Successful women professionals spoke to more than 3,000 women of all ages at the first-ever Massachusetts Conference for Women at the Boston Convention Center on Wednesday, addressing the challenges women face in the workplace today and encouraging them to pursue their career goals.
“It’s energizing to see so many women here,” said Kathy Kaufmann, a teacher at Simmons College’s School of Social Work. “It’s especially exciting, because this is the first women’s conference ever in Massachusetts. I’m always interested to be among women, learning from women, celebrating women.”
Many attended the conference with a large group of co-workers or friends and said they hoped to gain insight from the speakers and workshops.
“I decided to come, because I’ve been involved with women and leadership in the nonprofit sectors,” said Rachel Sagan, who works for the Sudbury Valley Trustees, a regional land trust for conservation. “I think it’s important that women get together professionally and support each other. I hope to listen to other women leaders and hear about their vision for the future, both in the workplace and personally.”
A rare male attendee, Walker Coppedge, from the Epiphany School in Dorchester, brought a group of high-school-age women to the conference.
“It’s great for our girls to see such wonderful role models,” he said. “It shows them that there are bigger goals out there to achieve.”
Attendees could choose to attend any of 11 panels on various topics ranging from gender and ethnicity issues to the struggle of balancing family life and work.
At the conference’s Gender, Ethnicity and Leadership seminar, Marilyn Johnson, vice president of market development for IBM, talked about her determination to succeed in the male-dominated business world.
“When I started at IBM, those being recognized in business were mostly men,” she said. “It was devastating to me to realize that the playing field was not equal — period. I had to focus on the strengths that I had. In order to command respect, I went into the proving mode for the first decade on the job.”
Kathleen O’Toole, Boston’s police commissioner, talked about her career and her devotion to her job.
“I never dreamed I would be a police officer, let alone the police commissioner,” she said. “Boston didn’t even allow women into the force until 1972. I remember seeing that on the news and thinking, what woman in her right mind would do that?”
O’Toole said she worked as a supervisor in a division of the Police Department where, out of 700 officers, only 12 were women, and none of them had leadership positions.
In February 2004, Mayor Thomas Menino offered O’Toole the job of police commissioner.
“It was not a decision of the head, but a decision of the heart,” O’Toole said about accepting the job. “I decided to go back to the organization where my career got its start … There hasn’t been one day that I’ve regretted taking the job.”
Joanna Lau, CEO of LAU Technologies and an engineer who has run her own business for 15 years, said women should work hard to fulfill their personal goals.
“At one point, I asked my husband, ‘Should go for an MBA or have a child?’ He said ‘MBA,'” Lau laughed.
“If you don’t ask, you don’t get,” she said. “I am a very proactive person, and I always like to know where I stand. That is advice I give to everyone, even my daughter. You might miss out on something if you don’t go after it.”
The keynote speakers at the conference — Susan Lyne, CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and Bertice Berry, a comedian — highlighted the daylong, often-emotional event.
Berry cracked jokes, shared stories from her life and even burst into a song about cooperation and love. Tears streamed down her face when she talked about the death of her mother, and the crowd awarded her speech with a standing ovation.
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