On October 15th, Foreign Policy Magazine hosted the HerPower Summit. This inaugural global women’s summit highlighted female change agents and explored gender equity as a catalyzing force for stronger democracies, economies, and communities. I participated on the panel “Women as Change Agents – Building More Inclusive Industries” with Chemonics CEO Susanna Mudge and Kathryn Kaufman, Managing Director […]

The Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum (GTNF) is the world’s leading conference on the future of the tobacco and nicotine industries. The forum has convened every year since 2008; and this year, for the first time, it included a panel on women agents of change for sustainable development and harm reduction. This GTNF session, for […]

Surveying the room in Solapur, I’m struck first by the elegance of the women’s saris, and second, by the iPad. Equipped with advanced facial recognition software, the machine’s sophistication stands in stark contrast to the rest of the scene, which otherwise comprises piles of tendu leaves, processed tobacco, thread, and perilously sharp sheers. Over the […]

Over the past two decades, global patterns in tobacco production and trade have shifted dramatically. Considerable research has gone into detailing these shifts, elucidating their drivers, and understanding their implications for tobacco control. One area of research that remains relatively unexplored, however, is how these changes have altered the global flow of tobacco and the […]

Globally, healthcare products are often developed without taking into consideration sex- and gender-based physiological and psychological differences. Male domination in science, medicine, and technology has led to the overrepresentation of men in clinical trials, a lack of gender-specific medical guidelines, and limited innovation in health-related technologies tailored to women’s needs. The impact of these oversights […]