Six ways to fix gender inequality at work
Switzerland is one of the world’s most successful economies, scoring highly in areas from innovation to institutional excellence. So why is our record less stellar when it comes to gender equality? Switzerland’s performance in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap 2014 Report is a case in point. We came first in the Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report, but only 11th in terms of closing the gender gap. A closer look reveals an even starker contrast between economic success and gender bias. In the wealthy canton of Zurich, for example, women earn on average 24% less than men. In the financial sector, one of Switzerland’s signature industries, the difference is an astonishing 32%. To make matters worse, Swiss women are more at risk of poverty than men.
Ending child marriage in Bangladesh: girls not brides
Imagine your life if you were married at 15, against your will, to an abusive husband. It’s the same for almost all the women you know. Your education came to an abrupt end once you were married, and you’re not allowed to have a job – other than having babies, that is. And because you got married young, you’re probably experiencing some sexual and reproductive health problems.
This is the reality for most women and girls in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh has the fourth highest rate of child (under-18) marriage in th...
This is the reality for most women and girls in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh has the fourth highest rate of child (under-18) marriage in th...
Fighting child marriage — by changing the definition
Two months ago Rashida Khatun, 13, was invited to a wedding. The daughter of a farm laborer, she didn’t know until she got there that the wedding she’d been invited to would be her own.
Like 29.1 percent of female Bangladeshis, Khatun was married before the age of 15. Now the country with among the world’s highest rates of child marriage (depending on how it’s defined) is addressing the issue in a way that has raised eyebrows among human rights advocates: A government body in Bangladesh has proposed lowering the legal age at which people can marry, from 18 to 16 for girls and from 21 to 18 for boys.
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Women at the center of our economic activity: Yunus
Muhammad Yunus
In the past 60 years or so, we have seen capitalism reach its peak. We have seen the socialist economies fall away and move rapidly toward capitalism. This has undoubtedly brought unprecedented wealth and prosperity in many parts of the world and to many people. At the same time, millions — if not billions — have been left behind.
We have seen the deep financial crises grip the world economy since 2008, and we have seen huge numbers of people becoming unemployed even in the so-called prospero...
Bangladesh pushes global communities for gender equity
Bangladesh has urged the global communities to keep gender equity as a ‘stand-alone’ goal in the post-2015 development agenda.
Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali made the call on Monday at New York while attending a high-level meeting on women empowerment.
US Secretary of State John Kerry chaired the ‘High-level Meeting of Equal 
Futures Partnership’ themed on “increasing women’s representation in leadership positions”.
The meeting was held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly that woul...
Futures Partnership’ themed on “increasing women’s representation in leadership positions”.
The meeting was held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly that woul...
Can ‘womenomics’ stem the feminisation of poverty in Japan?
Fifty-four-year-old Marlyn Maeda, an unmarried freelance writer living in Tokyo who never held a permanent job, is now watching her dream of aging independently go up in smoke.
“I work four jobs and barely survive,” said the writer, who disclosed only her penname to IPS. Her monthly income after writing articles, working at a call centre, selling cosmetics five days a week and working one night at a bar hovers at close to 1,600 dollars.
Maeda belongs to the burgeoning ranks of the poor in Japan, a country that saw its pover...
Maeda belongs to the burgeoning ranks of the poor in Japan, a country that saw its pover...
