10.26.2001

The latest NYC craziness happened to be a few blocks away from my office building. The scaffolding above the W hotel courtyard collapsed, killing I think 6 people, and injuring many others. My coworkers and I already felt something was going on when we heard the numerous sirens of trucks and police cars. It was eerie because it reminded us of the morning of 9/11, cuz they just kept streaming in.

The 2001 UTNE READER ALTERNATIVE PRESS AWARD, for which Bamboo Girl Zine was nominated in the Zine category recently, has been exciting news (see previous blogger..) The upcoming Summit for Women, Leadership, and the Future at Barnard College will be held this weekend, starting Friday, October 26, 2001. Info is below. I'll be posting updates on 9/11 actions in a revise of this entry shortly..

THE BARNARD SUMMIT: WOMEN, LEADERSHIP AND THE FUTURE, TO ASSESS HOW THE CHANGING ROLE OF WOMEN IS ALTERING SOCIETY AND THE FAMILY


New York, N.Y., Oct. 15, 2001 - To better understand how the changing role of women is altering society and the family, to assess the remaining barriers to full equality between women and men, and to recommend strategies for further progress, Barnard College will host a day-long summit on Women, Leadership and the Future, Saturday, October 27, that will bring together women leaders, scholars and social observers.

Speakers include: former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift, Children's Defense Fund President Marian Wright Edelman, Harvard Business School Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter, and Catalyst President Sheila Wellington, among others. Two panels will be moderated by PBS's Gwen Ifill and Barnard President Judith Shapiro, a cultural anthropologist.

"We are at an historic crossroads in gender relations where, for the first time in the history of Western Civilization, women and men are on the verge of sharing power," said Shapiro, chair of the summit. "If we are to reach this goal successfully, we need to better understand how genuine equality will change our businesses, families and communities - and to make sure that the work traditionally done by women does not become undervalued or abandoned."

The summit will examine how women's unprecedented participation in the public world is transforming the nation's political, judicial, and economic institutions, as well as the family and women themselves. It will address the social and cultural basis of gender roles. It will compare changing norms in the U.S. with those in other countries in order to suggest ways for breaking through the barriers to full gender equity. The summit also seeks to focus wider public attention on the historic changes taking place with the rise of women's leadership - what it means for the future of human welfare, and what the obstacles are to further progress.

"The summit will bring together some of the most celebrated and thoughtful women of our time to take stock of women's changing role in the world and to explore how best to fulfill the promise of full equality for future generations," said Richard Karz, producer of If Women Ruled the World: A Washington Dinner Party, and co-chair and executive director of the summit.

Janet Jakobsen, director of the Barnard Center for Research on Women, noted: "The summit offers us the opportunity not just to focus on women's leadership and how more women can become leaders, but also on the effects of women's leadership - how are the lives of both women and men changing as power-sharing becomes a possibility?"

The summit will be preceded by a panel on The Future of Women in Business on Friday, Oct. 26, that will focus on the current corporate environment for female executives, on what the best opportunities are today for women in business, and on the balance of work and family.

The Barnard Summit: Women, Leadership and the Future is led by a distinguished advisory board and a steering committee including: Judith Shapiro, Richard Karz, and Janet Jakobsen, director, Barnard Center for Research on Women. The summit will precede the national broadcast on PBS of If Women Ruled the World: A Washington Dinner Party, a roundtable discussion in which Shapiro participated along with Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Betty Friedan, General Claudia Kennedy, and Newsweek Contributing Editor Eleanor Clift, among others.

What: The Barnard Summit -- Women, Leadership and the Future
Where: LeFrak Gymnasium, Barnard College, 117th Street and Broadway
When: Saturday, Oct. 27, 10 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. (Registration begins at 9 a.m.)

TICKETS FOR THE SUMMIT ARE SOLD OUT. To reserve space for the preceding Friday panel, contact Jane Celwyn by email: jcelwyn@barnard.edu.

Contact:
Petra Tuomi, Barnard Public Affairs, 212-854-7907, ptuomi@barnard.edu
Lucas Held, 212-854-7583, lheld@barnard.edu


YOUNG WOMEN LEADERS AND STUDENTS TO PLAY A KEY ROLE IN BARNARD SUMMIT

Young women leaders and students from Barnard College will participate in a series of forums to identify the salient issues facing women's leadership in an era of political, military and global change. The issues raised during this unique Young Women's Leadership Summit are slated to become a central part of the upcoming Barnard Millenium Summit on October 27th. Distinguished speakers at the Barnard Summit include Janet Reno; General Claudia Kennedy, the Army's first three-star woman general; Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard business professor and author; and Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children's Defense Fund. Among other issues, these panelists will address the topics identified by the young women leaders; thereby creating an intergenerational approach to looking at women's leadership in the 21st century.

"The Young Women's Leadership Summit was specifically designed to ensure that young women's voices are heard and engaged during Barnard's exciting conference," said White House Project president Marie C. Wilson. "Democracy, leadership and governance are at the top of the nation's agenda. The Young Women's Leadership Summit provides a means of ensuring that the perspective of the next generation of women leaders becomes part of the dialogue as Millenium participants explore the future of women's leadership."

The White House Project, a national non-partisan organization that challenges biases against women's leadership, has a range of initiatives underway including programs centering on young women's leadership development. The organization's study "Pipeline to the Future: Young Women and Political Leadership" -- the first in-depth analysis at engaging young women in political leadership - found that mentoring, internships and hearing about women's achievements makes them more interested in a career in politics. "Mentoring and networking opportunities not only inspire young women to become political leaders, but leaders in other fields as well," said Wilson. "The Young Women's Leadership Summit will provide an opportunity for building new relationships that will lead to new opportunities for mentoring and collaboration," she added. "This is a critical step in building the leadership pipeline."

As the convenor of The Young Women's Leadership Conference, The White House Project worked closely with the Winds of Change Foundation and The Ford Foundation in conceiving how to make the Young Women's Leadership Summit a springboard for bringing young women's voices into Barnard's conference. Through numerous meetings and activities, Young Women's Leadership Summit activities participants will discuss new models of leadership, international lessons of effective leadership and the gender issues facing women leaders. They will also explore new approaches to fostering women's leadership across political, racial, ethnic and socioeconomic boundaries.

The twenty young women leaders participating in the Summit range from age 22 to 35 and represent a wide range of fields including politics, law, the media and academia. "Already leaders in their fields, these young women are making decisions that affect the economy, politics and culture. It's important that they raise questions about leadership that should be explored," said Wilson. Discussions from the Summit will be published as part of the Millenium's proceeds and will also be used as a platform to develop new curricula and new models that organizations can use to build bridges between academia and social activism.

To effectively address the thinking generated by Summit participants into Barnard's conference, the issues and questions developed by the young leaders will be identified and linked to Barnard's panel agendas. In addition, the students participating in the Young Women's Leadership Summit will also contribute their perspective, by raising questions from the floor in the open discussions. The twenty young leaders and the twenty student participants will also meet intermittently throughout the Barnard conference to share observations, insights and to continue prioritizing issues that need to be raised and discussed.

Editor's Note: Established in 1998, The White House Project and The White House Project Education Fund's programs enhance public perceptions of women's capacity to lead, change biases against women's leadership ability, and foster the entry of women into positions of leadership, including the U.S. presidency.