International Women's Week - Women's Empowerment: How to Create Social Change

In a world too often shaped by fear, mistrust, and narratives of decline, this evening invites us to rediscover the quiet but transformative forces that move societies forward: hope and empathy. Join us as Dr. Irene Guijt explores how hope has long fuelled advances in women’s rights, opening space for possibility even in the most constrained environments. Building on this, Dr. Keetie Roelen will delve into empathy as “hope in action” — a mindset and practice that strengthens human connection, nurtures trust, and sparks the imagination needed to envision better futures.

Together, their perspectives illuminate how both hope and empathy can be cultivated at every level — from neighbourhood initiatives to national policy — and how women changemakers across the world embody these forces with courage and clarity, without diminishing the essential role of empathetic and decisive men. This is an evening for anyone who believes that caring is not weakness, imagination is not naïve, and that a more humane future is not only possible but already taking shape.

Dr. Keetie Roelen, author of The Empathy Fix, will discuss the power of empathy in addressing enduring socioeconomic injustice, including gender inequality. Innate in all of us, empathy lays a crucial foundation for action – big and small – to create social change for the better.

Dr. Irene Guijt, is currently working on her new book Choosing Hope. Despite it All. She will talk about what it takes to choose hope, again and again, with those in mind who are making change happen on tough issues in difficult contexts. It is grounded in the experiences of dozens of changemakers working towards a just and healthy world and recent research. Moderated by Kim Wassens.

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