive with California 住房 Finance Agency. “How do we get women to feel comfortable?” 

研究生阶段, credit-bearing program is a collaboration between Benerd and Junior League of Sacramento and is intended for any woman who wants to advance in leadership roles.

满足需求 

While the number of women in leadership positions is growing, it still lags behind men.  

According to re搜索 by McKinsey & 公司与学习.在美国，41%的经理都是这样做的.S. are women and only 24% in senior executive roles are women.

Franklin wants to “flood the candidate pool” by making women feel more confident and qualified to take on leadership positions.

“We're multitaskers, we have really good interpersonal skills, we're caring. 并不是说男人不喜欢, but I think women naturally excel in those things, and I think those are qualities of a great leader,富兰克林说。.

这门课已经起作用了.

希瑟Beckner, a senior environmental scientist at CalRecycle, directly attributes her recent promotion to being part of the first cohort of Women Empowered to Rise. 

“One thing I struggled with is imposter syndrome,贝克纳说, an experience in which people doubt their achievements and ability. “There were skills I learned from each of the modules, 但对我来说, the most important thing was it built my confidence.”

“I think that that's a very clear indicator of exactly the type of skills that we hope to build over the course of the nine modules,罗宾·斯泰尔斯说, executive vice president-elect for Junior League of Sacramento, which aims to develop women’s potential. “Having these conversations in a facilitated, 切磋, you're able to really more richly learn from each other.”

一个新的视角

在设计课程时, Franklin wanted to approach it from a different angle that considers the female perspective and focuses on each person’s strengths. 

“You are naturally gifted at certain things, and you're not as naturally gifted at other things, so how do we promote your talents?富兰克林说. 

Each module focuses on a different topic such as budgeting, innovation and diversity. 

They’re taught with what Franklin calls a “Benerd-unique” approach, presenting real-life problems and having participants actively work through them. 

Despite having years of leadership experience, 乔其特·亨菲尔德，90年, senior director of strategic philanthropic initiatives at Pacific, says she’s found immense value looking at leadership through a new lens.

“I learned so much because our community is evolving. The way in which we look at leadership is evolving,” said Hunefeld. The module that covered diversity, equity, and inclusion especially had an impact. “It was just so incredibly powerful because it allowed us to take a perspective that we might not have looked at before.”

That new perspective is leading to new opportunities; the women are building a network.

“Having a support system and having women leaders to look up to is really important,富兰克林说。, “especially now when we’re so dispersed and virtual.” 

“In my cohort we had women from Southern California all the way to New Orleans, and we have already set up a network where we will continue to work together,汉尼费尔德说. 

使其易于访问

There are two classes a month from January to November with a break in the summer. 

The course is held virtually on nights and weekends to make it accessible, something that was important to Franklin.

“We did a lot of re搜索 when building the program on what the barriers of access would be, 这是时间和金钱,”她说。.  

Stiles said women should feel comfortable no matter what their background. 

“There's no such thing as having a wrong perspective or wrong experience that you're bringing to the table,斯泰尔斯说. “It’s definitely formatted to be very accessible.”

Women who go through the course receive a certificate of completion as well as three units of credit that can be applied to a program within Benerd大学 if they want to further their education. 

It’s now enrolling its third cohort.

应用程序 for the 2022 session are being accepted through Dec. 20.