Women Leaders from Around the Globe Share Experiences in Resiliency

Featured in the Belfer Center Spring 2021 Newsletter »

More than 100 current and future women leaders came together remotely from around the globe between March 2-8 for Harvard Kennedy School’s student-organized Women in Power Conference 2021. The theme of the fourth annual conference – We RISE (Resilience in Shared Experiences) – had a double meaning this year as the women shared experiences related not only to the advancement of women in leadership positions but also to the resilience required during the past year of isolation and pandemic challenges and uncertainty.

“It’s been a time that has unearthed the inequality and inequities across the world but also a time that has revealed deep resolve and resiliency,” the Harvard Kennedy School student organizers of the conference said in announcing the conference. “As we isolate in response to the pandemic, we have witnessed global movements of unity at unprecedented scales. We have all struggled and found ourselves in new situations where we have had to adapt.”

During the conference, which has been supported by the Belfer Center since its inception in 2018, speakers shared lessons learned, new solutions, new ideas, and stories of how they adapted.

Tawakkol Karman, 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, and Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s Digital Minister in Charge of Social Innovation, gave keynote addresses at the conference.

A panel titled "Top U.S. Women in Defense: Rising in the Ranks of the Ultimate Boy’s Club," included a number of former leaders in defense and intelligence who are now Belfer Center Senior Fellows: Lori Robinson, Michèle Flournoy, Debora Plunkett, and Sue Gordon. Moderated by Belfer Center Co-Director Eric Rosenbach, the panel was organized by Women in Defense, Diplomacy, and Development (W3D), a Belfer Center-supported student group. W3D also organized a panel titled "Problems and Promises of the COVID-19 Rollout," which included Belfer Fellow Syra Madad.

Faculty, fellows, and senior staff who also took part in panel discussions included: Juliette Kayyem on crisis communications; Halla Logadottir on women and climate crisis; Erica Chenoweth on women leading social movements; Dara Kay Cohen on wartime sexual violence, recovery and resiliency; and Cristine Russell on pushing women’s leadership forward.  A panel on male allyship and mentorship in educational spaces included Zoe Marks and Eric Rosenbach.

Panels at the conference covered additional issues ranging from rural resilience and women running cities to youth activists/civil engagement and debiasing the workplace.