Shelley Zalis has a club for bad-ass women

    Shelley Zalis, CEO of The Female Quotient, is an active advocate for women’s rights. Not only does she believe that females should have full rights, but men as well. That’s why her and her team came up with the word “Femenism”.

    “Gender equality is not a female issue, it’s an economic issue,” Zalis said in a recent interview with the Raider Times. She will be in Boston this week to present at the annual Massachusetts Conference for Women.

    With all the disagreement at hand, everyone wants peace with each other, which is just what The Female Quotient is designed to deal with. For every $1.00 the average male makes, the average female makes $0.79. This eventually all adds up.

    “It’s really important to help women,” she said.

    Along with her organization comes the Girls’ Lounge, a place at conferences, companies, and college campuses where women/girls connect and collaborate and together they activate change.

     College and high school students, Girl Scouts, and corporate women are all invited to partake in this “club.” This started with Zalis noticing that there was a boys lounge, so she wondered why there couldn’t be a club for girls to just “hang out” and talk.

    “In our lounge,” said Zalis, “we have so many bad-ass women.”

    She also shared her thoughts on how women should bring each other up and not tear each other down, because it is crucial in this world that women stick together and work together in this fight for equal rights. She summarized this up by saying, “Women that support other women deserve a place in heaven.”

    Aside from her organization, Zalis is known for her enthusiasm and the positive energy she emits.

    “There is always a yes and there always is a solution to every problem,” she said. “The best way to get ahead is to not be the same. Own that difference and celebrate that difference.”

    Zalis is all about knowing you are different, and accepting it. She discussed how diversity has always been an aspect when it comes to religion, gender, and other things and she wants to change that to a diversity of mind-set or a diversity in thought.

    Some of the last words Zalis shared left a lasting impact.

    “I knew I was different and I had the option to agree and say ‘Me too’ or be different,” she said. “How you feel drives action and you each can be leaders if you choose to be.”

(For information on The Female Quotient, go HERE. For information about the Massachusetts Conference for Women, go HERE.)

–Dec. 6, 2017–