TEDxTraverse City Paola Gianturco Women Who Light the Dark
The speaker argues that women globally are the primary agents of social, economic, and environmental change, demonstrating this through their tireless work in everything from education and health to rebuilding livelihoods. She provides evidence through case studies spanning over 55 countries, showing women leading initiatives like establishing train platform schools, leading hygiene campaigns, and suing for historical reparations. The central message is that while systemic issues are vast, individual action fueled by community care and education can create profound, lasting legacies.
## Speakers & Context
- Speaker: An author who previously worked in business consulting and is now documenting women's lives and activism globally.
- Activity: Presenting photos and stories from her travels and research across 55 countries.
- Motivation: To show that women are fundamentally driving progress toward sustainability, social justice, education, health, and peace.
- Audience Interaction: Mentions the audience receiving gift bags with a USB key detailing ways to get involved.
## Theses & Positions
- Women are the primary force driving progress for sustainability, social justice, education, health, and peace.
- The poorest of the poor are disproportionately women, supporting half of the world's families.
- Global economic structures can leave women vulnerable, making their efforts crucial for stabilization.
- Collective action and community care are the mechanisms that generate change; this requires participation ("it takes all of us").
## Concepts & Definitions
- **Mullis:** Handicrafts made by low-income women artisans, whose sale funds their children's education.
- **The 3 R's:** Learned by children at train platform schools (details not specified, but implies essential life skills).
- **The Seven Patriarchal Commandments:** A play performed by Filipino women who were sex slaves during WWII, used to fight discrimination.
- **Artistic Social and Economic Legacy:** The system created by the women documented in her books.
## Mechanisms & Processes
- **Self-Education/Livelihoods Shift:** Women move beyond traditional crafts to learn modern, higher-paying jobs, such as trekking guides, taxi drivers, hairdressers, construction trades, and solar engineers.
- **Community Intervention (Education):** Teacher Inderjeet Khurana started teaching children at train stations, expanding from 11 children weekly to 114 children daily, creating 12 train platform schools.
- **Community Intervention (Health/Safety):**
* Girls in the favelas receive after-school programs (PETA and Sasa) providing academics and classical ballet to combat degradation toward housecleaning or prostitution.
* Village grandmothers convince villagers to stop female genital mutilation.
* AIDS prevention taught by women (e.g., the indigenous nurse in Ecuador; mother at the mobile clinic in Cambodia).
- **Advocacy/Legal Action:** Filipino women suing Japan for reparations and acknowledgement for wartime sex slavery.
- **Hygiene Promotion:** Implementing Saturday's hygiene day at train platform schools, where children are taught to use drinking fountains.
## Timeline & Sequence
- **Speaker's Career Shift:** Left business consulting after 30 years to incorporate teaching and documentation.
- **Speaker's Achievement:** Documented women's lives in 55 countries.
- **Historical Reference (WWII):** Filipino women serving as sex slaves sued Japan for reparations.
- **Educational Milestones:** Inderjeet Khurana's efforts escalating from 11 children weekly to 114 children daily.
## Named Entities
- **Panama:** Location where the speaker traveled by dugout canoe to interview artisans.
- **Guatemala:** Location where the speaker moved boulders to access weaving villages.
- **South Africa:** Location where the speaker traveled deeply into the countryside.
- **Turkey, India, Thailand:** Countries visited during the travels.
- **Kenya:** Location where the speaker learned to ululate and where water collection is a critical task.
- **Illinois:** State where the speaker was born.
- **Zigmund Freud:** Person whose question about what women want was referenced.
- **Cambodia:** Country with a mobile clinic run by a woman doctor.
- **Swaziland:** Location where grandmothers run a seedling nursery.
- **Cameroon:** Location where the Medical Women's Association taught AIDS prevention and where disabled women get job training.
- **Eugene, Oregon (USA):** Destination for disabled women from 30 countries to learn leadership.
- **Senegal:** Country where grandmothers convinced villagers to stop female genital mutilation.
- **Argentina:** Country where lesbians perform street theater.
- **Japan:** Country sued by Filipino women for wartime reparations.
## Numbers & Data
- Speaker's professional experience: Over **30 years** in business consulting.
- Year of achieving income milestone: **55** (age or year referenced).
- Money earned: Two years' worth of income in **one year**.
- Frequent flyer miles: Equivalent to **almost flying to the moon**.
- Number of countries documented: **55**.
- World population estimate needing support: **Half** of all families.
- Number of members in the Girl Child Network: Currently **30,000**.
- Age range for Girl Child Network: Little girls aged **6 to 16**.
- Number of women who can't read globally: Nearly **a billion**.
- Fraction of women/girls who are illiterate: **Two-thirds**.
- Economic scale of the global sex trade: **Multi-billion dollar industry**.
- Fraction of women hit by the global sex trade in Vietnam: **One in every three**.
- Distance women walk for water in Africa: As many as **seven hours** a day out and back.
- Number of HIV/AIDS people globally who are women: **Half**.
- Age of the Senegalese woman who gave testimony: **130**.
- Number of US states/locations mentioned for maternal love: **Cuba, Portugal, Laos, etc.** (Listing multiple regions).
## Examples & Cases
- **Story Illustration:** Speaker using a dream/imagination to illustrate that she could go "almost anywhere for free" with miles and funds.
- **Artisan Work:** Women making *Mullis* in Panama.
- **Travel/Logistics Example:** Moving boulders in Guatemala to reach weaving villages.
- **Geographic Scope:** Traveling from South Africa to the point of departure from the Pakistani border.
- **Education Case (India):** Train platform teachers starting in small groups and expanding to 12 schools.
- **Livelihood Improvement (Nepal):** Women training as trekking guides, taxi drivers, and hairdressers.
- **Technology/Skill Example (India):** Illiterate women learning to be solar engineers.
- **Healthcare Example (China/Vietnam):** Factory closures making women susceptible to traffickers, and the prevalence of drug use.
- **Hygiene Example (Kenya):** The need for women's work to raise money for water drills.
- **Labor Example (Guatemala):** Women using old bicycles as water pumps.
- **Child Rights Example (Senegal):** Grandmothers organizing to stop female genital mutilation.
- **Human Rights Example (Argentina):** Lesbian women using street theater to reduce discrimination.
- **Suffering Example:** Filipino women serving as sex slaves during World War Two.
- **Mothers' Devotion:** The universality of mothers hoping for better lives for their daughters.
## Tools, Tech & Products
- **Dugout canoe:** Mode of transport used to reach islands off the coast of Panama.
- **Chalkboards:** Used by Inderjeet Khurana to teach at train stations.
- **Mobile clinic:** Run by a woman doctor in Cambodia.
- **USB key:** Provided in gift bags to detail ways to get involved.
## References Cited
- **Sigmund Freud:** Referenced for the question: *"what do women want."*
- **Marge Piercy:** Author of the poem recited at the end.
- **United Nations (UN):** Source for estimates regarding the proportion of families supported by women and global literacy rates.
- **PETA and Sasa:** Organizations running after-school programs in the favelas.
## Trade-offs & Alternatives
- **Traditional Craft vs. Modern Jobs:** Shift from basic crafts (like *Mullis*) to higher-paying roles (guides, drivers, engineers).
- **Sexual Exploitation vs. Agency:** The shift from being vulnerable to sex trafficking or prostitution to actively forming support networks and advocating for rights.
- **Resource Allocation:** Using collected income/royalties to fund NGOs addressing global issues.
## Counterarguments & Caveats
- **"Harebrained scheme":** A potential criticism of her photographic project that she preemptively dismisses.
- **Limited Scope of Progress:** While progress is shown, the scale of issues (illiteracy, sex trade, water scarcity) remains immense.
## Methodology
- **Photojournalistic Documentation:** Gathering and presenting photographs from 55 countries to showcase women's lives.
- **Narrative Synthesis:** Weaving together diverse, global case studies (education, health, economics) to illustrate a single thesis about women's agency.
- **Financial Model:** Donating a hundred percent of author royalties to non-profit organizations supporting women and their families.
## Conclusions & Recommendations
- Everyone (the audience) can get involved in doing good things.
- All people require only a talent and an asset to be effective agents of change.
- Call to action based on the poem: Hope and possibility require collective effort; "it starts when you do it again," and "it starts when you say we."
## Implications & Consequences
- Women's economic activity is directly linked to family sustenance and community survival across multiple sectors (food, health, education).
- Systemic change requires empowering women at multiple levels, from local healing practices to international legal action.
## Verbatim Moments
- *"I'm going to tell you the story I'm going to tell you could be your story."*
- *"I have made two years worth of income in one year."*
- *"I know they want economics sustainability environmental sustainability they went social justice they went education they want health and they want peace."*
- *"The girls write poems about their experiences and perform them in public meetings and instantly their communities are mobilized to action."*
- *"the poorest of the poor are women."*
- *"The United Nations estimates that half of the world's families are supported by women."*
- *"If you would like to I know that the people in this audience are engaged in doing good things here in Traverse City and regionally and nationally and internationally but if you know somebody who isn't yet this might be useful..."*
- *"it will take all of us all of us working together to create hope and possibility for this world."*