About Us
The Women's Leadership Initiative (WLI) was founded in 2006 by several Yale women who wanted to create an organization that prioritized mentorship and support for female leaders on campus. Each year, the Board changes, but the fundamentals of our vision remain: WLI fosters relationships across the undergraduate student body, graduate students, Yale alumnae, and professionals from around the world. Since its inception, WLI has grown to support both small and large forums of discussion, from our WLI Salon Nights to mentorship families, Job Shadowing Days to our annual Women in Leadership Conference. Our vibrant, diverse community has helped our members found other student organizations, companies, and lasting friendships with one another.
WLI aims to create a campus culture that encourages and empowers aspiring female leaders at Yale. We simultaneously embrace diverse styles of leadership and emphasize the ethic of an assertive woman who finds strength in principle and magnanimity toward others. We seek to achieve our mission by providing a community within which women may support one another’s endeavors; by extending that community to professors, administrators, graduate students, alumnae, and professionals; by presenting speakers who may serve as role models for our members; and by finding ways to cooperate with other institutions on campus so as to facilitate institutional change at Yale. The group does not espouse any particular type of political, ideological, or religious beliefs and, therefore, welcomes members of all backgrounds.
Every year, the Board puts together a diverse number of events with speakers and other undergraduates for our membership, which currently consists of over 500 undergraduates and numerous alumni. Previous events include:
The first Women's Leadership Conference in 2007: WLI invited over 180 undergraduates to participate in a conference that featured over 20 small group discussions on Yale women from all walks of life. Our keynote speaker was Ariana Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post. The Women's Leadership Conference is now an annual event. Please visit the Conference tab for more information.
Pre-professional workshop: These workshops bring Yale female professionals to campus to speak about their paths to employment and experience in business. Past workshop leaders have included a Vice President from the Boston Consulting Group, an Associate at Goldman Sachs, and the director of Women in Management at Yale's School of Management.
Mentorship programs: Underclassmen are grouped with upperclassmen in mentorship pairs based upon their pre-professional interests. Undergraduates can join any time.
Speaker series: Our ongoing "Women in Law" and "Women in Science" dinner series features accomplished women who have either graduates from Yale or work at Yale.
Previous speakers include: Ann Curry (co-host of Dateline NBC), Mary Robinson (former president of Ireland), Justice Margaret Marshall (Yale Corporation member and Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts), Asha Rangappa (Associate Dean of the Yale Law School and former FBI agent), and more.
Panels for undergraduate life: WLI has put together sessions for mock interviews and summer internship opportunities.