The Alturas Institute hosted its 14th annual Women’s Rights Conference, “Of Women, Dignity, and Democracy,” on August 21. The event, known as “Conversations with Exceptional Women,” brought together speakers including Dr. Fiona Hill, Dr. Caroline Heldman, Dr. Anna Malakia Tubbs, Marie Wetherell, Bridget Hunnicutt, Payton McGriff, and Lisa Morton. Together, they explored issues ranging from threats to democracy and women’s political representation to international development, cheerleading, and strategies for self-care in turbulent times.
The women’s rights conference presented many insights to the people attending the event. The audience consisted of students participating in government classes, from both Timberline High school and Capital High school, with other curious members from the Boise community. The conference opened with a panel of speakers that consisted of Dr. Fiona Hill, Dr. Caroline Heldman, Dr Anna Malakia Tubbs, Marie Wetherell, and Bridget Hunnicutt. This first section of the panel mainly focused on “Challenges to Women’s Rights, Dignity, and Democracy”. The speakers, especially Dr. Malakia Tubbs, had a huge positive impact on spectators of the event. The main, specific topics they touched on were techniques of protesting, the threat of authoritarian governments, ways to represent the community in politics, and a variety of other topics that listeners in the event were interested in. Dr.Malaika Tubbs had a particularly big impact on students she was speaking to. As people were able to see the speakers individually after the panel for a brief moment, many of the students talking with Dr.Malaika Tubbs had been seen crying after their conversations in a sense of enlightenment and joy. A common comment among those previously mentioned was that she was inspiring and brought great insight to themselves.
Students from Timberline High School having lunch in the front of the Institute hosting the Women’s Rights Conference
After the introductory panel, 3 more speakers individually touched on different subjects relating to women. Firstly, Payton McGriff spoke on her efforts in Togo, West Africa, to provide school girls school outfits that grow with age. McGriff emphasized the importance of school outfits in Togo because of how hard it was to get them in the first place and to be able to afford them as well, especially as girls grow taller with age. The SHE (Styled Her Empowered) Program took 2 years of intensive work to build. The SHE Program not only provides school girls outfits for their school lives, but also provides school scholarships, tutors, employment, childcare, paid maternity leave, and provides reusable menstrual pad made from recycled fabric waste. Then, Lisa Morton spoke on her time as a veteran cheerleader for the Dallas Cowboys. She cheered for 5 years, mentioning the adversity she had to face during her time as a cheerleader. Touching on the intensive and selective training meant for the Dallas Cowboys team and the extremely low pay she had as a cheerleader. As a rookie, she was paid around 40 – 50 dollars per game she cheer leads at, on average being 10 per season the cheerleading team was at. After Morton’s insight on her cheerleading experience, she briefly touched on her current career as a Pilates instructor, enjoying and financially doing well as one. Lastly, Dr. Heldman returns to discuss “Taking Care of Ourselves in Trying Times”. She instructs the audiences in multiple ways to calm the mindset through social practices. These little exercises were essentially asking questions to your neighboring audience members and talking to one another about their day, how they feel, and philosophical questions like “What political figure would you eat dinner with?”. Overall, her speech was able to give great advice on staying calm in panicking times and how to navigate them.
The conference left attendees with insights that spanned politics, education, personal resilience, and women’s rights both in the U.S. and abroad. Each speaker held great credibility and background to give their insight relating to these topics. As these conferences continue to be hosted at the Altura’s Institute every year, the discussions will develop more and more as years pass.
