The world population has nearly doubled since the 1960s. Today it is approaching 7 billion with nearly 1 billion people suffering from chronic hunger. According to one CU-Boulder professor, the way to help stabilize world population—and avoid greater human suffering brought on by more demand for scarce resources —is to empower women to raise their status.

And that is exactly what Assistant Professor Beth Osnes from the Department of Theatre and Dance has been working to accomplish. Professor Osnes will be featured in a film, “Mother: Caring Our Way Out of the Population Dilemma” (by Tiroir A Films), that explores the impact of population growth and suggests that raising the status of women worldwide through education and valuing their contributions can help stabilize world population. By following the work she has done on women’s empowerment, Professor Osnes is the “human thread” throughout the film.

Professor Osnes is a founder of a nonprofit group called Mothers Acting Up, which advocates for the world’s children. She has just completed a two-year tour through a partnership between Mothers Acting Up and the Philanthropiece Foundation. She took a vocal empowerment workshop she developed to North American and international locations using interactive theatre as a tool for women to empower their own voices to act on their self-identified concerns. Vocal empowerment is a creative process that helps individuals express their needs while addressing important societal issues. Because many of the women Professor Osnes works with are not used to speaking on their own behalf, this process helps them rehearse how to use their voices to act on their concerns, including preparing them to answer criticisms they are likely to encounter.

After creating this workshop, Professor Osnes began piloting applications of this work to clean-energy development for women living in poverty. She has conducted research in Panama and Guatemala using interactive theatre to encourage poor women to speak up for their needs. This March she will travel to Pune, India to provide the skills, confidence, and practice for women to be included in all aspects of sustainable energy development. Professor Osnes will be working with the Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI), which provides sustainable energy solutions for rural people living in poverty. ARTI’s primary technology is a fuel-efficient cook stove that is especially designed to suit the cooking needs of the women in the area.

For more information about Professor Osnes’s work in India, visit the program page at outreach.colorado.edu/programs/details/id/92. Information about the “Mother: Caring Our Way Out of the Population Dilemma” film can be found at www.motherthefilm.com. The film will premiere at the Boulder International Film Festival at the Boulder Theater at 10:00 a.m. on February 18. The documentary will also be shown at the VOICES Film Festival in Denver, March 8-13 at the Denver Film Center.