WLI in the press
Press Coverage for 2007's Conference
“The WLI, now in its first full year, has begun to develop and articulate its purpose – not necessarily to flatten an already level playing field, but also to promote and celebrate women leaders on campus. ‘This isn’t a place for us to go and whine about how men are keeping us down,’ [WLI member Kirstin] Dunham said. ‘It’s a network to share problems and build friendships and connections with other people.’” Yale Herald, 2006
“Several important events at Yale this year give hope that leadership does not discriminate by gender. Last fall a group of Yale students founded the Women’s Leadership Initiative, which brought successful women…to campus to encourage young women to pursue leadership opportunities.” The Nation, 2007
“One of the fundamental objectives of WLI is to give female leaders the tools to rise within those institutions and then pave the way for their younger peers. At a recent WLI event, one accomplished surgeon told our members that she took pride in urging her intern – eight months pregnant but fearful of seeming a slacker – to take time off, knowing that she herself had not had the same option as an intern, when superior female surgeons who could look after female interns’ needs were a rarity.” Yale Daily News, 2007
“In Debra Condren’s book Am-BITCH-ous, she writes, ‘The greatest barrier to earning more money, getting the power and recognition we deserve, and feeling entittled to save the course comes from inside of ourselves… Ambition isn’t a dirty word, but as far as many women are concerned, it might as well be.’ Condren, like the young women who launched the Women’s Leadership Initiative at Yale, believes ‘ambition is a virture, not a vice,’ and encourages women to aim for the leadership roles they frequently shy away from.” The Nation, 2007