Hillary Schave
Burke’s Building Brave app could be a tool for the burgeoning #MeToo movement.
Almost every day, Mary Burke hears success stories. The woman who was on the fence about starting her own business? She decided to take the plunge. That busy mom who felt like she had to wait until her kids moved out to pursue a passion project? She wrote a book and got it published. The adult daughter struggling to care for her aging father? She finally set some boundaries and asked for help.
“I talk to women every single day who tell me how Building Brave has made a difference in their lives,” says Burke, a member of the Madison school board who lost a bid for governor in 2014. “It really is life-changing, and it’s such a little thing. All it takes is hearing from another woman who may have been in a similar circumstance, someone who says, ‘I understand where you’re coming from — and you should do it.’”
Building Brave is the social networking app that Burke launched in October 2017 with the goal of empowering women through a supportive online community. Within the app, users can engage and follow discussions and join targeted groups dedicated to topics like health, wellness, education and careers. Users also have access to resources and are prompted to do exercises to build skills and confidence. Since the app went live Building Brave has built up an active user base and has also hosted in-person outreach events for young professionals in Madison and Milwaukee.
“The probability that someone stays in [an online] community is very closely tied to how many people they already know in the community,” Burke says. “It’s a little bit like going to a party — if there’s nobody you know there, those first few minutes can seem pretty intimidating and not very welcoming.”
That’s why for 2018, Building Brave is ramping up its focus on in-person outreach and developing partnerships with businesses and organizations. This year, the organization has planned more networking events in Madison and Milwaukee as well as five events on college campuses. In addition, Building Brave is launching a pilot program with Quad Graphics, an international printing company based in Sussex, Wisconsin. The partnership will allow Building Brave to create an employee resource group for women within the company, which has about 23,000 employees worldwide. Employee resource groups, known as ERGs, are a growing trend for companies interested in fostering diversity and inclusivity, and Burke sees an opportunity for Building Brave to play a role in their development, particularly at large corporations with employees working in multiple office locations and across various shifts.
“I’ve gotten to understand what their mission is and how they accomplish it through activities, programming and content,” says Burke, a graduate of Harvard Business School who frequently speaks at ERG events. “We feel that [Building Brave] can provide an opportunity to have a private community within the app so [ERGs] can engage members of their group, 24/7, anywhere in the world.”
In addition to Quad Graphics, Burke is talking with “five or six” other companies interested in partnering for ERG development. Building Brave is also emerging as a resource for companies interested in accessing workshop materials and speakers for professional development events. “There’s no one else doing what we’re doing out there,” Burke says.
Private online communities for women have exploded in popularity since the 2016 presidential election. Perhaps the best-known example is Pantsuit Nation, the formerly secret Facebook group of Hillary Clinton supporters that became a national organization. Women have also taken to social media to share stories of sexual harassment and assault as part of the #MeToo movement. Burke, who began working on Building Brave in August 2015, did not anticipate the groundswell, but she agrees that the timing of her community’s launch was fortuitous. And while the mission of Building Brave is much broader, she sees the organization as part of the feminist movement.
“I have incredible gratitude and appreciation for the women who did step out there and got this going,” she says of the #MeToo campaign. “Women for many years had been voicing concerns or sharing experiences, but they didn’t get a whole lot of encouragement or support. In many cases it was the exact opposite.”
Burke declined to share thoughts on the upcoming governor’s race or the crowded field of Democrats seeking to unseat Gov. Scott Walker. She has said previously that she has no plans to run for office again, but when asked by Isthmus, she entertained one possible scenario.
“When Building Brave hits 10 million women,” she says, “maybe I’ll reconsider.”
As of this week, the app has more than 1,600 members.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Quad Graphics has 3,000 employees worldwide. The correct figure is 23,000.
