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The first United State of Women: Empowering Women Entrepreneurs Summit was held Tuesday in Washington, D.C., showcasing the strides women have made, the challenges still ahead and how to address them.Meryl Streep. Tina Fey. Laverne Cox. Kerry Washington. Connie Britton.

Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Dr. Jen Welter, the first female coach in the National Football League.

Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, founder of Muslimgirl.net.

Jessica Williams, senior correspondent for “The Daily Show.”

Megan Smith, chief technology officer of the United States.

Five names you probably knew — and five names you probably didn’t — prominently featured in a recent viral video for the first United State of Women: Empowering Women Entrepreneurs Summit held Tuesday in Washington, D.C., showcasing the strides women have made, the challenges still ahead and how to address them.  

Hosted by the U.S. Small Business Administration, the highly publicized, invitation-only event was created by The White House Council on Women and Girls, the Department of State, the Department of Labor, the Aspen Institute and Civic Nation to bring together global leaders in the fight for gender equality.

New Jersey’s own Michellene Davis, president-elect of Executive Women of New Jersey and executive vice president and chief corporate affairs officer of RWJBarnabas Health, was invited to attend.

“I’m honored to have been given this opportunity to assist in the development of policy initiatives aimed at achieving gender parity,” Davis said. “The event was absolutely incredible, not just in its layout of topics to be discussed that day, but even just the women who attended and participated.” 

They included Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey, who interviewed the first lady on her experience with confidence and self-worth.

“We spend our time pleasing others and looking out into the world to define who we are, listening to the messages and images of the limited definitions that people have of who we are,” Michelle Obama said. “Our first job in life as women is to get to know ourselves, and a lot of times, we don’t do that.”

Davis, in particular, also noted the detail in which Vice President Joe Biden spoke regarding the role men need to play to help advance women.

“No country from this point on will be able to develop economically fully to their potential until they change their culture,” Biden said. “Changing the laws is only the beginning; we have to change the national culture, a culture that too often condones and promotes violence against women.

“I speak directly to young men and point out that it is their responsibility. We have to educate everyone about the importance of mutual respect and consent.”

President Barack Obama, Davis said, then spoke about why the U.S. needs to include more women in Congress in order to create effective workplace policies.

“I may be a little grayer than I was eight years ago, but this is what a feminist looks like,” he said. “Women are leading America at every level of society, from Hollywood to Silicon Valley to the C-suite to the federal bench to the Federal Reserve. And that is real progress — but progress is not inevitable. It is the result of decades of slow, tireless, often frustrating and unheralded work.

“A lot of the problems that cross my desk are really hard to solve, but (on) this issue of how we support working families, the policies that we could put in place that would make a meaningful difference are actual solutions. We need equal pay for equal work. We need paid family and sick leave. We need affordable child care. We need to raise the minimum wage. If we are truly a nation of family values, we wouldn’t put up with the fact that many women can’t even get a paid day off to give birth. We should guarantee maternity leave, and paid paternity leave, too. That is how you value families.”

Additional speakers and experts throughout the day would speak on various topics relating to global women’s issues, including:

• Economic empowerment: equal pay; paid sick and family leave; costs of child care; minimum wage; affordable health care; and economic, political and labor force participation.
• Violence against women: preventing it on campus and at home, in the U.S. and abroad, and improving the criminal justice response to domestic and sexual violence.
• Health and wellness: preventative care; pregnancy; delivery of women’s health care; and cost-effective preventative services.
• Entrepreneurship and innovation: training and counseling women entrepreneurs; increasing access to credit, private, international and public sector markets and federal contracting opportunities for women business owners; and investing in women entrepreneurs.
• Educational opportunity: early childhood education; science, technology, engineering and math education; free community college; and international girls’ education.
• Leadership and civic engagement: business and public sector leadership; voice and visibility; and peace and security.

The Obama administration, in partnership with private-sector companies, foundations and organizations, also announced $50 million in commitments, along with new policies, tools and partnerships, that will continue to expand opportunity for women and girls. These include:

• The White House Equal Pay Pledge;
• Updated gender discrimination guidelines for federal contractors;
• The “Who Cares Coalition” to spearhead a social change movement redefining the cultural norms, behaviors, business practices and policies around child and elder care;
• The #SeeHer initiative, spearheaded by The Association of National Advertisers Alliance for Family Entertainment, to incentivize advertisers and content creators to develop and showcase authentic, diverse women;
• More than $20 million in new commitments to the “Let Girls Learn” Initiative to support the 62 million girls around the world who are out of school with the opportunity to attain an education.

“There has been a great deal of work done, but there is so much more to do,” Davis said. “It will only be through confident advocacy that we may continue to raise our voices and solve the issues that pertain to women in business.”

Davis attended the summit with a mission to ensure women have equal access to senior corporate leadership.

“To this end, EWNJ recently launched a corporate gender diversity pledge, and it is my goal to partner with The White House Council on Women and Girls and the other participating organizations to advance this effort,” she said. “Young women are watching us closely to know how to do what we did to go further than we have. We are only going to get there by convening summits like this one, at both EWNJ and other organizations, to arm them with the information needed to be around and at the head of the table.”

To watch the inaugural United State of Women: Empowering Women Entrepreneurs Summit in its entirety, visit www.theunitedstateofwomen.org.