[crowd noise] announcer please welcome founding partner, Tory Burch Foundations president , laurie. [applause] laurie good afternoon. I hope you all ate. You saw alexis and gloria and a number of people had on these very cool tshirts that says embrace ambition. That was part of our campaign that we launched last march with some incredible women. I will show it to you now. Can we role that videotape . We will not hide it. Im ambitious. We embrace ambition. Women are made to be ambitious. We will take risk. Not live in fear. We will rise together. Rise above negativity. No longer will a woman be seen as a negative. Dont apologize. Never give up on your goals. We will model ambition for our daughters. And our sons. I will help women around the world. You have to persevere. Women are tough. Strong. Powerful. We have got to be a part of this. Ambition is feminine. Ambition is empowering. Ambition is not a dirty word. I can think of a lot of dirty words, ambition is not one of them. Ambition is sexy. What is your ambition . To help more women run for office. Help Women Entrepreneurs. Empower women financially. Create powerful images. Change peoples lives. Fight gender stereotypes. Equality for all. It transform society. Change the world. Take the stigma out of the word ambition. On your power. Own your dreams. No judgment. Take the pledge. Embrace ambition. Embrace ambition. Will you . [applause] laurie eight months later, i still get the chills. Own your power, own your drive, own your dreams. At the Tory Burch Foundation, we made embrace ambition our rallying cry. Why . Because we have seen and learned that the greatest impediments to equality are acquired behaviors, mindsets, and stereotypes. Yes, we need better laws and systems to achieve womens equality, but if weve learned anything in the last two months, it is how our culture has worktoxic work life places for women. It is not limited to sexual harassment. When i was a young girl, i would curl up with my copy of sisterhood is powerful light a candle, and read. That 50uld i imagine years later i would buy a necklace for my adult daughter that depicts the picture from resist. Er and the word 50 years later, and we still dont have the equality that i thought was in my grasp as a young girl. , right now, in many ways, the legislative outlook for women is at its worst, and we are moving backwards, but im feeling true hope for the first time. March to thens avalanche of women and men , aing forward to say me too door has been opened. A line has been drawn in the sand. To really push the metaphor, this moment it time is our crossing of the rubicon and we are not going back. [applause] to successfully change cultures, there has to be expose and discussion. It takes work. Thats why women rule is so important. If you havent read their long investigative pieces, i really encourage you to do so. It is some of the best reporting i have seen this year. We need to have tough conversations about gender, race, and class. We need to go deep and question our own behaviors. And we need to do it with men. Men too are learning how destructive it locker room culture can be. They can and should be our partners in creating new cultural paradigms. Sometimes i am asked why the Tory Burch Foundation is a partner in women rule. After all, our mission is pretty specific. We exist to support and empower Women Entrepreneurs. Heres the thing. Silos are also on their way out. Women entrepreneurs will be better off when there are more Women Holding office, when there is decent childcare policies, when equal pay is a reality for women of all races, and when we are safe in our homes, offices, and the streets. Here is why i am particularly passionate about empowering Women Entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurism is in womens dna. I think if you look under a microscope, you will actually see a gene labeled multitasker, ability to juggle wears many , hats. At the foundation, we have focused on many of our programs on growing businesses. Why . Because despite starting businesses at almost twice the rate of men, womens businesses are 3. 5 times less likely to make it past the critical Million Dollar mark. We need to make sure that Women Entrepreneurs have the capital, resources, education, and Community Support they need to succeed. But we also need to help them voice their ambition, not shy away from calculated risk, and think big. The women on the next panel had done just that, and its my pleasure to join them now. [applause] anna i am back for the afternoon. Im anna palmer, for those of you who may be joining us, i am coauthor of the politico playbook, our morning newsletter. Im thrilled to be on stage. More than 9 million u. S. Firms are owned by women. Women continue to launch businesses significantly less capital as laurie was just mentioning. They Face Many Obstacles in terms of reaching and getting the contacts to get Venture Capital funds and raise the necessary funds. During this conversation, i look forward to hearing from our panel about their personal experiences as well as both how the public and private sector can help foster a community where there is more women owned businesses in the future. Im joined by laurie fabiano, Camille Hearst cofounder and ceo , of kick, and audrey, cofounder and ceo of the wing. Thank you for joining us. [applause] because it is politico, i was picking audreys brain about the wing. For those of you are unfamiliar, it is a womans coworking and social club that started in new york. Its coming to washington. She has some news she will be sharing with us. Opening inare georgetown, so just a few blocks from here in a few months. [applause] very exciting. Im sure a lot of people will apply to be members. Lets start with this access to capital question. Theres a lot of pushback, a lot of rejection. There are one in 23 in Business Loans that go to women. You were just on the west coast. You dont know these people. You are trying to ask them for a lot of money. And staffing definitely difficult. I believe fundraising is always difficult to matter where you are from. I think the challenge is faced by women, women of color, people of color in general, which is unique in that we are going into rooms where we dont look like the people we are speaking with. Maybe we have backgrounds that are not similar. The big thing in Venture Capital is the networks. Having a personal connection to the people in the room is really important. That can make or break a deal. Audrey and i spoke about that before. I think there are unique challenges. The best advice i can give is to tell your story and be unique and authentically your self. At the end of the day, people are trusting you and your vision, and one of the things i remember from raising it up, in the end, it was a process. I talked to many people. Got many