Transcripts For CSPAN2 Politico Forum On Women Leadership Morning Session 20171206

Please welcome politico Vice President and general manager, alexis williams. [applause] good morning everyone hi behalf of the political ceo and editorinchief, welcome to the fifth annual womens rural summit. [applause] thank you so much for joining us. It is absolutely amazing to see so many familiar faces as well as a lot of new faces. It has been a great evolution and im so glad to have you all with us today. I am here to do a simple job which is to say thank you. Thank you to everyone for attending. A special thank you to our ambassador and at every table there is an investor that will be helping lead conversations. If i could just ask you to stand quickly if you are an ambassador. [applause] these are remarkable women. Many of whom have flown in from across the country to help the Youth Empowerment information and share insight. Our first annual inaugural luncheon and best was large and they will be leading so i hope you all really enjoy that curious today is not just explore the impact of women of politics and power. We are informing, empowering and connecting women such as yourself. Today we will have amazing conversations, thoughtprovoking dialogue and issues on Human Trafficking and harassment in the workplace. Current conversations of female ceos and those that made it big and want to share insight with us that we can all learn. And so it will be a great day and hope all of you can join for the full program. It would be remiss if i did not say thank you to our incredible sponsors for making this possible. Our founding partners, the people at the tory burch foundation. [applause] our 2017 resenting sponsor joining us for the first time this year. [applause] our 2017 supporting sponsor, loreal and u. S. Bank. Thank you all so much. [applause] we have a few brief housekeeping notes as well. First of all, please join the conversation on social media. Women rule. Help bring women that cannot be here but are watching on the lifestream. Second, in the space there is a marketplace, one of my favorite parts. It is a series of women run businesses all of whom are selling their wares. I encourage all of the woman to put your money where your mouth is. And we are overcapacity today. If you are unable to join for the full day please let our Registration Desk know so we can seat as many people as possible. Thank you again, for being here. I hope that you leave today informed, empowered and connected to some amazing women. And now, please welcome, joining me in welcoming our lady boss, Carrie Budoff brown. Please welcome clinical editor, Carrie Budoff brown. Politico editor, Carrie Budoff brown. I am Carrie Budoff brown, editor at politico. I welcome you to the fifth summit. We launched as a quarterly event series only evolving a few hundred women. It is not a community of tens of thousands of women across the globe. We come together today and what is truly a watershed moment for women. In the past year we have seen a huge gap. A gap between womens understanding and vision of themselves as equal citizens in one hand and on the other, the vast underrepresentation of women across the government and private sector. The questions that drive women are, how do women come to positions of power and what difference do they make when they are there . Over the five years of this program, we have learned without question that it matters. It matters that women are not only at the table but they have voices that are truly hard. And it matters that they are critical, not merely a token view. Woman ruled conversations has no doubt that there is womens progress has connected. Women that run for office, benefit from Women Leaders in business who can fund raise and provide models of leadership. Women ceos and woman lawmakers that can help women succeed in business. And to ignore the numbers of women in business leadership, we need more Women Entrepreneurs like those who are generous enough to participate in our women rule week and those in the marketplace today. And likewise, womens advancement on sports has in many cases, been a pipeline for women serving in public office. Today we will hear from women in all of the fields about what it will take to keep making progress. And with Sexual Harassment dominated the conversation coasttocoast were going to delve into that topic as well. It is hard not to. When it comes to this issue, weve learned that what happens to women in hollywood is connected to womens experiences in the Silicon Valley, the media and on wall street. The conditions that enable Sexual Harassment are bigger than anyone perpetrator. Workplace or sector of the economy. That is the message of the founder of the Metoo Movement that we will hear from today. And it happens to be shortlisted for the times person of the year. Yeah [applause] the Metoo Movement reflects so much. It helps us as leaders and mentors. It is about locking arms, identifying where we have been left behind and why that happens. And figuring out how we can make change to the status quo so we have equal representation and we are equal citizens. Today you will hear from and meet women that are trail blazers. Trail blazers that will not accept the status quo, those that lift up other women, take risk, foster change and have impact. Our hope is that from hearing from this Diverse Group it will inform you about the Bigger Picture and your own face in it. Hope is to connect you to the amazing women not only in this room but across the women rule community. Our hope is that this will empower you to go back to organization and your community with not only a sense of inspiration, with a clear idea of what we can do to make sure that progress continues to be made. I just want to go off a script for one second. To think a couple of people. Louisa savage, our director and alexa williams. They are brilliant and their staff that brought this to life. They have nurtured women rule like your own child. I am immensely proud and i wanted to make sure that they were recognized properly. [applause] just in closing, if we all lock arms in this room, our collective power is stronger than any one person. And that is what woman rules is about. Thank you for being here today and lets get started. I would like to welcome one of my amazing reporters at politico to come on stage and start the first panel. Thank you. [applause] please welcome Politico National political reporter eliana johnson. [applause] hello everybody. Thank you so much for being here. I am eliana johnson. I cover the white house for politico. We are so excited to have you all here this morning. I have with me an amazing panel and we are going to kick this off starting with the talked about the 2018 midterm election. And 2016 there was a lot of discussion about having the first female candidate to top the president ial ticket with a major party and a lot of talk about how gender impacted the results of the election. But there was less discussion i think, about what happened at lower levels for women and in reality, there has been stagnation in a number of women serving in congress and at the state and local level. Today, women make up 20 percent of congress and 25 percent of state and local offices nationwide. That number has not increased for several years. This conversation and the numbers came out of politico women rule investigation that was published in june and will focus a little more on that. And in particular, what it will take to start increasing the numbers. For those of you have not gotten a chance to read the women rule investigation i really encourage you to do so. It is fantastic. You have Copies Available at the Registration Desk. Without further delay i will get to my panel. Really i am thrilled to have you all here. By congresswoman chandler who is a case study and i think the democrats who succeed and donald trump related territory. And by representative henderson, South Carolina state representative from the greenville area. And last but not least, somebody who im sure most of you know if you are watching cable news. Amy walter, National Editor of the political report. Lets start with you amy. Even the New York Times yesterday, there you go i saw that i needed done he served as key medications director for president obama was quoted in the upsurge of women particularly learning and credit primaries. Her response when asked about this was to proclaim 2017 and i think 2018 quote the year of the woman. Is she getting ahead of herself as far as midterm elections are concerned . What can we really prepare for an influx of female officeholders . Thank you eliana, thank you all for being here and inviting me. It is not very often that i sit on the stage and look out to a sea of women. Usually, the faces are [applause] how often do without an ac of 99 percent men and then one woman stuck somewhere in their. That is a fascinating question but personally it is also interesting because i came to washington in 1991. I think it was about two weeks before the clarence thomas, anita hill hearing. And it was literally, i just remember the moment when the light sorta switched on. And a bunch of women noticed this allmale panel in the Senate Grilling and literally looking down and grilling this africanamerican woman. It was at that moment where emilys list really went from a little trick where we saw in 1992 a Record Number of women win. More women were elected that year then at any point in history. Which was a whopping 24 women in the house and five women in the senate. But what we forget about that year, we talk a lot about it being a reaction to anita hill. 1992 had a couple of things that this year does not have. Which was that it was a redistricting year. So there are a lot of new seats. And there was a huge scandal. The House Bank Scandal we learned many members of Congress Just overdrew their accounts by a lot. And then they got to hide that fact. My favorite was not just that they would do that, many of the men would say, you know, my wife. I dont know you know women. They just spend the money. I do not know where it goes so that, not only did you have a Record Number of women winning he also had a freshman class in 1992. This year, you do not have those two factors. Although some of the scandals, while it is not house bank it is Sexual Harassment scandals. But i do think a different kind of house bank. You do have an energy though that feels similar to 1992 and that this sort of boiling of energy from women voters. Weve always seen a gender gap, democrats doing better among women than republicans do. But when you see the favorability between how men and women view donald trump, it is quite striking. In fact, i went and looked. This is the last nbc wall street journal poll. Among women is rating is 45 a 52 among women it is 45, 63. In another poll woman strongly disliked him as opposed to men. And this points the Record Number women especially on the democratic side interested in running. Many of them are running against each other in primaries. So use a Record Number of women candidates could not necessarily a Record Number of women and office. But i think what we have seen in virginia as well, was in places that are suburban, well educated, Like Northern virginia, like suburban chicago, like suburban denver. This may be the time when we start to see those voters have an outsized influence in this. I was just about the changes we might see among women voters in reaction to the trump presence and some of the scandals prevent massive my question. Thank you for that [laughter] our politico investigation found that women are, when women right there and successful in terms of winning and successful fundraising but the problem is women simply do not run as often as men. So you are partly responsible for the recruitment of candidates. I was wondering what you found are the most effective recruitment techniques and whether they differ in terms of what is effective for recruiting women and what is effective for recruiting men . Is very different. Recruiting men in comparison to recruiting women. And i will walk you through a little bit of the scenario. I was vice chairman of equipment in the last election cycle for the Democratic Congressional campaign committee. Im still involved with that mostly focusing on the midwest which is the area from a democratic perspective that we better figure out want to win back the house. I am in a district little more perspective i represent central and northwestern illinois. All, 11 of the counties are almost entirely rural. If any minute follies politics, democrats have not exactly done well in rural america. Donald trump won my distributor only 12 democrats in the entire house of representatives serving in districts that donald trump one. I won by 20 points. Part of the reason my colleagues are saying, what are you doing that is different and how can you help us . To be successful in these areas. When recruiting men versus recruiting women, i can tell you the first question a man will typically ask is, can i win . That is usually what you hear first. The first question that you usually hear out of a woman is, how will this impact my family . How do you take all the public criticism that is out there relentlessly and at that level when youre running for congress . Even sometimes, when you build a little more Comfort Level with the candidate, he was a you know there is such a large swath of issues. How can you manage understanding all of these issues . I can say ive never had a man ask me that question. And you do not, ive never had a man ask first about the impact on his family. So first of all, to successfully recruit women first you have to ask. Were you asked to run when you first ran for the council . I was. I was elected to two terms on city council. 