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Sixth Global Summit: Spotlight on the Strong Cities Network Women’s Caucus

Publication Date:

23/01/2026

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Event Reports

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Sixth Global SummitSocial CohesionTorontoWomen EmpowermentWomen’s CaucusWomen’s leadership

— 8 minutes reading time

This report provides a summary of discussions during the session and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Strong Cities Network Management Unit, Strong Cities members, event sponsors or participants.

Introduction

On 9 – 11 December 2025, the Strong Cities Network held its Sixth Global Summit in Toronto (Canada), bringing together more than 300 representatives of local governments, national governments, civil society organisations, academia, the private sector and international organisations. This included nearly 60 mayors and governors, as well as 110 other local government officials from 100 cities and 42 countries. Under the theme Stronger Together: Forging Safer, Connected, Thriving Cities in a Changing World, the Summit provided a platform for city leaders to share practical and innovative solutions to prevent and respond to hate, extremism and polarisation, and build safer, more resilient and more inclusive communities.

The Summit agenda included a plenary session on Women’s Leadership: Spotlight on the Strong Cities Women’s Caucus to highlight the leadership, lived experiences and city-led innovations of women mayors and local government leaders working to prevent hate, extremism and polarisation while strengthening social cohesion. The session underscored the critical role women play in advancing inclusive, community-led prevention approaches, while also acknowledging the distinct and often gendered risks women face in public leadership, including online abuse, intimidation and threats to personal safety.

Featured Speakers

• Nancy Rotering, Mayor, Highland Park (Illinois, USA) – Moderator
• Jacqueline McLaren, Lord Provost, Glasgow (Scotland)
• Kath O’Driscoll, Councillor, Dublin City Council (Ireland)
• Janet Cowell, Mayor, Raleigh (North Carolina, USA)
• Nucha Ahmed, Governor, Halabja Governorate (Iraq)

Key Takeaways

1. Women’s leadership is a core prevention asset, not a supplementary measure. Women mayors and councillors consistently advance collaborative, community-centred leadership approaches that strengthen social cohesion, trust and inclusion – all critical enablers of effective prevention of hate, extremism and social polarisation.
2. Gendered threats against women in public office are escalating and undermining democratic participation. Online harassment, intimidation and physical threats are increasingly constraining women’s visibility, safety and willingness to remain in public life, with direct consequences for representative and inclusive local governance.
3. Individual coping strategies are insufficient to address gender-based political violence. Sustainable responses require institutional, city-level action that recognises such threats as a governance and democratic integrity challenge, rather than a personal burden borne by women leaders alone.
4. Cities must invest in protection, mentorship and structural reform to sustain women’s leadership pipelines. Digital safety measures, physical security protocols, peer support networks and gender-responsive governance practices are essential to protecting women leaders and ensuring diverse, resilient local leadership.
5. Supporting women leaders strengthens overall city resilience. Safeguarding women’s participation in local governance enhances decision-making, community trust and prevention capacity, reinforcing cities’ ability to respond to complex social, political and security challenges.

Key Themes 

1. Women’s Leadership as a Pillar of City-Led Prevention

Speakers emphasised that women leaders often bring collaborative, relationship-driven approaches to local governance that are particularly well suited to prevention and social cohesion work. Panellists highlighted that women’s leadership frequently prioritises dialogue, trust-building and cross-community engagement – approaches that strengthen legitimacy and improve policy outcomes.

Jacqueline McLaren, Lord Provost of Glasgow (Scotland), reflected on the importance of collective leadership and collaboration in local government, noting that women leaders are often effective at convening diverse actors and moving quickly from discussion to action.

Building on this emphasis on collaboration, Kath O’Driscoll, Councillor, Dublin City Council (Ireland), similarly highlighted that, despite political differences, women leaders tend to share common priorities around public safety, liveability and wellbeing, reinforcing the potential for cross-party cooperation on prevention-related issues.

The discussion also highlighted the role of peer support and solidarity in sustaining women’s leadership in prevention work. Nancy Rotering, Mayor, Highland Park (Illinois, USA) underscored the importance of peer networks and international solidarity among women leaders, particularly in moments of crisis, noting the value of Strong Cities as a space for shared learning, support and practical guidance.

2. Gendered Threats, Harassment and Barriers to Participation

A central theme of the discussion was the scale and persistence of gendered threats faced by women in public office. Speakers described how online harassment, misogynistic abuse and intimidation have become routine aspects of political life for women leaders, often escalating beyond the digital sphere.

Lord Provost McLaren shared that she has experienced sustained abuse and threats throughout her time in office, illustrating the personal toll such targeting can take, and the extent to which it has become normalised.

Councillor O’Driscoll highlighted that much of the most serious abuse occurs in private online spaces, where threats are less visible but often more explicit. She also reflected on the broader democratic impact of this violence, noting that women are frequently forced to consider whether remaining in public life is worth the personal risk – an expectation rarely placed on men.

Mayor Cowell described how the evolving threat environment has reshaped public service in the United States, with heightened security concerns and personal safety considerations increasingly shaping how elected officials engage with their communities.

