Bermuda’s Minister of Home Affairs represented the country during a women’s leadership convention hosted by global media group Forbes.

Alexa Lightbourne joined several leaders and professionals last week at the 13th annual Forbes Power Women Summit in New York.

Under the theme “Building What’s Next”, speakers discussed topics such as modern approaches to maternal health and barriers that women face in the professional world.

Ms Lightbourne said later: “From the cost of housing to food insecurity, from digital equity to climate resilience, our national challenges in Bermuda echo global ones.

“What we heard reinforced that these challenges can be met with bold, collaborative leadership grounded in equity and shared responsibility.”

Forbes Power Women Summit featured several keynote speakers and panellists, including philanthropist Melinda French Gates and actress Yara Shahidi.

Attendees included policymakers, entrepreneurs and artists.

Ms Lightbourne spoke to people from the Forbes Under 30 community, as well as Forbes’s Black professionals wing, ForbesBLK.

She further engaged with pundits from the Sirius XM radio station and newspapers such as The Washington Post and The New York Times.

Ms Lightbourne said that it was important not to view items such as energy reform and housing as “isolated silos of governance” separate from gender equity.

She explained: “The decisions we make in energy regulation affect affordability.

“The decisions we make in housing shape dignity and, at every level, we must ask ourselves ‘who benefits and who bears the burden?’”

Ms Lightbourne added: “Hearing from women who are moving billions in capital, leading global change in healthcare access and reshaping cultural norms was energising and reaffirmed that we must continue to lead with equity as our design principle.”