Gaining Ground: Women in Public Service

The Wilson Center’s Global Women’s Leadership Initiative (GWLI) supports the goal of “50 by 50.” That’s 50% of public service roles, at all levels, held by women by year 2050.  Recent elections suggest that progress is being made. Gwen Young, Director of the GWLI provides a progress report. That’s the focus of this edition of  Wilson Center NOW.

Gwen K. Young is an international development professional with over 20 years of experience in international public service. An alumna of Smith College, Harvard, and the University of California-Davis Martin Luther King Jr. School of Law, Ms. Young has pursued a career in humanitarian relief, international development, and human rights. Her career has encompassed a comprehensive array of international organizations including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Medecins Sans Frontieres, International Rescue Committee, and the Harvard Institute for International Development. Ms. Young spent more than ten years working with various nongovernmental organizations in strife-filled countries throughout Africa.  As an attorney, Ms. Young has worked as a professional advocate for women and human rights in corporate law settings, with the ICTY and the Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of San Diego. She also provided humanitarian law and advocacy training and developed guidelines to deal with sexual and gender based violence and exploitation in conflict ridden zones. She is Director of the Global Women’s Leadership Initiative at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

John Milewski is the executive producer and managing editor of Wilson Center NOW and also serves as director of Wilson Center ON DEMAND digital programming. Previously he served as host and producer of Dialogue at the Wilson Center and Close Up on C-SPAN. He also teaches a course on politics and media for Penn State’s Washington Program