As my friend Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland and chair of The Elders, has observed, "We have many women leaders. We have many networks. But the potential for what we can achieve if we all work together is something we haven't seen yet.”
Mary witnessed the power of women and their networks when she was campaigning to become her country's first woman president, and the Irish women working together, elected Mary. She famously said on election night, “Tonight, Ireland’s women, instead of rocking the cradle, rocked the system!”
Mary Robinson became the first female president of Ireland in a ceremony at Dublin Castle in 1990. (Credit: RTE)
As president, Mary delivered transformative change, not just for Ireland’s women but for the entire country, legalizing the right to divorce, access to contraceptives, and decriminalizing homosexuality, as well. Her commitment to human rights, inspired by Eleanor Roosevelt’s Declaration of Human Rights, led her beyond Ireland’s borders as a global advocate for human rights around the world, and after tenures as the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights and the UN Climate Envoy, she now serves as chair of The Elders. Hers is a story of impact and activist leadership, documented in a new feature documentary, “Mrs. Robinson,” currently filling movie theaters in Ireland and soon in Europe and hopefully the US.
I start with Mary’s story this morning because it is a vivid reminder of the impact of one woman, when supported by the collective power of women working in solidarity.
This potential for unified and collective impact is on my mind as I consider this year’s US presidential election. Women in the US have the opportunity to unify around the imperatives for reproductive rights and access to health care — imperatives, that I believe and the polls indicate, might lead to a new solidarity with an outcome that could be history making and transformative.
Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz campaign in Detroit, MI. (Credit: Twitter)
So what will it take to bring women together in a new solidarity of purpose?
What will it take to ‘rock the systems’ that are trying to push rights back and that resist the need for equal protection in the US Constitution — an Equal Rights Amendment passed decades ago and still not formally in the Constitution?
What will it take for a global community of women leaders (in unity with our male partners, allies, friends) to identify and adopt the solutions and policies necessary for a climate safe world?
What will it take for all this to happen?
For some answers to these and other answers to the What Will It Take questions, I reference the book with that title by award-winning journalist, activist, and author Marianne Schnall, whose young daughter’s question, “Why haven’t we ever had a woman president?” led to Schnall interviewing some of today’s most respected voices on women’s leadership for her 2013 book, What Will It Take to Make a Woman President?: Conversations About Women, Leadership and Power, with insights from Maya Angelou, Gloria Steinem, Nancy Pelosi, Nicholas Kristof, Melissa Etheridge, Olympia Snowe, and many more.
Schnall has now turned the lessons in her book into a media, collaboration, learning, and social engagement platform that inspires, connects, educates and engages women everywhere to advance in all levels of leadership.
She believes, like Mary Robinson and so many more of us, that there is no limit to what people, women and men, can achieve when mission and outcome are aligned.
Schnall’s recently launched special election series, "What Will It Take to Make a Woman President: 2024," is a platform and podcast that uplifts valuable stories, crucial resources, and conversations with our time’s most inspiring thought leaders on the theme of electing our first woman president and paving the way for more women and diversity in leadership.
We’ll be taking up this question of “What Will it Take” for all leaders to step up to today’s global challenges during the TEDWomen sessions returning to Atlanta in October as a specially curated TEDWomenTrack at the new TEDNext conference. Each day will feature a TEDWomen experience that will include curated interviews and DISCOVERY ‘deep dives’ focused on leadership.
I hope to see many of you there to participate in the learning journeys towards solutions and answers to the question of our time: What will it take? Learn more + apply
The opportunity and the imperative for united and collective action is now. Will American women rock the system and elect our first woman president? Will the global community of leaders with the power and responsibility do what it takes to address the climate and nature crisis which threatens a habitable planet and pursue solutions for the polycrisis that are just, equitable, sustainable, and work for all communities?
What will it take? All of us, working together!
Onward!
- Pat
