Marianne Schnall

Founder & Executive Director of Feminist.com

Marianne Schnall

Founder & Executive Director of Feminist.com

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Biography

Marianne Schnall is a widely published writer and interviewer whose writings and interviews have appeared in a variety of media outlets including O Magazine, Marie Claire, TIME, InStyle, CNN, Forbes, EW, AOL BUILD, the Women's Media Center, and many others. Marianne is a featured blogger at The Huffington Post and a contributor to the nationally syndicated NPR radio show, 51 Percent: The Women's Perspective. Schnall is the founder and Executive Director of Feminist.com, a leading women's web site and nonprofit organization. For over 20 years, Feminist.com has been fostering awareness, education, and activism for people all across the world. She is also the cofounder of EcoMall.com, one of the oldest environmental websites promoting earth-friendly living.

Marianne's latest book is What Will It Take to Make A Woman President?: Conversations About Women, Leadership and Power, featuring interviews with politicians, public officials, thought leaders, writers, artists, and activists in an attempt to discover the obstacles that have held women back and what needs to change in order to elect a woman into the White House. With insights and personal anecdotes from Sheryl Sandberg, Maya Angelou, Gloria Steinem, Nancy Pelosi, Nicholas Kristof, Melissa Etheridge, Olympia Snowe, and many more, this book addresses timely, provocative issues involving women, politics, and power. With a broader goal of encouraging women and girls to be leaders in their lives, their communities, and the larger world, Schnall and her interviewees explore the changing paradigms occurring in politics and in our culture with the hope of moving toward meaningful and effective solutions—and a world where a woman can be president.

Beyoncé recently recommended What Will It Take to Make a Woman President? Conversations About Women, Leadership & Power in an interview in GARAGE Magazine, saying: “I would love for my younger fans to read What Will It Take to Make a Woman President? by Marianne Schnall. It’s a collection of interviews and essays by great women, including Maya Angelou, Gloria Steinem, and Melissa Etheridge. They will inspire you to become a better leader.”

In addition to those Marianne has interviewed for her book, she has also interviewed notable figures such as Oprah Winfrey, Madeleine Albright, President Jimmy Carter, Arianna Huffington, Desmond Tutu, Meryl Streep, Jane Goodall, Natalie Portman, Amy Poehler, Melinda Gates and much more.

Marianne graduated from Cornell University in 1989 with a BA in English, and she is also a graduate of the Women’s Media Center’s Progressive Women's Voices media and leadership training program. She is the author of Daring to Be Ourselves: Influential Women Share Insights on Courage, Happiness and Finding Your Own Voice. She was also a contributor to Robin Morgan's anthology, Sisterhood is Forever: The Women's Anthology for a New Millennium.

Through her writings, interviews, and websites, Marianne strives to raise awareness and inspire activism around important issues and causes.

Speaker Videos

On BBC World News

On NowThis

Speech Topics

Women’s Leadership: What Will it Take to Make a Woman President?

In this compelling presentation based on her Beyoncé-recommended book, Marianne Schnall examines the scope of women's leadership today and explores how we can empower more women and girls into leadership positions in all sectors of society. Pulling from material and insight from some of the greatest leaders of our time along with her own unique experiences, Marianne discusses how women can use their voices and vision to lead through a lens that is singularly her own.

Pass It On: The Next Generation

Passing on knowledge from one generation of women to the next is critical to supporting the future women leaders. Marianne Schnall will discuss the importance of intergenerational dialogue and mentoring, as well as draw advice and words of wisdom for young women today and some of the most influential women of our time.

Men & Women as Allies

What does it mean for men and women to collaborate in pursuit of gender equality? What does it look like? Marianne Schnall explores how gender stereotypes negatively impact both women and men, girls and boys, and reflects on the many changing paradigms in our culture.

Activism in Your Own Voice

How do we find our own way to make a difference? How can our voices contribute to the world? In this often-requested talk, Marianne explores the connections between voice, visibility and action. In addition, she examines their power to mobilize social change through writing, activism and positive disruption.

Women & Media

Drawing from her experiences as a journalist, writer, interviewer and mother, Marianne Schnall discusses how the media's objectification, sexualization and stereotyping of women impacts everyone’s self-perception and shapes our culture.

