By Vivian Malauulu
Special to the Signal Tribune
Hosted by California First Lady Maria Shriver, more than 14,000 women attended “Architects of Change” Tuesday in what has been dubbed a conference with a conscience at the 2007 Governor and First Lady’s Conference of Women.
In the largest one-day gathering of women in the nation, a roster of more than 50 renowned news-makers, celebrities, musicians, authors, and experts united to share conversations with the goal of cultivating a collective sense of purpose in what has become the nation’s premier forum for women.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, speaking via satellite from the wildfires, stated that although he would have liked to be at the conference, it was his responsibility to be with the victims and the responders.
The day’s theme–Remarkable Lives, Remarkable Legacies. What’s Yours?–was the thread that united messages delivered by Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan, Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair, and Professor Muhammad Yunus, a 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.
Shriver moderated the first of its kind discussion between the wives of presidential candidates. Elizabeth Edwards, Cindy Hensley McCain, Michelle Obama, Ann Romney, and Jeri Thompson described in vivid detail what it was like balancing their lives as wives and mothers while on the road campaigning with their husbands.
The all-day event culminated with the presentation of the fourth annual Minerva Awards, named for the Roman Goddess of Wisdom and Justice that graces the California State Seal. The four women who received the award were Nancy Pelosi, first female Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Commander Maureen Pennington, the first Nurse Corps Officer to command a medical battalion, “Sweet” Alice Harris, founder of Parents of Watts which has been key in restoring the once riot-ruined community, and Christy Porter, founder of Hidden Harvest, which feeds more than 10,000 families living below poverty level each month.
The First Children of California also presented Shriver’s own mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, with the Minerva Lifetime Achievement Award. In an emotional, yet cheerful introduction, Katherine, Christina, Patrick, and Christopher Schwarzenegger honored their grandmother for her work as founder of the Special Olympics.
For further information about The Women’s Conference, visit www.california women.org.
