No. I didnt. So i went to google. I would have a lovely image of google there but i think you all know what google looked like. I typed in womens leadership. There were 58 million responses that showed up. There is a national, global conversation happening around women and leadership. This held the United States womens with the intention to celebrate what we as women have accomplished and look forward to taking informed action, making a difference in our difference. How many are familiar with ted talks . If youre not, google it. Enjoy it. So nearly four years ago the ted conference decided to bring forth a new initiative. It was for men and women we had over 40 speakers who came together to share their incites about the time is now. Through that program we had 280 events in 74 countries across the globe. We had women tuning into the live stream as well as bringing their own thoughts and presentations. It was a true nicinitiative. Everyone was talking about women and leadership. How many of you have heard of Sheryl Sandberg . She is a force. I encourage you to google her. She is the c. O. O. Of facebook. She felt compelled to do it on womens leadership. She was told you cannot be a professional executive leader and talk about men. Do you know what she did . She is a force. She did it anyway. She talked about women and leadership and the response was epic. It is one of the most highly viewed ted talks. She ended up writing book about it called lean in. She used research to illuminate sender discrepancies and to advice women on how to achieve their goals. What she ended up doing is creating a movement. If you go to any social media outlet you will find all of the stories and inspirations that come from Sheryl Sandburg. She had an open dialogue and bring forth change towards a more equal world. Now i have wonderful slides. There we go. Since 2004 Forbes Magazine has been their 100 most powerful women. Today we find women in the Public Sector being recognized. The 2016 noteables, and the first female mary ibarra. Even though there is a thriving dialogue of women and leadership these women are framed as the exception rather than the example. In a study conducted by women and leadership in 2015 we see really startling data. First in the past 50 years women represented in congress has only grown from a total of four women seen in 1965 to now currently 39 women. It is roughly about 20 of our congress that is women. When the population of the United States reflects that women take 51 . In the past 20 years leadership at the ceo level has increased from 0 in 1995 to only 5. 2 . So we are seeing women enter into leadership roles but not at a drastic rate. In 2013 sheryl stated there is a difference between dialogue and action. Thats what we are currently not seeing, action. She said stereo types are Holding Women back from all around the world. There is one constant. We think men should be strong and have a voice. We think women should speak when spoken to and help others. Women are judged through a different lens. Men, a man is a boss and a woman, she is bossy. How many are feeling overwhe overwhelmed . Its a safe place. What if we shifted our perspective. Instead of saying we have only grown so much what if we embr e embraced knowledgement . President reagan was known as an optimist. He focused on what people brought to the table. Thats the lens i decided to view the events of our 2016 election. Here are my take aways. I wanted to be able to take a look at the election and celebrate things because i think there are a lot of people, specifically women, who feel there is nothing to celebrate. Here is what i will celebrate. I will celebrate that since 1980 the percentage of eligible women voters has been more every election than the registered men. Using their ballots as their voice and i think its pretty wonderful to celebrate. In addition come this january there will be a Record Number of women of color, 38. We see our first latina senator. We have Tammy Duckworth who will move to the Senate Becoming the first high american in the chamber and representing our own state we have the first Indian American to serve in the senate. Pretty amazing. [ applause ] last, i want to address the elephant in the room. Im not a republican. I will address hillary clinton. Regardless of what you may feel at this moment with her campaign i want to look at it through optimi optimism. It is the first time we have had a woman top the ticket of a major president ial party. [ applause ] in addition to that she also received the majority of the popular vote by 1 million votes. So even though we do not have a woman in the white house today, glass ceilings were shattered this election. Despite what some people say, that glass ceiling, theres only one piece left and its small. Based on the remarks from our chief add minute officer, she shaked with me, yeah, there is one piece left and it resides over 16 pennsylvania avenue, over the white house and thats it. Thats a really great thing for us to celebrate and move forward and looking at what it will look like for womens leadership coming. Lets celebrate that for a moment. It is up to us to continue paving and widening the road for future generations. This is what today is all about. We will have dialogue and we will take action. On sharing tips on how to open a dialogue Sheryl Sandburg offers two suggestions. One, be honest, two, tell your story. Thats what i will do today. I will tell you my leadership story. I will shift from talking behind this podium because i dont want to talk at you about womens leadership. I want to talk with you. I want us to be girlfriends having coffee, having a chat. So girlfriends chatting over water. The first thing i will do is share with you a weakness i have and that is public speaking. I am terrified of public speaking in thinking about that i couldnt even describe how i was going to tell you guys what the pit of anxiety feels like. I decided to be optimistic. I will lean in, okay . So my leadership journey starts with my family. I have a pretty big family, predominantly women. Whats interesting is when people were talking about the knox family they were most lick talki mostly talking about the knox women. My sisters, we all have different personalities, passions, interests. The one thing we share is that we had a voice. We were never told that our voice needed to be dimmed or muted. In addition to that this is my sister diana. I may get emotional and i may cry but thats okay. Diana is 12 years my senior. Since i was a child she has been my mentor. She provided a save haven for me when i needed somebody to listen. She provided advice for me and knows how to take care of me. There are timescthn i have gone visit her and i wake up and theres a cookie next to my bed and massages in the afternoon. In thinking about diana, one of the things i admire is her leadership style. She brings poise, confidence and compassion to everything she does. She held a leadership role in everything she has ever done. I told you she was a force. Okay . She is who i aspire to be when i eventually decide to be a grown up. My next mentor is somebody i have never met. This is eliza pinkny. I spent a lot of years dedicating my life telling stories of women who didnt have a voice at the time. She was born in the west indys in 1722 and moved to South Carolina with her father and ran his plantation. She cultivated indigo to be used as a dye in the fabric market. If youre wearing jeans today you have this lady to thank. She is the one that brought that beautiful color to you. She had the confidence to not once, not twice but three taime tell her father thank you but no thank you to the marriage proposals. She told him i will be the decider of my own fate and she was. She married a wonderful man. When she became a mother she was progressive mother. She raised two young boys who were key players in the American Revolution and ended up being signers of the constitution. Her daughter, strong independent woman ran three plantations of her own. George washington was a pallbearer at her funeral. So as i spent years going through her letters and diaries we became friends. In one of those letters in 1762 she wrote this to a friend. I love a garden and a book and they are my amusement except i include one of my greatest businesses of my life, that is my attention to my dear little girl. I told you i would get emotional. This brings me to the next step. Im a mom. This is my daughter. This is a picture i gave to her preschool when they asked me to give a picture that represents her true self. She picked out everything and came downstairs and posed for this picture because she wanted to document it. She has a strong conviction. So she chose boys underwear that have cars on them because she told me, mommy, boys have better characters on their underwear. No pants and she told me that was on purpose. And in thinking about that that shes three and has such a strong sense of self and independent spirit. I want her to be who she wants to be. It brings me to this. As i was preparing my remarks i couldnt bring to words what i was going to talk about. Its amazing. I get to work not only with amazing young women and men and help cultivate but i also get to work with an amazing team. This is called the female trifecta. When we come together we can achieve dpra achieve greatness. It is my honor to serve as mentor to these young women. Tell them they are awesome and say its from me. Okay . Now, lets get to you. Today is really about you and the work that i do here is really thinking about what you are going to usher in the future. Im exsocited to see what personality comes out and what power comes into this room. Some of you may be thinking i dont have any pouwer. I dont know what that feels like. Its all right. We are going to do an exercise. Theres a Harvard BusinessSchool Psychologist who has written a book about power posing. She believes that a person by assuming two simple oneminute poses embody power and instantly become more powerful. She points at power posing. Celebrities are doing it and tweeting about it. Susana ken drink. She was power posing before an event in chicago. She was really excited about it. The energy we bring into this room will be great for what we can accomplish here today. I would like for everybody to think for a few minutes what pose could you do that is going to bring your best and most empowered selfto the table today . Think about it . In a couple of seconds we are going to do it ensemble together. Take a couple deep breaths. Think about what it look is like. You can go classic wonder woman. You can strut a beyonce pose. I would like for everybody to please stand up. On the count of three we are going to strike our power pose. Ladies, i want this power pose to be intentional. I want this power pose to fill the entire room with the girl power i know you are all bringing to the table so we can set to tone for what we are going to accomplish here today. Are you ready . Are you ready . [ cheers and applause ] okay. On the count of three. One, two, three. Again, technology has failed me. There was supposed to be a sound bite of who runs the world. This is why i dont use technology in presentations. It always fails me. Thank you. I felt that energy today. I want to thank the jegentlemenn the room that brought all of their girl power as well. When we talk just about womens leadership we need to think about the men who are here to spof support us as well. Like my sister, like my daughter, like my team. You are all a force. I cant wait to witness. I want to leave you with a quote from president reagan. He is speaking directly to you. You can play a special part in a wonderful life that lies in store for you. Thank you for letting me share my story. At this time i would like to welcome up a man in our life that supports womens leadership. He was excited about putting on this event. It is the first thing he tasked me with. He thought he was going to get away with not