Womens

Leadership as the Unfinished Business of the 21st Century

By Rangita de Silva de Alwis

The organizers of this historic event have asked me to speak a few words on the role of this
summit in addressing womens leadership as the unfinished business of our time.
One hundred and forty-three years ago, the US Supreme Court denied Myra Bradwell of Illinois
bar application stating:
The paramount destiny and mission of women are to fulfill the noble and benign offices of wife
and mother.
Thirteen years later, in 1886, when Carrie Kilgore became the first woman admitted to practice
law in Pennsylvania. Justice Thayer of the Common Pleas Court of Philadelphia stated,
"Revolution is over. Everywhere now (a woman) she is permitted by the common consent of
mankind to select and pursue her own vocation . . . the revolution is over.
But we know that the revolution is far from over. The gender gap in leadership continues in
every sphere of womens lives.
In the US, it is calculated that half of the members of congress are lawyers. But still
despite being half of the population women constitute less than 19 percent of the US
legislature. This is less than the global average that stands at a little over 22 percent. But
only one country, Rwanda, has achieved gender balance in parliament.
Despite the fact that law schools have 50 percent women, women currently only hold 5.0
per cent of Fortune 500 CEO positions and women constitute just 23 percent of senior
management.
In big law firms, the highest percentage of women occupy the lowest positions in firms
and the highest positions in firms are occupied by the lowest percentage of women.
In the security sector, despite evidence based research that peace has a 20 percent greater
chance of enduring when women join in negotiations, only two per cent of chief
mediators, and four per cent of witnesses and signatories to peace have been women.
In 1979, only one country had a Domestic Violence law on the books. By 2012, 139 countries
had enshrined anti discrimination clauses, 173 countries guarantee paid maternity leave, 125
countries have outlawed domestic violence, 117 countries outlaw sexual harassment in the
workplace, 117 countries have equal pay laws, 115 countries guarantee womens equal property
rights.
Despite these laws and despite the fact that women lawyers drafted these laws, globally women
earn 24 per cent less than men. It is estimated by UN that at the rate of progress it will take 118
years to close the gender pay gap in the world.
How can we harness the evidence that womens leadership yields high dividends in terms of
GDP? A recent global Mackenzie Global study shows that if women enjoy equal opportunities

with men, it will add 28 trillion to the global GDP. The evidence is now clear that womens
equal decision-making is the smart thing to do.
That is why Dean Ruger has made gender equality at the law school and around the world, a
strategic priority, and this summit brings together Penn Law women across generations to build
those partnerships and bridges to link one another across the public private divide and the local
and global continuum.
This Summit is built on the vision of Corey Fulton, the Director of Alumni Relations who
worked tirelessly to make this summit a gift of love to her alma mater. Corey was supported by a
Committee of indefatigable women. First, Dori Pavel, Director of Conferences who
choreographed this magical event; Vice Dean Jo- Ann Verrier; Deputy Dean Sophia Lee; and
Associate Dean Heather Frattone. Corey and the Committee mined the rich history of the women
of this great law school to come up with the goals for this summit:
The first goal is how can Penn Law join some of the watershed moments in the US and
globally and mark these momentous occasions: This is the year of the UN development
goals, the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Conference where Secretary Clinton, a Penn
Law honoree reminded the world that Womens Rights are Human Rights once and for
all. The Penn Law summit too joins in these initiatives to close the gender gap in the US
and around the world in the law, in politics, in the judiciary, on boards, in diplomacy and
in peace building.
The second aim is how do we keep Carrie Kilgores pioneering spirit alive? Every Penn
Law woman stands on Kilgores shoulders.
Corey Fulton has channeled Kilgores spirit today. Corey and her team have been tenacious in
bringing Kilgores spirit alive today. But they have always kept in mind that you are the women
of the Kilgore revolution. And it is your spirit that animates this summit.
Norma Shapiro a Penn Law women was the first female to be appointed to the federal bench in
the Third Circuit.
Penn Law has come far from that day in 1948, when a professor at the law school predicted that
the eight women in Norma Shapiros class would never make it.
The Summit finds its deepest expression in Judge Shapiros credo and her favorite quotation
from Gaius, an ancient Roman official:
One who helps the wandering traveler, light a lamp by their own, it gives no less a light, just
because it helped another.
Normas lamp was lit for countless women travelers. Her dedication to mentoring and
networking are touchstones for this summit.
In 1993, Justice Sandra Day O Connor in celebrating Judge Shapiro said:
her light shined in dark corners where women never before had traveled.

