This week in prime time on cspan. Sunday, january 1, in depth will feature a discussion on the life of barack obama. We are taking your questions during the program. Our Panel Includes a White House Correspondent for urban radio correspondence. At a glaucoma, the author of democracy in black, how race still in sleeves the american. Old and David Marinus watch in depth live from noon to 3 00 p. M. On sundays on book tv on cspan2. Next, senior white house adviser Valerie Jarrett shares with the Barack Obama Administration has done to advance the issues of women. Before her, the discussion with other women serving in the obama administration. This is a part of an annual aurum posted by politico. Forumual forum post hosted by politico. Ladies and gentlemen please welcome louisa savage. Hello everyone. I know youre having amazing conversations and i am so sorry to interrupt them. We are so thrilled to have you here and what is satisfying is to see so many familiar faces who have come that you have become a part of the woman rule community. I know you are enjoying this program could we had some great conversations in the hall. I would like to ask you all to do me a favor and that is we are in a moment of transition. I know a lot of you are going to be leaving government, going to the private sector, launching your own businesses or coming from the private sector into government. We will like to keep this community together. If we could all take a moment, send us any mail at wom say thislitico. Com and is where i am today and this is where i am going next. If you know where you are going and you know youre changing roles, we would love to have a column as a part of our next medication with you. As our next communication with you. I would like to take a moment to talk about the Editorial Mission of women rule. What difference do they make once they are in . Here in washington, what are the gender gaps in Public Policy that still allow disparate outcomes for women and girls. We would love the brainpower that is concentrated in this room to get your input and thoughts on these questions as we go forward to a new administration and new congress. We welcome your stories, it questions, feedback. There is another thing i will i hope that you would join me in celebrating an important transition for us. It will be my honor to introduce two of our moderators, two great political women, you all know susan who has moderated at these events before. She is our extra ordinary former editor whose vision has shaped the politico coverage that you will see today. Susan created and launched the awardwinning magazine and then the agenda which is our deep dive policy magazine. Susan has recently moved to israel where she will be covering World Politics from the middle east, and she graciously flew back last night so she could be here to moderate. Susan was politicos first woman editor and it is a great testament to this organization that we are 10 that we are passing the baton to the second women editor second woman editor. I dont know how often that happens but we think it is special. Anight you are going to meet superstar white house reporter, i am happy to tell you she went to europe and became one of our top editors of lyft europe editors of politico europe. Excited that they are both here to run the conversation this afternoon. Thank you to them for their leadership and a big thank you to the politico events team to andthis event together their team. Were so glad to work with them. [applause] i would like to introduce another incredible woman, the president of the Bridge Foundation to support and make this event possible. Lori is pushing us to do better and reach higher with the programming. I mentioned our editorial. Entioned Editorial Mission one thing were looking forward to is to launch some very exciting journalism and politico around women rule. I will pass the platform to lori. [applause] good morning. One of the most shocking things i heard was Kellyanne Conway saying it is only two months since the access video came out. It feels like a lifetime ago. Im sure everybody could relate. Fork you, politico, involving the trap this foundation in this event. Sometimes people ask me, while is in this organization that empowers Women Entrepreneurs doing this event in washington . The answer is entrepreneurs are scrappy and they know how to do more with less, not unlike women in government. In fact, i think that politicians, government polo government employees, the best quality they can have is to be entrepreneurial. When i took this job, i expected the systematic impediments to women in business, such as the difficulty getting capital. For example, still only one in 23 and is this loans goes to a woman. That is with women starting businesses at the same rate as busy same rate as men. What did me by surprise was the behavioral stereotypes that prevent women from growing their businesses. Motivated us to plan a campaign to encourage women to embrace ambition. When a woman is labeled there are still people who think that is a negative comment. If we were fortunate enough to told just to be told our ambition was a good thing, the chances are we were told to not let it show so much. Our goal is for women in all walks of life to embrace ambition, to show it and for other women to help them do it. And campaign is going to launch in march. I encourage you all to join and help spread the word. Featurespanel powerhouse and ambitious women who serve in the white house in will be followed by conversation with Valerie Jarrett. I am thrilled they are here, not only because i know the conversation is going to be fascinating, because it gives us the opportunity to say thank you. These women have served this country and this administration with passion, dedication and dignity. Best of all is what they have accomplished. Whether it was susan monica keena safe from terrorism, Cecilia Munoz protecting american civil rights. Informed, keeping the office of the first lady or serving as the president s most trusted advisor, major accomplishments aside, one of the coolest things about the women in the white house is they created Something Big called amplification. When a woman made a point, other women would repeated forcing the. En to take notice it is in the spirit of the women at the white house that i ask all of the women here today and particularly those who will be instrumental in the next administration to amplify our voices. There has never been a better time to be your sisters keeper. I truly believe if theres any hope of healing the deep divides in this country, it will start with women standing together and amplifying each others voices. I digress. Please enjoy me in welcoming and applauding from the white house, chen and susanna glazer. [applause] good morning, everybody. Thank you lori for that introduction. I have to tell you, i am so delighted to be here, not only because this event is one of my very favorite conversations to hear, but this group cannot be a better group. We are excited to get started. We have been beginning our panel p it would have a lot to say in a short time to say it. I cannot think of a better group of people with more collective insight into the different sort of ways in which a white house works and the ways in which power works in washington. Standard, for a group of people, they bring so many diverse experiences in terms of president Obamas Administration to this conversation. Im excited to get started. This is a group with a powerhouse set of titles. Outside of washington, the words assistance to the president doesnt mean much. Those words convey something important. My College Classmate who is the assistant to the president for Homeland Security and counterterrorism. Also the assistant to the president in the domestic policy council. And also the assistant to the president and the Communications Director and the assistant to the president and chief of staff to first lady, michelle obama. This is a great group. Thank you all for taking your time as the administration winds down to talk with us. There was something that got a big reaction to this group backstage. To startnterintuitive a conversation around the idea of women rule. There is this famous article that women in the white house somehow banded together and had to amplify each others words. On one hand, it is a great narrative and a great talking point. I know everybody here wants to be here supporting another woman in a workplace. It might not have been the story. Ts a little more complicated we were talking about this backstage, so it is funny. I would say when i read that article and when most of my colleagues read the article, we thought we have no idea what they are talking about. No one else had heard of it. Let me start there. The most concerning part was it really kind of took us back to a 1950s depiction of what powerful women are doing this. How we got into any of our positions and how we represented ourselves in meetings and what role he played in the white house. That was concerning, because i felt and a lot of us felt it sent the wrong message to young i, women who are my age am 37, about what it takes to be at the table and a part of these discussions. She wants us to echo her in meetings. We need to stop simplifying what the challenges are and have a more nuanced conversation about what we can do to not only help each other, but help young men help young women and i will leave it at that. I will let my colleagues say more. Lisa, maybe you can pick up on that. Something a lot of people in the room have experienced, if it was only a simple as standing up and girl,ing in say you go women would not be 70 of ceos. I was wanting my colleagues, i said you know i am going to be a little contrarian, right . I agree. I grew up with three brothers. I was the chia i was the cheerful the chief of staff at the fbi. This is not an unusual environment. Jen is right, we diminish the issue when we Start Talking about going back to the 1950s type of approach. We all a very supportive of each other. The many other assistance to the president who are women, who are think, weoday, i regularly are supporters, but that is not a gendered issue. We are similarly so every day of our male colleagues. I think there is a responsible to. We as women who operate in high stress, High Performance areas to help other women. I think the same of younger men who are coming up and want advice and want to do these jobs. I feel a similar responsibility. I would say one hallmark of the way we work in this white house i dont subscribe to gender. It is a reflection on the president and the people who have come to work with him. Where collaborative, we build teams. When i came in, people want me people warned me that your friends were not going to be her friends at what i found is that this is a person that respects building teams and sharing credit and making sure this notion that if you are successful, the enterprise is successful. I am invested in your success. I think of that not in terms of gender. Let me chime in. Think part of the reason our experience is that we have good numbers. The 50,lose to desperate close to 5050 to two residents leadership due to the president possibly the ship president s leadership. We just had a session at the white house where he talked about how the government across the entire federal government is with various trainings, executive orders, plans and policies, we believe make a diverse workplace happen. Because we truly believe and i think this experience that we are sharing is evidence of the fact that the numbers work. When you have a Critical Mass of men and women then the environment becomes more what we just described. Having been a corporate lawyer for a Large Corporation before i got here. That is a challenge. I am glad you brought up the challenge of Critical Mass and numbers and when they matter. We are talking about the transition to a new white house, not only with a different set of politics, but a different set of toisors and first terms seem be when youre coming in from the campaign, welcome back on some of the criticism that obama got in the beginning of his presidency for not having as many women as he has now. That was true of George W Bushs presidency. Did some of the pictures of the donald trump is selecting first top you look at some of the pictures of who donald trump is selecting. Difficult forre white houses to have the representation that now obama has achieved . Veryone of us from the beginning. Iswhat you are describing not unlike any workplace. When youre hiring staff, at the pace of this transition, it is true that women and minorities are as visible all the time. If you are hiring fast and hiring the people who are similar to you, that is what happens. That explains why the different first terms. It is not political, it is circumstances. It is what you see in the corporate suite. You are pulling what you know and who you see which is why you need strategies. It needs to be a conscious effort to get beyond that, what is easy and at hand. So, in terms of what tina said, you have to be intentional. Before coming to the white house , at the beginning of a second term, which has been my experience. I spent 15 years at the Justice Department. I entered the white house at the beginning of the second term. Throughout the different seats i have held in the National Security, and the situation room. A place where you dont get much insight into who is sitting around the table. I can tell you how different over the course of the last eight years, but i have steadily seen one constant which is an increase in the number of women sitting around the table. That is meaningful, because you are it is good to have different voices around the table, no matter what kind of packaging. I think it is important to increase the number of different voices you have. That has happened with the increasing of women. I was good to say in the press world, i came in and i was the only woman in the press office and 11 people had female press assistance. All the spokes people were men. I thought of them as my over exuberant brothers. I still do. I think part of it, to give some credit to what i think is a very positive gender trait, is the president overtime has determined what he needed and who he wanted to surround himself with. I think women should not be afraid of embracing the fact that oftentimes we bring a different kind of calm and organizational approach, and a different perspective. I dont think he sees it through gender barriers. I dont think he was trying to check the box on how many email assistants to the president he has. The approach and often the dominion of women often the demeanor that we should embrace is something he decided as he learned more about what he needs, he wants more of. Perhaps it is a journey. It was a journey for him. Maybe it is a journey for president s as they go through. At think there is more going on. The oil spill which i dont like to remember very finally. I had one moment sitting in that room, looking on the table and realizing, not only was i not the only woman in the room but i was not the only latina in the room. We were in there room in that room because someone said we are having a meeting on the oil spill. We were also doing our jobs. There was a lot of that that wasnt so visible, because we were not all in the position that official washington pays attention to. We have been there since the beginning of the work. Inhad a similar experience an earlier administration. We had a issue, very serious. State department in several folks were coming in to brief valerie on this. I had this moment in the sit room. There, Samantha Power was the lead person from the National Security council. One white male in the whole room. I looked around and i had a moment for myself and said, ok. There was an africanamerican woman sitting at the head of the table. This gets to your point about i want to explore a little more when youre hiring weekly, what are the pipelines that are available echo how much does available jack o how much does that matter . Of ifis a question that donald trump is hiring a lot of generals, we note there are not a lot of female generals in that pipeline in a way that would make them the new head of Homeland Security and defense department. Lisa, you have the most experience doing with people with impressive uniforms. How much does the pipeline issue matter . How much is it structural . Right . The pipeline matters. We all wantremost, the most qualified, capable people. That is what the president has been looking for. Pipelines matter. You reference military. Within the last year, the first female Combatant Commander was named. There has been strides made in the intelligence community. Historically a place that has not seen a lot of women in leadership positions. They have been incredibly supportive and focused on this issue and leading on this question, because not because we need to be checking boxes as to who is sitting in which seat, across the board. It is a National Security issue. Fromve been focused on it her coming back to what tina said about the diversity issues in the National Security state. You have to have commitment. We have to have a pipeline from which to pull from. I agree. In the National Securities race, you want to see more women and when you go overseas, you are the only woman always at the table. There are no women from almost any country. It does shocking we cannot solve that for every country. We can be a model. I was going to add one other element that i have experienced. Women can be terrible to women. I have had more male mentors than women, by far. I dont know what that is about. Is it about competition . People had to fight hard to get to where they are . It makes them nervous . Is it not taking time to reach out and mento