Least one woman is on a company board, that company is 40 less likely to have to restate their earnings. In light of their financial collapse, i think every company should want women on their corporate boards. I think theres a recognition that women bring something unique to the workplace. We have a different, often times we have a different management style a different problem solving style, we see growth differently, and this combination of male and female voices together is what creates much better policy, both better Public Policy from a government perspective and better policy from a corporate perspective. I think that for those who would like women not to participate in the workplace or not participate in our economy, its undervaluing women and undervaluing what their contributions are and i think thats a mistake because again, why wouldnt you want all of your talent trying to move the u. S. Economy forward . Any Clear Thinking person would want that. I think we just have to keep advocating the reasons why womens voices matter so much, what we do bring to the table, why its good for our economy, why its good for our families and urge leaers to make sure we change the workplace rules to reflect who is doing the work. Women are ding the work all across america. We should be supporting them. Because still, we will take responsibility for 70 of child cair and household work in our home and so we do need that flexibility. We do need to be paid fairly. We do need to make sure that our Young Children are wellocked looked after so we can do our job and stay on track in our careers. Quick question here. Hank wallace. To encourage those voices, senator, to sound more authoritative, what can you do to encourage a new generation to say instead of ask, to avoid talk but actually to say declarative statements without a question mark at the end of at the end of the sentence . The interesting thing about women is we often are collaborative in nature. We generally prefer to be well liked. We like people around us to be happy. And so women often whats wrong with you . Its what we do. We are happy people and we like everyone to be happy around us. Its some skills we learn often as being mothers and daughters, we are the ones who feed everybody at the table, we are the ones that make sure our kids are happy and healthy. Thats the kind of work we typically do. And so theres this issue of likeability. And so for a lot of young women, they want to be well liked. And so they may often feel insecure that if theyre too aggressive, too pushy, or too declarative, they wont be well liked. I encourage the women that work for me to be aauthoritative, to state their opinions, to hold their ground and if they want to do it in a nice way, god bless them. I prefer to work in a nice way too. But they have to know that they are responsible for their job, for their opinions, for what they have to do as i try to encourage young women who work for me to add that professional veneer. Theres a certain standard of professionalism that is required for success in business in general and so to meet those standards, you do have to be blessed like a young girl and more like a young aspiring woman or professional. Just work at it. Its part of our nature and its not a bad part of our nature, its just part of our nature. Sometimes you have to learn skills to excel in whatever profession you choose so for example, if you are a young lawyer and youre going in front of a judge, theres a certain way youre going to need to dress and speak and perform to be well received and you just need to know what those parameters are so if you want to be well received you can meet those ideals. And so its a choice every young woman is going to make about how she wans to be and how she wants to be received. Whats most important is to give women the tools they need and knowledge they need about how to be successful and they can make their own decisions. And a final question to get us out the door. When you think about the issues you are talking about here, what has more influence, party or gender . When you talk about this agenda, do you feel you get more agreement from male democratic colleagues or female republican colleagues . \[laughter] the fair answer is, it depends. There are many female republican colleagues who agree completely on this agenda, i get along very well and we do consensus building and bipartisan legislation. Most of my male colleagues who are democrats fully agree with this agenda. Some may hesitate. But that means theres room for growth. So i am eager to talk to them about those issues. With that, thank you. \[applause] please welcome to the podium hi. Good afternoon. Hi maim is sara j. Aruman. My story is that my life changed dramatically on seventh, 2001. On september 11, 2001. In my case there was a restaurant at the top of World Trade Center tower one called windows on the world. On that morning, 73 workers died and 250 workers lost their jobs and about 13,000 restaurant workers lost their jobs in the months and weeks following the tragedy. I was asked to start a Relief Center for those who lost their jobs an survivors after 9 11. We called it roc, the restaurant opportunity center. Its grown into a national movement. We have 13,000 restaurant workers in 32 cities across the country, about 100 employer partners who work with us, providing livable wages and good working conditions and several thousand consumer members. And weve grown so fast thank you. Why have we grown so fast . Weve grown so fast because this industry just continues to explode. The Restaurant Industry right now is the second largest private sector employer in the united states. One in 12 americans right now works in the Restaurant Industry. Over 10 million workers and yet it happens to be the absolute lowest paying employer in the united states. Every year the department of labor reports the 10 lowest paying jobs in america and every year the seven lowest paying job, seven of the 10 and the two absolute lowest paying jobs are the people who cook and serve our food. Why . Why . How is it youve got the largest and Fastest Growing industry proliferating the lowest paying jobs . Its because of the National Restaurant association which we call the other n. R. A. Which back in 1996 under the leadership of a man named herman cain who you may remember tried to run for president. Under the leadership of herman cain they struck a deal with congress where they said we, the other n. R. A. , will not oppose an increase in the overall minimum wage as long as the minimum wage for tips workers stays frozen forever. So its been frozen at 2. 