#WOTY2024: Kalli Purie's opening address at the Harper's Bazaar Women of the Year Awards 2024

Isn’t it true that inspiring words, especially from super achievers, can spark that itch to dream bigger, get out there, fulfil that childhood dream, and take the final leap to the goalpost? Those of us present at the inaugural Harper’s Bazaar India Women of the Year Awards, held on October 19, experienced the feeling firsthand as Kalli Purie, Vice Chairperson and Executive Editor-in-Chief, India Today Group, delivered a powerful opening address. Sharing how her recent experience at a Taylor Swift concert left her in awe and that the legacy of the Bazaar Women of the Year awards held globally is a testimony of “winning in a man’s world by a woman’s rules”, her speech was a celebration of women everywhere who continue to break barriers and achieve greatness.

Here is Purie's full speech from the Harper’s Bazaar Women of the Year Awards 2024 ceremony.

I want to open today with Taylor Swift. Don’t worry I am not going to sing. She is a global phenomenon; if you have not heard of her, check your pulse, please. 

I have a teenage daughter and so, I am a Swiftie by default. I had the pleasure of going to her concert in Wembley this summer. And what I saw there was an outpouring of female energy. Ninety thousand fans, mostly women. Singing along in tune; out of tune, strangers with arms linked, sharing friendship bracelets with women half their age. [It was] a throbbing, vibrant, inclusive spirit that you became a part of. [It was] girl power at its sparkly best. 

It wasn’t just a concert, it felt like we had become part of something greater, a movement. Because I think she is the living embodiment of the power of being vulnerable and successful, of winning in a man’s world by a woman’s rules.  

We always had to be more of a man to get to the top of the corporate ladder or the top of any field.

Over the years we have built a society that is systemically very supportive of men being successful at work. It just didn’t really plan for women to succeed.  

This is changing slowly but surely. Now, men are trying to be more like women—they are teaching EQ courses in business schools, men are asking for paternity leave, and even feel it can be quite productive to have a good cry.

Here is a message to men: good work, but you still have a long way to go. But keep trying.

The Harper’s Bazaar Women of the Year Awards are symbolic of this change in our attitudes. [Harper’s] Bazaar as a brand has been a champion for women for the last 157 years. And in its own way, it has been trying to change a culture based on patriarchy towards an environment that is more conducive to the true talent and strength of women.

The 18 awards today were very hotly debated by our extremely passionate editors and jurists and everyone had their favourites. Today, by recognising women for their amazing achievements, we are not typecasting or restricting them to a woman category only because the women here are extraordinary individuals who would be recognised in any environment, even the ones that are not gender-defined. 

This is a special call out to all women, the 18 women on stage and so many off it that: We hear you. We got you. We will see you through.

So, today we are introducing a new way of doing awards by starting a human chain of inspiration by having one award winner linked to the next by celebrating another woman’s achievement on stage. And we hope that the chain of empowerment will continue way past this evening. 

Thank you. 

Image credit: Bucket Hat Films