Women Reaching for the Top: Initiatives for Media Leadership

This project was designed for women journalists in mid-level positions in print, broadcast and Internet media in the United States. More than 160 women took part in six leadership development workshops held in Boston, Miami, New York, San Francisco and Washington, DC, from February 2002 – June 2003.

The initial series of workshops, Women Reaching for the Top: Initiatives for Media Leadership, covered a range of leadership issues, including assertiveness, risk-taking and managing workplace relationships. The final workshop, Taking the Lead: Building Your Influence in the Newsroom, built on the skills and information from the earlier workshops. It included sessions on personal leadership development, coaching and performance management and team-building.

The IWMF's Online Training Center offers a self-directed leadership training course based on the content of the Women Reaching for the Top workshops. A second online course, based on Taking the Lead will be added later this year.

Funding for these workshops has been provided by the McCormick Tribune Foundation and the Philip L. Graham Fund, with additional support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Center for Public Leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, JPMorgan Chase, Knight Ridder, The Miami Herald and the San Francisco Chronicle.