Women in Action
Senegal / In Senegal, girls are breaking the rules to get in the game.
For the time being, Ndir Seck remains optimistic that both Ladies’ Turn and it's girls will go from strength to strength.
Nigeria / The WISE Women of Nigeria Sparking Change
In rural Nigeria, cooking can kill you. According to the World Health Organisation, preparing three meals a day on a traditional wood-burning stove is the equivalent of smoking 20 packs of cigarettes. Little wonder then that each year, some 98,000 women die from the resulting respiratory and cardiac problems.
International / Women's Voices Must be the Loudest on Matters of Climate, Governance and Societal Violence.
The world faces many major challenges, from climate change to armed conflict, massive displacement of people, the rise of the far-right and violence within our societies. These require urgent attention and action but none of these pressing issues can be adequately addressed without first facing up to the issue of gender inequality. No society can develop—economically, politically or socially—when half of its population is marginalised.
India / Breakthrough India smashes gender-based violence
When asked what her dreams are, 14-year-old Sunaina, who lives in a village in northern India, slipped into deep thought. After a few minutes, she said, “To get new clothes for Diwali,” referring to one of India’s biggest annual celebrations. “But what about a long-term dream,” she was prompted, “a wish you wake up to every day and want to achieve?” Another long silence, then Sunaina’s friends called her away. The question was never answered.
France / Women, Gender Equality and Climate Change: driving forward!
As the primary users of new agricultural techniques, as green energy entrepreneurs, or simply as those who decide on modes of consumption and behaviour within the family, women are key actors in bringing about change and developing solutions that secure our transition to a sustainable future.
France / In Paris suburb Saint-Denis, a women’s refuge is coming to the rescue of those who were forgotten
In this former industrial suburb where residents’ access to healthcare is mostly limited to hospital visits, a new space that is unique in France has opened: one that houses not only gynecologists and psychologists, but also social workers and lawyers.
Switzerland / Barbara Wildhaber, the Swiss Surgeon Saving the Tiniest of Lives
“Sometimes, when I’m operating, I say to myself, ‘but why do I do this?’”, Barbara Wildhaber laughs, as she often does during our meeting. The truth is that the paediatric surgeon doesn’t regret her choice. Each operation she carries out is highly pressurised, but there are benefits. “As soon as I’ve finished an operation, I know that it’s what I want to be doing. The combination of technique, the meticulous nature of operations—where everything is on a bonsaï scale—and then the relationships with parents and the children… It fascinates me.”
Valuing women’s work and activism
Women work hard. All day long, they are busy caring for others, creating new knowledge and ideas, solving problems, building our world, and contributing to our economies and societies in endless ways.
Highlighting female entrepreneurs
33-year-old Emilie Hawlena wants to create synergies between women who share an entrepreneurial spirit, to help them break into the complex, exciting and sometimes hostile arena that is starting one’s own business.
Planting the seeds for a brighter future
Wafts of fresh mint pass through the sticky air, the ground is littered with cut-off bottles from which other aromatic herbs peek out, zigzagging tables laden with plant pots lead up to a building covered in hanging containers—all sprouting luscious greenness. This building is Centre d’écoute et d’encadrement pour le développement durable (Centre for Support and Training in Sustainable Development), more commonly known as Ceedd. The centre, founded in 2005 in the city of Thies, seventy kilometres east of the capital Dakar, provides microcredit and training in micro gardening to women from deprived urban settlements.
Hard journey to the boardroom
The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day was Women in the Changing World of Work: Planet 50-50 by 2030. Around the world, women and men were invited to pledge their utmost efforts in achieving workplace gender parity by 2030. Sadly, in many parts of the world this remains an ambitious plan, notably in our native Nigeria. Walk into any boardroom in downtown Lagos or Abuja and it will be overwhelmingly male-dominated. Just what is stopping our Nigerian sisters from breaking the glass ceiling?
Taking the driver’s seat
Manisha Malvade was 21 when her mother died of cancer. “Mother’s death shook me,” she said. “But I had to help my family survive.” Her father, alcoholic and unemployed, was of no help. It fell solely upon her to support her five other siblings.
Promoting ‘Faso Dan Fani’: Burkina Faso’s ‘woven cloth of the homeland’ Elisabeth Delma, a master of the tradition
It’s in the northern outskirts of Ouagadougou, in Tampouy, that we met up with Elisabeth Delma, founder of the Adaja Centre. Despite her discretion and modesty when speaking about her work, Delma; a woman well into her sixties, is a key figure in the development and promotion of Faso Dan Fani (attire from traditional handwoven cotton cloth).
Pedal Power
Sometimes, you have to take the mountain to Mohammed. Just ask iSocial, a groundbreaking programme that involves entrepreneurs delivering vital information and services to isolated communities throughout Bangladesh. In a gender-defying feat, the entrepreneurs are tech-savvy young women—who travel on bicycles.
Kibera School for Girls: the slum’s first free primary school for girls in Kibera
Kibera School for Girls, the slum’s first free primary school for girls in Kibera
On a mission to stamp out stereotypes in early education
According to the guide book for staff La poupée de Timothée et le camion de Lison (Timothy’s doll and Lison’s truck), boys tend to demand more attention from adults than girls, and to dominate in conversations.