Womens Forum Day 1 opening session
October 12, 2007 by Chris | permalink
The conference opened with a lovely musical interlude by Vera Tsu, a violinist from the Beijing National Symphony. What a different way to begin. The room was full of tables with six or seven chairs per table placed on one side so that the stage could be seen. After the interlude, the Chair of the Women’s Forum, Aude Zieseniss de Thuin, officially opened the event. She noted that this year there are over 1200 participants from over 70 countries with 15% men. Her goal is 30% male, but it is fine as it is. She noted that this year they have moved to a new business model that now allows for long-term partnerships and thus the founding of six specific projects aimed at women. These ranged from a global award for business entrepreneurship to schoolgirl educational programs. Her focus was on the role of TRUST in all of our social systems that are the basis of social institutions.
Long Jiang Wen, General Director of the All-China Women’s Federation, was inited to speak. She had a nice slide show in which everyone was smling about the Chinese voyage over the past fifty years which included some very trying times for women in China. The most fascinating thing that she spoke about was that the migration of male workers to the cities for construction has left women in the primary role in much of the countryside. This is an incredibly interesting issue when we look ahead. AND it brings up the response to my question of another one of the Chinese delegation about the one-child policy and its impact on the nation’s demographic profile. She responded that the policy as an important part of the nation getting into its position and said with total confidence that the one-child policy will be changed in 2010. I am not sure exactly who she was, but the response was striking.
