In May 2002, The White House Project partnered with business leader Heidi Miller to host the first National Women's Leadership Summit in Washington, DC, a convocation of 125 exceptional women leaders from the public and private sectors. Over two days of panel discussions and working groups, the Summit addressed the state of women's leadership and developed strategies to expand and strengthen that leadership, especially for the next generation of young women.
The Summit brought together influential women from the worlds of business, sports, media and entertainment, medicine and science, religion, philanthropy, civic and nonprofit organizations, law and technology. These women convened across sectors to identify common themes and to conceptualize specific projects to increase women's access to leadership.
The first National Women's Leadership Summit created a context and a shared agenda for women leaders in every field. The starting point for this national conversation was that, while women leaders in every sector had encountered similar obstacles to leadership, their common voice must be amplified within social debates, and that women must become visible sources of power and influence.
For Summit 2003, The White House Project will build on that first conversation, by focusing on how women use their power to create change and by articulating the messages and strategies needed to further leverage women's visibility and viability in the public arena. In doing so, the 2003 Summit will advance beyond issues of individual leadership to the collective potential of women to influence the social, political, and cultural debates of our time.
2002 SUMMIT: SUMMARY AND SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS
On May 1-2, 2002, 125 exceptional women leaders from the public and private sectors convened in Washington, DC to address the state of women's leadership. The White House Project convened this intergenerational brain trust in order to:
- Identify where women stand across sectors and what areas provide the greatest access and challenges to women's leadership;
- Extend beyond specific areas of expertise to support one another and to involve new women leaders;
- Leverage women's success and influence to transform the culture and make a profound difference to future generations of women.
Over two days of panel discussions, working groups and networking sessions, the inaugural National Women's Leadership Summit celebrated women's achievement and stimulated wide-ranging conversation about the social, political, and cultural forces that shape women's experience of leadership.
LEADERSHIP IS CHANGING AND NOW IS OUR TIME
The Summit program was launched with a panel presentation, "Leadership is Changing and Now is Our Time," that offered an overview of current challenges and opportunities and opened discussion to the audience. The panel featured three extraordinary women leaders: Marian Wright Edelman, Founder and President of the Children's Defense Fund, Mae Jemison, former NASA astronaut and President of the Jemison Group, and Heidi Miller, Executive Vice-President, Bank One.
Excerpts from Leadership is Changing and Now is Our Time:
Mae Jemison: "Science is about how we understand our world, and technology is a tool. Women have under-appreciated the role of technology in our daily lives. Women have not been seen as the creators of technology, only as users. We have to be the creators who determine what technology is for. Women have an opportunity to alter
our world."
Marian Wright Edelman: "We need to build coalitions across race and class, to look at the survival issues that affect ordinary women. It's about putting food on the table and having health care and childcare. This is the time to build those alliances and to find a common voice for all those women who have no voice. To the degree that we can come together around the issues that ordinary women struggle with, we can build a strong voice for all women."
WHERE WE STAND
The Summit's second panel discussion, "Where We Stand," was led by Sheila Wellington, Founder and President of Catalyst, the premier research and consulting firm on women's issues. The three distinguished panelists -- Susan V. Berresford, President of the Ford Foundation; Professor Lotte Bailyn, from the Sloan School of Management at M.I.T., and Mellody Hobson, President and CEO of Ariel Capital -- discussed the prevailing trends respective to women's leadership. The discussion provided a common knowledge base for Summit participants and synthesized critical understandings about the key challenges and experiences that should inform new initiatives for advancing women's leadership.
Lotte Bailyn exposed the faulty reasoning that often informs the public understanding of "workplace equality." Bailyn emphasized that many organizations that view themselves as gender-neutral and merit-based do not consider the constraints which affect women to a greater degree than men; e.g. family responsibilities. Bailyn advocated for changing workplace norms, both by engaging men in collective action, and by pursuing experimental, incremental changes in parts of the system that can be monitored over time.
Lotte Bailyn on workplace equity: "There is a difference between giving people
'equal opportunity' and identifying what the constraints are to real equity. Equity
will not be possible if there exists one group of people - for example, people with
care responsibilities - who are systematically unable to meet the requirements of
the ideal worker who gives full priority and all his time and energy to his work. Therefore, an equitable situation should entail equal opportunities and equal constraint."
Susan V. Berresford addressed the risks and opportunities presented by the accelerating pace of globalization. In a diverse world, women leaders in every arena must be "vigorously bifocal," both to understand the differences in culture and tradition while finding common values and common aspiration beyond the differences, "so that we can work together, to make deals and to advance struggles for justice and other concerns."
Susan V. Berresford on women in the global context: "For women leaders in politics, business, the arts and community life, there is a greater need to be globally sophisticated. To be a leader today, you have to live in multiple worlds and be effective in different arenas, from business to government to NGOs. You need to be fluent in a range of cultures in an increasingly diverse world."
