Articles Tagged with: leadership

SFC Congratulates Pallavi Pande of Dtocs LLC for Placing in SEED SPOT’s Retail Brand Accelerator

Green, sustainable, environment-friendly – these are just some buzzwords that brands often use to market their products to eco-conscious consumers.

Unfortunately, the reality is that not all brands that spout these words actually walk their talk.

Not Pallavi Pande, though – she’s an entrepreneur who really walks her talk. As the founder of Dtocs LLC, she produces disposable tableware that is 100% safe for the environment. The production process itself is sustainable and supports communities in the US and India, Pallavi’s home country.

So, it’s not surprising that Pallavi has secured a place in SEED SPOT’s Retail Brand Accelerator. It’s training that will take her brand far and strengthen Dtocs LLC’s community impact even more.

Congratulations, Pallavi!

SEED SPOT empowers founders to succeed in the mass retail market.

The SEED SPOT Retail Brand Accelerator is a dynamic program designed to nurture established founders looking to scale their business in mass retail. The program focuses on founders in the consumer-packaged goods market and provides them with an intensive 10-week training.

This training helps participants refine their sales approach, expand their supply chain and inventory capacities, comply with regulations, and build a standout brand. Virtual workshops and personalized one-to-one mentorship make up the bulk of this training.

The Retail Brand Accelerator is funded by the Walmart.org Center for Racial Equity, Walmart’s philanthropic endeavor to uplift BIPOC communities in education, finance, health, and criminal justice.

Dtocs LLC offers more than just sustainable tableware.

With Pallavi joining the SEED SPOT Retail Brand Accelerator, it’s clear that her Dtocs LLC brand is headed for growth. And if there’s a company that should grow as big as it can and gain as much attention as possible, it’s Dtocs LLC.

Why? It’s because the company greatly impacts the community it serves.

Dtocs LLC manufactures single-use tableware. But they’re nothing like the disposable tableware we see in supermarkets, typically made with plastics and other toxic materials.

Here’s why they’re different:

They’re made using the fallen leaves and shed sheaths of Areca palms. These are usually considered waste materials. Instead, the local farmers in India with whom Dtocs works collect them to be processed into tableware. No part of the living Areca palm is harmed or cut during the process.
They’re processed using an eco-friendly system. From drying to shaping to packaging, the process that these Areca shedding goes through to become single-use tableware poses no harm to the environment. Renewable energy sources power the machines used. The raw materials are cleaned with fresh water. The products are packed with sustainable cardboard.
They’re durable and stylish. Many factors prevent the typical consumer from using eco-friendly disposable tableware. Many consider them not as durable as plastics. People who are conscious of plating and dining table aesthetics may not like how these disposables look. Because they’re made with Areca palms, Dtocs tableware doesn’t crumble easily, even when holding liquids. They also come in stylish shapes and forms.
They’re biodegradable. After you’ve used these palm-leaf dinnerware, you can safely throw them in the bin or even add them to your compost. They will degrade in a few days. So they won’t contribute to the growing garbage problem that the world is facing today.

Their products are not the only things that set Dtocs LLC apart. The company employs women artisans in India to manufacture their products, empowering them to provide for their families and live better lives.

Additionally, Dtocs LLC uses a portion of its earnings to give back to its communities. They’ve partnered with non-profits in India to provide livelihood for women and fund the education of underprivileged children. They also contribute towards equal education opportunities for underrepresented students in Portland.

Pallavi Pande is an inspiration to women entrepreneurs.

Without a doubt, Pallavi embodies the definition of a successful business owner. Her company is thriving and scaling for further growth. Her brand is solid and gaining recognition. And she fulfills her role as a leader by giving back to her communities.

Pallavi’s achievements are more remarkable because she did all of these as a woman from a minority group. While much has been accomplished to secure women’s place in business in the last few decades, it goes without saying that women entrepreneurs still face challenges that men don’t. The stakes get even higher when she is also a woman of color.

