For organizing todays event, as well as kicking off a social Media Campaign as this years challenge. We want to encourage more women to vote, especially for this upcoming election. Well share more details later on in the program. You can learn more about the initiative on wchallenge. Org 100 women. Todays event will stream live on sfgovtv. Org youtube channel, as well as the citys facebook and twitter accounts. I want to thank our colleagues here from sfgov tv for working in the backgrounds and making this event as successful as possible for everyone. You can feel free to share the links and host a watch party if you want on your preferred social media platforms, because we will be having them on facebook and twitter. This session will be recorded for future references. So lets get started. Happy womens equality day. May i kindly ask the president of the commission on the status of women to join us, bree anna swat, to officially kickstart the celebration of todays event. Thank you. Thank you so much, vivian, for the kind introduction. And really thank you to all staff for making this happen. I know we would normally be on the steps of stahl. But i appreciate everyones creativity and flexibility of making this a Virtual Event as well. My name is brianna and im privileged to serve as the president of the nations strongest commission and department on the status of women, right here in San Francisco. It was on this day 100 years ago that the 19th amendment was added to the constitution of the united states. In the process of extending the right to vote to women across the country. And on november 2nd, 1920, more than 8 million women voted for the first time in the president ial election. The moment was a culmination of a Movement Made with tears, pain, sweat, a long strug that will included activism and leadership of black, indigenous, and women of color, too many who who were later written out of history books. These women, who fought, marched, organized and protested for decades to gain the right to vote. We are right to celebrate this day as a milestone and recognize that equal votes rights were not achieved for all women through the 19th amendment. The Voting Rights act, passed 55 years ago, brought us closer to equal Voting Rights. However, the struggle continues. And the need for vigilance goes on. As we were reminded in 21, when the Supreme Court gutted, these attacks on the democracy continue through this very hour, the tactics evolve. But honestly the intent remains the same. It was once literacy test, and outright violent intimidation. Today we see the closing of polling places in communities of color be and attacks on voting by mail. In short, the fight continues on for the right to vote. Today is more than a day of celebration, but to continue in the struggle and the moment to look ahead to the next 100 yea years. And 9 moment to ensure our democracy is truly representative. Over the last century, women have also fought to gain access in classrooms, board room, and elected it office, elected office. We have seen the power of womens leadership with each advance. We see that Diverse Voices and perspectives, equity and inclusion bring new ideas, new insights to the halls of power. Weve seen that right here from our Vantage Point in San Francisco, with our own representative nancy pelosi, the first and only woman to serve as speaker of the house, our two female senators and now Vice President ial candidate kamala harris. As i said earlier, i wish we could all be gathered in person together. This is not how anyone could have imagined 2020 would look. But it also reminds us how important it is to have strong and capable leaders. And how connected we are together. In honor of our ancestors, our foremothers, our sisters and the struggle, i am so proud to kick off this event and to bring together our two city female elected officials, women who not only forged the path, but always bring others along with them. Carmen chu as served as the elected assessor since 2013. Her efforts in the in performing the office and successfully reversing decades of old backlog, earned her office the prestigious 2020 Good Government award, an hon father recognizing the excellence in Public Sector management and stewardship. Assessor chu has also recently taken on a new leadership role to cochair the Economic Recovery Task force, using her fiscal expertise to help San Francisco through an unprecedented Economic Impact from covid19 pandemic. On top of all of this, she is Vice President of the california assessors association, served on the employees retirement system board, overseeing the investments of 26 billion in public Pension System and a little provides direction on the executive board of spur, a nonprofit focused on developing Regional Solutions to crosscounty challenges like Housing Affordability and climate resilience. In addition to all of these wonderful things, and all of these new roles, she has a new role as a mother. And is forever a Public Servant with her values rooted in her experience growing up as a daughter of immigrants. Thank you for your leadership, assessor chu, thank you for being here. And finally its my honor to welcome our mayor, london breed. In 2018, mayor breed was elected to be the first africanamerican woman and the second woman in San Franciscos history to serve as mayor. She was reelected for her first full term in november 2019. She led San Franciscos Emergency Response to covid19 with grit and grace. And is currently guiding the citys phased reopening and economic recovery. Recently mayor breed announced since becoming mayor, her priorities have included helping the citys Homeless Population and to care and shelter and adding more housing for residents of all income levels. Helping those suffering from Mental Health and substanceuse disorders, and ensuring that all san franciscans have access to a thriving economy. Furthering San Franciscos leadership and combating Climate Change and honestly the list goes on and on. So thank you all again for being here. Im excited to get this conversation started. Thank you, breanna, for such a nice introduction. We will now ask our assessor carmen chu, the cofounder of the w challenge, to give some introduction remarks, as we are awaiting for the mayor to join us shortly. Thank you. First off, i want to just thank everybody, all of our partner organizations, breanna, for your wonderful and warm introduction. Thank you all for joining us in this virtual way. I think that this is a special day, a day that i think as breanna mentioned, women were able to win the right to vote. It did take decades, though, for Indigenous Women and women of color to also be able to participate. So i think as we take the moment to celebrate this milestone in our history, its also important to recognize that the struggles for participation, the struggle for representation still continues even as we speak. It is highlighted not only from what were seeing from the federal attacks, in terms of womens rights and the place of women, but also when were thinking about even how we are all seeing the response to covid19. I think its not lost on so many of us that covid19, though it is a disease that impacts everyone, it has not been impacting our communities in an equal way. Weve seen a disproportionate impact on our Lateef Hasani grat latinx communities. Women bear the brown in the industries most impacted negatively by covid19, health care sectors, education, childcare. And not only that, but we are also seeing that women also are playing a role of double duty, even triple duty when it comes to not only balancing their jobs, employment, careers and also childcare and elder care. This is something that is intimately experienced by so many of us. For myself, as a young mother, with a 15monthold daughter and having my elderly parents now sheltering in place with us, i feel that impact. And yet i find myself really understanding how fortunate i am, even to be in a place that i am now and to be able to still have a child. So many of the people that were talking about have lost their jobs, are on the verge of losing their businesses and their homes. It really does highlight the importance of recognizing the impacts of covid and the opportunity to really step up. And so today we have a unique opportunity to be able to talk about Women Leadership, especially at this time. I think as breanna had mentioned earlier, theres a Cross Section of home things happening, in addition to the challenges that we have with covid19, were seeing wildland fires across the state of california, thats brought about by Climate Change. Were not only seeing that, but continued challenges at the federal level when it comes to our immigrant communities and people of color. And so again were really, really excited to have the mayor today to be able to speak more about womens leadership and the importance of that going forward. And so i see that our mayor has joined us. And so i want to welcome london to the program. I think todays going to be a very its going to be a unique opportunity. We rarely have the chance to be able to interview each other and have a candid conversation. So it will be a lot of fun to be able to do that today. But just a moment right before you came on, mayor breed, breanna was able to share some really great information about your bio. Today people are really looking forward to get to know more about you and your leadership style as we go forward. I think as you know we started the w challenge a few years ago and youve been a strong supporter from the beginning. I think one of participated every single year that we have come together to talk about the sponsor of voting and womens participation. This year our challenge is to really make sure were highlighting the 100year history of at least 100 great, amazing Women Leaders. So we really want to tell the story of womens leadership through the years. And how we all build upon those histories, in order to be where we are today. So again im super excited to bring mayor breed on to the show today. Im going to ask you the first question. But actually before we do that, why dont i ask you to introduce or say a few words if youd like to, to commemorate the 100 yearanniversary. Well, thank you so much, carmen. Its, of course, always great being with you and talking about important issues in our city, pour importantly celebrating 100 years of women receiving the right to vote. We all know sadly, with the history of this country, that did not include women of color. And we know that, you know, when i think about from a perspective of where we are now in this country, and how there is finally a reckoning that is occurring around race and around inequality and whats happening to people, as a result of that spark that sadly involves the death of george floyd, i think this is the perfect time to start to have these honest conversations about this. Because from my perspective, you know, our differences are what makes us a better city. Its what makes us a better country. I hope my phone is not too loud. I dont know how to turn it off. But it makes us a better it makes us a better city. It makes us a better country. And i think that it starts with the next generation and it also needs to be embedded in our young people at an early age, that in a way that could effectively allow for change. Because the sad reality is we know a lot of this is taught in the home. Its taught, you know, early on. And it develops into who you are as a person naturally. We have to get to the point of all of that. We have to be prepared to have the honest conversations about our differences, you know, how we all fit into this world. And how working together we can make things better. And ive got to be honest. No one does that better than women. [laughter] but we are, you know, multitaskers and its naturally who we are. So as we celebrate, you know, the right to vote for him, we have to also keep in mind there was a time that women couldnt vote in this country. There was a time that black people couldnt vote in this country. There was a time that folks were discriminated against and hung just because they wanted to exercise their right. We dishonor their memory and sacrifice when we dont show up to make our voices heard. Thats the celebration should remind us about those people and what they sacrificed and how we have appear obligation to not only exercise our right to vote ourselves, but to make sure that we are lifting up others to do the same. And that we are also making it clear to the next generation how significant it is for them to do so as well. Yes. Glad to be here. Absolutely. I think the points you make really do resonate, because i think that the fight continues, right. Even now i mean were continuing to see the inequities continue to be part of our daily lives. We need to really speak honestly about it. It is really hard. It is hard to talk about race, because its uncomfortable. Unless we start to get to a place where we can do that, i dont know how we start to dismantle whats there, right. And even within the last covid response, weve been seeing a lot of rise in antiasian sentiments, people blaming the Asian Community for whats happening. I think even then we need allies, we need people to say thats not right, thats not okay, thats not the reason why we are in the place that we are. And so i think theres a lot of there is a lot of hurt and theres a lot of healing that we need to be responsible for. Yep. And also, carmen, you know, think about i dont believe theres one person on this earth who hasnt been disrespected in some way. Absolutely. And they now that hurts. And it doesnt feel good. Im sure youve been called racial names. Ive been called names. And when you think about that, why would you want somebody else to feel that way. Thats right. And i think that we have to start to get to, you know, the root causes of how those things developed. And we have to have honest conversations. And just, you know, for example, i still have people in my family who make certain comments and use certain, you know, racial slurs that i have to correct. And theyre basically like, well, we always said that. And i dont do it because im mayor. I want to be clear. But i do it because its offensive to the people that claim we respect, right. Its like when you use those terms and you dont understand its not appropriate. Why would you continue to do that. So dont tell me you have a friend who is gay or you have a friend who is chinese and you have a friend who is this and they dont have a problem with it. I dont care. I have a problem with it. Yeah. Because i would be offended if someone used certain comments and words against me. But we have to also educate our Family Members, especially our older Family Members about terminologies that are just not appropriate to say about other people. Yeah. And i think that its absolutely true. I think the more that we can personalize and share with our family what our expectations are and what it means for people, i think the better i think we all grow up with certain experiences and we all have preconceived notions about people and we all have ways to shortcut what we think. But ting what is important that we recognize that they exist, right, that we might have biases that exist. And make sure that they dont drive how we make decisions or they dont drive how it is that we interact with people. I think thats whats really important. Its not to say that any of us are perfect or we dont have biases. But its to recognize that we do. Yeah. To make sure we dont let that motivate us, right. I think as you mentioned, when we have an opportunity to give a different perspective when a Family Member or anyone is making a generalization about a particular community, its to say why do you say that. I dont think thats true. That generalization actually is wrong. What would you think if they said this about our community, right. Its to make sure we kind of do that we continue to grow and evolve. Were in the middle of a global pandemic. No one thought we would be having to deal with Something Like this. Not only that. Were say its where we have conversations and were having a reckoning when it comes to institutional racism, police brutality. So i want to know what does it feel like to be mayor of a city like San Francisco during this time. Do you thinking about a woman mayor makes a difference . Oh, my god. Carmen its a big question. I mean, no one can prepare for this kind of thing, you know. Well, ill just say that, you know, im very spiritual. And when i became mayor, even to this very day, based on my circumstances, i still cant believe that someone like me could actually be mayor of San Francisco. It still its almost unreal. I wake up in the morning, its like, yep, youre still mayor. And its still blowing me away. And then when i think about what i have come into and my personal background and my experiences. Talking about creative in times such as this. And that was kind of the message. And because i will say i was in my head wondering whats going on here. You know, is this the end of the world. Like global pandemic. The fires, the unrest, all of the protests, all of this stuff. I was just like, wow. And then our president , right like this is like almost as if im watching a movie. And its not real. But its real. And its our life. And what i realizeif i were not mayor, how would i want to feel. And how would i want my leaders to wai