Molly Hellring will get her voice four days too late.
The Mt. Lebanon High School senior turns 18 four days after the Nov. 4 election -- a frustrating bit of timing that wasn't far from her mind as she listened to political and social notables at the Pennsylvania Governor's Conference for Women extoll the virtues of taking a greater role in the world.
"I think the law should be changed so you can vote if you turn 18 any time in an election year," Hellring said.
Conference organizer Leslie Stiles, executive director of the Pennsylvania Commission for Women, said she sympathizes with Hellring, but noted that at least she's talking about what needs to change.
"It's all about where you're going to go from here, how you're going to make the world better," Stiles said of the daylong conference at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown. The fifth annual conference, hosted in Pittsburgh for the second time, drew about 5,000 women, she said.
The keynote speaker, Elizabeth Edwards, addressed the crowd by phone because she was too ill to travel from her North Carolina home. Edwards, wife of former senator and former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, said her illness was a viral infection that was unconnected to the breast and bone cancer she is battling.
"I'm relieved about that, but I'm still enormously disappointed because I'm here in North Carolina," Edwards said during her brief address.
Other speakers included Ambassador Nancy G. Brinker, founder of the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, and Naomi Tutu, a human rights advocate.
Edwards was scheduled to speak about health care, an issue she long has championed. Edwards announced last year her breast cancer had spread to the bone and become incurable.
She only recently re-entered public life following a weeks-long hiatus after her husband admitted to having an affair. She has been campaigning against the health care proposals of Republican presidential nominee John McCain.
Edwards supports mandatory universal health coverage, a position that puts her closer to Democratic nominee Barack Obama. McCain supports tax credits that people can use to buy health insurance.
"Elizabeth Edwards has probably been the strongest and most effective advocate for expanding health care in this country," Gov. Ed Rendell said shortly before addressing the conference's lunch session. Rendell told the crowd that women accounted for 54 percent of the vote in Pennsylvania in 2004, and he expects them to make up as much as 58 percent this year.
In addition to encouraging political engagement among women, the conference included seminars on negotiating a higher salary and balancing family and job responsibilities, and offered a chance for job-seekers to network.
Stephanie Rael, 33, of Westwood has a master's degree in business administration and came to the conference in part to find somewhere to use it. After spending her professional life working for nonprofits, she's looking to break into the for-profit sector.
"The networking is great," said Rael, who moved to Pittsburgh from Boston two years ago. Despite the economic crisis, Rael said after leaving the convention center floor, where she spoke to several business leaders, that she remains optimistic. "I have this degree. I think there's a perfect job for me."
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