MUMBAI: The whole world knows what will happen when India nurtures and releases her half a billion women to their fullest potential. International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde has said GDP will expand by 27% and Cherie Blair believes India will gain more than any other nation when it fully empowers women.
What will happen when India’s women are empowered is not the most important question right now. How to empower them is.
While the first ET Women’s Forum, which will kick off this Friday, is definitely a celebration of the former, it is also, more importantly, an exploration of the latter.
About fifty speakers including Cherie Blair, Andrea Jung, Yashodhara Raje Scindia, Kristina Jullum Hagen, Fawzia Koofi, M Damodaran, Rajan Anandan, Shobana Kamineni, Annette Dixon, Ekta Kapoor, Alankrita Shrivastava will lead an audience of over 350 on this exploration.
Also Read: ET Women's Forum - Complete Coverage
The day-long, think tank-cum-extravaganza is designed to collaboratively create an urgent, sustainable and national culture of empowering India’s half a billion women.
Fawzia Koofi, a member of Parliament and women’s rights activist, grew up in Afghanistan when it was one of the worst places to live as a woman. Her rise in her own country and on the global stage bears testimony to what empowering women can achieve. “(Now) there is a positive discrimination in our constitution for women. This ensures women’s participation in the national level and that is a great step forward,” she told ET in a phone interview from Afghanistan.
Seeding New Ideas
“Men can — and must — play a proactive role in changing this (gender inequality),” Blair told ET in a recent interview. “Business leaders need to be vocal and visible on the issue of gender equality. Women’s entrepreneurship offers such an important opportunity for the Indian economy.”
The ET Women’s Forum hopes to seed and water many new ideas and conversations around facilitating greater participation and reducing gender inequality in every sphere of life, work and play.
Deepti Nair, who designed a special art installation for the ET Women’s Forum, sums it up well: “I don't claim that women are more complicated than men, or more valuable, or that they need special treatment to correct historical or contemporary wrongs. What I do wish to see is women seen as human, with all the complexity of thought, feeling and ambition that men possess.”
What will happen when India’s women are empowered is not the most important question right now. How to empower them is.
While the first ET Women’s Forum, which will kick off this Friday, is definitely a celebration of the former, it is also, more importantly, an exploration of the latter.
About fifty speakers including Cherie Blair, Andrea Jung, Yashodhara Raje Scindia, Kristina Jullum Hagen, Fawzia Koofi, M Damodaran, Rajan Anandan, Shobana Kamineni, Annette Dixon, Ekta Kapoor, Alankrita Shrivastava will lead an audience of over 350 on this exploration.
Also Read: ET Women's Forum - Complete Coverage
You Might Also Like:
The day-long, think tank-cum-extravaganza is designed to collaboratively create an urgent, sustainable and national culture of empowering India’s half a billion women.
Fawzia Koofi, a member of Parliament and women’s rights activist, grew up in Afghanistan when it was one of the worst places to live as a woman. Her rise in her own country and on the global stage bears testimony to what empowering women can achieve. “(Now) there is a positive discrimination in our constitution for women. This ensures women’s participation in the national level and that is a great step forward,” she told ET in a phone interview from Afghanistan.
Seeding New Ideas
“Men can — and must — play a proactive role in changing this (gender inequality),” Blair told ET in a recent interview. “Business leaders need to be vocal and visible on the issue of gender equality. Women’s entrepreneurship offers such an important opportunity for the Indian economy.”
About a dozen talks and key panels in the fields of politics, entrepreneurship, management, professions, workforce, industry, entertainment and sports will discuss ways to empower women to take their rightful place in all walks of life.
The ET Women’s Forum hopes to seed and water many new ideas and conversations around facilitating greater participation and reducing gender inequality in every sphere of life, work and play.
Deepti Nair, who designed a special art installation for the ET Women’s Forum, sums it up well: “I don't claim that women are more complicated than men, or more valuable, or that they need special treatment to correct historical or contemporary wrongs. What I do wish to see is women seen as human, with all the complexity of thought, feeling and ambition that men possess.”
(Catch all the Business News, Breaking News, Budget 2024 Events and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.)
Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the ET ePaper online.
Read More News on
(Catch all the Business News, Breaking News, Budget 2024 Events and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.)
Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the ET ePaper online.
Get Unlimited Access to The Economic Times
