Over the past few years Intel has collaborated on a number of projects to raise awareness and catalyze action to expand education and technology access for girls and women. Our latest collaboration is Intel’s sponsorship of the upcoming 3-part documentary series A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity. The series is the follow-up to the powerful Half the Sky documentary and based on the book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. Kristof and WuDunn are joined in the documentary by a number of actors and advocates, including Jennifer Garner, Blake Lively, Eva Longoria, and Alfre Woodard.Through powerful storytelling, the series examines difficult challenges that girls and women continue to face—both here in the U.S. and around the world—including sex trafficking, gender-based violence, and lack of access to education and economic opportunity. But the goal of the series is not to focus on only on the challenges, but instead to focus on solutions and the passionate individuals who are working to make a real difference for girls and women in their communities. In fact, the title A Path Appears embodies this focus and comes from a quote from Lu Xun, Chinese Essayist who said “Hope is like a path in the countryside. Originally, there is nothing- but as people walk this way again and again, a path appears.”
In recent years, we have seen this path being carved not only through inspiring actions of individuals – but also in the form of increased investment in girls and women economic empowerment programs among governments, development organizations, and companies. Investments to close the gender gaps that exist in education, in technology access, in access to financial resources, in basic human rights – have the power to lead to transformative change and economic growth not just for girls and women, but for everyone. For example, according to data from the Council on Foreign Relations, when 10% more girls go to school, a country's GDP can increase by 3%. According to the Women and the Web Report, in addition to a range of important social benefits for women, bringing another 600 million women online could contribute an estimated $13 billion to $18 billion to the annual gross domestic product across 144 developing countries.
A Path Appears premieres tonight on the PBS program Independent Lens, airing on most local stations at 10p.m. ET/ PT and 9p.m. CT. (check local listings for exact times). We invite you to view the trailer and then tune in or set your DVR to watch. In addition, each episode will be made available to view online for 7 days following broadcast on PBS.org. Note that at this time, the series will only be broadcast in the U.S. However, international broadcast plans are under development for later this year.
Please also join us and others for the discussion on social media over the next few weeks by following @intelinvolved, @apathappears, and the hashtag #apathappears.
Suzanne Fallender is Intel’s Director of Corporate Responsibility. In this role, she collaborates with key stakeholders across the company to integrate corporate responsibility concepts into company strategies, policies, public reporting, and stakeholder engagement activities to advance Intel’s corporate responsibility leadership and create positive social impact and business value. Suzanne leads a team of experienced professionals who engage with internal and external groups to review Intel’s corporate responsibility performance and to identify new opportunities to apply Intel’s technology and expertise to address social and environmental challenges. The team also works closely with Intel’s investor relations and corporate governance groups to drive an integrated outreach strategy with investors on governance and corporate responsibility issues. Suzanne has more than 20 years of experience in the field of corporate responsibility and socially responsible investment. During her time at Intel, Suzanne has held a number of corporate responsibility-related roles, including leading programs empowering girls and women through technology. Prior to Intel, Suzanne served as Vice President at Institutional Shareholder Services where she managed the firm’s socially responsible investing division. Suzanne holds an M.B.A. from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University and a B.A. from Trinity College in Hartford, CT. She has served on a number of leading industry advisory boards and committees on sustainability and corporate responsibility over the past decade and currently is a member of the Net Impact Board of Directors. Follow Suzanne on Twitter at @sfallender.