Middle East | Dubai | Economy

Dubai forum aims to boost education and innovation opportunities for women

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World leaders will gather in Dubai on Tuesday for the Middle East’s first Global Women’s Forum, where stereotypes of Arab women will be dispelled and their achievements promoted. More than 2,000 participants and 200 speakers over the two days will work to boost women’s influence, design plans to encourage their greater contribution and promote diversity in the business world. Speakers include Queen Rania of Jordan, Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, Mauritian president Ameenah Gurib-Fakim and Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund. Also speaking will be Sheik
North America | United States | Politics

Kind of Funny: Kentucky bill requires spouse consent to husband’s Viagra use

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Angered by a new law requiring women receive medical counseling at least 24 hours before an abortion, a Kentucky lawmaker decided she was going to "strike a nerve" with her political opponents -- in particular, the men. State Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, a Louisville Democrat, has introduced a bill that would require any man seeking a prescription for drugs to treat erectile dysfunction -- such as Viagra, Cialis and Levitra -- to "have two office visits on two different calendar days" before receiving the desired medication. Marzian's House Bill 396 would only allow married men access to the
North America | United States | Technology

Female coders are rated more highly than men—except when people know they’re women

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A group of computer scientists, when studying the acceptance of contributions on the software repository GitHub, found open source code written by women is actually more often approved than code written by men. The catch—there’s always a catch—is that this only happens when the woman’s gender is hidden. GitHub, which is used by more than 12 million people, allows developers to write code for the projects of other software developers, who then choose whether to approve the submissions. Among the three million submissions (or “pull requests”) the researchers examined, female-written
North America | United States | Politics

Alaska Senator Says Only Women Showed Up To Run Congress Post-Blizzard

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Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) has been impressed with the cold weather survival skills of her female colleagues in the Senate this week. The men, not so much. Murkowski was one of the few lawmakers on Capitol Hill Tuesday, and she noted on the Senate floor that it was pretty much only women joining her. "As we convene this morning, you look around the chamber, the presiding officer is female. All of our parliamentarians are female. Our floor managers are female. All of our pages are female," said Murkowski, who is obviously used to dealing with snow. "Something is genuinely different
North America | United States | Health

47-year-old woman finds out she’s pregnant an hour before giving birth

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As she rushed to the hospital on Wednesday, Judy Brown was convinced that something terrible was happening. The 47-year-old was experiencing abdominal pain so severe she thought she must have a gallstone or some sort of massive blockage in her body, according to ABC News. The medical staff at Beverly Hospital in Beverly, Mass., discovered that Brown didn’t have a blockage inside her — she had a baby. But the shock didn’t end there, ABC reported. Not only was Brown pregnant, she also was about to become a first-time mother. As if on cue, Brown gave birth to a healthy 8-pound,
Asia | Japan | Entertainment

Japan’s new ‘girl band’, average age 84

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They joke about knocking on heaven’s door, but a Japanese ‘girl band’ with an average age of 84 have struck a blow for grannies everywhere by becoming pop idols. Hailing from the remote, coral-fringed island of Kohama in Okinawa, KBG84 – a play on the name of saccharine teeny boppers AKB48 – admit to being slightly bemused by their success after cutting their first disc and completing a sellout Japan tour. “When I first heard someone call us ‘idols’ I thought an idol meant someone who had lived a long life and was at the gates of heaven,” pint-sized diva Tomi Menaka, 92
Europe | Norway | Sports

Norwegian Women’s Team’s Hilarious Mockumentary on Stereotypes

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NRK, Norway’s largest media organisation, have released an amazing mockumentary on the stereotypes that surround Women’s football. The satirical ‘documentary’ features such Norwegian Women’s national team players as Trine Rønning, Emilie Haavi and Cathrine Dekkerhus, who all take their turn to express their struggles and disappointments with the game. From admitting to not knowing the offside rule to wanting to use tees to get the ball off the ground, the Norwegian players absolutely nail their deadpan interviews. Their remarks are made even funnier when considered with the appre
Middle East | Saudi Arabia | Culture

A Video Game Paves the Way for Female Drivers in Saudi Arabia

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It’s 2015, and Saudi Arabian women still aren’t allowed to drive. In the world of Saudi Arabian video games, however, things feel a little bit different. Saudi Girls Revolution, a recent game released by a Saudi Arabian prince, features eight Saudi women dressed in abayas, blasting villains, destroying cyborgs, and yes—driving cars. The game was designed by NA3M, a company headed by Prince Fahad bin Faisal Al Saud, grandson of the brother of the king. There’s more than girl warriors in this revolution, though. Asma and Allanoud are siblings who both fight against religious sect
North America | United States | Politics

Women Have A Brilliant Response To City’s Sexist Training On How To Deal With Women

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According to a March training session for Austin, Texas, city employees -- on the topic of female leaders -- women "don’t want to deal with numbers,” "act on emotions” and "ask lots of questions.” After video of that training surfaced this week, women certainly did have a lot of questions. In particular, why on Earth did city manager Marc Ott think that employees needed a two-hour workshop on how to deal with people who are not men? Ott had set up the training after Austin achieved a majority-female city council for the first time. On Wednesday, he apologized -- but not before p
North America | United States | Society

How This Bathroom Sign Supports Women In Tech – It was never a dress

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Apparently the well-known women's bathroom icon had a secret. That triangle dress was never really a dress at all. It was a superhero cape, and we’ve been looking at her back all this time. Now that her identity is blown, she'll use her superpowers to take on one of the most heated issues in technology today: the underrepresentation of women in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematic) fields. The brainchild of Axosoft’s Tania Katan, the new graphic leads the charge for the company's #ItWasNeverADress campaign, which just launched Thursday at the Girls In Tech conferen
South Asia | India | Entrepreneurship

This product new product helps Indian women stand and pee in dirty public toilets

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Public toilets are a curse for all women in the World. Every single woman thinks ten times before using a public toilet because most of them are unhygienic and we women have to sit and pee. Now an invention by three Indian men called Pee Buddy may change the way women pee once for all. For those times when we need to stand and pee. Here's what the founders say about the product: “Loos in India are unclean and the chances of contracting infectious diseases are high. So, we launched ‘PeeBuddy’ which is India’s first portable urine director. A revolutionary eco-friendly product, Pee
Europe | Great Britain | Sports

Now We Have An Infamous Head-Butt In Women’s Soccer

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The FA Women’s Super League is the top tier of women’s soccer in England — its version of the men’s Premier League. And as a top European soccer league, it needs its defining head-butting moment, just like the men (see Zinedine Zidane, 2006 World Cup). Don’t know if this qualifies, but Manchster City’s Jill Scott delivered a pretty good head-butt to Arsenal’s Jade Bailey on Sunday, which the league frowned on it so hard that it banned Scott from playing for Manchester City the rest of the season. She can’t come back until the Women’s World Cup in June, where she plays for