News Highlights from the Women’s Forum USA

From feminist diplomacy and gender-based violence to human trafficking, displaced peoples, environmental health and climate action, the Women’s Forum USA held at Vital Voices Global Headquarters for Women’s Leadership on the last Wednesday of Women’s History Month tackled many of the world’s most pressing issues, but from a feminist vantage point.

The goal was to ignite a spark in those in attendance to make their bold ideas for change happen or expand the work they are already doing to create positive and long-lasting change in the world.

“I believe we need to do audacious things,” said Vital Voices President & CEO, Alyse Nelson.

“The world needs women now more than ever,” said Diane von Fürstenberg. “The one thing that everyone has in common is that they’re badass women. They refuse to be silent. They get sh*t done.”

The fashion designer, philanthropist and Vital Voices board member sat on a panel delivering insight into women’s empowerment after delivering welcoming remarks alongside Alyse Nelson and Anne-Gabrielle Heilbronner, president of the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society, to kick off the event.

Heilbronner delivered a motivating yet sobering message to the crowd of more than 200 attendees.

“We have never seen so many steps backwards in terms of women’s rights. Millions of girls are being deprived of schooling because of war, climate disasters and religious extremism. We’ve seen back peddling in the U.S. on reproductive rights. We see everywhere a pervasive amount of stereotypes and prejudices,” said Heilbronner. “At the Women’s Forum, we have a barometer and when we ask G7 people the question [if women can have it all], 46 percent respond that a woman cannot have it all—that she has to sacrifice her career if she wants to be a good mother. In the U.S., the figure is 48 percent. We have a lot of work to do.”

Through dynamic discussions and networking sessions, the audience was encouraged to make change in their communities, starting with small steps that increase over time.

“Education for me is freedom,” said Leticia Tituana, a chemical engineer, activist, and Girl Rising Fellow who comes from a rural, indigenous community in Ecuador where she says poverty and gender-based violence is widespread. “In the past, the Ecuadorian government believed indigenous people should not receive an education. Because if they did, they will realize that they were, in fact, commonly being used and exploited as slaves … and only in 2008 were we actually recognized as Ecuadorians with rights. It was because of this recognition that I was able to study—I was free. I began to dream for my own criteria and goals. I know that there are many things to prove in my country, in my community, in my family and in myself—and I work very hard to materialize them,” said Tituana on her panel entitled Reimagining Education for a More Inclusive World.

Dr. Kakenya Ntaiya, Ph. D., founder and president of the Kakenya Center for Excellence, is another strong proponent of education as a pathway to more women and girls becoming global leaders, particularly when it comes to achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

Dr. Ntaiya sat on a women’s leadership panel with Nelson, von Fürstenberg, former VV Engage Fellow Breea Clark and Marina Pisklakova-Parker, a women’s rights activist and founder and board chair of the Center for the Prevention of Violence. When asked by Nelson what is the most audacious thing she has done to inspire others, Dr. Ntaiya brought the conversation back to education.

“What inspires me is the young women who I work with, and for me, the audacious thing I’m working on and really being intentional about is growing each one of them to be a leader. Because I can be a leader, but if I have all of them as leaders, the change is already taken. So, I call them seeds that we are going to plant around the world, and they’re going to do mighty and great things,” said Dr. Ntaiya.

Meanwhile, on the topic of feminist diplomacy and a woman’s approach to peace: “You’ve got to keep showing up for your rights and democracy,” said event panelist Mandana Dayani, a co-founder of I am a Voter, a nonpartisan movement that is creating a cultural shift around voting and civic participation.

When asked what can be done to empower the displaced, Syrian refugee and Olympic swimmer Yusra Mardini urged everyone to: “Be their friend. Go have a meal with them. Open your home to them. They are people who want to achieve, who want to create new lives, who are so successful and deserve that chance.”

Women’s Forum panelist and Senior Fellow at the George W. Bush Institute Dr. Deborah Birx, who is best known as the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator in the early days of the pandemic, emphasized the necessity for a gendered approach to reducing environmental risks that disproportionately impact women and girls, including water, food, and health systems.

“Never accept ‘No.’ It just means ‘No today.’ Women know these things can be done,” said Birx.

Activist and actress Nazanin Boniadi and Prince Reza Pahlavi, the exiled Crown Prince of Iran who supports women’s rights, closed out the Women’s Forum with a powerful discussion on what’s next for Iranian women who are leading revolution against what they are calling gender apartheid.

The two are advocating for getting the gender-biased system under the Iran regime legally defined as gender apartheid under international laws. They explained how women globally, led by Iranian women on the inside are the spark and the engine of this revolution.

“This type of courage is like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” said Boniadi; “Please remember as feminists, if you believe in women’s rights, our fates are intertwined with the fate of Iran.”

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Watch replay of the Women’s Forum USA full program online.

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Written by Markette Sheppard and Loralli Johnson for Vital Voices.