21,000 people. Any illinois people out there . All right i bet chicago. Anyone from downstate illinois . One [laughter] it is completely doable with a lot of convincing. Because most women have to be asked to run. So i was asked to run for city council and frankly i would have thought of it. I just would not have thought of running. Then i was asked to run for congress. Frankly i would not have thought to run for congress. I had a lot going on that motivated me to run. And you better have that personal motivation. Because phoniness is very apparent in people. It is very apparent. So you better have that drive for wanting to make a difference. And so you appeal to all of that. He talked to how it impacts your family. I typically, when we are recruiting a woman with younger children, i will tell a real quick story because i know you want to get on but when we are recruiting a young woman that has children, i say, and what you have a congressman from new york, when my closest friends who has two little boys, im going to have her give you a call. Because she will take the story about how when we were walking from the office over to the house floor to vote, she is face time with her kids doing homework with them. Jill gone the house floor and go back to the room and continue talking with them. We were at dinner last night and had two sets of votes. We had gone to one of our favorite restaurants. Grace had to excuse yourself for a little while because her husband was out of town coming here to go to the White House Christmas ball tonight. And so she had somebody walking her kids and they were someone was watching her kids and they were face telling her. So you know you get someone that can relate to them. Most of your women in the audience. Personal connection and someone talking through all of that and even the attack and how you deal with that is really what it takes to be successful. Thank you so much the representative, let me turn to you. Republicans and women. We had female candidates anyway but when it comes to republicans, have a serious problem. On the federal level and another you serve at the state level. Im hoping you can speak to this anyway. But just to give the audience an idea of what we are talking about. Republican women just 10 percent of the House Republican conference and about the same in the senate. There are five of 52 republican senators. Why do you think republicans face this problem . Because we do not see the same in the voting population. And what do you think the republicans can do to improve this. The fact is, whenever going to approach parity in terms of representation of women and must we get more female republicans elected to office. Thank you. I may ask, do you have any southerners . I do not know about the southerners. There we go we are not going to talk about college football. We already chatted about that. A very good question. Ive been serving an Elective Office since 2000. I started with a mentor. It is a little bit different than what the congresswoman was talking about. But women need to step up and just say, i want to do this. Actually work with some and i got elected to congress and offered me a job. I said actually, i want to do this. So that was my first office. But the hard part republicans, being from a red state. As you know we are red. Everybody is red in the south. So it is very difficult. A lot of women, i was a stayathome mom really working parttime when i ran. It is a traditional mindset. I was really surprised the first time that i ran. I was in a very conservative church at the time. I thought that these leaders are just going to get on my case about the fact that i should be staying home and taking care of my children. I will never forget, had a woman about 80 years old. She came up to me and said, you just go. We tell you, if i had the opportunity to do what youre doing when i was younger, i would have done it. And i thought, that is not what i expected. So i think that women need to understand, you just need to step up. I think one of the other big challenges is fundraising and money. We do not have the network that men do to tap into for money. And i will say this, if i do not have an opportunity to speak again, one of the best things you all can do if you do not run is write a check to somebody who is. And work. Because that is the biggest problem that women have. Fundraising. Ive been fortunate that i am good at it and i like it. But a lot of women candidates are not. And it is very difficult. Republican or democrat. But we do have a lot of challenges. Thats why i stay involved with organizations in order to help women republican women run and will, we have all kinds of women. And conservatives, democrats and republicans to have us all represented at the table. And have a voice to make things happen and make a difference. Is the fundraising aspect something that you can speak to congresswoman . Its tough. Running for congress is, it takes a lot of resources. I can say that as i look back in my first, i was sitting republican. When your challenger, someone in office, it takes a lot of resources and now as a democratic prochoice woman, emilys list was invaluable. Absolutely invaluable to me and that is something that, i mean, not just from helping on the fundraising part of it but as a firsttime congressional candidate, they sent somebody out to help me understand the basics of fundraising. Frankly, i was doing a really lousy job at it. And emilys list send a woman to my house. I do not have a headquarters at the time and im sitting, i quit my job. I was a Vice President and my husband was a cop. I was a primary under my family. But i quit my job because this is a fulltime proposition. That is Something Else to think about how you manage that. I am sitting at my desk at home with my computer in front of me and my phone, pictures of my three boys in front of me. I text my friends in between making phone calls. I would look at my kids pictures. I would send off an email to a friend. And she comes and watches me. She grabs me by the arm, taking away from my desk, sits me down the Kitchen Table and says, youre not going to have your phone in front of you. Youre not going to have your computer in front of you. Youre not going to have your kids pictures in front of you. Youre going to make phone calls and this is how you going to do it. She taught me the fundamentals of it. This is not instinctual. To run for office and you know whether, building your field organization, your messaging, social media, raising money. It is something that you have to be taught. In a lot of ways. Like i said you have to have inside of you, the drive to want to do it but you need help. And there are so Many Networks to help women run now more than ever. I did a shout out to emilys list i think we started a program out of my leadership Political Action committee. It was to help, we recruit mostly women and young people and people of color. Because those areas underrepresented. We teach them the fundamentals in an allday boot camp. It is something that i am, i feel very passionately about getting more people to run for office. That is what we are doing to help out the next generation. We talk a little bit about the wave of Sexual Harassment scandals that have been on capitol hill in recent weeks. One of you personally, they are starting to shake the political landscape. Can we play the video that we have . If the last few weeks has taught us anything its that we need more women in power. Not less. So when youre choosing the next attorney general, who can you trust most not to show you their kids in a professional setting . Is it i am a woman. That is not a liability, it is an asset. I approve of putting more women on the ticket and that was an ad from a democratic candidate for attorney general in michigan and amy sent it to me and i loved it. Definitely captures the current political scene but congresswoman, leader policy has been criticized for the way that she responded to the Sexual Harassment allegations against john conyers. He announced this morning that he is going to retire. The key word being retire, not resign. I wanted to ask you, do you think his retirement rather than resignation is an adequate response . And how did you feel about the way that leader pelosi handled this situation. Not only with conyers but her response more generally . I think that if you are and trusted by the public, whether you are in the senate or whether you are in the house work have been in conquest for 40 years for one year. We need to serve as role models. And i know people do not see members of Congress Like that anymore. But frankly, if you are perpetuators of Sexual Harassment, i just think congress is the place to be. And again, no matter what body you serve in, and no matter what party you are in, i will tell you what, it is sad when the one area bipartisanship seems to be that we have republicans and democrats for sexual harassers. I think it is not a place to be. I would like to play a part in helping to win back the trust of the public and part of it is we got some legislation now that Jackie Speier is leading. To require Sexual Harassment training. We have a piece of legislation that will require anybody who is paid out, victims from this secret slush fund, that that has to become public. And the victims, should they choose, to not be subject to a gag order. If they want to speak out about it they should be able to. Leader pelosi, i think many people felt that as a woman, she has a special responsibility as the third most powerful lawmaker in the country. She has a special responsibility to act and act quickly. Did she miss this . Are you asking amy . [laughter] good try is it unfair . We have on the republican side. Who, now it has come out. 84,000 was paid out of a slush fund. I do not hear people asking speaker ryan about why he is not talking about that. [applause] but if i had republican member of congress i will be asking them. Like i said, i believe that no matter if your democrat or republican senator house number, have seniority or not, should not be serving in congress if you are a sexual harasser. It is not the place to be. [applause] you know, the assumption i think im regarding the entire event today is that more women in elected office is a good thing. And i was wondering if i can have each of you in a lightning round address why you think that is. What is the value of having more women . How would your jobs be different . If there were more women. Amy in particular you wrote that you think democrats have missed this, would be different if there were more women in elected office . Why do we start with you amy. About why what could change if you had more women . What is the value that women bring to the table . I just think where youre seeing the Sexual Harassment allegations and real assault, is in industries that have historically been dominated. Not just that there are a few women. Men are running everything whether it is the media, hollywood and congress. It should not be the fact that we are not hearing the same level of scandals out of quote unquote regular working america is because they have already gone there. The fact that congress has to say, should have Sexual Harassment training. Anybody that has worked in the company for the last 20 years has had to go through Sexual Harassment training. That is not like what . That is amazing [laughter] i never thought of that and i think the challenge for Congress Also is the fact that you know everything gets referred to as the Ethics Committee. An internal investigation by your peers. Right . That also raises the question about can your own peers, should they be Holding Accountable or should it be somebody on the outside actually investigating these in a way that does not raise the question of the credibility of the investigation. I just think that overall, and i have been frustrated in some ways about the way in which we talked about the role that women should play in that you know this is the world of Sexual Harassment. So women are going to win. Like women only do well when it is something that is domestic issue that affects them personally versus, i dont know, women can also do well in the middle of a war. Women can do well in an economic downturn. We really box women into this very narrow sort of idea of when they can rise and when they shouldnt. But overall, i think that what women bring to the table when you have more than one or two in the room, i think it is a very different incentive structure and offices and in situations where women are running the show. Which is one that does not, at least in my experience, focus simply on survival of the fittest. That is, i know we hear a lot about this collaborative nest. I do think that there is a sense that we have more women in the room, you will get more questions asked. We saw that during the financial crisis. Who were the ones blowing the whistle . All along when the banks and Mortgage Companies saying, wait a minute this does not seem right to me. Wait a minute, i am willing to ask the questions that no one else in the room is willing to ask. And to have more of that at the table. I think it is what is going to change not just the idea of Sexual Harassment but the culture in general. So, the one thing i was thinking of, we have our own version of scandal. We have the corruption probe thats been going on for years , campaign finances, people doing things that are just ridiculous with their money, and all i could think of, this is basically an issue of character of the person. I think its something amy had on, when i got elected, everybody came to me and expected me to be sponsoring womens issues bills. I do economic development, i do transportation, i do jobs, i do healthcare reform, i do infrastructure. Thats not my background. My path was can be a whole different way because of my district ever highly business oriented district with a bunch of International Companies but we do get pigeonholed. What women bring to the table, women would never, would never cross their mind to try to get away with doing things. I think power gets to people. Its a character issue whether you are a female or male and i think the issue is that women tend to be consensus builders and tend to get along, we tend to cross bridges. When i first got elected, i started talking to people from the other party and making friends and people were just mortified. They also were mad, since im from the upper part of the state and not the coastal part of the state. The coastal part and the upper part dont get along. People are like youre not supposed to be talking to me and im like whatever. Its fine. We find a way to build Common Ground with other people we serve. For me, im a musician and we talk about music or sports or whatever to build relationships with people first and then issues second so that it when its time to have something we are working on we can go to people in the other party and hopefully both of us but at least listen and be able to talk to what were working on. Those are the things i find with women and how we make a difference in the chambers, the bodies that i serbian and the organizations ive been involved with. Before i came to congress, i was a journalist for 17 years and then i worked in healthcare for ten years. This is my third profession and, in all of those jobs, i have never been in a room where decisions are made that its not better if you have diversity. Never. [applause] that means diversity of all sorts, age diversity, ethnic diversity, gender diversity. I really think, in a dream world, if every elected body could truly make up the population of our country from all those perspectives, think about what a better nation we would be in the better world we would be. As it pertains to serving in elected office, anyone in the room ever want to run for office . Anybody else . We need some more. I tell you, it is through Public Service that you can change the world. I still believe that it is a dignified profession, i am proud to be in congress, if you work hard and youre honest and youre doing it for the right reasons, you can really bring about tremendous change. Since we have 99 women in this room, i agree with representative henderson, women we are relationship builders. Everything is built on that foundation. Amy and i, we are both on the congressional womens Softball Team. Can i draw one contrast between men and women. So the men in congress have a baseball team. Right . And they play at the National Ballpark under the lights, its a big game with a bunch of press and the way they have their team structured is democrats against republicans. Its been structured that way for a long time. For congressional womens Softball Team we have senators and house members, democrats and republicans, and our opponent is the womens Washington Press corps. [laughter] we practice at 7 00 a. M. Two or three mornings. Week from march or april until june, all for one game and we raise money for the young survivors coalition, for young women diagnosed with breast cancer. Weve raised close to a million dollars. But just to give you a feel for our infield,. Its a good infield. And you beat us last year. But you know, we have kiersten pitching, we have martha roby, republican from alabama on first, Debbie Wasserman and we have senator republican from west virginia. Thats our infield. But what happens at that 7 00 a. M. Hour when were going to practice with no makeup on, in our sweats, i mean i have not even combed my hair. I brushed my teeth that most and so we are there in our rust form and you build a relationship where it leads to democrats and republicans working together legislatively because you know each other at a deeper level, you might go on target runs, you might go out to young child together, and it really does build a deeper relationship. So to that point, the more diversity the better and the better off our country will be. I think thats a great note to close on. Thank you all so much for being with us. [applause] thank you. [inaudible conversations] please welcome coauthor diana palmer. Thank you so much for joining us today. I am thrilled to be here. This is our fifth annual summit. Im in a palmer, coauthor of the politico playbook and we want to encourage you all to join in on the conversation on twitter