Drexel University College of Medicine Launches VISION2020, Decade-Long Women’s Leadership Campaign to Complete Work of Suffragists; The Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company is Lead Sponsor and National Constitution Center is Vision 2020 Partner
National Advisory Board includes journalists Anna Quindlen and Cokie Roberts,philanthropist Doris Buffett, college presidents emerita Johnnetta Cole(Spelman)and Mary Patterson McPherson(Bryn Mawr), ABA president Carolyn Lamm, CEOs Lynn Elsenhans(Sunoco) and Janet Dillione(Siemens IT division), JAMA editor-in-chief Dr. Catherine DeAngelis, Olympic gold-medalist Dawn Staley, and others.
By 2020, the centennial of the 19th Amendment’s ratification, women and men will have equal access to leadership roles at all levels of American society, working together to shape every aspect of the country’s future and making America stronger as a result.
That is the goal of Vision 2020, a national initiative being launched by Drexel University College of Medicine’s Institute for Women's Health and Leadership. Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, the initiative’s presenting (lead) sponsor, is contributing $600,000 to the project.
VISION 2020 aims to complete the work of the suffragists, who pursued women’s right to vote as the gateway to full equality for their sex. While American women have made momentous strides since 1920, when the 19th Amendment was ratified, they continue to face substantial roadblocks. Women hold far fewer leadership positions than men and as a result have considerably less influence on many key areas of American life. While women represent 51% of the U.S. population1 they occupy just under 18% of the seats in Congress2. Despite the fact that they hold 43% of the nation’s wealth3 and nearly 45%of the American labor force4, women lead only 3% of the Fortune 500 companies5 (they are directors of a little over 15%6) and roughly 3% of the Fortune 10005.
VISION 2020 is the brainchild of former U.S. Senate and Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Lynn H. Yeakel, director of Drexel’s Institute for Women's Health and Leadership; founder and CEO of Women’s Way, the first and largest women’s funding federation in the country and a founder of the National Women’s Funding Network; and former Mid-Atlantic Regional Director for the U.S. Department of Health Human Services. Yeakel co-chairs VISION 2020 with Rosemarie B. Greco who was, until December, Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell’s director of the Office of Health Care Reform — a new Cabinet-level position to which she was the first appointee. Greco is a former banker who rose from secretary to become one of the top-ranking women in her industry. During her tenure as president of CoreStates Financial Corp., the $45 billion institution was ranked one of America's most profitable and efficient banks. Both women have led or participated in civic and nonprofit activities throughout their careers.
Yeakel and Greco officially introduced VISION 2020 on Monday, September 14, 2009 at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. They were joined by the leaders of VISION 2020’s founding partner: Richard V. Homan, M.D., deanof Drexel University College of Medicine, and founding sponsor RobertE. Chappell,chairman, president and chief executive officer of The Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company and Eileen McDonnell, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of The Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company; as well as VISION 2020 project director Catherine Ormerod, who outlined the initiative’s operational details.
COMPLETING THE WORK OF THE SUFFRAGISTS
VISION 2020 was inspired by the suffragists, who pursued women’s right to vote as the first step in achieving full social, political and economic equality. The initiative will focus on seven areas that go beyond the traditional spheres in which women have had the greatest influence; namely, family and community. The areas are: Politics and Government; Business, Law and Finance; Science, Technology and Health; Education; Communications and Media; Philanthropy, Faith and Voluntarism; and Arts and Culture.
Experts in each of these areas will meet over the next year, inviting 102 delegates — two women from each state and the District of Columbia, chosen through a competitive selection process — to create an action agenda for the decade 2010-2020. That agenda will be developed in the fall of 2010 at VISION 2020’S flagship event, VISION 2020:An American Conversation About Women and Leadership. The focus of the discussion will be on setting measurable objectives to advance equality for women by 2020, the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment.
A LONG HISTORY OF SUPPORTING EQUALITY FOR WOMEN
VISION 2020 founding institutions, Drexel University College of Medicine and Drexel University, have long histories of opening doors for women and minorities. Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, established in 1850 as the world’s first medical school for women, and Hahnemann Medical College, established in 1848, merged in 1993 as MCP/Hahnemann and became Drexel University College of Medicine in 2002. It was the first medical school in the country to fully integrate women's health into its curriculum. The Institute for Women’s Health and Leadership was a designated a National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 1996. A core program of the Institute is the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership for Academic Medicine, the premiere leadership program for women in academic medicine.
About VISION 2020
VISION 2020 is a national project focused on ensuring gender equality by energizing the dialogue about women and leadership. In 2010, VISION 2020 will develop and launch its decade-long action agenda to move America toward equality by inspiring and engaging new generations of women and men to finish the work of the suffragists, who pursued women’s right to vote as fundamental to social and economic justice. The centennial of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution will be celebrated in 2020.
For more information on Vision 2020, please visit www.drexel.edu/vision2020.
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FOOTNOTES
1 2009 U.S. Statistical Abstract reflecting 2007 population
(Table 7, 18+ years of age).
2 Of a total of 435 seats
in the House of Representatives and 100 in the Senate, women hold 76 and
17 seats, respectively.
3 2009 U.S. Statistical Abstract
reflecting 2004 top wealth-holders (Table 696).
4
Current Population Survey, U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor
Statistics (Table 1, Employment status of civilian noninstitutional
population by age and sex, 2006 annual averages).
5Fortune
Magazine, May 4, 2009.
6 2008 Catalyst Census of
Women Board Directors of the Fortune 500.
7 Journal
of the American Medical Association.
8 2009 U.S.
Statistical Abstract: Computed using 2006 mean income (Table 680) and
2007 population for women 25-64 (Table 7).
9 Women and
Diversity WOW! Facts 2005.
10 2009 U.S. Statistical
Abstract reflecting 2006 degrees earned (Table 288).
11Marketing
to Women, Marti Barletta, 2006.
Contacts:
VISION 2020
Catherine Ormerod, 215-255-7748
Vision2020@Drexelmed.edu