Mellody Hobson reflected on her experience as a young woman who has pursued multiple opportunities in the business, philanthropic and political arenas. In reviewing her own career trajectory, Hobson identified the pivotal role played by a male mentor and acknowledged that her own success issues, in part, from her embrace of the "ideal worker" paradigm. Hobson also noted that, among women of a younger generation, there is a much greater degree of comfort in challenging authority and competing alongside male colleagues and peers.
Mellody Hobson on the "ideal worker": "I was always volunteering to do the work that no one else wanted to do. It was a conscious choice. I knew what I was willing to give
up for what I was learning in return. I knew that, in the future, I would be in charge."
Excerpts from Where We Stand:
Sheila Wellington: "How do you change the old rules around work and life?"
Melody Hobson: "The younger generation is not concerned with conforming or being conventional. I've learned the importance of thinking in a contrary way and sometimes being absolutely wrong."
Susan Berresford: " Find the contrarians in the work culture and get behind them. Be a supporter to the contrarians and change agents in the culture."
Lotte Bailyn: "We need a collective effort, and we need to engage men in this effort. We can't change the complete organization, but we can get people to agree to experimental changes in parts of the system that can be monitored."
AT THE TIPPING POINT
The next Summit event was a facilitated group conversation, "At the Tipping Point." Led by Pat Mitchell, President and CEO of PBS, a group of twenty women leaders explored strategies for changing the balance of power.
Participants in the group conversation included, among others, Carole Black, President and CEO of Lifetime Entertainment; Alexandra Lebenthal, President and CEO of Lebenthal & Co.; Rebecca W. Rimel, President and CEO of The Pew Charitable Trusts; Dorrit J. Bern, Chairman, President and CEO of Charming Shoppes, and Wendy D. Puriefoy, President of the Public Education Network.
Excerpts from At the Tipping Point:
Pat Mitchell: "What will it take to break through to the tipping point, to achieve prominent roles in critical mass, to be visible and vocal leaders who can improve our professions, contribute to our fields and influence the public agenda?"
Deborah Rhode, Stanford Law School professor and renowned author on diversity, addressed the notion of "difference as a value in itself" that should be exploited and showcased.
Lisa Caputo, President of Women & Co. from Citigroup, Inc., talked about the critical importance of "getting into the Rolodex."
Stephanie Kugelman, Vice-Chairman and Chief Strategic Officer at Young and Rubicam Advertising, spoke about the growing need for "emotionally intelligent leaders," a unique opportunity for women.
Shirley M. Tilghman, President of Princeton University, discussed the need to "retool the tenure clock," to advance women in the sciences and other academic disciplines as well.
Molly F. Ashby, Founder and CEO of Solera Capital, LLC, talked about the birth of her own daughter as the motivation for launching "a firm reflecting the core values" she espouses.
Dina Dublon, Chief Financial Officer at JP Morgan Chase and Company, spoke about the need to enlist men's support in the advancement of women. "There is power and knowledge in doing it together. We need that power and we need that knowledge to move us forward."
STRATEGY SESSIONS
The centerpiece of the 2002 Summit was the convening of Strategy Groups to focus on specific issues and to develop strategies related to mentoring, enlisting men as allies, and making the case for women's leadership.
The strategy groups served as an important venue for articulating messages and for building networks across generations and professional sectors. Outcomes of the strategy sessions included The New Mentoring Manifesto and a plan for a national series of dinner parties, "A Few Good Men," to engage men in dialogue about women's leadership advancement.
FRONT AND CENTER
The Summit's other programs included a stirring "Salute to Billie Jean King," led by Gloria Steinem, and "Front and Center," a discussion of culture as another "tipping point" for women's issues. This event featured playwright Eve Ensler, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Ph.D., of the Annenberg School for Communication, and Malika Dutt, renowned human rights activist. Professor Jamieson talked about how the popular media transmits powerful messages about identity and cultural roles. Eve Ensler spoke about her play, "The Vagina Monologues" as an international movement that addresses domestic violence, and Malika Dutt screened her most recent music video, which uses popular music as a statement against domestic violence in India.
Eve Ensler: "Now is the time for women to come back into power, to take hold of the planet and to take hold of the public spheres, in ways that they haven't done before."
CHOOSING TO LEAD
The 2002 National Women's Leadership Summit concluded with a panel discussion, "Choosing to Lead," moderated by Gwen Ifill, Senior Correspondent to the PBS "NewsHour." Participants included Dr. Johnetta Betsch Cole, President Emerita of Spelman College; Geraldine Ferraro; President of G & L Strategies and former Vice-Presidential candidate; Geraldine Laybourne, Chair and CEO, Oxygen Media, and Kavita N. Ramdas, President and CEO, The Global Fund for Women.
2002 SUMMIT: OUTCOMES
The 2002 Summit was a success in many ways, both personal and professional, for the participants. The most profound outcome was the connection made between and among women of diverse professions, cultures, races, and generations. The discussions - both onstage and in more informal settings -- were remarkably honest. While acknowledging the challenges involved in moving beyond barriers of class, race, culture and age, the participants left the Summit with a tremendous sense of the impact that women have when they come together around common values. This mutual support suggests strong potential for building powerful coalitions and creating a sustained agenda for cultural change.
