On June 11th and 12th, 2003, The White House Project convened over 120 women leaders from across all sectors in Washington D.C. for its second annual National Women's Leadership Summit. Prominent women leaders in every field from education to economics and the military to the media, joined forces over a day and a half of panel discussions and focused debate, to address this year's theme: "Using Our Power to Create Change."
The work of last year's summit sought to identify and evaluate "Where We Stand," and this year we took active steps forward to build on the plans, ideas, and dreams from 2002.
Major outcomes of the summit:
- Alexandra Lebenthal announced the launch of the Visibility Project. The project will focus on positioning women as experts in the news media on targeted issue areas and will also provide an online database and clearinghouse of women leaders and experts intended for bookers and producers who work on the agenda-setting news programs of our day. The initiative will help women leaders and experts become more media-savy and will prepare more spokeswomen for primetime.
This project builds on WHP's "Who's Talking" research that found that only 1 in 10 guests on the Sunday political talk shows were women. Together with our partners, The Women's Funding Network and Fenton Communications, WHP will ensure that more women leaders move up the "visibility pipeline" and that women are both seen and heard on every powerful platform. - Jane Fonda announced the upcoming June 2004 National Women's Convention, a large-scale gathering of women from across the country that will serve to mobilize and inspire women and girls around the up-coming election. This WHP partnership with V-Day will ensure that women's concerns will be on the radar screens of Republicans and Democrats alike - it will build a spirit and energy that will hold the candidates accountable to women.
