International Women's Day Event 2025
with Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Edinburgh
Premiering 8th March at 12:00 PM GMT
The Royal Commonwealth Society held an event and reception to celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD) 2025. We were greatly privileged that Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Edinburgh, a champion of gender equality in the UK, across the Commonwealth and beyond, contributed to this important discussion.
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The event was hosted at the Ismaili Centre in South Kensington, London by the Ismaili Council.
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As the Secretariat to the Commonwealth Youth Gender & Equality Network (CYGEN), the Society is proud to champion the power of youth voice for gender equality in the Commonwealth. The theme for the 2025 International Women’s Day, Accelerate Action, strives to increase action, including by ‘Supporting the Supporters,’ that is, focusing on those who are supporting equality.
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Moderator:
Dr Linda Yueh CBE is Executive Chair of the Royal Commonwealth Society. She is a Fellow in Economics at St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford, and Adjunct Professor of Economics at London Business School. She is a widely published author, including The Great Economists and The Great Crashes. Dr Yueh is a Member of the UK Soft Power Council, co-chaired by the Foreign Secretary and the Culture Secretary. She is a Non-Executive Director on the Boards of three FTSE 100 companies and chairs a listed investment company that invests in private growth companies. She is a Trustee of the Fidelity UK and International Foundations. She was made a CBE for Services to Economics in The King’s New Year Honours List 2023.
Speakers:
Her Excellency Macenje Mazoka is the Zambian High Commissioner to the UK. Prior to her diplomatic career, Her Excellency worked in broadcasting in Washington DC and South Africa for the South African Broadcasting Corporation as their lead on communications and marketing. Alongside her role as High Commissioner, Her Excellency has also championed numerous initiatives, including chairing NGOs supporting democracy and was elected to serve as the Africa representative on the Executive Committee of the Commonwealth Secretariat.
Elisabeth Bowes is Deputy High Commissioner for Australia to the UK. Elisabeth is a senior official of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and was most recently First Assistant Secretary and Chief Negotiator, Free Trade Agreements and Stakeholder Engagement Division. She has previously served overseas in postings to Washington and the WTO in Geneva. Elisabeth was previously a legal officer in UN organisations in Geneva and Hamburg. She was awarded the Public Service Medal in 2021 for outstanding public service to international trade policy, particularly as Head of the Tobacco Plain Packaging Taskforce. Ms Bowes graduated with Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws degrees from the University of Queensland and a Master of Philosophy in International Relations from the University of Oxford.