reductions. In the end, i ended up with a group of investors that i am tremendously proud of. I would not want a Different Group of investors. The right people found them and i found the right people for my business who believed in me. Really, it is a process of you are weeding them out in the process as much as they are weeding you out. How do you psych yourself up for that kind of meeting . You are calling people, dialing is the 30th phone call, i dont know if i can do this again. Camille you just described it very accurately. All those thoughts go through your head. One of the main qualities that are required as an entrepreneur is grit. You just have to keep going. You have to find it within yourself to persevere. That is what you do. You have those moments where you are tired, you dont want to hear no again, you are feeling less confident than you were 12 times ago. And you pick yourself up and you go into a room with a smile on your face and you remember what you were trying to accomplish. You go for it again. Anna lets talk about your experience. You just had a successful b round, one of the largest gains by women. Obviously some success there. Seriously, amazing. [applause] i had a very, very similar experience. I had a lot of doors shut on me in the beginning when i had this idea. The vast majority of investors out there are men. When you are creating a product that is exclusively for women, you are told by dozens of people that your business is going to fail, that no one is going to want it, that there is no Customer Base out there for you. That is difficult. There was definitely a day that i just broke down and cried in a target. [laughter] dont have toou do this. But i wanted to. I had to cap into that part of me. That was resilient, even if i did not believe i could. Even still, once you prove yourself and you have proof of Comfort Concept and you are able to laugh and those peoples faces and say, you are wrong, i was right. And that feels good. Im still pinching myself, is ane 32 million unfathomable amount of money. I feel humbled by it. There is this moment where women are all of a sudden faced with opportunities in these rooms. It is all very new and fresh. It is uncharted territory for us. I will say even if a lot of women who i have spoken to who have Growth Stage Companies and are looking for that 100 million to grow, or they are looking to sell their businesses, are told those deals get made after hours when people are having a cocktail or having a cigar. Those are not the rooms we are in. Often times, especially with what has been going on for our entire lives, but the last few months especially, are uncomfortable being in those rooms. I think women face these kinds of challenges at every stage of their company and trying to grow their companies. Laurie, you have been involved in entrepreneurship and startups for a long time. What have you seen . Is it getting easier . There is still a long way to go. Laurie no. It is not getting easier. I wish it was. A lot of the women we deal with are not even at the stage of camille and audrey. We have done 33 million in 33 million and affordable loans to Women Entrepreneurs and it is mainly to women who cannot get a bank loan. A lot of it is cultural, a lot of it is systematic impediments in this space. We have a lot to change. These are the unicorns and they really are amazing and wonderful. I cannot tell you the fact that they have raised the kind of money they have is extraordinary and not the norm. In fact, for camille you are one in 10 . Camille yes. there was a study a few years ago, project diane, where they the black women who have raised over 1 million for their startup, and im the 12th. That is pathetic. I mean that is fantastic. [laughter] for camille. Anna simultaneously amazing and horrifying. Amazing and horrifying at the same time. Anna in these conversations in particular, we often try to find ways that the audience can do things or that you can have government do something different. Is there something that can be done to help change that . Laurie i think its going to change in the financial industry. There are all these disruptors. Amazon, square. They are giving out loans to people who sell on their platforms. Thats going to change things a great deal. I also think a lot of it is attitude, too. And culture, which is what i was getting at was my remarks. Like, i into a bank think i can do this, im going to try. And men think, this is the greatest thing since sliced bread. A lot of it is the bravado brought to the table. I am not saying we need to turn into them, but we do have to listen to your voice, own your voice. I think one of the other things thats happening is slowly, over time, women are getting into higher positions of power. One of my great friends from college became the first female partner at sequoia. A great friend of mine. She recently started female Founder Office hours with highpowered, toptier vss vcs helping women craft their pitch and stories. An investor of mine started project include, which is working with Tech Companies to improve their culture. A lot of companies talk about pipeline issues, but they dont talk about the culture and retention, keeping people that they hire around. She is doing important work with that organization. Grow, as wes we graduate from what we are doing now to whatever it is in the toure, we will be doing more help Women Entrepreneurs. Audrey is talking about how hard it was, crying in a target. I have done that. One thing i do is remind myself we are changing the world. Maybe it does not feel like that in our day today, but we really are. Me walking into a room changes all those peoples perceptions. No one said changing the world would be easy. Just by remembering that, it helps give me a little encouragement. If i fail, i hope i made it easier for someone in this room to have the next meeting after me. [applause] beginning is so intimidating. It is important to use your voice and. It is why we are doing this at every level, it is something still in your head. For us, the general idea was really Gloria Steinem said women do not want a slice of the pie, they want a whole new pie. Will we have is an ecosystem where women are supporting each other. From their ecosystem, they are providing each other with support around anxiety. They find themselves in highpressure situations they do not want to talk about all the time. Having a Community Around you gives you the opportunity to take more professional risks. I would say the same thing. One of the things that has helped me the most is surrounding myself with people who are encouraging and believe in me and can remind me in those moments were maybe i am less confident in sending that text message. That it has been most effective. But what audrey is building is the real world version of