This portion of the event highlighted women in congress. Those working on 2020 president ial campaigns and preparation for the upcoming Democratic Candidates debate. This is an hour and 20 minutes. [applause] good morning, and welcome. Im anna palmer coauthor of women rule. Its so amazing to see some many of you in the audience for what is sure to be a full day of powerful conversation. I have the unique opportunity to speak to lee mill Leaders Across Industries and with daring perspective. And to create a form with different viewpoints can be heard. But the one idea that unites all of us is the notion that when women run, when women lead, when women earn, and women bill, we rule. Today there are more women and less office. More women leading corporations, and more women champion causes. They are more women rising to the top. We have reached a tipping. And its critical that we harness this momentum to continue propelling this generational shift forward. Today, i will be joined onstage by by my colleagues and leaders and the roman rule community. To examine how women are running, leading, earning, and building. Across sectors and party lines alike. Heres what i ask of all of you today. Focus on how you can create lasting impact. Which is why today we are honoring for women of impact for bringing their bold vision to life. These women are the believers and the doers. Leading with conviction while also working in the trenches. We are going to hear from trailblazers this morning, spot leaders, executives, policymakers including pete speaker of the house nancy pelosi actress and chef amy brandywine. You will get the chance to connect with fellow women rule Community Members including both are fabulous ambassadors who are sitting at your table. At lunch today and our powerful marketplace entrepreneurs who have built the Country Companies were covering throughout the day. And also the shopping, which im going to do. I like to thank the people who made today possible. We have our founding partners, google and the Tory Burch Foundation who without them women rule would not be what is today. I would like to give a special shout out to chevron for their tremendous partnership over the last three years. And i think thank our summit sponsors Johnson Johnson and target. And finally tour stage makeup sponsor loreal. These final thank you also towards our 2019 impact partners. Our consortium, organization dedicated women to be public leaders in our community. They include, running start, the women in Public Service projects, she should run, the association for womens business centers. Google arts and culture, the smithsonian, and im excited about our newest impact partner, the james b foundation. A special thank you to will be parting with their sq qualities lounge in switzerland next month. We hope you will be informed of todays conversations and empowered with actionable takeaways that you yourself can take and elevate women everywhere. And i hope you will talk with everyone about social media. You can ask questions throughout the day using arm rule with us. Lastly, the summit agenda and program can be found in the women rule summit act which is new this year. You can find that on the app store and google play by searching political life. Once youve downloaded the lug app we encourage you to login, connect with people around you. Now, for our first segment of the day, running. I am delighted to bring to the stage three members of congress who got to impact our new wave of women on the hill have today. Panelist please join me on the stage. [applause] gay theres some energy in the room. I am thrilled to kick off todays summit with a conversation bringing together democratic and republican lawmakers. There is really a hallmark of wood into this. This morning i am joined by indiana representative representative who is also the recruiting chair also Lauren Underwood of illinois, that section of the crowd is always good. And i have Stephanie Murphy the democrat from florida. Representing to veronica was supposed to join us but im not sure she checked the news this morning. Its a little busy and she is a member of the Judiciary Committee so she was unable to join us. We are get a start here. More than 100 women were sworn into the house in 2019 and shattered the record that was made a decade ago. A new leader, we are talking about the summit boy do we really want to think about. Whats changed. We talk about so often that so important for women to be into the power for them to be elected into office. And i want to ask the question murphy because youve been in congress for a little bit longer. What have you seen changed either may be kinda socially or structurally with more women . Have you seen that impact already start. As to take take longer than a year too . Will i will start out that it clearly i came into office in 2019 and while we have seen a historic number which is awesome, we quite frankly have a very long way to go. It was more than a hundred years ago that jeannette jenness rankin from montana was the first woman to serve in congress, and i think she really wouldve thought that we wouldve been further along than we are right now. And i think when we have women who are serving, who are role models for young girls and women of all ages, people often think well i think i can do that too. Weve got to share our stories, share our experiences, they are so diverse and difference of we all came here. And i had never run for office before, but ive been in some public offices, ive been an attorney since the mid 80s and realized i was the one approached about running for office. I was asked. I was not one that just raised my hand and i think what seeing now is more women on their own are raising their hands than they werent even a decade ago. But i still think if you asked most women, in congress, most of them were asked to run. Most of them didnt just raise their hand. Will first i just want to say im so grateful to be here, what adds a way to spend a night day with a bunch of women. And the men who support them. I think in a couple of ways we are probably different is an womens rule maybe a couple of days ago where there was a survey that said that with this historic election of a