Amidst the backdrop of power and electoral politics in Washington, DC, the Filipina Women’s Network (FWN) gathered the "100 Most Influential Filipina Women in the US" at its 5th Annual Filipina Summit—"Pinay Power 2012: Filipina Voices Changing the Face of Power in America." The FWN 100 were celebrated by their peers at a gala awards ceremony for their lasting and significant contributions to the emergence and recognition of Filipina women as influential power brokers in the US.

Ignited by an initiative of Filipina Power 2012—a result of the Filipina Summit’s Future Search in 2006—FWN launched a groundbreaking six-month search for remarkable Filipinas who have shifted the course of events in their own areas of influence through ideas, activities, and public interactions. In the one hundred years of Filipino immigration in America, the FWN 100 have moved beyond gender, race and power boundaries, affected change and inspired passion, gathered wisdom and roused compassion, and intuitively redefined how to spread influence in their careers and in the local and national communities in which they thrive.

A selection committee pored through hundreds of pages of letters of nomination, news articles, resumes, biographies, and archival videos and photos. Recognizing these women is a critical first step in changing public perceptions of Filipina women’s capacities to lead, innovate, and influence society and to create strong leadership in the Filipino American community by 2012.

The FWN 100 distinction is a working award. Awardees have pledged to "womantor" the next generation of leaders by forming a new circle of inter-generational women that will sustain the wealth of Filipino heritage and remarkable Pinay leadership for the next 100 years. The "Keepers of the Flame"—an esteemed group of Filipinas, was formed to ensure the Pinay Power 2012 goals are kept alive. The FWN 100 and their protégées will return to the Filipina Summit in 2012.