North America | United States | Career

New Report Says Women Will Soon Be Majority Of College-Educated U.S. Worker

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Women are on track to make up a majority of the college-educated labor force this year, marking a historic turning point in gender parity. While women have made up a majority of college-educated adults for roughly four decades, that strength has not always been reflected in the work force, where men have traditionally dominated. Men still outnumber women as a percentage of U.S. workers, but the gap has narrowed significantly in recent years. This year's first-quarter findings reported 29.5 million women in the labor force had at minimum a bachelor's degree, compared to 29.3 million me
South Asia | Pakistan | Education

Pakistani women at forefront of drive to give poor rural girls an education

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Nearly half of Pakistan's 53 million children aged 5-16 are out of school and 55 percent of those are girls. Pakistan has the third largest number of out-of-school girls in the world, a fact that hit headlines globally in 2012 after Taliban militants shot 14-year-old schoolgirl and education advocate Malala Yousafzai, now a Nobel Peace prize laureate. Now amid this largely patriarchal society, Pakistani women, be they educated campaigners or illiterate mothers, are at the forefront of advocating for girls' right to school. Fatima's luck changed when local community workers visited her
North America | United States | Education

At 102, Nation’s Oldest Working Teacher Has No Plans To Retire

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Teachers and students at one New Jersey school said they hit the jackpot with one of their teachers who’s been with the school for more than 20 years. As CBS2’s Hazel Sanchez reported, they call her Granny and she’s been named the oldest living and working teacher in the United States. At 102 years old, Agnes Zhelesnik certainly doesn’t act her age. “I feel like, maybe 95,” she said. Zhelesnik spent most of her adult life as a stay-at-home mom. Then at the age of 80, started her career as a cooking and sewing teacher at Sundance School in North Plainfield.
North America | United States | Activism

Meet Haben Girma, Harvard Law’s first deaf-blind graduate

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Eritrean-American Haben Girma, who is the first deaf-blind graduate at Harvard Law School’s story is a true inspiration. Girma’s extraordinary story highlights her courage and determination despite physical challenges, and she is living proof that disability is certainly no barrier to achieving academic excellence. Girma is an attorney who “advocates for the civil rights of persons with disabilities. A celebrated speaker, she provided the introductory remarks for the 25th Anniversary of the ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] at the White House”.
North America | United States | Activism

Girl power: Fund awards $1,000 scholarships to 1,000 women

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Christie Garton is helping women reach their dreams one scholarship at a time. Last January, Garton, a social entrepreneur and author of The College Girl’s Guide to Everything, launched the 1,000 Dreams Fund, a program that provides $1,000 scholarships to young women working to reach their dreams. “Any support women can get at this life stage can truly change their lives,” says Garton. The program, funded by outside donors, has been live for nearly a year and, so far, has awarded 20 scholarships to high school- and college-aged women. Garton’s initial goal is to award the mone
Asia | China | Education

At 90 Yrs, Chinese Granny Still Rules the Classrooms

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As one of China's oldest working teachers, Wang Lan, at the advanced age of 90, still arrives at Nanjing Changjiang Road Primary School on time every day. She takes classes, analyzes lesson plans and guides other members of staff, just as she has done for over six decades. Her aim in life is to share her philosophy — that of an education which features harmony, truth and beauty — with all the staff at the local elementary school. Wang chose a teacher training college at the age of entering university and started to work in 1951. She has become an excellent teacher in Chinese langua
South Asia | Nepal | Activism

Here’s how two girls from Nepal brought attention to the inequality facing women around the world

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Students Jharana and Sirjana were tired of gender inequality, so they made a plan. In their home country of Nepal, women are far less likely than men to be educated. While today's generation of girls is receiving at least a basic education (91% of girls attend primary school), they're still viewed as being "less than" men when it comes to looking for a career. To raise awareness of the inequality facing Nepalese women in education and career opportunities, they began recruiting classmates to participate in a 5k run for women's equality. 350 runners took part in the 5k, making it a run
Europe | U.K. | Education

