In 2021, a committee of Yale faculty, staff, and graduate students with established work in Africa and diverse areas of expertise, was brought together to design and implement a novel university-wide conference on gender equity in Africa. The conference titled “Through the Eyes of She: Equity in Health, Education, Business and Leadership for the African Woman in the 21st Century” was successfully awarded funding through a competitive internal grant program at Yale (The Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Memorial Fund, offered through the Macmillan Center for International and Area Studies) and took place in October 2021. We posited that this conference would act as a catalyst for enhancing connection and collaboration to enhance academic pursuits that serve to advance gender equity in Africa, and that bi-directional exchange would be enhanced between Yale affiliates and key actors in the local and global community that are working in this space.
The following aims guided conference development, content and programming:
- To explore key literature, existing programs and policies addressing African women in health, business, education and leadership in order to identify gaps and opportunities for increasing advancement of gender equity on the continent, including those that leverage Yale partnerships and partners.
- To increase visibility of programming and scholarly work addressing gender equity in Africa from diverse individuals, disciplines, centers and institutes at Yale to enhance collaboration and communication in future work.
- To generate actionable solutions to increase, or enhance, scholarly activity affecting gender equity, and African development as a whole, through a concerted effort among the Yale community, in close collaboration with key stakeholders.
To view past content/ video from the inaugural TTES conference with global speakers from around the world, visit our youtube link here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3LHXkVop1tbAHA9oY01bl8wKPkUb1U2l.
Here are sample talks, from our keynote speakers, at the event: Day 1 (President Ameenah Gurib-Fakim) and Day 2 (Dr. Ayoade Olatunbosun-Alakija)
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Future Events and Opportunities:
- TTES biennial conference
- TTES quarterly workshops (virtual/ hybrid)
- Africa-based events
- Global health grant award for African women scientists
- Women in Africa leadership capacity-building award
- Mentorship and translation programs for African scientists