Europe | Turkey | Culture

Turkish female authors blame gov’t for gender inequality

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More than 220 Turkish female writers published an open letter declaring that the government created animosity between the sexes, which has ultimately led to violence against women. The authors highlighted the dominating masculine language in all aspects of society, which makes this kind of abuse “normal.” “The ruling party [AKP — the Justice and Development Party] has been trying to make the gender inequality more defined and rooted in Turkish society,” the declaration read. “Instead of stopping violence against women, the government clearly tries to define how a women should b
International | Politics

Women, Girls Take U.N. Center Stage This Week

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Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka is executive director of UN Women, the secretariat for the Commission on the Status of Women. While the meeting provides a time for her to hail major milestones since 1995, Mlambo-Ngcuka is also seizing the chance to flag stalled progress and disappointments. "This is a critical year of taking stock," Mlambo-Ngcuka, said in a recent speech before her executive board. With an eye to the new set of 15-year development goals launching this year, she called for "Planet 50:50 by 2030" and urged member states to achieve measurable progress in implementing the Beijing Pla
North America | United States | Society

It’s Important That Women Empower Other Women

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Women's empowerment starts with how women treat other women. Created by SheKnows Media and BlogHer, a new video features a few of the women from this year's BlogHer15 conference advisory board discussing the importance of women supporting one another in a collective effort to educate and empower female readers and content consumers. Amber Gordon, founder of Femsplain said, “We are our own biggest advocate, and if we can break that stereotypical girl versus girl mentality there’s so much that we can do".
International | Business

29 Women from 15 Middle Eastern Countries Learn Entrepreneurial Skills

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Partnering with investment banking behemoth Goldman Sachs, the US State Department is running a two-week training program for 29 women from 15 Middle Eastern countries, aimed at teaching participants entrepreneurial skills. The women, visiting from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, the Palestinian Territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates, were first selected as candidates by U.S. embassy personnel.
Latin America | Peru | Business

Peru’s women are breaking the code

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Dozens of young women are zealously tapping away at laptops for a four-month primer in software development. Hailing from the underprivileged margins of Lima, the 35 students in the class - all female - are taught JavaScript, CSS, and English-language programming terminology for a fee of $16 a month. This year, it expects to teach about 100 young women whose average age is 20. Though less than a year old, La Laboratoria has already wooed more than $150,000 in grants from sponsors such as Google and telecom firm Telefonica. Peru's tech sector, which has been expanding between 10 and 15 p
Europe | Germany

German parliament decides on quota for female directors

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In 2016, 100 publicly traded companies are going to be obliged to comply with a quota of 30 percent women on their supervisory boards. German Federal Minister for Family Affairs Manuela Schwesig calls it “a historic step for Germany.” The German parliament (Bundestag) voted in favor of the law, which also mandates 3,500 mid-size companies to set up their own guidelines regarding the number of women in management and on the board of directors.