Baroness Amos: I was taken aback when I found out I was the first black female head of a university

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Making history as the first black woman to lead a British university causes mixed emotions for Valerie Amos, who is honoured by her appointment but dismayed that the breakthrough has taken so long. The baroness, a former Labour minister, expresses concern at the lack of diversity in higher education, referring to the scarcity of black academics and the struggle of students of African and Caribbean heritage to succeed at university. Figures showing that only 85 of the UK’s 18,500 professors are black are alarming, she says. “I was taken aback when I found out I’d be the first black
North America | United States | Activism

Neeru Khosla, Wife Of Billionaire Venture Capitalist, Wants To Fix Education With Software

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Neeru Khosla is not your typical billionaire’s wife. She doesn’t spend her time stocking up on the latest designer trends or writing checks to the first charity that comes calling. Instead, for the last eight years, the wife of Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vinod Khosla has run her own nonprofit — one that uses open-source software to give students around the world access to free educational resources. The CK-12 Foundation, where Khosla is executive director, creates both customizable content and tools – from textbooks to videos to interactive simulations – and gives the
Europe | U.K. | Education

UK gains its first-ever female black university leader

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The UK has gained its first-ever female black university leader in the form of Baroness Valerie Amos. In its most recent statistical report, the Equality Challenge Unit found almost 70 per cent of senior academic managers are white males – with nearly 16 per cent of this group at professor level. In stark contrast, the report found only 2.8 per cent of black and minority ethnic female academics were employed at even professor level. Now, the senior United Nations official and former Cabinet minister is set to break the mould and take charge at SOAS, University of London
South Asia | India | Activism

Once forced to study in secret, this Indian professor inspires a generation of female students

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My mother’s cousin, Rama Arora, is the first and still the only woman to teach at a college in the small desert town of Jaisalmer, India. The fact that it’s a women’s college says a lot about the prospects for females in higher education in many parts of the country. So does Rama’s backstory: She went to incredible lengths to defy the odds and become a professor. Instead of business, Rama studied humanities and got a degree at a women’s college closer to home. She wanted to continue on to a doctorate so she could have a career of her own. But her parents arranged a marriage for h
Europe | U.K. | Education

Oxford University To Appoint First Female Vice-Chancellor In Nearly 800 Years

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Oxford University announced this week its nomination of Professor Louise Richardson for the school’s most senior role of vice-chancellor, who, if approved, will be the first woman to hold the position in the university’s nearly 800-year history. Should the Oxford Congregation approve Richardson, she will take over from Professor Andrew Hamilton on January 1, 2016, and retain the position for seven years. Richardson, currently the vice-chancellor of Scotland’s St. Andrews University, told the Guardian that she was honored by the nomination. “I look forward to the day when a woman bei
South Asia | New Zealand | Education

Woman graduates with doctorate 40 years after degree

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A woman has graduated with her PhD, exactly 40 years after she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts. Eleanor Hamlyn, from Birkenhead on Auckland's North Shore, graduated with a PhD in Italian studies from the University of Auckland on May 4. She first studied English, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in May 1975. The city campus was a different place in the 70s, Hamlyn says. Getting your hands on books and resources without the internet was hard. "You had to be so organised to make sure you got your resources on time, if you went to the library too late everyone had got them befo
North America | United States | Education

Girls and women describe what it feels like to do math in this really cool, poignant video

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When you look back on all your time spent in math classes in your human life, you can probably remember a lot of the questions teachers asked you over the years, or at least the general nature of them. Most of them were equation or theorem based, and every now and then you were just plain stumped. Still, I’m guessing none of those questions were quite as disarming as when these girls were asked to describe what it feels like to do math, simply because we don’t often think about how the process of math makes us “feel.” The video focuses on women of all ages describing the sensation,