I’ve attended and have been a speaker at quite a few women’s conferences across the country, and I’m pondering today why women need such events.

Right now, I’m sitting in grand Hall A of the Pennsylvania Convention Center ready to hear the first keynote speaker of the Eighth Annual Pennsylvania Conference for Women.

The line up this morning:

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter
Pennsylvania Governor’s First Lady Susan Corbett
Helene Gayle, president and CEO, Care USA
Irene Chang Britt, chief strategy officer, Campbell Soup
Gretchen Rubin, author, “The Happiness Project”
Martha Beck, a life coach and columnist for The Oprah Magazine

I’ll be live blogging throughout the day, sharing some of what I hear.

I’d love to know your thoughts, and also, if there’s someone at the conference you want me to ask of question of, or listen to speak, let me know. Here’s a link to the conference.

Corbett is talking about Ernest Shackleton, the Antarctic explorer who led a failed voyage. “Shackleton is remembered as a great leader,” she said, because through hardships, he brought the 28 men under his command home.

“There is risk involved in making changes, or trying something new. If you take risks there is a chance you’ll encounter failure.” She said she suspects it’s that fear of failure that’s the hardest for women to overcome.

Is she right? Are women more fearful of failure, more so than men? (more…)