|
Projects
Resources
About Us
Contact Us
Members
|
Press Release - Sept. 9 Speaker
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 6, 2000
CONTACT: Mimi Cunningham [info deleted]
NATIONAL POLITICAL LEADER AND AUTHOR HARRIETT WOODS TO SPEAK AT NC WOMEN'S
FORUM SEPT. 9 AT WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH
WILMINGTON - Harriett Woods, former lieutenant governor of Missouri and
past president of the National Women's Political Caucus, will be the
featured speaker at a meeting of the Women's Forum of North Carolina at
11 a.m., Saturday, Sept. 9 at the Holiday Inn SunSpree Resort at
Wrightsville Beach.
Author of the book, Stepping Up to Power: The Political Journey of
American Women (@2000 Westview Press), Woods is perhaps best known for
her work from 1991-1995 when the National Women's Political Caucus
helped elect hundreds of women to public office. She was also chair of
the Coalition for Women's Appointments that worked with the Clinton
administration to achieve a record number of appointees of women to
senior policy positions.
The Women's Forum of North Carolina was organized in 1976 as an
invitational organization through which women of proven influence and
personal achievement are effective agents for constructive change. A
major focus for the Women's Forum is increasing the number of women
serving on powerful governmental, philanthropic, and corporate boards
and commissions.
Currently serving as president of the forum is Wilmington resident Mimi
Cunningham, assistant vice chancellor for university relations at UNC
Wilmington. Cunningham was instrumental in bringing the forum meeting
to the Wilmington area.
Members of the public may attend Woods' talk at 11, but a luncheon at
12:30 is by $25 reservation only. Copies of her book will be on sale
after the program courtesy Barnes & Noble, and the author will sign
them.
Harriet Woods currently lectures at the University of Missouri-St. Louis
and is a commentator on radio, TV and in the press. Her public service
includes eight years as a city council member in University City, MO;
eight years as a Missouri state senator; and two years as a state
transportation and highway commissioner.
In 1982 and 1986, she was the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in
Missouri. She currently serves on the National Advisory Board of Public
Campaign, the organization for campaign finance reform.
Before beginning her career in public office, Woods was a journalist,
both as a newspaper reporter and then as a television moderator and
public affairs director for KPLR-TV in St. Louis. She then ran her own
small business as an independent film producer.
Woods attended the University of Chicago and graduated from the
University of Michigan. She is a former Fellow of the Institute of
Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard
University, and a former Old Master at Purdue University.
She is married to Jim Woods, a retired newspaper editor, and has three
sons and eight grandchildren. She lives in University City, a suburb
of
St. Louis.
###
NOTE TO MEDIA: You are invited to cover her talk on Saturday morning.
Woods is a shrewd political activist. According to her book, during her
work to get women appointed to key Clinton posts as he had promised, and
seeing few results by Dec. 92, she issued a crucial news release. It
was headed by a quote of Clinton's statement, "I think I owe the
American people a White House staff, a Cabinet and appointments that
look like America." Underneath the quote, she listed all key
appointments to date by race and sex and noted the percentages. The
results were nowhere close to the 51 percent of the population then
represented by women, and Woods reports that the White House was
furious.
In the end, she writes, "more than 40 percent of the president's
appointments were women, including six women at cabinet level, and, most
significantly, a record 32 percent of all Senate-confirmed positions
(compared to 22 percent for George Bush)."
|