Pallavi overcame these challenges. A self-described mompreneur, she also found a way to balance building a successful company and nurturing a family. That’s not an easy feat.

We salute and congratulate Pallavi Pande of Dtocs LLC for her current and future successes. She’s someone we can all admire and emulate, no matter what stage we are in our respective entrepreneurial journeys.

Sacred Fire Creative helps women business owners maximize their entrepreneurial potential through innovative digital marketing strategies and authentic relationship-building with their audiences. Contact us today, and let’s see how we can collaborate.

SFC congratulates the winners of the 2024 SEDCOR Annual Awards

SFC Congratulates 2024 SEDCOR Annual Awards Winners

At Sacred Fire Creative, we’re all about community over competition. So, we’re always thrilled to see other businesses in the community be recognized for their achievements.

With that, we extend our hearty congratulations to the winners of the 2024 SEDCOR Annual Awards:

Agri-business of the Year: Ruddenklau Farms
Business Partner of the Year: Elise Yarnell Hollamon
Community Leadership Award: Marin Arreola III
Community Service Award: Juli Foscoli, CDP, CBT of South Town Glass
Entrepreneur of the Year: Revino
Innovative Product/Process: Canopii Inc.
Outstanding Public/Private Partnership: The Fly Salem Initiative (City of Salem, Salem Area Chamber of Commerce, Salem Aviation Fueling & Travel Salem)
Small Business of the Year: Blue Raeven Pie Company
Manufacturer of the Year: The Ulven Companies

These businesses and individuals are more than achievers – they are an inspiration to the community. They’re a testament to what can happen when dreams are combined with intention, hard work, and passion.

Congratulations to these winners!

About the SEDCOR Annual Awards

The SEDCOR Annual Awards is an initiative by the Strategic Economic Development Corporation (SEDCOR) to recognize outstanding efforts that impact economic growth in Willamette Valley.

The initiative is part of SEDCOR’s mandate to build and strengthen partnerships with industry leaders, nonprofits, local governments, state and federal agencies, educational institutions, and other parties to create and cultivate economic opportunities within the region.

The 2024 iteration of the SEDCOR Annual Awards is sponsored by Saalfeld Griggs and Business Oregon. The awards given to the winners are a collaboration between Maganda Glassworks and Zena Forest Products.

At Sacred Fire Creative, we help entrepreneurs step up to their greatness through authentic branding, creative storytelling, and building solid relationships with their audience. Contact us today and let’s see how we can collaborate.

Maya Angelou: The Power of Words

“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” – Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou hardly needs an introduction. She is a beloved American author, civil rights activist, screenwriter, dancer, and poet. She is best known for her acclaimed 1969 memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the first installment of her seven-volume autobiography. For this work, she made history when it became the first non-fiction bestseller by an African-American woman.

Angelou was born as Marguerite Johnson in 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. She and her brother moved to Arkansas to live with her grandmother when she was three. When she was eight years old, she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. When Angelou told her uncles about what happened, they attacked and kicked the perpetrator until he died.

This incident made Angelou realize the power of words and how her speaking out about the crime brought about death. For the next five years, she stopped speaking. Her autobiography recounted, “I thought, my voice killed him; I killed that man, because I told his name. And then I thought I would never speak again, because my voice would kill anyone.”

Civil Rights Activist

After a few years, Angelou moved to San Francisco with her brother and mother. At 16, she gave birth to a son and did odd jobs to support him. Among these jobs was dancing at a nightclub. A theater group discovered her through her dancing and cast her in her first play, Porgy and Bess. This casting changed her life. She toured Europe as part of the cast, recorded her first album, and sang in an off-Broadway review.

In the late 1950s, Angelou became active in the civil rights movement. She worked with Dr. Martin Luther King as a fundraiser and organizer. In the early 60s, she moved with her son and then-partner to Africa to focus on family. There, she met and became close friends with Malcolm X.

