“Women should have long hair but short intelligence.”
 That’s what the grandmother of Wild Swans author Jung Chang was told while growing up in early 20th century’s China.
I heard Jung Chang speak at ETF’s conference, Women & Work, in Turin yesterday. Her energy and beauty are mesmerising.
Over the past two days, I have also been mesmerised by the commitment and wisdom of the 22 women bloggers who got together with me and ETF to work on a series of recommendations for EU policy makers in the field of women and employment.
 I met most of them on Twitter. That’s how I connected with them.
On a gray winter day in December I sent out a Tweet, left for a meeting, came back 3 hours later and realised that it had already been retweeted 9 times… and mostly by people I was not following!
So, you can imagine my excitement, when on Friday night, I walked into the lobby of my hotel in Turin to “meet” our community of women bloggers for the first time.
The moment when the virtual and the physical worlds meet is a magical one!
 You first try to recognise the other person based on their Twitter photo… but then you realise that you don’t need that reference… you have known them all along… you know their thoughts, you know what moves them, you would be able to recognise them anywhere!
To those who think that Twitter and social media are gadgets… we would like to say… think again!
ETF Madlen Serban mentioned at the conference that power is never given…”you have to take it”.
Social media offers a unique way to empower women. Our Women & Work project is the living proof of that.
Click Here to see photos of the event. Read about Women & Work in Egypt’s Al-ahram, Hia magazine, Communication World and Live&Learn.
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as you said in the conference, it speaking for the voiceless, women and youth are paving their ways by articulating their ideas using the social media, may it helps in bringing better tomorrow