03/10/2026
A year ago, we published ‘Women Changing Cities: Global Stories of Urban Transformation’ with a simple hope: to shine a light on the leaders who have shaped, challenged, and changed the places we live, while inspiring others to imagine what cities can become when everyone has a say in their future.
From intimate gatherings to packed auditoriums, we've had the privilege of speaking to rooms filled with enthusiastic, thoughtful, and deeply appreciative people. As we reflect on those 12 months, visiting 17 cities in 14 different countries, five recurring themes stand out from those conversations:
1️⃣ If you can't see it, you can't be it: Representation matters. Not simply because it's nice to see people like us in positions of power, but because it shapes what we believe is possible. We can't close the gender gap if the next generation doesn't see themselves reflected in those leading the way.
2️⃣ Empathy is a radical act: If we fail to consider perspectives of different people, we build systems that exclude them—and eventually us as we age. Empathy isn’t about designing for someone else at our own expense, but recognising our well-being is inextricably linked to that of everyone around us.
3️⃣ Meet in the middle: Top-down leadership matters. But equally important is bottom-up activism that challenges the status quo, demands better, and demonstrates what is possible. Transformative change occurs when those with power to make decisions listen to those with lived experience to inform them.
4️⃣ Care is everything: Unpaid care work is not a peripheral consideration in how we organise societies. It is the very foundation upon which our communities and economies rest. When we start designing cities around care, we don't just make them better for caregivers, we make them better for everyone.
5️⃣ Everyone has a role to play: Addressing inequality often falls squarely on women, who are expected to identify problems, advocate for solutions, challenge established systems, and bring everybody else along. But this is a societal issue affecting all of us, and can't be left to women alone to fix.
One full year into this journey, we are overjoyed at how this book has become much more than the collection of stories we originally set out to tell. It has become a catalyst for conversations, connections, and new perspectives in places we never could have fathomed when we first started writing it.
To everyone who welcomed us into your communities, shared your stories, challenged our thinking or joined the conversation: thank you. You made the first year of ‘Women Changing Cities’ more meaningful than we could’ve imagined. We couldn't be more excited to see where the discussion takes us next.
