“You Can Do Just About Anything:” Margaret Atwood On Women’s Power, History & Control
Kelsey Nicole Nelson, Conference Host, (far left); Gloria Feldt,(center) and Margaret Atwood, (right) on Take The Lead center stage at Power Up Conference 2026.
Sometimes your heroes are small and the lessons of their legacy unimaginably enormous.
Margaret Atwood, 86, iconic author and truthteller, told a grateful audience at Take The Lead’s Power Up Conference 2026 on Women’s Equality Day recently in Washington, D.C., that she has always used the tools at her disposal to demonstrate power and utility—including the truth.
Read Gloria Feldt’s introduction speech at Power Up Conference 2026
Growing up spring, summer and fall in the backwoods of remote, northern Quebec, with her parents and a brother and sister, Atwood said she did not attend school until she was 12.
“I’ve got three chainsaws—big, medium size and a circular saw. You learn to use tools and you learn that girls can really do just about anything,” she said in an onstage conversation with Gloria Feldt, co-founder and president of Take The Lead.
Introducing Atwood, as the keynote for the two-day event, “Audacity: Leadership in Action,” Feldt said, “With power you can destroy or build something beautiful. That power is already yours.” She added, “It’s critically important now as women are experiencing economic headwinds on hard-won progress. Forces are trying to push us way back.”
“With power you can destroy or build something beautiful. That power is already yours,” said Gloria Feldt, cofounder, president @takeleadwomen #PowerUp2026 #leadership”
In addition to being the global award-winning author of more than 50 books, and winner of Take The Lead’s Leading Woman Award, Atwood described herself as a “birder, co-founder of a draft beer and palm reader.”
Read more on Margaret Atwood Leading Woman Award
In a cabin with “no electricity, no running water and a wood stove, you learn to improvise,” Atwood said. “You learn about emergencies and you learn there are not a lot of things you can’t do.”
That message of innovation and resourcefulness resonated with the hundreds of participants in the room—and virtually-- including founders, entrepreneurs, students, administrators, and leaders attending the Power Up Conference. “There were no TVs, schools, movie theaters, cell phones and there was no radio,” Atwood said. “So I did a lot of reading, writing and drawing.”
The winner of the coveted Booker Prize, and likely best known internationally as the author of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” and more recently, “The Testaments,” Atwood said, “No one knows how they got to be them. Fairness was always emphasized in my family.”
“No one knows how they got to be them. Fairness was always emphasized in my family,” said @MargaretAtwood @takeleadwomen #audacity #leadership #PowerUp”
Read more in Take The Lead on Margaret Atwood
When Feldt asked her to expand on her most celebrated work, Atwood said, “Everything in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ has happened somewhere sometime. I did not want to hear, ‘What a dark imagination she has,’” in reviews of her book.
So Atwood carefully researched and referenced history for every action taken in the book. “It isn’t me who made it up. It’s the human race that came up with all this weird s***, especially about women.”
In the historic battle for reproductive rights globally, now under pressure in the U.S., Atwood said, “Because it’s such a great power, people have tried to control it.”
Read more from Gloria Feldt on Margaret Atwood
Referencing the story lines of some of her novels (she has also written memoir, nonfiction, TV scripts, comic books, children’s books and books of poetry), “Women are not perfect, All human beings have full range and agency and bad behavior. In a repressive society, women will try to protect other girls so they won’t do anything to get them killed.”
Looking to the timeline of history, Atwood said, it was the uproar of the 1960s “that resulted in the second wave women’s movement. In the 70s, and because of that, women can have a credit card. The 1980s started dismantling the social contract.”
That is when she began writing “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
Read more from the Power Up Conference 2026
Studying American and European histories of revolution, Atwood said, “Revolution is the replacement of one set of power by another set of power. The mistake is always thinking you can make the world perfect. You can make it better, fairer, but you cannot make it perfect.”
