* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
It's a wrap! A look back at this year's Women in the World summit
“Government works better when everybody is in the room,” Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards said to strong applause at a women’s rights summit last week.
This seemed to be the unofficial theme of Women in the World 2014, an annual gathering featuring female activists, corporate leaders, elected officials, tech entrepreneurs and celebrities from around the world.
Over three days and more than 30 panel discussions, speakers argued that greater women’s participation in private and public life is the only way toward social, economic and political progress.
Many emphasized that women have unique qualities that set their leadership styles apart from men. For example, women work collaboratively and come to leadership with knowledge of their own communities’ needs and the appetite to get things done.
“If we had more women in Congress, we wouldn’t have wasted the last four years debating contraception,” U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand quipped.
So what’s holding women back?
Perhaps the fact that women and girls in many parts of the world are still not granted the same access to education, health and employment as their male counterparts.
Moreover, traditional norms against female leadership and involvement in public life are still a deterrent in many societies.
However, many panelists stressed that women often hold themselves back from taking power.
Argentine Congresswoman Laura Alonso challenged the women gathered at New York’s Lincoln Center with a call to action: “Ask yourself the question, why not me? Politics is not for superheroes—politics is for you.”
WOMEN AND CONFLICT
Peacekeeping and security is an often overlooked sector when it comes to conversations about increased representation of women in the workplace, despite the fact that female participation can yield dividends in post-conflict scenarios.
Melanne Verveer, head of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and former U.S. Ambassador for global women’s issues, said that at the negotiating table, female mediators bring up real issues—including access to employment, transitional justice and minority rights—crucial to securing lasting peace agreements.
She also noted that survivors of gender based violence in conflict take comfort in seeing female peacekeepers’ boots on the ground.
Discussions on several panels pointed to war and conflict as a catalyst for women’s equality, citing examples from post-WWII France and post-genocide Rwanda. During a conflict, women take on roles traditionally held by men and this sets a precedent for greater legal equality, employment and political participation after peace agreements are made.
One panelist, Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga, was a living example of this phenomenon, having started her career after the war by joining the police force, an occupation previously reserved for men.
Though remarkable, increased legal rights and work opportunities are certainly unintended consequences of war and conflict, which inflict unspeakable horrors on women and girls. The unspoken question: how can countries make transformative progress toward women’s equality without having to go to war?
IDENTITY POLITICS
I thought the most powerful testimony at the summit came from activists being targeted simply for who they are, not only because of their gender but because of their ethnicity or, for example, religious beliefs.
Describing a “huge branding crisis for India,” artist Thenmozhi Soundararajan outlined the searing inequalities faced by the nearly 80 million Dalit women in the country, who face daily violence and discrimination. Recent discussions of sexual violence have left out Dalit women, who are victimized precisely because they belong to an outcast minority.
When asked how she finds the courage to be an activist, Asha Kowtal of the All India Dalit Women’s Rights Forum said, “There is nothing else we can do. We have to end the silence, we have to end this crazy violence that is inflicted on us.”
At a panel on the recent crackdown on LGBT rights in Uganda and Nigeria, advocates described fears for both their lives and livelihoods, but were certain they would return to their home countries to keep fighting for equal rights.
“Politics has chosen to scapegoat us, we have been de-humanized, we have been presented as these evil people by the church,” said Clare Byarugaba of the Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law.
Though it may seem counter-intuitive, one solution presented was to engage with progressive faith leaders and give them a platform to educate their adherents on human rights and equality.
Samantha Power, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, later warned of the “contagion effect” of these laws in sub-Saharan Africa, where politicians looking to score points pass harsh measures targeting LGBT citizens.
“Governments that violate the human rights of their own people are not stable governments,” she said.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
