Europe | U.K. | Career

‘Why should I have to work on stilts?’: the women fighting sexist dress codes

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Too many female employees are forced to wear high heels, or skirts, or even a particular type of bra. But the resistance is growing. It was at the beginning of a shift at Harrods that Georgia Brown told her manager where to go. Brown, then aged 22, was working for a temp agency that supplied shop assistants to the department store. She cannot remember the name of the manager. But she does remember why she lost her cool: she had had enough of being forced to wear heels on the job. “Not just a mini-heel, but proper black stilettos. Bear in mind, you’re on your feet in Harrods a
Africa | Burundi | Crimes

Merck Wants To ‘Empower’ Infertile Women In Africa. Can Music Videos Help?

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In June, an unusual email arrived in the inbox of an NPR global health correspondent. The headline was: "Merck Foundation together with First Lady of Burundi release 'Plus Qu'une Mere' an empowering French Song as courtesy to all infertile women in Burundi and Africa." The email had a link to a video of a performance with an all-female choir. Wearing traditional African clothing printed with the Merck Foundation's logo, they sing a song with lyrics that encourage people not to blame women for infertility. They're performing before an audience of maybe a hundred people, most of them in
Middle East | Saudi Arabia | Culture

Saudi Arabia Lifts Travel Restrictions On Women

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The gradual liberalization of Saudi Arabia's repressive laws and social mores continued on Thursday with WSJ reporting that Crown Prince MBS plans to drop restrictions barring women from traveling out of the country without a male guardian's permission. Though we suspect that this time, there will be no glowing NYT op-ed praising the young crown prince - the kingdom's de facto ruler - for his reformist tendencies and his respect for human rights. It won't happen right away: WSJsays the kingdom plans to end the ban some time this year. The plan would end guardianship laws relating to travel
South Asia | Australia | Business

50 years after Australia’s historic ‘equal pay’ decision, the legacy of ‘women’s work’ remain

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June 19, 2019 is the 50th anniversary of Australia’s industrial relations system endorsing the principle of “equal pay for equal work”. Yet, five decades on, a gender pay gap remains. The 1969 decision was a breakthrough, but also highlighted the problem of putting principle into practice, given a legacy of past decisions being based on clear notions of “male” and “female” jobs. While various factors contribute to the overall gender pay gap, about 30% is due to gender concentrations by industry and occupation.
Latin America | Argentina | Society

How Argentina’s women took on blatant sexism to reach the World Cup

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Argentina had just drawn 0-0 against Japan at Parc des Princes in Paris on Monday, yet the players collapsed in joy as if celebrating an epic victory. For the casual viewer it must have seemed an exaggerated celebration but for anyone familiar with what the Argentinian players have gone through it was completely understandable. Going back just one year, it was unclear if the team would be able to travel to France at all. Unlike the regional power that is Brazil, who can count on regular training camps and tournaments, the Argentinian women’s team has been shockingly neglected by its fede
North America | United States | Society

Why women in tech are being Photoshopped in instead of hired

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An image of a tech event in which two women CEOs were poorly Photoshopped into a group of 15 men reignited a discussion last week about tech companies’ ongoing failures to meaningfully diversify their workforces. Companies like Google and Facebook have overturned industries, changed the way we live, and are shaping the future. Yet somehow they haven’t been able to hire a workforce that even remotely represents their customers. Across the tech industry, the share of black and Latinx people in tech and leadership roles is often well below 5 percent, while women typically make up about a f
Europe | Italy | Scandal

Italy’s highest court overturns decision that woman was too ‘masculine’ to be raped

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Italy’s highest court has overturned a decision that a woman was too “masculine” to be raped, in a turn of events that activists hope will bring about a change in attitudes toward sexual violence and its victims in Italy. Last month, protesters took to the streets outside the appeals court in Ancona, a city on Italy’s Adriatic Coast, after it was revealed why a panel of three female judges had acquitted two men accused of rape in 2017. The protesters took issue with the jurists’ reasoning, disclosed last month through the Italian Supreme Court’s retrial order: The judges reach
North America | United States | Career

Women in Science Receive Less Grant Money Than Their Male Peers

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A new study published in JAMA reveals a significant gender disparity between the size of research grants awarded to projects led by first-time investigators. As Andrew Jacobs writes for The New York Times, researchers from Northwestern University report that on average, the National Institutes of Health (N.I.H.) doles out an extra $41,000 in grant money to applications listing men as their principal authors. According to the Chicago Tribune’s Alison Bowen, the Northwestern team analyzed some 54,000 N.I.H. grants awarded between 2006 and 2017. Based on this data, the scientists found tha
Middle East | Saudi Arabia | Technology

Saudi app criticized for feature to control women’s travel

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The Saudi government app Absher is mostly a way for people to pay traffic fines and complete other administrative tasks electronically. But one feature isn’t sitting well with civil-rights advocates: the ability for men to grant or deny a woman permission to travel. Regardless of their age, women in Saudi Arabia must have the consentof a male relative to obtain a passport, travel or marry. In the past, a travel permit was a paper document issued by the Interior Ministry and signed by a male relative. The Absher app replaces the need for a paper document.
Uncategorized | Politics

In Condemning Ilhan Omar, Democrats Have Proved Her Right

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At a time of heightened anti-Muslim discrimination and hatred, the Democratic establishment has taken unprecedented steps to single out a Muslim representative for her criticisms of AIPAC and the U.S.’s relationship with Israel. After first publicly rebuking Rep. Ilhan Omar, the Democratic establishment, led by House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi, began drafting a resolution condemning anti-Semitism, amounting to an indirect censure. The move has spectacularly backfired, threatening deep fissures in the Democratic Party as accusations of anti-Semitism tear apart the Labour Party in the U.K
International | Sports

Martina Navratilova Call Against Trans Athletes. She’s Not Backing Down.

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Tennis legend Martina Navratilova, who has been slammed for her opinion that it isn’t fair for male athletes who call themselves women to compete against biological women, issued a tweet on Tuesday indicating that no matter how nasty her critics get, she’s immovable on the subject. The entire series of events began last December, when Navratilova, a staunch advocate of LGBT rights, issued a blunt tweet that inflamed the transgender community, writing, ““You can’t just proclaim yourself a female and be able to compete against women. There must be some standards, and having a penis
North America | United States | Sports

Transgender Track Athlete Wins CT State Championship

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Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood dominated the competition at Connecticut’s girls track and field state championships earlier this week. Miller took 1st place in both the 100 and 200 meter dash, while Yearwood finished second in the 100. According to News 8 in Hartford, CT, both Miller and Yearwood are transgender which has some people saying that the pair had an unfair advantage. According to News 8, petitions have been started by some parents and student-athletes to try and change the policy that allows athletes in high schools to compete for the gender specific sport they identify wit
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.
Middle East | Saudi Arabia | Culture

Apple and Google Accept Saudi Smartphone App Which Tracks Women’s Movements

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Apple and Google are facing criticism for hosting a Saudi Arabian smartphone app on their platforms which allows men to track women’s movements and “stop them leaving the country.” According to Insider, the app, named Absher — which is available on Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store — is “a government web service which allows men to specify when and how women can cross Saudi borders, and to get close to real-time SMS updates when they travel.” The SMS feature reportedly notifies men “when a woman uses her passport at a border crossing or airport check-i