that. What do you think . What are the key things that somebody can take into the meeting to get it to the next step . A couple things. The first thing is support other women. If you see other women come into the room and you are in a meeting with them, and set up the chairs that are not at the table, motion them to the table, no matter what level they are at. If someone is saying something heard, as getting someone said this morning that is not being heard, amplify it. Say, desiree just said this, i think that is a great idea. We have to help each other be heard. We have to champion what our colleagues are doing, what these women are doing, what everybody is doing. It is a very big part of things. The other thing is just talk about it. If something is unfair at the workplace, you need to talk about it. Do not sit on it. Say, why is this the way it is . Question everything. It is a new time and we have been living with paradigms that were established hundreds of years ago in the workplace. It is time to really question everything. Why are things the way they are right now . Building off of that topic in audrey, i think you mentioned it earlier, the concepts that this is a mans world and we are living in it. Washington in particular is a place where things happen on the golf course. At night, or places you dont want to go into anyway. How do you change the conversation and say we will meet for coffee . Is there tools or tips you found for yourself or you have that pivot moments . I have been at this a long time. There have been times when i knew people i was working with were going on the golf course and i said i do not play golf, i need to be there. Let us go for drinks. Speak up. Say it is unfair to leave me out. We have to speak up. Any advice . Again, my life is sort of i never see men anymore, which is a privilege. I have a couple great men in my life that i do get to see from time to time. It is tough. I had a couple in particular experiences with raising money, especially where it was like let us have this meeting at 9 30 p. M. And i was like how do i respond to this female. It is important to make sure you are doing things on your terms and to remember that and stop and ask yourself that. Is this just as much on my terms as for this other person . One thing i was going to say that is kind of off topic is there was a big part of me that was like i did not go to Business School so i do not have any Business Company being a ceo. My background was in local politics in new york. What i found is entrepreneurship is like a campaign. Have to have a message, fund raise, you have to mobilize and have a street or a field team. They are similar aspects of it. Why would say to some people in the room do not have a background in the private sector is you can be even more qualified than you realize. I would also caution folks that entrepreneurism is really tough. A lot of people go into it and they are not cut out for it and that is ok. You will work harder than anybody else, you will work longer, you will give up a lot in your life to be an entrepreneur and you have to know that going in and be willing to follow that going through. So true. [laughter] its very, very hard. Do you have any tips or things that you have done to try to make sure that you can get into those rooms . I have been fortunate i worked in tech for 10 years before becoming an entrepreneur. My personal situation is one tha i have the connections. I went to stanford undergraduate schools and went to Tech Companies. A lot of people are now in great positions. I do think that is one of the problems with investors who want to break in and do not have investment in silicon valley, they dont have the overlapping networks. Again, since my perspective is unique, i do not have a ton of advice there. What has worked for me was having more introductions. I know a lot of people in those so to the extent you can get you those, or you can get jobs at larger Tech Companies are put yourself in those circles. Even making friends. Even events like this. Never know where the connections will pay off in the future. Network. The whether you are a politico in washington, there is a businessman in the white house. He ivanka trump has done a lot in entrepreneurship. What do you think about the private sector or foundations or is there anything government can do to help the entrepreneur environment for women . There is a lot government can do but it is not going to. One key thing is women are not a protected class. For example, we have a Fellows Program where one of the fellows gets 100,000 for their business. When we first went into it, we said we want all 10 of them to get back. We found out that did not qualify for a charity to be giving that money because women are not a protected class. There is not much foundations can do besides the kind of thing we are doing with the Capital Program in education and digital resources. You cannot gives the money or give seed or grant money. The government will not create a protected class for women. Banks, i think they will be distracted soon enough. If there were any way for banks to decide how to Credit Ratings when it comes to women, that would change things a enormously. In fact, there are a couple young women who have done amazing jobs around the world figuring out ways to establish credit for women who have no credit by cellphone usage and other methods that make sense and the payback rates are at 100 . We know this model of establishing the Credit Rating is flawed, and that is something that can be dealt with. Whether it can be dealt with before the whole industry is disrupted, i do not know. Do you have any thoughts you were in local politics have you gotten encouragement . From politicians, at all, yourself. We have actually the Governors Office is proactive in ways of supporting especially now i think it is more established. At the very beginning of the can valley silicon Alley Community in new york. T was active in supporting entrepreneurs, especially minorityowned businesses. That has been really terrific for us. To get the help from people n elected office, in just navigating the red tape that you have to get to know. Mean, i think its a big thing that government could do is not have the president endorsed a pedophile for u. S. Senate. [applause] any thoughts in terms of im going to skip over that part. One of the things that has been most hopeful for us in the private sector is we have had a number of investors who specifically support women and women of color founders. To the extent that you know wealthy individuals, whether you are interested in angel investing, whether you are in the position now or will be so in the future, there are organizations like pipeline, angels, that specifically train women to be angel investors. The hardest part is getting off the ground with