2021 WBC Summit Day 2: Welcome

Know that your race and your gender is not a disadvantage. It's a differentiator. And I choose that mindset because I choose to say the essence of who I am is the difference.

This is our chance. Covid put a big fat spotlight on the fact that we have a lot more to do to get women in the workforce and keep women in the workforce.

And it isn't about talk. It's not about policies or vague HR statements that are on the wall. It's about taking action. Even though you're looking at a 3 over $3 trillion spending power of African Americans and Latinos, they still didn't believe in the fact that they could make money, especially big retailers. But we changed that.

It's also very important to have diversity objectives to hold leaders accountable. Something I've been sharing recently is the persp that we're not going backward, we're going forward. And that applies to how we should flex every muscle to advance gender equality, diversity, equity and inclusion in our workplaces. Welcome to day two of the WBC 2021 virtual annual summit. To begin our program, Please welcome the WBC's Chief Executive Officer Edie Frazier.

Wow.

And wonderful and special Lynn Bourne our chief strategy officer and I are going to look back look at today and Lyn's going to challenge the movement for tomorrow when we stop and say yes, this is equality, can't wait and that we're about achieving gender parity and diversity with total engagement from all of us. Today is American Business Women's Day and let's look back as we saw some of a quick highlights from yesterday those that are saying let's be game changers as Dasundra Brown Duckett said let's celebrate and really know the power of our sisterhood and yes we will reflect on our brothers with us and it's Magic Johnson and you'll hear from Indra Neue saying let's be trailblazers and make sure we're transparent in all we do. 10 questions, quick points as we open WBC. Overall it's hard to believe this miracle of two and a half years ago as we focus together on faster together if we could collaborate and build this giant collaboration of engagement and with that we moved equal position, pay and power as our mission and all we do together is advance that mission. It is we it is never I as we look at millions of us engaged and to our board and to all of our stakeholders and supporters, thank you. We number two are about bold and and transparent action. We're clear on where we're going by 2025 and 2030 and those we measure with data. And yes, as we said over and over with stories, we have a clarity of purpose and our goals are opportunities. We are about achievement and measurement and uplifting. Go back number three, and look at our summits. Lynn and I remember well on May 2019 when we invited 22 of our women business organizations together and each signed two proclamations. One was their organization would come together and pledge to be a collaborative leader. The second proclamation that every CEO of the women's business organization signed would they as leaders would compel. And with that, let's look at the one comment about leadership. Leadership is not just bringing followers. Leaders turning everybody into leaders for action. So with that, as we hit 3,600 registrants today for our third women's summit, we are so grateful to share the empowerment and the stories. We're about daily action and achievement and acceleration. So let's take that fourth area of leadership. Think about our CEOs and our trailblazers and all of our CEOs, heads of our organizations. And we're focusing on what was said yesterday. Intentionality, integrated strategies, acceleration of where we can lead together. And we celebrate all of those. Our CEOs are all committed and half of them have reached gender parity on the board. Most of them have reached 35% women in the C suite. But we're the women of color because we are achieving the data of real change. But we must make sure our sisters of color are at our side. So WBC is thrilled to have 34% diversity on all we do. But we never can stop until our sisters of color are by our sides in every one of our nine actions. So, so fourthly, let's call a call to action and think about what your teams can do, your organizations can do, and then your action. Are you taking five actions every day? Are you helping five other women every day? And then number six, are we all about results and impact so that we do that amplification and we build again? Let's add the communications, the marketing, the social media. Because if we bring our voices together in this giant chorus of change with the men as allies, we will absolutely drive change together. And yes, celebration, we are celebrating and we will do it. And lastly, it's gratitude. So our gratitude is yesterday was International Gratitude Day. And let's hope we live that every day. WBC expresses our gratitude. And with that, I turn it over to a partner in crime for leadership in action, Lynn Bourne.

Thank you very much to Edie, our powerhouse and Resident shining star. I've worked in finance in Silicon Valley in New York City for 20 years and have the pleasure of knowing many outstanding women's business organizations across the United States. All of these organizations have been working tirelessly towards similar goals. But we're all aware that progress is too slow. We still have a long way to go. At the Women Business Collaborative, we think progress can be accelerated by not working in silos and instead unifying our efforts to collectively generate exponentially more results. So we formed the Women Business Collaborative and partnered with 55 women's organizations and then added hundreds of executive, advisory and leadership council members, men and women. And in only a year, we'd created something unprecedented. We all feel the passion and momentum from our group efforts. And so we realized we'd formed a movement. We are a collaboration and a movement focused on a single unifying, overarching purpose to accelerate equal position, pay and power for all business women. My name is Lynn Bourne, and I am one of the many co founders of the Women Business Collaborative and chair of strategy on our board. I'm also the Chief Practice Officer of Aspirient, a national wealth management firm with 14 billion under management. In addition to providing a full range of services to our clients, we also have a program called Women Taking Charge, where we help women align their financial lives with their personal values. All successful movements in history collaborated together to achieve results. The Marriage Equality act unified efforts at the county, state and federal levels. The suffragette movement unified differing opinions to create sustained pressure through a collective commitment to their goals for our movement. We achieve results through our nine action initiatives to push for acceleration in three key more women in leadership positions in the C suite and on boards, women in control of institutional capital and women entrepreneurs and supporting initiatives that should cascade throughout the organization like inclusivity for women of color and gender and compensation parity. The speed with which our powerful ecosystem came together has amazed even us, and we're energized and excited to be part of this momentum. Our shared network now includes millions of stakeholders. Literally millions are part of our movement driving real change. And we continue to grow. Our phenomenal progress is fueled by core drivers that all successful movements have in common. And I'd like to talk about three of these drivers. All movements have a strong and unified vision and purpose rooted in shared values. Our vision is equal position, pay and power for all business women. And our collective values are rooted in parity, fairness, and equal opportunities for all. Second, just like any great business organization, successful movements need more than a vision. They need a structure through which to drive and scale results. These are big challenges and opportunities we're solving. So like all successful movements, WBC has created a shared structure for all of us to drive this vision together forward. A third common thread among successful movements is commitment to the long haul. And wow, have we demonstrated commitment to the long haul. We've been committed for centuries. Let's place this mission, our long haul, into the highest and truest possible context. How did it happen that worldwide political, social and economic discrimination around women is this long standing and so acceptable that it's become standard operating procedure? How is it even possible that Afghanistan thinks it can stop education for girls at this point point in time? Or that worldwide economic disparity for women is so dire that the United States still has to include gender equality in its Sustainable Development Goals program? The deeper significance of our movement goes right to the heart of this wide reaching economic and social significance to resolve once and for all that promotions are treated equitably, that compensation disparity and its associated long term negative economic impact is finally eliminated, and that opportunities are shared fairly among a circle of equals. Multiply this impact around the world and our commitment to equal position, pay and power takes on a whole new meaning to create concentric rings of positive impact for us professionally, for our families and for our communities. The Women Business Collaborative, in partnership with all of you, with all of our members, all of our stakeholders, is accelerating progress to make this shared vision a reality now. And even though we're in a virtual setting, if we were in a room together, I'd be asking you to join me in saying this now. Let's say it together. Now, now, and now. Thank you so much for your support. Yesterday was amazing. Please enjoy today the energy and the momentum. And I'd like to introduce Gwen Young, our COO to continue this powerful day together. Thank you.