Five mini-documentary films captivated the TEDWomen 2016 audience — directed, written and produced by female filmmakers whose work embodies today’s best and most innovative storytelling. In a partnership between Lifetime and Chicken & Egg Pictures, these short films are artful in the ways their storytelling catalyzes social change and the TEDWomen 2016 theme, “It’s About […]
When Hillary Clinton became the first female nominee of a major political party in the United States this summer, she reflected that this achievement “belongs to generations of women and men who struggled, sacrificed and made this moment possible.” Women have been leaders throughout history, making positive changes in their communities. But in so many places around […]
Nancy Pelosi has represented San Francisco’s 12th district for 29 years, is currently the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, and made history by becoming the first woman Speaker of the House. But before all that happened, she never felt that she was on a course for public office. When the opportunity to run […]
In December 1968, the crew of the Apollo 8 space mission captured a historic photo: “Earthrise,” an image of our home planet as seen from lunar orbit. Astronaut Jim Lovell was on that mission, and here’s what he said: “Everything that you’ve ever known, your loved ones, your business, the problems of the Earth itself … is all behind your thumb.” It […]
“TED is about challenging convention and deepening our understanding of the world around us by considering, even for just a few moments, a radically different way to look at things,” says Dalia Mogahed, host of Session 5 of TEDWomen 2016 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. In the conference’s penultimate […]
In all of its formats, in all the ways we listen and watch, the media is extremely powerful in how it represents — or underrepresents or misrepresents — women. Unless we’re prepared to change the way women are portrayed in the stories we tell, we’re not prepared for real change. In Session 4 of TEDWomen […]
Michelle Cusseaux. Aura Rosser. Tanisha Anderson. Mya Hall. Natasha McKenna. These are the names of but a few African-American women who were victims of police brutality in the past two years. Why are most people unfamiliar with these names? Activist and law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw urges us to ask this question. Through her theory of […]
When it comes to equality across race, class and gender: “None of us has time to sleep — we need to be woke as hell,” says Mia Birdsong, host of Session 3 of TEDWomen 2016. In an emotional, pointed session, seven speakers and one performer explored the painful realities of the present and offered hopeful […]
3,000 Facebook messages in three days, that ended in marriage 3 months later. From the start, Tiq and Kim Katrin Milan’s relationship was a whirlwind romance — a unique union rooted in a deep love, respect and mutual admiration that came across warmly as they stood hand in hand on the TEDWomen stage. Tiq is a […]
We depend on each other, and we can accomplish very little if we can’t work together. What better way is there to spend our time than with each other? Hosted by journalists (and married couple) Courtney E. Martin and John Cary, Session 2 of TEDWomen 2016 featured five pairs of speakers and one performer exploring […]
“Time is highly elastic. We cannot make more time, but time will stretch to accommodate what we need or want to put into it,” says author Laura Vanderkam. Vanderkam studies how very busy women spend their lives. For her recent book, I Know How She Does It, Vanderkam asked 143 women to meticulously log their […]
Time is a global preoccupation — we never feel like we have enough of it to accomplish all we want to accomplish in the world. Do we control time, or does time control us? In the opening session of TEDWomen 2016 at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, seven speakers explored how time […]
On a gorgeous San Francisco night, the TEDWomen community gathered to kick off our 2016 conference, “It’s About Time,” with an evening of global food, music and connection around ideas. On the terrace of the City View at Metreon, overlooking Yerba Buena Gardens, a dozen artisan groups have gathered from around the world to show […]
At the age of 64, Diana Nyad became the first person to make the 110-mile swim from Havana to Key West without a shark cage. The swim took her 52 hours and 54 minutes to complete, a lifetime goal she had begun dreaming of in the late 1970s. She made her first attempt in 1978 at the age of 28. Then after […]
Congratulations to TEDWomen 2013 speaker Dr. Paula Johnson who, earlier this month, was sworn in as the 14th president of Wellesley College. She is the first African-American president of the institution. Dr. Johnson is a pioneer in looking at health from a woman’s perspective. Before taking the helm at Wellesley, she was the chief of […]
Over the years, we’ve had so many wonderful and moving talks at the TEDWomen conference, but perhaps one of the most striking was Malawi activist Memory Banda. The amazing 18-year-old presented at last year’s event – and inspired us all with her story. Memory began her talk by reciting a poem written by another young […]
