On December 7, the Second World Eco-Design Conference hosted in Conghua Guangzhou, carried out the Women’s Design and Innovative Development Forum, female elites from government and private sectors and female entrepreneurs shared the stories of female entrepreneurs, and had joint discussions on how to enable the power of women to play a role in the design innovation.

On the forum, Ellen Yi-Luen Do, Director of the Partnerships and Innovation, ATLAS Institute, University of Colorado Boulder played video clips to the participants one by one, telling stories of women to achieve innovation in different fields. In addition, Ellen Do also told the stories about Madame Curie who won Nobel Prize for physics and chemistry, Josephine Garis Cochran who invented the dish washing machine etc., illustrated the power of women by real cases, and call for “continuous learning, thinking and do it yourself.".
 

“Innovation could indeed make our lives very simple”, Joy Mangano, a single mother who is famous for her invention, the self-wringing Miracle Mop, and over 100 patents, encourages people to find solutions to the inconvenience  found in daily life by innovation.

Mantasha Ahmed, the President of the Association of Fashion Designers of Bangladesh spoke about the impediments of the handicraft industry of Bangladesh. “Disrespect, low-income and other factors have caused less and less craftsmen want their next generations to engage in the handicraft industry.”Mantasha Ahmed expressed that, to protect and inherit the handicraft culture of their own country, they will introduce digital technology to the production of handicraft industry, e.g. by digital art, enabling a traditional knit art called Jamdani to better fit in demands of modern market. Mantasha Ahmed hopes that in the future, women in regional area can be better trained, educating them with relevant skills, so that they can work even at home, and be more productive.

Sally Ann Barber, Project Coordinator, Migration and Women’s Economic Empowerment, UN Women Asian-Pacific Region delivered a keynote speech named “Innovation for Gender Equality and Sustainable Development”, she states that gender equality is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the UN, they are in the process of establishing partnerships to achieve the goal.
 

“Women can learn so much from eco-design” Sally Ann Barber notes, at present, there is a large proportion of women are engaging in agriculture, but if women rely too much on natural conditions and other resources, they will be affected largely. She said, now the number of women working in the industry of design innovation are not enough, in the future, hopefully the gap between men and women could be reduced through technological innovation, more measures come up to empower women with more knowledge, such as leadership etc., so that women can play a more significant role.