LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – The World Woman Foundation, in partnership with Geometry along with WPP agency partners BCW, Hogarth Worldwide and Gramercy Park Studios, launched its #ShesMyHero campaign which will culminate in World Woman Hour, a global digital event featuring inspiring stories of 60 women, told in 60 seconds, collectively visualized in a powerful 60 minutes of film. This socially powered movement aims to empower girls around the world to find the one hero that inspires them. View the official trailer here.
This first-of-its-kind World Woman Hour event launches on October 11, 2020 in celebration of the International Day of the Girl to bring together a world-class coalition of women, including Oscar-nominated actress Cynthia Erivo, Brazilian-American fashion designer & beauty entrepreneur Camila Coelho, legendary primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall, storyteller, filmmaker and thought leader Oge Egbuonu, transgender model Valentina Sampaio, singer Kechi Okwuchi, Paralympic medalist Tatyana McFadden, First Italian Female CEO of Major International Companies Federica Marchionni, Philanthropist Anu Jain, First Black Board Member for Verizon Shelley Archambeau, and many more. Altogether, these women have fought against stereotypes and persevered through personal and professional challenges to achieve ideas that are changing the world.
Additionally, original music is being created for the World Woman Hour by 2x Grammy-nominated composer and songwriter Ryan Shore and award-winning songwriter Liz Russo. America’s Got Talent alum Angelica Hale will be performing the new song during the event.
“The goal of each minute is for all women to tell their personal stories that includes wisdom, advice, confidence boosters, real-life learning, and lessons about overcoming anything. With our goal to empower one million women and girls by 2030, we believe that their experiences will make a difference for the younger generation,” says Rupa Dash, CEO of World Woman Foundation, “Through the World Woman Hour, these 60 hero stories of women changing the world will continue to drive awareness on critical issues currently faced by women and girls globally.”
With all the challenges that young girls and women face on a daily basis, the World Woman Foundation believes in the power of role models to help inspire, motivate and influence girls from around the world to overcome these challenges and, through mentorship, attain greater success.
“We came together with our WPP agency partners to accelerate World Woman Foundations’ vision of ‘mentorship for all’ and be part of a bigger change. Recognizing that this year’s International Day of the Girl holds an even greater meaning, we are using our superpower of creativity to spotlight the untold stories of women from all corners of the globe to empower the next generation of change-makers to find their voice and purpose.” Says, Beth Ann Kaminkow, Global CEO of Geometry.
Despite progress in recent years, women around the world still face many obstacles especially pertaining to global gender gaps in leadership. For instance:
- Every hour, somewhere in the world, members of national parliaments or legislatures are making decisions on important issues, and worldwide only 24.3% of these key people are women[1]
- Only 37 of the Fortune 500 companies have a female as CEO, an all-time record but a rate of only 7.4%[2]
- Minority women are especially underrepresented in STEM fields – of all U.S. women earning PhDs in science and engineering, fewer than 4% were Latina and under 3% were Black[3]
By showcasing women from different backgrounds ranging from business, politics, fashion, beauty, sports, tech and more, these narratives celebrate the range of female heroes in the world and encourage everyone to identify and find their own hero.
Elspeth Lynn, Executive Creative Director #ShesMyHero added, “Sometimes, we just need to be inspired by one person who is already doing what we want to do. So our ambition is that a girl will watch World Woman Hour and say to herself, ‘If she can do it, so can I.”
The event will premiere on Facebook LIVE and on the World Woman Foundation YouTube page starting at 4PM EST/ 1PM PST/ 8PM GMT. For more information on the digital series you can visit www.worldwomanhour.com to hear about the riveting journey from second to second – from the emotional to the unexpected to the truly inspirational. Follow World Woman Hour on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to see more and share your hero using the #ShesMyHero hashtag.
Our strategic partners, without whom this event would not be possible, include Pfizer, Lockheed Martin, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Deloitte, WPP, Adobe, Pinterest, Salesforce, Twitch, Billboard, Hootsuite, Facebook, Instagram and Fulton Street Music Group. Our knowledge partner is UN Women. We are also thrilled to have Business of Impact, McDonough School of Business, George Washington University as our academic partner as well as Tamas David-Barrett, PhD, Evolutionary Behavioural Scientist, University of Oxford and author of the forthcoming book, Matriocracy: The Evolutionary Case to End Patriarchy as our Academic Collaborator. This collective group has donated funding, resources and services that have enabled the World Woman Foundation to elevate the valuable and essential contributions made by female leaders.
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[1] Copyright © UN Women (2019) Facts and Figures: Leadership and Political Participation
[2] Copyright © Fortune (2020) The Number of Female CEO’s in the Fortune 500 Hits an All-Time Record
[3] Copyright © Built by Me (2019) 8 Statistics and Facts About Women in STEM