This is the ForbesWomen newsletter, which every Thursday brings news about the world’s top female entrepreneurs, leaders and investors straight to your inbox. Click here to get on the newsletter list!Summer is allegedly carefree and fun, but a glance at recent Forbes breaking news coverage (and, okay, my own web search history) reveals anything but. We’re looking at parasitic diarrhea illness cyclosporiasis in 31 states, the pneumonia-like Legionnaires’ disease in New York City and an unhealthy air quality index across the country due to wildfires that are blazing in Canada. None of this is brand new to summer 2026: Cooling towers are breeding grounds for the bacteria that causes Legionnaires; wildfire smoke in 2021 and 2023 turned San Francisco and New York, respectively, positively Martian in hue; small cyclosporiasis clusters occur annually, and in the summer. What is different about right now, however, is the breadth and severity of what we’re seeing—and scientists point to climate change as the exacerbating factor.“Scientists have formally hypothesized a role for climate change in creating more optimal environmental conditions needed for diseases such as cyclosporiasis to spread,” Forbes healthcare policy contributor Joshua Cohen writes here. “They observe associations between higher temperatures in non-tropical settings and the prevalence of pathogens such as cyclospora [the parasite that causes cyclosporiasis]. Indeed, cyclospora depend on prolonged outdoor heat and moisture to mature, which makes it sensitive to the effects of rising temperatures.”If you’re less interested in the “why” behind these summer trends and more concerned about how to protect yourself and your loved ones, we’ve got you covered: This article has great tips on food safety and reducing your cyclosporiasis risk (cooking produce at 158 degrees Fahrenheit is one of the key moves). And this 2025 article on protecting yourself from wildfire smoke is worth a re-read. Take care of yourselves,Maggie McGrathFeatured Forbes Analysis: Karen Carter Went From Dow Intern To CEO. Her Path Is More Common Than You ThinkDow chief inclusion officer and chief human resources officer Karen S. Carter speaks during the award ceremony of the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational at Midland Country Club in Midland, Michigan, on Saturday, July 16, 2022. (Photo by Jorge Lemus/NurPhoto via Getty Images)NurPhoto via Getty ImagesOn July 1, Karen Carter became CEO of Dow, a company she joined in 1994 as an intern. The headlines wrote themselves: intern to the corner office, first Black woman to lead a major U.S. chemical company, first woman to lead the 129-year-old giant. Carter is also one of just two Black women currently running an S&P 500 company. And her path to get there was far from conventional. She didn’t come up through finance and a P&L, instead rising through Dow’s human resources function, its inclusion office and its plastics business—the kind of long, winding, functionally diverse path women are far more likely than men to have to travel to reach the top.ICYMI: Stories From The WeekWomen's health investment reached a milestone in 2025: A new report from the W. Group, the 1st Global Women's Health Investment Report, reveals that roughly $1.55 billion was deployed across 85 companies last year, prompting the arrival of what the report calls "the Era of Scale." Yet the early-stage investors in charge of that capital describe a more complicated reality, where a record headline coexists with a category still arguing for its legitimacy and an environment in which generalist VCs still don’t recognize the opportunity.Would you pay $15 to go on a date? It’s just the price of a cocktail, argue Stanford dropouts Celeste Amadon and Asher Allen. They started dating app company Known based on their belief that frustrated Gen Z singles, tired of endless swiping, are willing to pay up.The space economy is facing a bottleneck when it comes to rocket launches because demand is outstripping supply–but Winnie Lai thinks she’s found a potential solution for this issue. Lai is the founder of Auriga Space, which is developing a linear electromagnetic accelerator to catapult rockets to high altitudes, where their engines kick in to bring them to orbit. It essentially replaces the typical first stage of a rocket.If you’ve been watching the World Cup, you’ll know that Spain is set to face Argentina in the final this Sunday. But did you know that no woman has ever served as the center referee, the lead official on the field, for a World Cup knockout match? Although women have officiated group-stage matches in both 2022 and 2026, FIFA has yet to appoint a woman to oversee an elimination match. Research provides some insights into why progress is slow.Kimberlé Crenshaw is the scholar who coined the terms “intersectionality” and “Critical Race Theory” – and now she’s out with a new memoir, Backtalker. In the book, Crenshaw reflects on the origins of those ideas, how they’ve been distorted in public debate and why Black women remain central to any honest conversation about economic justice.The Checklist1. Choose collaboration over competition. Legally Blonde celebrated its 25th birthday this week (the iconic movie was released on July 13, 2001), and in honor of the occasion, we’re looking at career lessons from the film, because there are many. One of our favorites? You don’t have to be best friends with your female colleagues, but it is important to try to make a connection with them. 2. Don’t wait to become strong to lead. Leadership is not the reward for becoming strong—it is the process of becoming strong. Think about the leaders you admire most: Chances are their greatest strengths were forged through uncertainty, not certainty. Through mistakes, not perfection. 3. Research before you proteinmaxx. Feel like protein powder is everywhere right now? You’re not imagining it. While protein supplements were more traditionally staples of the sports nutrition and medical nutrition therapy world, consumers are increasingly using them to support wellbeing in the context of healthy aging. ForbesWomen contributor and dietician Jess Cording has this explainer about what you need to know and what you should look for before adding a gigantic jar to your shopping cart.The QuizA new study published this week found that nearly all processed foods claiming to be made with avocado oil actually contained cheaper, substitute oils. What was one of the cheaper “counterfeit” oils used?Soybean oilVegetable oilOlive oilCanola oilCheck your answer.Liked what you read? Click here to get on the newsletter list!