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Glennon Doyle addresses the fifth annual Women’s Symposium sponsored by the League of Women in Government on Sept. 21.
Author Glennon Doyle was the featured speaker for the fifth annual Women’s Symposium sponsored by the League of Women in Government, which kicked off the Annual Conference of the International City/County Management Association on Sept. 21.
Doyle touched on a range of subjects during the hour-long interview-style session, including how girls are taught to internalize their feelings and learn how to please others, and how important it is to bring emotion back both at home and in the workplace.
Another focus was how her 18 years of sobriety has shaped who she is. She encouraged attendees not to “avoid the stillness” and to take time with their thoughts and work through what’s hard and uncomfortable – the only way that growth happens.
She also discussed her wife, Abby Wambach, whom she met and married after living in an unhappy marriage for many years.
Doyle’s bestselling books include this year’s “Untamed” and 2016’s “Love Warrior,” which was an Oprah’s Book Club selection. She is active in a number of causes, including gender and racial diversity. She helped to organize Share the Mic Now, an initiative where 50 white actors, authors and well-known personalities handed over their social media platforms to 50 Black women for a day in June. She said every person she contacted agreed to participate and help amplify Black women’s voices.
Doyle discussed her own experiences being in a room (or a Zoom screen) where she was in the minority as a woman, and how she learned how to speak up even when it’s difficult. Doyle urged attendees to stop “making it comfortable” and speak up when someone is being marginalized.
The League of Women in Government is a national organization supporting the advancement of women in local government.
Following Doyle’s presentation, more than 30 Massachusetts members of Women Leading Government, the state affiliate of the League of Women in Government, met remotely for a lively discussion of Doyle’s presentation and book.
Women Leading Government is an initiative of the Massachusetts Municipal Management Association. Its mission is the same as the League of Women in Government: to support and advance women in appointed positions at every level of local government.
The ICMA counts more than 200 Massachusetts leaders as members, and Lexington Town Manager Jim Malloy took office as ICMA president during the virtual Annual Conference.