By snoadmin
“When a lot of women on a mission get together, men get out of the way,” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said at the 20th Annual California Governor Conference on Women held at the Long Beach Convention Center Tuesday.
California’s first lady Maria Shriver hosted the event, which featured 53 guest speakers. His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, who was one of several speakers present, made his first address to a women’s conference. Some of the others included Martha Stewart, Tyra Banks, the Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson, Meet the Press moderator Tim Russert and New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd.
The theme of this year’s conference was “Women Architects of Change.”
“The conference inspires women to use their own voices to become architects of change, whether at home or in their communities, and to understand that they are not alone, but are instead an important part of something larger than themselves, which is the dynamic world we live in,” Shriver said.
About 13,000 people attended the conference at the convention center.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama took the stage and spoke to the audience about his beliefs concerning the role of women in society.
“If mother becomes more important person in the family,” he said, I think family will be happier.”
He also said that he believes that, biologically, women are more compassionate, so if women took a stronger role in the government and the military, many of the problems we face would be eliminated. He said that schools should teach “secular ethics” and that “secular means to respect all religions and non-believers.” He also spent time discussing forgiveness.
“Forgiveness means in spite of their mistake, you should not have ill feelings toward that person,” he said. “Make distinctions between human being and action.”
In addition, his sense of humor kept the audience laughing. He closed the evening with a meditation exercise in which the audience was completely silent for three minutes. “No coughing,” he added and he instructed everyone to think about the happy moments in their childhood as well as their God or whatever they believed in.
Stewart told the audience about her past and the lessons she has learned through the path of her career.
“I really wanted to be an architect,” Stewart said, as she told the audience about her aspirations during her college years. It eventually led to her starting a catering business and then writing books, magazines and having her own television show. She gave tips on how to be creative and how to beautify the home and spoke of the importance of hard work and love of beauty.
The audience laughed as Shriver told her story about a conversation she had with her son. One day, as they were walking, she said her son was stopped and asked if the woman he was with was a model. He replied she was just a housewife. Shriver said she was shocked at this response because of all the hard work that she had done throughout the years. She asked her son why he didn’t say that she was the first lady.
“Dad got elected, not you. You are a housewife,” her son replied.
She said she realized that while she was busy with everything in her life, she was in fact, just a housewife.
“Maybe we could all do more if we, in fact do less,” Shriver said. “I’ll always be a work in progress.”
During the conference, men and women attended seminars such as “Finding Ways to Quiet Your Frenzied Life,” “Entrepreneurs 101,” “How Women are Changing the World Today” and “Women at the Top: The Secrets to Her Success.”
Throughout the day, the Exhibit Hall featured more than 1,000 booths offering information and giveaways. Many of the booths provided information for women about staying healthy, as attendees were able to learn about breast cancer and teen pregnancy awareness and have their blood pressure checked.
The event concluded with a presentation of the 3rd Annual Minerva Awards to recognize six California women who have impacted the state through their community service. The six winners were Jane Alexander, who has helped get justice for victims of violent crimes for 15 years with her organization “Citizens Against Homocide,” Sandra Orozco-Stapleton, Romona Delgado, and Jennie Hernandez-Gin who founded the organization W.E.A.V.E. (Women Escaping a Violent Environment) for women who have been abused, Merilyn Hamilton, who made advancements in wheelchairs and promoted independence for people with disabilities and the Life Time Minerva Award went to Sally Ride, the first woman in space who travels speaking to children about pursuing their dreams of careers in science.