that initial round of funding and finding people that believe in you when it is just you and that idea. That has been incredibly helpful. We are about to run out of time but i want to leave the women in this room with something tangible. We have had a lot of conversation about the grits and determination and how hard it is going into rooms and how you guys tried to break the barriers. Is there one thing for the aspiring entrepreneurs in this room that you would give them as the piece of advice is what they can take away from this . I think it is all about a network of women who have their backs behind you. I think it is identifying women you know who are strong in ways to pass skills you dont, whether ts communications, finance fundraising, design. Whatever your business will need. Identifying who those women are in your life. You may not have the idea yet or know what it is but i think knowing that you have in your mind a mini rolodex that you can go to is the first step to have the confidence to be able to take the leap. My advice is very topical. We are and we want them to be incredibly successful. Numbers talk. The more successful we are, the more barriers we will break down. The number one piece of advice i have found in helping me build a successful business is figuring out what you are optimizing for and optimize for that. It is focussing on one thing at a time and nailing it. If you do it right whatever it is, pick that one thing and do the hell out of it. That is great. Realize you are going in deep. If youre thinking about what business and wonder what your exit plan will be, you are not a good entrepreneur. 50 of the people who call her business is saying they are thinking about their exit plans. No. [laughter] it is a tonne of hard work. If you are passionate and i think passion is everything for entrepreneurialism you will succeed if you rely on other women and the good people in your lives and get that support you need. Thank you ladies so much. I really appreciate it. [applause] please welcome politicos Foreign Affairs correspondent. Toosey2 in the [applause] good afternoon, everyone. It is so lovely to see all of you. Tooi. Ahal name of holly. Rebecca. To welcome we will start off with a brief video. [video playing] the chaos, confusion and anger growing in the wake of president trumps and immigration ban. You have chaos here and at l. A. Around the country and abroad. Travelers not allowed to board flights bound for the u. S. Some, including children, detained upon landing. This mother in virginia reuniting with her fiveyearold on. She was already in the air when he signed the paper and we have been waiting for her. All we want is our mom. That is all we want. They have refugees travel in packs because their flights get booked together. And i have this moment of realizing that whatever time the travel ban came down, we will be thousands and thousands of people midair who when they departed from wherever they were leaving, had legal permission to enter the u. S. And will land as undocumented aliens and no one knew what would happen to them. Monday the 23rd, a version of the travel ban leaks. We put out a call for lawyers to sign up to take shifts at airports we had a couple secretly tracking what was happening. The executive order was signed at 4 30p. M. On friday, january 27th. At 8 30, i got a call from two law students who were at jfk waiting for their client to come out that their client, who had spent 10 years working as an interpreter for the u. S. Military in iraq, had been detained they had let out his wife and small child and had shackled and handcuffed him and were holding him pursuant to the executive order. We all stayed up all night, including a bunch of law students and lawyers from the aclu drafting this lawsuit we filed our 5 30 that morning. No one slept for four days. I have been so focused on that that i had not read any news. I did not understand the size of the thing we had put into motion. We won at 8 30 p. M. On saturday. A total of 28 hours elapsed between the signing of the when we had er and a nation order ordering that people be freed. We did not know the number of people affected at that time. Since that time, we have been litigating against the various iterations of the travel ban. I think we are now in version 3. 0 and continuing to fight for the right of people to be somewhere safe that they can go home. [ clapping ] it is when politico makes your propaganda for you. [laughter] well, i will ask some tough questions. None of us are going to forget that weekends. I remember i was covering it and it was a snowball. Kept getting bigger and bigger. And and i thought, wow, how will this end . The truth is the fight is still going on. Esterday the Supreme Court announced that they were going implement president the current travel ban in full the legal challenge continues. For now. Right. Things are still moving. Going back to when this first happened, how many lawyers did you send, out to the airports and what was the hardest thing about creating what are essentially popup law offices . Law offices across the country. I want to take a brief aside and apologize for my footwear. In the no one has slept category, i forgot nice shoes but in my defense, they are tory burch sneakers, which were not on purpose. I did not do it to suck up that way. We do not actually know the total number of lawyers who ended up going to airport. We send out a noncreated an online form for us to fill out. It had crashed and we started doing more local organizations. Upwards of 2000 lawyers went and they were joined by tens of thousands of protesters all over the country. The hardest thing about creating a popup law office in an airport arrival terminal is an airport arrival terminal is not designed to house a law office in any way at all or even for people to sit. For example, at jfk terminal 4, the only thing in the arrivals area with chairs is a diner. Two highpowered corporate litigators from a big deal law firm ended up negotiating a deal with the owners to use it for almost a week and turn it into a law office. When i heard on the earlier panel that mentioned to the Gloria Steinem quote, i felt dont want a piece of pie, we want the whole pie. I felt like there had to be some kind of diner pun in the but i was not able to put it together fast enough so if anybody wants to work on that, have at it. It was an extraordinary weekend because lawyers were beloved and heroes. That lasted for 28 hours. [laughter] enough so if anybody wants to work on that, have at it. What have you heard from some of the families that you helped, all these months later . The video says it was disputed how many people were detained and maybe it is. We were able to determine 2100 people were detained at some point that weekend and then freed when we won the lawsuit in