The 2002 Summit also resulted in new programs that are a direct outcome of the themes that resonated throughout the conference. These themes revolve around the issues of visibility, mentoring, engaging men as allies, and transforming popular culture.
VISIBILITY
Every panel discussion and strategy group identified visibility as a critical factor in women's advancement to leadership. Among the recommendations for increasing women's visibility:
- Develop systematic methods to prepare women for media visibility;
- Identify venues to spotlight women leaders, and developing a "spotlighting" strategy;
- Network women experts as media resources, within and across professional disciplines.
It is more critical than ever for women to bring their perspective to the spectrum of media and public debate. The idea for a national "Visibility Project" emerged from the Summit, informed and inspired by the White House Project's two recent research studies on women and authority. The first of these projects -- Who's Talking? --- was an analysis of the number of women guests on the Sunday morning political talk shows. It found that women represent only 11% of all guest appearances over a year-and-a-half period. The second piece of research, entitled Barriers and Opportunities to Women's Executive Leadership, focused on women candidates' ability to communicate toughness and effectiveness in their political commercials. The first research of its kind, this project examined the immediate reactions that voters have to women in powerful positions and how women can overcome these built-in responses.
The Visibility Project: The White House Project is developing an electronic database of women leaders, to spotlight them as resources for media correspondents and guest bookings. By creating this list of qualified women experts and informing television and radio producers about the availability of their expertise and knowledge, the Visibility Project is taking a proactive stand, to increase the number of women guests on television and radio news/talk programs.
ENGAGING MEN AS ALLIES
The strategy groups concurred that championship from top leadership is a critical element of success in advancing women. Since top leadership posts are occupied primarily by men, women must build the skills to enlist men as allies. There was significant interest in reaching out to men as allies, not only to talk about the problems, but as a proactive collaboration to develop solutions.
One strategy is to host dinner parties to reach out to men who have recognized and supported women's leadership and engage them in conversations about women and power. A pilot "table-talk" dinner is planned for Spring 2003, with outcomes to be presented at the 2003 Summit.
TRANSFORMING POPULAR CULTURE
The White House Project has long been involved in the effort to develop new cultural messages about women's leadership. Following the Summit, The White House Project launched its Inaugural EPIC Awards Dinner in October 2002, honoring those individuals and organizations that use their art to promote the image of women as leaders.
EPIC Awards: Enhancing Perceptions in Culture
The inaugural EPIC Awards Dinner was held in October 2002 in New York City, with
an audience of more than 300 supporters. The event was hosted by Marlo Thomas, along with Ruby Dee, The Honorable David N. Dinkins, Pat Mitchell, and Theresa Weatherspoon, and featured a performance by Melissa Etheridge.
2002 EPIC Awards Winners included: Val Ackerman of WNBA, Walter Anderson, PARADE Magazine; Camille Cosby and Renee Poussaint, National Visionary Leader-
ship Project; Geraldine Laybourne and Ted Nelson, Oxygen Media and Mullen Advertising; Whoopi Goldberg, Producer of "Strong Medicine," Lifetime Television, with a "Trailblazer Award" to Geraldine Ferraro.
MENTORING
Strategy groups created The New Mentoring Manifesto, a guide that advocates for mentoring that is more conscious, strategic, systematic, and sustained in effect moving from mentoring to "power-building." The principles guiding the manifesto include:
- 360 degree mentoring to exchange learning between generations;
- Flexible mentoring that ranges from quick-access to long-term relationships;
- Work-life mentoring to remind the next generation that life goes "in chapters";
- Widening the net, to mentor across divisions of race, class and culture.
THE NEW MENTORING MANIFESTO:
- Invest in 360-degree mentoring.
Mentor down and up. Mentor your peers. Choose mentoring as a way of life.
- Identify obvious talent and hidden potential.
Make your mentoring value-added. Identify the people for whom mentoring will make the greatest difference.
- Create an environment that values mentoring.
Speak out for mentoring. Share the results. Mentoring is part of your professional
development.
- Build networks for mentoring.
Move beyond the 1:1 mentoring paradigm. Create strategic support
networks with other mentors.
- Develop mentoring infrastructure.
Bring your mentoring to the technology forefront. Share databases with other mentors. Approach organizations with mentoring infrastructure.
- Identify new "client bases" for mentoring.
Look beyond younger women to identify other people who can benefit from your
mentoring, i.e., older women returning to work.
- Widen your mentoring "net."
Move outside your comfort zone. Mentor across race, culture, and social class.
- Develop an inner compass.
Know your own needs. Define your boundaries. State your expectations.
- Teach the "long view."
Life goes in chapters. Younger women will benefit knowing how you navigated the challenges of work and life.
- Pay it forward.
Touch everyone with your mentoring. Let those you mentor know: they have a role to play in the building a mentoring "legacy."
- Celebrate the "shoulders."
Take time to teach your younger colleagues about the struggles and achievements of our predecessors, and to honor them.
- Go beyond mentoring - become a "power-builder"!
Make the commitment. Move from information to inspiration!
The New Mentoring Manifesto is a product of
The White House Project/Women's Leadership Fund
