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Europe | Russia | Leadership

Eurasian Women’s Forum: Women in the Changing World

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Women play an increasingly important role in resolving issues that society and the state encounter and in the modern world, they should not face the choice between family and self-fulfillment, According to Russian President Vladimir Putin at the third Eurasian Women’s Forum held in St. Petersburg on October 13-15. “It is completely obvious that in modern conditions a woman should not face the choice between children and family or professional fulfillment. That is why in Russia the conditions are consistently created for a woman after childbirth to begin or resume her professional ca
Europe | Sweden | Politics

Swedish Finance Minister Tipped to Become Country’s First Female PM

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Magdalena Andersson is favourite to become Sweden's prime minister when her Social Democrat colleague Stefan Lofven steps down in November, but major challenges face the current finance minister if she is to keep the top job longer than a few months. If Andersson is picked to head her party in November, she is likely to become Sweden's first female prime minister - 40 years after neighbour Norway got its first woman leader and more than 60 years behind Sri Lanka, which was the first country to do so.
Europe | U.K. | Intergrity

Little girl writes letter to Tesco CEO to demand pockets for girls’ school trousers

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A little girl has written to the CEO of Tesco accusing the supermarket of sexism after discovering that only boys’ school trousers had real pockets. Nine-year-old Eleanor Waterman was very annoyed when she discovered that the school trousers she had chosen from Tesco had fake pockets. She was so annoyed, in fact, that she wrote a letter to the supermarket’s CEO Dave Lewis expressing her outrage. Her mum explained that Eleanor had written the letter because she just couldn’t understand why the boys got real pockets, but the girls didn’t. ‘At the start of term, Eleanor put
Europe | U.K. | Business

Supermodel turned investor: what Natalia Vodianova did next

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The statistics on the struggles of female entrepreneurs are a depressing read: 90 percent of funding goes to all-male founder teams in the UK, and, in the US, all-male teams are four times more likely to get investment than if they have even one woman in the team. But the story is different if you cross paths with Natalia Vodianova, the supermodel. The 37-year-old is putting to good use the money earned in a two decades-long fashion career from huge contracts with brands such as Calvin Klein and Guerlain. Now she spends her days managing a portfolio of “impact investments”: busine
Europe | U.K. | Activism

HearHer Is The UK’s First All-Female Festival Giving Women In Music The Space They Deserve

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In 2018, UK festival line-up statistics were still rather disappointing. 70 percent of festivals featured all-male bands, leaving many to wonder why female artists were still being dismissed. These figures come from the founding members of the UK's first all-female festival, HearHer: three days of musical bliss performed exclusively by female artists. Set to take over Dorset's Sandford Holiday Park from Oct. 11 to 13, HearHer has enlisted over 20 incredible performers to share their talents with the nation. The festival has been curated by singer-songwriter KT Tunstall and actress-slash-mu
Europe | U.K. | Activism

Women in science: Smashing glass ceilings and glass walls

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A woman engineer who worked on the moon landing spoke this week of how she was once told the control room was no place for women. Things have changed a lot in 50 years, but not as fast as some had hoped. BBC News spoke to five scientists from different generations who are breaking barriers in their field. Famous for discovering the first pulsar more than 50 years ago, Prof Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell has also been a lifelong advocate of women in science. As a school pupil in Northern Ireland in the 1950s, like other girls she was not permitted to study science until her parents (and others
Europe | Great Britain | Crimes

Muslim community shuns women released from prison, says report

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The Muslim community in Britain shuns women who have been to prison while forgiving convicted men, “no matter what they’ve done”, according to a report. Female former prisoners told researchers, Muslim experts in the criminal justice system, that they suffered a “conspiracy of silence” after being released from jail, having to hide or move away in order to not bring shame on their families. The Muslim Women in Prison project worked with 55 women on their release from HMP New Hall and Askham Grange, two Yorkshire jails, helping them reconnect with their families – or to start
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
Europe | U.K. | Career

Lagarde and Von der Leyen: Europe taps first women for powerful roles

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Ursula von der Leyen has been nominated for president of the European Commission, which proposes and enforces policy for the 28-member political and economic union and is one of the two most powerful E.U. institutions. France's Christine Lagarde, who currently heads the International Monetary Fund, has been nominated as president of the European Central Bank, which sets monetary policy for the 19 nations that share the euro currency. Von der Leyen, 60, is a close friend of Angela Merkel, speaks multiple languages and was a doctor before she entered politics. However, the Brussels-born mother
Europe | Spain | Career

Fresh abuse claims from women picking strawberries in Spain for UK market

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Human-rights lawyers are warning that abuse claims by Moroccans picking fruit in Spain for UK supermarkets could amount to “state-sponsored human trafficking”. The international lawyers say Spanish authorities have a legal duty to ensure the allegations by the women – that they have faced exploitation and abuse while harvesting strawberries – are properly investigated by the courts. Two months ago, the Observer reported on the case of 10 Moroccan womenwho had fought for more than a year to have their claims of rape, exploitation and abuse, investigated by the Huelva police and
Europe | U.K. | Courts

U.K. Court of Appeal Overturns Ruling Ordering Mentally Disabled Woman to Have Abortion

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A British appeals court on Monday overturned a lower court’s order that a mentally disabled woman undergo an abortion. The earlier ruling had prompted an outcry from the Roman Catholic Church and abortion opponents. The three judges on the Court of Appeal didn’t explain why they ruled against proceeding with the abortion and said they would give their reasons at a later date. The lower court ruled Friday that the woman, who is in her 20s and 22 weeks pregnant, didn’t understand the challenges of caring for a child and wouldn’t be able to meet them. That court, known as the Cour
Europe | France | Activism

Muslim women defy ban to swim in burkinis at French pool

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Muslim women in France are disobeying the rules at a local swimming pool by wearing burkinis. In a protest inspired by US civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks, they bathed in suits covering their entire bodies - apart from the face, hands and feet - in the city of Grenoble on Sunday. The Jean Bron swimming pool is among many in France that ban burkinis. Many people in the country regard the swimsuit as a symbol of political Islam and incompatible with secularism. "Operation burkini" was launched last month by members of the group Citizen Alliance of Grenoble to defend what they say is the
Europe | Germany | Career

Exchange’s first female long distance driver in Europe wants more women drivers

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Heike Molter has been driving long distance for 18 years and it showed when she took her road test to drive for the Army & Air Force Exchange Service. She aced the test on the first try and was hired in April. “Some of the other applicants took several attempts while she only took one. We could tell she was very skilled,” said Ronald Willis, regional supervisor for the Exchange’s Europe fleet. “We knew we had to have her on the Gruenstadt team.” Molter is the first woman hired to drive long distance with the Exchange’s Europe fleet. In fact, her application was the fir
Europe | Netherlands | Business

Top engineering university to open jobs exclusively to women

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Job vacancies at one of Europe’s leading engineering universities will be open exclusively to female candidates for at least the next 18 months in order to overcome the institution’s “implicit gender bias”. The rector of the Eindhoven University of Technology, Frank Baaijens, said progress towards a better balance of men and women in academic roles had been stubbornly slow. The proportion of vacancies that will be open only to women will be adapted after 18 months of a five-year programme to reflect the success or otherwise of the scheme. About 150 jobs are expected to become

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