Blogs and Opinion
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COVID-19 lockdown hits working mothers harder than fathers
Thursday 4th of June 2020
Working mothers in the United Kingdom are faring worse than fathers since lockdown began, a study shows.
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Men are more reluctant to go to the doctor – and it’s putting them at risk
Wednesday 3rd of June 2020
Men can expect to die approximately five years sooner than women, and men are more likely to die as a result of unintentional injury and suicide relative to women.
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10 lessons from the COVID-19 frontline for a more gender-equal world
Friday 22nd of May 2020
• Women and girls must be front and centre of coronavirus response and recovery.
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Coronavirus could put 4 million girls at risk of child marriage
Wednesday 20th of May 2020
Four million girls are at risk of child marriage in the next two years because of the new coronavirus pandemic, a global charity said on the 15th of May, as campaigners warned that the crisis could undo decades of work to end the practice.
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The reason why female leaders are excelling at managing the coronavirus
Monday 18th of May 2020
Since the beginning of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, there’s been a lot of media attention paid to the relationship between female leaders at the helm of various nations and the effectiveness of their handling of the COVID-19 crisis.
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Our recovery from the coronavirus crisis must have gender empowerment at its heart
Thursday 14th of May 2020
What most crises have in common is that they hit the most vulnerable and marginalized populations—among which women are disproportionally represented—the hardest. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women, especially those facing multiple forms of discrimination related to poverty, race or disability, is increasingly being documented. As reported in the UN Secretary General’s “Policy Brief: The Impact of COVID-19 on Women”, and captured widely through media reports, women and girls globally suffer more from the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19, simply by virtue of their gender.
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5 tips for working from home as a woman in STEM
Friday 1st of May 2020
I’m at home – not at the bench doing experiments, not in my office speaking with colleagues and not in the field on an expedition surveying and collecting venomous snails. Instead, I’m cooking, feeding, cleaning, dressing and trying to homeschool my two children.
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UN: 3 months of lockdown could result in 15 million cases of domestic abuse worldwide
Thursday 30th of April 2020
The coronavirus lockdown could lead to a 20% surge in domestic violence as victims remain trapped at home with their abusers, the United Nations predicted on Tuesday, warning the pandemic will have a “catastrophic impact” on women.
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Here’s how to achieve gender equality after the pandemic
Saturday 25th of April 2020
Our response to COVID-19 is fundamentally a question of who we are. When we say that ensuring the wellbeing of half the world’s population matters, do we believe it? Or do we say it to be diplomatic?
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COVID-19 highlights how caregiving fuels gender inequality
Friday 24th of April 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic increases the urgency of recognizing and valuing carers and reducing gender bias because it presents enormous and unexpected challenges associated with increased caregiving. For COVID-19 patients and their families, there will be a great need for palliative and end-of-life care, especially in settings where resources are constrained and many will not be hospitalized.
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7 out of 10 global health leaders are men: Study
Thursday 16th of April 2020
Global health is a system that’s neither fair nor fit-for-purpose.
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Why we need women’s leadership in the COVID-19 response
Friday 3rd of April 2020
In February a now-infamous photo made its rounds on social media. Posted by US Vice President Mike Pence, the image, which showed the members of the US Coronavirus Taskforce, left many asking a single question: where are the women?
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Coronavirus: 9 ways you can support gender equality from your home
Thursday 2nd of April 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic is not just a health issue. It’s a profound shock to our societies and economies. It has drastically altered everyday life as we know. And while we are all in it together, as it happens in any crisis or pandemic, women are being impacted by COVID-19 in different and less visible ways.
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Why do multinationals pay women less in developing countries?
Tuesday 31st of March 2020
• The gender wage gap remains at the centre of efforts to achieve gender parity.
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Women lose most from the climate crisis. How can we empower them?
Tuesday 24th of March 2020
• Low-income communities are more vulnerable to climate change – especially women.
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There can be no human rights without gender equality
Monday 23rd of March 2020
• Recent global gender gains are under threat from growing conservatism.
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How women in developing countries can harness e-commerce
Friday 20th of March 2020
• E-commerce has the potential to level the economic playing field for women in developing countries.
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3 leaders on creating a pipeline for female talent in business
Monday 16th of March 2020
• The case for gender equality has been made, but there is a lag to action.
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5 powerful ways women can empower other women
Thursday 12th of March 2020
This Women’s History Month, it’s important to celebrate and salute the heroic women who are changing the world around them and empowering other women to do the same.
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The coronavirus fallout may be worse for women than men. Here’s why
Thursday 12th of March 2020
Are men and women feeling the effects of the coronavirus differently?