with women rule. This is a panel i am particularly very excited to be part of. Its something we started crafting several months ago about women in sports and politics, and justice conversion thats happening with President Trump regularly tweeting about the nfl and the National Anthem but just athletes in general using their voice in a much more active way on issues that cross the political spectrum. I want to introduce with without further ado, former nfl player, michelle, president of the Freeman Company and a partner, a former Lieutenant Commander of the navy and head coach of the all navy men seven. Im excited about this. Last but not least, lindsay is the Vice President. [inaudible] [applause] lets get started. I think the underpinning of this conversation has a lot to do with President Trump in washington. Weve all focused on the nfl, National Anthem, but a lot of other athletes have joined in this protest movement. Talk to us about what youve seen and also, from my perspective. [inaudible] i think we have to own that women really started this black lives Matter Movement first,. [applause] i think we also have to own that specifically women in the wnba where the first group to work in solidarity, black and white and theyre not given the credit for the work that theyve done. You have six entire nba teams who wore black lives matters tshirts, your 14 that would only answer black lives matter like a question and no men teams have ever taken those types of risk in women arent given the credit and arent honored the same way men are so i think we first have to step back and say well, women have taken all the actual bullets and men are still given all the credit. When athletes are taking big stands, i can imagine as a employee of politico, if i started tweeting things it would be welcome. Are you ever concerned about them going too far or getting too far in front of the brand . Its funny because i think often athletes are separated from the personality or their journey. Being on the field or the court and then the not supposed to talk about their personal journey or what got them there, and i think to honor a human being and say who they are and how they play and how they got there is important and the issues that matter to them are important. Its wonderful. You and i have spoken about the goalie for the capital marching the pride parade and how the social media that he took after that. It was all positive. Absolutely, and the strength and courage that he showed and that these athletes are saying we are human, we have a journey and it matters and i have to say, as an owner, its moments like that were you are proud. At least monumental sports and entertainment, thats been our position that these folks come out and have a platform for change. They have a voice. Have a national voice. Why not honor that. Thank you. Not always the perspective abouall ownership and not uncommon in the wnba so i am very lucky to work in a league that has led on these issues in a way that im very proud of. Michelle, to build on what you were saying, in terms of whats so important about the athletes and their personal story, thats really when athletes are most powerful in the way they connect people and i think the reason why they can be such effective agents of social change, because people can identify with them. When you hear their story, think about watching the olympics but how may times you cry. It happens all the time. Its all about those stories and those connections, these athletes can be leaders, their human, have a perspective, they have a valuable point of view and for me as an agent its all about how you define risk. Like to think we are in an era where we are reimagining what it means to be safe and for my clients, the most unsafe thing is to not be authentic. We encourage our clients to step out, we encourage them to become educated and thats a critical part of engaging in social justice work particularly for athletes who have a microphone in the face not wanting to say the wrong thing, not wanting to feel stupid on an issue or not fully informed, i think that holds a lot of people back from even just making that first step to get involved and that starts by being educated. For me i like to think about the new safe is being on the right side of history and thats where we like for our clients to be. Historically if you put it in context of their very often lead when it comes to social justice work and you think about the athletes who, i dont want to use the word suffered. Se because i think legacy goes beyond monetary value but you think about athletes like muhammad ali who obviously is seen as an incredible hero, but thats very much in hindsight. He gets critical that we celebrate our heroes today, we take Colin Kaepernick who has clearly taken hits for taking his position and being in solidarity and standing up for each other continues to be very important. On a talk to because you are an athlete, you coach the all Navy Men Rugby team, youre the first woman to do that for them. You are in the navy, at that time, what has that been journey been like in the last 20 years or so. One of the things i recognize is that if this had been 20 years ago, i would not be the head coach of the mens rugby team. That continuum is only made possible by women were willing to go out there, break barriers, be the first which is sometimes very uncomfortable, often times unpopular, but very needed. The opportunity that presented itself as his head coaching position, and as i was talking to you about last night, i was putting coins in that bank for almost 17 years because when i was a competitive athlete, i did have men who basically said, even though we dont have a navy rugby team for you, you are one of us and we will welcome you into our family. Fastforward 15 or 16 years and this opportunity actually happens that im wellpositioned because my credibility, having been an athlete at a highlevel, both because of putting my coins not trust bank over such a long period of time but im also no longer an oddity in terms of being a woman in a leadership position. When i came into the navy 20 some years ago i was the first woman on my shift. I was working with men who had never worked with or worked for a woman. That is no longer the case. Fastforward 20 years later and im flying to san diego two weeks after i got married because one of the women that i came to the service with his taking care of the destroyer. In terms of women coaching men, that doesnt happen very often but that is a continuum. The men that i work with and train with im no longer an oddity, im just a continuation of whats been happening, that shift in the armed forces overtime. Talk about that transition from leadership as a woman being on a ship with men and then being a coach. Going to go back to something you said about communication. Really, you have to figure out what motivates my athletes. What drives them. Whats important, whats happening in their lives and being able to connect on a personal level. Its not all about whats happening on the rugby pitch. Its who are they as a person and how i get the best out of them. Because of this continuum of women in leadership positions and being able to be part of the conversation, i now can have that conversation as a head coach of the mens team and im very thankful for that and very lucky to have been in the position where i now have a seat at that table and i can claim that seat. We were talking before, you have a unique position as a woman owner of these teams. How has that transition been over the last several years . Its interesting. Washington d. C. And monumental sports and entertainment has three female owners which is the capitals, the mystics, the wizards, the capital one center, and so we know as weve shared that the more women in the room, myself, sheila johnson, the more women in the room, the more important becomes and something a previous speaker was saying as we were backstage about that diversity, when i look at the ownership of our teams, it actually reflects the fan base of washington d. C. That is the right thing. So, i think washington is lucky because we have someone that thanks that way, i dont think thats true of every organization, whether thats a company or sports team, but womens voices are important. We see things differently. We see things from a human level that may be a guy doesnt pick up on, and i think the more women you put in that boardroom, the more women that are listening and feel comfortable speaking out or giving their opinion, the more rich that workplace and those teams or whatever the opportunity, i think thats true of all businesses. Have you had any of those moments, where you are the woman and they dont see you. I remember the first time i walked into the locker room, ill never forget that. The interesting thing is that my male counterparts had always felt comfortable going in there. Lindsay, as a sports reporter, she would walk in and i would stay back. Nobody told me to stay back, i would just do that. So walking forward and walking through those doors and saying im an equal to the men who invested in this team was an important moment for me. So ive seen that play out, this is been since 2002, ive been involved and slowly i think seeing more women, i want to go back to something we were just talking about, but the coaches of these teams are critically important too so when he looks at his athletes and he says there are important, sometimes in sports you can think theyre just chess pieces that youre moving around. These are real human beings. I think thats an organization that starts with the coach and goes to the entire system of the organization. One of the policy prescriptions that i think all agrees changed the face of women in sports, when you talk a little bit, i know theres concern about where the Trump Administration is honest and if betsy is committed to keeping it in place, is this something youre thinking about . Does it still matter as much as it did was put into place. I think it still matters. One, anytime that we make any progress forward, theres a force that tries to take that progress back and i think were seeing that. I think its important that we know that we are in a space where men are trying to push back and take back control of womens bodies and how women show up in the world so its important to not just women to speak up but men educate ourselves and listen to the stories and the lives of women and start to add our voice to the conversation, not in this idea that were helping women but in this idea that were all in this together, and i think that policies like title ix are important so that we can continue to see women in sports, that we can continue to see the richness of your lives and the stories that are behind them. One of the other big issues we were talking about is the wage gap. Talk to us about whats happening in the state of professional sports and some of the other things that are going on right now. We can just do the collective Bargaining Agreement here. Perfect. Im sure it will get done. Look, we had a really important moment. Think this is an important point in history and i think a lot of the conversations that are led by women around equitable support and diversity, and when you talk about diversity, its not always just gender or race, but were talking about different abilities and being an agent who represents athletes who i like to think of as leading cultural conversations and really represent a lot of different constituencies and communities , its really important that were thinking in those terms. Let me talk a little bit about title 19. I think its worth mentioning that title ix is not just about sports. [applause] this is a direct attack on womens ability to do things like report race and how its investigated and its an opportunity for everyone and i think its Super Critical we remember that and not just make it about people who can play. As important as that is because i think the studies are pretty clear about the benefit of women in leadership and it shows clearly and its a 95 level of women in offices have played sports, over half played at the University Level so the impact of title ix should not go unnoticed and we should all be fighting to maintain that. , you. On title ix. I agree, were talking about title ix and this farreaching piece into society and college life and theres a Great Organization called its on us which actually was in the Vice President s bidens purview and it addressed title ix and the rape culture on colleges and how thats tied to funding through title ix of colleges when women report rape and colleges arent giving them the right resources they need and the help they need. I think title ix is important on the cultural side and i think its important on creating athlete leaders. Look, playing sports transcends what happens on the field. It just does. It creates leaders, it creates confidence, it gives women the opportunity to meet other strong women so, we need too, as women, speak out and speak up about title ix. We need to continue to support it. You talked a lot about what youre hope next is for the navy in terms of having a womens rugby team. Talk to me about that next continuation of making sure women have the same experiences as men. Absolutely. I think one of my personal regrets is that i never got to represent my branch of service in the sport that i had dedicated so much of my time too. This is my way of being part of that continuum. Its important because just like you said, its not just about playing sports or giving athletes an opportunity to get on the playing field. Its about giving them opportunities to excel. Opportunities to develop leadership and come lottery. I look at these as my brothers and sisters and weve gone through a lot together but we have to continue to create those opportunities that the men have had for so long so we have women who are aspiring for leadership positions, everything that gave me for which im very thankful, and it was a long road and a lot of trips to orthopedic surgeons and whatnot, but my mom was not very happy when i switched over from soccer to rugby. But its about giving women those opportunities, and im not an arrest until we get that all navy womens rugby team up and running. That will be the continuation of the legacy but we have to make sure everyone has the opportunity to do that. Its not just about the sport, its about what it brings you as a whole person and what you can bring to everyone you encounter as a result of that participation. Im sorry, go ahead. I was just gonna say one other thing about the pay gap between the wnba and the mba, the wnba 22 years old. The nba is a bit older than that. That can sound like an excuse, and maybe it is, but the disparity is pretty incredible. What we need, what the wnba needs is support. We need people to come out and watch games. We need people to support the athletes who are playing it. Thats the way you grow a sport, and whe women end up getting paid the same amount through sponsorship. See that sponsorship come across, make it as important as an nba game and we can get women the same amount of money as men are making. I appreciate that. Clearly theres a lot more we were hoping to discuss, but unfortunately we are getting the hook. Thank you so much for doing this panel. [inaudible conversations] please welcome the politico editor casey brown. [applause] thank you so much. I would like too, now i am very, very pleased to have secretary of transportation alain chow join us on the stage for a keynote interview, women in the Trump Administration. Secretary chal, please welcome her. [applause] secretary chal was one of my first interviews i did on the womens world podcast months ago and it was a great conversation. I really appreciated your candor about lots of things. We are pleased to welcome you back today. Thank you. Are there women in the audience who are immersed in policy, i would like to start there, with infrastructure. It is something that we thought would happen earlier this year, possibly a plan in the third quarter, maybe it will be tied to tax reform. Its september 5, almost the end of the year, whats up with infrastructure, this 1 trilliondollar plan we thought we would see by now . Youre going to see it, just not at the original time frame. We did come out with principles on may 25 and it was thought that the Affordable Care act would go first then tax reform and infrastructure. If anything, it shows the dynamics of the legislative calendar and time on the legislative calendar is the most precious commodity so after tax reform, first of all they just pass tax reform last week. We will now go out, theres going to be a conference so i do not expect infrastructure to come out until probably early next year. This is all part of the dynamic of the legislative process. Do you predict a bill will pass. I hope so because i think its really needed by our nation. We have crumbling infrastructures in this administration, the president has proposed a Spending Program and infrastructure that will include roads and bridges and also water, energy, broadband, healthcare to the Veterans Hospital so it will do a lot of good. I think if anything this proposal has the greatest potential of being bipartisan. When you say early next year you talking january, february, give me a date. We hope to get it out early january, but that depends on the legislative calendar that we are not in control of. To think healthcare will once again push it back . Is there a desire by the president to go back or do you feel like you have to go within the structure. Is not really within my lane. I have enough handling infrastructure. I hear you. We will see what happens with the legislative calendar. Youve had what i would call one of the most memorable lines of 2017. Really . I stand by my man, both of them. I wanted to go to that moment, partly because i was fascinated at how you handled that moment. To catch people up, this happened over the summer when the transportation permitting process where the secretarys boss was fighting with her husband. Will they werent exactly fighting. No they were not. It was a Healthy Exchange of views. [laughter] is that what we call it. We all have different points of views. I think you make a great point. You were there to talk about your issues, transportation and you stood in front of a group of reporters who asked you, you were caught in between. What were you thinking at that moment . Isnt that interesting. We were supposed to talk about my life story. If youre gonna be in the public sector, you have to be prepared. Anything can happen. When i was first starting out, i got really rattled. Im Asian American and they said anything bad about me, i was afraid the New York Times would say alain chow disgraced her family and they would remember and then i learned that this is part of the democratic process which is soap precious to our heritage and our tradition and experience in the public sector, you just learn to roll with the punches and learn to anticipate different kinds of questions. And word of advice, they can ask the question. You have the choice as to what you want to answer. That is true. That is good advice. Too that point. I had a great interview with you in april. One of the reasons why i wanted to do this and accepted this invitation is because i thought what you and i both shared is a deep concern and desire to help empower women, younger women in particular. I do a lot of that. Ive meant toward a lot of young women. I think the world ahead of us has so much possibility and opportunity. How do we encourage women of all ages. Too that point, backstage i learned that you had parity when you are a labor secretary which is remarkable and a lot of your appointees are women. Im going to brag a little bit, when i was secretary of labor, 50 of the Leadership Team at labor were women. [applause] they were all confident and outstanding in their field. I think of my diverse background and how i grew up, i saw leadership in a different kind of packaging and it was okay. I was much more open to recruiting people who looked different and yet who were leaders. I went to visit iraq in 2004 and i went to a womens center, they had just gone through the war, many have lost their husbands they were trying to make a new living, new livelihood for themselves, and i was thinking of leaving them with something memorable that would really inspire them so my team and i took a photograph with all the Women Leaders at the department at the time and we gave that framed photo with these six women at the present and the women who are going through such difficulties, they were so dumbstruck. They could not believe that in a country called america 50 of the leadership were headed by women and they were not ancillary positions. They were worker training and Employee Benefits and over time, these were important, large offices. These women were so moved and so touched and gave them a great deal of hope. One of the women officials who accompanied me is laura and she is now the Senior Advisor for strategic medications. I also have with me Pam Somerville who was a Senior Advisor to the secretary for all things, and i have five women were heads of it administration. We have heidi king, and brandy hendrickson who is from indiana, Jane Williams who is head of federal transit, mrs. Hildebrandt who is cio of technology and kathy is head of federal Motor Vehicles administration. Thats an amazing lineup. What is the impact of that and what does it mean to have women in those positions . How does it change the conversation. I think its important for women to be at the table. I think more diverse perspectives is helpful in the government arena to come to the best policy decisions because, ive worked in the private sector and the Nonprofit Sector as well and part of the challenge of the government sector is that there are so many different stakeholder groups. We are a democracy so there is a cacophony of different voices sharing what they view as important to our country, to the department, to the public and how do you address all these viewpoints. That is difficult, but the first most important thing is you have to understand what your stakeholders are saying. If you are not diverse, you dont know what they are saying. Once you understand what different people are saying then you can begin to craft a solution that would try to address all these viewpoints. Having this point of view is important and it cant come, it has to come from people with varying experiences and viewpoints. When you are coming over here for your second cabinet post at transportation, how conscious are you when you are hiring for these thoughts to meet exactly what you said or is it just that you hope that you get parity for how do you consciously do it . I do Pay Attention to a. Again its not preferential treatment nor is it discrimination route but its understanding in my work i have to have people who think differently so they can tell me what reality is. The worst thing that can happen to the public arena is that you think you know reality and you really do not so when you frame the debate or the discussion of the policy, youre missing an important point that would not be the best policy for our country. What is your piece of advice for young women in washington looking to make it in policy and politics right now. No one couldve been further behind a ball and me. When i came to washington i was so naive. When did you come to washington. A long time ago in the Reagan Administration as a white house fellow. Im an immigrant to this country and i didnt understand so much about america so i was curious about the federal government, i wanted to know how it worked. I credit my parents with giving me a sense of curiosity. I didnt understand so many things, but i was curious and i wanted to find out in a responsible way so i came as a white house fellow, i was so naive. Someone came to lobby me about an issue and i was shocked. I said you want to change the law, thats what its all about you know. Then i wanted to volunteer for campaign and i didnt know anybody. I can even volunteer. They wouldnt accept me. Why. Because people want people they know to volunteer because they may not know you, they dont know your capabilities or how loyal you would be. You feel under estimated because youre a woman or a minority. And then i was young. They say all the time how do you make it if you are a woman minority. The young part very rapidly took care of itself. Then i would say if i thought like that, i would get out of bed in the morning. It would be too much, but i had such a great sense of adventure, i was interested in exploring, i refuse to acknowledge what i didnt understand until i understood it. That was kind of training to myself. I refuse to be confused until i understood what was going on. I basically had no friends, people were mean. I dont know anybody in this town thats so highly connected and i have nobody, i was connected to nobody. I was in nobody so nobody paid attention to me. Where did you start. How did you. But i was still excited about being in washington. Good lord. I get up in the morning and i can see the white house and i would like to work and i could see the Washington Monument and life was good. I was excited about what i was doing but people were mean but since i came from such a Strong Family background and i have five sisters and i cannot disgrace my parents or my community. I cant disappoint them. There were a lot of people who were supporting me and loving me and that gave me a lot of courage i thought okay, so if they fire me ill go back home and i was very lucky that i would have a home to go back to you. She didnt know anyone, people were mean, she wasnt connected, she volunteered. If i can start like that, you are surely better prepared, better connected and youll have wonderful futures. You have a sense of adventure, a sense of knowing your core values. When i got discouraged, i had a little picture of my fathers village in china and it was thatched huts and chickens and pigs running around and that was good because that mean they had money. I would say to myself, if they can go through an environment like that i thoroughly can prevail. There is something that inspired you so that when you get discouraged you can without that photograph or that touched touched stone or something and that will remind you all of the sudden whats really important and how you need to have confidence in yourself and then you just pick yourself up and go right ahead. Just to fastforward, youve served for president , even in washington for decades with the conversation that were having right now thats dominating Sexual Harassment, i just wondered if you have a me to moment. Of course. I think that the dirty little secret that a lot of women have held for a long time. Many of us have experienced it. The environment is very different. Would you tell us a story. The person is still here and still around. All the more reason. [laughter] you will go through difficulties in your life and i hope you will triumph. When you triumph you need to help others along the way but you also must have the spirit. Things change, times change and its not worth my while to go back and revisit negative moments. I will fight for other women and he will stand up for other women but you have to let it go otherwise its too corrosive and its too negative and it does you up double injury because i hold you back. I can say, im sure many of us have been in circumstances, you Say Something thats important and has value in the conversation goes on and then somebody else picks it up and its a guy and he said the same thing you just thought you said in everybodys paying attention. I think its important not to get discouraged by that. You just jump right in and say Something Else. In many ways there are so many opportunities so dont get discouraged. To wrap it up, what are one or two things you would say you need to do to make sure the dynamics permanently change, that this event just a conversation were on to Something Else in ten days from now. This applies not only to the issue were talking about but i was involved with them in trafficking working with condoleezza rice, and i have always boasted women wherever i can and as i got into positions of greater responsibility, i was able to appoint a more diverse team. Whats the most tangible thing that we can do is make sure women are given opportunit opportunity. For me, i have found it to be helpful to give other women the opportunity. I think the environment is getting better. For women to speak up it shows they have more confidence in the system that will allow them to speak up. The other thing also, i think its important to work hard and prepare for and im still not very good at winging it, as you know, and i just feel better, i feel more confident if i am more prepared so thats for me. Thank you secretary chow. I found the stories to be quite uplifting. You work hard, you support people and i think a lot takes care of itself. Thank you for having me. Thank you very much. Thank you. [applause] when you overcome big and successful, take my phone call. Thank you so much, good luck. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] less than 24 hours they have been over 12 million me to post on facebook and 650,000 tweets on twitter. I have been organizing since i was 14 years old. I have, for the last 16 years, really focused on women and girls of color. But during that work is when we realized that the girls we were working with were encountering Sexual Violence in various ways. I met a young girl when i was young, she was probably 12 or 13. She came to me and she told me the things that have happened to her. I remember thinking in my head me to come i know what this feels like. It was so scared. I was 22. Ended up sending her to another counselor who i thought could handle what she was going through and get her the help, but i didnt tell her anything. Over the years i have written her letters, in my mind, i dont know where to send them but just apologizing because it feels like the worst that you can do for someone whos committed to young people so my partner and i decided to step back and figure out what to do. When we came from this idea that we had to do this groundwork first. Libraries and churches and schools. It really is an exchange of empathy between survivors. When i became a mother, i had a daughter and it really stuck with me that i wanted my daughter to live in a world that saw her and recognized her and acknowledged her power. You can say youre not alone, youre not alone as much as you want, but whats been generated from this movement. [inaudible] this is not about predators or individual people. Its about victims. If we keep dealing with the individual people will pop up and Start Playing whack a mole. We have lived in a society that allows Sexual Harassment to flourish. We have to be careful not to have the wrong conversation. Please welcome rachel dade. [applause] welcome. [applause] [applause] [applause] thank you. First off, thank you for being here and for sharing your story with us today. Thank you for having me. Ive been covering Sexual Harassment from the capitol hill standpoint ever since the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke. I was stunned to find that you founded me too way back in 2006 on a myspace page. Tell me, why do you think it took more than a decade for this to catch on . Take us inside that day when went totally viral. I think its been more than a decade. People dont want to talk about this issue. People dont want to amplify these discussions. It is not a pop culture issue. I started this work, working with black and brown girls in the south. I havent gotten twitter started yet so that wasnt the vision but we did have a vision to have something that people could connect to that was simple but it showed in exchange where people really connected with each other. Its really easy for somebody to say when you tell your story of any kind of trauma oh my goddess im so sorry it happened to you. A person is