Vision 2020's October Conference Commences

The national gender equality initiative comes to Chicago

The national gender equality initiative known as Vision 2020 is coming to Chicago this month, but it already successfully launched its first Illinois state initiative at Chicago’s only all-girls public school, The Young Women’s Leadership Charter School of Chicago (YWLCS).

About 80 students participated in a breakfast roundtable program at the school, themed Vision 2020: A Conversation about Leadership and Equality, on Wednesday, September 14. Roundtable participants included Illinois Appellate Court Justice Joy Virginia Cunningham, who is running to become the first African American woman on the Illinois Supreme Court.

“This may sound like a cliché, but my best advice is to make the most out of every experience you’re having, because it will prepare you for success later on,” she told students. The breakfast program also featured Gwen Cohen, first vice president of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, and Nuria Fernandez, who serves as one of two Vision 2020 Illinois Delegates and is senior vice president of CH2M Hill.

Ms. Fernandez says that she and Illinois’ other Vision 2020 delegate, Connie Lindsey, executive vice president at The Northern Trust Company, chose to focus their first state initiative on educating the new generation of girls to become tomorrow’s leaders. “Our objective,” she explains, “is to ensure that girls understand that the paths to leadership are open to them and to think of themselves as the leaders they can become.”

Ms. Lindsey, who is also national president of Girl Scouts of the USA, says she and Ms. Fernandez have outlined various goals to connect middle and upper school-aged girls to resources and mentors from Vision 2020’s National Allies of women’s organizations “in order to provide them with helpful tools for their journey to leadership equality.”

The Charter School project is one example of the activities that Vision 2020’s 102 delegates around the country are developing. The initiatives range in focus from mentorship programs, to increasing the number of women who run for public office, to gaining in numbers of women on boards of directors.

The Delegates’ Second Annual Congress takes place in Chicago on October 11 – 13. There, they’ll report on the developments of their initiatives since last year’s first Congress in Philadelphia, where they officially launched the non-partisan Vision 2020 initiative at the National Constitution Center and signed the “Declaration of Equality.”

ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore is serving as co-chair of the Host Committee for the meeting, along with Melinda Johnson, director of administrative operations for Vision 2020 in Philadelphia, and myself. “Our goal at this meeting is to build upon the conversations at last year’s meeting and move Vision 2020 into the next stage: action,” says Ms. Pramaggiore.

One area of action is to advocate for “shared leadership” among women and men in all sectors of American life. At the meeting, Vision 2020 will honor five male/female leadership pairs, nominated by the public, who exemplify the concept. These pairs will be awarded Equality in Action Medals at Vision 2020’s Kudos & Comedy program, which is open to the public and takes place on Wednesday, October 12 at Chase Tower Auditorium. Ms. Pramaggiore notes that delegates will also be charged with developing strategies to advance Vision 2020’s following five national goals:

1. Achieve pay equity, so that equal pay for equal work will be the norm in America.
2. Increase the number of women in senior leadership positions in American life to reflect the workforce talent pool and demographics.
3. Educate employers about the value of policies and practices that enable men and women to share fairly their family responsibilities.
4. Educate new generations of girls and boys to respect their differences and to act on the belief that America is at its best when leadership is shared and opportunities are open to all.
5. Mobilize women in America to vote, with particular emphasis on a record-setting turnout in 2020, the centennial of the 19th Amendment.

Ms. Pramaggiore notes that to help achieve these goals, Vision 2020 will rely on support from more than 44 women’s organizations around the country who serve as National Allies, as well as its corporate sponsors. One active National Ally is the Chicago-based American Bar Association (ABA) Commission on Women in the Profession. “It’s so exciting to see diverse groups of women from virtually all professions and industries unite in pursuit of one common goal: equality,” notes Veronica Muñoz, the director of the ABA Commission on Women.

To help facilitate the Commission’s work with Vision 2020, newly elected ABA President Laurel Bellows was named to the Vision 2020 National Advisory Board and I was recently appointed as a Vision 2020 liaison to the Commission. “We have about 3,000 days to engage in the work that will bring equality into sight by January 1, 2020,” observes Ms. Bellows.

In the meantime, Vision 2020 is taking steps toward that goal by inspiring the leaders of tomorrow, like Vivian Carrillo, a YWLCS student who attended the September breakfast. “The program was inspirational,” she says. “I wasn’t familiar with the phrase ‘shattering the glass ceiling.’ But now I’m motivated to make to make sure that we do!”

For more information, to read the Declaration of Equality or secure tickets to the Second Annual Congress, visit www.Drexel.edu/vision2020. Read TCW's article about the scope of Vision 2020.

Pictured above: Nuria Fernandez and Justice Joy Virginia Cunningham visit with girls from the Young Women's Leadership Charter School as part of Vision 2020.

Tagged as: Vision 2020, YWLCS, Drexel University, womens issues, equality, Young Womens Leadership Charter School, Connie Lindsey, Justice Joy Virginia Cunningham and Nuria Fernandez