The Room Where it Happened
Joline Godfrey
June 2024
A powerful song in the musical Hamilton contains the refrain, “I wanna be in the room where it happens.” It’s a line that speaks to anyone with a yen for social justice, the eradication of racism, rights for women, human rights. That line captures the hunger of everyone who feels closed out of the room where decisions are being made; deals are hammered out; agreements sealed with a handshake or a nod. To be in the room where it happens--whether you’re invited in or sneak through the back door--is essential to being a shaper of the future.
This spring, producer, activist, investor, impresario Jacki Zehner and her team hosted the SheMoney Summit/2024 in Salt Lake City. They put over 500 women and men in the room where it happens and assembled experts, artists, leaders, allies and changemakers to talk, listen, imagine, and inspire the audience to claim their economic clout to make change. The impact of the time we spent in that room will ripple out for months; years to come.
I turned up to speak at the SheMoney Summit because when Jacki Zehner calls, you show up. She’s a tireless advocate and investor in women’s power. She creates the rooms where it happens.
That said, I showed up feeling discouraged, weary of dark times. But I quickly realized I was not alone. As some of us gathered quietly in corners away from the Main Stage before the Summit began, we talked about our frustration at the loss of Roe V Wade, the rollback of rights for women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ communities--all backed by a politicized Supreme Court. We discussed the strange emergence of tradcore (a movement to bring back the 50s with women in the kitchen and men as breadwinners). We shared stories of despair. And rage. How had we time-traveled back to worrying about rights secured decades ago?
And how was this happening in the context of a parallel reality: “a transfer of wealth--from boomers to millennials putting roughly 70% of the nation’s wealth (over $30Trillion) in the hands of women by 2030.”
The first time I heard that piece of data I was in a room with a sizable group of trust attorneys and tax accountants. Shocked, I looked around to see if anyone else had heard what I did and realized no one else had reacted (I probably don’t need to say I was one of the few women in the room that day). I stayed after to ask the speaker if I’d heard right, thinking that, if no one else thought that was game changing information, I must have missed something. But I had NOT misheard. Yes, I was told. A demographic anomaly, fueled by the fact that women are living longer than men, made this real. I left that room buoyed by, what was for me, electrifying news.
That was eleven years ago. During which time we’ve seen a steady erosion of rights. The news I heard in that room clearly galvanized the populace threatened by the possibility of women’s economic clout--thus the effort to roll back rights. But it has done little to drive women to embrace and USE their economic power to make change. (Why are Magic Johnson, Tom Brady, and Dwayne Wade investing in the WNBA? Where are the women with wealth who could invest in the future of women’s sports--and the strengthening of Title 9?)
Don’t get me wrong. Plenty of women and women’s organizations are putting their money to work. Mackenzie Scott, Melinda French Gates, and women whose names are not so familiar are putting their money to work. But harnessing $33Tr to make historic change in the lives of women--and the world-- is not a job for a few wealthy women, who mean well and work independently. Rather it’s a moonshot, Harnessing women’s economic assets to build an equitable world will require coordinated effort among women who are policy makers, financial experts, writers, artists, leaders--and wealth owners.
Elon Musk and other investors have put an estimated $200 Billion into SpaceX as he shoots beyond the moon for Mars. He has worked with legislators, investors, strategic technical partners, international partners and the American public to make his vision succeed. I am not a Musk fan. HIs love of democracy seems fickle and his ‘at any cost’ brand of achievement lacks a moral compass. But his big vision, his understanding of the need for a big strategy, the engagement of many stakeholders, the willingness to stay with a vision--and the money to back it is a model for how to focus and realize a vision. Dwight Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway system was a moonshot back in the day, backed by the treasury of the United States. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s suffragette movement was a moonshot.
Spending $200B to pass the Equal Rights Amendment may sound like a moonshot, but it seems like a bargain to me. Focusing on control of state and national legislatures and corporate boards is another good use of women’s economic power. Creating a progressive response to kill all traces of Project 2025 and repudiating the attempt to use the Comstock Act of 1873 to further limit the rights of women are not crazy ideas. These are appropriate responses to the long game played by the Federalist Society, so-called evangelical churches, and backers of Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, et al. Their long game has been effective.
Which made the room that Jacki Zehner assembled all the more important. Women now have the money to turn things around. No fight for rights is ever OVER. The work is continuous, and evolving; demanding and yes, annoying, enraging. The women who suffered to get the right to vote, assumed their wins were just the beginning. We have a deep responsibility to build on their struggle and make a better world that transcends gender.
And the women Jacki Z. invited to talk that day reminded us of that. Rosie Rios, the 43rd Treasurer of the United States, whose signature appears on about $1.8 trillion worth of American currency, the majority of the roughly $2.2 trillioncurrently in circulation described her battles to get women represented on U.S. currency. (In 2022 Maya Angelo was finally put on the U.S. quarter. Watch me roll my eyes. Not at Maya Angelo, but at the fight that kept her off paper currency.) Heather McCulluch shared data to fuel legislation and galvanize voters to close the gender and race wealth gap. Nathalie Molino Nino, investor/entrepreneur and Margaret Mitchell, CEO of YWCA International inspired the audience with stories of what it takes to prevail as leaders and economic decision makers. We have the talent, the brain trust, and now, the money to make change.
