Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman is the keynote speaker of the event, entitled "Breaking Barriers," and will offer her perspective on "The Glass Ceiling: Fact or Fiction?"

"We are shining new light on this still relevant and meaningful metaphor," said Mills College President Janet L. Holmgren. "We will celebrate the many successes of women and draw attention to the continual need to bring equity and parity to the workplace."

Women still comprise two percent of CEOs in Fortune 500 companies. In California, 30 percent of 400 surveyed companies had no women executives or board members and only 13 of them had a female CEO. While enrollment at law and medical schools have nearly reached gender parity, enrollment at business schools nationwide are still predominantly male. The Graduate School of Business will continue to break barriers for women and prepare them as future business leaders.

Graduate School of Business Dean Nancy Thornborrow said that to shatter the metaphorical glass ceiling, women must enter the workforce empowered with the fundamentals of how to manage people and numbers.

"At Mills, women leave our MBA program with the skills and knowledge to excel in finance, accounting, and economics as well as the more traditional areas of marketing, organizational development, and human resources," she said. "We create well-rounded graduates who can lead and manage in all facets of an organization."

Nestled in the foothills of Oakland, California, Mills College is a nationally renowned, independent liberal arts college offering a dynamic progressive education that fosters leadership, social responsibility, and creativity to approximately 900 undergraduate women and 500 graduate women and men. Since 2000, applications to Mills College have more than doubled. The College ranks as one of the top colleges in the West by U.S. News & World Report and one of the Best 366 Colleges by the Princeton Review. For more information, visit http://www.mills.edu/.