Speaking during the session, H.E. Maurizio Massari, President of the assembly and permanent secretary from Italy to the United Nations, said, “Women and girls cannot wait 68 years for child marriage to become history.”

His words painstakingly underscored the slow progress since the Beijing Declaration, which set ambitious goals for empowering women and dismantling systemic barriers. Despite decades of advocacy, challenges like poverty and discrimination continue to undermine these rights.

Accordingly, Sima Bahous, the Executive Director for UN Women, said, “We want to place young people, feminists, girls, and young women at the centre of development. Let history judge us not by our promises but  by the rights fulfilled for women and girls .” She advocated for progress towards gender equality.

Maka Chikowero, founder and president of MTC Educate A Girl, decried, “Systemic poverty among  women contributes to  school dropouts.” Chikowero underscored that “Child marriage remains a challenge.” She decried that “Lack of access and the digital divide make it a challenge for women, especially those in the rural areas.”

Accordingly, Imali Ngusale, the Lead Strategist at the African Center for Health, Climate & Gender Justice Alliance (ACHCGA) said that there needs to be intentional funding for the Global South. Ngusale emphasized that the intentionality of gender equality must put in place mechanisms that attempt to help women in the global south.

“We must move beyond rhetoric and embrace change that will help us achieve what we have been documenting for the last 30 years,” added Ngusale while submitting the African Center for Health, Climate & Gender Justice Alliance (ACHCGA) position on gender justice.’

Speaking during the session, Sara Cantillon said, “ The timing of discussing feminism is now. ” Cantillon noted that contemporary times can not impede the epistemology of feminism because its quintessentialism outweighs time.

Accordingly, İlkkaracan, a professor of economics at Istanbul Technical University (ITU), Faculty of Management, and associate director of the ITU Women’s Studies, said, ” I claim the term feminism in my classroom and my students are open to it.” This notwithstanding, feminism is still an ideology that many seem to be ambivalent about. 

İlkkaracan acknowledged that the nuance of feminism does not come easily because, in some cases, she has been requested to “hush!” This, she claimed, happens predominantly in conferences that government officials predominantly attend.

İlkkaracan admitted that she has had to be mindful of her audience, particularly while engaging with the government officials, while discussing “gender.” I was invited to speak at a conference and I had to drop the word gender, yet gender is a main content of feminist economics,” confessed İlkkaracan.
Despite this rather unwelcoming view of gender and feminism, İlkkaracan still sees the essence of mainstreaming feminism.

“Beyond being political, the feminist narrative is now conceptualized in the  gender, ”  said İlkkaracan, “The economy must be alive to feminism.”

Speaking with the same tone, Elissa Braunstein, the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Programs and Professor of Economics in the College of Liberal Arts at Colorado State University, and the current chair of the Research Committee at IAFFE, said, “The dominance of empirical work in feminist economics is so critical.” Braunstein reiterated that while feminism is not necessarily a natural science, it is a persuasive empirical idea that has been underscored by the Journal of International Women’s Studies.

Braunstein admitted that sometimes proving that feminist empiricism is not easy, however, the. The fact that qualitative and quantitative data are used to discuss feminist research does indeed qualify as an empirical study that warrants attention.

Braunstein also said that feminism is very distinctive because it is grounded in empiricism, particularly because it interrogates economic models that in turn reproduce gender powers. She maintained that IAFFE has been successful in advancing feminist scholarship and enabling research that addresses critical issues of gender and power in economic systems.

Braunstein also highlighted that IAFFE has published a high proportion of scholars from the global south, and international orientation is robust. Feminist economics, according to Braunstein, is under-cited in academia. Braunstein admitted that the pathway of feminist economics is quintessential. 

Accordingly, Radhika Balakrishnan, a Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University, said, “We should celebrate everything IAFFE feminist scholarship has done in the last few years.”

Balakrishnan lauded the milestones feminists and, by extension, feminism have achieved in the last four decades. Balakrishnan also noted that there is room for more to be done, and young scholars now have an opportunity to explore the feminist ideology in depth.

