About CWGCS

Message from the Director

As we usher in a new decade, we can’t help but feel that we are on the cusp of monumental change. We imagine a new era that gives birth to the social, cultural and political transformations we have long yearned for as women. And we have a reason to be optimistic. Women make up the majority of college enrollees and graduates; women make up 51% of all workers in the high-paying management, and professional occupations, and a greater number of women are seeking elected office.

Women have made tremendous progress in educational achievements and employment equity

But the glass ceiling persists: women do not make it to top leadership positions in equal numbers as men. Although in 2007, 89% of the American public said they were comfortable with women in leadership positions in all sectors (as opposed to 77% in 2002), there is a still a persistent leadership gap. The representation of women in leadership positions is at 18% in law; 23% on academia; 16% in business; 16% in Film and TV; 22% in journalism; 11% in the military; 21% in the nonprofit sector; 17% in politics; 15% in religion; and 21% in sports (The White House Project, 2009).

Why does it matter? Why is equal representation critical?

• Because the presence in top leadership of a critical mass of women, estimated at one-third of the total, is capable of advancing cultural change in the way men, and women, perceive women’s roles, and of ending sex stereotyping and the gendered evaluation of women’s work.
• Because women bring diverse perspectives which are not only valuable to how public policy is conceived, and who is invited to the table when decisions are made; but is also advantageous to the financial bottom line;
• Because it is a matter of justice and a strength to a representative democracy.

So, as we enter a new decade, CWGCS has renewed its commitment to women’s leadership and vowed to make it its focal point in the next five years. The Women’s Leadership Academy will become not just an engine for training and preparing the next generation of women, but a think tank for collecting, analyzing and synthesizing data and trends that predict the state of women’s representation, and enable our quest for a more representative democracy.

Yes, we have many reasons to be optimstic, and many reasons to embrace a new decade defined by plenty of challenges, but also plenty of possibilities.

Dina Refki, D.A.
Director, CWGCS