Malcolm X convinced her to return to the US and help him with his own civil rights organization. After his and Dr. King’s later assassination, she decided to devote her energy to writing. This led to the publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which brought her international fame.

Literary Powerhouse

Angelou also went on to become a renowned poet, screenwriter, and composer. One of her most famous poems is “Still I Rise,” which is about the resilience of Black people. Her screenplay for the movie Georgia, Georgia became the first produced screenplay by a Black woman. She acted on film and TV, directed theater, and wrote prolifically.

In the 1980s, She became a professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in North Carolina and continued being an influential literary powerhouse. At President Bill Clinton’s first inauguration in 1993, Angelou recited her poem, “On the Pulse of Morning.”

Throughout her life, she received several honors. In 2005 and 2008, she received NAACP Image Awards in the outstanding literary work category. She also won three Grammy Awards in the Spoken Word Album category in the 90s. Until her death, Angelou was closely associated with celebrity talk show host and publisher Oprah Winfrey. Through Oprah’s shows, they brought Angelou’s work to millions of people. Oprah considered her “my mentor, mother/sister, and friend since my 20s.”

In 2014, Maya Angelou passed away at 86 years old. She remains a beautiful inspiration and role model to women worldwide for her resilience, grace, and calm confidence. While she was not a loud or showy character, her mere presence brought unspoken strength that we can all emulate. As Oprah said, the greatest lesson that Angelou taught her was, “You are enough!” These are wise words that all women from all walks of life can live by and put into action in our lives.

Sacred Fire Creative honors women who worked to influence significant change in their world in this #WomenWhoMatter series. Do you want to be a woman who affects positive change in your community? Let’s help you make this change.

5 Ways Women Leaders Are Transforming the Post-Pandemic Workplace

A lot has happened since the world went on lockdown in 2020. But we can say that one of the more positive developments that came out of that period is it created more room for women leaders to rise up in the workplace.

Of course, a lot of work still needs to be done for women to experience true gender equity and inclusivity in the workplace. Still, the women who are leaders now are trying to close the existing gaps.

Here are five ways women leaders are transforming the workplace to make it more inclusive in post-pandemic 2022.

1. More women-led companies rising

A recent Gusto survey reported that 5.4 million new businesses opened in 2021. The survey found that women started 49% of those new businesses, compared to just 28% in 2019. The women who responded to the survey shared different reasons for becoming entrepreneurs, including:

Getting laid off from work due to the pandemic
Finding new opportunities
Seeking more flexible hours so they can balance work with childcare
Seeking better financial security

Ownership allows women to build their companies according to their ideals. Many women entrepreneurs take the opportunity of owning a business to deliver the kind of employee experience they didn’t enjoy at their former workplaces.

2. Move toward compassionate leadership

Women emerged as excellent leaders during the Covid-19 crisis. We only need to look at the examples set by New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern, Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen, and Germany’s Angela Merkel. A 2020 research also showed that companies led by women have fared better during the pandemic than those led by men.

This is because women are more likely to exercise compassionate, people-centered leadership than men. When handling complex tasks, women tend to weigh the social cost of their decisions before executing them. And they are not afraid to show vulnerability to those they lead. Compassionate leadership is a significant driver of employee engagement. The more engaged employees are, the more invested they become in a company’s growth through good and not-so-good times.

3. Empathetic and family-centered support at work

According to a 2021 joint research by McKinsey and LeanIn.org, women leaders are exerting more effort to promote employee well-being in the first place. This can be as simple as asking staff members how they are doing and as complicated as removing obstacles that keep them from doing their best work.

As mentioned earlier, women started their own businesses in 2021 because they needed to be more flexible in balancing work with childcare. Women business owners are aware that the brunt of childcare and running the household still falls on female shoulders. Thus, they are more likely to provide more flexible work arrangements in the office, including remote work and benefits like paid and extended parental leaves.

