Peace, Human Security and Dignity Week
Gender equity and justice: accelerating the pace of change
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
The UK has a rich history of advancing women’s rights. In 1918, the Representation of the People Act granted voting rights to women over 30, with equal suffrage achieved in 1928. From the Equal Pay Act of 1970 to the Equality Act of 2010, trailblazing women have been at the forefront of building collective movements for progress and justice.
But there remain stubborn challenges and barriers to women’s full economic, legal, and social empowerment.
Linking speakers in the historic Great Room of the RSA in London and in the UK Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, this event will hear from today’s disruptors, influencers and innovators leading the charge for the protection and advancement of the rights of women and girls in the UK, and internationally - and for a future where everyone has equal opportunity to achieve their full potential.
Discussion
- Promotion of women's participation and advancement
- Gender equality
- Social inequality
| Transmission of simultaneous interpretation | Not provided |
|---|---|
| Language of interpretation | English |
This programme is invitation only.
-
Track Programme
- * Programme times and content are subject to change. Any changes will be announced on this website and via the ticket booking system.
- * The schedule is subject to change depending on the organiser's circumstances.
- Time and
Date of
the event -
-
2025.08.05[Tue]
17:30 ～ 18:30
(Venue Open 17:00)
-
- Venue
- Pavilion
- IHG Hospitality Suite (UK Pavilion)
Programme details
This is event is by invitation only, but to join the event online click on Book an online ticket (https://www.thersa.org/events/2025/08/gender-equity-and-justice-accelerating-the-pace-of-change/) and you will be emailed a live link 24 hours in advance of the event. To note the live event will be conducted in English.
The event will be available on YouTube with Japanese subtitles from 06/08/25.
Speakers
・Penny East, Chief Executive at the Fawcett Society
・Sakshi Bansal, Founder of Project Leap, Sr. Advisor at Private Equity Investments (Arup, UK), and President (SDGs) of the Women's Chamber of Commerce (New Delhi, India)
・Chika Sudo, Head of Arts at the British Council in Japan
・Natalia Matsenko, Independent Ukrainian curator, art critic and lecturer
Chairs
・Nina Nannar, journalist and arts editor for ITV News (London)
・Carolyn Davidson, UK Commissioner General for Expo 2025 (Osaka)
RSA and UK at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai
A bold new events partnership celebrating the UK as a place to come to study, visit and invest, and as a country of innovation and creativity where the world can come to build the future.
With the deadline to the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals just five years away, the RSA and UK at Expo 2025 partnership will tackle global issues from inequality to climate change, exploring the progress that has been made and the work still to be done to secure health and wellbeing, peace, justice, and prosperity for communities worldwide.
www.theRSA.org
Cast
Moderator
Nina Nannar
Journalist and Arts Editor for ITV News (London)
Nina Nannar is Arts Editor for ITV News and host of the ITV News podcast Unscripted.
She is a member of Bafta and the Brit Awards Voting Academy, serves as an Ambassador for the King’s Trust and the British Asian Trust and is a mentor to fellow journalists from ethnic minority groups.
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Carolyn Davidson
UK Commissioner General for Expo 2025 (Osaka)
Carolyn has led the UK's presence at Expo 2025 as Commissioner-General since March 2024, a role she took on full-time from January this year. Prior to that she was British Consul-General in Osaka from August 2021. A career diplomat her previous roles include Ambassador to Guatemala and Honduras (2015-19), High Commissioner to Zambia (2008 – 2012) and Deputy Head of Mission of the British Embassy in Slovakia (2004-08), all roles she job-shared with her husband, Tom Carter.
She has a degree in Modern Languages from Bristol University (1986), a MBA from the Open University (2011) and speaks French, German, Spanish and Japanese.
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Speakers
Penny East
Chief Executive at the Fawcett Society
Penny is the Chief Executive at the Fawcett Society – the member-led organisation fighting misogyny and advocating for women’s rights since 1866.
Penny has worked in the charity sector for the last fifteen years, including overseeing communications and campaigns for national domestic abuse charity, SafeLives - shaping the Domestic Abuse Bill 2021 and establishing an internal survivor network at the charity.
Penny launched the first national domestic abuse perpetrator programme in the UK (in partnership with the Home Office and the Lottery) and was on the Board of Directors for the programme until January 2025.
Until April 2025, Penny was a director of policy and communications at a mental health charity that advocates for a social approach to mental health provision throughout NHS.
She has previously worked on communications and digital projects at UN Refugee Council, Comic Relief and for legacy of London 2012 Summer Olympics.
Penny is a Clore Social Fellow (specialism in gender equality) and has an MA in Investigative Journalism.
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Sakshi Bansal
Founder of Project Leap, Sr. Advisor at Private Equity Investments (Arup, UK), and President (SDGs) of the Women's Chamber of Commerce (New Delhi, India)
Sakshi is a Chartered Management Consultant, specialising in sustainable strategies, organisational resilience, and capacity building, with expertise in shaping policies that drive equitable growth in emerging markets. She is the Head Delegate for the youth G20 Summit, representing the United Kingdom this year in South Africa for the global summit.
