|   Current Schedule   |   Mailing List   |   Dinner Registration   |   |  Membership Application   | Past Events | The Women In Leadership Series Is There a Need? The Women In Leadership Series was founded by six undergraduate women who recognized that there was a severe shortage of women in leadership positions at the University of Pennsylvania. Currently, there are few available institutional forums for women to meet and to address leadership roles traditionally dominated by men. We hope to create an environment for students to discuss women in leadership. Learning from other women's experiences will provide the opportunity to have an ongoing discussion about this issue. We believe that it is only through the interaction between influential and successful female leaders from a variety of fields that we can motivate more women to strive for positions of leadership both on campus and in the workplace. We hope to create an on-going forum where women can serve as role models and mentor University women throughout their educational careers. Statement of Purpose The purpose of this lecture series is to provide a forum for students to discuss leadership. Our hope is that this series will promote a heightened awareness of the problems women face in acquiring leadership positions. In our efforts to examine these issues, we hope to provide undergraduate women with constructive and workable solutions. Speakers should be influential and successful female leaders in a variety of fields both from within the University and from the larger community. This series is intended to be an ongoing monthly series. In the future, we hope to add supplementary programs such as workshops on various women's issues in conjunction with the Trustees' Council of Penn Women. Description The program consists of a series of programming that emphasizes the role of women in leadership positions. One format of the series features two components: a lecture and a dinner. The first component of the program is an hour long open lecture with a question and answer period. The speaker should address the barriers she encountered and what mechanisms or strategies she used to overcome those obstacles to achieve her success. The second component, a dinner held at La Terrasse, will include ten undergraduate females selected on the basis of their diverse interests. The dinner will provide a personal and informal environment where open discussion can occur between the students and the invited speaker. The WILS Freshman Women's Dinner is an annual event that gathers female student leaders from a variety of campus activities to discuss their various areas of interest, and encourage freshman women to become involved in campus events from the outset of their college career. By having each student leader speak, followed by an informal dinner where freshman can ask questions and meet upperclasswomen with similar interests, a comfortable environment of learning is created. Another annual event, the Penn Firsts Dinner, recognizes the impressive advancements of Penn female faculty members in their careers. By interacting with the women pioneers of the Penn community, undergraduate women can better understand the opportunities and challenges women have faced in academia. Current Members: Titilola Bakare – C ‘06 Jackie Connor – C ‘06 Megan McIntosh - C '06 Ashley Steinberg – C ‘06 Laura Forton - W '07 Juliana Herman – C '07 Laura Klein- C '07 Sharon Orbach - C '07 Cara Suvall- C '07 Veronique Valcu – C ‘07 Allison Wu- C '08

The Women in Leadership Series

E-mail: wils@dolphin.upenn.edu