134 for the last 22 years. And who are tips workers . They are not the guy at the fancy fine dining restaurant on the corner of this building. 70 of tipped workers are women. They work at the ihop and the apple bees and the olive garden and red lobster and dennys. They suffer three times the poverty rate of the rest of the u. S. Work force and u. S. Food stamps at double the rate of the rest of the u. S. Work force. The women who put food on our table cant afford to put food on their own familys table. What else does it mean . It means when you live on a peage of 2. 13 an hour your wages are so low they go entirely to taxes and you live entirely off our tips. When you live after your tips your rent and bills go up and down do not go up and down but your income shifts from day to day, week to week, year to year, month to month, based on the pleasure of a customer and whether you let, as a woman, that customer touch you or look at you in a certain way. You are entirely reliant on the mercy of those who pay your tips who pay your wages, which by the way, is not your employer. My dream, my dream is that no woman in america should have to live off the mercy of customers. No woman should live off tips. No industry should be able to say, we are the only industry that shouldnt have to pay our own workers wages, you the customers should pay our workers wages for us. Tipped workers are 70 female means that this is the only industry that has found to engage in legal gender discrimination. Making this dream a reality means many things. It means women lifted out of poverty. Not living at the mercy of customers tips. [applause] please welcome to the stage our guests. [applause] hi everybody. We have heard from a movement leader, activists, and organizer. Before that, we heard from a senator. Those were conversations about policies. The idea is to bring it back to the ground level. Speak to some of the individual people who might be affected by some of these changes. Who can tell us our stories. And tell us what it is like to be an individual human being. A young woman living life in america today. Hopefully that will be a valuable perspective. This is a life ed session. Gracie, taz, and kelsey come from the leadership project in new york. We will hopefully have a bit of a conversation roundrobin style. We will start with the question of what challenges have you gone through . We will start with you, gracie. One of the biggest struggles i have had to overcome has been my financial situation with my mother. She is a single mother. My father left around 2006. It has been pretty rough. Poverty has always looked like 20,000 below the poverty line for a three person family. I have had to avoid the landlord at 1 00 in the morning. That is what my struggle has been. When i was younger, that was on top of health struggles. I dont want to say i am over that. Im in the process of overcoming. It is a process. Thank you. [applause] what about you . Im in the process of overcoming my struggle. I live in a singleparent household. My struggle is my dependency on my mother who has a dependency on the government. She is making enough for one person, but not for the seven people in my household. I am only 17 so i cannot overcome this myself. I am tried to go to college and get education. I have a scholarship to a college which i want to attend. But the scholarship does not cover half of the tuition. Might problem is trying to get through college. Thank you. [applause] i am kelsey. One of the challenges i have overcome was the language barrier. When i was oneyear old, occurrence at me to peru to live with my grandparents. Because of the economy, they were not stable enough to care for me and have a healthy household. They sent me to peru. When i came back when i was eight, it was hard for me trying to live without my grandparents and forming a relationship with kids that spoke a different language. I overcame trying to get along with people i really wasnt used to. [applause] thank you so much. You are so young and done so much in your lives. What would you say as you go forward . What are the challenges you are facing . One thing that has helped me has been a safe space. It is a space where people can speak and share ideas and be themselves. And inclusive space. It is a support system. I have had two in high school. I have been learning about College Since 14. I got a fulbright scholarship to university in indiana. [applause] another space it is an inclusive space where i could be vulnerable. It is hard to say, i am poor. I feel like women, daughters and moms, they need spaces where it is ok for them to speak. Especially in a society where they are told not to speak. We can share our stories and be ok with telling them and not fear being judged. That is what we need. Spaces where a woman can be vulnerable. But not make it seem like it is bad, it is strength. Is the strength. How about you . To bounce off of what she said, i find it hard to say you are poor and then find someone who cares and wants to help you. I need money. [laughter] i go to a charter school. I have been part of the kip system from fifth grade to 12th grade. I am certain they dont have enough money to get me through college and everybody else in my school. When i need is money. Thats what i need is money. I need role models. I feel like the industry i want to go into which is business does not have role models that look like me. I feel like finding people that look like me and do the things that i want to pursue is what i need. Thank you all three of you. Your voices are so powerful. Please welcome to the stage steve clemons. And more guests. Thank you. Before i get the panel going, a lot of you have jackets next to you. There are people wanting to sit. If you find a jacket that belongs to somebody else, stuff it under the chair. We are going to do fantastic sessions. This front row has been here all morning. They deserve extra credit. [applause] we will give you a gold star. I am the editor at large of the atlantic. This has been an amazing day. Here is the shriver report. As Maria Shriver said, it is inspiration for the heart and head. We have a fantastic panel of people who have been doers. A lot of people have been taking individual response ability for themselves and sharing stories about how they have navigated the most horrible of circumstances. There are others who have set the stage for a lot of what has been going on. Today we have practitioners on the policy side. The doing side. We want to start with kirsten lodal. She is the cofounder and chief executive officer. This is ann marie mosley. And this is kasim reed. Thank you very much. We do every policy area with you, it seems. This is the one that is your favorite. And this is randy. 