women and diversity to congress, its actually given women and america and across this country more hope. When they were surveyed, men and women were surveyed after 16, you could see after 18 that women looked at the world more optimistically. And i think that was in large part in being able to see that they were represented either diversity that makes the country so strong. And then i think the other one its nice to be serving with a lot of other women. Younger women as well. Because i get mistaken for an intern a little less. [laughter] i was in an elevator with a very awkward conversation with one of my colleagues who said who do you work for . I thought to the people. [inaudible] [laughter] i really appreciate you being here today, she was one of our first events of this year, you came, and i appreciated it. I want to ask your question. You are the youngest africanamerican in congress. He took a look at Longtime Health in illinois, you are bringing with it, its may be different than some your colleagues have been here longer, its working out. Whats become very clear to me that there is a certain responsibility that comes with the first. And being the only. So i am the youngest black woman to ever serve in congress. Which means in the end tire history of this country, there had never been a young black woman at that table. So whatever we are trying but economic issues, healthcare issues, housing housing, Climate Change, we have millions of people across the country who now have a voice. And i feel that responsibility. While i am so grateful and honored to be able to represent my community, i also recognize the real need to offer representation in the other way. And selling congress and come down to the braga hecht health conference, we knew this was going to be an opportunity to be able to lift up the issue that gets the attention and washington is deserved for 30 years. Black women are three to four times and childbirth in the country. It has been unchanged here my entire lifetime. So in a few months, with this partnership, weve been able to grow the caucus into nearly a hundred members bipartisan. Weve had a real win in terms of standalone legislation, appropriations and we are on the verge of having the first Medicare Advantage through the house. So that women on medicaid get a full year of coverage postpartum, things like that. And that doesnt just happen. You have to have representative to recognize that and are willing to leverage their Political Capital to get that change the system. And i think that we are in this really powerful and exciting. Right now to be able to do that. [applause] i want to give kudos to lauren into the women in particular the younger women in congress who have talked about in terms of mortality. J meeker rare a butler has had her third child while serving in congress. Her first child has significant medical complications and size think what they have done, when i came into congress i was way past childbearing years, but these women who are having babies while in congress and the amounts of women who are focused on mortality, i dont believe our country realize what a horrible problem it was. And particularly for women of color. Weve had lots of hearings about this and the issue has led those hearings. And i do believe its because women in congress, like lauren and jeannie, have raised up this issue. We are really not a good place in the world. And who would have guessed that with the medical innovation, with all of the healthcare we have in this country, it is still far too Many American women are dying. Congress amount i want to go back to what you said about he started talking at this issue. You said youre the first. Hows the weight of that, how do you deal with that. You have a lot of women here are trying to be the first as they work up their way up the corporate ladder, up and service. I was the first woman to lead the playbook, tells the bit how you deal that pressure. Will he know so many of us dont seek out to be the first. We want to do the job, we want to have impact we want to have impact we just happen to be the first. And thats fine. But i do think there is a responsibility, because we want to make sure there are more women and others coming after us quickly. But i dont want to be the only. The first is fine,. Are you the first woman to represent your district . I am the first woman. [applause] but we dont want to be the only. So what can we do that every day to make it easier for those who want to come behind us. And what i think is that we have made leaps and bounds and growth in just a year. And so i am excited about that. I spoke with the roundtable of members for the Politico Magazine thats online and i encourage you to check it out. Including senator ouppercaseletter, democrats john hayes, we have had a frank conversation about around whats changed. How did it change, what needs to change. We were kind of going back in history about how there wasnt bathrooms for women. Until very recently. Thanks to john weiner. There you go. s it was speaker bain or who move the womens restroom right off the floor by the way. Give us a little bit of behind the scenes. What is going to change . Are there nursing rooms . Are there other issues from your perspective. Whether your woman or not, this still needs to move forward to make Congress Move forward. I happen to serve on the select committee, on the modernization of congress, very special committee. It was last constituted 19941995. I have to say youre giving me something to take back and consider. Its a completely bipartisan committee, i love being on this committee. I wouldnt say weve had a huge focus specifically on women. So i will go back and with susan dell benny and mary j scanlon and talk about what we might interject with their with modernization. But i know one of the things we certainly talk about is we need more space within the capital. This is bipartisan discussion that takes place believe it or not, except in our member offices, there are very few places where we can come together and have a private conversation and get to know each other very well. So we are talking about how to actually change the space. I think things like actually lactation rooms, again