In a rejoinder to the same conversation, Luiza Nassif Pires, a research fellow working in the Gender Equality and the Economy program, said, “The necessity of feminist economists is for academic activism.” Pires underscored that there is room for academic activism for feminism that requires intentionality.

“Bringing feminism into academic activism has been a long process,” lauded Pires,” Academic activism for feminist economics is not an easy journey. “

Pires said that feminism in academia requires mentorship. She said embracing feminism in economics means that we need to understand how our re-lived experiences merge with current realities.

Pires emphasized that becoming a better feminist requires intentionality in challenging barriers that oppress. She also said that there is a need to take a feminist epistemological advantage.

Speaking with Liberal News Network in Nairobi, Benjamin Kahindi, Founder of the Safe Community Youth Initiative, said, ” There has been an increment in school dropouts among pregnant girls in Kilifi County.

Notably, the pregnant girls are largely from low-income families, and some of them are victims of negative social and cultural norms and practices.”

Kahindi warned that many adolescent girls fear being discriminated against because of the “smell of breast milk” and the changes experienced after giving birth.

It is approximated that over 4,000 school-going girls aged between 10 and 18 years were impregnated in 2023. Arguably the number has increased this year owing to the high cost of living. Worse still, young girls may also face another crisis because of their menstruation cycle.

Faith Pendo, the Founder of Pendant of Hope in Machakos County, said that more than 10,000 girls became gender-based violence victims because they could not access sanitary pads.

Pendo also underscored that adolescent girls continue to endure a lot of challenges because sanitary pads are expensive and inaccessible.

Speaking with the same tone, Joseph Ojuki, Founder and Senior Programs Manager at the Health and Economic Development Strategy Organisation (HEDSO), said, “There’s a lot of vulnerability within the lake region and the people there predominantly depend on fishing as their source of income. ”

Onjuki also noted that adolescent girls and young women. continue to remain vulnerable to gender-based violence and urged decision-makers to act quickly by reducing the costs of reproductive health products and services.

Dr. Vongai Nyahunzvi, Founder and CEO of Alliance for Women and Girls (AFWAG) also shared the same view and said that Kenya may not achieve gender equality unless consideration is given to young girls and women.

No longer willing to live in fear, the feminist sisters painted a poignant portrait of loss Kenya has witnessed in the recent past. The girls and young women painstakingly remarked how femicide had etched a perennial fear in their daily lives. Their pain palpable, a collective for sisters brutally silenced by untimely death. Femicide, they cried, wasn’t just a statistic; it was a shadow cast upon their mental well-being, a constant threat that choked their dreams and stole their sense of safety.

Grief hung heavy in the air, but amidst the pain, a fire of resilience burned brightly. Nancy Barasa, a young feminist from Zamara Foundation, spoke for countless others when she declared, “My right to life is not a debate!” Her defiant words echoed across the room, igniting an unyielding demand for justice.

Joining the chorus of voices were Pauline Nabwire of Polycom and Bernice Dodoo from Ghana joined their voices to the symphony of advocacy. Dodoo passionately stated, “Women’s rights are human rights, and women’s lives deserve to be respected.” She further urged everyone to join in raising their voices and demanding justice, envisioning a society where a woman’s right to live is treated with the same reverence as a fundamental human right.

Accordingly, Sarah Ouma, from Slum Dwellers International Kenya, expressed her longing for a society where she is free to just be, emphasizing the need for a space where women can thrive without the looming threat of violence.

Finally, Esther Nyawira, FEMNET’s She Leads Pan African coordinator, issued an unapologetic call to action, stating, “We are unapologetic when we say stop killing women, stop killing girls. Lives have been lost but justice seems to be delayed.”

Nyawira urged policymakers to fulfil their promises and bring femicide perpetrators to justice, demanding tangible action to ensure the safety of girls and young women in Kenya.

These young voices, united in purpose, declared that the time for change is now. Their fight for justice has begun, and this rally is just the first step in their mission to guarantee a future where girls and young women can live without fear.

The aforementioned was in memory of Juliet Naeku, Florence Kaari, Sheila Jepkemboi, Beth Wanjiku, Elizabeth Kaara and in honor of the other femicide victims who have never given an opportunity to speak for themselves.