Lecture: How Research Advances Social Change for Women & Girls

A parallel event of the fifty-eighth session of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women organized by the Wellesley Centers for Women.

This event takes place at: Salvation Army, 221 E. 52nd St. in Manhattan.

Rigorous research, sophisticated statistics, and disaggregated data are essential to advancing women’s and girls’ equality and empowerment. For research to be effective in moving the needle on social change, both micro and macro processes need to be investigated, documented, and tested. This “meta issue” needs to be raised up more vigorously as the post-2015 development framework solidifies.

A panel of social science researchers and international advocates for women and girls will present “The Power of Data: How Research Advances Social Change for Women and Girls” during this parallel event.

The speakers will facilitate vigorous conversation about how women-and-gender research institutes around the world can and should serve as key partners in advancing development and other social change initiatives worldwide. They will also share examples and/or frame some ways NGOs can access and collect data, independently and more effectively in collaboration.

Speakers include:

• Akosua Darkwah, Ph.D., Director, Centre for Gender Studies and Advocacy, and Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology, University of Ghana
• Haven Ley, MSc, Senior Advisor to the Co-Chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
• Layli Maparyan, Ph.D., Katherine Stone Kaufmann ’67 Executive Director Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College
• Priya Nanda, Ph.D., Group Director – Social & Economic Development Group, International Center for Research on Women

This program is free and open to the public, as well as U.N. and NGO representatives; space is limited–first arrived, first seated.

This program will be recorded and posted on www.wcwonline.org/UN2014 by March 19th.