Following keynote remarks by Verna Eggleston who leads Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Women’s Economic Development Initiative, WOW founder Jude Kelly is joined by Australia’s first female Prime Minister Julia Gillard, as they look back at The Misogyny Speech – Julia’s call to arms against misogyny and sexism. Julia's new book Not Now, Not Ever marks the 10th anniversary of the speech by celebrating progress and exploring the challenges in the empowerment of women everywhere.

They are joined by Everyday Sexism Founder Laura Bates, author Elif Shafak and girls’ rights activist Josephine Kamara to discuss misogyny today and how we can collectively fight against it.

Venue: Royal Festival Hall

Sylvia is the revolutionary story that celebrates the life of Sylvia Pankhurst – feminist, activist, pacifist, socialist, rebel – the lesser-known Pankhurst at the heart of the Suffragette movement, who changed the lives of working women and men across the world.

Uniting dance, hip hop, funk and soul to shine a light on a remarkable moment in history, it's taking The Old Vic by storm with the legendary Beverley Knight in the role of Emmeline Pankhurst. She is joined here at WOW by Sylvia's Associate Director Dannielle 'Rhimes' Lecointe. They'll tell Sylvia's story, why it needs to be a musical - and who knows, maybe share a taste of some of the show!

Venue: Royal Festival Hall

Have years of scowling at gender inequity left you with wrinkles? Are fillers anti-feminist or can you be feminist and get the odd tweakment? Botox and fillers are lines many feminists won’t cross, but why? And is that changing? Our panel discuss why some might think improving your self esteem is a feminist issue and why others think it’s just the latest trick in the patriarchal playbook! Join us for a light hearted discussion on ageing with - or without - injectables.

Speakers include columnist, podcaster and TV personality Megan Barton-Hanson; Sunday Times best-selling author Juno Dawson; and content creator and life coach Sian Westley. Chaired by journalist and author Bee Rowlatt.

Venue: The Clore Ballroom

The Deaf Ethnic Women's Association provides a range of support to help empower Minority Ethnic Deaf women to be active and successful in all aspects of their lives, without compromising their identity. In this session Chair of DEWA Trustees and artist Rubbena Aurangzeb-Tariq is joined by guest speakers to discuss the importance of community support as well as some of the challenges faced by the women within their network.

Speakers include Rubbena Aurangzeb-Tariq, Maral Mamaghanizadeh, Sonia Choudhury Yvonne Beckfordand Nadia Nadarajah. This session will be in BSL and translated into spoken English.

Venue: Sunley Pavilion

Join WOW Sounds Artist in Residence LayFullstop for a creative and soothing workshop blending music, creativity and kindness. In this session, musician Layfullstop explores the power of empathy in hip hop and soul music, and leads a writing exercise as a creative response to empathy in our everyday lives. From the likes of A Tribe called Quest, Jill Scott and perhaps some you have never heard of, there’ll be something for everyone in this grounding and supportive workshop. No prior musical knowledge or experience is required!

Supported by PRS For Music Foundation.

Venue: Foyle Pavilion

Hear from speakers with experience and personal knowledge of how chronic health conditions and inequalities are impacting people today. Including:

• Dr Annabel Sowemimo, Founder and Co-Director of Decolonising Contraception and author of Divided: Racism, Medicine and Why We Need to Decolonise Healthcare on how fibroids disproportionately affect Black communities

• Ione Gamble, writer and Founding Editor in Chief of Polyester zine and author of Poor Little Sick Girls, a love letter to unacceptable women in all their forms living with crohns

• Marketing, storytelling and personal branding expert, and two-time stroke survivor Carole Pyke on living with retrograde amnesia and getting your sparkle back after a stroke

• Kenny Ethan Jones, the first trans-man to head up a period campaign, on how important inclusive language is

Join our financial experts for a frank conversation on money, the state of the economy and what the cost of living crisis means for women. Our speakers strip away the jargon to give us the lowdown on the full impact of the crisis, as well as share recommendations for saving, budgeting and making your money work for you.

Speakers Include Disability Inclusion Specialist, social entrepreneur and broadcaster Shani Dhanda; Amaliah Co-Founder and author of How to Make Money Nafisa Bakkar; Keira Lloyd, Vice President, Enterprise Partnerships, Mastercard and other speakers to be announced.

Venue: Level 4 Blue Bar

The 2021 census was the first to ask people about their gender identity and sexual orientation, and so revealed for the first time data about queer life in Britain today. We look at the story behind the data, and revisit some of the activism and milestones along the way. Why has it taken so long for the LGBTQIA community to be included in the national story? And what impact does this recognition have for a community that still struggles for equality?

Speakers include host and producer of The Log Books podcast Tash Walker; journalist and presenter Shivani Dave; award-winning trans and queer creative Fox Fisher; Gayathiri Kamalakanthan from the School of Sexuality Education; and writer, producer and presenter Abi McIntosh.

Venue: Level 5 Function Room

Come and hear some of the world’s best and most compelling speakers talk about the things they care about most. Including:

• • Activist, broadcaster and entrepreneur Shani Dhanda talks about her dream of an accessible future and what we all need to do to achieve it, ultimately benefiting us all.

