North America | United States | Career

Five anchors sue NY1 for age and gender discrimination

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Five anchorwomen and reporters at NY1 say the local news channel systematically shoved them aside to make room for younger faces while celebrating the long tenure of male anchors like venerable morning man Pat Kiernan. Roma Torre, Kristen Shaughnessy, Jeanine Ramirez, Vivian Lee and Amanda Farinacci – who range in age from 41 to 60 — filed an age and gender discrimination lawsuit Wednesday in Manhattan federal court leveling the charges at the news channel’s parent company, Charter Communications. The women allege that since Charter’s 2016 merger with Time Warner Cable, their car
Latin America | Brazil | Career

Vogue Brazil director resigns over birthday photos evoking slavery

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The fashion director of the Brazilian edition of Vogue has resigned after photos from her 50th birthday party drew criticism for evoking colonial depictions of slavery. Images from the party showed Donata Meirelles, who is white, sitting on a throne-like seat flanked by four black women dressed in white at the celebration in Bahia, the Brazilian state with the largest black population. Critics compared the women’s clothes to the white uniforms worn by house slaves, and pointed out the chair’s similarity to a cadeira de sinhá, an ornate chair for slave masters.
Europe | U.K. | Media

Sexist coverage of Liz Kendall and female politicians is insidious and demeaning

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How much do you reckon Jeremy Corbyn weighs? How does he measure up if you compare his looks to Prince William’s? How stylish would you say Andy Burnham is? And, if you had to guess, what kind of product would you say he uses in his hair? The answers to these questions do nothing to help us decide who would make a better leader of the Labour party. But they do influence how voters perceive candidates. The Mail on Sunday’s profile of leadership candidate Liz Kendall describes her as a “slinky brunette” and a “power-dressing Blairite” with a “lithe figure” who “remains Ne
International | Media

The most successful female athlete of all time got body shamed in the New York Times – Shame on them

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As a woman in the public eye, it seems like even being one of the most gifted athletes isn't enough to stop the media from calling you fat. On Friday, just as Serena Williams was preparing to clean up her historic sixth Wimbledon victory, the New York Times decided it was a good time to critique her body: Williams, who will be vying for the Wimbledon title against Garbiñe Muguruza on Saturday, has large biceps and a mold-breaking muscular frame, which packs the power and athleticism that have dominated women’s tennis for years. Her rivals could try to emulate her physique, but mos
Middle East | Syria | Career

A New Short Documentary Shows Syrian Women Refugees’ Brave Resilience

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The number of Syrian refugees is currently approaching 4 million, with UN data showing women and children make up over three-quarters of that total. Hundreds of thousands from this diaspora are living in sprawling refugee camps along Turkey's southern border, and in a new short documentary by filmmaker Aliya Naumoff, a few women are sharing a look into life in those compounds. Aided by the U.S.-Turkey relations advocacy group the Turkish Heritage Organization, Naumoff traveled to the Harran and Akcakale camps near the border with Syria, where she interviewed a number of women and girls abou
North America | United States | Leadership

Self-righteous internet goons are calling one of America’s top female scientists sexist

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The internet came down like a ton of bricks yesterday on Alice Huang. The 76-year-old microbiologist and virologist has been a Harvard Medical School professor, New York University dean of sciences, and president of both the American Society for Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She is also, according to most of the things published about her in the past 24 hours, an idiot. Huang’s offense was to pen an advice column in the journal Science Careers in response to a (presumably) female postdoc who asked what to do about a male supervisor who ke
North America | United States | Media

8 Sad Truths About Women in Media

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The Women’s Media Center’s annual report is out, and the status of women in news and entertainment is as bleak as ever. Little progress has been made in most areas, and there are some places—like sports journalism—where women have actually lost ground. There are 7% fewer women in sports journalism than last year. And some of the media news in 2014 was particularly discouraging for women. “Two high-profile roles previously held by women — Diane Sawyer of ABC News and Jill Abramson of The New York Times—were changed in 2014,” said Julie Burton, president of the Women’s Media
Middle East | Iran | Culture

Iran women’s magazine forced to close

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When the Zanan-e Emrooz magazine started publishing again in June 2014, after eight years of suspension, women’s rights activists in Iran felt a spark of hope that there would be further opportunities to demand women's rights. However, the life of the magazine was short-lived. After less than a year and only publishing 11 issues, the Press Supervisory Council ordered its closure on April 27, 2015. The council's speaker said the suspension was due to Zanan-e Emrooz “encouraging the anti-social and religiously unsanctioned phenomenon known as white marriage.” In Iran, "white m
North America | United States | Health

Body Image And Social Media: Scientists Analyze Harmful ‘Thinspiration’ Photos Of Women

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Exploring her favorite topics on social media, a young girl may stumble upon all sorts of unexpected images. A new UC Davis study systematically analyzed content that appears on Twitter and Pinterest under two innocuous tags commonly used by those trying to lose weight: "thinspiration" and "thinspo." Nearly half the images featured headless bodies of women and predominantly focused on the pelvis, abdomen, or thighs, while also tending to be sexually suggestive. Yet not all social media is alike, with the two tools differing in key ways. Pinterest tended to show images that had “a littl
Europe | U.K. | Leadership

Nicola Sturgeon plans to counter the detrimental effect of the ‘vicious’ media scrutiny of her appearance

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Women “really led the fore” in this year’s General Election, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said. The Green Party’s Natalie Bennett, Plaid Cymru’s Leanne Wood and Sturgeon not only performed admirably, but also were, bar David Cameron, the only leaders not to resign their positions following the results. With 56 new MPs in Westminster, Sturgeon is now one of the most influential women in British politics. But they also took far more flack than they should for their personal appearances in the tabloid press. The Scottish First Minister in particular faced deplorabl
Europe | France | Media

40 female journalists unite against sexist politicians

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More and more female journalists in France cover politics but more and more are also victims of sexism from lawmakers and their PR staffers. To raise awareness, 40 journalists published an article in one of France’s most popular newspapers, Liberation, to denounce misogynist politicians. It’s been 40 years since a woman, Françoise Giroud, founded the mainstream newspaper, L’Express. At that time, she was convinced that politicians would talk more easily to female journalists. But the situation is a lot more complex. Under presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande, fema