When our team began brainstorming EquiLead’s first annual flagship Lead With Equity conference a couple of months ago, amidst all our myriad aspirations from the conference was one common priority - that we wanted to host a forum that we, as gender equity enthusiasts and practitioners, would find valuable to attend ourselves!
We are excited and ecstatic that our Conference on the theme “Building Pathways Towards Women’s Leadership” was well-leveraged as a forum that unpacked, discussed, and ideated solutions on key questions driving EquiLead's mission: accelerating women’s leadership in the social impact sector through advancing gender diversity, equity, and inclusion in institutions. Supported by five anchor partners, 21 ecosystem and knowledge partners, and joined by more than 250 participants over three days, we covered dialogues and deliberations on:
- Inclusive and Gender Equitable Leadership Pathways: How can women’s leadership journeys be made more inclusive and gender equitable? We explored designing interventions around key stepping stones to leadership, like networking and navigating workplace dynamics, considering the aspirations, contexts, and realities of the women they aim to benefit.
- Operationalising Gender-Intentional Workplaces: How can we create conducive workplace ecosystems that accelerate women’s representation, growth, and leadership within social impact institutions, and replicate these successfully? We examined defining, predicting, and designing for addressing patriarchal and power dynamics that shape workplaces and their decision-making and governance structures.
- Gender Lens Approach: What are the criteria and complexities of a gender lens approach, and what role can enablers, researchers, philanthropists, and influencers play in advocating for and actioning this?
- Impact of Women’s Leadership: What happens when women lead? How do institutions, interventions, and impact thrive? We heard from inspiring women, gender equity champions, and institutional leaders who not only shape the narrative of gender inclusivity but also carve pathways for others to follow.
The Conference was designed as a three-day ode to the gender equity in social impact movement!
On July 22 we kickstarted the three-day Lead With Equity celebration with CommUnity Conversations that were curated to bring and build a community of women who lead and key actors invested in creating gender-equitable leadership pathways. The morning of July 22nd was dedicated to the She the Change Brunch which we co-hosted with The Asia Foundation, which convened 30 women who lead in different microcosms in the social impact landscape. Our lively bunch of participants chatted on the hows and whys of making networking valuable and inclusive for women who lead, and participated in an interactive workshop on navigating organisational politics facilitated by the Women Lift Health team.
“Women remain subject to judgements on how old they are, how they speak, what they wear, how they choose to carry themselves - all these come before what they can achieve and what are their professional expertise. It was great to reflect upon personal journeys - for us who have made it to some extent - the discussion while very brief was an excellent start.Thanks to EquiLead for initiating that conversation and what a great start to the week - a Monday morning!” - Sona Mitra, IWWAGE
The latter half of the day hosted an Impact Connect meet-up that brought together 30 leaders including women and men who discussed (and demonstrated!) the “Power of Human Connections” and deliberated on the reasons for, and solutions to the paucity of women in leadership.
“A huge shoutout to the EquiLead and Arthan teams for their remarkable ability to bring together leaders from the social impact sector, providing us with platforms for meaningful dialogue and enhancing networking opportunities. Their dedication to fostering women’s leadership and creating spaces for impactful connections is truly commendable.” Anandroop Bahadur
The flagship ConfHERence Day (July 23) hosted some inspiring thought leadership sessions, panels, fireside chats, as well as showcase sessions and networking forums.
The phenomenal keynotes by Kanta Singh (UN Women India), Neeraj Jain (PATH), Shagun Sabharwal (Co-Impact) and Julia Middleton (Women Emerging) converged individual and institutional perspectives on accelerating gender equitable leadership in homes, institutions, and society set the stage for our ensuing conversations!
Our labour of love in the making - The EquiLead online platform was soft-launched through a short presentation to the features of www.equilead.org being built currently. We are currently hosting open vacancies on our jobs page with an aim to have more women in our network apply to these roles. In addition, we are also sharing information about ecosystem events as well as gender equity resources that are of interest to our EquiLead network. Should you wish to feature any information on the platform or have thoughts on what more could we do - write to us at letstalk@equilead.org
The panel on “Women's Leadership and the Strategic Role of Gender Lens Giving Principles in Philanthropy” hosted Archna Vyas, Director - Policy, Communications, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Aakanksha Gulati, Director, ACT Grants; Dr. Seema Bhatia - Panthaki, Director - Gender Equality Platform, AVPN; and was moderated by Meghana Rao, Gender Expert, EquiLead. The panellists spoke about embedding a gender lens to philanthropic investments by kickstarting what these giving principles could look like. The discussion further spanned into the investing in female-first enterprises, role of collaborative platforms in converging intent and resources, evaluating gender composition in leadership teams and promoting gender inclusive hiring, catalysing innovation to improve women's health and economic empowerment through digital inclusion.
The panel on “The Power Question” supported by The Asia Foundation saw Nandita Baruah, Country Representative, India, The Asia Foundation weave in a dialogue with Nita Aggarwal - Senior Programme Manager, Porticus Asia; Samar Verma - Independent Knowledge Partner; Sabina Dewan, Founder and Executive Director, JustJobs Network; Soumya Mishra, Assistant Manager - Community Building and Engagement, EquiLead on how power is accessed and leveraged by different individuals who traverse different realities and intersectionalities. The conversation covered how leading should be audacious, authentic and empathetic with the confidence to question and bust myths, prioritise compassion towards oneself and practice encouragement, giving a leg up to others who will come after you.