Let us get back in the room and make it happen.
Some women explain their reluctance to get deeply involved in work for rights by saying they “don’t want to just flip the script just to have women become the power brokers men are.” They fear for the well-being of their sons, brothers, grandsons, partners. And so, they should. The idea is not to just turn things upside down. The vision is to change the game: why can’t we have a more equitable world in which shared power, mutual respect, rule of law, and rights for all is a shared assumption? Naive? Maybe, but with 33 trillion dollars in my (figurative) pocket, it seems a whole lot less naive.
I am tired of encouraging women to “become economically confident; get a higher credit score; learn to invest.” That’s like telling them to buy the penny candy in the corner store when the corner itself is for sale. Let’s buy the corner and clean up the street, the whole town--not just treat ourselves to the penny candy.
The Room Where it Happens, from Hamilton; Song by Leslie Odom Jr. and Lin-Manuel Mirand
Ah, Mr. Secretary!
Mr. Burr, sir
Did you hear the news about good old General Mercer?
No
You know Claremont street?
Yeah
They renamed it after him
The Mercer legacy is secure
Sure
And all he had to do is die
And that's a lot less work!
We ought to give it a try
Heh
And how you gonna get your debt plan through?
I guess I'm gonna have to finally listen to you.
Really?
Talk less, smile more
Haha!
Do whatever it takes to get my plan on the congress floor
Now Madison and Jefferson are merciless
Well, hate the sin love the sinner
Hamilton!
I'm sorry Burr I gotta go
But decisions are happening over dinner
Two Virginians and an immigrant walk into a room
Diametrically opposed
Foes
They emerge with a compromise
Having open doors that were previously closed
Bros
The immigrant emerges with unprecedented financial power
A system he can shape however he wants
The Virginians emerge with the nation's capital
And here's the pièce de résistance
No one else was in the room where it happened
The room where it happened
The room where it happened
No one else was in the room where it happened
The room where it happened
The room where it happened
No one really knows how the game is played
The art of the trade
How the sausage gets made
We just assume that it happens
But no one else is in the room where it happens
Alexander was on Washington's doorstep one day in distress and disarray
Alexander said, "I've nowhere else to turn"
And basically begged me to join the fray
I approached Madison and said
"I know you hate him but let's hear what he has to say"
Well, I arranged the meeting
I arranged the menu, the venue, the seating
But
No one else was in the room where it happened
The room where it happened
The room where it happened
No one else was in the room where it happened
The room where it happened
The room where it happened
No one really knows how the parties get to "Yes"
The pieces that are sacrificed in every game of chess
We just assume that it happens
But no else is in the room where it happens
Madison is grappling with the fact
That not every issue can be settled by committee
Congress is fighting over where to put the capital
It isn't pretty
Jefferson approaches with the dinner invite
Madison responds with Virginian insight
Maybe we could solve one problem with another
And win a victory for the Southerners
In other words
Ho ho
A quid pro quo
I suppose
Wouldn't you like to work a little closer to home?
Actually, I would
Well, I propose the Potomac
And you'll provide him his votes?
Well, we'll see how it goes
Let's go
No!
...one else was in the room where it happened
The room where it happened
The room where it happened
No one else was in the room where it happened
The room where it happened
The room where it happened
My God, In God We Trust
But we never really know what got discussed
Click boom! Then it happened
But no one else was in the room where it happened
What did they say to you to get you to sell New York City down the river
Did Washington know about the dinner
Was there Presidential pressure to deliver?
Or did you know even then it doesn't matter where you put the U.S. capital?
Cause we'll have the banks, we're in the same spot
You got more than you gave
And I wanted what I got
When you got skin in the game, you stay in the game
But you don't get a win unless you play in the game
Oh, you get love for it
You get hate for it
But you get nothing if you
God help and forgive me
I wanna build something that's gonna outlive me
What do you want Burr? (What do you want Burr?)
What do you want Burr? (What do you want Burr?)
If you stand for nothing then what'll you fall for? (What do you want Burr?)
I, I wanna be in the room where it happens
The room where it happens
I wanna be in the room where it happens
The room where it happens
I (I wanna be in the room where it happens)
I wanna be in (the room where it happens)
The room where it happens
I (I wanna be in the room where it happens)
I wanna be in (the room where it happens)
The room where it happens
I wanna be in the room where it happens (Oh)
The room where it happens
The room where it happens (I wanna be in the room)
I wanna be in the room where it happens (I've got to be, I've got to be)
The room where it happens (Oh)
The room where it happens (That big old room, oh)
The art of the compromise
Hold your nose and close your eyes
We want our leaders to save the day
But we don't get a say in what they trade away
We dream of a brand new start
But we dream in the dark for the most part
Dark as a tomb where it happens
I've got to be in the room (room where it happens)
I gotta be (the room where it happens)
I gotta be (the room where it happens)
I've got to be in the room (the room where it happens)
I gotta be, I gotta be, gotta be (the room where it happens)
In the room (I wanna be in the room where it happens)
Click, boom
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Lin-manuel Miranda
The Room Where It Happens lyrics © 5000 Broadway Music