Influential women from the international games industry will be attending a conference at the University of Greenwich.

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The sixth European Women in Games Conference, taking place on Wednesday 7 September, will feature keynote speeches, panel discussions, workshops and networking opportunities. There will also be a competition which will give students the chance to promote themselves and their work to the wider gaming community.

Keynote speakers include Anne Morrison, the Deputy Chair of BAFTA; Terry Reintkte, German MEP and author of the European Parliament’s report on Gender Equality and empowering women in the digital age; and Jessica Curry, composer and co-founder of The Chinese Room.  More

Mothers’ pay lags far behind men

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Women who return to work after having a baby fall even further behind men in earning power, a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said.

The gap between hourly earnings of the two sexes becomes steadily wider after women become mothers, the IFS says.

Over the subsequent 12 years, women’s hourly pay rate falls 33% behind men’s.  More

Ex-Liverpool player Howard Gayle turns down MBE

Howard Gayle

The first black footballer to play for Liverpool has turned down an MBE nomination, saying it would be “a betrayal” to Africans who suffered at the hands of the British Empire.

Howard Gayle, 58, was born in Toxteth and made his Reds debut in 1977.

He said he had to decline the nomination, for his Show Racism the Red Card campaign work, as his ancestors would be “turning in their graves”.  More

Muslim women most disadvantaged, say MPs

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Muslim women are the most economically disadvantaged group in British society, according to a report by MPs.

They are three times more likely to be unemployed and looking for a job than women generally and more than twice as likely to be economically inactive, the Women and Equalities Committee said.

Ministers must introduce a plan to tackle the inequalities before the end of the year, the MPs urged.

The government said it was committed to making Britain “work for everyone”.  More

More than a third of female students ‘have mental health problems’

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One in three female students in the UK has a mental health problem, a survey suggests.

This compared with about a fifth of male undergraduates, the YouGov survey of 1,061 students found.

Overall, some 27% of the students said they had a mental health problem. This rose to 45% among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students.

Universities UK said institutions were working hard to develop good services that linked in with the NHS.  More

Oscars: Cheryl Boone Isaacs re-elected Academy president after diversity row

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The president of the organisation that stages the Oscars has been re-elected after pledging to improve diversity.

Public relations executive Cheryl Boone Isaacs will serve as president of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences for a fourth one-year term.

In January, she promised “big changes” following an outcry when all of this year’s acting nominees were white.  More

Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month – August 2016

Tom Daley

The Rio Olympics starts on 5 August and with that in mind we have chosen Tom Daley as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the month.

Tom, from Plymouth, was spotted by a coach, taking part in regular diving lessons, and was placed in a competitive squad in September 2002.

His first competition was the National Novice Championships in April 2003 where he won a medal in the 8/9 year old boys category. In September 2003, he took part in an invitational event where he won the 1 m, 3 m and platform events, and first made his mark on the wider audience. He won his age group at the British Championships in the 1 m springboard, the 3 m springboard, and platform in 2004, 2005, and 2006.

In June 2004, at the age of 10, Tom won the platform competition in the National Junior (under 18) group, making him the youngest winner of that event. In 2005 despite meet the qualification standard for the 2006 Commonwealth Games, he was not selected for the England team because of his age.

Tom qualified for the Beijing 2008 Olympics in the individual 10 metre dive competition and the 10 metre platform synchro competition finishing 8th and 7th respectively. He was the youngest in the Olympic team at 14 years old.

In 2007 he won the 2007 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Young Personality award. From this time he was considered a medal prospect for the 2012 Olympic Games where he was successful at winning the Bronze medal in the 10 metre platform competition. Following the 2012 Olympics Tom struggled to find his enthusiasm for the sport, however a move to London and a change of coach helped and he is now competing at his third Olympics in Rio.

On 2 December 2013, Tom released a YouTube video announcing that he had been in a relationship with American film screenwriter, director and producer Dustin Lance Black.  On 1 October 2015, it was announced in The Times that they were engaged. The announcement read “The engagement is announced between Tom, son of Robert and Debra Daley of Plymouth, and Lance, son of Jeff Bisch of Philadelphia and Anne Bisch of Lake Providence.”

In 2014, Tom was number 3 on the World Pride Power list.

Find out more about Tom and his life here https://www.youtube.com/user/tvtomdaley