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One Future Post · Nov 13, 2025

One Future Post #20: The Feminisms of Us

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One Future Collective · One Future Post

What began as a shared dream to connect and support feminist leaders around the world has grown into a thriving community of over 800 changemakers. The Feminist Leadership Hub, co-created by One Future Collective and FAIR SHARE of Women Leaders, is now a living space for learning and connection, where conversations on intergenerational leadership, feminist governance, tech justice, and collective impact come alive.

The Feminist Leadership Hub Convening was a celebration of that journey: two days of learning, listening, and reimagining leadership rooted in care. Over 500 participants from 60 countries and seven regions came together to ask: What does feminist leadership look like today?

I invite you to read this edition of The One Future Post, know more about this gathering and begin thinking about the important question: What does feminist leadership look like in polycrisis?

Love,

Vandita Morarka

Founder and CEO, One Future Collective

The Feminist Leadership Convening began, as many powerful things do, with a conversation and a shared vision between One Future Collective and FAIR SHARE of Women Leaders to create a space where feminist leadership could be seen, felt, and strengthened across borders.

From the earliest planning calls, the process was intentionally collaborative. The team reached out to partners, activists, and practitioners across regions to co-create sessions that reflected real needs and lived experiences. What emerged was a global gathering infused with energy, creativity, and community.

Behind the scenes, the convening team worked to make every moment accessible and inclusive: multilingual sessions, flexible formats, and care-based facilitation ensured that everyone could participate fully. The conversations were alive, exploring intergenerational collaboration, feminist governance, tech justice, and the everyday practices that keep movements thriving.

The convening reminded us that feminist leadership is not a theory but a living practice, one that grows stronger through connection, care, and courage. It was a moment to pause, learn from each other, and collectively imagine what feminist futures might look like when we lead together.

The day began with reflections from Arshiya, our Programs Lead at One Future Collective and a powerful keynote by Jessica Horn. Arshiya invited everyone to arrive fully with our hopes, discomforts, and questions. Jessica challenged us to see leadership as an embodied, political, and relational act of care.

“Feminist leadership is the embrace of a politics, but also a process and methodologies that themselves seek to model the kind of emancipatory power relations that we envisage for the world where everybody can thrive.”
— Jessica Horn

From there, the day unfolded into conversations that stretched across power, care, and imagination.

A snippet from the Opening & Keynote by Jessica Horn ⭐️

Sakthisree led TechJustice Now, asking, “Whose values are embedded into our technologies?” and calling for feminist ethics in design. The team from Point of View turned learning into play with Logged In, Left Out, a game-based exploration of how Big Tech shapes our digital lives.

In Exploring the World YWCA’s Intergenerational Triangle, Victoria Kahla and Uttanshi Agarwal reminded us that inclusion isn’t enough — relationships across generations must be intentional and lived.

Anne-Sharlene Murapa took us into Care-Centred Impact, inviting us to abandon hero narratives and measure success through co-creation and wellbeing.

“Leadership does not equal saviorism — it’s a colonial concept that assumes before asking.”
— Anne-Sharlene Murapa

A glimpse from the session on Care-Centred Impact.

There were spaces to rage and to rest — from Simoni Agarwal’s Healing Space: Rage, Talk and Play, to a multilingual reflection on Leadership Transitions in the Feminist Ecosystem led by Shubha Kayastha and Sibusiso Malunga (RESURJ).

Dr Philip Proudfoot unpacked colonial legacies in Decolonising Humanitarian Aid, and the day closed with The Power of Art, an open mic curated by Merima Šišić (Heinrich Böll Foundation), where voices and verses intertwined activism with artistry.

Many happy faces from our sessions on Day 1 including A Game-Based Dive into Platform Accountability, Decolonising Humanitarian Aid and Exploring World YWCA’s Intergenerational Triangle.

The second day opened with a bold conversation on Feminist Leadership, Democracy, and Politics, moderated by Kanksshi Agarwal, featuring Anish Gawande, Evidence Zana, and Suki Capobianco. Together, they explored how feminist leadership can reimagine democracy with compassion and radical collaboration.

“This is the time for a different type of collaboration — a radical collaboration. We cannot work in silos anymore.”
— Suki Capobianco

Throughout the day, sessions wove together themes of resistance and renewal:

  • Kirthi Jayakumar and Natalie Brooke (We Are Feminist Leaders) reflected on sustaining leadership in times of scarcity.

  • Charity Bafana and Obert Mukonka (Restless Development) reframed safeguarding as a feminist act of care, not control.

  • Aarati Rao and Yvie Nicolas (Wedu) reimagined how we measure impact through a feminist lens.

  • Shataakshi Verma and Sharanya Sekaram shared Stories as Seeds — a powerful reclaiming of narrative as resistance.

Some snippets from our sessions on Practicing Feminist Leadership in the Face of Scarcity, Feminist Approaches to Safeguarding & Stories as Seeds: Telling Our Way to Liberation.

During our session on Stories as Seeds: Telling Our Way to Liberation Hasina, a participant from Afghanistan, shared:

I grew up as a refugee. I remember thinking if Emily Brontë could create an entire world of her own, maybe I could too. They could not erase my imagination. Every brushstroke is political. Our stories carry both pain and hope.

The day continued with Feminist Friendships Speed Dating — joyful, unexpected connections made in minutes — and Japleen Pasricha (Feminism in India)’s vital conversation on Ethical Media Reporting on Abortion and GBV.

Sanjana Kashyap and Anshula Madgula explored The Hidden Cost of AI on Women’s Lives, while Susana T. Fried and Subha Wijesiriwardena (Just Futures Collaborative) decoded the deep ties between anti-gender and anti-democracy narratives.

An insight from the session on The Hidden Cost of AI on Women’s Lives

In one of the final panels, Resisting and Reimagining Feminist Governance, moderated by Sharon Eryenyu (Akina Mama wa Afrika), speakers Buky Williams, Rebecca Mweru Kabejja, and Hala Al-Karib called for governance rooted in joy, accountability, and collective power.

Participants reflecting on what Feminist Governance means to them 🩷

The convening closed with a breathtaking (and hopeful) performance by Shishani Vranckx, whose music became a bridge between reflection and celebration.

A snippet from the closing 💛

Across two days, one truth kept surfacing: feminist leadership is fluid. It’s messy and relational, rooted in care, courage, and collective imagination. As we move forward, we carry the stories, ideas, and solidarities that emerged here — seeds that will continue to grow in the Feminist Leadership Hub and beyond.

🌍 Be part of this movement.

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Read the original on onefuturepost.substack.com

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