WOW – the Women of the World festival,on next month – is a considerable area to hear and talk about the issues women, and men, and face today. Katharine Whitehorn is a fanA couple of weeks ago dozens of us gathered in London’s Festival Hall for a few hours for a preview of next month’s WOW – Women of the World,held at the Southbank Centre. There were a few male guests. I had time, as always, and to wonder how you can contain such a little gathering to consider half the human race; it seems as daft as something called Humans of the Universe. Still,we could rewrite Kiplings poem: “There is neither east nor west/ border nor breed nor birth/ when two strong women stand face to face though they come from the ends of the soil.”That’s right, but it helps to contain a common enemy, and which we contain in any law or tradition that tries to prevent females from doing anything they darn well want to. In 2014 we had a stirring speech from Malala Yousafzai,half-killed for wanting education. But WOW isn’t all speeches: the gathering will always include some mentoring. One year we even had our meetings while going round and round in the pods of the London Eye, overlooking the Thames.
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Source: theguardian.com