a coalition that included other organizations. For me, personally, one of the cases i worked on was an iranian woman who lived in the south. She had a complicated pregnancy and needed to have a quasi emergency csection. Her parents were coming over from iran to be present with her and assist and their visas were revoked. Ban scam down, i got came down, i got involved, and we were able to get it revocked. The baby was born healthy in early february and every couple of months i get i need to save the number in my phone but i get an unknown number with all these adorable baby pictures of this kid who is now 10 months old. It is a very lovely and concrete way to see the growing up of what started that weekend. If there was one lesson you said you would learn about what it takes to activate your Major Network to have a big impact, what would it be from that . Timing matters. It is not a coincidence that we got the level of response that we did seven days after the womens march. I think that people were activated by the womens march and there are questions of what is next in and showing up at an airport became what is next. The other lesson is lawyers can be social Movement Activists also. Journalists, too. Sort of. Professionals. In an unaffiliated way. Youll be surprised that whatever skill set you has suddenly becomes vitally important if you become vigilant enough to watch when you might be necessary. Please keep watching and figure out places you can continue to show up. Do you feel that momentum has kept up in all these months later . The administration has gone through a couple iterations of the travel ban. I think people have travel ban fatigue. We hear that for newspapers when we try to get them to cover it. We still have lawyers coming to us who want to assist, but i think there are so many issues happening right now ranging from Sexual Assault allegations to monuments in utah. Every day you open the newspaper, and maybe we are to war with north korea tomorrow. It is hard for any one thing to maintain momentum, but i think it is the job of my organization and other people who care about immigration and refugees and discrimination to not let it get away from us and to stay focused. The world is migration g a record crisis. There are 65 Million People who are refugees or displaced from their homes due to wars or other reasons. People in the audience want to make a difference, what can they do . Depends who you are. I think everyone has something to offer. If you donate money coming should think about donating money. If youre a writer, you should think about writing an article. I think so many things are getting lost in the daily barrage of crazy that is happening that if you care about refugee and immigration issues, set an alert for u. S. Refugee admissions program. Every day i get a digest of all the things happening to refugees in the world and i am reminded that it is still a present issue and that presence and reminder and focus is necessary for any issue we are trying to tackle right now when there are so many shiny objects flying out her head at all times. Thank you for joining us today. Think you for having me. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] please welcome politico contributor amanda ripley. [applause] good afternoon. It is great to be here with you all. Apple author of the the women investigations. One of these investigations was about how we can encourage more women to run for office and you heard a bit about that this morning. Now we will talk about the second investigation, which is hot off the presses, if there were presses. There still are presses. Which there are, there still are actually. In fact, you can each get a copy of both investigations at the registration desk. The printed version, which is cool. You can show it to your grandkids one day. When we did that initial the second investigation, we wanted to look across federal government and say where are the biggest gender gaps we can find. Is there a place where women are more scarce than in the u. S. Senate . And the answer is yes, there is. A big place. Federal Law Enforcement. Combined Law Enforcement agencies represent a huge force, more than 125,000 strong, more than three times the size of the nypd, all of whom have the authority to arrest you should the occasion arise and use firearms, among other things. This is a big force. What we found is across 40 different agencies that we survey, we found women represented on average 15 of federal Law Enforcement, which is up one percentage point from 20 years ago. At this rate, women will have half of these jobs in 700 years. To look forward to. I had to do the maths on that five times because i was like this cannot be right. Finally, i asked my 10yearold. He was like, that is right. Our reporting confirmed what social scientists have found. When women are very rare in any organization, they act like tokens. They have to conform to t existing culture and it is difficult to integrate. When women get to 25 or 30 , there is a Tipping Point of Critical Mass where good things can start to happen for the entire agency. Women because of something other than the exotic freak show creature that can never fit in. This is a really important patient, is the Tipping Points. We will see both ends of that spectrum in our conversation today. The agency that ranked lowest of all in our survey with the u. S. Border patrol, which had 5 women, which is lower than the marines. This is important because Border Patrol is 20,000 agents strong. It is one of the few parts of government that is scheduled to grow under president trump, who has asked that they hire 5000 new agents. This is where we are going to start a conversation. Im very glad to have dr. Lee merrill. Middle. He is with us. He is a sociologist who has spent two years embedded with the u. S. Border patrol. On the mexicous boarder. To help us look across the rest of federal government, we have kathy phams. She grew up wanting to be a boston cop and ride a horse in the commons and she spent 31 years in federal Law Enforcement. She has seen all. Working as a special agent for the Drug Enforcement administration and customs enforcement, among other jobs. To give us all hope, we have officer natalie diebel. We looked at urban Police Departments across the country because we found they are doing better than the feds on this. What we found, the department that we found i had more women than any other was madison, wisconsin. 