Then: 1976 International Conference on Women and Development
Wellesley College President Barbara W. Newell, Ph.D., with a conference participantInspired by the growing perception among scholars and policymakers that international development impacted women in unique ways, this conference—the first such gathering in the U.S.—attracted 117 women from 32 countries. Scholars of and from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East came together to share notes and join forces, all with the goal of shaping development discourse and practice to better account for differences among women. Many papers from this study, as well as commentaries on the conference itself, were published in a special issue of the feminist academic journal, Signs: Journal of Women and Culture in Society (Vol. 3, No. 7, Autumn 1977), edited by Catharine R. Stimpson. This momentous conference shifted both feminist discourse and development practice globally and can be considered a turning point in the move toward intersectionality.
Carolyn M. Elliott, Ph.D.
Now: An Inclusive Approach to Climate Change in Liberia
Maparyan at CEC kickoffWhere development was a top concern in the 1970s, climate change is at the forefront of global challenges today. And, as with development, it’s critical that women and other marginalized groups have a seat at the table where decisions are made. WCW is working to ensure inclusion through a program called Higher Education for Conservation (HECA) in the Republic of Liberia.
With funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, WCW and seven other institutions are working to strengthen forest management and conservation in Liberia—which contains roughly half of the remaining rainforest in West Africa—through education, training, and technical assistance.
WCW is leading HECA’s gender equality and social inclusion strategy, with the goal of involving more women, people from forest-dwelling communities, youth, and people with disabilities in conservation efforts.
“In our first year, we completed two studies—one on women, and one on forest dwellers and forest-dependent communities—so that we could develop programming to increase the access and participation of these populations in forestry, biodiversity, and conservation education and careers,” said Executive Director Layli Maparyan, Ph.D., who is leading WCW’s work on the project. “We’ve already turned that research into action.”
This past year, HECA worked alongside the up-and-coming Female Forest Rangers Platform (FFRP) at the Forestry Training Institute (FTI) in Liberia. The FFRP provides a safe space for women students to discuss the joys and challenges of being a woman in forestry, which has traditionally been a male-dominated field. The FFRP also hosts a quarterly speaker series with women role models, and the members of FFRP work together on conservation projects to build up their natural resource management expertise.
Maparyan with FFRP at FTI waterfall improvement siteHECA also launched the Conservation Education Corps (CEC) pilot project, in which FTI alumni and expert supervisors are working to develop and deliver a conservation education program for forest dwellers. Next year, the CEC will visit several forest-dependent communities to test and refine the modules it has developed, and it will develop additional modules.
Besides programming aimed at women and forest dwellers, Maparyan and her team completed landscape studies on youth and people with disabilities. Focus group, interview, and observational data was collected in February 2024 by 30 bilingual student intern data collectors from FTI trained by Maparyan. The data were transported to the U.S. and transcribed by CeCe Kwenah, a research assistant from Liberia.
The Liberian youth that were surveyed were most concerned about their livelihoods, expressed interest in continuing their education, and wanted more information about conservation. The Liberians with disabilities had a strong desire for inclusion in forestry education and careers. These findings will influence HECA’s future programming.
FTI student intern data collectors and faculty“All of these groups—women, forest dwellers, youth, and people with disabilities—have a significant stake in what happens to Liberia’s rainforests,” said Maparyan. “We’re learning how best to reach them and to make sure they play a role in efforts to mitigate climate change in Liberia.”
