We are Women With Intention & Heart

My name is Francine, I think you've carried some of my bags.
I've been coming to WPO for 18 years, and that's 18 years of bags.
Now, it couldn't be better. But the most important thing I want to say today, aside from thanking Camille Burns, Kathy, Laura from Prudential, and the other sponsors, also our friends from Canada who know nothing about borders. They're our friends, and they're here today.

Cassandra was something. I think I'll name my next child Cassandra. Yes, I am over 80.

WPO is my favorite place to be. I've been here for years, because WPO brings us together, and we need to be together. WPO is building the future in spite of the present. Today, I am speaking to the women who carry the weight of the world and make it look like art, to you, women leading board rooms, launching businesses, managing homes, and holding entire communities together. We see you, we see you … and we know the truth. Your strength is not just what you do, but who you are. You are powerful, not in spite of your compassion, but because of it.

You are business-minded, strategic, and fiercely intelligent, and still, you hold space for grace, empathy, and integrity. That balance is not a weakness, it's your superpower. Let's be clear with our eyes open. We live in a time when a woman's freedom is not guaranteed. It's being tipped away quietly, politically, sometimes even legally. We cannot afford to be silent, not now, our independence. Not now.

Our independence in business and life and the choices we make must never be up for negotiation. We must protect it with the same fire that built our careers and raised our families. Being a strong woman does not mean hardening. It means holding fast to your values while refusing to be diminished. It means walking into a room knowing your worth and never shrinking so others are taller. You don't need to choose between power and grace, between leadership and kindness, between success and soul. You can be all of it and more. You are all of it and more. Let's stay sharp. Let's build, let's lead, and above it all, never ask the mission to be who we are. I'm going to take a word from Laura's talk because it was so darn good. We are not women by default. We are meant to be women. We are women building with intention, grit, and heart, we rise and keep rising.

Thank you, Sisters, of WPO. Enjoy the bag that you will get from Francine collections from WPO because of our gratitude to WPO. Do buy the business bag that enables your workday to walk into that room like you own it.

And remember one thing: we won the right to vote in the 1920’s. Let's keep it.

Francine Farkas Sears

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