Women in the World Texas 2018

Women in the World returned to Texas on Monday, November 5, at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Literary legend Isabel Allende, the American-Chilean novelist who has sold more than 65 million books, been awarded the 2014 Presidential Medal of Freedom and will receive an honorary National Book Award this month, joined us onstage. She had a candid conversation with Women in the World founder Tina Brown that touched on the art of storytelling, the loss of her daughter and mother, her years of living in political exile, the “joy” of her divorce after 27 years of marriage, and her attempts at online dating at age 73.

Other notable figures who took the stage were two women who have been in the boiler room of American politics for decades: Minyon Moore, former CEO of the Democratic National Committee and director of White House Political Affairs, and Leah Daughtry, CEO of the 2008 and 2016 Democratic National Conventions as well as a preacher and political strategist. The first and often the only African-American women to wield such behind-the-scenes political power, they’ve written a new book calledFor Colored Girls who have Considered Politics. The panel also included Jara Butler, the political outreach director for the Senate campaign of Beto O’Rourke.The question of the night: Does the Democratic Party take women of color for granted. Here’s how the experts weighed in.

We were also joined by Viktoria Vibhakar, a courageous whistleblower who has risked everything to shine a light on Australia’s refugee crisis,which is being called a humanitarian emergency with many of the child asylum seekers held in detention centers on the island of Nauru for five years now. The Australian government has ordered 650 refugees to be evacuated from the island, but those are only children and, as evidenced by the troubling stories she told onstage, Vibhakar’s struggle for justice is bound to continue for the foreseeable future.

And lastly, Dallas businesswoman Paige Chenault, our new Women in the World/Toyota Mother of Invention, took to the stage to tell the audience about the company she launched — and to receive her $50,000 Mothers of Invention grant from Toyota. After becoming a mother and envisioning the birthday parties she would throw for her daughter, Paige was inspired to host parties for children in homeless shelters, who are often never celebrated on their birthdays. Paige went on to found The Birthday Project which now hosts parties for homeless children in 14 cities.

In the video at the top of the page, watch highlights from the 2018 Texas Salon.

Visit womenintheworld.com to see past participants, and learn more about exciting programming updates.

The Salon is generously supported by Presenting SponsorToyota, Supporting Sponsor AT&T and Partner Ellevate.