30 women for decades and not by accident. Very intentional. To get to that point. Thank you all for being here. Let us start with the Border Patrol. There are a lot we spent time on the border for this story. There are a lot of problems on both sides of the border. Is this really an issue we should prioritize . Does it make a difference . Maybe we dont need more female Border Patrol agents. Theres so much complexity at the border. Did you notice a difference during your time there between female and male agents and how they interact with migrant or is it silly to generalize . Its hard to generalize but i would say in general, women are communicators. They are much cooler very often in intense situations and it is a high risk environment in terms of Law Enforcement. Theyre less likely to automatically reach for their guns or Something Else to hurt somebody with. They are calm. In general, you recall many of those who are crossing are with babies or young children. The coyotes tell them if they are caught to be sexually assaulted by the Border Control. And coyotes are the smugglers the guides that help them get across the border. We talked about trafficking. You see a high prevalence among migrants of Sexual Assault. Usually on their journey. This is why you think it might matter to have more it happens on the way to the northern mexican border. It can happen when they cross borders if they are coming from guatemala. There are victims of predators all along their journey. It is possible they might have been assaulted numerous times by the time they actually come into contact with the border and cross the international boundary. It is a real problem. What i saw was when there were a few female agents around, when the women saw those agents they felt initially some comfort. I think in that situation it is really important. You have to be careful not to be sexist. I myself have to be careful in talking about this. I will say things like where the more female agents who are empathetic . Women who are empathetic, and women that are not. And men too. There are definitely men who are Border Control agents, and have retained their empathy and sympathy for victims of various larger processes, and i saw them, but i would have to say in all fairness it is a difficult and high risk job in terms of the communication between the people brought across in traffic or those people who might be dealing drugs or be arms. The males are much less pathetic than you would want. Than you would want. Hope they would would be. The Border Patrol, for the first time in its history, has a female acting chief right now whom we interviewed for this piece and we did a podcast with her. Very interesting person who has a lot of credibility within the ranks. Carla provost. Do feel optimistic that perhaps, after many years, the Border Patrol might look more like the country . This is the first time a female has ever been selected, but there are a number of women who have been qualified for some time. Optimistic. E to be every two or three years the Border Patrol, will a big deal that it recruit more women, and every years, it stands around surprised that it is still up 5 . The real test i think in this situation would be what the chief is able to coalition who will replace her. Can she make structural changes that will make real differences were women in the Border Patrol and have the agents act in general, or is she just another part of this larger promotion to make us pretend the Border Patrol treats women equally . The Border Patrol used to be all white. Somewhere along the line in the 1970s and 1980s, they decided they needed to be better about recruiting latinos and now they are 54 latino. It is possible to change the demographics, should the will exist. Barriers and structural changes, kathy, you have seen a lot of things from a lot of perspectives and now you are heading the group called women in federal Law Enforcement. Let me ask you in your decades working as a federal Law Enforcement officer, was your gender ever actually an advantage in your Law Enforcement mission . All the time. [laughter] the onestory talks about when i was a supervisor, my groups were predominately allmale. We arrested a couple who were moneylaundering, and youll is always pick one person that you want to get the deal. Is the person that is least culpable, they have the most knowledge. She happened to be pregnant. Her boyfriend was giving her up in the next room. Laying it all off on her. She said she loved him. She would never do that. And she just wouldnt break. You are trying to get her to flip. Yeah. It is 2 00 in the morning and my guys walked in and everyone is tired and, gosh, she wont break. Can you go in and try . Ok, i will go in and try. I sit down and i am talking to her and she is a good six months pregnant. She is maybe 22 years old. I looked at her and talking to her and i said, i can imagine i cant imagine what my kids will say when i walk down Christmas Morning and im not there. With that she started dry heaving into the garbage can. I had connected with her and it really struck her that i am really in trouble and i am offered a way out and my children are the most important thing to me. I walked out of the room and the guys looked at me and said, boss, i cant believe you did that. [laughter] i said, you told me you needed me to do this. So she connected with you because you are saying youre not going to have christmas with your family and that is how it is going to feel. You didnt actually have children. No, i dont have kids. But i love about the story is we often talk about what different kinds of people bring to the table with diversity, but you also have to think about what the public sees when it sees different kinds of people. The optics matter. The way the public views you and natalie is different. You disrupt their narrative about what Law Enforcement agents look like in some cases, which can be an advantage. It starts when you walk in. On raids, men would answer the door in their underwear and they would be upset that i am there. I was like, who answers the door in their underwear . It is just like tv. Yeah but it changes the dynamic. The Research Shows that just by virtue of a woman walking into the room when tension is very high, it dissipates because it changes the dynamic. This is one of the virtues that women bring to any workplace. It is not just Law Enforcement, which happens to be explosive at times, but it changes the dynamic in every room you walk into because it is a different type of problem solving. I say it is like solving a problem with only half the brain if you dont have enough diversity. You have to have everybody in the room because the kid who has the engineering degree solves problems differently than the person who has the psychology degree are the kids that came up rough streets and was an unwed mother like the former chief of d. C. In some agencies to their credit have figured this out. Most bigcity Police Chiefs will say what you are saying about the importance of using your whole brain. Having different kinds of people. You can build trust with your community and solve problems. The fbi is 20 women. Our did relatively well in