Columbia Institute of Global Politics

Thirty years after the UN 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing, women and girls are facing new challenges to their rights and full participation in society. ?? On March 12, we hosted an event to address these 21st century challenges to women’s rights and asked participants: What gives you hope about the fight for gender equality in this moment? ?? Rachel Vogelstein, Director of the Columbia IGP Women’s Initiative? ?? Christiane Amanpour, Chief International Correspondent for CNN and IGP Carnegie Distinguished Fellow ?? Mu Sochua, President of Khmer Movement for Democracy and former Minister of Women's Affairs, Cambodia ?? Aya Chebbi, Founder, Nala Feminist Collective ?? Alyse Nelson, President and CEO, Vital Voices Global Partnership Columbia | SIPA GWL Voices Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security Wellesley College

“By reevaluating long-held assumptions and adapting policy to the rapidly changing geopolitical environment, the United States can play a vital role in the region.” IGP student scholar Jordanna Yochai writes about US policy toward the Sahel for Atlantic Council:? https://lnkd.in/eN-HkXMX

“It’s pretty self-evident at this point that the changing climate… is a major driver of instability in the world.” IGP Carnegie Distinguished Fellow Jon Finer spoke with IGP Faculty Advisory Board Member Jason Bordoff on the Center on Global Energy Policy’s Energy Exchange podcast: https://lnkd.in/eK9xJBJS

How do we move forward in this time of regression on women’s rights? ?? We asked during our event marking the 30th anniversary of the UN 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing. ?? Jennifer Klein, Director of the Columbia IGP Women’s Initiative ?? Mu Sochua, President of Khmer Movement for Democracy and former Minister of Women's Affairs, Cambodia ?? María Fernanda Espinosa, Executive Director of GWL Voices and President of the 73rd Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations ?? Nika Kova?, Founding Director, The Research Institute of 8th March Vital Voices Global Partnership Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security Columbia | SIPA Wellesley College

Women “are not the problem, we’ve never been the problem. The problem has always been the structure.” Moms First and Girls Who Code founder Reshma Saujani helped us launch the IGP Women’s Initiative just over a year ago. And this year, she’s back at IGP as a Carnegie Distinguished Fellow!

An important part of the role of our Carnegie Distinguished Fellows: mentoring Columbia | SIPA students & IGP Student Scholars! IGP Fellow and Moms First Founder & CEO Reshma Saujani joined Prof. Yasmine Ergas for a career conversation with a group of future leaders. She shared insights from her more than a decade of building movements to fight for women and girls’ economic empowerment, working to close the gender gap in the tech sector, and fighting for the changes moms need and deserve like affordable child care, paid leave, and equal pay.

“We are a generation that is unapologetic about asking for reproductive freedom, financial freedom, political freedom, because it's not a favor. It's our rights. And we are built like this, fearless and warriors and fighters.” Watch Aya Chebbi conversation with Renata Koch Alvarenga, Phumzile Van Damme, Nika Kova?, and Rachel Vogelstein about young leaders advancing gender equality in the 21st century: https://lnkd.in/dKdhijek Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security GWL Voices Vital Voices Global Partnership Wellesley College Columbia | SIPA

“Women Weaving the World Together” ?? Mu Sochua shows off one piece of the 1,000 meters of cloth crafted by the Asia-Pacific women who were present at the UN 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. She joined Ruchira Gupta, Alyse Nelson, Melanne Verveer & María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés at our event last week to discuss the transformative impact of this historic conference and how it inspired women around the world to create a movement for gender equality. Watch the event here:?https://lnkd.in/eb_tDd39? Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security GWL Voices Vital Voices Global Partnership Wellesley College Columbia | SIPA?

“Young people have become disenchanted with politics, and they're not taking part…. We need them running for public office. We need them involved.” Phumzile Van Damme called for young people to get involved in politics during our event marking the 30th anniversary of the UN 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing. Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security GWL Voices Vital Voices Global Partnership Wellesley College Columbia | SIPA

Michelle Bachelet answers an important question from Christiane Amanpour during our Beijing+30 event (watch until the end for breaking news about a potential candidate for Secretary General of the United Nations!) Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security GWL Voices Vital Voices Global Partnership Wellesley College Columbia | SIPA