On July 27th I invited 26 of the most bad ass women I know in Boston to a Votes-For-Women aka Newport Mansions style banquet dinner. I paired up with a fellow Harvard Business School grad, Victoria Song, to host the event since she recently started a powerful and feministy organization called So She Did. The site publishes content that celebrates women’s achievements and offers ways for women to better invest in themselves from the inside out: “…because fashion and beauty is fun to play with, but it can’t be where we get our self-confidence. Self-esteem shouldn’t come from a bottle. It all starts inside.” Inspired by the call to action, “she believed she could, #SoSheDid,” the So She Did team aims to empower women to develop the self-confidence and courage to define their own measures of self-worth –a much-needed contradiction to the flat media messages and societal images shaping young women’s perceptions of what makes a woman complete and praiseworthy.

I projected Beyonce videos up into the tent. The dinner was gluten-free and vegetarian. As were the cupcakes. The theme was power yellow. Victoria had each woman at the table introduce themselves by sharing a recent accomplishment they had had. I felt grateful that everyone was so real about their successes and actually vulnerable in sharing at the same time. Many new friendships were made that night.

“One big tent, full of Boston’s Baddest Bitches.”