Blog Archive » Trinity Alumnae

Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, Trinity Class of 1970, is in vogue. Really! She's in Vogue magazine this month, but even more, she's in vogue politically — chosen by her party's leadership (notably House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Trinity '62) to give the Democratic response to President Bush's State of the Union Address tomorrow, Monday, January 28. Her name is also appearing with increasing frequency as a possible candidate for a national presidential ticket this year or in the next election cycle.

Governor Sebelius is well respected as an amazing political leader, twice elected governor of Kansas — a well known Republican stronghold — even though she is a Democrat. She has been able to build bipartisan coalitions around issues of importance to the people of Kansas. Her cooperative model of governance is something our nation could certainly use! Full Article

"Always take a clean copy of your resume to a job interview."

"Dress for the next job you aspire to have."

"Carry yourself as though you know where you're going."

Cathie Black's wit and workplace wisdom leaps from every page of her bestselling book Basic Black: The Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life). Cathie's quotations italicized throughout this blog and many other pithy pieces of advice throughout her book are valuable rules for young workers just starting out on their career ladders, and even more experienced professionals who need reminders about the basic rules of working life.

Cathie's triumphant return to Trinity last evening was a marvelous occasion to celebrate the great success of this member of the Class of 1966, and her classmates, alumnae friends and several hundred students turned out in force to meet Cathie, snag copies of the book, and listen to her insights gathered from a long and hugely successful career in publishing. Full Article

Two Trinity Women are among "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women" according to Forbes Magazine. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi '62 (#26 on the list) and Hearst Magazines President Cathleen Black '66 (#94) join such notables as Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel (#1), U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice (#4) and Wu Xialing of the People's Bank of China (#18).

Congratulations to Nancy and Cathie!

Several articles that accompany the Forbes List discuss women's progress in attaining leadership positions in government and business around the world. The list includes 29 political leaders and 66 business executives, as well as a handful of entertainers, journalists and independent achievers.

Forbes acknowledges that while women are making progress in many places, barriers remain for all too many women. In data that Forbes cites from Catalyst (an organization that tracks women in corporate management) women hold only 15.6% of 10,000 corporate officer positions in the Fortune 500. Women have a long way to go in corporate leadership. The Washington Business Journal recently published a list of the 200 top executives of public companies in the Washington region ranked by total compensation. Only one woman was on the list of 200 names.

A sidebar article on political women notes that the 14% proportion of women in the United States Congress pales in comparison to other nations (Afghanistan has 17%). The writer notes that, "Moreover, U.S. Sen. and former first lady Hillary Clinton (No. 25) may make history by winning the Democratic presidential nomination. But will she make history again by winning the presidency? Clinton might have had a better shot at it if she were born in England, Germany, India, Pakistan or Israel."

Surely, someday, a woman will be president of the United States. Surely, someday, this discussion will truly be ancient history. But today, in early 21st Century America, the drive for women's equality and respect for women's leadership at the highest levels of business and government continues to be an elusive goal. While a few notable women have achieved hard-won success in securing top positions, blazing trails for rising generations, the revolution is far from over.

As I read the marvelous, moving essays of Trinity's newest generation of young women in the Class of 2011 (excerpts published on our website, see "I Am the Artist of My Life…The Director of My Future") I find renewed affirmation of the importance of Trinity's mission in educating and advancing women leaders for our world. The "100 Most Powerful Women" lists provide great role models for the rising generations, and incentive for future leaders to plot their trajectories onto those lists years hence. Having great Trinity Women like Nancy Pelosi and Cathie Black on those lists makes everyone at Trinity so proud, especially our students, and makes that kind of achievement seem more possible because our alumnae sisters are leading the way. Onward!

See "most powerful women", "Cathleen Black", "Nancy Pelosi"

A woman at the helm at Harvard! A distant dream not so long ago, when the last Harvard President (Larry Summers) was questioning the ability of women to succeed in the sciences, this weekend the Harvard Corporation (their version of the Board of Trustees) announced the appointment of Dr. Drew Gilpin Faust as the 28th President of Harvard.

Best news: Dr. Faust is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College, one of the nation's distinguished women's colleges. And she takes the helm at Harvard from the position of Dean of the Radcliffe Institute, the branch of Harvard that was once the estimable Radcliffe College, one of the "seven sisters" women's colleges. For more on Dr. Faust's background read today's article in the New York Times and Jay Mathews' profile of her in today's Washington Post.