  • Author and Founder Ebinehita Iyere brings the voice of Black Girls to the forefront through Girlhood Unfiltered an anthology of essays, letters and creative work by Milk Honey Bees, a project supporting Black Girls to put H.E.R first.

  • Labour MP for Coventry South Zarah Sultana on her experience of Islamophobia in politics and the scapegoating of minority communities.

  • Body image and health expert Professor Phillippa Diedrichs speaks to creating a world free of gender norms and body stereotypes and the power of sport in defying these pressures and unjust systems – so no one is held back. (Presented in partnership with Nike)

  • Kate Parker on the Schools Consent Project – and why it's crucial we talk to all young people about what consent looks like, how to give, seek, withdraw and withhold it, and how the law works

Join businesswoman and activist Mary Portas for a fascinating keynote as she looks at where we are in the world of work – and what has to change. She believes the future requires an uprising of the feminine with moral beauty at the heart of how we live and work.

Expanding on the themes of her books Work Like A Woman: A Manifesto for Change and Rebuild: How to Thrive in the new Kindness Economy, this insightful session will examine where we are today and the urgent change needed to protect people and the planet. Business woman Jane Shepherdson will join to discuss Mary’s radical call for change. Chaired by India Gary-Martin, CEO & Founder of Leadership For Execs.

Venue: The Clore Ballroom

Enjoy a literary afternoon with East and Southeast Asian writers from the dazzling East Side Voices, edited by Helena Lee, Founder of the East Side Voices cultural salon. A ‘first-of-its-kind’ anthology, it showcases original essays and poetry taking us to many places: from the frontlines of the NHS in the midst of the Covid pandemic to a spirit festival in Myanmar. We bring the writers to the stage to discuss how they navigate the legacies of family history, racial identity, assimilation and difference.

Speakers include writer, academic and poet Dr Anna Sulan Masing; Literary Agent and author Catherine Cho and award-winning author Sharlene Teo.

Venue: Level 5 Function Room

Keen to make some art but don't know where to begin? Whether you're a seasoned artist seeking inspiration or haven't picked up a pen in years, join illustrator, cartoonist and author Ruby Elliot (aka Rubyetc) for a relaxed hour of drawing. Learn some simple techniques for coming up with ideas, creating a character and having the confidence to be loud on the page!

Venue: Sunley Pavilion

Women have been called ‘mad’ or ‘mentally ill’ for years. Are we really 'mad'? Or are we having human responses to an unjust and traumatising world? Join a team of experts to explore how they think mental health services are increasingly diagnosing women with experiences of abuse with mental disorders. They'll discuss the Power Threat Meaning Framework – a radical alternative to the diagnostic model which asks ‘what has happened to you?’ rather than ‘what is wrong with you?’, and explore the strategies women use in the face of multiple injustices; arguing these are not symptoms of 'mental illness' – they are courageous survival responses to unbearable conditions. Join them to reclaim our right to feel distress in a madness-inducing world.

Speakers include poet, liberation and Community Psychologist, writer and presenter Dr Sanah Ahsan; Consultant Clinical Psychologist and campaigner Dr Lucy Johnstone; activist and writer specialising in trauma, abuse and recovery Jacqui Dillon; and Consultant Clinical Psychologist & Mindfulness Practitioner Dr Jasmine Chin.

Venue: Foyle Pavilion

As the feminist movement continues to grow and to shift shape, how do we ensure that it remains led by and inclusive of those that experience marginalisation most keenly? Our panel will take us on a personal and intersectional journey through feminism today.

Speakers include Shahed Ezaydi, author of The Othered Woman: How White Feminism Harms Muslim Women; DrFinn Mackay, a Senior Lecturer in Sociology and author of Radical Feminism-Activism in Movement and Female Masculinities and the Gender Wars; Dr Sofia Rehman, author, Founder of Leeds Lit Book Club and Islam and Gender scholar; artist, curator and cultural programmer Cathy Mager;and Jade Bentil, Black feminist historian, author and DPhil researcher at the University of Oxford.

Venue: Level 4 Green Bar

The mental, emotional and physical tolls of miscarriage are huge, but there is an expectation for women to suffer this loss in silence and carry on with life and work as usual. In this session, we create a space for people to speak openly and frankly about the loss of pregnancy. We’ll talk about the impact societal expectations, medical care and a lack of meaningful and practical support can have, as well as the very real and devastating phenomena of baby loss burnout.

Speakers include Adrift: Fieldnotes from Almost-Motherhood author Miranda Ward; author and journalist Jennie Agg; Dope Black Mums campaigner Rosalyn Springer; and Jacqui Clinton, Fundraising Director at Tommy’s Charity​​.

Venue: Level 4 Blue Bar

Join Tony Warner, author and founder of Black History Walks, on this interactive tour of African and Caribbean history along the South Bank riverside. You’ll explore not only the fascinating link between Gentrification and Frankenstein, but all of what has helped to shape the Black Britain we know today.

