Women and men share the love at Forbes summit

There were plenty of differences in opinion about the feminism phenomenon and women empowerment among guests attending the prestigious Forbes Woman Africa Leading Women’s Summit, with some going as far as saying feminism has become “overrated”.

The media house hosted its fourth annual summit, attended by more than 500 women, at Durban’s International Convention Centre, inviting prominent figures like supermodel and philanthropist Naomi Campbell and leading women in the corporate world, such as chief executive officer of Ocean Basket, Grace Harding, and CEO of African Bank Basani Maluleka.

Forbes’ managing editor Methil Renuka said the event was not just another talk among women with no action, but it provided a space for women and men to network and opportunities to grow with each other in the future.

She expressed a strong belief that by their fifth or sixth summit, they would have heard riveting success stories about partnerships that were made because of the event.

She said the summit was unique because it allowed for the inclusion of men and for their voices to be heard where women were concerned.

“This is not about male-bashing,” she said. “Somehow feminism and women empowerment have become so cliched.

“I feel they have been overused in the wrong way. In all these [feminism] conferences, you’ll find that there are only women sitting on the panel, but here we have also tried to incorporate some men who are male gender advocates. It is important to involve men as well, it cannot be a monologue anymore. It has to be a dialogue.”

Harding said it was good to bring people together for a common purpose of empowerment and that she considered herself a human activist more than a woman activist.

“I do sometimes worry that people come here and talk a lot and nothing happens,” said Harding. “But I do think that even if I can connect with two amazing people, women or men, who have purposeful intentions, it will be a worthwhile day.”

Maluleka also took the opportunity to say that the future was female.

“It is difficult to measure outcomes [of conferences of this nature], so I don’t know how to say this conference over here has resulted in that outcome over there,” said Maluleka.

“But for me, today has been important because it is a reiteration and reaffirmation of the great work that women are doing out there.”

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