Gender Equality

On February 3, 2017 the Women in Public Service Project and Middle East Program hosted a panel discussion on “Women Behind the Scenes: How Modernity is Catching on Before Law in the United Arab Emirates” with Her Excellency Sheikha Lubna Al-Qasimi, the Minister of State for Tolerance of the UAE, and Kent Davis-Packard, Adjunct Professor, Middle East Studies and American Foreign Policy Programs, the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. Gwen K.

Africa needs a critical mass of skilled leaders to address the opportunities and challenges the continent faces. Leaders are born; yet 80% of the women leaders born in rural parts of Africa go unrecognized largely because, from day one, girls are born into a political, cultural and social environment that inhibits their development into well-equipped female leaders. In order to make policies that benefit all of society, then all of society must be a part of decision-making and given opportunities to lead.

Please note: attendance at this event is invitation-only, but all panels will be streaming live on this page! We invite you to join us here or on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram and to take part in the conversation using #50x50atFive!

On October 17, Director of the Foreign Policy Initiative at the Institute for Women Policy Research Federiga Bindi joined Director of the Women in Public Service Project (WPSP) Gwen Young to engage in a conversation about leadership with Simonetta Di Pippo, Director of the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs. 

Since its adoption in December 2015, United Nations Security Council Resolution 2250 on youth, peace, and security has been hailed as the first of its kind to recognize young people as meaningful drivers of change through its explicit encouragement of youth leadership at all levels of conflict prevention and peacebuilding.

WPSP Director Gwen K. Young will moderate a panel with WPSP Fellow Dr. Joyce Banda, former President of Malawi, and President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia. The session "Women's Political Participation: Leadership and the Global Agenda" will take place on Tuesday, September 20 from 5:10pm-5:45pm.