From ancient Africa to Anti-Apartheid to Caribbean entrepreneurs, Top Ten hits, World War 2, block-busting movies and best-selling authors, this walking tour will also take a deep dive into the crux of social movements such as Black British Civil Rights, the entwined history between White suffragettes and Black Power and the fight for clean water in the 'third world'.

Please note, this walk must be booked in advance here. This event will take place outdoors, along the South Bank.

"We never dared to imagine it: A world that was built for us, where we made the rules. That world was at our fingertips all this time. All we had to do was burn down the world that was.”

Don't miss this electrifying event as Naomi Alderman, author of the international bestseller The Power, joins us on stage ahead of the release of the hotly anticipated TV adaptation of the literary phenomenon on Prime Video. She'll be joined onstage by Jane Featherstone (Chernobyl) SISTER co-founder and award-winning executive producer of the forthcoming series and British Ghanaian visual artist, performer/actor and maker Heather Agyepong. The session is chaired by Jane Mulkerrins, journalist and broadcaster, The Times.

In the early stages of a new world order, teenage girls suddenly find they have the ability to electrocute anything - and anyone - they want. As the rebellion and 'the Power' spreads worldwide, the beginning of a Matriarchal society begins to emerge, following the lives of four women who could never have dreamt of the power they now wield in their fingertips.

Presented in partnership with Amazon Studios.

Venue: Royal Festival Hall

Violence against women is on the rise. Worldwide, 1 in 3 women have experienced physical or sexual violence. From intimate partner violence to stranger attacks and abuse of power by the institutions meant to protect us, our panel of speakers break down what has created this culture, why it seems to be getting worse and how we think it can be stopped. They’re all working to end violence against women and girls and each will come with solutions, campaigns or ideas you can join to make a difference too.

Speakers include Mandu Reid, Leader of the UK Women’s Equality Party; Mina Smallman, teacher, priest, archdeacon, activist and mother; Lorien Haynes, actor, writer, producer and activist; and WOW Founder Jude Kelly.

Venue: The Clore Ballroom

Why is it that some fat people are lauded and celebrated for their weight in society whilst others are shamed? In a society that pressures people to conform to very narrow beauty and weight standards, are there only two types of fat people as society suggests; good fatties – the people who want to lose weight – and bad fatties, who don’t? Join us to discuss this paradigm and the privilege it creates within the fat community, and to examine the intersections of fat identity that are too often left out of conversations on fatness.

Speakers include Psychotherapist Dr Charlotte Cooper; lecturer and activist Dr Phoebe Patey-Ferguson; and multi-award-winning body image and self-love advocate Stephanie Yeboah.

Venue: Sunley Pavilion

What do we lose thanks to unequal power dynamics, and how can we both heal and feel empowered through the process? Feminist Invoicing is a creative project exploring those questions by submitting creative ‘invoices’ to the patriarchy in the form of poetry or other writing. Join us for performances and a creative writing workshop led by award-winning poet Monika Radojevic, with an open invitation to submit your own ‘invoice’ and reclaim your story. The interactive session will open with free-writing exercises exploring themes of power and oppression, before guiding participants through the act of 'invoicing' the patriarchy and other systems of oppression.

In the face of an increasing rolling back of women's rights across the globe, the clarion call for women, life, freedom has never been louder. In this moving session we invite you to come and hear the stories from behind the headlines as we invite speakers and activists from across the world to share their struggles for justice and stories of resistance.

Speakers include Human Rights Lawyer and activist Leila Alikarami; former Afghanistan Human Rights Commissioner and Founder of The Organization of Rahyab for Rehabilitation Services for the Blind in Afghanistan Benafsha Yaqoob; and Director of Women’s House of Maré Julia Leal. Chaired by WOW Rio’s Renata Peppl.

Venue: Level 4 Green Bar

Renée Kapuku and Courtney Daniella Boateng, hosts of the hit podcast To My Sisters, join WOW to launch their new book, an essential guide to sisterhood. With their own friendship spanning a decade, their mission to reinvigorate sisterhood and redefine womanhood has turned into a global community of women helping each other to reclaim their power.

Join these 'online big sisters' as they draw from their intimate experiences to teach, guide and show you how to embrace the power of friendship and community in an authentic way. Packed with practical advice and reflective activities, To My Sisters will teach you how to find, build and nourish lifelong friendships. Chaired by Ndidi Okezie, CEO of UK Youth.

Venue: Level 4 Blue Bar

In 2023, how much do women in leadership positions have to emulate men to have power and influence? What do we need to do to shift the dial even further?

Serial entrepreneur and The Stack World Founder Sharmadean Reid leads a workshop to completely reimagine what leadership could look like well into the future. She will share tips for how we can lay the ground for that today in our daily lives, innovate for real change, and hold the door open for people coming up behind us.

Everyone welcome. Bring pen and paper and your hopes for the future!

Venue: Level 5 Function Room

Author Liv little joins us for a special In Conversation to celebrate the launch of her new book Rosewater. Expect laughter, honesty and a sprinkle of romance in this beautiful discussion about queer love, creativity and so much more, as Liv is interviewed by her longtime friend and actress Lucy Boynton.

Venue: Royal Festival Hall