Elizabeth Filippouli - From Women to the World: Letters for a New Century

Elizabeth Filippoulis book, From Women to the World, is profoundly moving. A series of letters written by women, to the women who changed their lives. It is in itself likely to change the lives of the many women who are destined to read it. Among the many powerful and incisive stories, the letter written by Muna AbuSulayman to Margaret Garner, the enslaved woman attempting to escape to freedom, who murdered her daughter rather than see her return to captivity, reduced me to tears. I will be buying it for my daughter and my mother. This is not a book to miss.

LINDA DUBERLEY, Writer and Broadcaster

From Women to the World is a thought-provoking, deeply inspirational, and beautifully compiled tribute to womens leadership. I commend Elizabeth for this important and timeless contribution to the growing body of scholarship and literature that honours the unlimited potential and unparalleled capacity of womens leadership, and highlights its holistic impact on economies, on societies, and whole communities.

HAIFA AL KAYLANI, President & Founder,
The Arab International Womens Forum

This is a gem of a book.

VICKY PRYCE, Economist/Author of Women vs Capitalism

I could say that From Women to the World is a role model female platform. It is a dialogue between women that inspires, thrills and touches the souls and feelings of the countless readers that this spectacular book will surely have. Thank you, Elizabeth Filippouli and all the brave and valuable authors of these letters, for letting us share their fights, pains, and victories.

ROSALA ARTEAGA SERRANO,
Former President of the Republic of Ecuador

Too often we focus on metrics and measurements, yet it is stories and relationships that lead to real, long lasting transformation. These stories from around the world will have an impact on the reader as they did on those who feature in them. This is a beautiful, powerful book.

HELEN ALDERSON, International Committee of the Red Cross

To my Mother, Eleni, and my Grandma, Elizabeth.
To all great Fathers, who raise their daughters with love and respect, including mine, Stamatis Filippoulis.
In memory of all the women whose lives were taken violently.
Dedicated to all women who bravely march on through life.

Dear Reader,

Over the last two decades I have been lucky enough to cross paths with some fascinating women. Women of different cultures, races, faiths, ages, social strata. Over our conversations I would always discover a very human and exceptionally powerful side in all of them. A story that they would not share when invited on a panel. Experiences that shape who we become in life are rarely shared on industry panels. They usually inspire movies and stage characters.

I decided to invite some of these trailblazing women to open up their hearts in a way that they had not done before. I wanted them to speak about the real, human, untold stories that defined them. If we dont explore what is happening inside us, we cant really understand what is happening around us.

Each story is a door that opens for the first time. I hope that the reading will be powerful, memorable and lovingly tough. It does not offer success secrets, career guidance and how-you-can-have-it-all advice.

This book is a tribute to womanhood as a state of mind, a choice that allows for a wealth of experiences, contradictions, interpretations and adaptations. In the words of Simone de Beauvoir: One is not born, but rather becomes a woman.

I am entirely aware that thousands of extraordinary stories have yet to be shared or, even worse, may never be told. But there is so much to learn and be inspired by, from those at hand.

This collective legacy is now yours.

Yours,
Elizabeth

BY ELIZABETH FILIPPOULI

In 2018 on International Womens Day, Athena40 was announced at UNESCO in Paris as a platform to promote new role models and to engage forward-thinking women in a global conversation. Inspired by discussions with one of the worlds finest novelists and womens rights activist, Elif Shafak, embraced by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the late Nawal El Saadawi, a leading Arab feminist, and businesswoman and philanthropist Dame Stephanie Shirley, Athena40 was born to catalyse conversations around promoting more women into leadership positions and introduce new ways to learn from each other.

We all agreed that, if we want a more accountable and balanced world we have to organize and engage more women in conversations and decision-making roles. We must connect more with each other, inspire, support and, as Michelle Obama says: become.

From Women to the World is a dialogue not only between the authors of the letters and their addressees it is a wider intergenerational, interracial, cross-gender conversation that is frank, intimate and hopefully difficult at times.

From Generations Y and Z, we will see the new Ruth, Malala, Zaha, Graca, Rania, Oprah, Angelina emerging. They will rise and shine, but there are storms ahead. I strongly believe that the chain of socioeconomic events that marked the first decade of the Millennium (and which I describe in the Afterword) would not have happened if more women were at the helm. We are not faultless, but we do bring compassion, patience and a collaborative leadership style.

These are values that our world a world founded on patriarchy, institutional sexism and systemic male dominance is missing. By perpetuating gender injustice, inequality and bias, humanity not only continues to be guilty of a major ethical blunder but pays a very expensive price too.

I am often asked if I call myself a feminist and if Athena40 is a feminist movement. Well, I will share my definition of feminism. To me, feminism is about dignity. Dignity means being treated as equal, being respected for who you are, being listened to. Dignity is being able to define your own destiny, being free to make your lifes choices and free to celebrate them. It is an attitude of self-respect that finds its way into social, cultural and religious contexts but it stretches beyond their limitations. While we should be able to acknowledge our limitations, and we can never eliminate them completely, we can find our way to freedom and independence through them. As author and thinker Roxane Gay writes: I am as committed to fighting fiercely for equality as I am committed to disrupting the notion that there is an essential feminism. I agree.

Feminism is about nurturing independent thought and this comes with education. Education enables the mind to be open and welcoming to all views and ideas. If our minds close towards one direction, then they will soon close towards other (or all) directions. That is a dangerous prospect.

In an ideal and equal world, feminism would not exist. Every human being would enjoy a dignified life, with a sense of belonging, respect and purpose. That pretty much sums it up for me.

Until we get there, we have a relay race to run. I hope that this book will leave you inspired and motivated to join this race against patriarchy, misogyny, violence, apathy. Each letter is a baton handed over to you, as the next runner, regardless of your gender. The time to pick it up is now. So when its your turn, dont hesitate, dont wait. Take it, run, pass it on.

The right time to start changing things is always, and only, now.