My Voice Matters

She has a voice the way the moon has light. Not loud. Not demanding. Yet constant and impossible to erase. The sun was celebrated for its dramatic rises and blazing sets, for the noise it made simply by being seen. But few paused to notice the moonrise, or to       name the quiet power of the moonset – how it softened the dark, how it made navigation possible when the world felt uncertain. HER voice lived there. Often overlooked, sometimes dismissed as too soft to matter. Yet the silence that surrounded it was never emptiness; it was imposed restraint. It was wisdom waiting for a heart that listens. This leads us to an unsettling question: if women’s voices had shaped decisions more boldly, if women had stepped into leadership with confidence and conviction, would our world bear this much bloodshed, corruption, this much fracture?

This March, AWiB presents “My Voice Matters” in collaboration with Timran. Timran is an indigenous not-for-profit organization whose vision is to see an Ethiopia in which women take their legitimate space in public decision-making and the nation’s political affairs. This vision springs from a very strong belief that women’s utmost participation both to lead and contribute their fair share will help bring about a different way of shaping public policy and building a peaceful, inclusive, and prosperous nation.

Throughout Ethiopia’s history, women’s voices have shaped the nation, from Queen Makeda’s diplomacy that anchored alliances, to Empress Taytu Betul’s decisive leadership at Adwa, and Empress Zewditu’s steady guidance through transition. These voices were never peripheral, they moved from conviction to choose, from choice to consequence, quietly redirecting the course of power. Today, that legacy continues through women-led institutions like Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association (EWLA), Network of Ethiopian Women’s Associations (NEWA), and Organization for Women in Self Employment (WISE), demonstrating that when women speak, influence policy, lead communities, and drive economic empowerment, their voices become decisions that create lasting impact.

The question, then, is not whether women have a voice, but whether they will trust it enough to use it. The women of this generation stand at a threshold where silence is no longer safety and hesitation is no longer humility. Owning one’s voice now means speaking before certainty arrives, choosing courage over comfort, and allowing conviction to guide decision. When women claim their voices, they do more than express opinion; they alter direction. The course of a nation does not always change with noise. Sometimes, it shifts the moment a woman decides her voice is no longer optional.

1. When you think of “voice,” what does it look like in practice not in theory? Where is it expressed, and where is it restrained?
2. Can you recall a moment when silence was chosen for you rather than by you? What impact did that restraint have on you, and the outcome?
3. What conditions personal, cultural, or institutional must be present for women’s voices to move from being heard to shaping decisions?
4. Where do we, even unintentionally, reward compliance more than conviction, and how does that shape the voices that emerge in our spaces?
5. If women in this room fully trusted their voices and acted on them consistently, what tangible shift would we expect to see with in a year or two?

This AWiB Connects is presented in partnership with Timran.

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