'Where Are the Women?' Nancy Kaffer Asks from Detroit Chamber's Conference

Those first four words above are the lead sentence of a column by Free Press editorial writer Nancy Kaffer from the Mackinac Policy Conference under way through Friday.

Kaffer calls out a gender gap on stages at the yearly Detroit Regional Chamber gathering of business executives, politicians, civic leaders, lobbyists, journalists, entrepreneurs and others on Mackinac Island. On the first day of presentations Wednesday, "not one woman took the conference stage as keynote speakers or panelists," she writes.

Women, you’ll note, attend the conference (with its nearly $3,000 price tag) in large numbers.

Yet over the course of three days, 41 men, most of them white, will take the stage as keynote speakers or panelists.

And just eight women.

Two women -- heroic Flint pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha and national journalist Soledad O'Brien -- were granted "Mackinac moments," a 10-minute time slot between main sessions. O'Brien also will be a panelist on Friday.

An agenda highlights sheet at this week's conference. (Twitter photo)

Sen. Debbie Stabenow was a panelist Thursday morning, joining three men to discuss "The Value of Defense: Protecting and Growing Michigan’s Assets." Nolan Finley of The Detroit News moderated.

Yet Stabenow isn't on the cover of the chamber's Detroiter magazine distributed at the event, which shows five men and O'Brien.

Here's why it matters, according to Kaffer:

Ensuring that women are part of a panel, particularly when you’re talking about politics or policy, means reflecting the diverse viewpoints of the state to whom those policies will apply.

And when women aren't at the table, policy is lopsided.

In response to her inquiry, chamber president Sandy Baruah’s emailed three sentences: “We work to balance race, gender and perspective based on the issues we select for each conference. Some years we succeed more than others," he began.

The newspaper columnist also quotes Carolyn Cassin, head of the Michigan Women’s Foundation and a chamber board member not involved in conference planning:

“There’s an old adage that goes, you can’t become what you can’t see. You have to see it to be it.

“And if the most important and powerful conference that brings all business leaders together in the state doesn’t showcase what we are and what we could be, it’s pretty hard to make the statement that you’re representative of the community.”

As Kaffer sees it, good intentions and goal-setting aren't enough. "If something’s important to you, you do it. There’s no shortage of talented, qualified, successful women in Michigan."

Among supportive tweets with the hashtag #noladiesmpc16 is one from Julia Cuneo, an education management professional, who posts: "I want a state that respects me, I want to be represented."

Another reaction comes from Lisa Katz, executive director of an employment collaborative called the Workforce Intelligence Network for Southeast Michigan: