Guests and speakers at TheWrap’s 2020 Power Women Summit and women from around Hollywood spoke directly to Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in a special video filmed for the event. Harris, a past speaker at Wrap Women events herself, made history in November when she was elected the first female, Black and South Asian vice president in American history.
Actress and activist Corinne Foxx said, “To me, what Kamala Harris’ election to the vice presidency means is that my two little sisters, who are 12 and 13, get to grow up in a world where a woman who looks like them is holding one of the top two executive offices in the country and knowing that they, too, could one day become the vice president or even the president of the United States.”
NapNic LLC CEO Nicole Walters said Harris’ election is “so much more than just another political win,” and spoke about what it will mean for her daughter to see Harris at the top of the American political landscape. Comcast Corporation’s executive vice president and chief diversity officer, Dalila Wilson-Scott, even brought her daughter Kayla on screen to share how “inspired” they are by the election.
“It means we are seen. As a Black woman in America, to know that someone with an experience so similar to mine is now at a table that impacts the entire world and can help make decisions for cultural and generational change? I feel inspired and motivated,” said Ashley McFarlin Buie, vice president of development for WE TV.
Many of the women expressed gratitude for Harris’ representation for women of color, but Vlada Bortnik, CEO and co-founder of Marco Polo, also took the opportunity to thank Harris for “making sneakers a normal part of business attire.”
Harris opened the Power Women Summit in 2019, and in 2012, she spoke at TheWrap’s annual Power Women Breakfast about why it’s important for women to run for elected office. That year’s theme was “The Power of Women Leaders.” At the time, she was attorney general of California and would go on to become a senator before being elected vice president in 2020.
“When we think of women holding elected office and what is the significance of it, it’s not because we are trying to make these milestones in terms of ‘the first of…’” she told TheWrap founder and CEO Sharon Waxman at the time, going on to mention she broke barriers as the first woman — let alone the first African American or Asian American woman — elected to a California state district attorney role when she served in San Francisco. She joked that when reporters asked how it felt to be the first, she didn’t know how to respond, so she’d say, “I’ve always been a woman but I’m sure a man could do the job just as well.”
Watch above to see “Self Made” co-showrunner and executive producer Elle Johnson, Forefront Partners founder and CEO Susan Brooks, Endeavor social ambassador Adeola Bakre, “#BlackAF” actress Genneva Walton and more share what Kamala Harris’ historic election means to them.
The Power Women Summit, presented by the WrapWomen Foundation, is the largest annual gathering of the most influential women in entertainment, media and technology. The Summit aims to inspire and empower women across the landscape of their professional careers and personal lives. This year’s all-virtual PWS provides three days of education, mentorship, workshops and networking around the globe to promote “Inclusion 360,” this year’s theme.