“What’s the most annoying sexist thing you’ve heard?” asks Barkha Dutt in a new series of videos for We The Women on everyday sexism. In one video, singer Prachi Kapil responds that it’s folks asking her why she doesn’t dress more provocatively for her shows, and being informed that more people would turn up if she did. In another, businesswoman Preeti Suri says it was her husband’s, and the public’s, insistence that she shouldn’t drive or would necessarily be a bad driver because she’s a woman.
Kamya Bhargava, who dreams of owning her own business, talks of how her husband insisted that she run her parlour out of their home after marriage. Sarah Chawla, who runs an online music platform, says that it wasn’t even a comment she heard, but quite the opposite: she recalls being made to feel invisible in meetings full of men who wanted to partner with her company.
We The Women is an annual event that aims to bust exactly that feeling of invisibility that Sarah recalls facing, and much more. To be held this year on October 7 at the Lalit Ashok Hotel in Bangalore, We The Women, in its own words, is “a participatory, open-to-all, forum for women” that aims to “build an annual space that - in a world of continued 'mansplaining' - will give women a space for unfettered expression, great conversation, forging bonds, mentoring and networking and ultimately a wide community of friends”.
The event looks to fulfil a range of needs that women have: It provides a space for women to network and meet other women, a platform to honour and appreciate women doing great work in various fields at various stages of their lives, to discuss pressing issues that only women face, and hopefully, to construct meaningful solutions and ways forward through conversations and discussions.
Much like last year, this year’s edition of We The Women will also see a diverse range of speakers, including journalist Barkha Dutt, cricketer Mithali Raj, author Anuja Chauhan and actor Sonam K Ahuja in conversation on whether cinema has finally found its female voice, The News Minute editor-in-chief Dhanya Rajendran and Naiyya Saggi discussing women-led start-ups, activist Akkai Padmashali, Anindya Hajra of the Pratyay Gender Trust and Anubhuti Bannerjee with Parmesh Shahani of Godrej India Culture Lab on transwomen, Divya Spandana and Malvika Avinash discussing women in politics, Bezwada Wilson of Safai Karamchari Andolan, 102-year-old athlete and gold medalist Sardarni Man Kaur, crew members of INSV Tarini Lt Cdrs Vartika Joshi and Aishwarya Boddapati, among many others.