Category Archives: Diversity

Hannah Dingley: Forest Green Rovers name first female boss of a men’s professional football side

Forest Green Rovers have named Hannah Dingley as their new caretaker boss, making her the first woman to manage a professional men’s team in English football.

The League Two side sacked Duncan Ferguson on Tuesday after just six months in charge.

Forest Green announced Dingley, the club’s academy head, would be put in caretaker charge of the first team.

Her first match in charge will be a friendly at Melksham Town on Wednesday.

The 39-year-old said: “I’m really excited for this next step of my career. Pre-season has just begun, and the full season kicks off very soon. More

England Cricketers become First LGBT Couple to read CBeebies Bedtime Story

England cricketers  Nat and Katherine Sciver-Brunt will become the first LGBT couple to feature on CBeebies Bedtime Stories, as part of Pride month.

The couple, who married last year, will read Emily Coxhead’s Find Your Happy, about a sloth learning to navigate their emotions.

Abtaha Maqsood, Britain’s first Hijab-wearing cricketer, will read a story to mark July’s South Asian Heritage Month.

The stories are being filmed from Trent Bridge Cricket Ground. More

‘Inclusive Barbies are a major step in my life’

“It’s a major step in the toy industry and in my life. It made me feel proud of who I was.”

James Stewart is among those celebrating the new Barbie dolls that are being released today.

Mattel, the company that makes them, has released a range of more diverse dolls.

For the first time, Barbie is seen with a hearing aid, a prosthetic limb and a wheelchair, while a Ken doll has the skin condition vitiligo.

James, who has the skin condition, says it “felt quite surreal” to hold. More

Save Venice: The forgotten female artists being rediscovered

Who decides which artists are remembered and which are forgotten? With only a small fraction of the art in museums by women, efforts are being made, at the Venice Biennale and further afield, to change long-standing narratives.

Inside the Church of San Marziale, beside a canal in central Venice, specialist art handlers are high up on scaffolding above one of the church’s second altars, trying to tease out two canvases that have been nailed to the wall of the church for several hundred years.

The paintings, which are believed to date from the late 1720s or early 1730s, are by a woman artist called Giulia Lama. She may have been the first female artist in Venice to produce major commissions for churches. The daughter of an artist, she never married and was a mathematician and a published poet.

At the time she was dismissed by some of her male contemporaries. So much so that in 1728, an abbot and man of science, Antonio Conti, wrote: “The poor girl is persecuted by painters, but her virtues triumph over her enemies.”

According to some reports, the other artists and critics at the time focused on what they decided were her unremarkable, almost unappealing physical attributes – they asked how a woman of such prosaic appearance could produce such sophisticated paintings. More

BBC Radio 3 to shine light on ‘forgotten’ composers

BBC Radio 3 is to premiere three forgotten orchestral works by composers from diverse ethnic backgrounds as part of an ongoing push to expand the classical repertoire.

Works by Margaret Bonds, Ali Osman and Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges will be heard for the first time in a broadcast on 2 February.

The concert is the first result of a year-long collaboration with the Arts and Humanities Research Council, which funded research into Black, Asian and ethnically diverse composers.

The seven researchers who were awarded funding last spring have been excavating pieces of music that have been rarely performed and, in some cases, never recorded. More

LGBT Sport Podcast at 200: Jessica Andrade, Gareth Thomas, Jack Dunne and other memorable episodes

There was the cricket match that made history. The 9/11 hero who inspired the world’s largest amateur rugby tournament. The Formula 1 world champion who spoke out as an LGBTQ+ ally. And the elite referee who shared his story publicly for the first time.

The LGBT Sport Podcast has covered all of those stories – and many, many more – over its 200 episodes. So picking out its most memorable moments is quite a challenge.

When we published our very first podcast on 25 September 2018, with a basic and only a general understanding of how to get episodes into a person’s feed, we weren’t sure how long we would be around for.

Yet in the three years since, we’ve covered a wealth of stories across more than 40 sports. More

Oscars 2021: A watershed moment for disability?

The Oscars are upon us once again – but change surrounds this year’s ceremony that goes far beyond the red carpet adjustments enforced by the pandemic.

As the most diverse Oscars ever in terms of nominees, the increased representation also extends to the films themselves – with disability explored in new depth.

Best picture contender Sound of Metal, about a drummer facing hearing loss, saw best actor nominee Riz Ahmed learn sign language for the role. His co-star Paul Raci, who is up for best supporting actor, is a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) and many of the other actors are deaf in real life.

Elsewhere best documentary nominee Crip Camp explores how a 70s hippie camp for disabled youths affected the US disability rights movement; while nominated short Feeling Through has been praised for being the first modern-day film to star a deafblind actor, Robert Tarango. More

Afro wigs: Norfolk hair donor proud of ‘historic breakthrough’

A girl who was originally told her afro hair was unsuitable for children’s wigs said she was “really proud” her locks were now being used.

Carly Gorton, 11, from Norfolk, had urged the Little Princess Trust charity to rethink after it said afro hair was too delicate for wig-making.

It said wigs were now possible after research and a trial, and described them as a “historic breakthrough”.

“It’s really beautiful,” said Carly, of one of the new creations.

The charity provides wigs made from real hair for children who have lost their own due to cancer treatment or for other reasons.

Carly wanted to donate some of her hair but was originally told last year that it was not suitable.

After pressing the charity to look again at the issue, prototypes were developed and approved for use. More

Joining together to mark Ramadan 2021

Today we are marking the start of Ramadan one of the holiest months of the Islamic lunar calendar. If you’re not observing Ramadan you may like to join our Do a Good Deed for Ramadan.

السَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ

As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh (“May the peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be with you”)

Here at Greenwich, we want to mark the start of Ramadan by wishing everyone taking part Ramadan Mubarak and Ramadan Kareem.

We know this year, once again that Ramadan will be a different experience as attending mosques may be limited and connecting with friends and family indoors will not be possible. We want to ensure everyone taking part in Ramadan this year has a safe and connected experience and as a university community we want to come together, in the spirit of Ramadan. More

Unlocked: 35 female sports stars join charity programme to increase diversity in sport

Thirty-five leading sportswomen have joined a charity programme to tackle the lack of diversity across sport.

Footballers Nikita Parris and Caroline Weir and five-time Paralympic champion Hannah Cockcroft are among those who have joined ‘Unlocked’, which has been set up by the Women’s Sport Trust.

The athletes share experiences and work with industry experts to help tackle issues relating to women in sport.

In total, 27 different sports are represented by the group.

“It has been a challenging year for many but as we come out of Covid-19 there is no better time to turbo-charge our effort and continue to unlock the value of women’s sport,” said Tammy Parlour, co-founder of the Women’s Sport Trust.

“We believe the best way to do this is by supporting these elite women and connecting them together.

“Individually they are strong advocates for change but together they are unstoppable.” More