Allyson Felix combines her passion for sports and ladies’s rights in her latest business enterprise. This week, the Olympic legend teamed up along with his brother and longtime business partner Wes Felix and athletic director Cosette Chaput to launch Always Alpha. On a mission to disrupt outdated talent management models, Always Alpha is a sports management company that reflects what Felix “wished existed”

“Young athletes often ask me how I diversified and consistently grew my business across marketing, media, entrepreneurship, ventures, entertainment and influence,” she said Diversity. “Wes and I did it ourselves, piece by piece, out of necessity because there was no other way to turn our vision into reality. With Always Alpha, we are taking everything we have learned and creating the modern management company I dreamed of, to help the next generation of talent do the same and build the future they, in turn, dream of.”

Felix is ​​considered one of the vital successful track and field athletes in history, holding a record of 11 Olympic medals (including seven gold) and 20 world championship titles. Although she ended her athletics profession in 2022, the Olympian was still involved on the planet of sports, creating her own brand of ladies’s sneakers, Saysh. Additionally, this summer, Felix sparked change within the Olympic world by launching the first-ever nursery within the Paris Olympic Village. Like her previous endeavors, Always Alpha goals to empower modern women who unapologetically break barriers on and off the sphere.

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“We created Always Alpha to revolutionize women’s sports by moving beyond outdated, one-size-fits-all models designed for male athletes,” said Chaput, co-founder of Always Alpha. “These traditional frameworks, tied to contracts and cookie-cutter endorsements, fail to recognize the unique strengths and potential of female athletes, coaches and broadcasters.”

Like Felix, Chaput has left her mark on the sports industry, serving as a digital marketing leader in the hassle to bring the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games to Los Angeles. Boasting its own award-winning roster of projects and talent, Chaput and Felix’s new enterprise will probably be powered by Dolphin Marketing, a digital marketing agency with a portfolio of celebrities, influencers and entertainment marketing firms.

“Women’s sports is an undervalued and undervalued billion-dollar industry,” she added. “Women are greater than just athletes, greater than an afterthought, and greater than what the present system is built for. Always Alpha reimagines modern talent management for today’s athletes, investors, mothers, entrepreneurs, broadcasters, coaches, advocates and changemakers.

When 8-year-old Zoe Wilson of Bedford, Ohio, woke up on the morning of September 15 and decided hop into his mother’s Nissan Rogue with the family dog ​​and head to Targetshe wasn’t necessarily bargaining for web fame.

Since the incident went viral, her mother, Tangie, has finally spoken out about the events, which has amused authorities and lots of people online.

“I still haven’t had time to process it mentally,” Tangie told The. New York Times.

She explained that coping with the unexpected attention and fame, in addition to the scrutiny it brought, was a challenge. Comments on the Internet range from solemn (many of them praising Zoe as a hero) to concern for the safety of children near cars and assessment of the situation. There are also seasoned veteran parents who have expressed their opinions, expressing sympathy and even expressing sympathy for his or her kid’s stunts.

“It was very stressful and exhausting – mentally, physically and emotionally,” she said.

“I couldn’t sleep because it all started with (Zoe) leaving the house while I was sleeping. It was like someone pulled the rug out from under me,” she continued. “And it was just these questions – everyone wanted to know who this little girl was and how she did it.”

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Tangie wasn’t entirely sure how her daughter managed to drive the automobile out of the driveway, making the 10-mile trip to the chain store and only hitting one green mailbox along the way. She was shocked when Zoe’s older sister notified her that Zoe, their dog, and their automobile were missing.

“She had never done this before, so she still didn’t register that she was walking the dog,” Tangie said, adding that aside from the occasional go-kart ride or a ride on her grandfather’s lap at the wheel when she was a toddler, the 8-year-old had no previous experience in driving.

Her Nissan Rogue was parked backwards in the driveway, potentially making it easier to drive away. People Magazine reported. When Tangie notified authorities, a camera adjoining to Ring’s door showed footage of Zoe driving away. A short while later, police found Zoe protected and sound at Target. Previous reports indicated that Zoe was spotted sipping a Frappuccino, but Tangie has a distinct theory.

“I think the officers did it to make the story seem cute because they thought it was a joke,” she told the New York Times. “They remained professional but smiled and smiled. I think it was just stunning for everyone.”

The family has since found a way to turn it right into a teachable moment.

Tangie said that when learning or trying something latest scares Zoe, she reminds her, “Did you know how to drive a car before you drove it yesterday?”

When Zoe remembers that she didn’t do it, Tangie adds, “OK, so it’s the same with multiplication: you don’t know how to do it, but you’ll learn.”

Women make up about half of U.S. union membership, but their representation in top union leadership positions is low, even in female-dominated industries and especially for women of color.

But black and Latina women are starting to realize ground, taking top positions in a few of the largest unions in the US. This has translated into victories at the negotiating table, with greater deal with family-friendly advantages comparable to parental leave and health care, in addition to protection against sexual harassment.

Often, when people consider unions, “they think of a white guy in a hard hat. But in fact, research shows that approx two thirds of working people covered by a union contract are women and/or people of color,” said Lane Windham, a labor historian at Georgetown University.

