The conference’s panel discussions will aim to highlight four critical equality gaps for women and girls and to discuss how these challenges can best be addressed using legal and other skills.
Healthy Moms and Daughters: Maternal Health Worldwide
Many pregnant women face significant health risks. According to UNFPA, almost 1,000 women die in pregnancy or childbirth every day, and about 20,000 more experience serious complications. A large number of these deaths and disabilities could be prevented if all women had access to contraception and to skilled reproductive health care, and better care for mothers would give their children a healthier start in life. Our panel brings together experts from various fields to discuss their work to improve maternal health and reduce child mortality around the globe.
Law Making for Gender Equality
Legislation is a powerful tool that can be used to achieve actual gender equality. In the past few years alone, legislators, lobbyists, and other activist groups have made notable progress in a number of areas, including reproductive rights, fair pay, Title IX, and violence against women. This panel is intended to encourage discourse about how law making can and should be used to better the lives of women and girls.
Women in Leadership
As women continue to take on more prominent leadership roles in law, business, politics, and academia, they both face unique challenges and offer unique perspectives in management and leadership. This panel will focus on the experiences and skills that women can bring to leadership positions, the reasons why fewer women hold leadership positions, and strategies for getting more women into leadership positions in the law, in academics, and in the boardroom.
Litigating to Fight Discrimination
Many of the country’s historic women’s rights victories were achieved in the courtroom, and the fight for gender equality in large part remains there today. Courts are presently addressing issues that affect women directly, such as reproductive justice and marriage equality, and many others indirectly. This panel will examine past successes using litigation to fight discrimination, focusing in particular on the tools and techniques that were instrumental to these successes, and explore future areas of implementation.
