Women’s Day Luncheon Aims At Stalled Progress

The women were assembled in an-air conditioned suite overlooking an outdoor court at the Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale for lunch and to celebrate women in business. But they were asked to resist the forces that might turn back the progress that has helped more women succeed.

That serious tone permeated the fourth Women’s Day Luncheon at the Connecticut Open Wednesday. The event was sponsored by Mayor Toni Harp and state Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Katherine Smith.

“I thoroughly enjoy having so many of the world’s most talented women tennis players and so many of the state’s most accomplished women here in town at the same time,” Harp said. ​“But this year women in this nation are challenged in a way I don’t think we could have imagined a year ago.”

Alluding to the election of Donald J. Trump as president, Harp encouraged attendees to use the luncheon ​“as a springboard to resist so much of what’s happening in this country this year.

“I hope we connect here as women and as activists who won’t allow pillars of this nation to be eroded without resistance,” she added.

The annual luncheon was created four years ago to honor women in business in New Haven and the rest of the state. This year’s honorees locally were La Voz Hispana de Connecticut and its president Norma Rodriguez for two decades of services to Greater New Haven and the state; and Maria Grzegorzek and her daughter Dorothy Carlone, who run the Southington-based General Machine Co.

Smith told the audience that Connecticut has tried to make progress on problems of equality and equal pay. It also promotes women owned businesses. But she said a recent survey by WalletHub shows that there is still much work to be done.

“We actually came out not so great in some of the areas we care deeply about,” she said of the survey. ​“We’re 41st in the pay gap problem. Women in our state are 23 or 27 percent behind the men in pay. We’ve got to keep working on making that problem go away. On women executives inside some of our companies, we’re not doing as well as we’d like to be doing at the state level.”

She said the state is doing slightly better than other states in the number of women elected to the state legislature, pointing to Harp as a former state legislator who was elected to the mayor’s office. Smith said women and women owned-businesses — of which 33 percent of state business are women owned — pump about $15.7 billion into the state’s economy through sales and revenue. And she said that the revenue of those women-led businesses is up 9 percent over traditionally male-run businesses.

“So, it’s an important component of our economy to have women running and owning businesses and they’re doing better than the average business,” she said.

Connecticut Open Director Anne Worcester said the Women’s Day luncheon is one of her favorite events during the week-long tournament. She was rocking a tiara Wednesday because it was ​“superhero and princess” day at the tournament. She would have preferred a Wonder Woman costume, she said, but the tiara was easier to find.

“We’re celebrating 20 years of women’s professional tennis in New Haven and Connecticut this year,” she said. ​“We kicked off the week by bringing in Martina Navratilova … and at 60 years old she’s still got it. We’re very proud of the 20-year heritage of our tournament and the fact that our past champions are like a who’s who of women’s tennis.”

Past champions include Steffi Graf, Venus Williams, Jennifer Capriati, and Lindsay Davenport. Champion hopeful, Daria Gavrilova dropped by to speak to the women and share a little about her time in New Haven for the tournament. The 23-year-old foodie tennis player, who is Russian by birth but plays professionally in Australia, said she was talked into trying BAR’s famous mashed potato pie on Tuesday.

“I was like, ​‘Are you serious? That sounds terrible,’” she said. ​“Then I tried it and I enjoyed it — though I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to order it again.”

Gavrilova is expected to face Belgian tennis player Kirsten Flipkens in a quarterfinal match on Thursday. Worcester said that what people are seeing during this year’s tourney is the transformation of women’s tennis.

“This year the field is wide open,” she said. ​“There is a changing of the guard. We’ve already seen some of our top seeds toppled.”

Worcester added that while the Open is proud of celebrating 20 years and bringing world class women’s tennis to the state, it also tries to play a supportive role to causes that touch young people, women, and the military. She also said that the tournament plays a role in not only attracting more than 50,000 fans to the Connecticut Tennis Center, it brings in about $10 million to the New Haven region in the forms of jobs, hotel rooms, and local contractors. The 25-year-old center has seen some $2.5 million in improvements thanks to bonding from the state.

“What makes me so proud is how the Connecticut Open brings the community and a diversity of people together,” she said. ​“This is how we need to live our lives and be the change that we wish to see in the world as Gandhi taught us.

“And we need to throw our energy and our self into all the areas that bigotry and hatred are ripping apart,” she added. ” Nothing makes me prouder in this tournament than helping to do that.”