The first ever United States of America women’s summit encouraged conversation and discussion of women’s accomplishments, areas of growth, and issues or areas for growth throughout the country - and throughout the world.
From a.m. to p.m. there were multiple panels with women of all cultures discussing issues and accomplishments within areas such as: economic empowerment, health and wellness, educational opportunity, violence against women, entrepreneurship and innovation, and leadership and civic engagement.
Representatives and speakers from various other women’s communities also attended and spoke during the first panel discussion as well as throughout the day at other panels.
A topic that hit close to home for many - violence against women compelled myself and many others within the audience at the time as Jaha Dukureh, founder and CEO of Safe Hands for Girls shared her story about genital mutilation in Africa (as it is done in many other countries such as India as well).
She depicted female genital mutilation, or female circumcision as an overt act of violence against women that should certainly be put to an end.
As a victim of genital mutilation as a young infant herself, she relates to feeling confused, violated, and hurt about the decisions that were made for her.
Traditional female genital mutilation in other countries, as defined by the World Health Organisation, includes “all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons”.
More than 200 million girls and women in the word have undergone genital mutilation. Female genital mutilation occurs in the lives of women before they are fifteen years old.
The countries with the highest rates of FGM in young girls include: Somalia at 98 percent, Guinea at 96 percent, Djibouti at 93 percent, and Egypt at 91 percent.
FGM has previously led to prolonged bleeding, infections, infertility and death. Traditional reasons for this procedure include: lowering the risk of promiscuity, preserving virginity, ensuring marriageability, prolonging the sexual pleasure for men and enhancing the woman’s beauty.
Andrea Ritchie, Soros Justice Fellow, exposed the issue of police officers who commit sex-related crimes in which over half of the sexual assaults that were documented by police officers happened while the officer was on-duty.
According to Ritchie’s data, between the years of 2005 to 2007 there were 548 arrests of police officers for sex-related crimes.
Seventy-six percent of the sexual misconduct victims were adults while 24 percent were minors, according to “Police Sexual Misconduct: A National Scale Study of Arrested Officers” from 2014.
Ritchie said that 52 percent of the police departments in the U.S. do not have a policy or training to address or prevent sexual misconduct by police officers.
Liz Weintraub, advocacy specialist from the American University Center on Disabilities, shared her experience being of three minority intersectionalities in America - a woman, with a disability and Jewish.
Native American representative, Deborah Parker, former vice chair of the Tulalip Tribes, opened with a native hymn along with other Native American women. She shared a big thank you to all of the women at the summit saying they are all beautiful.
Bamby Salcedo, president and CEO of the TransLatin@ Coalition, represented the Latina transgender population of the U.S. and shared some ways that women can delve into community where they are loved, supported and appreciated.
Salcedo stressed the importance of being engaged in a community where you are loved and accepted for who you are.
All of the smaller discussions throughout the day led to the main event with first lady Michelle Obama and leading lady Oprah Winfrey as they talked about the importance of a secure identity and confidence as a woman.
Michelle Obama began accordingly: “Even as we gather here today and we talk about the challenges that women face, we have to remember those that we lost in Orlando and know that we will continue to keep them in our thoughts and prayers.”
Michelle goes on to say that a major issue with young women today is that they spend their time leasing, satisfying and looking out into the world to define who they are listening to the messages and definitions of who we are as women.
“Our first job as women in life is to get to know ourselves, and I think a lot of times we don’t do that,” Michelle said.
She said that coming into this role as the first lady she didn’t want to waste any time.
“It takes taking the time to know who you are to be able to deal with the onslaught of negative messages that you are bound to get,” Michelle said.
When Oprah asked Michelle about learning to manage her own time and balance being mom and first lady, she said, “If you don’t take control over your time and your life, other people will gobble it up.”
Oprah goes on to share a major pattern and theme that she has seen as an issue in the lives of young women today - knowing self-value and self-worth.
“I would say that the root of every dysfunction I’ve ever encountered has been some sense of a lacking of self-value or self-worth,” Winfrey said.
Winfrey expressed that she thought that the fact that there were men, women, of all ages, young women, maturing women and women from all walks of life, it was really a move in the right direction.
“I am just proud of all the work that’s being done here,” Winfrey said.
She makes many references to the great Maya Angelou one being the lovely quote, “baby you need to know that you alone are enough.”
Michelle and Oprah chat about haters and how to deal with them.
Michelle makes reference to the great Maya Angelou quote: “people won’t remember what other people say about you but they will remember what you do.”
She said that the best revenge truly is success and that you have to just wake up every morning and be the best you that you can be.
“The best success comes when you can shift your paradigm to service,” Michelle said.
Michelle and Oprah agree that life is constantly about growth from your first breath to your last breath. Life is about connect with people, helping others and letting others help you.
“We are never done,” Winfrey said. “We can never be complacent and think that we have arrived.”
They agree that life is also about managing expectations and making sacrifices.
On the unfortunate topic of violence against women, Michelle said that it saddens her to live in a world that as a woman she is privileged to not have suffered abuse, physically or sexually, from a man.
Michelle and Oprah encourage not only women but also men to be better saying that no one can afford to be ignorant nor complacent.
Michelle said that what we do for the world is not for our greatness or glory, but for those that are in need.
She makes reference to this Mother Teresa quote: “none of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.”
Oprah closes up the discussion by reciprocating the love and appreciation that Maya once instilled in her to Michelle.
Looking at the first lady with a genuine smile and open heart Oprah said, “you make me proud to spell my name ‘woman’.”
