What a start to NYWLC!

The 2009 National Young Women’s Leadership Conference has started off incredibly! The opening plenary has just finished up – I cried, I laughed, I cheered. You could feel the energy in the room as we had the opportunity to hear from some of our country’s most influential women!

If you missed it, here are some highlights:

- Dolores Huerta, confounder of the United Farm Workers and current president and founder of the Dolores Huerta Foundation, spoke about her close work with the new Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis. She specifically recollected Solis’ campaign for the California state legislature and their work with women workers in Juarez, Mexico.

- Solis took the stage and energized the audience, reminding us that there is a place at the table for everyone and that young women need to keep the fight going until we see all discrimination ended. She talked about a plethora of issues ranging from increasing the number of women in math and science to sex trafficking to the importance of unions to green jobs and the economy. She challenged women everywhere to take leadership, step up, and speak out in many forums.

- Feminist Majority Foundation President Ellie Smeal moderated the opening plenary and revved up the crowd by listing off some of the great victories for women since President Obama took office, such as:

o The repeal of the Global Gag Rule
o Passage and signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act 2009
o Passage and signing of the Omnibus Spending Act of 2009 that included a provision to restore subsidized birth control pricing to low-income and college campus clinics and also a provision that released money held up by the Bush Administration for seven years that withheld authorized funds from the United Nations Population Fund for women’s maternal health.
o The creation of the White House Council on Women and Girls

- Tina Tchen, the Executive Director of the White House Council on Women and Girls and the Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison gave some the details about what the new administration is doing for women and girls. She encouraged dialogue and engagement with the new administration on all topics by e-mailing public@who.eop.gov.

- Lilly Ledbetter gave first hand accounts of her experiences as a victim of pay discrimination – she was paid 30-40% less than her male counterparts for nearly 20 years as a manager at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. She underscored how the discrimination impacted not only her salary, but also her retirement savings, social security, and overtime pay. Ledbetter pursued her wage discrimination case all the way through to the Supreme Court, where she lost in a decision that gutted the Title V of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Fortunately, President Obama has signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act – although it can’t help Lilly recoup her damages, it gives future women a chance to protect themselves from such discrimination.

Check out the opening plenary on UStream. Keep watching for new posts all weekend, and follow us on Twitter @feministcampus. Tweet your responses with the hash tag #NYWLC! Here’s to a happy feminist weekend!