I can’t believe it now but it was nearly
seven years ago that I first attended
Syracuse University with the goal of
getting into politics in one day
becoming a politician naturally in doing
so my first week on campus I decided to
join student government when I got to
the meeting I realized I was one of very
few women who are in this auditorium I
thought maybe it was the start of the
year and the attendance was just low but
in reality there were just not many
women involved whatsoever they weren’t
involved with the general body they
weren’t involved all the way up to the
executive level so I started doing some
research and I wanted to find out when
was the last time we had a woman serving
as president what I found was there were
less than one-sixth of our student body
presidents in history who were women and
I was setting out to change that by the
time I was a sophomore I had become
student body vice president and I knew I
had the intention to run for president
so I started looking at numbers across
the country to see if other universities
had the same problems as Syracuse and as
it turns out there were lots of schools
who are at the same place they had a lot
of participation from their female
students but they weren’t necessarily
serving at the executive levels and
unfortunately that’s represented in our
government we look at Congress or our
state legislatures so here’s a picture
of several of the women who have served
in the United States Senate right now
we’re at an exciting time we’re 21 women
are serving and that’s historic looking
at Congress overall there’s only 19
percent of women when we look to state
legislatures 25 percent of state
legislatures across the country are
composed of women and when we look at
governor’s we only have 5 out of 50 with
the record being six clearly we need a
change now this isn’t to say that women
are serving in political roles in a way
that’s better than men or vice versa we
just see things differently and we bring
different issues to the table when it
comes to the women in the Senate it has
shown that they have been more
collaborative with each other whether
they’re Democrats
Republicans it’s the women who are
coming together to reach across the
aisle and get to solving our nation’s
most critical issues whether it’s the
fiscal cliff or just being the ones who
come in when there’s a blizzard in
Washington DC as Lisa Murkowski pointed
out in this c-span video women were the
only ones who showed up to work last
year when there was a massive Blizzard
women see things differently and
unfortunately there are a lot of things
that are preventing women from getting
excited about these roles and serving in
them and this comes all the way back
down to high school in college so many
young women say they want to be
President one day raise your hand if you
wanted to be president at some point in
your life yeah I see some hands
unfortunately while you get older that
ambition is lessened and a lot of that
has to do with just the nature of the
game and we have a hand in changing that
so when I ran for president and I’ll
tell you even though I have these
ambitions i sat out for a while and said
you know I don’t think I want to run and
a lot of that had to do with sexism I
wanted to talk about my vision not the
color of my lipstick or my blazer or my
heels I was also told that I should not
curl my hair I should dress in a way
that’s less feminine and I should wear
glasses which is fine because I need
them sometimes but it’s not something
that I all of a sudden put on and I’m
more capable than well envisioned yes
but in leadership No
so I wanted to make sure that no other
women had that same issue when it came
to college campuses so while I was Miss
Rhode Island I was able to travel across
the country and speak to young women
about getting involved in politics and
bridging this gender gap
unfortunately the gender gap exists more
than just politics now at the time when
I started at Syracuse I didn’t know that
I was going to be studying cybersecurity
eventually I also didn’t know that
cybersecurity was going to be a critical
issue that our nation was facing now I’m
sure we’ve heard a lot about cyber
recently I’m currently a student at
Salvi Regina University studying
cybersecurity there because
cybersecurity and politics of course go
hand in hand now when we’re looking at
cyber and getting ahead and
cyber threat analysis and really getting
steps ahead of cyber criminals and
hackers it’s important just like in
Congress that we have people who
represent the entire population that
instead of having ten or twenty percent
women we’re having something that looks
more like 50 more like our actual
population now when it comes to the
computing workforce only 26 percent of
our entire technological workforce is
women and again this is something that
starts when girls are younger and they
get discouraged STEM education science
technology engineering and math that’s
something that women lose interest in as
they’ve gotten older statistically
speaking but it’s more crucial now than
ever when looking at cybersecurity these
days only one in every 10 cyber
professionals are women and we need that
kind of thought and the different
experiences that women bring to the
table in order to stay ahead and really
protect our critical infrastructure and
data from any potential threats and in
business too unfortunately the numbers
are even more grim now it’s not that
women are not in business because they
absolutely are
but it’s women in c-suites and moving on
up the executive chain that we’re not
seeing
now this is Sheryl Sandberg and as many
people know she’s the chief exec she’s
operating officer of Facebook and she’s
also known for her work lean in getting
more women excited about leadership and
really putting themselves out there in
the workforce and climbing on up the
ladder but when we’re looking at fortune
