Exploring Women’s Issues in Writing and In Person
Ahead of the 2025 Wāhine Forum with 1,000 women attendees, this October issue explores workplace challenges, the 'motherhood penalty,' and celebrates trailblazing leaders.
Each October, our magazine shares themes with the Wāhine Forum, Hawaiʻi’s largest leadership and career development conference for women. That’s when more than 1,000 women – executives, entrepreneurs, rising leaders and young professionals – come together to learn, connect and build community.
What makes the forum especially powerful is the honesty of the participants. Real women share real stories about navigating careers and life – the highs that fuel ambition and the lows that test resilience.
That same spirit runs through our cover story by award-winning journalist Cynthia Wessendorf. She exposes the hard truths of many women’s careers: toxic workplaces, grueling schedules and impossible trade-offs that so many women endure, especially single mothers.
Cynthia’s reporting reveals harrowing ways women are forced to walk the line between putting up with workplace harassment, low pay and disrespect – or walking away with their families’ financial stability on the line. It’s a reality that’s rarely discussed as openly as it should be.
In Hawaiʻi, being a breadwinner, a boss or both often means carrying an outsized burden. The state’s high cost of living magnifies every decision and makes the climb to the top feel even steeper.
“The Motherhood Penalty”
Numbers tell part of the story. Women make up nearly half of Hawaiʻi’s workforce, yet they hold only a quarter of the top executive roles in the state’s 250 largest organizations. Among the 100 biggest organizations by revenue, just nine women occupy the chief executive seat.
The pay gap is just as sobering. A UH Economic Research Organization report shows men start pulling ahead in pay during their late 20s, about the same time many women become mothers. That gap only widens with age. Economists call it the “motherhood penalty.” For women in Hawaiʻi, it’s simply reality.
But numbers alone can’t capture the grit and the breakthroughs.
Hawaiʻi is home to trailblazing leaders who prove what’s possible: Connie Lau, Susan Eichor, Susan Yamada and Catherine Ngo have set bold examples at the highest levels. Rising stars like Christine Camp, Dawn Lippert, Elisia Flores, Ann Teranishi and Su Shin are pushing industries forward while mentoring the next generation. In higher education, UH President Wendy Hensel is reshaping the state’s largest public institution with a focus on access, equity and innovation. (Please see her story on page 24.)
And across every sector, other influential women are making their marks: Sherry Menor-McNamara at the Chamber of Commerce Hawaii, Dr. Kanoe Nāone with the Girl Scouts of Hawaiʻi, Rolanda Morgan with Susan G. Komen Hawaiʻi, Jean Boyd at HawaiiUSA Federal Credit Union and many more.
Parting Shot
We’re “soft retiring” a regular feature in our magazine, Parting Shot, and replacing it on the last page with a column called Trial and Error. I call it “soft retiring” because Parting Shot photographs will continue online on our website and Instagram.
The last page of a magazine shouldn’t signal the end, as Parting Shot suggests; it should spark a lasting thought. With that in mind, the last page will now focus on the trials and triumphs of 20- and 30-somethings.
Ryann Noelani Coules, the lead writer of this new column, told me the constant negative chatter about Gen Zers and Millennials is overblown and backed it up by sending me a New Yorker article titled “It’s Time to Stop Talking About ‘Generations.’ ” (Read it at bit.ly/3VxoH96.)
Born in 1999, Ryann says she doesn’t feel particularly connected to either Gen Z or Millennial stereotypes. “There is so much variation within each generation; it’s quite silly how much emphasis we put on what each generation is supposedly like,” she tells me.
So, we’re dedicating the last page in our magazine to 20- and 30-somethings – what they’re up to and what they’re thinking.
I want to see and hear it all from local 20- and 30-somethings: your triumphs, your missteps, your wild ideas and even the things you can’t believe you did (include photos, too). This is your space to experiment, explain and shine – and to remind us all that the best stories are the ones we’re still figuring out.
Ryann will launch the series in November and we’re hoping it starts an exciting new dialogue.
