Seeking a finer balance
As a young girl growing up in Pakistan, Saadia Zahidi’s greatest fear wasn’t a monster or goblin; it was a baby brother. Even at the age of 10, Zahidi, director of constituents at the World Economic Forum and co-chair of a two-day Harvard conference, worried that if her parents had a son, her own opportunities would be severely limited. She understood, she told a crowd at the Taubman Building, that her mother and father “would be making a very rational choice” by investing in his education instead of her own. The favored status of men in countries around the globe and its impact on gender equity was part of a broad discussion on gender diversity at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) during a forum sponsored by the HKS Women and Public Policy Program. In opening remarks on Friday (Oct. 15) morning, Harvard President Drew Faust praised the goal of the forum. “The importance of building...