In celebration of International Women’s Day on Sunday March 8, we’ve selected five TED talks that leave us feeling all empowered and motivated.
Sheryl Sandberg: Why we have too few women leaders
Filmed December 2010 at TEDWomen 2010
We couldn’t not include this talk given by Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg. Looking at why a smaller percentage of women than men reach the top of their professions, she offers three powerful pieces of advice to women aiming for the C-suite. But what we really love about her talk is that among all the facts and figures, she includes personal, relatable stories that appeal to women – like the one about her three-year-old daughter clinging to her leg as she dropped her off at preschool, on her way to a conference. She says, “This is hard. I feel guilty sometimes. I know no women, whether they’re at home or whether they’re in the workforce, who don’t feel that sometimes. So I’m not saying that staying in the workforce is the right thing for everyone.”
Kavita Ramdas: Radical women, embracing tradition
Filmed November 2009 at TEDIndia 2009
Kavita Ramdas of the Global Fund for Women talks about three encounters with powerful women who fight to make the world better, while preserving the traditions that sustain them. Born and raised in India, she learnt very early on to be deeply suspicious of the aunties and uncles who would pat her and her two sisters on their heads and then turn to her parents to suggest that they “try again” for a son. Her sense of outrage about women’s rights was brought to a boil when she was eleven years old and her aunt was widowed at a young age. We love that her fight for and awareness of the issue of gender equality developed at such a young age.
Courtney Martin: This isn’t her mother’s feminism
Filmed December 2010 at TEDWomen 2010
Blogger Courtney Martin examines the word ‘feminism’ in this personal and heartfelt talk. Growing up with two feminist parents — her mother started what is now the longest running women’s festival in the world, while her dad resigned from a male only business club because he said he would never be part of an organisation that would welcome his son but not his daughter (go Dad) — it’s perhaps no surprise that she has taken the path she is on. Author of Do It Anyway: The New Generation of Activists, Courtney co-edits, along with a collective of other super smart women, a site called Feministing.com, which is the most widely read feminist publication ever.
Liza Donnelly: Drawing on humor for change
Filmed December 2010 at TEDWomen 2010
New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly shares a portfolio of her wise and funny cartoons about modern life, and talks about how humour can empower women to change the rules. We love that she tackles serious, global issues with humour, intelligence and sarcasm. Managing to address subjects like gender equality in a motivating and empowering way, while also making us laugh, is literally a fine art. For this talent we salute her.
Laura Boushnak: For these women, reading is a daring act
Filmed October 2014 at TEDGlobal 2014
Photographer and TED Fellow Laura Boushnak travelled to countries including Yemen, Egypt and Tunisia to highlight brave women — schoolgirls, political activists, 60-year-old mums — who are fighting the statistics. A co-founder of the RAWIYA collective – a photography cooperative of female photographers from the Middle East – she ends her talk with a brilliant quote from one of the four activist women she interviewed: “Question your convictions; be who you want to be not who they want you to be. Don’t accept their enslavement for your mother birthed you free.”
Main image, Sheryl Sandberg.