500 companies out of 500 companies 24%
I’m sorry 24 of those companies are led
by women so 4.4 percent it’s shown that
when you have women who are leading and
who are at the head of these companies
they tend to be more profitable and we
need more women excited about working
their way up and we also need men in
this to recognizing that having women at
the head of these organizations will
help them when they’re reaching their
audiences and trying to get out there
and make a difference through their
products in their work
so it’s in all of these workforces that
women are valued and they need to be
there and we need to encourage them and
not let that ambition get stifled at a
young age because if we lose that we’re
really losing half the talent of our
workforce now there’s three things I’d
like you to do first see yourself as
part of that pipeline whether you have
ambitions to lead your community and
some capacity of public service
perhaps you’re excited about technology
and math and you’re a young girl and
society is telling you otherwise you
should be interested in something
different or you have ambitions of
leaving a major company I want you to
see yourself as part of that pipeline
and remind yourselves that you need to
be there and for men in the audience I
hope that you’ll be dedicated to
recognizing that talent in supporting
that talent so these young women realize
that they really are capable of adding
to the picture and all of us working
together will make that happen secondly
I’d like you to flip the script
oftentimes professions get gendered and
what I mean by that is well a friend of
mine actually this is great story she
had gone into a local school to talk
about our project leading ladies and she
said okay well students I want you to
tell me what boy jobs are and what girl
jobs are and students start throwing
different answers out and of course she
says well that’s actually not true those
jobs are open to men and women and we
need to stop start socializing young
women and men at a younger age to
realize that they’re capable of serving
in any capacity for example in terms of
flipping the script I love this pantsuit
and the first time I wore it someone
said you know you look like you could be
First Lady and there’s nothing wrong
with being first lady I’m sure I’d
really enjoy that lifestyle but I said
you know what I look like the president
right
now finally when we’re talking about I
am statements I want you to remind
yourself I am a leader and I am a
trailblazer especially if you’re going
into one of these fields and breaking
down barriers that haven’t been broken
down before in the words of one of my
favorite leading ladies Eleanor
Roosevelt do one thing each day that
scares you remind yourself that you are
fearless you are courageous and you are
needed to make a difference and together
men and women can do excellent things we
just need women at the table thank you
so much
[Applause]
seven years ago that I first attended
Syracuse University with the goal of
getting into politics in one day
becoming a politician naturally in doing
so my first week on campus I decided to
join student government when I got to
the meeting I realized I was one of very
few women who are in this auditorium I
thought maybe it was the start of the
year and the attendance was just low but
in reality there were just not many
women involved whatsoever they weren’t
involved with the general body they
weren’t involved all the way up to the
executive level so I started doing some
research and I wanted to find out when
was the last time we had a woman serving
as president what I found was there were
less than one-sixth of our student body
presidents in history who were women and
I was setting out to change that by the
time I was a sophomore I had become
student body vice president and I knew I
had the intention to run for president
so I started looking at numbers across
the country to see if other universities
had the same problems as Syracuse and as
it turns out there were lots of schools
who are at the same place they had a lot
of participation from their female
students but they weren’t necessarily
serving at the executive levels and
unfortunately that’s represented in our
government we look at Congress or our
state legislatures so here’s a picture
of several of the women who have served
in the United States Senate right now
we’re at an exciting time we’re 21 women
are serving and that’s historic looking
at Congress overall there’s only 19
percent of women when we look to state
legislatures 25 percent of state
legislatures across the country are
composed of women and when we look at
governor’s we only have 5 out of 50 with
the record being six clearly we need a
change now this isn’t to say that women
are serving in political roles in a way
that’s better than men or vice versa we
just see things differently and we bring
different issues to the table when it
comes to the women in the Senate it has
shown that they have been more
collaborative with each other whether
they’re Democrats
Republicans it’s the women who are
coming together to reach across the
aisle and get to solving our nation’s
most critical issues whether it’s the
fiscal cliff or just being the ones who
come in when there’s a blizzard in
Washington DC as Lisa Murkowski pointed
out in this c-span video women were the
only ones who showed up to work last
year when there was a massive Blizzard
women see things differently and
unfortunately there are a lot of things
that are preventing women from getting
excited about these roles and serving in
them and this comes all the way back
down to high school in college so many
young women say they want to be
President one day raise your hand if you
wanted to be president at some point in
your life yeah I see some hands
unfortunately while you get older that
ambition is lessened and a lot of that
has to do with just the nature of the
game and we have a hand in changing that
so when I ran for president and I’ll
tell you even though I have these
ambitions i sat out for a while and said
you know I don’t think I want to run and
a lot of that had to do with sexism I
wanted to talk about my vision not the
color of my lipstick or my blazer or my
heels I was also told that I should not
curl my hair I should dress in a way
that’s less feminine and I should wear
glasses which is fine because I need
them sometimes but it’s not something
that I all of a sudden put on and I’m
more capable than well envisioned yes
but in leadership No
so I wanted to make sure that no other
women had that same issue when it came
to college campuses so while I was Miss
Rhode Island I was able to travel across
the country and speak to young women
about getting involved in politics and
bridging this gender gap
unfortunately the gender gap exists more
than just politics now at the time when
I started at Syracuse I didn’t know that
I was going to be studying cybersecurity
eventually I also didn’t know that
cybersecurity was going to be a critical
issue that our nation was facing now I’m
sure we’ve heard a lot about cyber
recently I’m currently a student at
Salvi Regina University studying
cybersecurity there because
cybersecurity and politics of course go
hand in hand now when we’re looking at
cyber and getting ahead and
cyber threat analysis and really getting
steps ahead of cyber criminals and
hackers it’s important just like in
Congress that we have people who
represent the entire population that
instead of having ten or twenty percent
women we’re having something that looks
more like 50 more like our actual
population now when it comes to the
computing workforce only 26 percent of
our entire technological workforce is
women and again this is something that
starts when girls are younger and they
get discouraged STEM education science
technology engineering and math that’s
something that women lose interest in as
they’ve gotten older statistically
speaking but it’s more crucial now than
ever when looking at cybersecurity these
days only one in every 10 cyber
professionals are women and we need that
kind of thought and the different
experiences that women bring to the
table in order to stay ahead and really
protect our critical infrastructure and
data from any potential threats and in
business too unfortunately the numbers
are even more grim now it’s not that
women are not in business because they
absolutely are
but it’s women in c-suites and moving on
up the executive chain that we’re not
seeing
now this is Sheryl Sandberg and as many
people know she’s the chief exec she’s
operating officer of Facebook and she’s
also known for her work lean in getting
more women excited about leadership and
really putting themselves out there in
the workforce and climbing on up the
ladder but when we’re looking at fortune
500 companies out of 500 companies 24%
I’m sorry 24 of those companies are led
by women so 4.4 percent it’s shown that
when you have women who are leading and
who are at the head of these companies
they tend to be more profitable and we
need more women excited about working
their way up and we also need men in
this to recognizing that having women at
the head of these organizations will
help them when they’re reaching their
audiences and trying to get out there
and make a difference through their
products in their work
so it’s in all of these workforces that
women are valued and they need to be
there and we need to encourage them and
not let that ambition get stifled at a
young age because if we lose that we’re
really losing half the talent of our
workforce now there’s three things I’d
like you to do first see yourself as
part of that pipeline whether you have
ambitions to lead your community and
some capacity of public service
perhaps you’re excited about technology
and math and you’re a young girl and
society is telling you otherwise you
should be interested in something
different or you have ambitions of
leaving a major company I want you to
see yourself as part of that pipeline
and remind yourselves that you need to
be there and for men in the audience I
hope that you’ll be dedicated to
recognizing that talent in supporting
that talent so these young women realize
that they really are capable of adding
to the picture and all of us working
together will make that happen secondly
I’d like you to flip the script
oftentimes professions get gendered and
what I mean by that is well a friend of
mine actually this is great story she
had gone into a local school to talk
about our project leading ladies and she
said okay well students I want you to
tell me what boy jobs are and what girl
jobs are and students start throwing
different answers out and of course she
says well that’s actually not true those
jobs are open to men and women and we
need to stop start socializing young
women and men at a younger age to
realize that they’re capable of serving
in any capacity for example in terms of
flipping the script I love this pantsuit
and the first time I wore it someone
said you know you look like you could be
First Lady and there’s nothing wrong
with being first lady I’m sure I’d
really enjoy that lifestyle but I said
you know what I look like the president
right
now finally when we’re talking about I
am statements I want you to remind
yourself I am a leader and I am a
trailblazer especially if you’re going
into one of these fields and breaking
down barriers that haven’t been broken
down before in the words of one of my
favorite leading ladies Eleanor
Roosevelt do one thing each day that
scares you remind yourself that you are
fearless you are courageous and you are
needed to make a difference and together
men and women can do excellent things we
just need women at the table thank you
so much
[Applause]
Please follow and like us: