Institute of Global Politics a few months ago. At that time, i would say we have done more than some institutes do in years. Of course thats not surprising, given who our leader is secretary clinton herself likes to say, if you want something done, ask a busy woman to do it. [laughs] and i have. From our very first conversations around igp, hilary and i were aligned on a plan. We wanted to learn the institute and then turned to one of the most important and most overlooked topics there is ■the equal participation of women. We were determined to approach this not a as a core focus of i. Now when i became dean of sipa, we identified fivecient global. Each of them is a womens issue. When women are included in the peace process, agreements are more likely to be reached and to last. Geopolitical stability is a womens issue. From the talibans efforts to end Girls Education in afghanistan, to abortion bans around the world and in states across the united states, attacks on womens rights are oen early indicators of democratic backsliding. Democratic resilience is a womens issue. Women girls are more likely to depend on natural resources, and less likely to survive with Natural Disaster strikes. At the same time, women are leading efforts to adapt and ta aexperts estimate that if we closed the Global Gender Gap in workforce participation, we could grow gdp by 20 trillion. Inclusive prosperity is a womens issue. Pay 5 of women and girls around the world have experienced Online Harassment and abuse. Technology is a womens issue. Challenges a womens issue, and addressing these challenges through that lens is an urgent imperative. We are launching igps Womens Initiative to do just that. The Womens Initiative will produce rigorous Actionable Research and policy proposals around four somatic pillars womens economic opportunities, womens health, womens safety and, and womens leadership, democracy and humans writes, all in the service of advancing full and equal participation. Because of these issues affect not just women, but all of humanity, its not en y internationally,e leverage the same global to global approach will bring to all of our work here at igp. Because these complex telling demand collaboration, we are leveraging the power we here to bring together great minds share ideas. And because it is not enough to produce scholarship that gets talked about within university wallswe need to ensure data and evidence are translated into policy and practice. As you can imagine, launching an effort this ambitious takes a village, and i want to thank a few members of ours. First, president emeritus lee for believing and supporting what igp could become from the very beginning, and for appointing many women to positions of leadership at the university, including myself. And it is sp■ecial to launch ths initiative at this moment at columbiaowniversity is led by its first female president , who is a wonderful friend to sipa and igp. Thank you to the trustees at ca university, some of whom are hereev t5may wnce and support have been so valuable and meaningful to late and to us, and to the sipa Advisory Board members who are here today. You leadership in partnership is so critical to our swo . Uccess. A very special emerita ann kaplo has been at the forefront to support women and womens issues are at columbia for the better part of two decades. Re proud to have her as a founding donor of this initiative. You. I know you are watching via the livestream. This means a lot. I am also proud to announce something very cool. We have a new partnership with the clothing brandwe are joininl innovative research, education and outreach programs aimed at advancing opportunities for women worldwide and across different sectors. So, stay tuned for more information later on in the program. But let me just think theory for being such a powerful believer in women. And lastly, when you look in the room and the incredible lineup that we have, you know that some people have been working aroundtheclock to make this happen. And indeed, this group is our Incredible Team at sipa. Christina, lauren, katie,racheld many others who have contributed today. Thank you. You deserve a big round of applause. [applause] now if there is one person who embodies what it means to advocate for womens full and equal participation, it is, of course, Hillary Rodham clinton. In beijing in 1990, she turned the worlds attention to the status of women and girls and send a powerful message that has echoed across the decades womens rights are human rights. Hillary, on behalf of all the women who are heretless more wk doesnt even begin to cover it. It is an honor of a lifetime to do this work alongside you and to call you a friend, a coteacher our sipa family. Please join me in welcoming him clinton. In welcoming hillary clinton. [applause] secretary clinton thank you very much, keren, and thanks to all of you for being here for this launch. Its a very exciting day here at igp and sipa in columbia, because we really b have a lastr beyond the walls of the university. But let me start by saying very clearly, that simply embracing the concept of womens rights right in laws and constitutions, is not the same as achieving full equality. Rights are nothing without the power to claim them. And again and again, especially in recent times, we have seen anger, hostility, sexism and misogyny directed at women who have the identity to seek power. Deepseated biases are even harder to change than discriminatory laws. So it is no coincidence that while we have made progress in areas traditionally associated with women such as health care cation, we have struggled to match the progress in the politics, and democracy, and national security. And i admit i find this frustrating, because when was in beijing, as keren has a reference, and i declared that womens rights were human rights, my daughter chelsea was 15 years old. I very much wanted to raise her in a world where women were free and equal. Now she has grown sons of her o. She is doing her own very important work to fight for justice and equality. And i still find myself reminding people that womens rights are human right. I hope that would be old news by now. I still see women girls bearing it is a fortunate burden in almost every global crisis. And when the internet and social media gave us new ways to connect, they also gavenew waysn women. But when i find myself in moments of frustration or weariness, i like toto women like the ones you will hear from today. And to be n rem for and the powe have to make change. Women are not just victims of of peace and progress. And the women we will hear from today just a few of the remarkable women working across this university, across this country, indeed, across this world to liberate themselves, lift up their communities, and find new ways to build momentum towards equality. As we conceived this institute, there was never a question that we would not integrate womens perspectives in everything we were doing. There was to be nohv siloing of womens issues. Womens issues are, as keren just reminded us, world issues. It we need a reminder still, why do we need another projectren ge insight as tohat we believe will make igp different. We will produce policy recommendations, the coveting of smart Inspiring Women with expertiseto move forward. The training of the next generation of women leaders, and yes, men who believe in equality too. But the real answer is we need this igp Womens Initiative because women are not free or equal yet. So we welcome you, and i am particularly pleased that her Royal Highness princess is here. She has been a great leader globally in womens inclusive economic want this to be a globl outreach to learn what we can learn from anywhere and anybody across the wld. So to get us started, please welcome stacey abrams, the Ronald W Walters and down to p chair r for race and black politics at harvard university. A former georgia governor, and igp carnegie distinguished fellow. Secretarygeneral ramonda, former governor of of the Commerce Department, and a staunch adcaten and economic pr. And our moderator, professor olatunde johnson, Ruth Bader Ginsburg 59 professor of law at Columbia Law School and igp affiliated faculty. These are just of the Extraordinary People that we will hear from this afternoon. Please welcome them. [applause] professor johnson thank you and welcome everybody. So this panel isyxeconomy. We have already queued up issues on some of theap that remain, economic gaps, but also the role of women in various powerful positions and their ability to shape Public Policy in a way that addresses those gaps. I a lawyer, what i think of the most courts and legislation. Rough this panel about another part of law and policy which is really thinking about the ways in which you can have federal policy, state and local policy be shaped in a way that actually advances equality, right, so you could call them equality directives. I will say very little and turn it over to the panelists to talk about some of the promising initiatives. I again, you will see this theme. We will start with what happens at thend then move onto the ways in which at the state and local level, we can take some of these federal initiatives, supplemented them and think about them in new ways. I was going to start with the secretary. So, since the beginning of the administration, that has really been a lot of newprograms, new d into the economy through things like the infrastructure act, the chips and scienceew a; ct. We will explain some of these acronyms as we go along the inflation reduction act. One challenge is, how do you make those and shape those in the way that works for women and for people of color, a kind of idea around them of the federal programs like new deal programs, for instance, is they shape the economy in a male model and white model, you have been trying to disrupt that in various ways. I wonder if you could say how these grams are being transformed and working for women and women of color. Sec. Raimundo thank you. Hello everybody. It is nt we were reading and could feel the energy in the room. This is one of my favorite topics. My view is if you put women in charge of everything, everything will be better, so i am very excited to be here with mycy, wg time ago. Le president bidens leadership is nothing short of a started. Because of that, we have, as you say, about 1 trillion that we in america in the economy and in communities which will create hundreds of thousands if nne ple million plus goodpaying jobs. I investing money just and related Semiconductor Manufacturing facilities in the united states, the chips act. The infrasuc act, you see it everywhere you go, roads, bridges, laying broadband, et cetera. And that is amazing, it will level the playing field. Provide a paternity for all americans. But only works if we make se everybody benefits equally. So i will give you one example. Thele process of putting money out the door for the chips facilities, i have said if youre going to get taxpayer money, xyz big company, tell me what your childcare plan is. I want to know. Right . If you are going to get 1 billion of taxpayer money, i want to make sure women have an opportunity to get a job in e facilities. And that will not happen if you dont have a childcare plan. Now when i did that, a lot of republicans in congress said, well, secretary, you are introducing social policy in internationasecu p said, i don. This is hardnose economics. There is a labor shortage, these Companies Need to be competitive, they need the best workers, and that means women, and you will not get them if you dont think about childcare. You talked about the Building Trades. Right now, the percent of women in the building is the same as it was 50 years ago. And depending on the trade, it is somewhere between 2 and 7 . Why does ate dont have enough women who are welders, pefitters, plumbers, cetera . Because they pay 60 to 80 an hour, with benefits. So i launched an initiative called a million women in construction. Right a million women in construction in this country. I said, lets double it would very