Bonnie Hammer, George Lucas, Katie Couric, Gloria Steinem and Jamie Gangel gathered to honour eight ladies, also including Mellody Hobson, Nancy Gibbs, Carol Hamilton, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
To kick off the ceremony, host Andy Cohen played a question-based Watch What Happens Live game with the New York Women in Communications luncheon's honorees.
He asked 29-year-old Dunham what she would do if she suddenly woke up one day as a man. She instantly responded with laughter: "Kill myself!"
In all seriousness, Dunham instinctively responded that way "because I feel so passionately to be doing the work of being female right now. I feel so lucky to be among these women and to be redefining what that means for us, to be continuing the work of Gloria [Steinem] and her peers, and to be looking ahead at what needs to be done to preserve rights that should already be intact, and to also carve out new areas that we never even imagined were possible for us," she explained during her acceptance speech.