No Time Out for This Troublemaker

Following Rachel Sklar (New York-based writer, entrepreneur and founder of Change the Ratio and The Li.st.) on Twitter, February 13, 2013.

JWA doesn’t just live online. Occasionally, we do things in real time, with real, flesh and blood people. Just a little less than a month from today, we will hold our Annual Awards Luncheon where we will honor three women, whom we fondly refer to as “troublemakers”: Rachel Sklar, Rachel Cohen Gerrol, and Bel Kaufman.

Let us begin with Rachel Sklar, New York-based writer and entrepreneur. Formerly a corporate lawyer, Rachel abandoned legal briefs in order to write about media, politics, culture, and technology. Editor-at-Large at Mediaite.com, her work has been published in the New York Times, Newsweek, The Daily Beast, and Glamour. Here at JWA we are particularly intrigued by Ms. Sklar’s gig co-hosting The Salon on the Jewish Channel.

What impresses us the most, however, is “Change the Ratio,” Rachel’s campaign to promote greater visibility and opportunity for women in tech and new media; we need all of us pulling in the same direction—towards recognition, equality, and success. Thank you, Rachel, for leading the charge!

A self-described “media addict,” Ms. Sklar has taken her Twitter account to a whole new level. At the time of this writing, she was just 25 clicks from having 37,000 followers and just 31 tweets short of a mindboggling 45,000 total tweets! As I cruised through her recent conversation history, one tweet in particular stood out:

rachelsklar ‪@rachelsklar‬‬‬
@JJColao @acavoulacos @meredithperry ...if you were looking for polite and patient, I may have under-delivered. But lucid I manage just fine.

Let me show you how brilliantly Rachel uses Twitter. This is helpful to know: @JJColoa (J.J. Coloa) is a male reporter for Forbes. @acavoulacos (Alexandra Cavoulacos) is a former management consultant and founder of The Daily Muse and compiler of Inc.com’s list of “15 Women to Watch in Tech” @meridithperry (Meredith Perry) is founder and CEO of UBeam, which sells a product that “beams electricity through the air to charge all of your portable electronics wirelessly. It's like Wi-Fi for energy.” I would like to welcome you to their world. Here’s a glimpse, for the uninitiated, of their charged conversation:

Alexandra Cavoulacos @acavoulacos
Reading @Forbes Most Promising CEOs Under 35 - @JJColao where are the women?? onforb.es/X3VY8L

J.J. Colao ‪@JJColao‬‬‬
@meredithperry @acavoulacos You're misunderstanding the list. It's taken from
Promising Comps list, on which there were no female CEOs < 35

Alexandra Cavoulacos ‪@acavoulacos‬‬‬
@JJColao thx, helpful to know its a sub-list. I'd still ask where are the women on the Promising Comps list though... cc: @meredithperry

J.J. Colao ‪@JJColao‬‬‬
@acavoulacos @meredithperry Can't select comps based on CEO gender. I'd like to see more women on list too, see here: forbes.com/sites/emilycan… 

~ ENTER Rachel Sklar ~

rachelsklar ‪@rachelsklar‬‬‬
@JJColao @acavoulacos @meredithperry "Can't select comps based on CEO gender?" Really? You seem to do that with regularity.

rachelsklar ‪@rachelsklar‬‬‬
So @Forbes can only find men for their slideshow on "America's Most Promising CEOs Under 35" - c'mon. That's just embarrassing. For them.

rachelsklar ‪@rachelsklar‬‬‬
@JJColao @acavoulacos @meredithperry HUGE pet peeve when complaints re: all-male lists are met with "Well we CAN'T select on GENDER!" C'mon.

J.J. Colao ‪@JJColao‬‬‬
@rachelsklar Please see my recent convo with @acavoulacos Happy to talk further.

rachelsklar ‪@rachelsklar‬‬‬
@JJColao Saw 'em. Responded. Outcomes are indicative of what you did to get there - and what you didn't do. I'm all about outcomes.

rachelsklar ‪@rachelsklar‬‬‬
@JJColao @acavoulacos @meredithperry If your only criteria for "World's Best Fingers" is "Must be immediately visible from my shoulder"....

rachelsklar ‪@rachelsklar‬‬‬
@JJColao @acavoulacos @meredithperry ....the point is, methodology is a decision. Your default is seeing men. That's a decision.

J.J. Colao ‪@JJColao‬‬‬
@rachelsklar @acavoulacos @meredithperry Would you prefer that we allot a quota?

rachelsklar ‪@rachelsklar‬‬‬
@JJColao @acavoulacos @meredithperry No, I would prefer skipping tiresome straw man conversations. OH NO SCARY QUOTAS THREATENING MERIT!!!

rachelsklar ‪@rachelsklar‬‬‬
@Meg_Casserly @Forbes @JJColao Look - if you want to avoid these tiresome Twitter exchanges and weary women eye-rolling at you, it's easy...

rachelsklar ‪@rachelsklar‬‬‬
@Meg_Casserly @Forbes @JJColao ...just assume if you ONLY get submissions from men, that that reveals a flaw in YOUR system.

J.J. Coloa @JJColao
@rachelsklar @acavoulacos @meredithperry I had a nice, lucid, constructive conversation re: this issue earlier. Not sure what to call this

rachelsklar ‪@rachelsklar‬‬‬
@JJColao @acavoulacos @meredithperry Not sure what is un-lucid about my responses. They are specific and pointed. It is clear where I stand.

rachelsklar ‪@rachelsklar‬‬‬
@JJColao @acavoulacos @meredithperry ...if you were looking for polite and patient, I may have under delivered. But lucid I manage just fine.

BOOM! Clearly, you cannot contain Rachel Sklar in 140 characters. And that is why JWA is recognizing her at this year’s luncheon as one of our 2013 Honorees—she is, undoubtedly, a Jewish woman committed to “making trouble and inspiring change.”

Check back next week for the deets on our other nominees, Rachel Cohen Gerrol and Bel Kaufman. In the meantime, get out there and make some trouble!

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These troublemakers should go m'chayil el chayil.

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How to cite this page

Orcha, Gabrielle. "No Time Out for This Troublemaker." 13 February 2013. Jewish Women's Archive. (Viewed on April 16, 2024) <http://jwa.org/blog/no-time-out-for-this-troublemaker>.