2023

Ana Olivera

President & CEO The New York Women’s Foundation

“The conceptions of women are very broken now, you know. It’s not like one thing, but we see these attempts by very conservative politicians in this country, you see this attempt by conservative politicians in other countries. I would say that in the world there’s a wave of conservatism going on. And all expressions of it; they have voting rights, or elimination of voting rights, but they also have control of women, and control of sexuality, and control of reproduction, because it’s an attempt to keep us subordinate. I think it’s a little bit too late, and I think that it’s unstoppable.”

What, in your opinion, do you think are the qualities of a Power Woman?

Self-confidence. Clear sense of purpose. And self-knowledge. You have to know who you are, what’s important to you, what the challenges are and what your purpose is.

What do you think is the number one action as a society we can take towards empowering women and gender equality?

I think it’s full, absolutely full, economic and representational standing. Equal. Absolutely full economic and representational standing for women and gender… more marginalized… auto-marginalized genders. And that means that the resourcing is sufficient, is not survival, is thriving and that the participation in decision making, in the tables where allocations of resources, allocations of priorities, the determinations of all of that is full equity in representation.

Do you think that asking the previous salary requirement in a job interview contributes to the pay gap between men and women? New York State outlawed this policy, should it be a nationwide ban in your opinion?

Yes, in my opinion it should. I see the effects in New York and I see the positive effects because if we perpetuate the prior scale of pay, we will perpetuate the gap that that scale represents. I see two positive impacts of not going based on the past but going based on the worth of the candidate for the competences that are needed for a position. The first one is that it does not carry their historical gap with it because women versus men were paid less in their prior positions so when it comes to this, they will continue coming from a lower base, so that way it eliminates that. The other benefit is an experiential benefit, is for the person herself not thinking of herself based on whatever they were earning before, but thinking of themselves on their worth and the complexity of the position, and the talent that the person will bring. There is a little bit of a liberating effect in thinking of oneself in the present and in relation to the work ahead. So I see two benefits.

Moving into the next question was a little bit more personal; it talks about what was your most defining moment that brings you or led you to where you are today?

I think it was when I was working at Gay Men’s Health Crisis. I was overseeing programs and some administrative functions. I was a senior vice president, kind of thing and the epidemic. The Aids epidemic had drastically changed, and for the better in the sense that medications were becoming successful and it went gradually from a killing disease to a management disease, right? Not that people don’t die of it but it’s much rarer. So, at that time, the organization went through enormous changes because its fundamental base of support, which was private, moved away. And in two years, the organization lost a lot of money and it was on the verge of closing and it had a lot of debts and it had no assets. And the board had asked me to make a plan because I was the Vice President of Programs and Administration, to spin off the programs so that the clients wouldn’t be hurt, it would merge with some-, and I did, I made a plan, I reached out to people, I found the right organization and I made a plan and I presented to the executive committee and they said thank you so much we decided not to close GMHC. But a week later the chair of the board came to me and said we would like for you to be the Executive Director and I said “Me!? I’m a girl! This is not gonna fly there. The board is not gonna go for that.” The board had at that time only two women. I said, “You know it’s called Gay Men’s Men’s Health Crisis.” And this brilliant man said to me, “I’ll take care of the board.” (He was the board’s chair.) “I need you to take care of the organization so it doesn’t collapse. It’s very hard to create organizations, it’s very important not to lose them. People’s lives depend on this.” So, it was a Tuesday and I said “Oh my God, it’s like, I mean, you know, so I thought about it and I thought about it, I talked about it with some friends they said “You are insane! The place has almost $8 million in debt. It has no assets, the clients are protesting in the street.” (And it was true, they were afraid that the place was going to close so they were protesting). “The donors are alienated, you know, you are crazy to do that!” And I said, “Yeah it’s it’s risky but worse would be not to do it I think. So I said after a couple days and there’s some back-and-forth and I recommended another person, another colleague of mine and he said he didn’t want it, he had been an executive and said “No, no, I don’t want that. But I’ll work with you da da da.” So I said yes, and he became my right hand person and we did it. We paid the debt. We established trust with the clients.We stopped the bleeding of staff, you know, stopped laying off staff. We we, the budget had gone down to 16 million from 30 to 16, look at that, it’s almost half. And then, little by little we paid the debt, I went around, I apologized to the donors, I asked for forgiveness and told them how important it was. I spent a whole year Moonah, going around New York City, this is no exaggeration, apologizing to people for not, you know, honoring them appropriately, for not being a great partner with other organizations, etc. and little by little we rebuilt. When I left the budget was at 30 million again and this time I left 1,000,000.2 in the bank which we had had nothing so I felt really good about that and the organization was thriving again. So that was a defining thing for me when I decided to step in rather than step out, that was defining. And he created a sense that I could do it, and that led me to say yes to what the foundation wanted. That’s how it happened, it was that confidence, that sense of purpose, that sense of something bigger than me that you know, the service, being at the service of a purpose.

ME: Right. Wow, that’s a pretty impressive story, and the strength that was gained in that experience allowed you to step into a space without a question, and aligning with who you are as a person and in knowing the possibilities of change in the weather, that’s amazing.

The next question talks about how legislators, priests, philosophers, writers, scientists, all strive to show the subordinate positions that are held by women. And a willing to haven the advantages on the earth and it tells us very clearly that, why still do we find such a major stumbling block in the 21st-century for the road to equality for women? What do you feel about that?

Well, I think that Documents like that, belief systems like that, will always be utilized. When people are really breaking away from their secondary status, from their subordination status, from their less than beliefs, they will be brought out of the shelf to reigning people again. So it could be, it’s the 21st-century you know, and it’s still gonna be dredged out. Let me say that what we face as women is the fact that we are fully fully unstoppable and capable beings. We are, no matter what has happened, in all the centuries; in violence against us, the insubordination of us, in de-valuing, you know, architectures of belief systems, religions, educational systems. Look at us. In spite of all of that, we are joyful, powerful, hope-giving, life-giving to self and to others so we can’t seem so overwhelmingly powerful but that’s not what we’re looking for we’re just looking for full expression of ourselves, full existence of ourselves. So yes, I think that the more we get to that, and the larger the number of women that get to that, the more these old artifices to hold us down, will be, you know, taken off from the shelf, dusted up a little bit and try to be presented in another form. But I know that we don’t get fooled by that.

Women are often placed in binary strengths of emotion, are so weak or sensitive and suburban, and live with limitations connecting on the sides of womanhood. I guess my question is how do you feel about that, in that we fall into this bubble. Do you still feel today that that’s how we’re perceived? Is that ever going to change?

AO: I think that it has changed significantly — significantly — and I think that the definitions of womanhood, right, the gender prescriptions and of womanhood are more than ever totally challenged, right, totally challenged, and you can see that in generational environments, multi-generational environments, you can see that within generations, you can see that in different cultures, but I would say that like in any change, right, you have, we have, we are looking for that tipping point and that tipping point is the moment in which there is more of the new, there is enough of the new that it becomes irreversible, right, it’s just enough, it’s not 100%, it’s just enough. So I think that the conceptions of women are very broken now, you know, it’s not like one thing, but we see these attempts by very conservative politicians in this country, you see this attempt by conservative politicians in other countries. I would say that in the world there’s a wave of conservatism going on. And all expressions of it; they have voting rights, or elimination of voting rights, but they also have control of women, and control of sexuality, and control of reproduction, because it’s an attempt to keep us subordinate. I think it’s a little bit too late and I think that it’s unstoppable. We may have, as I say, you know, change is curly, change is not a straight line, it’s curly, but you know it’s going in a certain direction. So we may have very temporary setbacks but it’s very hard, once people taste freedom, it’s very hard to go back.

If you could have somebody else’s job for a day who would it be and why?

It would be the president and CEO of a very large and international foundation with a lot of money, like the Ford Foundation, and gives out, you know, half a billion dollars a year. And in that day I would use all the discretionary authority that I would have over direct dollars, to fund women, to fund women cis, trans, non-binary, that usually are not funded, to fund them for multi year to fund the most daring movements and I would also look at the other funding commitments that foundation already has, and in the next year budget and the next year budget, increase them, to all the movements. So that ones and then that one, that day I would be very busy giving out money, all the discretionary money I could possibly identify.

What do you feel was the best piece of advice you were ever given?

Oh the best piece of advice that I ever received was, don’t give up. It was, try again. And it was, you did it. You know that kind of don’t give up, try again, it was that. Stay with yourself, just stay on it, don’t abandon yourself, don’t give it up, stay with yourself.

What do you do to take steps to have a healthy balanced lifestyle?

I am very selective of the people and energies that I am around. I am very determined with my job and beyond my job, I am very selective because I am very related to people and so I take in, I look to be with very good energy and that’s very important to me. And then, I’m an introvert and a Taurus. So introverts means that you recharge in quiet time, so I like to do things like if I can have like on Sunday, take care of my little pots of plants, you know, in micro-detail and make sure that, you know, things that are relaxing, therapeutic, that I am, very important to me. And then I am not, I have not been able to be a fanatic about anything.

Who do you feel is the most historical figure that you identify yourself with?

That is probably the hardest question for me because I’ve been inspired by different people, you know, like parts of different people. I remember being inspired by what I call the courage of Joan of Arc. I remember being inspired by what I call the fiery brilliance of Simone de Beauvoir. I remember being inspired by the gentleness and the lyric determination of some poets in Brazil. You know, I remember, I remember, I feel this conglomerate of energies, you know. I feel this attraction to people that have this strong belief in themselves, strong purpose. You know, and I’m also inspired by some sports people. That, you know, Katie Ledecky inspires me, it’s the no boundaries, no limits, like the sense of you know, so that’s all inspiring to me.

Favorite book?

I think it’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire. He opened my eyes to things that I never could see at the time. I think that The Little Prince was a very important book for me, Le Petit Prince. Like that, these marked, marked, stories for me. I have gone, I have taken to read what I would call biographical and historical books. That’s what I’m reading a lot of in the last several years. And it’s shifted for me. I have read some fiction books but they haven’t had the same, they don’t grab me as much.

What do you most value in friends?

Oh, their generosity, with me, their generosity. I’m the type of person where we may not speak because our lives are crazy for three months, but when we speak again, it is for me as if we were together five minutes ago.

Which trait do you most deplore in yourself and in others?

I would say that if you asked other people at work, they would say that I’m serious, I’m very purposeful and, you know what I mean, serious. And I think that I have been deploying enormous amounts of patience, I mean wisdom, you know, like selecting out what’s really important and what’s not and wanting to meet people where they are to make the change together.

What do you feel, the next question is kind of off the back of this one is this, what do you consider is the most overrated virtue?

I think that one of the most overrated virtues is pleasing, pleasing, I think that, or how can I say this? It’s actually very difficult for me to be around this. You know when people are just not sincere, you know? When people are attracted to other people, almost to use them, you know, when people, somebody, it’s just kind of sad to me, that’s the overrated virtue, is the appearance, is the name dropping, is the superficiality, it’s just not genuine.

“I think that the amount of fear and trauma that is around, to heal that you have to go, you know, dealing with self-acceptance, self-confidence, sense of your purpose, you know you have to, you can’t stay just in the injury, you know, you have to stew it with that.”