International Women’s Day finally has a global powerhouse to champion, Tina Brown, editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast and Newsweek and one of the greatest women’s voices in the United States and around the world. The Women in the World Summit was launched by Brown and joining with her were Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, Sarah Brown, wife of former UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown and maternal health advocate, Meryl Streep and Diane von Furstenberg. The gathering included women of all generations talking about issues that rarely make it into the headlines.
Juju Chang led the “Girls Can Change the World” panel with Sarah Brown, Dr. Ida Odinga, wife of Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, and Shelly Esque discussing the need for a global education plan for all children, especially girls. During the panel, Sarah Brown, a global patron of the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood, spoke on the recent release of her campaign launched with her husband to reduce the number of child brides. The report shows that 1.5 million girls are married at age 15 or younger every year but “if that girl is in school, she’s not out there married or facing… any of the other things that might come her way,” says Brown.
Dr. Odinga and Brown also talked about their new initiative, Educators Without Borders, which looks “at the 300,000 children who are coming as refugees across the Somalian border into Kenya [and sets up] an early pilot program to create essentially pop-up schooling” for children who will be there for many years.” They are working with government and non-profits to raise the rates of girls education in post-conflict zones. “Some [children] are as old as 13 years and have never seen the inside of a classroom” said Odinga when talking about the young refugees.
Watch the video of the panel below:
The last day of the conference included an exciting keynote by Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton who was surprise-introduced by Oscar winner, Meryl Streep. Also in attendance were Angelina Jolie, former house speaker Nancy Pelosi, Oprah, Chelsea Clinton, Barbara Bush, Lauren Bush Lauren, Kim Cattrall, Desiree Gruber and many more!
Check out photos from the exciting events below: