VOICES OF CHANGE: A journey through the Osaka Expo Women’s Pavilion
When women thrive, humanity thrives. This is the message that radiates from the Women’s Pavilion in collaboration with Cartier at Expo 2025 in Osaka, Kansai. Here, visitors embark on a journey that challenges perceptions and invites all of us to imagine—and help build—a more equal future.
It is no coincidence that Cartier is supporting a space celebrating women’s contributions to society.
The Maison’s own history is decorated with names of those who have transformed the perception and position of women in the workplace, and beyond.
Take Jeanne Toussaint, Cartier’s renowned Artistic Director of High Jewelry. In 1914, Toussaint conceived the Panthère collection. An icon of power, the collection established Cartier’s reputation and laid the foundation for a female empowerment ethos that still endures. Today, the Cartier Women’s Initiative continues this legacy, having invested over $12 million to support female impact entrepreneurs across the globe.
Now at Expo 2025 in Osaka, Kansai, Cartier is reinforcing its commitment at the Women’s Pavilion, welcoming an anticipated 28 million visitors to a remarkable space. Celebrating the multiplicity of experiences, it is united by a single call: uplift women, uplift the world.
Entering the Women’s Pavilion is like stepping into a theater, except here, the audience chooses its own journey.
Co-designed by two esteemed creatives—Lead Architect Yuko Nagayama and Global Artistic Lead Es Devlin—the pavilion’s intricate structure, sun-drenched skylight, and hidden hideaways provide space for visitors to figuratively and literally breathe.
Once inside, three women greet you, each with her own tale. Once a path is selected, the story is brought to life through audio and emotive visual cues. United as a collective but shining as individuals, their stories find common ground through the universality of resilience, ambition, and hope.
One of these voices belongs to Emi Mahmoud, a Sudanese American poet, activist, and scientist, whose own experience with conflict has left an indelible mark on her outlook and advocacy for peace.
“The Women’s Pavilion is a testament to resilience and the unyielding spirit of humanity,” Mahmoud says. “My message is simple: never forget the strength of your voice and the light it can bring to the lives of others.”
Walking Mahmoud’s path is a visceral experience. Visitors feel both the burden of war and the hope that’s found in advocacy. Mahmoud hopes that through this experience, all who visit the space will also fight to stand up and be heard.
“The Women’s Pavilion is a testament to resilience and the unyielding spirit of humanity.”
Emi Mahmoud
The journey continues in the Puzzle Box—which greets visitor with a stark global reality, using statistics that can’t be ignored.
In collaboration with the UN Women’s Gender Snapshot 2024, the Puzzle Box immerses you in the full breadth of gender inequality. From education to employment—where women make up 40% of the global workforce yet hold just over a quarter of managerial roles—visitors can interact with and explore the data, which paint a sobering picture of shared challenges and the need for change.
Tap on the cards for more insights
Hover over the cards for more insights
By 2050, up to 158 million more women and girls could face extreme poverty.
Closing the digital gender divide could save $500 billion globally in just five years.
Every year, failing to invest in women costs the world $10 trillion in lost opportunity.
Investing in childcare and care economies could create nearly 300 million jobs by 2035.
In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, educational gaps for girls cost over $210 billion—more than 10% of the region’s GDP.
Laws protecting women from domestic violence cut intimate partner violence by two-thirds.
Visitors are shown how knowledge can shatter assumptions and reveal paths to lasting reform. “Data allows us to see beyond assumptions,” data scientist, Professor Hiroaki Miyata explains. “It enables us to move from uniform, average-based policies to tailored, timely interventions.”
Speaking at the Pavilion’s WA Space, he will be one of a series of experts to bring global leaders and changemakers together to share their insights and find solutions to the most pressing challenges.
“If we use data wisely, we can create dynamic systems that detect hardship early, support people through complex life circumstances, and evolve with society’s needs. That is social reform––empowered by data, guided by empathy.”
Professor Hiroaki Miyata
The Pavilion’s final space features messages of hope from 14 global trailblazers advocating for inclusion, equality, and sustainability.
The light-filled chamber includes personal testimonies from individuals of all different backgrounds. In isolation, each is powerful enough. But together, they are a vision of a future where people from all walks of life come together as one.
Three of the voices in this inspirational chorus are Mariam Torosyan, founder of Safe YOU; Kodo Nishimura, a Buddhist monk and LGBTQ+ advocate; and Sabrina Habib, CEO of Kidogo. Whether amplifying underrepresented voices or advancing safety and agency for vulnerable women and girls, they embody the Pavilion’s mission to foster meaningful change.
Open throughout Expo 2025’s six-month run, the Women’s Pavilion will live on long after the final visitor has departed. For all who walk its halls, it leaves a lasting belief, that equality is within reach, and that in uplifting women, we can uplift the world.
