Women’s leadership is having a big moment not just in politics, but also in labor and worker justice movements in the United States. In the past three years, women of all races and leaders with diverse gender identities and sexual orientations have earned top spots in local, statewide, and national labor unions as well as other worker justice organizations. Our experts helped to inform a recent Associated Press article, “More Black and Latina women are leading unions–and transforming how they work,” highlighting new leadership, increases in union interest and membership, more family friendly worker benefits and gender-based protections.

WILL Empower (WE) is an intergenerational network of apprentices, emerging and executive leaders, mentors and advisors who work to advance racial, gender, and worker justice. We believe diverse decision-makers in worker justice movements should be so common, it is unremarkable! WILL Empower has been working to encourage more leadership in labor that represents a full spectrum of gender identities and even more leaders who emerge from communities of color. WE support courageous leaders who build power to remove persistent barriers to resources for our communities and who advance better conditions for all workers. 

When we launched this national leadership development program in 2017, the WILL in WILL Empower stood for Women Innovating Labor Leadership. After completing a gender and belonging process with members of the network, we decided on a new and more expansive tagline and image. Moving forward the WILL in WILL Empower stands for  “We Innovate Labor Leadership”.  

The beauty of WE is in the “who” is leading. WE are majority women and non-binary leaders of color; WE are lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, and cisgender heterosexual leaders; WE are people leading with disabilities; WE are Indigenous, descendants of enslaved peoples, recent immigrants and descendants of immigrant workers; WE range from young to seasoned leaders working towards economic, racial, disability, and gender justice. WE are so much more together.

The power of WE is in the “what we do” while leading. For instance, WE are incorporating ILO C-190 protections against gender-based violence and harassment in the world of work and in our labor spaces. WE are attracting hundreds of millions of dollars for climate justice, green energy and good jobs. WE are using labor communications experience for “Parálisis Cerebral Respuestas”, a Spanish-language podcast supporting caregivers and individuals seeking answers about Cerebral Palsy. WE are inspiring and staffing a surge in voter registration across the nation. WE are workers taking action across unions and sectors to find out “what could we win together” when we bargain for the common good.

We asked the network “What’s possible when WE are in leadership?” And here’s what a few of them had to say…

• Cherika Carter (she/her) Secretary-Treasurer of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO “I was elected by affiliates across the state who share a belief in the transformational work that we can do together as a labor movement to build power for working people. Our work is not only changing the lives of union members like us, but the lives of all workers, families, and communities.”

• Alejandra Beatty: (she / her)  President, Boulder (CO) Area Labor Council: “WE leadership will uplift and strengthen the voices of the most marginalized and bring forward powerful movements for change to build a more just and equitable society. Basically, we’re going to save the world and Mother Earth! “

• Fareeda C. Mabry (she/her) CWA District 1, Senior Campaign Lead :“When WE lead we empower, encourage and lift others up to show up in their lives as their true selves. When WE lead we create a strong network of powerful individuals across the country that are saving lives in our own individual spaces and in our own unique way.”

• Summer Ela Gobern (she/her/hers), Advancing Black Strategist Initiative, Jobs with Justice Research Labor Fellow: “All is possible when WE are in leadership! Having servant leaders that properly reflect the people they are serving not only heightens trust but positions us to have successful campaigns. Only then are WE able to build power, assemble our base, and strategize effective tactics to apply pressure on our targets” 

• Kim Dinh (they/them), SEIU International, Communications Program Manager: “An expansive future that we tend to and protect together”