In the book Counselors: A Biography of Courageous Women who have Changed the World
Judge Shapiro tells her biographer:
I recommend not only networking and mentoring but forming a network of mentors. Penn Law
hopes that the summit will help to build a network of lifelong mentors for all Penn Law women.
Like Judge Shapiro, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg used her own experiences of discrimination to
alter the legal status of women.
In her famous rose garden speech when she was introduced by President Clinton, Ruth Bader
Ginsburg attributed that historic moment to the women who helped open doors for her. She has
gone on to say that she was never there to be the only woman. She has said, women must bring
along their crew.
We hope that this summit brings the Penn Law womens crew together, to open doors for each
other but most of all to pass on the torch to a new generation of women lawyers.
Marion Wright Edelman, the great child rights advocate once told President Reagan, Women
cannot be if women cannot see. We wanted you here at the law school during the week so that
current Penn Law women would be inspired by you to pass on the torch and to take Kilgores
vision global.
In 2003, Justice Sandra Day o Connor while celebrating Judge Shapiro reminded the women in
Philadelphia about another woman judge in another part of the world, who had had lit a lamp for
justice and won a Nobel prize, Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian human rights lawyer and judge.
Today as we honor the trailblazing women of Penn Law, we remember Penn Laws role in the
world and Penn Laws obligation to light anothers lamp. One of our honorees is Patricia Sellers
who is the Special Advisor to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Just
yesterday ICC found Bemba culpable via command responsibility for the rape campaign by his
soldiers in Central African Republic. This is the first ICC conviction for rape as a war crime and
a crime against humanity.
I hope that as we celebrate the women of Penn Law, we may remember women around the world
who struggle for justice and equality under the law. This is another goal of the summit.
That is why the Dean has made this Summit a center piece of groundbreaking initiatives that
Penn Law is spearheading. At Penn Law, we are partnering with UN agencies and multilaterals
to advance womens leadership and gender equality around the world women who are denied
equal protection under law. The Editor Rothkopf of Foreign policy has said that the systematic,
persistent acceptance of womens second-class status is historys greatest shame.
Last week at the UN during the Commission of the Status of Women we announced that some of
our students would be presenting a report to the UN on Gender Equality as a Tool of
Counterterrorism. At that event, the UN applauded Penn Laws role in advancing gender equality
around the world. Leading law schools like Penn Law have a role to play in protecting the rights
of all to education, especially in addressing the threat to girls education, from Malala to the girls

of Boko Haram. As the UN Secretary General has said: What is it a about a girl with a book that
so threatens a man with a gun.
The Dean, Corey and I were in UNESCO last week celebrating the 105th anniversary of womens
international day on womens education. Irina Bokova, the Secretary General of UNESCO and a
leading contender for the post of Secretary General congratulated Penn Laws role in addressing
threats to womens education as one of the great challenges of our time.
On that note, Penn Law hosted a major event the UN Secretariat that brought over 200 alumni on
the role of the law schools, law students, and lawyers in addressing global gender equality and in
the newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals.
We hope that the Womens Summit will provide the momentum for more exciting and critical
initiatives to advance gender equality and Penn Laws role in the world.
In the final analysis, Secretary Hillary Clinton, one of our honorees has said that full equality for
women is the great unfinished business of the 21st century. How far we have come from the time
of Kilgore to how far we still have to go to make Kilgores legacy real in the world will depend
much on this first historic summit and I know that future generations of women of Penn Law will
look back to the women of this summit, the way we look back on Carrie Kilgore who made all of
this possible.