The panel on “From Vision to Action: Women’s Participation in Social Impact Leadership” hosted a conversation between Deepali D. Vandana, Co-founder and Managing Trustee, URJA TRUST; Lavanya Garg, Director, People Ops and Partnerships, Good Business Lab; Meera Shenoy, Founder-CEO, Youth4Jobs Foundation; and Sylvia Priyanthi, Director, People & Culture, QUEST Alliance (who also moderated the session). The discussion was a testimony to what happens when women fortified by their lived experiences and commitment to being agents of change build pathways through the organisations they steer to enable social impact. The dialogue covered institutional solutions that are addressing critical issues faced by homeless women, marginalised communities as well as women living with disabilities and emphasised the need for comprehensive support systems as well as making everyday behaviour in workplaces more inclusive.
The concluding panel on “Diversifying Boards in the Social Impact Sector” supported by HT Parekh Foundation was a conversation between Yamini Atmavilas, Director, Dasra; Poonam Muttreja, Executive Director, Population Foundation of India; Priyanka Gupta, Co-founder and Director, Rajalka Consulting; and was moderated by Aparajita Bharti, Co-Founder, The Quantum Hub & Young Leaders for Active Citizenship (YLAC). The dialogue highlighted the crucial role of women on boards, emphasising the need for genuine inclusion beyond tokenism to leverage diverse perspectives for solving complex problems. It discussed the challenges women face in board roles and the importance of capacity building, supportive structures, and authentic commitment to diversity. The conversation also called for a shift in organisational culture to embrace women's leadership and highlighted initiatives like the Women on Boards program as examples of effective capacity building.
The day also saw three exciting EquiLead Showcase sessions that aimed to spotlight inspiring women-led or gender equity focused initiatives and institutions. Barsha Bannerjee (Perkins School for the Blind), Devanshi Vaid (India Development Review) and Priya Thuvassery (Chambal Media) spoke about how equity and diversity are core to what their work is designed to enable and are woven into their workplaces, policies and structures (inclusivity and diversity in hiring, designing work processes to work for all etc). The institutions and the speakers who represented them truly demonstrated what leading by doing looks like.
The final day of the conference on July 24 was dedicated to the EquiLead Lab which hosted knowledge sessions and deliberations.
Tena Pick who with Gauri Bhure has founded a feminist parenting collective, Parenthesis India facilitated “Making Motherhood Work: Policies and Pitfalls in Professional Settings” for a group of 20 participants. The session discussed the conditioning and patriarchal structures that often makes childcare the responsibility of the mother alone, which in turn places the burden on the woman to make a choice between a career or caregiving. The interactive discussions covered illuminating discussions on the motherhood penalty, the myth of professionalism and reimagining productivity, the emotional, financial and mental costs of unpaid labour and also deliberated on solutions to create more supportive home spaces and workplaces.
Impact Communications Consultant Pia Desai and Anum Mulla, Global Youth Strategists ably curated Power Up - Boost Your Personal Brand Presence which was attended by 25 participants. The workshop equipped women with the skills to build strong personal brands through authenticity and effective social media utilisation. Emphasising the importance of networking and collaboration, it examined how social media can help individuals build an innovative personal brand that highlights their core competencies. The focus of the workshop was to empower and encourage women professionals to overcome the challenges of imposter syndrome and limited networking opportunities to talk about themselves and showcase their work with confidence for the world to see.
Koushik Yanamandram, Advisor - Accelerator Programmes at Climate Asia and Kavya Ailawadi, Team Principal at Arthan hosted a workshop on “Empowering Women in Climate Careers: Building Green Skills and Leadership” that was supported by the HT Parekh Foundation and was attended by 30 participants. The session explored various types of green jobs and the essential skills needed for these roles. It also examined how climate intersects with factors such as governance, education, business, finance, and healthcare, included case studies, and provided resources to help attendees map out their own climate careers.
“Climate as career is not limited to tech jobs and carbon jobs, it pans across areas of justice, communications, poverty, healthcare etc and it is evolving with our understanding of Climate change and its effects on the planet and its biodiversity including Humanity.” - Koushik
“It was the most engaging and enriching workshop I have ever been a part of. Thank you and kudos to the team!” - Nidhi Verma, Senior Software specialist and Global Lead trainer at HOMER UL
The Conference concluded with a closed-door roundtable discussion co-hosted by Climate Asia and EquiLead on “𝘈𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘞𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯’𝘴 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘪𝘯 𝘊𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘈𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯” which brought together diverse players in the climate ecosystem. Discussions covered themes like placing women at the centre of climate initiatives and creating women-only leadership spaces, addressing barriers in finance and land ownership for women in agriculture and climate initiatives, ensuring digital equity to empower women in climate adaptation, and emphasising community-driven research and addressing power dynamics for sustainable solutions. In two curated breakout sessions that had “Thinkers” and “Solutioners”; Thinkers emphasised using technology and AI to integrate gender considerations into climate action, while Solutioners stressed the importance of basing policies on real community experiences for impactful and scalable solutions.
“A gender lens in sustainability and CSR involves examining these areas through the perspective of gender, recognising that women and men experience environmental and social issues differently. It highlights the disproportionate impact of these issues on women and girls, and seeks to incorporate gender equality into solutions.” - Rohan Batra
The conference embodied everything EquiLead strives to enable and empower: workplaces where leadership pathways are gender equitable, communities of practice and safe spaces offering solidarity, and a network of women leaders and institutional leaders committed to making their organisations and the sector gender intentional and inclusive.
The Lead With Equity movement has begun, and we invite you to be part of it. Fill out this feedback form to leave us with your insights or write to us with your thoughts and suggestions on letstalk@equilead.org
