Wangari Maathai and Women and Power attendees.

Few things touch a despairing soul like examples of other humans who have experienced a remarkable metamorphosis through their struggles. Stories from just such women were the backbone of the fourth Women and Power Conference at Omega Institute, held in early September. Speakers from all over the world offered an audience of 700 a glimpse into tragedy, violence, inequity, and prejudice, and shared how those experiences transformed them.

When I mentioned the conference to a male friend, he jumped back, teasing me but also expressing a preconception the conference's name can elicit: that its message would be "We've had it with men" or "Women are better than men," or that it would advocate replicating a paradigm of domination and gender-based inequities, this time favoring women. Not so. Instead, it encouraged using the resources and experiences of women to improve the social fabric for everyone. The presentations and discussions often made clear that the changes women seek apply to both genders: freedom from fear, repression, violence, social silencing, inequity, and stereotyping.

Obie award-winning author Eve Ensler (and conference co-creator) was one of the opening night's speakers. Her bold and highly acclaimed play "The Vagina Monologues" has been translated into more than 35 languages and performed around the world, including clandestinely in Pakistan, where women participating in or viewing it were literally risking their lives (though now it runs openly in theaters). The "Monologues" also birthed V-Day (www.vday.org), a global movement with thousands of members that generates millions of dollars for the sole purpose of stopping violence against women and girls.

Also attending or speaking at the conference were many women, from teenagers to mature women with families, who have been supported by Ensler's example or by V-Day funds. Agnes Pareyio, for instance, travels among villages in Kenya educating people about the dangers and oppression of ritual female genital mutilation, which she suffered as a young woman and refused to perpetuate. Once traveling on foot, Pareyio now uses a vehicle provided by Ensler. V-Day has also established a safe house in Narok, Kenya, which shelters girls who are saying "No!" to the ritual, and so must flee their communities. More than a thousand girls have been saved from the procedure and are instead receiving an education, and are developing ways to build strong communities without debasing women.

Poet, author, and civil rights activist Maya Angelou addressed the audience first in song, then in poetry and encouraging words, reminding each person that she has within herself a contribution to offer for the benefit of all people. That contribution begins with the freedom to be seen and heard. When social, political, or individual oppression denies that freedom, it will take courage, perhaps like never before, to let the "inner light shine"—a metaphor that carried through the conference. Such courage may only appear after awful tragedy, or it may come from anger at intolerable inequality, but it finally will crack the shell of fear that many women have absorbed from their personal histories or society's "rules." Call up the grandmothers, Angelou encourages us; call up those who would support our soul's journey to live in joy and safety. When you are trembling in the corner, the vision of others' courage can embolden your spirit, give you hope, stir action, and create change.

Another example of hope came from Wangari Maathai, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her environmental work establishing, among other things, the Greenbelt Movement, which has empowered African women to plant more than 30 million trees to stop devastating soil erosion in their communities.
As a child, Maathai had witnessed the disappearance of forests in her homeland of Kenya and knew it was connected with poverty and starvation in the villages. Educated in biology and the first woman in central Africa to earn a doctoral degree of any kind, she set about replanting trees and teaching village women how to do so. She was told repeatedly by the country's forestry officials that women without proper training couldn't possibly know how to plant trees, and were forbidden from doing so. (She was arrested several times for campaigning against deforestation.)

Still, many village women learned that collecting tree seeds and nurturing them to growth came naturally, and now they are experts on replanting central African forests—something that has transformed and rehabilitated many landscapes and habitats, while providing related income for families. The Greenbelt Movement is spreading all across Africa with its larger mission of "mobilizing communities for self-determination, justice, equity, poverty reduction, and environmental conservation, using trees as the entry point." (Learn more at www.wangarimaathai.or.ke.)

Omega co-founder Elizabeth Lesser.

Dr. Maathai reminds us that a single person, if she or he can overcome despair, be it from internal or external tragedy or oppression, can start a shift in a deeply entrenched paradigm. She used an analogy that became another theme of the conference: If society's direction isn't working and isn't sustainable, but you're accepting it, it's like you're sitting on a bus going somewhere you don't want to go. The bus will continue along its misguided course unless someone, like you, is willing to start a change. That could mean getting off the bus altogether, or moving closer to the front to have some say in where it's going—even becoming the driver. Her story gives hope to those who are aware that a civilization of unsustainable, inequitable, domination-based practices is not the direction that will serve the global community of the future, and that "average citizens" can make their voices heard and their actions count, starting with the simplest of life-affirming actions in one's community.

It is not possible to summarize more of the conference here, other than to mention additional speakers: professor and author Carol Gilligan, whose research and book, In a Different Voice, introduced women's and girls' experiences into psychology, which had previously used studies of only men and boys to define the psychology of everyone; Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, founding member of Women Waging Peace and an organizer of the astonishingly courageous public hearings between victims and perpetrators for South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister, best-selling author of numerous books and dynamic spiritual visionary; actors and social activists Sally Field and Jane Fonda; and many others.

Each of these accomplished women deflected praise for their achievements, instead reminding the audience that the simplest action made from unconditional love, compassion, patience, forgiveness—qualities often attributed to women—will be a step toward realizing humanity's greatest expression. In her latest book, Broken Open, Omega's co-founder and the conference's co-creator, Elizabeth Lesser, offers more examples of wounded or oppressed souls, including hers, who used despair and pain to craft transformation. As she visions: "The world needs women to imagine, define, and lead us toward a sane and sustainable culture—a culture that values life more than war, people more than profits, and hope more than despair."

Lesser and Omega executive director Skip Backus are committed to providing the hub for a growing Women and Power community, and will host next year's conference at Omega's Rhinebeck campus. Register early, in the spring, as the conference sells out each year.