Speakers agreed that these dynamics risk deterring women from entering politics, shortening political careers and narrowing representation, with long-term implications for democratic resilience.

3. City-Level Responses to Protect and Support Women Leaders

Panellists shared examples of city-led and institutional measures designed to better protect women in public office. These included digital safety training, improved moderation of official social media channels, clearer reporting and response processes for threats and closer coordination with law enforcement.

In Glasgow (Scotland), measures such as personal safety alarms and peer buddy systems have been introduced to support councillors facing heightened risks. In Dublin (Ireland), women councillors have undertaken targeted training to better understand and respond to online harassment and misinformation, with the explicit aim of preventing women from being pushed out of public life.

Speakers consistently emphasised that responsibility for managing threats should not fall on individual women leaders. Instead, safety and well-being must be treated as institutional obligations embedded within local government systems and practices.

4. Mentorship, Structural Reform and the Pipeline of Future Women Leaders

Looking ahead, panellists stressed the importance of mentorship, visibility and structural reform in sustaining women’s participation in local governance. Mayor Cowell highlighted the need to better prepare women for the realities of public office, including identifying and navigating gendered double standards.

Speakers also pointed to the importance of removing practical barriers to participation, such as inflexible meeting schedules, caregiving responsibilities and lack of formal leave provisions. Several panellists emphasised that women should not feel they need to be fully prepared before entering politics, noting the importance of learning through practice and peer support.

Beyond leadership pathways, the discussion highlighted the value of gender-responsive policymaking more broadly, including applying a gender lens to urban design, public space and service delivery to improve safety and accessibility for all residents.

Next Steps

The session reaffirmed women’s leadership as a cornerstone of Strong Cities’ approach to preventing hate, extremism and polarisation. Building on this discussion, the Strong Cities Women’s Caucus will continue to serve as a platform for peer support, knowledge exchange and collective advocacy among women local government leaders.

Key next steps include:

• Strengthening peer support mechanisms within the Women’s Caucus to address gendered threats, including sharing good practices on digital and physical safety.
• Developing practical guidance and tools – drawing on regional consultations with women local leaders – to help cities institutionalise protections for elected officials, with a focus on addressing gendered hate and harassment targeting women leaders.
• Integrating a gender lens across Strong Cities programming, ensuring prevention, crisis response and resilience initiatives reflect women’s experiences and leadership.

Further to this, in response to the issues raised during the Women’s Leadership plenary, Strong Cities will advance a new initiative under its Women’s Caucus to safeguard and elevate the role of women local leaders in prevention and resilience-building. The initiative will bring together women mayors, councillors and senior municipal officials across regions to examine the gendered hate and harassment they face, elevate practical examples of women-led efforts to counter hate and division, and identify the training, tools and institutional responses needed to better protect women in local public office. Insights from this work will inform the development of a practitioner-focused toolkit for cities and directly shape a full day’s programme on women’s local leadership at the Seventh Strong Cities Global Summit, to be hosted by the City of Rabat (Morocco) in early 2027.

The Women’s Leadership plenary highlighted both the transformative impact of women’s leadership at the local level and the urgent need to address the gendered risks that threaten women’s participation in public life. By institutionalising protections, investing in mentorship and embedding gender-responsive approaches across local governance, cities can create enabling environments in which women leaders are safe, supported and empowered to lead.

For the Strong Cities Network, advancing women’s leadership is not only a matter of equity, but a strategic priority for building inclusive, resilient and cohesive cities.

Additional Resources

Recent Strong Cities policy briefs and resources:

• City Leadership in Partnering with Local Communities for Social Cohesion: Ten Considerations for Mayors and Local Governments, Strong Cities Network, 2025
• National-Local Cooperation: Opportunities and Lessons Learned for Secondary and Tertiary Prevention, Strong Cities Network, 2025
• City Leadership in the Face of Rising Incivility and Polarisation: Ten Considerations for Mayors and Local Governments, Strong Cities Network, 2025
• Innovations in Prevention: Piloting Multi-Actor Frameworks in Small and Mid-Sized Cities in the United States, Strong Cities Network, 2025
• A Toolkit for Cities: Building a Multi-Actor Local Prevention Framework, Strong Cities Network, 2025
• A Toolkit for Manitoba Municipalities: Addressing Anti-Government Hate and Harassment, Strong Cities Network, 2025
• A Guide for Cities: Preventing Hate, Extremism & Polarisation, Strong Cities Network, updated 2025
• A Guide for Mayors: Preventing and Responding to Hate, Extremism & Polarisation, Strong Cities Network, updated 2025
• A Guide for City-Led Response, Strong Cities Network, May 2024
• City Spotlights Library, Strong Cities Network

Further Resources

• Global Crises, Local Impacts & Women’s Caucus: A Joint Webinar, Strong Cities Network, May 2025

Donors & Partners

The Sixth Global Summit was co-hosted with the City of Toronto and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, and delivered with generous support from the Government of Canada, The Fourth Freedom Forum, The Toronto Foundation and Charities Aid Foundation.

Contact Information 

For more information about the Sixth Global Summit or the Strong Cities Network, please contact [email protected].

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