Women's Rule Summit Reminds Us Exactly That

For the second year in a row, Politico, Google, and the Tory Burch Foundation are bringing together female leaders from all industries for its Women Rule Summit. On Tuesday, congressional leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators converged at the second annual Women Rule Summit: Upping the Game to discuss the countless ways women contribute to society, what challenges they're still faced with, and what more needs to be done. While some conversations were deeply political, the panels were refreshingly bipartisan and included keynote speakers included Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Vice President Joe Biden.

With the 100th woman recently entering Congress in November, this year's summit was the perfect stage for Senate and House members from both parties to meet and continue the ongoing discussion on women in leadership. Despite their political party, they all agreed on one thing: we need to keep breaking the glass ceiling. Some of the panel topics included "100 Women on the Hill: It’s Historic But Are We Sure We Should Cheer?," "After the Glass Ceiling Shatters: Raising the Next Generation of Women Leaders," and "Conservative Feminists: Why It’s Not an Oxymoron." And the list of guest speakers

was long and diverse, including politicians like Senators Susan Collins and Jeanne Shaheen and Representative Renee Ellmers; entrepreneurs like Bluemercury Co-Founder and CEO Marla Malcolm Beck; media personalities like Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker; and tech execs like Kimberly Bryant of Black Girls Code.Together, they contributed to an important overall discourse, but some made exceptionally powerful statements.

Conservative Feminism: Why It's Not an Oxymoron

If you look at the definition of working to open doors for women and to and to elevate women and to provide more opportunity and a level playing field for women, then yes indeed you are [a feminist].

— Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.)

To me, feminism really is about equal treatment, having unlimited opportunities, and making sure people realize that women should be given every opportunity that men should be given.

— Rep. Susan Brooks (R-Ind.)

Women in Tech: Changing the Ratio

I think [tech] is an industry that can make rapid change just as it has technologically as it can to adapt to a society that is diverse, because diversity is very, very good business.

— Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.)

A lot of times companies are formed by recent graduates, which goes to the issue of who's actually in the pipeline and how do we change that ... we need to start younger.

— Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.)

I think if we really get back to looking at some of the early innovators in technology who were actually women, then we can actually show girls that this is an area and space that they can belong in. They can make change and a difference.

— Kimberly Bryant, Founder of Black Girls Code

On Women in Politics

When you ask young women what they want to do with their lives, many of them want to make a difference ... for their families, for their communities, and as you think about politics ... whether it's Congress, whether it's state legislatures, on the city council or on the county council, the decisions that are made have a direct impact ... and by being involved, by getting a seat at the table you are a part of making the decisions as to where those communities go.

— Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.)

It's a decision that has to be made by women, that they will run ... that's why I keep saying to women, 'Know your power; you have it within you to undertake any of these tasks. There is nothing more wholesome to government, to politics, to civic life of our country, to anything, any endeavor than the fuller participation of women.

— House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi

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