Indeed, the UNITE Here hospitality union is overwhelmingly made up of women and people of color. And last month there have been more than 12,000 in six states began a strike push for pay increases, fair workloads and cheaper health care under the leadership of Gwen Mills, who in June became the first woman elected president of the union in its 130-year history.

Data from the U.S. Department of Labor show that Black and Latina women are particularly hard hit large gender pay gaps. They also encounter intersections a headwind to each racism and sexism of their careers, making them even more sensitive to inequalities in the workplace and motivating them to step up their fight as trade union leaders.

Black and Latina women are driving the growth of unions in the U.S. in the face of: a decades-long decline in membership. In 2023, Black women’s union membership rate increased barely from 10.3% to 10.5%, while Latina women increased from 8.5% to eight.8%. But that is still more than white men and women and Asian women, whose membership has declined over the same period.

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Over the past five years, the advancement of black and Latino women to leadership positions in trade unions has accelerated. But based on Liz Shuler, who became the first woman in history to steer the AFL-CIO in June 2022, the work began long before that, by “our ancestors who laid that foundation and kicked that door open and pushed it wide open over the decades.” a federation of 60 national and international trade unions.

” The #MeToo movementI think it’s really emboldened women in all cases, including childbirth, to say, you know what? I’m not going to sit on the sidelines,” Shuler said. The pandemic has also put a highlight on essential staff like nurses, service staff and care staffwho are mainly women and minorities.

Today’s examples of diverse union leaders include Becky Pringle, a black woman who heads the National Education Association, the nation’s largest labor union; Bonnie Castillo, the first Latina to function executive director of National Nurses United; and April Verrett, who in May became the first Black woman to steer the Service Workers International Union, which says about 60% of service staff are people of color and two-thirds are women.

“If we want to build power in those who are perceived to have the least power, we need to create space for our people with that identity to lead,” Verrett told The Associated Press.

But while progress has been made in women-dominated industries when it comes to diversity in union leadership, unions in male-dominated fields like construction and manufacturing “still have a long way to go,” said Emily Twarog, a labor historian at the University of Illinois Urbana- Champaign. Despite some progress through DEI and apprenticeship programs“there wasn’t that kind of cultural change.”

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, men still have higher rates of union membership than women – 10.5% versus 9.5%, respectively. And sexual harassment and workplace bias are still rampant in lots of places, including in the case of Lisa Lujano of Chicago, an experienced carpenter and member of Local 13 of the Carpenters Union.

She said the situation could improve if more black and Latina women held leadership positions in unions and were more aware of the needs of their membership, including protective equipment tailored to women’s bodies and parental leave, which Lujano doesn’t have.

“I think we would get more respect on the field,” she said.

Here’s the impact women union leaders have had on the negotiating table:

Education

In recent years, teachers unions have begun to make use of their collective power to push for comprehensive advantages to assist the surrounding community, using a way often known as “bargaining for the common good,” which goals to transcend wages and advantages at the bargaining table and address broader issues social problems. For example, the Chicago Teachers Union was included demand for inexpensive housing across the city during the 2019 strike – organized partially by then-Vice President Stacy Davis Gates, now president of CTU.

Some teachers unions are also fighting for racial justice, including United Teachers Los Angeles, which has demanded that the school district stop subjecting students to random metal detector tests and checking lockers for no reason, denouncing the practice as disproportionately targeting black and minority students.

“We must address the inequities built into every social system in this country that determine whether our students come to school ready to learn every day,” Pringle said. “It was our women leaders, especially our women leaders of color, who really bought into this.”

Hospitality

Unionized hotel staff like Maria Mata, have made progress in the fight against rampant sexual harassment of their occupation.

Mata, a Latina housekeeper and UNITE Here union leader in W San Francisco, helped lead a successful campaign at her hotel in 2018 to equip employees with emergency buttons to call security for assist in an emergency. currently implemented by several large hotel chains.

“We needed more protection,” especially during night shifts once we spent cleansing entire floors alone, explained Mata, who herself twice experienced sexual harassment at work. “It’s very dangerous.”

It’s also necessary that women doing this work even have a seat at the negotiating table, “because sometimes as women we need something that men don’t know about,” said Mata, whose hotel is currently negotiating a brand new contract.

Stewardesses

Keturah Johnson in 2022 became the first queer woman of color to function vice chairman of the international flight attendants union AFA-CWA, led by Sara Nelson and representing more than 50,000 flight attendants across 20 airlines.

People often consider a flight attendant as a “white woman with her hair in a bun,” and Black flight attendants often face microaggressions from managers about their appearance, Johnson said. “This has happened to me many times because of my natural hair.”

Johnson said it is vital for female flight attendants who are gender non-conforming to have the option to wear a uniform that reflects their gender identity. That’s why she’s leading the fight to update uniform standards to be gender-inclusive and allow natural hairstyles, which has led to changes at several airlines.

According to AFA, for instance, United Airlines updated its uniform standards to incorporate gender-neutral options in 2021, and Alaska Airlines management adopted gender-neutral uniform and appearance standards in 2022. In 2021, Frontier allowed flight attendants to have natural hairstyles, and this yr introduced uniform pricing on all uniforms no matter size and gender.

“We’re not only there to serve Diet Coke. That’s why it’s our job to be sure that flight attendants are represented and seen for who they are,” Johnson said. “The world has modified now.