Legal Momentum is a National Ally for Vision 2020, a national project that seeks to launch an action agenda to move the United States toward gender equality by 2020, the centennial celebration of the 19th Amendment. On October 21-22, 2010, Vision 2020 sponsored "An American Conversation about Women and Leadership" in Philadelphia, featuring panels about increasing women’s leadership in all fields, from Law to Finance to Arts and Culture.
Lorelie Masters of Jenner & Block LLP served as a Vision 2010 Delegate from Washington, DC. She reflected on the conference in a series of blog posts for Legal Momentum. This is her forth post.
The panel discussed how to increase the pipeline of women into top leadership positions in education. All agreed that we need to start with girls long before they get to college. We should focus on girls in grades K through 12. Look at peer mentoring older girls to younger girls to increase confidence of girls at all levels. The panel challenged the Delegates to be bold in their imaginings of how to increase women at all levels in the field. To increase competitiveness, the panel emphasized year-round education in the United States. We need to ensure that all children in the U.S. have early childhood education, and we need to look at ways of addressing the increasing costs of higher education.
The panel emphasized that it takes courage to be successful and achieve excellence. Be Bold! And bring others up behind you.
The panel on education presented the following recommendations to the Vision 2020 Delegates:
Margarita Calderon, Professor Emerita and Senior Research Scientist, Johns Hopkins University School of Education:
- Encourage women to publish and amplify their views of what “education” is. Who will be in the Academy next year? In ten years?
- As baby boomers retire, many opportunities will be opening up in education and the Academy. Encourage women to reach for those positions and encourage them to work toward obtaining top leadership positions in education.
Rebecca Chopp, President, Swarthmore College, and scholar of religion and American culture:
- Fund education. Stop cutting budget dollars devoted to education, which is penny wise and pound foolish.
- Support and encourage young girls both inside and outside the classroom. Support and encourage girls to participate in clubs and extra curricular activities so that they develop friendships among like-minded kids, develop leadership skills, and promote confidence and expertise.
Roger Lehecka, Founder, Columbia University's Upward Bound Program; and Principal, R&R Education Consulting:
- Teach math and science to girls. Encourage girls to excel in mathematics and the sciences.
- Don’t just focus on the elite institutions. Many "out groups" and people with non-traditional backgrounds attend the education institutions in their communities and online. We are missing many talented people by focusing only on "the top."
- All people, women and men, want more flexibility and integration with technology.
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