Testimonials

"Marianne Schnall's visit to Dartmouth organized around the recent release of What Will It Take To Make A Woman President?: Conversations about Women, Leadership and Power had the dual benefit of providing the Dartmouth community with a chance to think about and discuss issues related to gender inequality - an issue greatly scrutinized at Dartmouth - and to find solutions with the input of leading female voices, as interviewed by Marianne Schnall. To engage on this topic with Marianne Schnall and to hear what barriers women face in their professional pursuits - and how to work around them - have only strengthened our community's sense of purpose and direction in taking action and pursuing greater opportunities."

- Dartmouth College

"Skidmore Women in Business is a new student organization at Skidmore College. The organization recently had the honor of hosting Marianne Schnall as its first speaker. For our event, she specifically tailored her speech around not only our organization's mission, but also around the personal interests of our organization's leaders and its members, making her lecture incredibly intimate and impactful. Her willingness to share her experiences and passions with us - both personally and from behind the podium - helped to enrich our community's conversation about women and leadership."

- Co-President and Founder, Skidmore Women in Business

"Marianne Schnall dazzled our students this year in her discussion of her book, What Will It Take to Make A Woman President?. Her inspiring, energizing and dynamic presentation left us all thinking yes!, we now have a roadmap to get us to the place of the possible: to finally elect a woman to the United States Presidency."

- Executive Director, Women's Campaign School at Yale

"The idea of starting the Feminist Society at NYU began at a previous reading by Marianne Schnall, so it was only fitting to host a reading for her release of What Will It Take To Make a Woman President: Conversations about Women, Leadership, and Power. Coincidently, Marianne was able to make the event blossom into an actual conversation about women, leadership, and power. Our intimate conversation crossed generations and races and inspired a call to action for leadership networks and mentorship that I hope to continue."

- NYU

"Marianne Schnall's most recent visit to Cornell began with an opportunity for students to have an informal and lively conversation over dinner about Marianne's career and the opportunities and challenges for women professionally. Her keynote talk as part of our International Women's Day celebrations allowed the Cornell community to examine - through a gendered lens - our understandings of leadership, equality, influence and power. The conversations inspired by Marianne's book What Will It Take To Make A Woman President?: Conversations about Women, Leadership and Power during her visit will continue to generate dialogue on campus and shape the actions and opportunities we create for our community."

- Cornell University

"Marianne Schnall's book What Will It Take To Make a Woman President?: Conversations about Women, Leadership, and Power prompted Public Radio International to host a dialogue between Marianne and journalist Carol Hills of PRI's The World. Framed by Marianne's book, the conversation was an engaging and provocative look at women in positions of leadership in the US and around the world. The audience of women and men appreciated the insights shared by Marianne."

- Vice President Resource Development, PRI Public Radio International

"Marianne Schnall recently spoke with our young women's leadership program about her book, What Will It Take to Make A Woman President?: Conversations about Women, Leadership and Power. Six months later, the students are still talking about it! Marianne's insights were not only inspirational to the young women in our community but also provided our educators with important tools to grapple with issues of gender, power, and leadership in our school community."

- Dean of Students, Fieldston Upper School

"Thank you for participating in the event, What Will it Take to Make a Woman President?, on September 23, 2014 with the Center for the Study of Politics. The event is part of our ongoing commitment to foster informed and substantive discussion on important matters of public policy. Your thoughtful discussion about the hurdles that women face when running for office and the importance of striving for gender balance in politics was well-received. The audience appreciated the opportunity to hear from an expert doing pioneering research. Once again, thank you for contributing to the programming with the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance. We look forward to continuing the dialogue about electing women and working together in the future."

- -Director,Center for the Study of Politics and Governance, University of Minnesota

"We were delighted to host Marianne Schnall for a book talk about What Will it Take to Make a Woman President? The event was a delightful and intimate affair which got all of us thinking about our own political careers and what barriers, particularly in the US, persist and keep women from reaching their full electoral potential. Thank you for speaking with and inspiring us!"

- Outreach Chair, Yale Law Women Yale Law School