im crossed that. Even though i havent asked to see if we have them. Jamie would know. She comes to congress she comes to the floor all the time with her little baby with her. But i think its just something we have to continue to focus on. Anything else . I would say now that there are more women serving, and when you serve it sort of a family affair. Like everybody has to be all hands on deck. And there are a lot of women with small children who are serving now. I think taking that into account with the scheduling, as well as with the orientation, is really important. I remember when my husband, when i got elected and he was going through orientation, they tried to give them. [inaudible] with lipstick and nail polish it up. So i think theyre all these little ways that we, even though we have more women serving limitless children and family serving in those responsibility is to balance. We havent yes oriented our processes and procedures towards that. We are working in scheduling, that is a chunk because we know the schedule doesnt work very well for families. Verses we always take august off in the august recess traditional recess time. And im not saying thats definitely going away, but yet so many school start early now. And so now when we are off, kids are going back to school that first, second week of august. So a lot of members we took suggestions from members and they are just saying the schedule does not work. And if we dont make it more Family Friendly we will not attract more women. Because it has to work and their life, and stephanie is not an amazing job with your kids. Mine were older they were 18 and 21 when i got into congress. Messing with the august recess, called controversy. State junior sealer recommend. Florida when i ask there is vast majority women and. [inaudible] there is a woman done in the midterms. What can republicans do. Weve had this conversation so many times. And it just doesnt seemed like republicans are able to get over the tipping. There. Kudos to the democrats for their efforts for the elections recycle. I am the recruitment chair and im proud to be doing that. We actually had, at least the phonics for, we did have 62 women on the general election ballot last cycle. Now quite frankly only 13 of us made it through, carol muller being the only freshman, and shes awesome by the way. Any having carolyn congress is great. This congress we have continued to focus i am very pride to say, and i checked hundred 78 republican women have filed for office. More than any other time. We had a hundred and 30 last congress, right now filing hasnt ended. We also have about 140 people of color. And that is again. [applause] people have seen the diversity of congress and how its changed. And so that is because republicans across the country to say i want to run for office. And so i think we are going to see, hopefully weve got a good, one of color through the primaries. Thats my next question. That is always a challenge we have a least a phonic who led the way. Winning for women, view pack, other groups are supporting our women in unprecedented ways. And what i have seen, which i did not notice as much last time, and it could be ive just been really frank with her caucus. And ive shared with the caucus will talk to them about conference about political conference like guys, we have enough of you. I need you to help the women who are running. And they are. A lot more men, a lot more republican men are engaging in helping the women in their states. And we go to those delegations in the states and we asked them to really support the women who are running. And ive seen that. That is truly when will the republicans start pushing somebodys republican women. Youre having historic number republicans retiring, but getting some of these republicans in those seats instead of these very are plus one, are plus six very modern district. Inc. Thats very right and you think we have a lot of retirements particularly out of texas. Weve had a lot of strong where women running. Not just in texas. Texas women are strong, everyone in texas is tough. But i think you are going to see a lot of incredible women of all ages, all background stepping up. Im really excited about it. I want to talk to little bit about the moderate democratic side of the party, cochair of the blue dogs. A lot of the freshman women, and men who were elected in the cycle are much more liberal. They arent necessarily tied to the Party Establishment and the ways that historically democrats have. Whether thats talking about socialism or other things that have flared up. Has it made it harder for democrats . I dont know what that doorbell was. [laughter] i dont think so, note actually challenge the notion that the women that have come in are on the progressive. I think we have a nice, you know spread across the spectrum with our democratic caucus, and theyre actually quite a few women who are in moderate left kind of state. But there are some voices amplified more than others, sure. But i think one of the things that women always bring to the table, whether its in the carpool line, boardroom, or wherever else we show up, is that we show up, and we listen. And then we find ways to specifically engage one another and i think that has been at the heart of what has been beneficial. You can disagree on policies perhaps, but find your conversation and dialogue the ability to find common ground. And ive seen a lot of that. And one thing to remember is that we have not traditionally seen the loudest, boldest, most powerful doses voices coming out of capitol hill as women. And thats it we have right now. We have women speaker, stephanie is the chair of the blue dogs. I chair the caucus. We have some political women who are moving us forward. And that makes folks uncomfortable sometimes, but we have not seen that before. But that doesnt mean that its disagreement, it doesnt mean theres conflict, it doesnt mean theres an inability to move forward. It just means that the face and the voice might be a little different than what weve seen previously. Do you feel that it is youre going to have two women potentially sparring on an idea. Just because thats kind of the public frame that often gets put out there . I don