GREAT WOMEN SPEAK OUT!
Promoting the Inspirational Voice of Great Women
INSPIRATION AT WORK
Across the world all cultures recognize that as human beings we need essentially three things in our lives to stand any chance of happiness: We need enough food and money tothrive; We need education, training and employment so we can be self-sufficient in life; We need strength of mind and character to weather the difficulties of life and the inspiration to be creative to make happiness for others and ourselves.
Yet, for the world poorest billion, living in scarcity of money, health and education, the type of inspiration which fosters positive behavioural change is either not available or not structured and fine-tuned to meet aspirations.
Inspiration (from the ancient Latin ‘’inflame, blow into’’) has been historically interpreted as a mythical and divine force delivering creative ideas into the minds of human beings. It is only relatively recently that inspiration has become the subject of rigorous scientific research which has evidenced that:
-Inspiration bolsters psychological resources such as perceived competence, self-esteem and optimism.
-Inspiration correlates positively with intrinsic motivation,work mastery and creativity.
-Inspiration is directly related to goal pursuit and attainment; people who are generally more inspired also tend to set inspired goals, which are then more likely to be successfully pursued.
Great Women Speak Out! has three spheres of work:
1. Collecting life stories written in the form of personal letters by brilliant women achievers and sharing them with women and young women across Development Agencies and in development projects.
2. Promoting the belief that inspirationfor the individual and in the work place should be an essential component in International Development.
3. Organising cultural events to promote the inspirational voice of great women.
Inspiration to Enhance Well-Being of Rural Myanmar Women
This report uncovers the journey of iWomen Inspiring Women Project, a partnership between UNDP Myanmar and Great Women Speak Out!. Download the full report here.
iWomen Inspiring Women App
Great Women Speak Out! has collaborated with United Nations Development Programme to inspire and encourage rural Myanmar women. Great Women Speak Out! letters of inspiration written by brilliant and influential women from all around the world have been translated in Myanmar language and shared on the iWomen App.
iWomen App aims to solve the problem whereby rural women in developing countries are not accessing positive behavioural change content that fosters their social standing and economic empowerment.
iWomen methodology consists of a daily, weekly and monthly rhythm of content as well as commercial style attention-grabbing functions: Human Interest Stories, Hard Facts for Daily Life, Discussion Space and Competitions with Prizes. iWomen App is an app which captures rural women attention by sharing human interest personal stories written by women across the world with the aim of creating ‘’teachable moments’’ in the preoccupied and busy minds of low-income rural women (Be Inspired Function); an app which gives rural women hard knowledge on topics such as entrepreneurship, market, laws, rights, technology (Be Knowledgeable Function); an app which runs competitions with prizes to solidify the hard knowledge in the rural women minds and to be used as a monitoring tool to gauge users’ comprehension (Ready to Play Function); an app which provides a sharing platform where women can discuss in private issues of concern and receive remote mentorship (Talk Together).
Collecting inspiring life stories written as personal letters written by great women
Great Women Speak Out! has collected over 100 inspiring stories of women lives written in the form of personal letters. Great Women Speak Out letter contributors include Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate; Ann Daniels, Artic Explorer; Olga Speranskaya, Environmental Scientist - Hero of World 2009; Bahia Shehab, Art Historian; Carry Somers, Co-Founder Fashion Revolution; Jenny Runacre, Actress; Daw Khaing Khaing Maw, ASEAN Wushu Champion; Chloe Smith, Member of Parliament UK; Kate Bowen, Painter, Htar Htar, Founder and Director Akhaya Women Organization Myanamr, Evelyn Glennie, Musician and Composer and many more. In 2015 Great Women Speak Out! partnered with UNDP Myanmar and since then has been providing content to the iWomen Inspiring Women App to inspire a new generation of Myanmar rural women.
Why Inspiration? Our Story
Great Women Speak Out! is a Charitable Company Limited by Guarantee registered in the United Kingdom. GWSO started off as a collaborative project between Eleonora Gatti and KeithClancyin 2013. Eleonora Gatti is a young Environmental Scientist working for the United Nations. KeithClancyis a non-executive board director in the housing sector in the UK.
The project grew out of the love that both Eleonora Gatti and KeithMortimer Clancy share for mentoring, both having used mentors all of their life. Eleonora believes, through her extensive work in International Development and travels in Asia, that education is not enough to lift women into real independence and fulfilment. Eleonora believes that inspiration, and on-going encouragement are equally important for women to really succeed. Eleonora believes that inspiration needs to become a crucial component of international development projects. Keith during his experience in working with housing associations, community organisations, disadvantaged youth and vulnerable people in London realized that education and training are part of the story, the rest of the story for a young person’s or a vulnerable person’s success is inspiration and encouragement. Keith Mortimer Clancy believes that it is our duty to give the life tools of motivation and self-belief to all people.
