Women as a Force for Economic Change

The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) on Oct. 19 will host “Women: An Emerging Market,” a discussion on how improving women’s ability to earn a living – especially in low- and middle-income countries – can alleviate poverty and drive global economic growth. 

To be held at The National Press Club in Washington, D.C., panelists will be Nemat (Minouche) Shafik, deputy director of the International Monetary Fund, Gayle Smith, special assistant to President Obama and senior director at the National Security Council, and Anju Malhotra, vice president of research, innovation and impact at ICRW. The discussion will be moderated by BBC World News Anchor Katty Kay.

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Panelists are expected to touch on a variety of issues related to how and why women worldwide are increasingly viewed as a force to improve global stability and prosperity. Indeed, The World Bank’s recently-released 2012 world development report, “Gender Equality and Development,” stresses that strengthening women financially – as well as politically and socially – is not only key to global development objectives, it’s also “smart economics.” This may be particularly true in today’s global economic crisis in which foreign aid dollars are decreasing; women could be a promising market for investments that yield multiple returns.

Women: An Emerging Market is the third event in ICRW's 35^th anniversary Passports to Progress discussion series, which aims to advance the dialogue on critical issues likely to shape the lives of women and girls in developing countries in the coming years. Earlier gatherings in the series addressed innovations for women and challenges to and solutions for ending violence against women. Prior panelists and moderators included Dr. Rajiv Shah, administrator of United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Andrea Mitchell, NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent and filmmaker and philanthropist Abigail Disney. 

Gillian Gaynair is ICRW’s senior writer and editor.

Have something you want to ask? ICRW invites you to submit questions on Twitter for BBC’s Katty Kay to ask panelists during our Oct. 19 discussion. Send them to @ICRW. Please use #P2P in your tweets.