Category Archives: Gender

Authors quit JK Rowling agency over transgender rights

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Writers had asked company ‘to reaffirm their commitment to transgender rights and equality’

Four authors represented by JK Rowling’s literary agency have resigned after accusing the company of declining to issue a public statement of support for transgender rights.

Fox Fisher, Drew Davies and Ugla Stefanía Kristjönudóttir Jónsdóttir said they could no longer work with the Blair Partnership, the London-based agency that represents all aspects of the Harry Potter author’s work, because they were not convinced the company “supports our rights at all avenues”. One other author is understood to have also quit the agency but wishes to remain anonymous.

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‘White faux feminism’: Women Deliver investigate internal racism allegations

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Move follows previous and current staff complaining of toxic working environment at global advocacy group

The global advocacy group for gender equality Women Deliver has launched an investigation into allegations of racism and discrimination within the organisation.

Its CEO, Katja Iversen, a G7 advisor on gender equality, has issued an apology and taken a leave of absence until the conclusion of the investigation.

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JK Rowling reveals she is survivor of domestic abuse and sexual assault

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Author reveals experiences in essay after facing criticism over her comments on trans issues

JK Rowling has revealed her experience of domestic abuse and sexual assault for the first time, in a lengthy and highly personal essay written in response to criticism of her public comments on transgender issues.

In a 3,600-word statement published on her website on Wednesday, Rowling described in more detail than ever how she became involved in an increasingly bitter and polarised debate around the concept of gender identity.

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‘Leave that lady alone’: rugby star’s domestic violence video sparks outcry in Papua New Guinea

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Debbie Kaore who has represented the Pacific nation in rugby and boxing shared a video of alleged attack from partner

A shocking video that appears to show a Papua New Guinean sports star being beaten by her partner has sparked outrage across the country and prompted calls for the government to take urgent action to address high rates of violence against women.

Graphic photographs and a video that appear to show a man repeatedly head-butting a woman and hitting her across the face with a hot clothing iron were widely shared across social media in Papua New Guinea over the weekend, sparking outrage.

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Sexist forum posts hundreds of private images of Australian female journalists and celebrities

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Women whose social media pictures were uploaded to the site say they feel ‘violated’ by intrusion on their privacy

Female journalists say they feel “violated” by a sexist forum that has been posting personal images and lewd comments about women in the Australian media industry for more than a decade.

Hundreds of high-profile journalists and emerging reporters have had their images uploaded onto the forum, which also posts suggestive images of Australian actresses, female sports stars and models.

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Turning grief into hope: one Afghan terror victim’s legacy of learning

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When his sister Rahila was killed by a bomber, Hamid Rafi was inspired by her diaries to set up an education centre in her name

The night before she died, Rahila Rafi felt too tired for homework; uncharacteristic for the studious 17-year-old. When her brother Hamid asked what was wrong, she told him she had a strange feeling in her heart and couldn’t bring herself to look at her books.

Hamid kissed his sister’s forehead and asked her what she wanted to do after she passed the Kankor exam – Afghanistan’s standard university admissions test. 

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Covid-19 has gifted us a chance to end gender-based violence. We must take it

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If the world can unite to beat coronavirus, it should apply the same energy to rooting out abuse

The pandemic is gifting us an unprecedented opportunity to take innovative action and comprehensively confront the scourge of violence against women.

We have a unique window in which, as a human family, we are able to boldly address the social ills Covid-19 is unearthing, and redesign and rebuild our social fabric.

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‘We are losers in this crisis’: research finds lockdowns reinforcing gender inequality

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Campaign groups warn women across Europe risk being pushed back into traditional roles

Life during the coronavirus lockdown has reinforced gender inequality across Europe with research emphasising that the economic and social consequences of the crisis are far greater for women and threaten to push them back into traditional roles in the home which they will struggle to shake off once it is over.

Throughout the continent, campaign groups are warning that the burdens of the home office and home schooling together with additional household duties and extra cooking, has been unequally carried by women and that improvements made in their lives by the growth in equality over the past decades are in danger of being rolled back by the health crisis.

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‘We wrap services around women’: Brazil’s innovative domestic violence centre

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With violence against women endemic in the country, new initiatives are desperately needed but slow to arrive

Lucas da Silva* sits in a cell while he waits to hear from the court what will happen to him.

The 33-year-old is not in a prison, but at Casa da Mulher Brasileira (“house of the Brazilian woman”), a centre for survivors of violence in Campo Grande, central Brazil, that is open 24/7.

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UK aid efforts to tackle gender equality marred by ‘inaccuracy’, says watchdog

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Whitehall auditor warns ‘ambitious aims’ will not be achieved without better oversight, planning and evaluation of programmes

Efforts by the UK government to achieve gender equality through its aid programmes need to be better managed and more transparent, according to the financial watchdog.

