“We don't want to simply be women with blinkers on who only think about their own lives. While that is obviously a concern, the important thing that we need to remember are our sisters. We need to keep being a global force for women in the world,” says Tina Brown, founder of the Women in the World Summit.
This April, the Women in the World Summit, will be celebrating its tenth year at New York City’s Lincoln Center. The event will showcase women who are tackling some of the most pressing challenges facing the world today.
For example, a large focus of the summit is sharing the stories of extraordinary women who are fighting against sexual slavery, advocating for gay rights in Uganda and working to save Muslims from persecution in China. In addition, this year’s event features several high-profile speakers including the likes of Oprah, Brie Larson, Anna Wintour, Stacey Abrams and Priyanka Chopra to name a few.
“We are really focusing on women who are bringing solutions. Like women who are saving the planet, and powering along the move against climate change,” says Brown.
The intent behind this year’s event is to highlight the global challenges all women face. “We have many problems in the United States and yes our own rights are under siege, but we also have global sisters who have, for years, struggled against patriarchies that are far more repressive even than what we see,” she says.
Brown hopes the summit will help to mobilize support for women who are tackling issues like access to education, honor killings and forced marriages. “We must think about the women who don't have our advantages, both in the United States and beyond. We need to become engaged with that. Through activism, being a donor or just becoming very vocal about these important topics,” says Brown.
Additionally, the summit will also tackle the key challenges women face climbing the corporate ladder, with a specific focus on how women can lead in an authentic way. “There are too many examples of women trying to adapt themselves to broken patriarchal models as opposed to changing the actual models and how women are involved,” says Brown.
Overcoming these challenges is something that Brown is very familiar with given her career in media, which includes her current role as president and CEO of Tina Brown Live Media, former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker and founder of The Daily Beast. “I think women in big jobs always suffer somewhat from the belittlement of frankly male competitors who want to minimize their achievements. Women often have to work 40 times harder to get that recognition,” she says.
Brown argues that leaders play a critical role in recognizing women by nurturing their talents and ensuring their skill sets are fully utilized. “The only way you have creative success is to have talented people behind you. The talent you have remains loyal because you are loyal. That should be every leader’s number one concern,” she says.
Even though Women in the World was founded in 2009, Brown believes this years summit has really met the moment. “Since the post 'MeToo' explosion, really, everyone is finally saying, women must take their place at the table. It is time for women to step up and bring what they have, which are other kinds of skills,” she says.
While Brown isn't generalizing that women are better leaders than men, she does argue that women have different capabilities and ways of working when it comes to decision making and management in general. It is this difference that Brown says companies need.
Even though the summit covers a range of topics Brown says the underlying message is the same. “You will listen and think about the different stories from these powerful, courageous women. Every story has a specific message, but together they all add up to the same thing, which is remember your sisters.”
