As the person who helped create the Power Women Summit, I get to climb onstage every year and say: it’s getting better for women! Equality is on the rise! Our world is reaching for balance! For inclusion!
And you all might be thinking: Who are you kidding?
For all the world, I imagined this year’s Power Women Summit to happen in the afterglow of a different outcome in the election.
If you’re like me, maybe you wake up every day with a strong desire to stay in bed. To NOT reach for your phone. And think: Are we in December? Is the election over?
So – OK. And however old or young you are, the setbacks come as a surprise. It can’t be normal that women in this country don’t have reproductive freedom, I can’t accept that. It can’t be normal that women in Afghanistan can no longer speak aloud in public. It can’t be normal that women face arrest and torture in Iran for showing their hair. And yes, Kamala Harris lost the presidential election to a convicted felon, leaving us to wonder if a woman can ever rise to our highest office.
I’ve been re-setting my expectations for a long time, expecting that the world would come around to a reasonable middle ground in which we just treat one another as equals.
So I’ll tell you what I tell myself, and what I do not.
I’m not going to tell you to be resilient. Though we have to be. I’m not going to tell you to be fearless. Because our fear is not misplaced. The present moment is not what we expected. The future is uncertain. But today is a day of support, of alliance, of optimism. It’s a day to put a first foot in front of another foot. Just today — we are going to continue walking on our path. With confidence. And with pride.
And there are so many leaders at the Summit to lift us up. Twenty-three-year-old Jordan Chiles, an Olympic champion who led the US gymnastics team in Paris to a gold medal, is opening the event and talking about discipline. Disappointment. And triumph. I’m excited to hear from Stacey Abrams, the political trailblazer who helped flip Georgia to the Democratic Party in 2020 and will speak with Laura Dern about climate change. We will hear from some of our top directors and showrunners, producers, writers, stylists. And two sisters, Dakota and Elle Fanning, will be our spotlight conversation.
Today is a feast for the spirit.
We cannot win the fight for equality without setbacks. Advocating for change means being reminded that not everyone is ready for it. It’s OK. We’re on our feet. We’re on the path. It was only 104 years ago that women won the right to even vote. That battle took 70 years.
So we keep going. We’re not angry. We’re not defeated. We’re not discouraged. We have our eyes open. We’re prepared. And we’re just not going away. The Summit is here to remind us of that.
I’d like to thank sponsors including: South Coast Plaza, Loeb & Loeb LLP, Lionsgate, Whalar, Paramount Global, CLEAR, Universal, Hallmark Media, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Bros. Discovery, FX, Yahoo!, Searchlight Pictures and NBCUniversal, and the Shari Redstone Foundation.
Thanks to our staff and our community and university partners.
Onward to the Summit!
