Melody Hudson, MBA ‘12 founded The Equal Balance Movement to fight for equal pay for women. The movement has inspired women across the nation to take action. In March 2018, Hudson shared her message with world leaders at the 2018 United Nations Global Engagement Summit in New York.

“HNU was, and is, a community committed to social justice. My education prepared me to become a strong voice in the global community and an advocate for women’s equal rights. I spent years working for Fortune 500 companies and Silicon Valley startups and my experience in these male-dominated industries highlighted the gender pay gap crisis. I founded The Equal Balance Movement to fight for equal pay for all women,” says Hudson.

Hudson has lived in the Bay Area for the last 20 years and is passionate about using her voice to make a positive impact in the community. She started working with the Women of Impact team at Girls Inc. to help empower young girls from disadvantaged backgrounds and started a production company, Head Not the Tail, to create films and branded media that address important social issues.

In 2016, she wrote and directed a documentary, Invisible Women: Being a Black Woman in Corporate America, that highlights the race-related issues impacting black women in the corporate workplace. Her documentary premiered at HNU and received critical praise at film festivals across the country.

During the making of the documentary, Hudson honed in on the issue that would become the focus of her next project—pay inequality.

The Equal Balance Movement is actively promoting support for the Lady Liberty Bill, a bill that proposes increased pay transparency in the workplace. “We can’t fight for what we don’t know,” says Hudson. “This is the first step to fighting for what is right. My work is aligned with the Sisters of the Holy Names mission to serve women and children.”