By Nicole Maharaj
June 19, 2006

2006 Global Leadership for Gender Equality in Cities

Atlanta Mayor Franklin, Chair of the Women Mayors Caucus, and Axel Leblois, Special Senior Fellow of UNITAR, spoke about and encouraged the women mayors to participate CIFAL Atlanta’s 2006 Global Leadership Initiative for Gender Equality in Cities. The conference will be held sometime in the fall of this year.

As a result of the September 2000 United Nations General Assembly, 189 nations set a powerful agenda to fight poverty and extreme hunger, achieve universal education, combat HIV/AIDS, reduce child mortality and eliminate gender disparities in all levels of education by 2015. Responding to the challenge, CIFAL Atlanta will be hosting a three-day conference that will enable local authorities, mayors, governors, municipal staff and key executives to focus on this important issue through best practices and leading cutting edge trends and case models.

The ultimate goal of the Global Leadership Initiative for Gender Equality is to present a forum through which the leadership of the world’s largest and most rapidly growing cities can learn from each other and better optimize their strategic long-term plans for increasing educational, political and economic access for women.

Congresswoman Shelley Berkley discussed her women’s suffragist bill and the importance of the women mayors supporting reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), Victims of Crime Act as well as the Veterans budget.

The Congresswoman encouraged the women mayors to support her in trying to establish a day that would honor the women suffragists. The current bill that became law in August 2005 only expresses the sense that Congress would somehow respect women suffragists who fought for and won the right of the women to vote in the United States.

Jan Laverty Jones, former mayor of Las Vegas and current Senior Vice President of Communications and Government Relations for Harrah’s Entertainment, is responsible for communicating the company’s position on critical issues facing both Harrah’s and the gaming industry. Jones spoke about making the transition from mayor into the private sector. She encouraged the women mayors to get their voices heard on critical issues of importance by emphasizing the value of their power both individually and collectively.

Deedee Corradini, former mayor of Salt Lake City and former President of the Conference of Mayors, is writing a book on women mayors and leadership. The book will feature women mayors, past and present – telling their stories from childhood to adulthood, to serving as mayor and beyond. The book will focus on what drives them, what obstacles and hinderances they have overcome, and what lured them into the political arena. Other topics of the book will focus on what they have learned about leadership, what advice they have for other women – an all encompassing dialogue illustrating the stories of incredible women who have succeeded. Corradini will be reaching out to several of the women mayors for personal interviews.