wellmeaning and wants to make you feel comfortable but theres a distance between you and them. Seeing it happen to you but not me. The difference is when somebody share something the most dramatic thing that happened and at the end you say me to. Thats an instant connection that happens that at least for the two of you is a liberation that you cant trade for anything in the world. Theres no money that can help you have a healing of that connection that says my god im not alone, im not crazy, im not an anomaly. The feelings i have for genuine and thats really what me too is about. Take us back inside that day. What happened . Sunday morning, picture it. Sunday morning for notifications on my phone, there were a few going on and i checked one and a friend sent me a message. She said something happened . What are you doing and i was like . Nothing in particular and she said you need to go on line. There are people talking. I had videos and i had to times been doing work long time that when i went to look on twitter at first i kind of panicked. This is weird. I do the work in a specific way and to very specific audience and that wasnt the audience that i was seeing. I also hadnt tackled Sexual Harassment in the workplace. Street harassment yes and in schools yes so i went through a waive of emotions. By the Late Afternoon i was more panicked about the idea that there was mass happening such a public way. While me too is about people telling their story i was worried about people not having the process. Its a very big deal. Think we lose the idea that social media is the world. Once you put it out there its in the world and i was like theres a waive of emotions that happened after you disclose something is so personal. I need to figure out how to insert myself in this conversation to give context to it. Its a declaration and its a disclosure that has impact and when they use it there is empowerment and empathy. I wanted to introduce into the conversation and i was fortunate enough that these women, you know i am a writer and have created a network of people who do social justice work over the last 20 or 25 years and they know my work. They immediately came and said we need to amplify your voice and we need to understand what this is about. Speaking of disclosure i can tell you from on the hill talking to a lot of these victims theres a theory that now coming to a world where they will be blackballed in their mobile to get a job and theres a sense of this watershed moment has not reached washington politics. Why do you think that me too has not quite hit the political arena that way of spreading across the country right now . I think it has entered a lot of arenas and i think thats very real thing when you declare about. The protection is great and the social media and the width of the glam and i can go on television and talk all about a lot of things that my going on television speaking in front of you does not protect a woman right now who was at her job fearful that she could get fired whether its capitol hill or mcdonalds. I think we have to be like people keep asking what happens after this moment. Im like this is a movement and movements are built over time and they are strategic and they are methodical so for me this moment is a triumph and the overall movement. I think we should celebrate it as a triumph but not forget theres a whole body of work that has to happen. Their loss that have to change in policies that have to be implemented. Theres a lot of groundwork that has to happen and thats my commitment to the work that i love being here and i love talking to people in getting the message out but i have a lot of work to do. Part of that is because it hasnt reached everywhere and the very next thing we have to do is amplify this conversation and represent those people wherever they are. What would you say me too is taught you about mobilizing phone networks of women in . Lets talk about women. I love being a woman and i love being a black woman. I love that we are always at the forefront regardless if theres a camera there or not, and other people paying attention. We are on the ground doing the work in this moment would not happen without women, no question. The bravery and the courage of the women who came forward and even the women who havent come forward. We should always acknowledge the fact that when you are as a survivor of violence your choice is taken away. You are right to choose is taken away in the choice is a choice even if you choose not to disclose to disclose thats a powerful choice that people should hold onto. I hate when people get caught up and i get messages all the time where people say really need to grow but im scared. I say dont. What this moment has done has given choice to women in ways they havent seen for a long time giving them that power back whether you stand up or whether you times you dont or what the support somebody or you dont. [applause] we are almost out of time but i wanted to ask you about the young girl you talked about and who inspired all of this. You said that you write letters to her in your head and i want to know have you ever found her . As she reached out . Do you think she will and what would you say to her . This child i am 44. [laughter] i have not found her. Iran camp for almost 10 years and she only came that one summer. A couple of things i have realized in this moment. One is that i think of myself as an adult who was a child who didnt help the child but i was 22. I have a 20 robot or who is a baby to me. Hi baby. And so what i would say to her i would apologize for not being what she needed me to be in that moment but she is 33 or 34 so i would think that life has given her a message lessons. I would want her to know that at that moment help me spend the rest of my life in it trying to show up every time i get an opportunity to do so. Sexual harassment requires change and shes going to be on the next panel talking more about that. Everybody give her a round of applause. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] please welcome the director michelle norris. [applause] hello, hello. [applause] good afternoon everyone. I am Michele Norris the founding director of the project and a whole lot of years i hosted a show on public radio called all things considered. [applause] today i get to do what i love best which is to talk to interesting people about an important topic and we are here today to talk about Sexual Harassment. There are very few topics that are more important than that right now. Im thrilled to be participating in the summit and im sorry we have to have this discussion but we do have to have this discussion because from hollywood to capitol hill from highprofile accusations of Sexual Assault have sparked a National Debate surrounding the reality of Sexual Harassment in the workplace. Today we are going to discuss what it will take to finally put an end to harassment in the workplace and what companies import in the a lot leadership play and holding accountability for the times the actions and the role of media and all of us in covering allegations in reacting to allegations before they have been proven in court. So i want to introduce our panel. At the far end congressman Jackie Speier from california. [applause] thank you for joining us. Elevating this issue by using your voice. Chris overman is the managing director of icm and is come has come all the way from california. [applause] Rachel Renick is also with us. Shes the ceo and creative director of we posts. [applause] we just heard from the founder of the me too movement. A lot of you are familiar with the. You were introducing us to do so congressman. I want to begin with you. We just heard in that. Yes, your say in we heard secretary child say women are coming forward because they have much more confidence in the system but on capitol hill we have not seen as many women come forward. Different kind of conversation. There seems to be different impediments to gaining that trust or some sort of comfort where they can raise their hand and say me too. Help us understand if whats different about capitol hill. In congress it is a system that has basically the protection of the car as her and the victim has been without resources. For example the office of compliance to which a victim would report would have to go through 30 days of legal counseling and 30 days of mandatory mediation and then signing a nondisclosure agreement and then 30 days of the cooling off period all the while still working and that harassing environment. That is what im trying to change with the me too congress act inspired by tarhonda and we have over 100 cosponsors republicans in democrats right here in the house. [applause] how long is a system been in place . Its been in place. What was it created in response to . It was created in 1995 count count called the congressional cup of the accident was on the heels of the scandal senator packwood. This would be a new system that was going to create accountability. As we have seen it doesnt create accountability. The members never identify and the result is habitual harassers are allowed to continue to operate and we are seeing it right now. How many women were involved in creating that process . I really dont know and since its predominantly a male congress at the time i would suggest probably very few. On the other side not just women coming forward that members of congress and staff coming forward to talk about it. Did the tribal realities on the hill make it difficult . Democrats talk about priorities of previous president s and republicans are reluctant to talk about sexualharassment charges against the current president. Do the people on the hill make it harder to put this issue on the table and examine and interrogated and figure out how to solve the . I think it does and thats why we are contemplating a new system i think we need to look at creating a thirdparty function that will be outside of congress not populated by members of congress so this issue of comfortable this uncomfortableness associated with calling a member of your same party is not there. But you know the institution is special but members of congress arent special and we need to be treated like everybody else. [applause] there are many places where allegations have been made and people have stepped aside voluntarily or not. Theyve been asked to step down so that sense it seems members of congress are moving on a different parallel track on the adjudication of issues. Senator frankel and congressman conyers and their others and new allegations have surfaced. Should these members step aside . Should they be asked to step aside while they allegations are examine the . I liken this to a corporation. We like to talk about ourselves as ceos of our office and a corporation, a ceo as identified as being a harasser. They dont wait until the next annual meeting of the shareholders to vote on it. The board of directors determined and typically what happens is the ceo is out no matter who they are, no matter how great they are no matter what kind of an icon they are. I think members of Congress Need to realize that we have a board of directors whether we call it the Ethics Committee or the Actual Congress and we need to act. We cannot allow this to fester while two years go by until the next election takes place. So we have got a lot of work to do and i am optimistic because i do think we have seen an age of new enlightenment and we cant let this moment go. I mean we cant let this just be a blip. It has to be a concerted effort and its got to be sustained. For my part i have suggested that congressman conyers should resign, that senator franken should resign and congressman farenthold should resign. [applause] chris the congresswoman talked about a wave of enlightenment. Doesnt feel that way in hollywood right now and you personally run a company. You have had a lot of contracts that run across your desk, a lot of projects you are involved in. What has changed in hollywood and is it a reaction to the moment or do you think that this time its the kind of meaningful lasting change that will have a real impact . You know i think that first of all we are private company so we have the ability when this happens we can deal with it quickly and we can just get rid of the problem so we arent going to have someone creating an uncomfortable environment. They have got to go and we can do that quickly and easily. A lot of the stuff thats has happened in hollywood in his come out clearly there is Harvey Weinstein and thats criminal behavior. He should be in jail of their things like that and that has been put out so quickly. Then obviously down for too long and its going to be this tidal wave which should have happened a long time ago. I think what we need to do as the company is look at this and listen a lot and figure out what are the real thing is that we can do to create lasting change because that does have to happen. I think companies should reflect more the world around them. We represent thousands of clients from all walks of life and the people who represent should reflect the kind clientele. I think the thing that i have personally identified the culture of silence which i find incredibly troubling that people are really frightened for themselves to come out and i love the fact that people can come out and talk about this and they are empowered by this and being recognized and thats a good thing. I think thats great and i think mentorship is the other thing we focus on. I dont things can change overnight. We cant just snap our fingers and say have to leave people are going to be women. Its going to take time but that requires mentorship. Personally i have had great female mentors in my life. They are very strong women who have affected me and mentored me and i think its also on all of this to mentor people in a much better way and really focus on mentoring women as well. What about manned . You are probably a real role model for a man also so can you share the conversations perhaps you are having with people right now about how to raise their hand if they have been boorish or tiptoed in an area that is heading towards sexualharassment . What kind of advice to getting people to make sure they understand the rules of engagement . What we did is put more women into leadership positions in the company. As good a relationship as we might have that stuff and i understand that. I know women need to be put in more positions of leadership and everyone in the room would agree on that but what do men need to hear to understand this . Im sorry. In dealing with race and america there is an expectation that people of color often take a leadership position to dismantle a system that was not necessarily of their making that was put together and sexualharassment there is an expectation that women will lead on this issue. Even though this is not a problem of their own making what is the role of men in taking on this issue and as someone who is a leader in your industry what kind of advice would you give . I think its listening more and gain openminded and being protective in a way that people should be able to speak freely and where a man might feel the power to speak freely about something and a woman might not feel that power you have to be sensitive to that and create open lines of communication so people can talk freely and protect the environment. When people talk they are not punished for it but on the contrary they are rewarded for it. Thats probably the long way of saying it but they are empowered. I think thats something thats cultural. Thats a cultural shift in a company that is cultural in terms of how people look at the world and how people interact with each other and something that everyone has to make a commitment to together. Something we talk about a lot. Its conversation at Culture Shift and it takes time and it takes real commitment. As someone whos been in this business for a long time i love playing this just in. You have your phone sign you are following twitter or as my mother calls it the twitter or facebook or instagram. You may know the congressman Congress Conyers has announced hes going to be retiring and he made that announcement 10 minutes ago. You are shaking your head. You are not saying anything but your body language is saying something. Your reaction to that. I was anticipating he was going to be resigning and thats what should happen. That should force the house to go through the process of investigating his conduct and the house is going to have to take action. Its not good enough to say in a year and a half for an eight year im going to retire. A serial harasser. He is stepping down. He is not resigning. Hes going to retire at the end of his term. He is stepping down. Is that right . What is he doing . They said that effective today. He stepped down today. [laughter] we will clarify that. We have the hill and we have hollywood and i also want to take on Silicon Valley because the power balance, there is quite an imbalance in part based on numbers and in part based on axis tick capital and the start of culture where women in this industry its difficult to do this and less you get access to funding. Does that create a power dynamic in the system of inequality and help us understand what is unique about Silicon Valley and the tech industry. I think there are a couple of different scenarios that i think should be addressed. The first is the Power Dynamics between investors and founders whether first time found her female founder. He creates an environment for you to be vulnerable. I think fundamentally it comes down to this idea that we dont take women seriously. The fact that in my experience i had quit my job. I was picking upside jobs to pay the rent and working night and day to put together materials to pitch to Somebody Just to walk into a lead. If you are sitting there and you feel like a fool because you have spent time and energy doing something and you walk into a room to not be taken seriously about something that you have a vision for and that you need money for it. We talk a lot about vcs. There is somewhat of a systematic structure and how we handle the situation and we can ask to get rid of them and do something about it but what is not talked about is what we experienced as investors and the difference is these are high in networked individuals that can do whatever they want with their money and say whatever they want. They want to meet on a hotel lobby at 8 00 p. M. And you are desperate trying to get your business off the ground you know every woman has that feeling of im going to go to this meeting and we will see how it goes and on top of that theres a culture of do whatever you need to do to get your business off the ground. You have the sort of dynamic between power, emotional manipulation and on top of it the object of vacation a few you are just walking around. I am a woman and im an openly woman and you would think that would deter something. But no, no. So you know women are sexualized and you put two women together and you are hypersexualized. You are running up against all these barriers and you were trying to on top of just simply trying to figure out how to which is hard enough in itself. We talk about Silicon Valley and the investor dynamic in the other thing to touched down is the dynamic within the Actual Company and the policies and the sword of call to action right now we need new policies. We need to enforce the policies that we have and the only way to do that is to show people that there are compromises. To let men know there are consequences to their actions and women will only step up and come forward when they know something is going to be done. Why would i speak up if not and on top of it you have to get 10 women together just to take down one predator so there are a bunch of different dynamics. The investor situation is the one thing he and enough itself that Silicon Valley needs to hold a mirror to itself and really think about what are the policies they have, are they enforcing policies and creating policies . Sometimes you can create policies that are so difficult. The same dynamic. It protects the company. You abused your voice to talk openly about this but there are some things you cant. There are disparagement clauses and gag rules. Is that a policy in and of itself that people are not allowed to talk about this issue that there is comfort on the part of the company knowing that we dont have to talk about it if we can settle out of it. I think they are sort of the difference between dont talk about this issue. Most people know this is wrong. Most people know Sexual Harassment is wrong but they will say to you that and you are looking for what do i do about it and nobody is going to tell you to do anything about it. That silence comes from women who dont know anything but silence and it comes from men who were saying we dont want to ruffle any feathers. For me the most predators are not stupid. He did everything in person. I have no written evidence. I just have my experiences in my head so that idea that i cant really even remove him from the environment because the way it was set up in the wait was approached. All women have i think right now and what is really powerful is the Whisper Network. That has unequivocally taken a lot of people out of power because they were able to coordinate and warned people. Hey im going to this meeting. What does anybody know about this guy . We talk and we know. Theres a Whisper Network and that is easily the most powerful tool we have. Turana its good to know that women have the Whisper Network but its also sad that women have to whisper about this while the men that are responsible for this behavior are still sitting in their positions. What else can or should women do if they find themselves in this situation . Who should they talk to and should they keep a record . You say there was no paper trail. How do you create some sort of trails so if you raise your hand and say me to that you have some sort of dossier that you can move forward with . I was just talking about this the other day another function. You have to keep track of everything and write everything down an email yourself and tell your friends. You have to create your own body of evidence. Email yourself so you have date stamps and time stamps on it. The same thing you would do with any issue you have a work is the first thing people will tell you is documents. You may not have something official and you may write it in a. Think its also helpful to tell other people and if you cant go tell other people, there is a power in numbers so when the opportunity strikes you are ready to have something to say to add your voice to the chorus or even if you are the first one. You created this and i think its a but i think everyone has seen the in their feeds. Our s useful and would have helped the men men had a or if there is a to include or to encourage ask your sister, ask your mother, asked ask your coworker. Obviously works. It brings awareness. We have enough Empirical Data to show the world nobody can say no i have never heard of that. If you engage in social media and you are zero wait and on the computer you have heard of it. It could help for men to have a but the thing that bothers me so much when we talk about, i almost said a bad word. You are a human being. I want a you are a human. [applause] it bothers me that men dont have to train other than not to touch another mans when you go to a meeting. You dont have to say look out for that guy, he might hit you on the. You dont have to be trained to do that. I am a human being, dont touch me and dont talk to me appropriate way. I dont know how we legislate that and i dont know how we shift the culture. That conversation has to be about empowering because this is about privilege and power and how people use it. Privileges and going to go anywhere anytime soon but its how you use your privilege. You have to use it to serve other people if you have more privilege for them. I think you people people understand that concept and interact with people and being a human being. You are being careful with your language they are. I was being very careful. To understand before all of these allegations surfaced and before the me too movement loss and did we understand where we were . We watched as a society seven seasons of madmen thinking we were watching something that took place in the past when maybe that was not was actually happening. Do we underestimate how much parts progress we have made on this issue . I think the problem is that culturally there is still that tension that allows for people to say i dont believe her, but she is not telling the truth. We have to flip that where the presumption is that she is telling the truth because we do know anyone who comes forward is going to be badgered and is going to be put under a microscope. More often than not they will be black ball. Thats interesting because our judicial system in which someone is innocent until proven guilty. But this is not a judicial undertaking. This is a Workplace Environment where someone is violating the civil rights act, title vii that says you have the opportunity to work in a hostile free Work Environment and that you should not be subject to severe or pervasive Sexual Harassment. We have talked about this but theres a spectrum and only a certain point does it become criminals. Because again there have been no consequences or anything on that spectrum we have lumped everything together so to your point anything from the death by a thousand paper cuts a little bit of sexism here and there to full on sexism to harassment whether that be verbal or other to insults which is criminal. To your point there is a certain point where you reach the judicial part of it but there are a lot of things in between that need to be handled in their need to be consequences for those actions. Most of the times the consequences fall to the woman. We are we are going to movie off the team or shuffle things around. Or meetings with women. Dont get me started with that. I think we are point, Tipping Point where we are angry and i think we need to give ourselves the space to be angry and then we can have more nuanced conversations about how to approach each and every one of them on a casebycase basis. We estimate sure that women are driving the conversation. How important is it to deal with things on the lower end of the spectrum that might be considered worse behavior to deal with that because thats often a gateway to more aggressive more harmful behavior. I think its allimportant and i think it really just goes to leadership. If you see the senior people acting like the lowerlevel people will feel like they are empowered to do that too. It needs to come from the top and people know how to be good normal people. I believe that and i think it just needs to be reinforced and it needs to be stated as a core value of your company. I think it needs to be important. Be cautious of how you are affecting someone else and understand that and talk about it. We represent a lot of powerful people in the world whether they are men or women and i think im really proud of that and i think the company has an obligation like us to make sure internally we reflect that as well. I mean i agree with you about the anger and people need to get this out because ive seen it and i have seen it for years. Its really important to to me n the position im in now to make sure we deal with that and we created an environment where that doesnt change. Its something that i want everybody to be proud of and we want people who work there to be proud of it and i think its important that it comes out now and its important that people show leadership and mentorship. Not just the women but also the man. I know that sounds simple and i know its a bigger issue than that. I think the culture is really important because when we think about the spectrum of violence it starts with Sexual Harassment but those are the things that create a culture. It really bothers me that people keep talking about Harvey Weinstein as a Sexual Harassment case. He sexually assaulted women. Thats not chasing someone around the desk and not pitching someone in the office. He has committed crimes multiple times in their systems in place that allowed him to. The culture of his company protected him. People are invested in capitalism and invested in the money and the power and not invested in the women who suffered at the mans hands for 30 years. Its really important that the boorish behavior is important because that opens a door for the day that allows him to touch folks. It has to be dealt with and those things have to be sought out in the workplace in the streets and organizations come in Congress Wherever they have been. They open the door to allow this type of behavior to happen. Many people have gone through through, you have to go through Sexual Harassment training and it has to be done by tuesday and on your computer you sit in a classroom. That obviously has not been effective so how do you effectively change the culture . I think what chris said is important about leadership. People have to model what the culture and the company is. Not just on the computer and not just reiterating it every couple of years paid people in leadership, you cant laugh at rape jokes and he cant tolerate oh hes just like that. You cant tolerate those things. There has to be tolerant about how we work together. Have leadership set an example for what well deal with an art company at that moment in time. [applause] lets talk for just a minute about the Industries Women who work in retail and women who work in manufacturing, women who clean the hotels in this hotel. Do they have adequate support or understanding for the challenges they face and as we talk about this Movement Overall are we spending enough time looking at their challenges . Okay. For me my work has always been centered around modulating. We have to start with im not just talking about men. If you are Woman Working in the work place and there are powers in place to protect you and there arent for the women cleaning the office and if im in a place where im not going to have myself protected and not make sure everybody who is vulnerable is protected. Thats one of the ways we do that. I think its also important for us to appreciate that the module that you see on the computer is woefully inadequate and we have got to change the requirements so its interactive interactive, a relates to the industry and its something that comes from the top. I think we have all said that. If the message is very clear from the top then you will see behavior change. We have heard a lot about the number of men who have left their various industries and the talent range of powerful men. I want to hear in hollywood, on capitol hill about women who cut their sales, could just that i cant deal with this, who were less ambitious than they would have been or have been the walking wounded for years and sometimes decades carrying this around. Will we ever be able to measure the talent drain of women whose jobs, whose lives in their workspace were cut short because they face this kind of harassment . I have a story that appears in one of the papers about woman who was working for congressman farenthold. She received an 84,000 settlement they came out of the secret fund in the u. S. Treasury treasury. She was absolutely black vote wall. She was told before she filed the complaint that she would be black walled and she hasnt been able to get a job. No wonder that 70 of women who are harassed adult come forward because they need a job and that is the dynamic that has to change. We have got to make it very clear that someone who comes forward is going to have support and whistleblower protection so they can in fact feel free to come forward and not be blackballed from an industry in which they want to work. You have chosen not to name names even though you have said you know there are other people on capitol hill. Explain to the audience why you have chosen not to do that and tell us about the reaction