“Studying #history, @MargaretAtwood said: “The mistake is always thinking you can make the world perfect. You can make it better, fairer, but you cannot make it perfect.” @testaments #leadership”
Born in 1939, Atwood, who is small in stature, and carries a small black shoulder bag with her to and from the stage, said she was familiar with the trappings of World War II. “There were always women collaborators. Always women who took advantage aligning themselves with power.”
Before leaving the stage to a standing ovation and headed off to a book signing where she greeted fans, guests and petted a guest’s emotional support dog, Atwood said, “I’m quite teared up by this gathering. I feel there is indeed some hope for the U.S. even in these dark times. Americans are quite ornery. “
She added, “The U.S. is very diverse, I have met very interesting female entrepreneurs and their life stories are similar. They come up from nothing and really worked hard to make a transition. Their spirit has not been stamped out at all.”
“I feel there is indeed some hope for the U.S. even in these dark times. Americans are quite ornery,“ said @MargaretAtwood #keynote @takeleadwomen #PowerUp e”
See the full Power Up Concert & Conference agenda here
The next panel, The Audacity to Thrive: Women Claiming Midlife Health & Power, centered on the stage of life that can significantly impact women's health, confidence, relationships, and careers.
Moderated by Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, Executive Director, Birnbaum Women's Leadership Center at New York University Law School, the panelists focused on solutions, including education, workplace awareness, access to informed healthcare, and self-advocacy, panelists challenged outdated narratives around aging and women's health.”What change can each of us make?” Weiss-Wolf asked.
“We have to communicate what support we need to maintain our leadership,” said Emily Serebryany, Co-Founder of Feminine Leadership Evolution Institute. “Our brains are not declining. Our brains are adapting to a new environment. Our knowledge cannot be taken away from us.” She added, “In the workplace, we are knowledge experts. Knowledge of our body and brain, plus tools, plus knowledge of workplace, knowledge of ourselves, that is wisdom and can create purpose and mission.”
“Emily Serebryany, Co-Founder. Feminine Leadership Evolution: Institute. “Knowledge of our body and brain, plus tools, plus knowledge of #workplace, knowledge of ourselves, that is #wisdom and can create purpose and #mission.””
Judith Joseph, MD, Board Certified Psychiatrist and Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at New York University-Grossman, said, “Sometimes we forget how to access joy. It is our birthright, and with it, we can go out and change the world.”
Joseph said, “There is only one you. And we are here for a reason. One action is better than no action.”
“Judith Joseph, MD, Psychiatry @NYU: “There is only one you. And we are here for a reason. One action is better than no action.” #leadership #act5ion @takeleadwomen”
Following her introduction on the panel, Rachel Rubin MD, Urologist and Sexual Medicine Specialist, assistant clinical professor of urology at Georgetown University, former education chair and former director-at-large for the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health and founder of the Sexual Medicine Research Team (SMRT), said, “I gave Margaret Atwood a pen that says, ‘You are clitorally the best.’”
Medicine and healthcare in this country are not built for women, Rubin said. “This is life and death If you are not educating yourself, you cannot get what you need in 2026.” She said, “Educate yourself and show up to invest in your medical health.”
“Rachel Rubin MD, @GeorgetownU: “Educate yourself and show up to invest in your medical health.” @takeleadwomen #PowerUp2026 #Womenshealth”
Read more in Take The Lead on Power Tool Champions 2026
Davina Lyons, founder of Rising Resilience Education and Consulting, and Power Tool Champion #5, The Change Catalyst, for embodying Carpe The Chaos, told the audience, “Resilience is not a personality trait. You have to name what is happening without shame.”
“Davina Lyons, founder Rising Resilience Education and Consulting, Power Tool Champion #5: “Resilience is not a personality trait. You have to name what is happening without shame.” #PowerUp2026”
The four steps of Reflect, Identify, Stand and Emerge, Lyons said, create awareness and “interrupt suppression. Thriving is about becoming. Choose one change the protects your body and preserves your contribution to the world.”
Read more on Power Up Conference 2026 in upcoming blogs on panels, Power Tool champions and leadership insight.
