Meghan to mark International Women’s Day with high-profile discussion

The Duchess of Sussex will join a discussion panel of leading feminists and national figures to mark International Women’s Day.

Meghan will appear alongside singer Annie Lennox, former prime minister of Australia Julia Gillard and others to debate a range of issues affecting women today.

The group will also chat about the positive opportunities that come when women are given wider access and equal opportunities.

The duchess has made women’s empowerment a key part of her campaigning work, and during her recent tour of Morocco, with the duke, told a group of female executives and entrepreneurs: “Women have to challenge everywhere in the world.”

The panel will be hosted by the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust, which supports and funds young leaders around the world who are working to tackle problems in education, health, the environment and sport.

Lennox is founder of The Circle, an organisation supporting and empowering women’s lives around the world, while Ms Gillard is chairwoman of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London, which is hosting the event on March 8.

Other members of the panel include Adwoa Aboah, who set up the open social discussion platform Gurls Talk, Chrisann Jarrett, founder of the equal access to higher education campaign Let Us Learn, and Angeline Murimirwa, executive director of the Campaign for Female Education in Africa and co-founder of CAMA, a pan-African network of young female leaders.

The panel will be chaired by Anne McElvoy, senior editor of The Economist and columnist at the Evening Standard.