that you have perceived on capitol hill. I imagine you are saying things that people wish they would rather not have to talk about. You know whenever you are going to air the dirty laundry you are making people uncomfortable. I would say that in terms of the people that i know that have harassed i have said i am here to protect the dump. If the victim is prepared to come forward and i have encouraged the victim to come forward its got to be their decision and these are the cases that im talking about. In terms of what im hearing its amazing. Its almost like this huge burden has been lifted from women in the house. I got stopped at trader joes twice by women on the hill that said thank you so much for what you are doing and then they told me their stories. Ive had women come to me that work in the capital and the stories they tell are so repugnant. Imagine having someone come up to your desk, unzip their pants and stick out their. And she is afraid to say anything because she is a single mother and she needs the job. Congress, we have a problem and we have got to fix fix it fix i. Have you ever considered approaching the men involved to tell them i know about this and you should think about this . My concern is if you sign a nondisclosure agreement and you now tell me about it and i tell the member then conceivably you have violated the nondisclosure agreement. I want you to each think about a specific thing. Theres a longTerm Solution in the short Term Solution so for now lets think about the shortTerm Solution so they can take on individually or the industries you represent that could be done by friday or by the by the end of the month or by 2018 to really make a difference in dealing with this issue and turana i will start with you. I think, say it again, solutions we can have. The things you can do right now. Im an organizer by training and i think we have to organize around this issue. The women who are prepared not to force anyone who doesnt want to pit those who are prepared it to come together. One of the things me to does is identify people. Talk to your friends and talk to the women in your office. If you see someone with a have lunch with them and say lets talk with it. You want to do something even if theres just support. To see what actions can be taken by people who you know who have come forward is something that can happen immediately. Besides looking for allies whether its in your work industry, in your church or organization whatever it is find likeminded folks and allies. A woman in the work place has an army behind her. For me there are two things. For women we need to listen to our own voice and i think the emotional aspect to all of this is we have been conditioned over decades to tell ourselves it wasnt that bad or oh its not a big deal im making a big deal out of this so for women and one of my favorite things Michelle Obama has said that women are taught not to listen to their own voice and it keeps us from fighting a fight we believe in. That is an actionable thing just tweeting tweeting your inner dialogue to not be so hard on yourself to try to grapple with whats happening and recognize it and realized im not alone in its okay in changing that inner dialogue is something we all have to work on. We have been conditioned to dismiss ourselves. For a man there is a lot of work that guys need to do. I would say i dont need you to defend me when im in the room. I will defend myself. What i need is for men to defend me when im out there. Men have access to the spaces in the pockets in which the behavior really drives. We witness it as women but we know behind closed doors how much worse it is and we need men right now as allies not for a pat on the back but to do the hard work behind closed doors to call up their friends and call out their coworkers to say to them i dont appreciate you speaking that way about women and that is not an easy thing to do. That is absolutely not an easy thing to do. I think men have a lot of work to do in that area. If you are not defending us while we are not there you were not doing anything. [applause] as the man on the panel i want you to add to the question of what we can do. Thats a tough one to follow. I think rachel has ginned it up for you to address what man can do. I will speak specifically about what we are doing as a company because we can only affect what is right in front of us and by doing it that are for us we can make an example for everyone hopefully. We made a commitment like they said a cultural shift will take time. We have a company thats over 50 women but not in leadership positions so as far as Department Heads go we have 40 then as farce the board 30 of the board are women. Our job together is over the course of the next two years hopefully to mentor enough people so they come into those jobs as leaders and on the board that they have earned it. I dont mean earned by putting them through the paces. Its from the standpoint that we spend time together. I think thats super important to put them in those jobs and make sure they do great. I would just say there are going to be a lot of those backroom conversations because you want to have a conversations and the men should be worried about what the women are saying in those conversations. In my opinion they work really well when they are in balance and any balance to be put into this stuff. Thats what we are trying to do and im really proud that we are making progress in that way and hopefully it will be something that years from now people will be talking about. [applause] i would say two things. Its very important to talk about it, to talk to other women about it, to empower each other, to recognize as a bystander you can be very powerful in supporting another person. We are only 20 of congress that things are changing. The largest march in the history of this country took place on january 21 because women and men across the country watched. [applause] there are more women running for congress than ever before, 356 women are running in multiple numbers in the same race and more women are contributing than ever before. This is an opportunity that we cannot let it run through our hands. We have got to be there to speak up, to vote, to run and to transform the body politic in this country. [applause] thank you very much. Thank you for using her voice is into the women in the audience thank you very much for being here and just know there are certainly people in this room who perhaps have not found the words to raise their hand or to put a behind the word me too but know there are a lot of people working on this issue and getting into this issue. It isnt just a story in the headlines right now but its something that will be with us. Thank you very much congressman speiers and tarana. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] please welcome chevron Vice President stacy olson. [applause] thank you. I am stacy olson was chevron and im so happy to be this morning. Before i make my remarks we will watch a short one minute video. Its a story about dewars impossibilities. This is lauren. Shes a tour and an expert in Science Technology engineering and math. Heres gushing up engineered gps to colacci and today shes mentoring a generation of s. T. E. M. To find their way. She is one of forest that can dewars. This is sydney bit of the music not. Sydney is exploring. Meet sophia. She has a big dream. The fact is girls do remarkable things with s. T. E. M. This generation may change the world. [applause] im excited to be part of the conversation about empowering the next generation of women. Women in government, women in business and women in media. As part of that conversation i want to make sure we also talk about empowering the next generation of women in s. T. E. M. , Science Technology engineering and math. In my 30year career as an engineer working for Global Energy company i have worked in six Different Countries on five different continents. Ive seen have the energy we produce has the power to build economy and lift people out of poverty and create the products that we rely on in our everyday lives. Today i am based in pittsburgh and lead chevrons Business Unit devoted to developing natural gas from shale and pennsylvania ohio and west virginia. Its a part of our country that has one of the largest natural gas fields in the world. A little more than a decade ago we didnt think it was possible to produce this resource. In fact my job wouldnt exist if it wasnt for Major Technology breakthroughs and advancements in science in the last 20 years. I have a personal goal to encourage more women. When i think about the next 20 years, when i think about the global challenges we face now and in the future its going to take a scientist to come up with solutions and i want to make sure that more women are part of the solution. I read a study recently that said unless things change in the u. S. We will come up short by 1 million s. T. E. M. Nationals in the next decade. Women hold about half of all in the u. S. But only slightly more than a quarter of s. T. E. M. Jobs. At chevron we realize the success of our business depends on a diverse workforce. Our philosophy is investing in education along the continuum starting with k12 education programs. Over the past three years we have invested more than 100 million in education in the u. S. And more than 340 million locally. We have supported s. T. E. M. Programs for thousands of businesses around the world and in our own backyard. In the appalachian basin 20 million over five years to support education and training throughout the region including many rural areas. Our focus is to inspire women in underrepresented students to pursue good careers and arm them with the skills they will need to be successful in the future. In addition to investing in education i believe role models and mentors will play an Important Role in filling the s. T. E. M. Pipeline. Over the course of my career i have seen a shift in the representation of women in business and government but i think we need a lot more role models today especially in s. T. E. M. When i began my undergraduate degree i majored in petroleum engineering. You might say i was the one pursuing engineering before we really talk about s. T. E. M. As a thing. For me, my mom was my role model model. She is a Computer Science degree and mba and a law degree pitch he served as an elected judge for 12 years. I didnt grow up in a home with stigmas or stereotypes. All i knew growing up is that i was smart and if i worked hard i could do whatever i wanted. When i graduated from college my first job out of school was as a representative on a rig in the gulf of mexico. In those days by job title was more traditionally known as the company man. I was often the only chevron employee on the rig and i was often only the one on the rig. I work seven days straight with 75 men. Despite what you may be thinking it was one of the best experience i ever had. I had a lot of responsibility for someone new in a career. I got used to being way outside of my comfort zone and i had the confidence that helped me say yes to new and exciting opportunities that came throughout my career. In those early days on the rig the men i worked with supported me. They helped me learn the business and they wanted to see me succeed. This is an attitude ive encountered throughout my career at chevron. I know that many women are not as fortunate to have the same experiences were role models that i have had but that is exactly why we need more women and men to support women. We need to send a message to the next generation of young girls that says you are smart, you are talented and with hard work you can do whatever you want in this world. Then we need to show them what opportunities look like. Everyone here i would say be an intentional role model and mentor. You dont have to be perfect to have an impact. Encourage women to get outside of their comfort zone and finally, support them along the way and make sure others in your organization do the same. Over the course of my career i have seen a change for the better and when i think about my daughters i get excited for them and im optimistic about the future and advancing them through the organization one company or person wont solve this alone. Its up to us for this Bright Future but with the efforts to Mentor Support i am confident we will succeed at empowering the next generation. [applause] thank you for your time. [applause] please welcomed the chief International Affairs columnist, susan glasser. [applause] nobody came this morning. [laughter] i want to thank everybody for turning out this morning. What an incredible institution this has become and how many years we have been doing this. We are all a part of an important conversation today about how we can come together to understand the problem of Human Trafficking. These are all leaders in different ways. Senator marco rubio. Thank you. [applause] next is the former director of u. S. Immigration and customs. Thank you for joining us this morning. [applause] actor, filmmaker and we will talk about the issue of Human Trafficking. We encourage her. Thank you very much. [applause] and most importantly, survivors of Human Trafficking in the movement to stop it and the author we are honored. [applause] i am glad in many ways about this incredible moment about what is happening in the workplace is and how we can seize control of the middle so the continual of which it exists so thats why im glad we are able to talk about it. And you are the only one on the panel who can speak directly to what its like in the experience and also in washington why cant we fix this. Lets do our Law Enforcement officers need to do that they are not . [inaudible] if i could answer that question, we could all just go home. You mentioned Law Enforcement. When i was a 12yearold for over a decade for many times i was arrested that the traffickers were never so training for Law Enforcement and identification. So maybe that person is a victim, maybe they are not a criminal. So many people theyve never heard of it. So awareness and education. That is a good opening moment. If we got more sophisticated on this issue for some time in terms of proposing legislation for specific things tell us what are the steps forward that are happening. We are creating a better understanding of what youre speaking about. What is the end result . People who are forced to work with little or no pay and then there is a physical combine that and psychological as well and it receives a tremendous amount of attention it likely to be a co rightfully so. The numbers are even bigger. They are related. The third aspect is the method by which people are being trafficked in places you are able to advertise the services and hide behind the notion we dont know what that is and its my hope they can pass. And last point is the one raised a moment ago. We still find too many Law Enforcement they treat them the way you would they think they arrestinbyarresting them and ing them puts them there. Shattered and fear whose minds are controlled by the individual who put them there is a. Lets stay on capitol hill for a second dimension this new legislation you are getting pushback from the tech compani companies. You are protected by free speech and the ability and the vast majority some of the big platforms are onboard. Of course theyre going to fight again. If they are openly facilitating, they dont want to be liable for it. I think what we have is an an objective to bringing it to the floor so we can unanimously pass it but there is a way to do it. I do believe that Elizabeth Warren and marco rubio are cosponsors. [applause] i can see the national unity. I am not so sure that Law Enforcement is helpful in this area. Everybody focuses on the immigration area but there is a core including sex trafficking of all kinds. To say that in 2017 ipod abou 2d about a thousand indictments nationwide and thats just those that passed the federal test. We cant take every case. This is a case that has national impact. We can have