The National Audit Office (NAO) said the Department for International Development’s (DfID) 12-year gender equality strategy was wide-ranging, but did not have a long-term, costed, implementation plan, limiting “its ability to assess progress and consider value for money”.

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Why do female leaders seem to be more successful at managing the coronavirus crisis?

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Plenty of countries with male leaders have also done well. But few with female leaders have done badly

On 1 April, the prime minister of Sint Maarten addressed her nation’s 41,500 people. Coronavirus cases were rising, and Silveria Jacobs knew the small island country, which welcomes 500,000 tourists a year, was at great risk: it had two ICU beds.

Jacobs did not want to impose a strict lockdown, but she did want physical distancing observed. So she spelled it out: “Simply. Stop. Moving,” she said. “If you don’t have the bread you like in your house, eat crackers. Eat cereal. Eat oats. Eat … sardines.”

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Japan Airlines ditches compulsory high heels and skirts in big win for #KuToo movement

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Company becomes first major employer in the country to stop forcing dress code on women

Female flight attendants working for Japan Airlines will no longer be required to wear high heels or skirts, the airline has said, in a rare victory for Japan’s #KuToo campaign against workplace dress codes for women.

The airline is the first major Japanese company to relax its regulations in response to complaints from women that having to wear high heels was uncomfortable and often left them in considerable pain.

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Joe Biden’s pledge to pick a female vice-president smells like tokenism | Arwa Mahdawi

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Of course I want him to choose a woman as his running mate. But his grand gesture feels more like pandering than policy

Stacey Abrams? Kamala Harris? Elizabeth Warren? Nobody knows for sure whom Joe Biden will choose as a running mate if – as is almost certain – he wins the Democratic nomination, but we do know it will be a woman.

“I’ll pick a woman to be vice-president,” Biden promised during Sunday’s presidential debate with Bernie Sanders. “There are a number of women qualified to be president tomorrow.” While none of those eminently qualified women will be president any time soon, one lucky lady may have the privilege of playing second fiddle to a gaffe-prone white guy. To cement his position as intersectional male feminist of the year, Biden also promised to appoint an African American woman to the supreme court.

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Mexico president’s response to historic femicide protests: more of the same

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A day after thousands protested against the murder of women and girls, López Obrador said he would ‘reinforce the same strategy’

A day after Mexico’s women collectively shut down the country in an eruption of fury over gender violence, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has insisted that he will not try a new strategy to stop femicides.

Thousands of women went on strike on Monday, in a historic protest against the murder of women and girls – and the failure of successive governments’ efforts to stop a crisis in which around 10 women are murdered every day.

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International Women’s Day: events highlighting gender inequality take place around the world – live updates

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On International Women’s Day, we’ll be following the commemorative events all around the world.

Demonstrators from climate activist group Extinction Rebellion have been protesting in London for IWD, arguing that the “climate is a women’s issue.”

Celebrations have been taking place in Tahrir Square in the capital of Baghdad to mark IWD.

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Budget 2020: chancellor plans to finally end tampon tax

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The 5% rate on sanitary products will end. Rishi Sunak also plans to ensure banks keep circulating cash

The chancellor will announce the abolition of the “tampon tax” in next week’s budget, marking the successful conclusion to a 20-year campaign by women’s rights activists.

Tampons and other women’s sanitary products currently have 5% VAT added to their price, but this will be scrapped, saving the average woman £40 over her lifetime. The tax will end when Britain leaves the EU at the end of December.

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Japan prefecture to stop hiring female ‘tea squad’ for meetings

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Saitama assembly hopes move will reflect changing attitudes towards women in workplaces

A local government assembly is attempting to shake up Japan’s conservative workplace culture by ending the custom of employing women to serve tea at meetings.

Few official gatherings in Japan have properly begun until female employees – known collectively as the ochakumi (“tea squad”) – have placed cups of green tea in front of their invariably male senior colleagues, occasionally accompanied by something sweet.

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‘We still have a problem with female authority’: how politics sets a trap for American women

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Elizabeth Warren’s departure shines light on a system that is rife with sexism but rejects candidates who address it

“Gender in this race?” Senator Elizabeth Warren said outside her home on Thursday. “You know that is the trap question for every woman. If you say, ‘Yeah! There was sexism in this race,’ everyone says, ‘Whiner!’ And if you say, ‘No, there was no sexism, about a bazillion women think, ‘What planet do you live on?’”

She added: “I promise you this. I will have a lot more to say on that subject later on.”

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EU revives plans for mandatory quotas of women on company boards

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European-listed firms could face fines if fewer than 40% of their non-executive board seats are taken by women

The European Union executive is reviving plans for mandatory quotas of women on company boards, amid slowing progress towards gender equality among top management.

The EU commissioner for equality, Helena Dalli, told journalists that quotas “can be a very ugly word” but were also “a necessary evil, in the sense we have to use quotas because otherwise we will wait another 100 years for things to change by themselves”.

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