speaking today. I said no. No. No, good sir. So welcome tony penny. Hello everyone. I am obviously not a woman which is one of the reasons i felt very strange speaking today. One of the reasons im excited to speak here is because im a grandson to my grandmother, a father to my daughters and i work with amazing women and have been mentored by amazing women here. I am fully behind womens leadership. Women have inspired me throughout my life. Our mission here in the Education Department is best summed up by reagan. He said we dont pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, or one day we will spend our sunset children telling our children what it was once like in the United States. Thats our job here. We are in charge of keeping the light of freedom burning. We are charged with helping cult vat the sorts of thoughtful leaders, people like you, women like you. Five years ago when i was first appointed here my first big assignment was to host a discussion with justice sand sandra day oconnor. I was scared out of my mind. Not because im nervous being on stage i do get a little nervous being on stage. At that time it was the biggest moment of my career, and it was and i wanted to be sure it went well. I was sure because we only had an hour to sit down with somebody who had changed history. I was worried an hour wasnt enough time to convey how important she was to our country, to young women, to women who apyspired to legal careers. So 2016 actually marks the 25th anniversary of her appointment to the Supreme Court and with three women sitting on the Supreme Court now perhaps we have grown accustomed to seeing wip women at the highest level of the law. Prior to that the Supreme Court had been in existence for 192 t give you a sense of how difficult it was for a woman to reach the Supreme Court. Even 192 years after the formation of the country. And 60 years after the 19th amendment, Justice Oconnor when she was here on stage, mentioned that before her appointment to the Supreme Court, president reagans attorney general made a list of women who could sit on the Supreme Court. That list was very short. Does anyone know why . There werent a lot of federal judges who were women. There werent a lot to choose from. From the time the First Federal judge was appointed, Franklin Roosevelt in 1934, a total of only 8 women had been named to a federal court. There wasnt a kbheel lots of women to choose from. Why was that . Saj dra day oconnor graduated from Stanford Law School in 1956, right in the middle of that time period. How different was the world then, how difficult was it for a young female lawyer, what odds did she face . It was heard in those days. I got out of law school in 1952. There were notices on the placement bulletin board. They were from every major jobs on the bulletin board, i called 40 phone numbers of law firms to ask for an interview. Not a single one would even give me an interview i was female. They had these notices on the bulletin board. I had a friend from stanford whose father was a partner in a big California Law firm. I went to her and said, talk to your father and see if he would get me an interview in the law firm he was with. And she did. And he got me an interview. I made the trip to los angeles. This firm has never hired a woman lawyer, i dont see the day when we will. I look shocked. He said, well, our clients wouldnt stand for it. That was where i was. I needed a job, because i had gotten engaged to john oconnor, he was a year behind me. And we both liked to eat. That meant one of us was going to have to work, that was me. I heard thatted District Attorney had once had a woman lawyer on his staff. I wrote him a letter and made an appointment to see him. He was a very nice man. He was italian american. They still elect county attorneys in california. Its an elected office. You have a fine resume, i did have a woman lawyer in my office, and she did a good job, id be happy to have another one. You have a good record here, id be happy to have you. But i get my money from the county board of supervisors, im not funded to hire another deputy, what can i do. I wrote him a long letter. I told him things i thought i could do well. I know you dont have any money, but ill work for you for nothing you dont have to pay me a dime he said, you know i dont have an office to put anybody else. I know you dont have a vacant office, but i met your secretary shes very nice. And id be happy to put my desk in the secretarys office if she doesnt object. That was my first job as a lawyer. No pay, and i put my desk in with the secretary. I loved every minute of my job. It just in those days, i had to make special effort to get it to work. It all worked out. Sandra day oconnor graduated near the top of the class. She basically had to beg to work for free. Almost unimaginable today. A lot of people would have given up before those 40 firms she called. Thats one of the reasons why president reagan liked her so much. Because she was tough. She grew up on a ranch near the arizona new mexico border 35 miles from the nearest town. She said, i grew up on a ranch and was used to doing things. It didnt matter if i was a girl or a boy. Someone had to do it, 192 years into our countrys history, there was work to be done. She understood that being first doesnt mean being easy. Its exciting to be the first to do something, i didnt want to be the last. If i took that job and did a lousy job, we may not have another woman on the court. A big part of today is celebrating what Justice Oconnor represents. She wasnt the only tough woman in president reagans life. And not the only important woman in president reagans life. Im going to ask you to do some thinking and writing as well. Everyone has a notebook and a pen . Im going to talk about two different types of women in president reagans life. I want you to think about this for you too. The first person i want you to think about, i want you to think about your foundation. The best parts of yourself, your