a better impact because the states have their own Human Trafficking statutes as well. I dont know how much of a message it sends because there isnt an International Aspect of this in particular that involves thinking of one in particular, korea. They were thinking they were going to get an education with good paying jobs once they got out of school. One of the saddest things was the name of countless women whod gone through the second floor that we were never able to find. We do go after the perpetrators and we put them in prison, but the most important thing is, and this is something we teach all our agents the most important thing is you cant extend the investigation as a victim of being threatened and at risk in that moment. You have to stop and bring them forward. The most important thing is for runs like this. I want to get back to this issue but quickly to you first, how do you think the current crackdown happening in the United States might end up having people who are victims of trafficking as well and they might have Legal Immigration status but it is coming outside of the range of people and it isnt a leap of faith to say they wont want to report a crime where they can then become the criminal where a person looked at it as criminal first. I dont have numbers on it, but i dont believe theres a negative impact with a push towards anybody thats out there and i think i read the other day, senator, something about the person that is running right now in the acting capacity as the nominee you should be a treat if you are in the country illegally. Number one, no one knows you are even here. The cases are far from home and they are disconnected and the third gets sent back. That is a good oversight hearing, isnt it lacks [applause] in iowa was programmed to believe everything was my fault and i would be arrested, and i was arrested for that and forced what i was told, and there were psychological bonds in place and no one will walk into a Police Station and say help me, help me. It takes time to get to that point and nobody has time. I feel grateful to be here thank you for having me. We have heard the story. It had been busted, a sex trafficking house and we just couldnt believe in our own backyard around the corner where we lived that this kind of thing was happening and nobody knew about it. Something needs to be done about this and the only thing that we have to speak out on our platform is art. So we decided to make this movie, which is about a girl from honduras and she is trafficked through los angeles. My husband took a crew of about eight people and photographed the movie has no end filmed and made his way through guatemala all the way through mexico and then i met him in tijuana. The subject matter i felt there was one moment in that got me quite nervous he was in guatemala and i was here in washington, d. C. Speaking with a group starts about 20 years ago. I told them about the movie that we were making and they said you know what just happened yesterday, there were about 30 women rounded up who have been protesting and essentially they were killed. I called my husband and made sure everyone was okay and i told them what happened. We felt so overwhelmed by telling the story that not many people know about it and it fueled much more to be involved in this issue. It started as a pure place and i think we lose sight the more im introduced in the subject matters of the humanity of this it is not a statistical problem although the numbers are high it starts with a sister, daughter, mother and niece but for the grace of god a it can be any one of us, so that is what our movie is about and why i feel it is so important to tell it. I see you nodding your head. This is a story about immigration but also something that literally happened to you right here. Originally im from fairfax. I left when i was 12 and i ended up being under the influence of a trafficker for over a decade. Every type of violence i experienced. Im a cancer survivor, uterine cancer but is a result of being trafficked, hpv. I pulled myself into a drug rehab clinic when i was 22 and heavily addicted to heroine into the intake person went above and beyond her scope of work and looked me in the face and gave me eye contact and for the first time i felt like a human being and she treated me like a human being. She sent me on a job interview, i didnt get the job. If i would have gotten the job it would have been a miracle. She found out family members were living in nearby philadelphia and i left and i never went back until 2013, so taking the time and treating people like human beings i know counselors and social workers and everyone else. Its overwhelming to think about how there could be a girl in Fairfax County right now, 20 minutes outside of the beltway experiencing this. I want to ask one more question by the way get your questions ready we are going to try to get some from the audience. You mentioned in the fact that you became addicted as a part of this whole abuse that you were experiencing this has become a much despised crisis. In any of the conversations around the policy issues have you seen this as being factored into the discussion on the Opioid Crisis . Its not enough because one of the leverage points to a. We shouldnt lose sight of the fact that theres a number of people who find themselves in vulnerable situations and become prime targets until its developed from something much serious. Learning about kids in foster care system being targeted which is important to be aware of and you can imagine they are so vulnerable already than theyve gone through this cycle of abuse back into the foster system. There needs to be a scenario people have a sense of healing. I fell through the cracks because nobody took time. Im having a hard time seeing so i will have to go to the front. How is it [inaudible] how is it cosponsoring a bill with Elizabeth Warren and working across the aisle do you get support from other republicans were some of your coworkers or is that something that is hard to do . They only see the figures on television and these are real human beings we interact with one another and agree on a lot of things. One of the most sought after things in the senate is bipartisanship almost on any issue you are looking to bring in a leave from the other parties so its not the first issue ive worked with her on. Anytime you have a bipartisan sponsor on an issue like this that doesnitdoesnt have naturn combines. Its very productive in. Politics is covered over the conflict. So it is a conflict driven environment but if it is its more ideological. On this issue there are some groups dont like any sort of regulation attaches the internet speech on the internet. It turns out they supported them after promising visas so what are you doing to make sure that in this age people that are promised this because of trafficking get them and can you please also support the dream act . [applause] to enforce the law but not endanger the people. All the facts proved to be a but they would be disciplined again. The dream act is important. Its the top professional opportunities and they are to provide what people do move to prove the merit based system. The question becomes how do you achieve it and in order to get the bill passed you need the majority in the house and t houo so it is my opinion, a permanent change in law on the immigration status you have to car have to t witpair thatwith a permanent che sort thats the only way you get the votes in the senate and we had a conversation yesterday with senator durbin on the senate floor. Theres a majoritthere is a majs to achieve Something Like it and the disagreement is how to achieve it but i do think that youre seeing new senators. Is there something happening to your former agency that concerns you right now do you think this would have happened in the previous era . Lets talk with the facts that are reported sometimes are not always accurate. The paper reporting the facts. Didigital lint and critical youe got to be careful with that. There was barbed wire around the Family Detention Centers but they were aiming their children. I am also a lawyer and to work on any kind of legislation we can do which i think has to be comprehensive. Theres no doubt at all has to be solved. The debate a is the legislation that is difficult to do that heu will never solve. I want both of you to promise youre going to come back to the summit and tell us how this collaboration to rewrite the immigration goes. [applause] youre saying what can i do, how dhowto buy processed, what do io with this. Taking time to learn about the issue into the gaps between policy and practice and to educate yourself and it takes time and i know nobody has that but we have to slow down and take the time to learn about what is happening and what we can do to make a difference in what iandwhat is happening in or particular communities and states. Its the most important thing that one can do. I still feel very intimidated but im very committed to knowing more and its very important. [applause] i work with this group so understanding and educating ourselves on the groups that are on the front lines and listening to the survivors is important. Youll find all kinds of tools to take back to the communities. Youvyou got to know what to lor including in Law Enforcement. I want to thank everyone here. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [applause] iem excited about the next conversation we are going to have and im thrilled to be joined by leaders in the community we will hear some personal stories, get some recommendations and insight about how we can further ourselves into the founder and ceo of the consulting firms. A lot of people come up to us wanting advice. So how did you get to the moment you decided im going to do this and start my own firm. My mom raised me to believe i could do anything. I didnt know that i wasnt supposed to sit at the table. So i just sort of blew through those what is she doing sitting at the table moments of. He literally said to me how are you going to support yourself and i thought what you dont know, i mentioned it to my former mentor of the weeks before and he sent me a contract and then my mom passed away and left me a small inheritance and that gave me the courage to start a firm and what i knew then it was once my mentor had put his faith and belief in me and my mom having passed away i knew i couldnt let him down, so it was a motivator im sure many of you felt somebody put great faith in you and you were not going to let them down, youre going to work hard and do the unthinkable. I can see a huge market opportunity. Nobody knows how. Ive been a partner at a law firm and i had a financial concern but had money saved aw away. You need that events where you are likyoure like im going fod for me it is like a Holiday Party almost 11 years to the day i see the chairman of the law firm talking to a client that i brought in and im feeling very pleased with myself and chairman says isnt heather our most beautiful partner . And talented you spend the rest of the evening smiling and sleeping in for me i gave a notice ten days later and i went for it. [applause] one of the big things all of us in tha this room have gone throh is when you had to enter in a room like this and did not know anybody or a reception where you are on the scene lost with constant networkers. You do need strategies. Walking into a room and handing out business cards isnt going to get you where you need to go. I make sure who i need to connect with and make sure they are meeting the right sort of people, if i need to touch base with a reporter but the key is to have a strategy. The second piece of that is to have authentic connections with folks. I tried to find out whats keeping them up at night. What are they concerned about, how can i help them in some way. Maybe i just read something that can be beneficial to them and i want to share it with them. It is a mindset when you go into a roomful o room full of strangs gloria said knowing whos in the room you can start that conversation but the mindset is everyone would feel like there is a hostess of the party this is my party, not paying for it with all of you are my guest. Another part is to address to start the conversation. I am always i love clothing that i know if i go out there someone would say [inaudible] it gives people a way of approaching you and you become approachable as well. [applause] networking turns into business development. Men need to have the leg up on that. With a tool that they can take away from the conversation. Listening. Really understanding what a potential client might need and the telling them how you will solve the problem and it is the beginning of the conversation. Often times, its almost like if youre single, lets date. It is understanding that to bring in a client is a cultivation exercise that takes time and one of the mistakes i see people make is pushing for a quick answer. Are you going to hire me as opposed to share value. Let them see how smart you are and understand how you are different from other folks in the industry. Also, and i know gloria also believes in this, be a concierge in the business of taking care of peoples problems, your kid needs an internship, lets work on that. So theres any number of ways to start the conversation and you have to find ways to keep that conversation going. Part of it is just being a good person and remembering birthdays and i saw this article you would band youwould be interested in d remembering the old adage. And making sure that potential clients know that you are in for an. Investing in people early without a return so they know you are investing in them for all the right reasons and not just because they are going to hire you and then you are moving onto the next investment. You are always paying attention in findinand finding out thingsy might not know. I think when you put those things together, you put the columns in the right number for your firm. I want that person on my team and i know people have said that about us, so protecting that hes very important. The question i got the most was how do i ask for a raise and people give you some of their own and they do deserve the raise. My grandmother used to say you dont ask, you dont get. When i started in the business folks didnt often ask for the order so my boss told me you have to ask the question and help people. So, sit down with your boss, make the case. Go ahead and have good answers. If the answer is no, not narrow, you need to figure out what is going to take for me to become a senior vp work for you to buy a table at the fundraiser, what do i need to do and how can you help me because what you want to do is have the client, you want them to buy into your success. Often times it is put on the day, the meeting. If you are focused in that way you will not get your raise. This is about developing a strategy. Like anything in washington is a lobbying campaign. So right now, we are in the middle of one of the soontobe tax conferences. I want this at this last moment, and please Pay Attention to me. No, you would have developed a strategy a month earlier. Why should you be given a raise . What have you been doing, documenting that but also educating folks about you and others in the organization. Its important to have the validator is. To create a thoughtful approach to establish your own storyline. I see people doing good work but if they dont tell me that they are doing it i dont know that they are doing it. I am not a mind reader. Ibm actively engaged so i can speak with what is going on but my vote have learned they have to tell me what they are working on. In that meeting, you should be straightforward and nothing should come as a surprise to the person sitting across the table from you. Dont be entitled and dont negotiate against ourselves, dont equivocate. We are wrapping up the panel that i know that you will be around so please feel free to introduce yourself and with that we are going to leave for lunch. Thank you so much. [applause]