How Africa’s Richest Woman Went Broke | StitchFix Makes Katrina Lake A Billionaire | Walgreens Poaches Roz Brewer | And More

Plus: seven books to fuel your 2021 vision

I’ve been thinking a lot about women over 50 this week. This is for several reasons: the first is because, in partnership with Mika Brzezinski and Know Your Value, we kicked off a weekly segment on Morning Joe, tied to the 50 Over 50 franchise (nominations for the list are still open!), in which we’ll highlight women over 50 who are making moves and news. This week’s spotlight went to the women who most stood up to president Trump.

The second reason is because of this very good, if sobering, story about the women who were nearing retirement before 2020 came along but whose livelihoods have been affected by pandemic-related layoffs. This cohort of women is grappling with particularly uncertain futures, and could use support from family, corporations and government agencies.

And the third reason is because Roz Brewer, 58, has just been named as the next CEO of Walgreens. When she officially assumes the role in March, she’ll be the only Black female CEO in the S&P 500. You can read a lot more about Brewer, who is #48 on our list of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women, and the “concrete ceiling” women of color face in the corporate world, in a piece I wrote here. But in the meantime, I’ll leave you with some words of wisdom Brewer gave—to women of all ages!—in an interview with broadcast journalist Shaun Robinson:

“The most important thing about your voice is to use it. You’re gonna get it wrong sometimes. Admit you made the mistake, but keep using your voice.”

Cheers to that!
Maggie

P.S.: Speaking of supporting women in the workplace, I’ll be interviewing the founder of Ritual, Katerina Markov Schneider, all about how founders can help keep women employed through the pandemic, on Instagram Live at 2pm ET today. Tune in here, and come with curiosity! We’ll be taking audience questions towards the end of the interview. 

ICYMI: Stories From The Week

It’s been a good week for female-founded startups closing fresh rounds of funding: on Tuesday, telehealth company Calibrate (founded by Under 30 alumna Isabelle Kenyon) announced a $22.5 million Series A. On Wednesday, book-club membership service Literati—which last year launched book clubs with luminaries like Malala and Steph Curry—closed a $40 million Series B. 

A decade after starting a personal-shopping service out of her Cambridge apartment to give busy, working women an easier way to shop, Stitch Fix founder and CEO Katrina Lake’s fortune has swelled to $1.1 billion.

On Tuesday, cloud governance platform CloudSphere announced that former Google and Microsoft executive Jane Gilson will be its new CEO. She will be the first woman to hold that position with the company.

Female-focused daily news, business, culture, beauty and wellness newsletter the Newsette is taking the concept of community referrals to an extreme: they’re giving $10,000 to any subscriber who refers their next employee over the next 30 days.

In 2018, France revolutionized the fight against street harassment by passing a law against verbal sexual harassment, known as the Loi Schiappa (the name of France’s former minister of gender equality, Marlene Schiappa). Two years later, the lawyer who worked on the law is reflecting on its efficacy. 

Female-founded health and fitness app FitOn has grown to six million members, six times the number of Peloton’s digital members, in the past 18 months. Founder and CEO Lindsay Cook spoke to ForbesWomen about how she’s tapping into the pandemic demand for video workouts and beating the competition.

Check List

#1: Skip the search portals. Looking for a new gig? Online application portals get inundated with resumes, so to get noticed, go straight to the company’s hiring manager.

#2: Pitch new ideas in the morning. Each decision we make throughout the day depletes our energy reserves. If you have colleagues or partners who are resistant to change, meet with them well before lunchtime.

#3: Get to the root cause of your stress. To reduce your stress levels, start by assessing precisely how you respond to stress, and whether your reactions are physical, emotional or mental.

Across Forbes