Rep. Maxine Waters joins the Women’s Media Center board of directors

Rep. Maxine Waters joins the Women in Media board of directors.

Maxine Waters thegrio.com
Maxine Waters speaks onstage during the 2018 Women's Media Awards (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Women's Media Center)

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) delivered the closing remarks at the 2018 Women’s Media Center Awards held at Capitale in New York City on November 1st.

Hosted by three-time Emmy-winning anchor and producer Soledad O’Brien, hundreds of guests gathered to celebrate the outstanding leaders and champions for women in media, including Lisa Borders, Abigail Disney, Fatima Goss Graves, Cindy Holland, Maria Teresa Kumar, and Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal.

Past WMC honorees include Hillary Clinton, April Ryan,  Luvvie Ajayi, Christiane Amanpour, Ursula Burns, and Barbara Walters.

“The WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER has spent over a decade training women leaders to be heard, seen, and read in online, on-air, and print journalism, and also researching and exposing sexism and racism in media,” says Gloria Steinem, co-Founder of the WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER. “Our awards will celebrate Lisa Borders on her first day on her new job as the first president and CEO of Times’s Up and Fatima Goss Graves, CEO of the National Women’s Law Center and director of the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund. They are a testament to the power of #MeToo, as is WMC’s 15-month investigation on how the movement has affected press coverage of sexual assault. This report, and others we produce, help shine a light on the under-representation and misrepresentation of women in media and the important work WMC does on behalf of all women.”

The Women’s Media Center previously announced that Congresswoman Waters will join its Board of Directors. Throughout her 37 years of public service, Auntie Maxine – as she has affectionately been dubbed by Black Twitter – has gained a reputation as a fearless and outspoken advocate for women, children, people of color and the poor.

Women of note

Representing California’s 43rd Congressional District for over 23 years, Waters is considered one of the most powerful women in American politics. If Democrats win the midterm elections Waters will be in charge of the country’s finances, as chairmanship of the Financial Services Committee, and she has warned banks, insurance companies and Wall Street that it’s going to be payback time.

Amongst this year’s winners is Lisa Borders who recently became first President and CEO of Time’s Up. Borders is the former President of the National Women’s Basketball Association (WNBA) and was honored with the WMC Carol Jenkins Award. Borders is responsible for bringing an increased interest and visibility to women’s sports and financial opportunities to the women in the league during her tenure.

The WMC was founded in 2005 by Jane Fonda, Gloria Steinem and Robin Morgan. The organization’s main objective is to ensure diversity and inclusion are more than buzz words and that women receive equal coverage and representation as experts, bookers, producers, journalists and in front of and behind the camera.

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