ranging. You have places you worked for custom 14 . And female affairs. Officers. Secret service, 11 . Drug Enforcement Administration of 11 . What are the main barriers at this point . Women want these jobs through much. When the Border Patrol today womens only announcement, and 60 days 5500 apply. Only 164 women were hired. The problem that is endemic are artificial barriers. It is what we call artificial barriers. This is the culture of Law Enforcement. It is a process of attrition whereas when you hire the private sector, the goal is i found a really good person and we want them to succeed. And Law Enforcement, it is a series of hurdles. It is not necessarily the best and the brightest tech at the badge and the gun in the end, it is the person that survives the process. Everything is a process of elimination. Recruitment, hiring, background, physical, training, probationary period, field training. Every time somebody fails, it is they were not good enough. You spend a lot of money and resources selecting these people to lose them in the process. They find the artificial barriers had no purpose. Artificial barriers, i phone 1980s, women could not be fired. We were barred. You had to be six foot tall to be a state trooper in many states. You can be a navy seal but if you are not six feet tall, you cannot be a state trooper. Why do you do that . Presence,and it is this and that have the best. When they tak these barriers down, they find out someone who is five feet tall and weighs 100 pounds can do the job so what does it mean when you put all of these roadblocks in front of people . It is interesting because all the women i interviewed for this piece were adamant that they wanted to be held to the same physical standards and firearm standards as men. Its really important, otherwise we would undermine all their efforts. They would be constantly distrusted by their peers. And Law Enforcement, that is a life or death thing. You need someone to back you up. They were not against having the same standards. To kathys point, sometimes those standards are super random. The equivalent of the sixfoot height requirement, when example now is the 66 wall Border Agents have to scale in the academy to pass. There is no other physical test the rest of your career. So you have to scale a sixfoot wall, which there is no evidence that relates to the job, but then you are never again tested for physical fitness. You will as we did, a wide spectrum of physical fitness levels once youre in the Border Patrol, just like Police Departments. Natalie, you worked for what we named one of the most feminist Police Departments in america, madison, wisconsin. Have been there three years. We called it feminist but it is 70 male. Maybe were getting carried away. I wonder, what does it feel like. Feel like women are token, that you are the only as a token. Room it feels real. In my former career as academic, there were times when i felt more tokenized as a female than i do in a Police Department that genuinely has diversity. Not just the word but the idea that people can be hired at 52 years old is a Police Officer. Im lucky to work for a chief, michael colbal, who was a sergeant of training for a very long time. He was in charge of our recruiting and hiring and also the on boarding process. One thing we did as an agency well before most companies did was to change that Learning Space into an adult Learning Space. Instead of placing these artificial barriers in front of people, they were welcomed into what they called the family mdmp family right away. The acknowledgment that you left your city, that you bought a new house, that your children are starting a new school became part of that story and what you bring and it was the idea that all of you will make it through this process. Is going to be difficult. It is going to be some of the most challenging tests you have gone through but we will be here for you. When example is we hired a man who was a former nasa scientist a few years ago at the age of 53. We now have someone in our class who is nearing the age of 50 years old. Our chief to the metro, financially to see how much it would cost, but the city would have to approve from that person in terms f years of service to earn back their money in it came back to 3. 5 years of service. He said if you give me 3. 5 years of service i will hire you. Those people have stayed late into their late 50s and even early 60s because we feel part of something and not tokenized. I also see tha women are being promoted. Our voices are valued and that makes all of the difference in terms of wanting to come to work and the way you treat your colleagues. I think that compassion and kindness and positivity, as we have seen in our other workplaces, they build on one another. I have interviewed a lot of Police Officers over the years. I have never been to a Department Like madison. There were more women in all levels of command then we had time to interview over the course of days. They talked about feminism, which is not typically a talking point for Law Enforcement. Usually female officers need to downplay their gender. There is no other way for them to rise through the ranks. They do not want to be seen as a woman. And madison, it was noticeably different. You mentioned you have a history in academia. You study early modern gender history. You were a historian and a teacher. What happened, natalie . Clearly, you are extremely wellqualified for this panel. Which i appreciate. But between the gender history and the Police Officer were, you become a Police Officer. We talked he things about is policing, in a lot of ways, it is like history except the people you are speaking to our allies. Are alive. I have the luxury of reading reports and being the documenter for peoples lives and that was what i was always doing. Telling a story in a way that made sense to people, looking at trends. Looking at hundreds of years of things that had been happening to people. A lot of the stories are ways that society is inequitable about violence and how people have been victimized. That seems like a natural segue into the work that i do now and also being a historian is isolating. So you are in unlike other academic departments you are in the library 10 or 12 hours a day not speaking to anyone and living with those ghosts the game a little too much. I thought there are so many people that i would want to learn from when i still can and physically am able because of those physical challenges we have with the job and the weight of the uniform. I do not know how long i can do this job because i am not six feet tall, and i dont weigh 200 pounds and carry about 34 pounds on my body every single day for usually a or 10 hours for a shift. That is the reality of the job. I would not want any of that weight to go away because that would mean