Thursday, February 15, 2018

LatAm in Focus: Giving Women the "Right Space to Thrive"

By Carin Zissis and Luisa Leme

How does the #MeToo movement help expand dialogue about women in the workforce? University of Miami’s Felicia Knaul and AS/COA’s Susan Segal share views from the spheres of public health and finance.

<div class="wrapper" style="width: 100%;"> <table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5" style="width: 30%;"> <tbody> <tr> <td> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/UM-Felicia-Knaul-Final-300X400.jpg" style="width: 100%; height: 100%;" /> Dr. Felicia Knaul </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/Susan_headshot2017_compressed_0_0.jpg" style="width: 100%; height: 100%;" /> Susan Segal </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> In Mexico, men have an average of 10 or more hours of time for sleep and leisure per day. For women, it’s six hours or less. “So, a working woman who also has unpaid duties and caregiving in the home doesn’t even have enough time to make it to six hours of sleep every night,” explains <a href="https://president.miami.edu/about/felicia-knaul/index.html">Dr. Felicia Knaul</a>, director of the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Americas and a professor of public health at the University of Miami. She talked with AS/COA Online’s Carin Zissis about <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(15)60497-4/fulltext">a report</a> she co-authored for The Lancet about women’s outsized role in healthcare and the fact that, despite the scope of service they provide, they face obstacles to making it into leadership positions in the global health sector. The international health expert also spoke about her experience getting breast cancer treatment in Mexico and why she founded breast cancer awareness organization <a href="http://www.tomateloapecho.org.mx/">Tómatelo a Pecho</a>. Giving a human face to the disease, she charts a before and after in how Mexico’s public health insurance program Seguro Popular makes a difference in the lives of women. As a woman from Jalisco state named Guillermina, who experienced a recurrence of breast cancer, told her, “Round one: my kids went bankrupt and they had to sell their business. Round two: I have health insurance and I can take care of myself.” But first, AS/COA President and CEO <a href="http://www.as-coa.org/bio/susan-segal">Susan Segal</a> talks with Luisa Leme about why 2018 is the year of the woman, what inspired her to start our <a href="http://www.as-coa.org/ascoa-womens-hemispheric-network">Women’s Hemispheric Network (WHN)</a> six years ago, and why we need to bring men into the conversation on building women’s leadership. “If we limit women’s mentors and networks to only women, we’re not going very far,” says Segal, who talks about mentors and obstacles during her finance career, during which she was actively involved in restructuring of the Latin American debt crisis of the 1980s and early 1990s. Chile’s Michelle Bachelet helped launch WHN. Next month she steps down from office, leaving Latin America without a sitting woman president. But Segal explains that women’s empowerment is about more than having a female head of state. “When you can fill in the ranks so you have a lot of women engaged and participating—that’s when you’ve really created change,” she says. Both interviewees talk about the #MeToo movement and how it’s created a space for dialogue about women in the workforce, from being what Knaul calls “passionate professionals” to giving women, particularly in Latin America, “the right space to thrive,” says Segal. Felicia Knaul and Susan Segal will speak at our WHN Forum being held at the University of Miami on February 22. Join the conversation and tune into the webcast that day at:  <a href="http://www.as-coa.org/miami2018">www.as-coa.org/miami2018</a> <hr /> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.as-coa.org/women">Learn more about the AS/COA Women's Hemispheric Network</a>.</li> <li><a href="http://bit.ly/1BUcn1j">Download the report co-authored by Dr. Knaul and published in The Lancelet</a>.</li> <li>Like this podcast? Subscribe on <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/latin-america-in-focus/id1089353175">iTunes</a> and <a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/americas-societycouncil-of-the-americas/latin-america-in-focus">Stitcher</a>. </li> <li>The music in this podcast was recorded at an Americas Society performance in New York. Learn more about upcoming concerts at <a href="http://www.as-coa.org/music">musicoftheamericas.org</a>. </li> </ul> <hr /> Luisa Leme produced this podcast episode.

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LatAm in Focus: Giving Women the "Right Space to Thrive"

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