On 1 March 2026, Roxanne D. Brown became the 10th international president of the United Steelworkers (USW), the first woman, and the first Black woman, to lead one of North America’s most powerful unions. She is clear about what it means. Not a personal milestone. A collective one. A moment that captured, as she put it, “so many hopes, dreams, silent struggles and prayers” and belonged to every sister who had ever been told the top was not for her.

One month on, speaking to IndustriALL at the USW International Women’s Conference in Toronto, the weight of that moment was still landing. For retirees who said they never thought they would live to see it. For young women still working out whether there is a place for them at the top. For Roxanne Brown herself, still occasionally catching herself saying “vice president” out of habit.

Read more at: https://www.industriall-union.org/roxanne-brown-usw-president-womens-leadership-new-era