i would have less tools to work with if i need them. It was also hearing peoples stories and knowing they are not criminals in my mind. I think a lot of my fellow Police Officers minds, there are people who happen to commit crimes because of the laws that had in past in the states where we work or the cities where we have jurisdiction. Those laws change, as we all know. They are malleable. The laws that were instituted 3035 years ago and are no longer on the looks, those are not crimes anymore. To think about people as criminals i think can be very, very powerful in terms of changing your psyche and how you treat people. The idea that someone is committing a crime to me is much more palatable. Connecting with someone who has done something wrong the same way i connected with a victim i think of such a long way. I see that constantly with my fellow colleagues. Connecting with someone who has you really made a mistake this time, but the next time we will help connect you with resources. I need to take you to jail, i do not have an option right now. Ingerprint there were other options, we will look at those. In the long run giving people that hope and the idea that the criminal Justice System does not have to be a broken punitive system i think can really change the way, not only Police Officers work with people, but the way the criminal Justice System itself addresses a lot of systemic issues that many of us have no control over. You talked about you probably talked to us about the importance [applause] the reason you want to have lots of kinds of officers who look and talk differently is you increase your odds of connecting. It is like a math problem. When you arrive on the scene of a crime and somebody might be more willing to talk to you are the man you work with than somebody else. Or to someone who speaks spanish or is africanamerican. Trust is the currency of good policing. I wonder if you could quickly show us your sunglasses and explain why you wear these. Ridiculous sunglasses. I dont know if you can see them ex why dont you describe them. This is what i wear on patrol. They are purple sunglasses with little cats on them. I had this incredible field trainer who was a woman about my age. She had had a previous career as an insurance adjuster. She had these amazing sunglasses and pink handcuffs. I said one day, are you allowed to have those, and she said i dont care. She said they work exactly the same and they do the job. I thought that was such an inspiration and a wise quote. That is how i feel about me. I do the job and it doesnt matter how i do it, as long as i am within those rules that i need to follow, but i can be me. Does this help you . It certainly does. How has it. I have gotten punched in the face 100 less wearing these. Had is that work . How does that work. It distracts people . It does. I do not wear them all the time obviously. There are times when im responding to a call or an incident where it is not the appropriate response, but especially for street fights or people who may be have an antipathy toward police, i realize we put the badge on were the most visible exponent of an oppressive state for a great many people and it is not personal. Its just how it is. You also have these amazing leslie knope earrings that i love. I want to play clip that we shot when we were in madison. Colleague shot when we were in madison. [video clip] thank you, natalie for taking a day off to be here with us. I know this is much harder than that. I want to do a lightning rounds before we finish to talk about what can be done for the future. Was one institutional change the Border Patrol could make that should make its force look more like america . I think we can institute and publically provide support for not only the recruitment of more female agents at the mentoring of them, the retention of them, and the sustaining of their efforts as women in the workforce. In the Border Patrol. You mentioned to me once they are agents there is very little mentoring that happens. Almost no mentoring. Whoever survives, survives. Some of our best female agents go to other agencies or get out of Law Enforcement altogether. What about people in this room . What can they do . Apply. If you have aged out or you are not physically capable, talk to somebody about going into Law Enforcement only about 58,000 people in the fields. We need triple that. We need not just hundreds of women to apply every year, we need tens of thousands of women to apply every single year to become a Law Enforcement officer because this is a civil rights issue. It is not just about putting that people in jail. It is about protecting your communities and you should be entrenched in how your communitys Police Department is policing your community. You need to be part of it, especially women of color. These are fantastic jobs. You will never have more fun than doing this job. Trust me. The average Border Control salary is 70,000. You dont need a college degree. 70,000 goes a long way in el paso, i will just tell you that. [laughter] last word from natalie, do you agree you will never have more fun . That didnt look entirely fun. I will be honest. Yes. Would you recommend this job . Every day is different and fascinating. Its really i describe it as helping somebody on the worst day of their life. I want to be that person so i need to be on every day that i go to work, and my colleagues are exactly the same way. Making real change. And teaching, it is often years after you see what you have done in terms of your work. Policing, you often get to see it the very next hour in the children you are working with or people left changed their minds about how they should act towards human beings are getting them set up with the or figuring out how to keep people safe. What we have seen so often in these investigations, if you a job differently and think about it as a way to improve your community, suddenly women want to be Police Officers and politicians and engineers. Its time to wrap up our conversation. Thank you for joining us and for those who have not already, please check out the women rule investigations and enjoy the rest of your day together here. Thank you. [ clapping ]. Please enjoy the networking group. This is a friendly reminder that the marketplace is open throughout the summit. [ ] tomorrow morning, a former Senior Adviser to Hillary Clinton talks about the 2016 president ial campaign and the 2020 president ial cycle. And at noon, the Senate Returns from their holiday recess. The new year brings two new senators. Doug jones who defeated were more in alabama, and minnesota governor who has chosen to fill the seat vacated by al franken. Both are expected to be sworn in tomorrow afternoon. Live coverage begins at noon eastern. Thehe second session of 115th Congress Officially begins tomorrow. Io