2007 is shaping up as a great year for women's colleges and our alumnae. In a few short weeks, we've seen one of our graduates sworn-in as the highest-ranking woman ever in the American government and the first female Speaker of the House — our very own Nancy Pelosi, Trinity '62. Just a few weeks later, another women's college graduate — Wellesley's Hillary Rodham Clinton — launched her campaign for the U.S. Presidency, and she's the first woman ever to have a serious shot at winning.

Now, today, Dr. Faust joins this rarified group of exceptional women leaders who are blasting through some of the most significant barriers to women's achievement in contemporary culture.

The fact that this group of women are all graduates of women's colleges is hardly surprising to those of us who know the power of the graduates of women's colleges. These three women exemplify all of the reasons why Trinity and other women's colleges persist in this important mission. For more than a century these institutions have produced some of this nation's most outstanding women leaders — in numbers quite disproportionate to the actual size of our institutions in American higher education. Consider Trinity: a relatively small institution that has had two members of Congress (Nancy Pelosi and now-retired Barbara Kennelly '58), including the Speaker of the House, a Governor (Kathleen Sebelius '70) who is now the first woman to head the Democratic Governors Association, two federal judges (Rosemary Collyer '68 and Claire Eagan '72) and scores of other public officials and citizen leaders.

Some people say that, with coeducation now normative, there's no longer a need for women's colleges. I say: behold Speaker Pelosi, Senator Clinton, President-elect Faust. They are the latest, but far from the last, in a centuries-long tradition of women's achievement that is promoted, honored, respected and advanced by colleges and universities that focus on women's education and leadership. Imagine how impoverished our world would be without these and so many other pioneering women who are among our alumnae. Our day is not over, far from it — inspired by the great example of these women leaders, I wager that women's colleges and our students will grow even stronger in our determination to succeed and surpass their achievements! In the ways in which we honor, encourage and expand women's horizons, the value of this form of education to our world will continue to be a gold standard for women's education everywhere.

Visit the website of the Women's College Coalition

See harvard

Washington Post article

"Woman Chosen to Lead Harvard"

Today, a Trinity Woman made history. Shortly after noon, Nancy Pelosi, Class of 1962, took the oath of office as Speaker of the House of the Congress of the United States. She is now the highest ranking elected woman in our nation's history, the first woman Speaker of the House. Click here to see a video clip of her first remarks as Speaker:

Pelosi%20Swearing-in.ram

Yesterday, there were a lot of goose bumps and wide smiles as members of the Trinity family gathered with Speaker Pelosi's family and friends to pray with her, invoking the blessings of the Trinity on her important work, and to share the pride and excitement of this historic moment for our nation, for women's advancement, and for Trinity. Members of the Green Class of 1962 were everywhere, it seemed, beaming with pride in the accomplishments of their "Sister Speaker" while extolling the virtues of their Trinity days. For at least a few days, the Class of '62 may lay claim to being "the greatest" — though others will quickly rise to that challenge! — but even that great member of the (also Green) Class of 1958 the Honorable Barbara Bailey Kennelly (Trinity's first woman in Congress, whose many achievements blazed the trail for Nancy Pelosi) was bursting with pride for the achievements of her sister alumna from '62. Hmm. I'm counting all those Green Class success stories!

110 seems to be an auspicious number right now. Trinity is entering the 110th year since our founding. Nancy Pelosi is the 110th Speaker of the House.

Many articles over the last few days have addressed this historic moment for women's leadership, and the still-high hurdles for women entering politics. 90 women will be Senators and Representatives in the 110th Congress, the largest group of women ever in our federal legislature. Yet, this number falls well behind the proportion of women serving in legislatures in other nations. The United States is also well behind when it comes to women being taken seriously as presidential candidates. Trinity needs to be addressing these issues more directly, and in the months ahead our long-awaited Trinity Institute for Women's Leadership will take shape through a series of public forums and symposia on the critical issues facing women preparing to enter public life.

To paraphrase Speaker Pelosi herself, today we have made history, but tomorrow we must make progress more rapidly. Nancy Pelosi's achievement has cracked the marble ceiling of women's leadership at the highest political levels. Will history prove this moment to be a genuine shattering of the barrier, or merely a crack that will settle back into place as the years go on? Look no further than across the Capitol front yard to the Supreme Court to realize that women's gains in securing high offices can be painfully slow to grow beyond the unusual one or two. The revolution has advanced, but it's far from over — and won't be truly won until the day arrives when women winning the positions of Speaker, Leader, Supreme Court Justice, Vice President or President are not considered unusual or rare cases.

See Pelosi,pelosi,women in politics,glass ceiling,Rutgers Center for American Women and Politics, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare