Women of Influence
(7 votes, average: 4.71 out of 5)April 15, 2009 by Erin Casey
Maria Shriver: Empowering Others
California’s first lady is on a mission to change the world—but she has no intention of doing it alone. Rather, Maria Shriver seeks to inspire others to become architects of change. “My dream is to help empower not just my own kids but other people in my community and in my world,” she says.
An award-winning journalist and best-selling author, Shriver’s greatest legacy could be in transforming the California Women’s Conference into the largest and most successful event of its kind, extending its reach through ongoing programs to empower people with education and resources to change their lives and the world around them.
Under Shriver’s leadership since 2004, the annual California Governor & First Lady’s Conference on Women, now known simply as The Women’s Conference, has grown from a small government initiative to help small-business owners to a two-day event that draws almost 20,000 women from across the state. High-powered speakers have included Warren Buffett, Indra Nooyi, Christiane Amanpour, Mehmet Oz, Rachael Ray, Condoleezza Rice, Jean Chatzky and Jamie Lee Curtis. Sessions cover a wide range of topics, including business skills, finances, health, politics and parenting.
Shriver charted her own course early with a career in broadcast journalism. After working for local stations in Philadelphia and Baltimore, she became a co-anchor on CBS Morning News in 1985. She went to NBC in 1986, and she was a co-anchor on Sunday Today and NBC Nightly News, earning an Emmy for coverage of the Seoul Summer Olympics. In 1989, she became a contributing anchor on Dateline NBC, where she received a Peabody Award in 1998 for a documentary on welfare.
Shriver met Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1977 at a Kennedy family charity event, and the couple married in 1986. After Schwarzenegger became governor in 2004, NBC relieved Shriver of her position, citing potential conflict of interest. Shriver, who says she went into journalism, in part, to avoid politics, had not been enthusiastic about her husband’s decision to run for governor, much less about becoming first lady. But it didn’t take long for Shriver to find her new purpose.
Shriver purposefully shaped The Women’s Conference into a yearlong effort to empower women and families through an assortment of WE philanthropy programs. Funded by The Women’s Conference, and not the state, these programs provide business-skills training and economic empowerment, scholarships, counseling services and support for military families, leadership training for young women, and health services in developing countries. In conjunction with the state, WE Serve connects individuals with more than 25,000 volunteer opportunities across California. The economic impact of the hundreds of millions of volunteer hours equates to more than $17 billion in services annually.
Shriver is working to expand The Women’s Conference’s influence online (CaliforniaWomen.org). “I’ve really tried to approach the conference in a holistic way—to look at everything women and families need and approach it that way,” she says. Though she may not have been thrilled with the prospect of becoming personally involved in politics, she says, “I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this had I not become first lady.”
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I am really inspired and impressed by these women. When I think of my own accomplishments, they pale in comparison. They are very strong and talented women and I am glad they are being recognized for their achievements.