The 2000 “Status of Women” report said it all: Tennessee ranked 49th out of 50 states and the District of Columbia when it came to women’s health, education, economic level and political participation. Published by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, the study found that services existed, but women weren’t using them — a phenomenon attributed to geography, language barriers and economics. The report caught the attention of many local groups, including the Junior League of Nashville and the Nashville Academy of Medicine Alliance. Sally Smallwood, a member of both organizations, recognized a more underlying cause: Women didn’t know what was available and often did not have time to do the things they needed to do to take care of themselves.
    Smallwood was also very involved with Ronald McDonald House, a charitable organization focused on “taking care of caretakers so that they can take care of their sick children,” and it was with this approach that she began thinking about what could be done to connect women with existing resources. At the same time, a friend who hadn’t had an annual exam in three years discovered she had breast cancer. Motivated by this personal association, Smallwood began discussing the issue with community leaders and volunteers, as well as health officials at both the state and local level. Over the course of two years, she settled upon the idea of an event that focused not on fundraising or selling products, but on providing free services to attendees. A series of meetings introduced the idea to the wider volunteer community — garnering 30 people eager to actively participate in making it happen — and All About Women was born.
    At annual events over the next four years, companies and organizations with a stake in women’s health and well-being taught attendees how to take care of their skin, make healthy meal choices, belly dance, register to vote, write a resumé, make a living will, become financially literate, participate in numerous health screenings and even learn how to nap. “Every year, more people were involved, and it got bigger,” Smallwood recalls. “There were never less than 150 services, and there were never less than 10,000 women who came. In a real sense, All About Women was a matchmaker, and it was a piece that was missing, because the services existed, and the women existed, but they weren’t getting together.”
    While attendance was certainly an indicator of the organization’s success, a more telling measure lay in the stories of individual women whose lives were changed by the event. A visitor who began chatting casually with domestic violence counselors while waiting in line for a health screening eventually revealed that her partner sometimes held a loaded gun to her head. “But she didn’t realize she was being abused,” Smallwood recalls, “because she’d never actually been physically harmed.” The counselors assisted the woman in filing a report with Metro Police.
    Another participant, a lawyer who was integral to the organization’s formation, discovered that her cholesterol count was over 300. “It’s surprising how many women have been overweight but didn’t realize they were actually obese,” Smallwood says, “or who have been young and didn’t realize they could have high cholesterol.”  An additional discovery was that women are more likely to follow through on things they say publicly and in community. “They would come back the next year and tell us,” Smallwood explains, “so we’d know that 76 percent made changes in diet and nutrition.”
    In 2007 and 2008, the organization undertook a deliberate strategic planning process and redesign to make it even more effective in providing a day of services for women. Experienced business people such as board president Liz Allen Fey and advisory board co-chair Barbara Haynes have helped take the organization to this higher level. “We’re very intentional now,” Smallwood says. “We’ve created an event manual and identified the exact services we want.” The new version of All About Women launches January 24 in Nashville, and will also take place in Memphis and Knoxville. The group hopes to eventually expand across the South and the United States.
    In addition to the many connections she has made with women in Nashville and in Tennessee, Smallwood counts her family among supporters for All About Women. A bilingual OB/GYN, Smallwood’s husband initially provided both medical consultation and presentations in Spanish and English. “And my daughter is a beautiful writer,” Smallwood says proudly. “I put proposals together and she edits them. My son is very interested in business, so he and I have both been reading business books and have really enjoyed sharing how that applies to the things we’re doing.”
    It seems that life is full of opportunities to be in community, and Smallwood has a way of discovering them. “You find those common denominators,” she says, “and it just makes life more interesting.”