Remarks from the Stage
2025 Leading Women Awards
Monica Roberts, CEO, Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts
Good afternoon, everyone! I am Monica Roberts, the Chief Executive Officer of Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts. It is an honor to stand before you today.
I want to start by posing a question to the crowd. Don’t be nervous; there are no wrong answers. Now, don’t blurt out your answer until I ask for it. When you all think of Girl Scouts, what is the first word that comes to mind? Don’t overthink it, and on the count of three, I want you to say that word out loud. Ready? 1…2…3…
Cookies, right? I thought you might say that. Now, I hear you—Girl Scout Cookies are delicious, but what they represent is even more satisfying.
Girl Scout Cookies are a pathway for the youth members we serve to learn some of life’s most important lessons—bravery, leadership, advocacy, relationship building, financial empowerment, and much more.
I think we can all agree that this is a challenging time to identify as a woman or a girl. It frustrates me that— in 2025— I still have people refer to me as unusual, uncommon, atypical, and rare as a Black woman CEO leading an organization that is the size of Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts.
A study from S&P Global, published last March, revealed that only 11.8% of C-Suite leaders are women, even fewer are women of color, and even fewer than that are Black women. To put this number into perspective, a survey of the same companies from the previous year boasted 12.2% of women in C-Suite roles. That’s a 0.4% decline in gender parity among top business leaders.
According to a different study from McKinsey & Company, it would take 22 years for white women to reach gender parity in the workplace and over twice as long for women of color to do the same.
This is the case, despite research demonstrating that higher percentages of racial and gender diversity in corporate leadership lead to better returns.
Across all industries in our nation, the contributions of women and girls are still being suppressed and devalued—all while the next generation is being told who they should be, how they should behave, and what they should be aspiring to.
According to the Girls’ Index, nearly 60% of girls believe they are not smart enough for their dream career and are actively avoiding leadership roles to avoid being perceived as bossy or domineering.
But I’m not here to deliver doom and gloom or dwell on the negatives. I would not be where I am today if I did not look at these statistics and say I will defy the odds, and neither would any of you. My father once told me that he would rather me disappoint people than live a disappointing life. So every day that I get up, I work to disappoint those who would keep the status quo. I look at the data and see an opportunity and a challenge that I believe we are collectively able to take on.
I am here—as CEO of Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts and as a Black woman—to remind everyone in this room that now more than ever, our youth members need an outlet to develop the skills that will propel them forward and allow them to thrive in today’s society.
I don’t want the next generation to shatter the glass ceiling or break the glass escalator—I want them to dismantle the ceilings and escalators altogether.
So, how do they do that? This is where Girl Scouts comes in.
At Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts, representation, belonging, equity, and inclusion are—and will continue to be—at the forefront of everything we do. In our council, we welcome anyone who identifies as a girl, and we have a vision of a world in which they are confident, understand their worth, and have the skills to thrive.
We are working to ensure that our programming encourages our young people to develop a perception of themselves that is entirely their own and authentic to who they are at their core, in a space that feels relevant to them.
If there is nowhere else our girls feel they belong, they can belong at Girl Scouts.
Our curricula inspire our Girl Scouts to explore any and all of their interests at their own pace in developmentally appropriate ways. We don’t decide what topics they should pursue—we simply provide a robust curriculum for what might spark their curiosity.
Girl Scouting allows our youth members greater access to things that may have previously felt out of reach, like STEM, financial literacy, entrepreneurship, career exploration, civic engagement, outdoor skills, and leadership, to name a few.
Our members have the freedom to try everything they want to do with mentorship and guidance from trusted adults, some of whom are here today.
What makes Girl Scouts unique is our community of support. We are so fortunate to have such a dedicated group of volunteers, donors, program partners, and staff who uphold and deliver our mission in everything they do. You are the gas that makes our engine run. Let’s give them a round of applause!
We, like most nonprofits, are dependent upon the generosity of our donors. Across the entire country, only 1.9% of philanthropic giving is directed to women’s and girls’ organizations. We need your help to move the needle on that shocking statistic. We need your help to disappoint those who are content with the status quo.
As I look to the future of this organization, I am proud to be at the forefront of exciting and necessary change. We can—and will—help girls increase and protect their self-assurance and empowerment, as well as their ability to persevere and challenge the status quo.
We are empowering our members to be visionaries and futurists, to look beyond the limitations the data tells us exists, and to dream big to achieve their goals.
This is how the next generation will dismantle the glass ceiling, move the needle toward true representation in the workforce, kick down the structures and systems that today’s women are battling, and lead us into a better tomorrow.
Now…When someone asks you one word to describe Girl Scouts—I hope that words like “inspiring,” “empowered,” “leadership,” “changemakers,” “advocacy,” and “hope” are the ones that come to mind.
