CPA News Releases, Advisories, and Editorials

Washington, DC — On November 10-12, government leaders, economists and academic specialists from the United States and the United Kingdom will meet at 11 Downing Street to discuss a new economic agenda that invests in women’s economic leadership potential.

The Summit at 11 Downing Street was initiated by Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer and the leading economic policymaker in the U.K., to bring new thinking, new perspective and new action to integrate women into 21st century economic solutions.

Keynoting the “Women in the New Economy Summit at 11 Downing Street” Nov. 10-12 is the Right Honourable Gordon Brown, MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Her Excellency the Honourable Linda Tarr-Whelan, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, along with the Right Honourable Baroness Margaret Jay of Paddington, MP, Majority Leader of the House of Lords.

The Summit will begin on Wednesday, November 10, with a reception at the residence of U.S. Ambassador Phillip Lader and Mrs. Lader. Attendees will include Summit participants and Mrs. Cherie Booth, wife of Prime Minister Tony Blair. There will be a press briefing at 8:00 a.m. the morning of the 11th at 11 Downing Street. Further details on the schedule and specific media arrangements will be available November 9th.

The twenty-five invited U.S. participants will be led by Linda Tarr-Whelan, President of the Center for Policy Alternatives, the U.S. co-convener of the Summit. Among the American women who will attend are state legislators, corporate leaders, women business owners, and government leaders. A full list of the U.S. participants is included.

The Summit builds on the Blueprint for Action from the Women’s Economic Leadership Summit at The White House in Washington D.C. in April 1997. That gathering, also cosponsored by the Center for Policy Alternatives, sparked countless women’s economic initiatives across the United States to expand entrepreneurial opportunities for women and create employment policies that support advancement of women and enable women and men to navigate the demands of work and family.

“Women are playing an increasingly larger part in every economy-that’s just a fact,” said Tarr-Whelan before the gathering. “Therefore it is more than time for our new leadership to think about growth in a way that builds on women’s assets, a way that makes sense for businesses and families and the communities that support all of them. This Summit at 11 Downing Street is a key step in taking this premise global.”

The Summit will evaluate the reality of the new global economy in relation to women’s enormous current and potential role. Questions being considered include:

• the phenomenal growth in women-owned small businesses (one million in the U .K., nine million in the U.S., double the 1987 figure)

• the surge in the number of educated women (more women than men are now enrolled in undergraduate courses in both countries), and

• the continued high level of women in poverty (U.K women still earn 80 pence for every pound earned by a man; U.S. women earn 74 cents per man’s dollar).

The Women in the New Economy Summit at 11 Downing Street is co-sponsored by the Center for Policy Alternatives, a Washington-based non-profit policy and leadership development organisation; The Women’s Unit of the Labour government’s Ministers for Women; and The Smith Institute, a London-based research institution concerned with public policy and social values. Marriott International and IBM are U.S. sponsors of the Summit.