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5 ways urban transport could step up a gear for women
Monday 9th of March 2020
• Women’s mobility is more multi-modal and intermodal than men’s.
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How to empower women entrepreneurs to grow Africa
Monday 9th of March 2020
This International Women’s Day, women in Africa have a lot to celebrate.
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How to narrow Japan’s widening gender gap
Sunday 8th of March 2020
Despite efforts in recent years to encourage more parity between men and women, the gender gap in Japan is widening. As the world recognizes International Women’s Day 2020, it’s an important moment to take stock of what’s holding the country back and how it can move forward to gender equality in the decade ahead.
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How to support more women in leadership roles
Sunday 8th of March 2020
The continued gender gap in leadership roles around the world is well-known and striking. Women make up half the world’s workforce and the majority of college graduates, yet they hold only about a quarter of leadership roles.
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This is how women’s rights have progressed
Friday 6th of March 2020
This year’s International Women’s Day (IWD) will be held on 8 March with a global programme of events to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, and to inspire action that will help accelerate gender parity.
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Why are women more depressed than men?
Friday 6th of March 2020
We are familiar with statistics that quote the higher prevalence of suicide among men versus women. We also know that the overall rates of psychiatric disorder, like bipolar, are almost identical for men and women. But there are significant gender differences in the patterns of mental illness and it seems that women suffer more from depression than men.
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Women’s lives might look very different in the next 3 decades – if we tear down barriers at work
Friday 6th of March 2020
On the first International Women’s Day gathering in 1911, women were doing most of the world’s unpaid and underpaid work.
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The IMF is leading the way in women at the top, but more can be done
Friday 6th of March 2020
Where are all the women? It is a question we shouldn’t have to ask in 2020. But we do. Why? Because there are simply too few women in leadership positions all over the world. On the eve of International Women’s Day and as we approach the 100th anniversary of women getting the vote here in the United States, the time is right to get a handle on the problem.
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Big oil’s climate pledges will fail without workforce equality
Friday 6th of March 2020
• Research show gender diversity increases innovation levels.
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Each for Equal is the women’s day theme – these maps of the world show how far we have to go
Friday 6th of March 2020
-The World Economic Forum created a visualization of global gender inequality.
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From the boardroom to the consulting room: pharma’s role in curing gender bias
Friday 6th of March 2020
• Pharma companies putting greater priority on women makes sense financially and in terms of healthcare impact.
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How making trade faster and easier empowers women around the world
Friday 6th of March 2020
International women’s day is an opportunity to reflect on solutions to achieving gender equality goals. One such route to women’s empowerment is by providing opportunities for women to trade and ensuring that the benefits of trade facilitation reform – making trade faster, easier and more cost-effective – reach women around the world.
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6 new books to read on International Women’s Day
Thursday 5th of March 2020
International Women’s Day (8 March) is marching into its 110th year – and this year it falls on a Sunday.
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Women are worst hit by India’s unemployment crisis
Wednesday 4th of March 2020
Female workers are bearing the brunt of India’s unemployment crisis.
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The theme of International Women’s Day 2020, explained
Wednesday 4th of March 2020
“An equal world is an enabled world” – and every one of us can do our bit to bring about gender equality.
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Building a more sustainable world will need more women engineers
Wednesday 4th of March 2020
• Women are under-represented in engineering, yet they are needed to develop inclusive solutions.
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Having women in leadership roles is more important than ever, here’s why
Tuesday 3rd of March 2020
In an ideal world, it shouldn’t matter whether there’s a woman running the IMF, Microsoft or the Democratic Party. Does an SME owner or tech start-up care that it’s a woman who makes finance more accessible? If a miner, factory worker or fisherman gets a better share of the profits and can send his or her children to school, are they bothered that a woman made it possible?
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‘Manels’ only tell half the story. Here’s how all of us can fight for women speakers
Monday 2nd of March 2020
• Leading scientists are beginning to recognize the need for equality on panels.
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Just 24% of news sources are women. Here’s why that’s a problem
Monday 2nd of March 2020
In 1995, just 17% of news sources — people seen, heard or read about in print and broadcast news media across 71 countries — were female, according to research by the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP).
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Children’s career ambitions are lagging behind the new world of work
Wednesday 26th of February 2020
• Young people’s career aspirations have remained largely frozen since 2000.
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This is how India can tackle unemployment and empower women
Wednesday 26th of February 2020
Female entrepreneurs may hold the key to alleviating India’s unemployment problem.
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Scotland is planning to provide free sanitary products to all women
Wednesday 26th of February 2020
The Scottish parliament approved plans on Tuesday to make sanitary products freely available to all women, the first nation in the world to do so.
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How Senegal is empowering businesswomen
Monday 24th of February 2020
Senegal’s start-up scene is dominated by men, the laws are complex and the taxes are high – all reasons why talented businesswomen from the West African nation shy away from creating companies, said entrepreneur Seynabou Thiam.
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Spain’s top-flight women players secure collective wage deal
Friday 21st of February 2020
Spain’s top-flight women footballers have signed their first collective agreement on pay and conditions, breaking an impasse with sporting authorities which led to a strike last November.
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Is ‘macho culture’ putting women off data science jobs?
Friday 21st of February 2020
Macho work cultures are driving away young women from data science jobs, said analysts on Thursday (20 Feb), warning a failure to diversify the male-dominated sector could result in biased technology that discriminates against women.
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How a teen fight-back is helping feminism flourish in Spain
Thursday 20th of February 2020
Spanish teenagers Ari and Kalus may still be in school but they are already part of a young feminist collective, organising talks, performances and protests to fight for gender equality.
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This is the effect female politicians have – and why we need more of them
Wednesday 19th of February 2020
Women are underrepresented in political offices almost everywhere across the globe. Figure 1 illustrates this on the basis of the share of women in national parliaments in 2019. On average, women only make up 23% of national parliamentarians. Similar levels of underrepresentation can be observed at subnational tiers of government as well.
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Keira Knightley tackles gender equality head on in her new film
Wednesday 19th of February 2020
Keira Knightley said her new film “Misbehaviour”, the true story of how the Women’s Liberation Movement disrupted the 1970 Miss World competition, felt relevant at a time when people were still fighting for equal treatment.
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India’s top court orders equal roles for women in army
Tuesday 18th of February 2020
India’s top court ruled on Monday that women could serve as army commanders, dismissing the government’s stance that male soldiers were not ready to accept orders from female officers as “disturbing”.
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UK firms urged to act on domestic abuse as female murder cases rise
Tuesday 18th of February 2020
Companies were urged on Friday to offer a lifeline to workers suffering from domestic abuse after official data showed the number of women murdered in England and Wales rose by 10% in a year to a 13-year high.
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UEFA teams up with Disney in a bid to boost girls’ participation
Monday 17th of February 2020
UEFA has teamed up with Disney to launch a pan-European project aimed at increasing the number of girls playing football.
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Here’s how gender stereotypes are plaguing Hollywood films despite progress
Friday 14th of February 2020
For women aspiring to conquer Hollywood, the nominations for the 2020 Oscars made dispiriting reading. The nods for best director were all male – and not for the first time.
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This is how we can stop FGM, according to a survivor
Thursday 13th of February 2020
Female genital mutilation (FGM) will not end unless women are lifted out of poverty and donors stop wasting money on ineffective aid programmes, said a prominent Gambian activist.
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These 7 female scientists have changed the world
Wednesday 12th of February 2020
For centuries, women have made significant contributions to the field of science. They’ve discovered life-saving remedies, devised world-altering inventions, and produced far-reaching research, but in many cases their invaluable advances are minimized or neglected.
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3 things to know about women in STEM
Tuesday 11th of February 2020
Science and gender equality are vital to the world reaching sustainable development goals, and in recent years much has been done to help inspire women and girls to study and work in technical fields. But women continue to be excluded from participating fully, according to the United Nations.
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Ice hockey: Kyrgyzstan’s first female team shatters stereotypes
Tuesday 11th of February 2020
A group of girls from a remote village in Kyrgyzstan have come together to form the central Asian country’s first all-female ice hockey team — Shapak.
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Women business leader numbers are on the rise – but it’s not fast enough
Monday 10th of February 2020
Women gained seats on U.S. corporate boards at a steady pace in recent years, but their share of top board leadership roles is still stuck at a low level, according to a new study.
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This is what we can learn from Gambia about rising temperatures and premature births
Monday 10th of February 2020
As climate change brings more heat extremes, researchers are tracking the risks facing Gambia’s pregnant farmers and their babies.
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What is the economic cost of FGM?
Monday 10th of February 2020
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is exacting a “crippling” economic toll on many countries, the United Nations said on Thursday as it launched a tool to help them calculate the cost of treating girls and women harmed by the practice.
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The ‘future’ prime minister of this country just made history by challenging gender stereotypes
Friday 7th of February 2020
In Japan, a nation with one of the world’s most generous parental leave entitlements, a government minister has provoked a social media storm by announcing he is to take time off for the imminent birth of his first child.