4. Active DEI work

The same McKinsey and LeanIn.org research found that women leaders are more active in championing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace. Some 54% of women occupying senior-level positions spend time doing DEI work, compared to 46% of men on the same level. Additionally, 38% of women executives mentor at least one woman of color.

CultureAmp reports that more work needs to be done to advance DEI in the workplace. Issues such as mental health and healthcare for trans employees need to be addressed. Also, groups like returning parents, veterans, caregivers, and employees with disabilities remain underrepresented in DEI work. Still, more women work at the DEI frontlines, pushing for diversity and inclusion to become a reality.

5. Wage transparency

The gender wage gap isn’t going to close any time soon. In fact, the Economic Policy Institute reported that there’s been little progress in closing the wage gap in the last 30 years. Payscale also shared that women earned 82 cents for every $1 that men earned in 2021. The numbers didn’t change at the start of 2022.

These numbers may not seem encouraging. But wage transparency is a growing trend. It’s now seen as the number one solution for closing the wage gap, and women’s groups like Elpha are leading conversations on wage transparency.

There’s still a lot of work to be done for women to experience true gender equity and inclusivity in the workplace. But with more women leaders paving the way, we can look forward to more positive changes, not just in 2022 but in the future.

Sacred Fire Creative promotes positive change by incorporating DEI work in its digital marketing strategies. Do you want to be a brand that is a force for positive change? Work with us today.

Dolores Huerta Banner Sacred Fire Creative

Dolores Huerta: Labor Leader and Feminist Icon

“My mother was a dominant force in our family. And I always see her as the leader. And that was great for me as a young woman because I never saw that women had to be dominated by men.” – Dolores Huerta

Dolores Huerta is a labor leader, civil rights activist, and feminist. Though many know her as the co-founder of the labor union United Farm Workers, Dolores has dedicated her life to pushing forward the rights of workers, women, and immigrants, first in California and later throughout the US. She is credited for popularizing the phrase “Si, se puede” or “Yes, we can,” a motto that former US President Barack Obama later adopted. At 92, she still actively fights for her causes through the Dolores Huerta Foundation.

Dolores was born in New Mexico on April 10, 1930, to Juan Fernandez and Alicia Chavez. Her parents divorced when she was three years old. Her mother then took her and her two brothers to live in a farming community in Stockton, California.

A Strong Woman’s Influence

Dolores’ father was a farm worker and coal miner who later became a union leader and state legislator in New Mexico. But it was her mother that influenced and inspired her to become an advocate for workers’ rights. Alicia Chavez supported her young family by working as a waitress and a cannery worker. Through hard work, she was able to buy a 70-room hotel and restaurant.

Dolores saw her mother as a community leader known for her compassion and generosity. Her mother often let immigrant farm workers and their families stay in her hotel for free. Through Alicia, Dolores learned that working toward equality and social justice without resorting to violence is possible. Her views were also shaped by the marginalization and gender bias she experienced as a young Hispanic woman.

In the 1950s, Dolores earned her teaching credentials from the University of the Pacific’s Stockton College and began work as an elementary school teacher. But when she saw so many farm children arriving hungry at school, she realized she could do more to help by organizing farm workers and farmers. She then left her teaching job and embarked on her lifelong crusade for workers’ rights.

A Life of Activism

In 1962, Dolores co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) with Cesar Chavez. The organization was the predecessor of United Farm Workers (UFW). UFW became prominent in the 1960s because of its involvement in the Delano grape strike. This five-year strike led to significant positive changes to California farm workers’ rights and welfare. Dolores later helped organize similar boycotts throughout the US in the 1970s. Through these boycotts, she helped create a national awareness and climate that led to the passage of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975. This was the first law that recognized the rights of California farmworkers to begin bargaining collectively for better wages and working conditions.

