“When you face the uncertainty of what might be, you can create the certainty of what will be.”
- Shabana Basij-Rasik, Afghan educator
I'm still processing all the incredible talks and ideas shared at last week's TEDWomen, held live and in-person! The "magic" that results when the TEDWomen community comes together was very evident in Palm Springs this year. I was so thrilled to see old friends, make new ones and listen to the more than 40 speakers and entertainers share their ideas around this year's theme of "What Now?"
What Now… for women and girls… for health and happiness… for work and play… for Planet Earth?
There were so many amazing talks and I surely can't cover them all in this one post, so I encourage you to visit the TED Blog where session by session digests are posted summarizing all the big ideas, key concepts and pictures of all the speakers.
Afghan educator Shabana Basij-Rasik, quoted above, was the first speaker to take the TEDWomen 2021 stage. In a year of so much uncertainty for all of us, Shabana told us what it was like to be in Afghanistan as it fell to the Taliban and what it meant for her boarding school for girls in Kabul, the School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA). She had to burn all the academic records of former students to protect them from the Taliban and then evacuated more than 250 students, educators and family members to a campus in Rwanda, where they have managed to continue to operate the school. Before they were forced to flee, SOLA had been constructing a new campus in Kabul, and Shabana expresses the hope—and the commitment—to return to her home one day and continue to prepare Afghan girls to take up the leadership in their country which Afghan women were doing in every sector of life and work before the Taliban takeover. "Don't look away," was Shabana’s call to action for the TEDWomen community. "As the noise dies down, and Afghanistan slips from the front pages, do not look away."
Change catalyst Halla Tómasdóttir urges each of us to use our vote, wallet and voice to act on climate change. She speaks with TEDWomen curator Pat Mitchell at TEDWomen 2021: What Now? on December 2, 2021 in Palm Springs, California. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)
Rethink Everything and Then Get to Work
Among the most urgent of "what now?” questions we took up at TEDWomen was “what now for the planet?” The challenge in all discussions about the global threat of a warming climate and all the attendant catastrophes and changes is to find the balance between elevating the emergency of the climate crisis and sustaining the "stubborn optimism,” as climate leader Christiana Figueres calls it, to keep the hope alive to inspire the actions necessary to shape just and sustainable solutions. We know that this will take the leadership of women and girls everywhere, and at TEDWomen, we celebrated the work of five extraordinary climate leaders.
First, Halla Tómasdóttir, a former presidential candidate of Iceland and longtime friend of TEDWomen, updated us on the outcomes of COP26 in Glasgow. Halla is the CEO of The B Team, a group of business leaders who are working to redefine what bold, accountable leadership from business must look like in the 21st century, Halla shared her opinion about the shortcomings of COP26 and the progress made, especially from the business sector, for accountable, measurable steps toward the changes necessary to sustain life on our planet.
"We created this world, so we can co-create a world where we love where we live," she said. "Without closing the gender, racial, ethnic, generational, global north, global south gaps around every table (so we can start redesigning the table), we are not going to be able to design a world that is …inclusive and works for all."
Dr. Katharine Wilkinson, whose first TED Talk (viewed by more than 2 million people) explained so clearly why empowering women and girls is one of the most important things the world can do to stop climate change, returned to TEDWomen to inspire us with a reminder that what she said (in 2018), she still "holds with immense sincerity today—that it is a magnificent thing to be alive in a moment that means this much."
Writer and environmentalist Katharine Wilkinson shares updates on her 2018 TED Talk with TEDWomen curator Pat Mitchell at TEDWomen 2021: What Now? on December 2, 2021 in Palm Springs, California. (Photo: Stacie McChesney / TED)
“The most difficult work of our lifetimes has to happen in the next few years,” she told me, and that means rethinking everything we know about leadership, business and the power we all hold.
Also in this session, answers to "what now for the planet" included a compelling talk about the critical need to protect Africa’s iconic wildlife while also respecting culture and engaging the communities in conservation efforts from Resson Kantai Duff’s talk; an informative talk on the need to rethink the global food ecosystem from social innovation expert and entrepreneur Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli; and a passionate reminder of the the need to listen to indigenous communities when shaping solutions from climate justice from organizer Ozawa Bineshi Albert. I’ll be writing more as these talks are posted on TED.com.
Another urgent "what now" came from reproductive rights attorney Kathryn Kolbert, who is widely credited with saving the landmark decision of Roe v. Wade when she argued Planned Parenthood v. Casey before the US Supreme Court in 1992. She opened her TEDTalk with this electrifying announcement:
"Roe v. Wade will be overturned within the year," and "the end of Roe is not the end of the story.”
Kolbert went on to explain, outlining two strategies for responding to what many see as a return to the dark ages when women no longer have the right to make their own decisions about when it is safe and best for themselves and their families to bear a child. Kolbert’s full talk on the history of abortion rights in the US, how we got to this place and what to do to protect what the largest percentage of Americans, according to recent polling, wish to protect, was just posted at TED.com.
We Need a Better Leadership Table
Many speakers talked about the proverbial table that we have all been conditioned to strive to have a seat at, including late-night TV host Lilly Singh whose insightful and extremely funny talk presented a set of guidelines for "how to build a table that doesn't suck."
Lilly Singh speaks at TEDWomen 2021: What Now? on December 2, 2021 in Palm Springs, California. (Photo: Marla Aufmuth / TED)
As another speaker, Rha Goddess, put it in one drop-the-mic moment quoting a woman from her study, "We are competing with other women for a seat at the table, and there's only one broke-ass chair, and that's the problem."
When you're dealing with that broken chair, said Lilly, you're so focused on it's wobble that you're never fully present for the conversation. "What we need is a bigger, better table with more chairs," she says. "Don't be convinced to fight for one spot, fight for many spots."
"A woman shouldn't be grateful to sit at a table," Lilly said. "She should be PAID to sit at a table. And women, we have to understand and always remember that being grateful and being treated fairly are not mutually exclusive. I can be grateful, but also know exactly what I deserve."
Bring on the gender reckoning, says intersectional justice advocate Jimmie Briggs. He speaks at TEDWomen 2021: What Now? on December 1, 2021, in Palm Springs, California. (Photo: Stacie McChesney / TED)
I am grateful for the fact that so many women (and a good number of good men, including two extraordinary male allies—Jimmie Briggs and Charles Davidson—who shared powerful TED Talks on gender equity and how we might better support fathers) showed up in Palm Springs with enthusiasm and excitement for being together again and to hear ideas and stories that resonate and will have reach and impact on TED.com.
Many of you have asked me when the talks will be posted online. TED will be posting them over the course of the next few months, and I will do my best to tweet out links to new talks as they go live from my Twitter account, so I hope you will follow me there.
There is no question that the TEDwomen community is unique, global (we had attendees from 25 countries!) and open to new ideas, strategies and actions we can take to, as Halla says, love the place we live. I look forward to bringing you all of these TEDWomen talks over the next few months as they premiere on the TED platform.
Onward!
-Pat