scientific. [laughs] lets double that. But i am working, we are given huge subsidies to these companies, so we are working with labor unions to have apprenticeship initiatives work, working with these companies tod recording were women. If you go to a job site right now, say i went to a jobsite as a welder and i needed a harness, chances are theres only size extra large for large harnesses onhe■a■ job. That is dangerous. There isnt a womens bathroom. There is one porthis is like ste 1950s. Anyway, i will stop there, but you can tell some passion on the topic. [laughter] thats who is making policy and putting money out thest and i will be damned is half the jobs dont go to women. [applause] prof. Johnson ink its important to think about this as this the money is going out■j■he justified as at least half of it going to women. If you dont do that through affirmative policies, i dont think it actually gets done. I wanted to follow up on more what it looks like for change to happen in this direction and i wanted to ask about the childcare piece. But since you left with the Building Trades, it has been a longstanding problem trying to diversify the construction trades. Gender front and even on race and ethci it surprises people. Even some of the workers who are overrepresented, like latino workers tend to be the most unsafe, ununionized, lowpay jobs. We couldve had miss abrams here ding working on voting right issues. But this is on the economy. What are your thoughts in terms of the construction trades, and how do we actually make progress on that given the recent eoc report shows what the big gap still is in employment. Sec. Raimundo i will link to something you said at the beginning of the question, which is that it takes an affirmative i will be more specific, affirmative aconerhaps not to create a tough about the lived experience of diversity, equity and inclusion. It has become available a pejorative. I want to point to the secretary who just said, this is an economic issue. Since the inception of this cotry, we have had a sers of movements that have been designed to guarantee that we diversify who gets access to the American Dream and that they get included in participation. So when we think reconstruction, you think about the civilrights movement, women suffrage, womens rights movement, lgbtq movement, disability movement, chicano movement, name a movemen■t in tn united states, it has been about how do you get access to the American Dream, and in getting that access, how do we make certain are diverfyso i want ue right, much, as the secretary said, we have the right to have the economy. Facet, that includes the Building Trades. When i was in the state legislature, a lot of my work was around the defendant access to those jobs being created, and one of the many jobs that iave this kind of like a terrible joke, i have lots of different jobs in different w spaces, but one of them is within organizational called rewiring america. We have 158 billion moving through the economy to electrify residential spaces. Basically that means induction stoves, heat pump water heaters and hvac systems 121 million households that will need these pieces of equipment. Right now we are missing 1. 4 Million People in the workforce to install this. Of that 1. 4 million, 700,000 should be women. We live in those houses. We turn on that for most that. We are the ones using that equipment. Why shouldnt we be the ones installing it . So what work i am doing is how to ensure not only that the money gets to the household, but that the people installing the the people in the households. That they are women, and women of color. That means providing access to training. Providing access to how the dollars actually move, because one of the things we know is the strongest impediment to women and people of color different postures in the economy, is they simply dont know where the door is. They want the pathway. They will do the work. They just dont know the secret knock. If they can even find where the building is. So part of the opportunity is having a secretary raimondo who is saying, i am going to hold the person with the pursestrings accountable for welcoming you in. But we also have the responsibility when we are hiring someone to come and install our newly funded heatpump to ask, do you have women who work with use . That me see what yourrt of our s individuals is to ask questions of who is providing over service. Most of the time we get so wrapped up in trying to do it fastof this opportunity. I think about it always in this way where is the money coming from . Who isnt going to . And who does it who is it going to, and who does it touch along the way. If you think about the buildinng trades, evy one of those buildings will likely house a family or a business. Which businesses are going into . Who is doing the financial services, managing those loans . And at each of those junctures, we need to look at who gets to touch the dollar. If we do that, that is dei in practice. We are not saying you cant touch it, we are just saying, lets make sure the different hands that are engaged look like the people who live in this country. [applause] sec. Raimundo yeah. I agree. Prof. Johnson prof. Johnson so seems part of it is about attaching requirements to funding programs. Part of it might be gathering data so that we are actually monitoring. It sounded like you may be also were alluding to the ideapartneg partnerships that help with things like training. Before asking a different of the secretary, i wanted to ask more about the childcare piece given there are programs like chips that are now requiring that. Is there for states and localities in that . What does that look like to you . Absolutely. And i will keep saying a lot of smart things at once so i have to keep them up. Prof. Johnson the multi question with three parts is a hazaf ms. Abrams we are all afd lawy we have this. Requirements are part of every dollar that comes from the public space. There is not a single donor that gets given without there being a requirement. But we only have a qu