Dolores faced ethnic and gender bias throughout her life. Until 2018, she was the only woman to sit on the UFW board. In the 1960s, while traveling to New York City to promote the boycott against California table grapes, Dolores met noted feminist Gloria Steinem. She began to take a feminist approach to her activism after the meeting and shone a spotlight on the rights of women workers. In turn, Dolores influenced Steinem to expand the feminist movement to include issues faced by women of color.

In the 1990s and 2000s, Dolores championed women’s issues and worked to have more Latinos and women elected to political office. She notably endorsed Hillary Clinton’s presidential nomination in 2007 and served as honorary co-chair of the 2017 Women’s March on Washington in protest of the then-newly inaugurated president Donald Trump.

While her work kept her busy, Dolores raised a brood of 11 children. One son, Emilio Huerta, became a lawyer and politician. Her youngest daughter, Camilla Chavez, works as executive director for the Dolores Huerta Foundation.

No Signs of Slowing Down

Dolores received many honors and accolades for her advocacies. In 1998, President Bill Clinton awarded her the inaugural Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award. In 2012, President Barack Obama gave her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She has numerous schools and an asteroid named after her. She was also a board member of the Feminist Majority Foundation and the Secretary-Treasurer Emeritus of the United Farm Workers Association of America.

Despite her age, Dolores shows no signs of slowing down. She now works primarily through the Dolores Huerta Foundation. The foundation’s mission is to “inspire and organize communities to build volunteer organizations empowered to pursue social justice.” It has done this and much more. In 2015 at 85 years old, Huerta said, “As long as I have the energy and health, I am going to do as much as I can.”

Sacred Fire Creative honors exemplary women who worked to change the world in our series #WomenWhoMatter. Work with us to create exemplary changes in your own sphere of influence.

Sofia Ionescu-Ogrezeanu: First Female Neurosurgeon

“This operation changed my life for the next 47 years, as I became a neurosurgeon, turning 180 degrees away from what I had chosen for myself before, the quiet life of an internist in my hometown.” – Sofia Ionescu-Ogrezeanu

Few people are familiar with the name Sofia Ionescu-Ogrezeanu. Despite this, she holds a unique position in history. In 1944, when female doctors were relatively rare, she became the first female neurosurgeon in the world. She was only 24 years old.

Dr. Ionescu-Ogrezeanu was born in România on April 25, 1920. She decided to pursue becoming a doctor after one of her best friends died from an infection after brain surgery. Although female physicians were not the norm then, her mother supported her decision. She studied medicine in Bucharest between 1939 and 1945. At first, she planned to specialize in ophthalmology. However, the beginning of World War II would change this and the rest of her life.

During the war and between semesters, she volunteered to care for injured Soviet soldiers in Stamate Hospital in Fălticeni, Romania. There, she gained experience doing surgical operations, usually limb amputations that were common at the time. In 1943, she began work as an intern at Bucharest’s Hospital Nr. 9.

The following year, an 8-year-old comatose boy came in with severe injuries sustained in a bombing. Because of the war, the hospital was short-staffed, and Dr. Ionescu-Ogrezeanu had to perform emergency brain surgery on the boy herself. This operation transformed her life and officially made her the world’s first female neurosurgeon.

She spent the next 47 years of her life at Hospital Nr. 9, working as a surgeon. She was also part of the first neurological team in Romania that would later be known as “The Golden Neurosurgical Team.” Dr. Ionescu-Ogrezeanu performed all neurosurgical procedures available at the time. This exceptional team helped develop neurosurgery in Romania and had a lasting impact on the country’s healthcare system.

Dr. Ionescu-Ogrezeanu received many accolades and distinctions during her life as a doctor. She received the Red Cross Distinction Mark for her work and dedication early in her career. The World Health Organization also declared Dr. Sofia Ionescu-Ogrezeanu a hero, together with 65 other doctors who achieved exceptional marks in the medical profession. Dr. Ionescu-Ogrezeanu was also recognized and appreciated by her country and received the highest honor bestowed on a Romanian citizen, the Star of the Republic.

She died at 88 in Bucharest after many years of serving and caring for patients. Her influence opened many doors to medicine and neurosurgery for female doctors. While she may not be well-known outside the field of medicine, her global impact is undeniable.

Dr. Sofia Ionescu-Ogrezeanu’s passion for medicine and courage to do what no woman had done before her paved the way for other female doctors to pursue careers in neurosurgery. Her recognition as the world’s first female neurosurgeon inspires all women, not just doctors, worldwide.

Sacred Fire Creative honors women who have achieved the exceptional in their line of work in the series #WomenWhoMatter. Aspiring to achieve the exceptional in your business? Let’s work together to make your aspiration a reality.

Alicia Garza: Co-Founder of Black Lives Matter

“Change does not occur without backlash–at least any change worth having–and that backlash is an indicator that the change is so powerful that the opposing forces resist that change with everything they have.” – Alicia Garza

In 2013, a Black-centered political movement was born called Black Lives Matter. The movement started after George Zimmerman was acquitted for the death of Trayvon Martin the year before. Alicia Garza, along with Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi, was one of its founders. Since then, Black Lives Matter has transformed into a national movement dedicated to fighting racism and anti-Black violence.

While she is most well-known for helping transform Black Lives Matter from a hashtag into an international network, Alicia Garza was already an activist, strategist, and organizer. She has spent more than half her life bringing change to society through different venues. Alicia is also the host of the political commentary podcast “Lady Don’t Take No” and a co-founder of Supermajority. This voting advocacy hub brings women together as a political force transcending race, age, and background.

With over twenty years of experience as a strategist and organizer, Alicia decided to share her personal story through the book “The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart.” Here, she shares her experiences as an activist and beacon for change. The book focuses on sharing her story as an organizer and offers new perspectives to guide a new generation of young adults who want to change the world. Alicia describes the book as the book she would have liked to read when she started as a young organizer.

Alicia wears many hats – organizer, activist, author, podcast host, and more. However, her goal in all her endeavors remains the same – to bring change to the world around her. While she continues to advocate for change, she understands that there is still much to be done. She also understands that she is one person, and more than bringing change on her own, her role is to inspire others around her to work on transforming the world.

She shares, “For a long time, I did this work but wasn’t really hopeful about change. It sounds counterintuitive in some ways, but it happens to a lot of people, actually. You have to believe that change can happen if you are going to be a part of making change. That doesn’t mean we don’t hurt, that we don’t despair, that there isn’t grief—there is all of that. But there also must be a belief that we, too, can make the change we long for. It must be the thing that wakes us up in the morning, the thing we fall asleep thinking about.”

Alicia Garza is a true inspiration, not just for Black women, women, or Black people exclusively. She inspires people worldwide, regardless of race, gender, or nationality. Her dedication to bringing much-needed change and leaving the world a better place encourages others to do the same. How Alicia inspires others around her is her legacy, and this is the welcome impact she makes on society.

Sacred Fire Creative honors women who work to change the world in this #WomenWhoMatter series. If you want to create a lasting, positive impact on your tribe through your business, work with us.

Serena Williams: The GOAT of Women’s Tennis

“I don’t like to lose – at anything – yet I’ve grown most not from victories, but setbacks.” – Serena Williams

If you have access to TV or the Internet, you know who Serena Williams is. She is only one of the greatest tennis players of all time. In 2002, when she was only 21 years old, Serena was named the world’s number 1 singles tennis player by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA). Since then, she has gone on to win 23 Grand Slam singles titles, second only to the record of Australian tennis player Margaret Court.

Serena is known for her powerful style of play and excellent athleticism. She started her tennis career playing on public tennis courts in Los Angeles with her father. In 1995, she turned professional, one year after her equally famous sister Venus. In 1999, Serena won her first Grand Slam title at the US Open. Serena and Venus played as partners at the same tournament and won the doubles event. They have won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles together.

The living legend believes she, together with her sister, brought about significant change to the world of tennis. “We changed it from being two great Black champions to being the best ever, period. And that’s what we did. We took out color and just became the best. Records are proof, and that’s what it is,” she said in an interview.

No doubt about it, Serena and Venus changed the face of women’s tennis. From their sheer athleticism to their standout fashion choices while playing, they created an impact on the court that will last well after they retire. They have empowered other women athletes to do better and hit harder, no matter what other people might say.

Today, Serena is the proud mom of Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., her 4-year-old daughter with her husband, Alexis Ohanian. After a rough start to motherhood, which involved an emergency C-section and four surgeries within a week of becoming a mother, Serena has settled comfortably into her role as a doting parent. Although she is still an active tennis player, she has not joined recent tournaments and spends most of her time with her daughter and other endeavors.

“Despite my body’s wreckage – and the fact that I couldn’t get in much breastfeeding – connecting with Olympia at long last was amazing. It was both the reward and the validation for all I’d been through. I went from not being able to really imagine her in the womb to us being completely inseparable. I still feel like I have to be around her every day of her life, as much as possible. I’m anxious when I’m not around her,” Serena shared.

The quote we started with seems to sum up Serena’s life. While she is known for her victories, she has learned more from setbacks and failures. For every triumph, Serena faced countless hours of practice and a number of losses before finally getting that win. Even motherhood did not come easy for her. After her initial medical issues after giving birth, she came out stronger for it and with an even stronger bond with her daughter.

If you’re looking for inspiration to power through difficult challenges, look to Serena Williams and see how a young girl playing tennis on public courts grew up and became a world-class athlete.

Sacred Fire Creative honors women who change the world in this #WomenWhoMatter series. If you want to change your world and leave a lasting, positive impact on your tribe through effective digital marketing, work with us today.

Sanna Marin: Pushing for Social Equality in Finland

“The strength of a society is measured not by the wealth of its most affluent members, but by how well its most vulnerable citizens are able to cope. The question we need to ask is whether everyone has the chance to lead a life of dignity.” – Sanna Marin

This admirable quote from Sanna Marin sums up her brand of leadership, which has guided Finland for the past two years. Marin is known for being the youngest person to serve as the prime minister of Finland when she assumed the position at 34 years old. At the same time, she also became the world’s youngest state leader.

Marin became prime minister in 2019 after her predecessor resigned. This automatically earned her and her coalition government (at the time, her party’s leaders were all women, with the majority of them under the age of 35) global recognition. However, more than the fame of such a unique position, Marin would rather be known for pushing for equality.

The prime minister had a working-class upbringing and was raised by her mother and her mother’s same-sex partner. She had no interest in politics growing up and was the first person in her family to attend university. This is where she began to develop a consciousness of politics. She became a member of the youth wing of the Social Democratic Party, which started her journey to becoming prime minister.

She was an elected official of the Social Democrats and served as minister of transport and communications. However, when the Finnish prime minister at that time was accused of mishandling a pay dispute with the postal service, he stepped down, and Marin replaced him as prime minister.

From the beginning of her tenure as prime minister, Marin was respected for her focus on policy and known for her clear thinking. Her agenda focuses on improving the country’s social welfare program, social equality, and climate change issues. Although the global media tends to focus on her being a young female role model, Marin would instead turn the spotlight on the issues she values. These are crucial issues such as equality, closing the pay gap, and pledging to make Finland carbon neutral by 2035.

“We have long been pioneers in gender equality,” Sanna Marin says of her country. “So, maybe it’s not as big a deal in Finland as it would be somewhere else.”

Sacred Fire Creative honors women who serve the greater good. We help women in business become a force of good and create a lasting positive impact, not just in their businesses, but also in their communities. Contact us to learn more.