What is the history of Momentum?
Momentum is a nonprofit, formed in 2002, that advances women in leadership. It was formed by a group of women who were all on the board of the YWCA in central Alabama. The women were all in high-level jobs and would talk, share experiences and discuss challenges. Through that, they realized they needed a group to compare notes and have other women in leadership join them.
What is the mission and focus behind Momentum?
We know that women are entering the workforce at higher rates than men, and about 40% of those make it to middle management, while only 14% make it to what we’d call a leadership position, due to things like unconscious bias and assumptions that companies make about women and the time they can offer. And this behavior hurts men too. Men feel undue pressure to go after these jobs, when they’d really like to spend time with their families.
Though this environment is slow to change, women are finding ways, through their positions in leadership, to bring about change. In a leadership role, you can question diversity in hiring, and you can say, ‘we need to provide extra support for women and people of color because they face different challenges.’
We focus on the development of the woman and getting rid of things that might hold them back. We introduce negotiation skills, management skills, team-building skills and other things that they might not get as much of as their male counterparts.
What is the program structure of Momentum?
Our main program is the Executive Leadership program, which takes 30 women from different industries and roles through a nine-month curriculum, where they meet for an entire day once a month. Different leaders come in and facilitate meetings.
Then, three years ago, we broadened our scope and launched an earlier career version of that same program, called Upward. It’s for women who have 3 to 4 years of experience. We do 2 of those per year, again capped at 30 women, and it’s a half day instead of a full day.
Beyond that, we realized some women won’t fit into either of those categories, and we started a virtual series in response to the pandemic. We do the series about every six weeks. It’s a free webinar of leadership content, from keeping mental health in check to improving communication.
How did the pandemic, speaking of, affect Momentum?
The two other programs have also been taking place virtually in the last year. But since no one wants to sit on a computer all day, we took the content and divided it into pre-work and also built breaks into the day. It has worked surprisingly well. We’ve tried to make it special despite the pandemic. We created “retreat in a basket” gift baskets and hand-delivered those to people’s houses to thank them for being part of the program. We partnered with Alabama Goods for the baskets.
We also launched a podcast called Momentum Matters and a YouTube channel, which includes our past webinars, at Momentum Leaders. There are links to our content on our Facebook and LinkedIn and Instagram accounts.
What’s next for Momentum?
Our 2020 Conference was March 11 and 12 of 2020 and had 1,300 people there — we had just made it! Conferences are open to anyone who registers, and we intend to have another one in early 2022.
