Forty-three years ago this week, the number one tennis star in the world, 29-year-old Billie Jean King, agreed to take on 55-year-old Bobby Riggs, in a match dubbed the “Battle of the Sexes.” The prize was $100,000 — which compared with today’s million-dollar-winning pots wasn’t much — but it was the first time that women […]
Two years ago, former president of Ireland Mary Robinson graced the TEDWomen stage with a moving talk about why climate change is not only a threat to our environment, but also a threat to the human rights of many poor and marginalized people around the world. Mary is an incredible person who inspires me greatly. […]
After two days of TEDWomen 2015, the jaw-dropping, standing-O moments are still hanging in the air — smart, sad and funny insights on things we don’t often say out loud … “I am a bad feminist and a good woman. I am trying to become better in how I think and say and do — without abandoning what makes […]
Anyssa Samari finds the interstitials for TED Conferences — the short videos that run between speakers as palate-cleansers. “It’s like a Rubik’s Cube,” she says. “There are a lot of constraints—the videos can’t be too long, they need to tell a narrative, they need to be beautiful and they need to fit the theme of the session. […]
What is an idea, really, if you keep it to yourself? No, ideas are meant to be shared. In this session, stories of connection — from Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, who have been friends since 9 to 5, to Jenni Chang and Lisa Dazols, a couple who traveled around the world documenting the lives of “supergays.” Short recaps of […]
Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin have been friends since 9 to 5. And the pair walks onto the TEDWomen stage to talk about the importance of female friendship, the audience standing up to applaud as they take a seat on a couch. “What do you look for in a friend?” asks host Pat Mitchell, kicking off the conversation. […]
A shift implies a subtle move — up, down, to the right or left. In this session, a look at things in flux, from masculinity to poverty to glaciers, with new thoughts on some shared conversations. Short recaps of the talks in this session… Why gender inequality is bad for men. “I am here to recruit men […]
On her first day as a principal in a North Philadelphia school, Linda Cliatt-Wayman was determined to lay down the law and set clear expectations. She called her students into the auditorium and told them how things would go at that school. But one voice interrupted her. “Miss,” called out a girl named Ashley, “why do […]
Aspen Baker had just graduated from college when she found out she was pregnant. She was sitting at the bar where she worked and her co-worker, Polly, asked if she wanted a drink. Baker had to confess, “I’m pregnant. I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet.” “Without hesitation, Polly replied: ‘Oh, I’ve had an abortion,’” remembers Baker on the TEDWomen […]
A tough and interesting question surfaced yesterday at TEDWomen — and not from the stage. One of our attendees brought a 5-month-old baby to the conference, and this raised the question: How can we make TED more accessible to parents with very young children? TED has always had a “grownups-only” policy; we don’t allow kids […]
Momentum is great. But how do you sustain it? This session will examine what it takes to keep on keeping on, from speakers who are just starting out and those who’ve been at it for decades. Short recaps of the talks in this session… The number one abuse of human rights. Former president Jimmy Carter begins with […]
“Bobby Riggs was one of my heroes. I admired him,” says Billie Jean King. “That’s one of the reasons I beat him — because I respected him.” King’s Q&A on the TEDWomen stage begins with a discussion of one of the greatest sports moments of all time: the Battle of the Sexes, a tennis match between […]
Seduction happens in many forms. The speakers in this session highlight unexpected twists on the topic — a romance of dueling banjos, the allure of insects, and our ever-widening definition of love. Short recaps of the talks in this session… What we learn from insect sex. “You could have an insect-of-the-month calendar and not have to reuse a species for […]
“I initially celebrated the 9/11 attacks,” says Mubin Shaikh. “When the news came in over the radio that a plane had hit the building, the first words that came out of my mouth were ‘God is great.’” This was not a natural response, says Shaikh. “Extremists are made, not born,” he explains. Shaikh grew up […]
Some ideas simmer below the surface. This session is dedicated to speakers who bubble them up, from a surprising management thinker to an Ebola researcher who found new inspiration in a song. Short recaps of the talks in this session… Work, the ultimate social experience. Margaret Heffernan is here to flip our thinking on what makes teams […]
“I have passionate opinions about gender equality,” says writer Roxane Gay. She takes the TEDWomen stage to tell us how she became known as a bad feminist. Turns out, it was a label she gave herself, almost as a personal joke. After all, she thought, real feminists were “angry, hairy, man-hating, sex-hating women” — and she […]