On 23 October, 50 women in leadership across fashion, luxury, beauty and more convened for a private dinner at the Corinthia London. Attended by business leaders and celebrity personalities alike, the specially curated evening brought together women of influence for a rare moment of cross-industry female solidarity. Unlike typical events hosted by Vogue Business, this one focused on an underexplored issue: the global contraception crisis. Throughout decades of hard-won progress, access to modern contraception has played a critical role in enabling women to learn, earn and lead by preventing unwanted or unsafe pregnancies and giving women the chance to pursue education and careers. That progress is currently in jeopardy, with global policy and legal changes restricting access, compounded by up to 80% of donor funding for family planning being cut or threatened globally.
The event, held in partnership with the Made Possible campaign, led by FP2030, an initiative supported by the Gates Foundation, sought to highlight the rising contraception crisis, explore its impact around the world and discuss how industry leaders can collectively safeguard access to the vital healthcare resources that women rely on to thrive. According to FP2030 research, in 2024 alone, contraception prevented 144,000 maternal deaths, 143 million unintended pregnancies and 29 million unsafe abortion across the world. Yet, recent UN figures indicate there are 259 million women globally who say they want to use modern contraception but are unable to access it, due to providers refusing to disperse it, rigid social norms and pressures, or a lack of local supply.
Fighting this issue is not exclusive to the political realm. In 2022, in response to the overturning of Roe v Wade, brands including Estée Lauder offered employee support for abortion access, demonstrating the important role private sector businesses can play in safeguarding women’s well-being.
During the event, Vogue Business head of advisory Anusha Couttigane hosted a panel discussion with guest speakers Sonali Silva, director of youth health advocacy organization Yield Hub, and Eshita Kabra-Davies, CEO and founder of luxury peer-to-peer rental app By Rotation. The conversation began with each speaker sharing a symbolic object that represented their journey. Both Couttigane and Silva discussed the generations of women who came before them, in the shape of their mothers, sisters and other females who have fought to enable them access to better opportunities. Kabra-Davies showcased the desk plaque from her first job as an investment analyst, a profession that she left to launch her own business.
Silva spoke candidly about the experiences that led her to focus on advocating for abortion rights, contraception and better healthcare for women: “I am a survivor of sexual violence myself, but for some reason, I had removed myself from that… but I realised the importance of choice and the opposite of choice is control.” From her background working with the ministry of health in her native Sri Lanka, Silva realised that contraceptive health was being treated as “a budget line”. “When did we even start to think that it was OK to treat women’s bodies as a budget line?” she questioned. A former beauty queen, Silva said she began using her platform to advocate for better contraceptive access, leading to global work with both Yield Hub and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) organization She Decides.
Speaking about her experiences as a female founder, and the importance of creating supportive communities for women, Kabra-Davies highlighted how slim the funding opportunities are. Less than 2% of institutional funding goes to women and less than 0.2% to Asian female founders, Kabra-Davies said. She also described the early days of By Rotation, when a “village” of women supported her to succeed. “We call it the sisterhood of the travelling dress at By Rotation. Very early on, when By Rotation was nothing, there was always one person who brought me into their circle, which had a butterfly effect,” she explained. “So I encourage everyone to bring one person who isn’t normally included into their influential circles, because you never know the impact that will have.”
Vogue Business’s Couttigane added that, as more women ascend to leadership and C-suite roles, they often have a greater opportunity to challenge policies and champion initiatives that can help address the contraception crisis. For example, by putting access to contraception and women’s healthcare on the agenda of employee well-being discussions, or by reviewing leave policies and routes to promotion.
Though the contraception battle has long been treated as a political issue, Silva concluded that every woman has the opportunity to create change, which can start with industry leaders. “The contraception crisis is one that is created and one that women are inheriting because of inaction,” Silva said. “Every woman knows that feeling, that you can step outside, in the dark and someone can do something to you and you have to feel the repercussions of that. It’s something we all understand. We don’t necessarily have to relate to every context, but pain is universal. And choice, especially access to contraception, is freedom.”
After the panel, guests continued the conversation over a three-course meal, with many taking part in table discussions concerning moments when they felt the most empowered and what contraception has enabled them to achieve. The evening concluded with a short talk from FP2030 executive director Dr. Samu Dube, who explained that every $1 invested in women’s health yields $8 in social and economic growth — and meeting the demand for global family planning could yield $660 billion in economic benefits by 2050. She encouraged guests to “be problematic”, evaluate their own spheres of influence and explore the individual steps people can take to promote access to contraception in their respective businesses and fields.
