It was a month before Gloria Steinem’s 80th birthday, but on a Saturday evening in February, on the cliffs at a resort in Southern California, 500 women were helping her celebrate early. Ms. Steinem, the guest of honor, was flanked by her longtime friends Marlo Thomas and Jane Fonda. The three hugged, and then Ms. Thomas raised a glass. “To Gloria,” she said. “The absolutely perfect leader to our revolution.”

The leadership summit, hosted by AOL and Makers, a multimedia women’s initiative, was devoted to “setting an agenda for change for women in the workplace.” For the last three days, attendees had viewed quite a show. They had listened to the former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords; Maria Klawe, the president of Harvey Mudd College; the astronaut Mae Jemison; and the comedian Chelsea Handler. They had done morning yoga, heard Martha Stewart talk about being overwhelmed by tech devices, and closed out the evening with a set from young female standup comics.

For some guests, it was their first time at an empowerment conference. For others, it was their first time being in a room with so many women at all. “My unit is 4,000 people, a majority men,” said Allison Cole, the regional president for Verizon New England, one of the event’s sponsors. “So I’ve never experienced anything quite like it. It really did feel like a sisterhood.”