She has advised governments, private sector leaders, and multilateral organisations on economic strategy, ESG governance, and resilience-building. She has led India-UK market expansion in aviation and energy and conducted capacity-building programs in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Passionate about youth leadership, Sakshi founded Project LEAP, mobilising 300+ volunteers for education and career development. A UNITAR-trained expert in diplomacy, she co-authored research on global economy, SDGs, and resilience, championing youth-driven economic policies.
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Chika Sudo
Head of Arts at the British Council in Japan
Chika Sudo is Head of Arts at the British Council Japan, where she leads the organisation’s arts and creative industries programmes. After graduating from International Christian University, she began her career at Sony Corporation before moving to the UK in 2001 to pursue an MA in Museum Studies at University College London (UCL).
Since joining the British Council in 2005, she has played a key role in fostering UK–Japan cultural relations, developing and delivering a wide range of collaborative programmes across visual arts, performing arts, and other creative sectors. Her work has addressed pressing social issues including disability, ageing, and social isolation, working in partnership with leading UK arts organisations and diverse Japanese institutions such as museums, theatres, orchestras, local governments, and non-profits organisations.
Appointed to her current role in 2022, she is now responsible for the strategic direction and delivery of the British Council’s arts programme in Japan. In 2025, she and her team are contributing to the UK’s arts and creative industries programme at the UK Pavilion for Expo 2025 Osaka.
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©Angelica Yefanova
Natalia Matsenko
Independent Ukrainian curator, art critic and lecturer
Natalia Matsenko is an independent Ukrainian curator, art critic, and lecturer. She
focuses on the landscape and environmental transformations, human and
non-human communities and networks, new media, and cultural heritage
preservation from a decolonial perspective. She has curated exhibitions and
residencies in Ukraine, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria,
Switzerland, Poland, Mexico, etc. Several cultural diplomacy projects have been
implemented in cooperation with the European External Action Service, Brussels. She
cooperated with Mohrytsia. Borderland Space symposium since 2018, and BIRUCHIY
art residency, Ukraine, since 2013. Was a fellow curator at Kunstmuseum Bochum,
Germany (2022-2024) and was in a curatorial residence at Citéinternationale des
arts, Paris (2024). Recently completed a course “Climate adaptation for creatives”
launched by the British Council and Black Mountains College.
Natalia graduated from the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts with an MA
in Art Theory and History. Her recent practice is connected to the relationship
between ecological and political action and art, and its short and long-term impact
on socio-environmental systems. Recent curatorial projects include: Ambiences:
Solidarity Sounds for Ukraine, 2025, k i t e v, Oberhausen, Germany; SEE:UA
connecting landscapes festival, 2024, Seestadt, Vienna (co-curator); Discursive
Programme for the Landscapes of an Ongoing Past, 2024, Zeche Zollverein, Essen,
Germany; Home Beyond the Dawn, 2023-2024, Museum of Arts of the University of
Guadalajara, Mexico; OUR YEARS, OUR WORDS, OUR LOSSES, OUR SEARCHES, OUR
US, 2023, Jam Factory Art Center, Lviv, Ukraine (co-curator); (Un)stable Institutions
(2023) and Let's Talk About Something Else (2022), Kunstmuseum Bochum, Germany;
Thinking About Ukraine, 2023, Van Abbemuseum / Griet Menschaert's studio,
Eindhoven, Netherlands; Records of Resistance (2023, Oberhausen / Düsseldorf,
Germany; UNFOLDING LANDSCAPES, 2022, Royal Museum of Art and History, Brussels
/ Art Center Silkeborg Bad, Denmark / Kunst(Zeug)Haus, Switzerland
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Co-organiser
Royal Society of Arts (RSA)
Peace, Human Security and Dignity Week
Gender equity and justice: accelerating the pace of change
The UK has a rich history of advancing women’s rights. In 1918, the Representation of the People Act granted voting rights to women over 30, with equal suffrage achieved in 1928. From the Equal Pay Act of 1970 to the Equality Act of 2010, trailblazing women have been at the forefront of building collective movements for progress and justice.
But there remain stubborn challenges and barriers to women’s full economic, legal, and social empowerment.
Linking speakers in the historic Great Room of the RSA in London and in the UK Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, this event will hear from today’s disruptors, influencers and innovators leading the charge for the protection and advancement of the rights of women and girls in the UK, and internationally - and for a future where everyone has equal opportunity to achieve their full potential.
-
2025.08.05[Tue]
17:30～18:30
(Venue Open 17:00)
- Pavilion
- * Programme times and content are subject to change. Any changes will be announced on this website and via the ticket booking system.
- * The schedule is subject to change depending on the organiser's circumstances.
This programme is invitation only.
OTHER PROGRAM
Peace, Human Security and Dignity Week
