Cheers and Jeers Greet Gov.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s conference on women Tuesday featured a message of taking charge. In that spirit, a cadre of angry nurses repeatedly interrupted his speech before 10,000 women to chant in protest until being led away by security guards.

But the act of public disobedience didn’t change many minds in the cavernous Long Beach convention hall. Schwarzenegger drew raucous cheers from the audience by ridiculing the protesters from the California Nurses Assn.

The union has been holding demonstrations around the state to protest the Republican governor’s decision to allow hospitals to delay a scheduled rise in staffing levels that would have forced them to hire more nurses.

“Pay no attention to those voices over there,” Schwarzenegger said of the protesting nurses. “They are the special interests, and you know what I mean. The special interests don’t like me in Sacramento because I am always kicking their butts.”

As about 300 nurses marched outside, the union purchased 15 tickets to the event, which allowed members to paper the conference with fliers and infiltrate the governor’s speech.

In the middle, about eight nurses unraveled a banner about 100 feet from the governor and began chanting the tongue-twister line, “Safe staffing saves lives,” and “Hands off our ratios” -- a reference to past allegations that Schwarzenegger had groped women.

The convention hall was so large that most of the audience probably didn’t hear the protest, but the VIPs up front did. It was a small dose of political reality amid a conference designed to be nonpolitical and uplifting for California’s 16 million women.

The annual California Governor’s Conference on Women and Families was created 18 years ago under former Gov. George Deukmejian. Last year’s event took place just two days after voters ousted Gov. Gray Davis.

“Welcome to the estrogen festival! The largest estrogen gathering in the country,” said actress Jamie Lee Curtis, who called the governor her friend and mentor and his wife Maria Shriver her girlfriend. Before Curtis’ comments, another speaker had asked the women to hug each other.

In remarks that brought several laughs, Curtis said Schwarzenegger had “the heart of a woman. He is compassionate. He is passionate. He listens. Well, two out of three ain’t bad. He can multitask. He can find your keys. He is the ultimate girlie man” -- turning around the governor’s own words about state legislators.

Curtis later stood next to the governor as he praised her and plugged her movie, “Christmas With the Kranks.” A few buttons on her silk blouse came undone as they stood together, and Curtis grinned impishly as she buttoned up.

“I didn’t see anything, Maria,” Schwarzenegger said to laughs.

This year, Schwarzenegger’s business and Hollywood connections and those of his wife added a new dimension to the event. The conference included many of Shriver’s close friends, including talk show host Oprah Winfrey, Queen Noor of Jordan and Wanda McDaniel, an executive with designer Giorgio Armani, who led a “dress-for-success” seminar.

The women’s conference was heavily funded by several corporations and groups that do business with the state, including oil company BP, Allstate, Citigroup and Bank of America. It also featured private receptions and photo-taking sessions with Schwarzenegger far away from most of the women who paid $125 each to attend the conference.

Corporate logos flashed across projection screens while executives were allowed to introduce keynote speakers and promote their products from the dais.

Given all this, the protesting nurses were particularly upset that Schwarzenegger had called them “special interests.”

“The fact that he would call registered nurses a special interest is just completely insulting and precisely why registered nurses are out here today,” said Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the 60,000-member CNA.

“For him to pretend to care about women’s empowerment [and] at the same time gutting one of the largest professions of women in the United States is outrageous.”

An advocate for the state’s hospitals denounced the protesters’ tactics.

“It’s disgraceful and pathetic. It really dishonors the nursing profession,” said Jan Emerson, spokeswoman for the California Healthcare Assn., which supports maintaining current nurse staffing levels -- one for every six patients in medical-surgical wards, instead of one for every five under the requirement put off by the governor.

“Most nurses in California who do not belong to the CNA are individuals who are dedicated, caring people who spend their lives helping others heal. They do not support these antics, which smack of Teamster labor union tactics,” Emerson said.

The theme of the conference was “Architects of Change,” and featured seminars on women and technology, sex, body image, money problems, overcoming obstacles, activism, bringing simplicity to life, and the plight of women around the world.

Dr. Laura Schlessinger, author and talk show host, lectured women on how to nurture their husbands and not spend time man-bashing.

“Men are very simple creatures,” she said to laughs. “I don’t mean stupid. I mean uncomplicated.”

Dozens of vendors hawked their products outside the arena, from homeowner’s insurance to a $25 “menopause survival kit.” There was a posture change hypnosis booth, along with mortgage lenders, Starbucks coffee, soy distributors, Nordstrom makeup artists, volunteer groups and rows and rows of books for sale, such as “Expect a Miracle” and “Invisible Acts of Power.”

Women attending the conference said they did so because it gave them a chance to network for business, hear inspiring speeches and generally hang out in a positive environment without men.

“It makes my year,” said Amy Johnson, 35, a marketing executive. “It gets my batteries going again.”

Schwarzenegger has taken pride in the fact that nearly half of his appointees to state government positions have been women, slightly more than former Gov. Davis during his first year.

Women populate the highest ranks of Schwarzenegger’s administration, including his chief of staff. First Lady Shriver herself has been heavily involved in public policy and various personal projects involving the state, including revamping a museum in Sacramento.

That effort got a boost this week, with all four legislative leaders -- Republican and Democrat alike -- coauthoring a bill meant to convert the state history museum into a new center that would encompass a museum dedicated to women’s history.

Shriver told the crowd she wanted women’s accomplishments to get due recognition in Sacramento. “I didn’t see one picture or one mention of the first ladies that served this state,” Shriver said. “I didn’t see one exhibit honoring the women who had served this great state. Well, guess what: Now you do.”

Schwarzenegger’s record on legislation important to women has been mixed, however. Last year, he vetoed 61% of the bills that reached his desk written by the legislative women’s caucus, including a measure that would have required private insurers to include maternity care in basic benefits.

Jordan’s Queen Noor, the American-born, Princeton-educated former Lisa Halaby, was the luncheon speaker. She changed her name, converted to Islam and learned classical Arabic after marrying King Hussein in 1978. He died of cancer in 1999.

“I approached my role as queen somewhat unconventionally,” Noor said, saying conservative members of the royal court disapproved of her efforts on behalf of women and children.

“While Jordan is progressive compared to other countries in our region, all too many Jordanian women, I found, were not aware of or were not exercising their rights due to family pressures or ignorance.”

Human Rights Watch issued a report in April saying the Jordanian government imprisons women if it finds they have “dishonored” family members.

Women in Jordan, the group said, face violence if they talk to an unrelated man, marry someone without family approval, have premarital sex or become pregnant outside marriage. Queen Noor has “been a public advocate for stopping violence against women,” said LaShawn R. Jefferson of Human Rights Watch.

“That said,” Jefferson continued, “there are serious questions about how deep that commitment goes, meaning what the palace is able to do.”

Jefferson said Queen Noor brought to the conference “the perspective of coming from a country where women’s lives are in danger every day because they may have transgressed cultural mores. She certainly knows what it’s like on the other side.”

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Times staff writer Peter Nicholas contributed to this report.