Have you ever sat down at a poker table for game night and wanted to be able to join in and play without feeling stupid? You’re not the only girl. For some (sexist) reason, girls are not usually taught poker and it has become quite the boys club. Since we know girls are so much more than the “good luck charm” as the media often represents us when it comes to poker, this group is here to help change that. They’re called “Poker PowHER” and their mission is to empower young women to master the skills of poker and demand a seat at the table.
Poker PowHER was founded by Jenny Just to help embolden women in business and life through the game of poker. Their initiative is to encourage young women to learn the skills of poker and practice leadership and confidence, and then take those skills to every table they sit at, in the lunchroom or the boardroom. Poker PowHER has grown through word of mouth of women encouraging others and now oversee more than 70 virtual poker groups.
Poker PowHER connects the poker table to the business world through the idea that if a woman can practice confidence and leadership skills around the poker table, she can take that into her career and “flip the table.” There are a lot of inequalities when it comes to gender discrimination at work and these are just a few stats that Poker PowHER recognizes and is working to flip:
- 100 million people play poker worldwide, but only 4% are women.
- 1500 CEOs run the Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 companies, but only 7.5% are women.
- Men control 98.7% of the $69 trillion in asset management, but only 2.8% of VC funding goes towards women.
- Men initiate salary negotiations four times as often as women do, and women ask for 30% less than men.
Next time game night rolls around, don’t just shyly join in. Instead, show off your confidence and skills and flip the table!