Distinguished leaders from politics, business, international organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and the grassroots will join over 200 national and international participants at the Kennedy School of Government for Harvard's First International Women's Leadership Conference, to be held May 29-31.

The conference provides a dynamic venue for issues of importance to women to be rigorously addressed and debated. To kick off the conference, The Right Honorable Baroness Shirley Williams of Crosby, U.K., will discuss "Women's Leadership: Breaking the Barriers" at the opening dinner on Thursday, May 29, at 7:30 p.m. in the ARCO Forum.

Over the course of the three-day conference, more than 60 speakers from around the world will take part in the discussions, including: The Honorable Najma Heptulla, deputy chairman of the Upper House of Parliament in India; Kim Campbell, former prime minister of Canada; The Honorable Connie Morella, U.S. congresswoman from Maryland; The Honorable Barbara Roberts, former governor of Oregon; The Honorable Portia Simpson, minister of labor, social security, and sport in Jamaica; Julie Boatright Wilson, director of the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy; Debra Lee, president and chief operating officer of Black Entertainment Television; Dato' Nellie Tan-Wong, Women's Institute of Management in Malaysia; and Judith Lichtman, president of the Women's Legal Defense Fund.

The conference will focus on questions such as "Are women leaders shaping policy agendas in ways which reflect their experiences?," "In the wake of the U.N. conferences at Nairobi, Cairo, and Beijing, how are women faring as leaders in different cultures, different countries, and different sectors?," "Are women transforming the public sphere, or merely adapting to it?," "Do women leaders have distinctive values, work-styles, and ways of managing?," "How can women contribute to the solution of global problems?," and "What new challenges will the 21st century pose for women leaders?"

From these questions, six workshop topics have been chosen for examination: Leadership in Government: Women's Representation; Equal Opportunities for Women; Leadership in the Private Sector: Women as Executives and Entrepreneurs; Leadership in the Community: Issues of Gender, Work, and Family; Leadership at the Grassroots: Economic Empowerment; and Leadership in Global Economic Reform.

In addition to the workshops, the conference offers two simultaneous lunch panels on Friday, May 30, at 12:15 p.m. The Business Panel Lunch, "What are the Challenges Facing Women in Business?" will be held in Starr Auditorium and features Martha Crowninshield, director of Boston Ventures Management Inc.; Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Class of 1960 Professor of Business Administration at Harvard; Ellen Knapp, vice chairman of Coopers and Lybrand; Rosalie Jeanne Tran, director of the Chevalier Group of Hong Kong; Cathy Minehan, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston; and Sheila Wellington, president of Catalyst.

The second lunch panel, focusing on Nongovernmental Organizations, "What are the Challenges Facing Women in NGOs?," will be held in the Taubman Conference Center and features Jan Piercy, U.S. executive director of The World Bank; Susan Tibballs, co-founder of The Women's Communication Centre, U.K.; Joan Dunlop, president of the International Women's Health Coalition; Wendy Luers, president of The Foundation for a Civil Society; The Honorable Siti Zaharah Sulaiman, deputy minister of the Ministry of Health in Malaysia; and Jacqueline Pitanguy, director of CEPIA in Brazil.

The conference was developed by The Women's Leadership Initiative, which will provide fellowships for women at the Kennedy School, commission cases about women, and host the International Women's Conference every two years.