Sister Republics: Building Bridges- The Next Hundred Years of Women's Leadership (Mar 7, 2011)
Ambassador and Megan Beyer with Federal Councillor Doris Leuthard, DCM Susan Elbow and Cynthia Vance Of George Washington University. - March 7, 2011
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addresses Swiss and American women leaders. March 7, 2011
U.S. Embassy – Bern Convenes the First Bilateral Meeting of Swiss and U.S. Women Leaders.
In advance of the centennial of International Women's Day, sixty Swiss and American women leaders convened on March 7 at the Bernerhof, in the Federal Parliament in Bern, Switzerland. The participants included CEO’s, policy makers, government leaders from the White House and the Swiss Federal Council, journalists from PBS to Switzerland's "Annabelle" magazine to World Radio Switzerland, authors, analysts, and entrepreneurs.
Opening the conference by video, Secretary Clinton acknowledged the swift progress made in Switzerland, where women only received the right to vote in 1971, but recently won the majority in the Swiss ruling body, its Federal Council. She also noted that in Switzerland, the United States and all over the world, women are too often underrepresented in boardrooms, government sessions, and peace negotiations where key decisions are made.
The same message came from Doris Leuthard, immediate past President of Switzerland and current Federal Councillor. "There are still many bridges yet to build in terms of achieving equality, equal standing and equal opportunities for women and men in the world."
The one-day conference focused on the issues of the glass ceiling, work/life family balance, and pay equity. The program opened with a report from the authors of the World Economic Forum Gender Gap Study. U.S. Ambassador to the OECD Karen Kornbluh presented recent data on women in the world economies. The former director of the White House Office on Women, Betsy Myers, explained the latest on leadership trends and how women are at the vanguard of newest developments. Numerous creative ideas were advanced by the participants, including women's rights advocate Kate Michelman; Swiss Ambassador for Economic Affairs Marie Gabrielle Ineichen-Fleisch; Deputy Counsel to Vice President Biden Astri Kimball; Swiss Re Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion Nia Joynson; General Manager for Catalyst Europe Tabi Haller-Jorden; and Ann Crittenden, Author of The Price of Motherhood.
U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland Don Beyer described the lack of robust engagement of women in leadership worldwide as a "tragedy," and closed the program with a call to women to enlist men in women's empowerment. The Ambassador's wife, Megan Beyer, a television journalist, was the program’s creator and visionary and moderated the proceedings.
The Embassy’s public affairs section had the designated lead in organizing the conference, but it was an all-Embassy affair with every section contributing. Money was raised from three Swiss companies to support the event and supplemented by a grant from PAS Bern. The public affairs section generated excellent press coverage and taped videos throughout the day for use on the specially designed conference webpage.
The conference proceedings now go to The George Washington University's Global Women's Institute, which has agreed to conduct a research study into those initiatives with the highest impact potential for improving opportunities for women. The study will be the basis for efforts to create or nurture mechanisms to help advance women in both countries.
The conference, the first ever U.S. – Swiss Women's Leadership Conference was titled "Sister Republics: Building Bridges- The Next Hundred Years of Women's Leadership" and was timed to mark the occasion of the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. The Bernerhof was made available through a partnership with the Swiss government.