Is it up to women to fix the world?

Recently, female campaigners have become powerful figures in the public eye from grassroots activists and outspoken MPs to celebrities with a cause. Yet around the world women continue to struggle for equity. The climate crisis and the collapse of our economic system has been blamed, by some, on the ‘male way doing things’. Would things have been different if women had an equal voice? We will discuss the concept of people making positive change happen in different ways – do women have the answers to creating a fairer, cleaner world? How we can empower women to stand up and use their political power?

Deborah Grayson, Climate Rush

Deborah belongs to Climate Rush one of the most recognisable brands in the environmental movement - inspired by the actions of the Suffragettes who showed that peaceful civil disobedience could inspire positive change. Since joining, Deborah has organised lots of creative actions, including a climate-solutions roadshow by horse-drawn cart. She has been arrested several times for her protests. Deborah describes herself as humanist rather than a feminist but she recognises that in a world in which the odds are so routinely stacked against women, humanism is feminism - and both men and women will benefit from a transformed society in which identities aren’t solely based on the things they buy.

Sian Berry, Green Party

Sian joined the Green Party as a Councillor for Camden in 2002. She made quickly her mark as the party’s campaign manager, attacking urban 4x4 cars and spent a year as national Female Principal Speaker. Sian fought a high profile election campaign as Green candidate for London Mayor in 2008. She has also authored several books on sustainable living. Sian’s career has given her a unique insight into the male-dominated world of local and national politics and she has more experience than most of the media paying more attention to her looks than her policies.

Linda Fairbrother

For the last 12 years, Linda has been a newsreader, presenter, and senior reporter for Anglia News. She has an impressive background in news media having worked as a radio freelance for local, national and international radio including the BBC World Service and BBC Radio 4 (including ‘Today’ and ‘Women’s Hour’) as well as presenting a business programme for the BBC. Linda is one of the founders of Working Women Productions a Radio and TV production company consisting of senior women journalists promoting women in politics and media. They are currently working on a BBC Radio 4 documentary on Women in Westminster.

Reyna Elizabeth Dominguez Martinez

Reyna is Acting Secretary of the union federation CGT fighting to protect the Honduran factory at the heart of People & Planet’s Fruit of the Loom campaign. Since the plant’s closure, workers who have taken a strong stand against the abuse of their rights by Fruit of the Loom have been blacklisted in the local apparel export industry, in some cases they have received death threats.