Category Archives: Gender

Gender, Nationality + Migration
U.S. family detention centers face renewed scrutiny following attempted suicide of 19-year-old immigrant mother.
  • The young Honduran had been held with her four-year-old son in the Karnes detention camp in Texas for eight months.
  • She was detained for attempting to enter the country for a second time without proper immigration papers, the result of a crackdown following last summer’s dramatic increase in border-crossings by families and unaccompanied minors.
  • The policy has subjected families (including young children) to up to a year of detention, leading to extreme stress and suicide attempts.

“I don’t feel I can live going back to my country. But you have treated us like an animal, you look down on us.”

More on this story at The Guardian.

Gender
Working-class men at risk globally as jobs disappear and opportunity dries up for the low-educated, limited-skill demographic.
  • While men continue to dominate leadership and management roles across most industries, working-class men face ever-encroaching structural employment.
  • While American women with only a high school diploma have seen a slight pay increase of 3% since 1979, men of similar educational background have seen wages plummet by 21%.
  • The author suggests changing cultural attitudes towards child-rearing and employment industries, reforming the criminal justice system, and retooling the education system to be more accommodating of boys (particularly the youngest).

“Poorly educated men in rich countries have had difficulty coping with the enormous changes in the labour market and the home over the past half-century. As technology and trade have devalued brawn, less-educated men have struggled to find a role in the workplace.”

More on this story at the Economist.

(Image Credit: Jon Berkeley/The Economist)

Gender
Officials report 8 of the 10 alleged attackers of Malala Yousafzai have been freed.
  • A Regional Police Officer and a spokesperson for the Pakistani High Commission in London support claims reported in the Daily Mirror, indicating that only two of the convicted attackers will now be serving life sentences because of lack of evidence against
  • The abrupt turnaround has drawn suspicion that the initial reports of ten convictions were an attempt to divert media attention away from the results of the case.
  • The trial was closed to the public, allowing for claims of misreporting of the judge’s actual ruling back in April.

More on this story at The Express Tribune.

(Image Credit: AFP, via The Express Tribune)

Gender

News

Colombia passes new hate crime law building in tougher punishments for gender-based violence against women.
  • The bill–passed with 104-3 in favor–targets violence of a physical, psychological, or sexual nature.
  • Those convicted could now face up to 50 years in jail.
  • The bill was named for Rosa Elvira Cely, a woman whose brutal attack, rape, and murder in a Bogota park spurred mass protests in 2012.

Presidential adviser for women’s equality Martha Ordonez said that in Colombia a woman was the victim of a violent act on average every 13 minutes, and that every four days one was killed by her partner.

More on this story at BBC.

(Image Credit: Getty Images, via BBC)

Gender

News

Masaai women in Kenya find opportunity for themselves and their villages through the solar energy industry.
  • The Women and Entrepreneurship in Renewable Energy Project (WEREP) trains local women to install solar energy products.
  • Communities benefit from easier electricity access, decreases in energy costs, and environmental and livestock protection in a country that sees 68% of its population disconnected from electrical grids.
  • With the market penetration of solar energy having risen from 0 to 20% since 2006, clean energy advocates are hopeful that these women will help market and spread the products throughout their communities.

“Our community customs do not allow women to own any property…But now women here own the solar technology, and it is something we are very happy about.”

More on this story at Reuters.

Gender, Race + Color + Ethnicity

News

Satori Interactive, a tech company founded and led by two black sisters, wins Black Enterprise‘s Family Business of the Year award.
  • The sisters, both computer science graduates, founded the company in 2004 in an industry that still struggles with diversity in both gender and race.
  • The 2013 U.S. Census Report revealed that only 25% of STEM employees in 2011 were women and only 6% African-Americans, despite the latter graduating with computer science degrees from elite universities  at twice that rate.
  • Satori Interactive provides business-to-business services focusing on user experience research and consulting.

“Our father would tell us, ‘If you’re good at what you do, people respect you and they welcome your suggestions and feedback. Nobody can take your knowledge away from you.’”

More on this story at The Root.

(Image Credit: Ashley Zimmerman, via The Root)

Gender
More than 150,000 gathered in Buenos Aires to protest femicide and other violence against women under the campaign #NiUnaMenos.
  • Celebrities, journalists, and politicians joined the massive crowd gathered outside Argentina’s Congress.
  • Readings and storytelling gave voice to the suffering of many women in a country that has seen gender-based violence on the increase over the last decade.
  • Similar demonstrations were held in neighboring Uruguay and Chile.

“Un grito colectivo que no cesó en la plaza y siguió retumbando en las calles…Un grito colectivo que se charlará en las casas y volverá a las redes sociales para que el tema no se apague hasta que el basta sea una realidad.”

Translation: “A collective cry that didn’t cease in the plaza and kept resounding in the streets…A collective cry that will be chatted about in homes and will go back to social media so that the point does not fade until ‘enough’ is a reality.”

More on this story at La Nación (in Spanish).

(Image Credit: La Nación)

Gender
East Melbourne clinic takes case against the Melbourne City Council to Victoria’s supreme court, alleging failure to exercise jurisdiction over anti-abortion protesters harassing its patients.
  • The fertility clinic claims protesters attempted to impede women’s access to the clinic, which provides other health services like pap smears and fertility testing.
  • Legal questions hinge on the definition of “nuisance” and whether the Council exercised its power to ensure the protection of women seeking the clinic’s services from it.
  • The ruling could have broad impact on council’s interpretation of the state’s Public Health and Wellbeing Act, which could expand councils’ response to protesters statewide.

“Women attending the clinic had the right to access healthcare without harassment, fear or intimidation.”

More on this story at The Guardian.

Gender, Ideology + Affiliation, Race + Color + Ethnicity
The Ethical Fashion Initiative works to give designers and artisans from the developing world a voice in the global fashion industry.
  • The program is supporting four brands with designers representing Cote d’Ivoire, South Africa, Nigeria, and Angola at this year’s major international trade show for men’s fashion, Pitti Imagine Uomo.
  • The Initiative also confronts unethical labor practices, pushing for heightened standards throughout the supply chain that will improve conditions for the laborers on which the industry is built.
  • EFI notes that its efforts help financially empower women in sustainable ways, allowing them to mobilize their creativity and talents to gain independence and support their families.

“We work with women who sometimes face discrimination in their communities, but by having a job, their position in society improves…They gain independence and respect, and in many situations they become the only breadwinner in their families.”

More on this story at the Inter Press Service News Agency.

(Image Credit: ITC Ethical Fashion Initiative 5, via Inter Press News Agency)

Gender, Nationality + Migration
Pop-up restaurant Mazi Mas’s open menu creates unique opportunities for immigrant women in London.
  • Founder/CEO Nikandre Kopcke, himself German and Greek-American, offers not only work opportunity but also entrepreneurial lessons to its workers.
  • Women from Brazil, China, Ethiopia, Iran, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Peru, the Philippines, Senegal, and Turkey have worked with Mazi Mas.
  • Kopcke hopes for international expansion, including to Berlin and hopefully New York.

More on this story at Gulf News.

Image Source: Bloomberg, via Gulf News

Gender

The Moroccan government publishes first data on its sex-worker population despite social conservatives who have long prohibited such official recognition. More from Al Jazeera.