16 years ago, we started this group. I am interested in the story and what animated you to decide that changing womens opportunities was the you wanted to go. The inspiration came out of volunteering in head start. Feeling that in addition to providing children with exceptional opportunities, we also needed to be providing support to their parents and families. Helped him find housing, excellent jobs, education for themselves and their children. In the last 15 years, we have helped over 100,000 families move away from the key lesson we have learned at lift and what our data supports is that when they put women in the drivers seat of their own journey, we will see the greatest success. When we put them in the driver seat, and map our programs according to their needs, women will be more active participants. They will become better lifelong advocates. They will rise to their aspirations. Can you give us an example of where you have seen certain patterns i think many of us know people who were impacted in dramatic ways by the financial crisis. Can you share how you have done what you have done . We pair women and families with a dedicated advocate. Who works with them to find all the necessary resources and opportunities they need to get ahead. A member right here in d. C. Is one example of how a symbol hardship can drive someone. She grew up middleclass. She had a long and extensive work history. When she came to lift, she was demoralized by a health challenge. She felt the only choice was a choice between unstable temporary shelter and homelessness. Her aspiration was to exit her situation. By working with her she actually moved to become a homeowner. She has a new lease on life. That story exemplifies the fact that people end up in or close to poverty for many reasons. That means that Everyone NeedsSomething Different to navigate away from the brink. The only way we can be effective is if we listen first to what people need. And then design programs and services accordingly. You deal in a similar area. Part of what you have been doing is a two generation strategy. What does that entail . Thank you very much. It is great to be here. We have been a yearlong partner with the shriver report. One thing we want to put out there sometimes we talk about the Publicprivate Partnership and forget about the people in the middle. The point you just made, ill use that as a segue. We listened to a range of mothers and also boys and girls in middle and high school about what did the world look like for them. Thinking about the needs i am reiterating the themes confidence and respect. College is almost the new high school. The importance of being money and market savvy. The importance of mentors. We talked about how stretched single moms are. Also with teachers and coaches who were playing a vital role. My daughter says, it is so simple mom. When we think about the growing huge spike of women headed families, and the challenges of that. For us it means education. How do we bring education together a post secondary education. For us at the aspen institute, lift is lifting off. We are tracking 100 models across the country. One example we were tipping our hat to maria. When we go back to the first architecture for the two generation approach, i think it started at the shriver Kitchen Table. We are working on 2. 0 here. It is important for us to be adaptive with how the world has changed. Lets take head start. There is an Amazing Program in tulsa. They said, we will give every kid everything we can. Every best practice and promising program. When the mother comes, we lose them. They created a program for the mothers and fathers. While the kids were in head start, they found a way to work with them to create a coaching circle. To get them it into tulsa tech. They found partners and employers. We want to stick with these parents because we know for some of the women on the brink, a broken car, you miss a day at work. Lets have a carpool system to take her to work and get the car fixed. Lets double down and get better permanent results. Is that program in place now . Yes. It has local and national support. It has a grant with the department of health and human services. It is best when the social contract is working. With parents are designed and involved. We have talked a lot in the past about the classic role that teachers often played in their communities. Points of light and leadership. Structure. A lot of that has been under attack and eroded. Aft has taken on the responsibility tons of households that are women, single headed households. I would love to get your take on how you see these questions from a Leadership Perspective and some of the whole family perspective. First of all, i am delighted to be on this panel. I want to tip my hat to Maria Shriver. We have been talking about women, children, and poverty. That is really cool. [applause] teachers let me just say yesterday, in west virginia, before the schools were reopened because of the chemical leak, a head start teacher who knew that her kids were not getting hot ill for the last three days organize to get 75 meals packed up. She got them to all the families in charleston, west virginia. That is the legacy of head start. It simplifies who teachers are. They are the First Responders to poverty and families that are on the brink. I sit here both as a teacher and a