2024 WMC Women’s Media Awards Recognize Leaders in Film, Television, Journalism, and Activism
Originally published by Carla Hay for Women’s Media Center
Women are diverse, complicated, powerful, and resilient in the ongoing fight for gender equality and other civil rights. And in this election year, the stakes seem be to higher than ever before. That was the general consensus in speeches and conversations at the 2024 Women’s Media Center Women’s Media Awards, which were presented on September 19 at the JW Marriott Essex House in New York City.
Speaking to WMC exclusively before taking the stage to accept the WMC Carol Jenkins Award, NBC News Washington correspondent Yamiche Alcindor said: “I wouldn’t presume to tell women around the world what’s the most important issue to them. I think, for me, the most important thing about my job is that I go out and find the answer to that question — whether that’s abortion, whether that’s the economy, education. The beautiful thing about covering women and covering people in this country is that there’s an array of issues that are important to women across this country. And I feel honored to have that responsibility as a journalist to find that out.”
The other honorees this year included America Ferrera (recipient of the first WMC Gloria Steinem Visible and Powerful Award) and Emmy-winning director/writer/producer Donna Deitch (WMC Ahead of Her Time Award). The three recipients of the 2024 WMC Progressive Women’s Voices Impact Award — selected from diverse women leaders who have participated in the WMC Progressive Women’s Voices media and leadership training program — are Pulso founder and CEO Liz Rebecca Alarcón, MoveOn executive director Rahna Epting, and Yellowhammer Fund executive director Jenice Fountain. Chicken & Egg Pictures — a nonprofit group founded in 2005 to give funding to documentary film projects by women, nonbinary people, and gender-nonconforming people — was honored with the WMC Pat Mitchell Lifetime Achievement Award. The Chicken & Egg Pictures award recipients were the organization’s co-founders Wendy Ettinger, Judith Helfand, and Julie Parker Benello, as well as CEO Jenni Wolfson.
WMC president Julie Burton greeted attendees by thanking participants and colleagues and commenting: “The Women’s Media Center wants to see more diverse women in media, hear more diverse women in media, and read more articles by diverse women in media. We fight for this goal every day.”
WMC co-founder Gloria Steinem, who attended the ceremony, said in her prerecorded introduction for actress/filmmaker/activist Ferrera, who is the Emmy-winning star of Ugly Betty and the Oscar-nominated co-star of Barbie: “America, you are brave and you are bold. You embody so much of what I value and have fought for throughout my life. It means a lot to me personally that this first-ever award in my name is going to you.” Steinem added that Ferrera was receiving this award “for her groundbreaking portrayals of real women in film and television; for using her powerful and courageous voice to demand fairness, respect, and opportunity for all; and for shifting the culture through her work as a remarkable storyteller and a tenacious advocate.”
Ferrera could not attend the ceremony due to work commitments in Europe. Instead, she gave her speech by a prerecorded video and expressed some sadness for not being able to attend in person. Ferrera began by addressing Steinem and saying that she considers Steinem to be a personal role model. Ferrera added, “I love that my Barbie character’s name is Gloria. I hope I was able to channel just even the smallest bit of your generous spirit and unwavering commitment to do whatever is necessary to ensure that all women can fully realize their potential.”
Ferrera also shared some advice that she received from Steinem when they both attended a conference shortly after the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and Ferrera privately asked Steinem what keeps Steinem motivated. Ferrera said that this was Steinem’s response: “I stay close to the people.” Ferrera said this advice “has inspired me for more days than you’ll ever know. And I have tried to pass on that incredible wisdom to as many people as I can.” She added, “I feel so lucky and so proud that I’ve had the opportunities to choose portrayals of everyday women and Latinas, in their fullness and their messiness and their complexity and their joy.”
Ferrera concluded, “It’s been a privilege to get to tell stories that defy any one notion of feminism. Instead, the stories we tell get to expand the notion of feminism to include women of all shapes, colors, sizes, and experiences. And we’re in a moment in our nation’s history where we need all of us. … We need to do like Gloria [Steinem does] and stay proximate to the issues and to the people most impacted by them. … It’s our time to stand up and fight for our future. Trust women. Center women. Invest in women.”
WMC Center co-founder Jane Fonda introduced Epting, who since 2019 has been executive director of MoveOn, a public policy advocacy group and progressive political action committee. Fonda began her introduction by saying that she recently spent time canvassing in Michigan, and she urged people not to assume that the 2024 U.S. presidential election will be an easy victory for Democrats and that all elected officials need to have their “feet held to the fire” to keep their campaign promises. Fonda then said of Epting and MoveOn: “Rahna, who is the first person of color to lead the organization, focuses on three things: countering threats to democracy, including misinformation; combating the rise of white nationalism; and harnessing the political awakening of voters who aren’t typically engaged.”
“We do this work not for awards,” Epting said in her speech. “We do this work because we truly believe in it.” She added, “As someone who was, just 10 or so years ago, a participant in the Women’s Media Center training, to be standing on this stage is somewhat surreal. I didn’t imagine this would happen.”
Epting said, “We are here at a very perilous moment in our country, a very perilous moment for our democracy. … There are very sinister forces that want to tear down the fabric of this country and the cornerstones of our democracy, all while taking away our most fundamental rights and freedoms. … We must stop them.”
Epting elaborated, “That is why the Women’s Media Center and their efforts to lift up to support and raise the visibility, the viability, and the decision-making power of those who are often represented, thereby ensuring that their stories are told and their voices get heard has always been critical. That is even more important in this moment that we’re in.”
She added that MoveOn shares a “similar mission” to Women’s Media Center: making sure that underrepresented people are heard and represented. Epting concluded with some “good news” by saying that the hateful, dark forces that she spoke of are “the minority” and that people who love democracy are “the majority.” She stated, “We are combating these forces with joy.”
WMC co-founder Robin Morgan introduced Deitch by mentioning her accomplishments, which range from directing the 1985 landmark lesbian movie Desert Hearts; directing the miniseries The Women of Brewster Place and episodes of NYPD Blue, ER, Grey’s Anatomy, and Law & Order: SVU; and establishing a scholarship fund for women of color directors enrolled in the UCLA Graduate School of Film and Television. Morgan noted: “Donna Deitch had the visionary audacity to direct Desert Hearts, the first feature film of a lesbian love story in which neither woman was killed, committed suicide, or in the end, married a man. She also produced the film, raising the $1 million budget herself through house parties with the help of Gloria Steinem and Lily Tomlin, and selling shares of the movie.”