When Patricia Moore-Pastides first met Stephanie Cooper-Lewter, she was having her <\/span>third child, working and starting a PhD. \u201cI\u2019ve always been very impressed with Stephanie,\u201d said Moore-Pastides.<\/p>\n Cooper-Lewter was left at an orphanage as a baby, one of thousands of baby girls abandoned each year in India because boys are considered more desirable.<\/p>\n \u201cI had always been really aware that gender and being a girl influenced my life trajectory,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n After being adopted into an American family, Cooper-Lewter pursued a career path helping other ignored and marginalized parts of society. She was honored by the Women\u2019s Rights and Empowerment Network at its second annual\u00a0International Women\u2019s Day luncheon after serving nonprofits throughout the Midlands like the Sisters of Charity Foundation.<\/p>\n 10<\/span><\/span> South Carolina women, ranging from gynecologists to CEOs, were honored at the luncheon for their contributions to women\u2019s rights and well-being in the Palmetto State.<\/p>\n For Moore-Pastides, that mentor relationship between her and Cooper-Lewter is what makes events like WREN\u2019s International Women\u2019s Day Luncheon so important.<\/p>\n \u201cIf this is an example of the relationships between all of the women in the room, that\u2019s exceedingly positive,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Named after a small, often overlooked bird, WREN\u2019s main goal is to create a network, or nest, of empowered women. Since starting in 2016, they\u2019ve grown their nest to include about 27,000 women.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just want to make sure that we\u2019re networking the whole state together \u2014 one big nest,\u201d said Lara Winburn, director of development.<\/p>\n Last year\u2019s luncheon sold out, with 90 attendees. The 2018 luncheon was held at Stone River to accommodate more than 180 women and their guests.<\/p>\n \u201cI only see other lawyers all day, so for me to see these other women in other fields, it\u2019s just so exciting and happy,\u201d honoree Marissa Burnette said. \u201cIt really broadens my perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n Malissa Burnette, a 2018 honoree, continues her 40-year work of defending women and other marginalized groups in the courts.<\/p><\/div>\n Burnette has worked for over 40 years defending women and the LGBT community in cases like getting the Citadel to accept women and the marriage equality suit. Now, she said, she\u2019s seeing more sexual harassment cases.<\/p>\n \u201cOf all the types of discrimination, I\u2019ve found that people did not take sexual harassment seriously,\u201d Burnette said. \u201cIt\u2019s as if men in particular did not think it was really wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n Early in her career as a lawyer, Burnette was pulled onto judge’s lap as he pet her on the head.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to encourage young women to get all of the education they can, in whatever field they want to practice in or be in, so that people have respect for them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n For a state that is ranked 46th for worst gender equality, an organization like WREN is the first step to moving up.<\/p>\n As Ann Warner, the CEO of WREN said, \u201cIf you go out on a limb, we\u2019ve got your back.\u201d<\/p>\n So it\u2019s only fitting that the theme for the 2018 International Women\u2019s Day is #pushforprogress, a principle that WREN has been fighting for since Day 1.<\/p>\n WREN board chair Jennet Robinson said it all in her toast to the honorees:<\/p>\n \u201cTo all the women who have gone before us, to all the women in this room who are doing it, and all the women in the future \u2014 because we\u2019re going to bring them along with us. We\u2019re going to pull them up and change the culture in South Carolina for women and girls. Cheers.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ten South Carolina women, ranging from gynecologists to CEOs, were honored at the luncheon for their contributions to women\u2019s rights and well-being in the Palmetto State.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":5759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[39,68],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5649"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5649"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5819,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5649\/revisions\/5819"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/WRENp3.2_Web-257x300.jpg\")