The Women’s Institute is featuring a trans woman member on the cover of its magazine for the first time.
Petra Wenham, a member of Cake and Revolution WI in Suffolk, appears on the July/August issue of WI Life, the organisation’s membership magazine.
She said she felt “accepted and honoured” to be on a platform to raise awareness of transgender issues.
Cake and Revolution said Ms Wenham “deserves to be acknowledged and celebrated”. More
An astrophysicist from Edinburgh University is the first woman to be named Astronomer Royal for Scotland.
Prof Catherine Heymans was recommended to the Queen for the role by an international panel, convened by the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Prof Heymans said she wanted to use the almost 200-year-old title to encourage people to develop passion for science.
She also wants to promote Scotland internationally as a world-leading centre for science, she said. More
The University Gender Pay Gap Report for 2020 is available to read here
https://docs.gre.ac.uk/rep/human-resources/gender-pay-gap-report
You can also see previous reports from 2017 and 2018.
“Men that I didn’t know would watch a performance and then come up to me afterwards and say they didn’t like what I was wearing – maybe I’m wrong, but I can’t imagine that happening to, say, Chris Martin.”
London Grammar’s frontwoman Hannah Reid has dozens of stories about times sexism has made it harder for her to do her job.
And, she says, if Coldplay’s frontman doesn’t have to deal with it, then why should she?
“Maybe Chris will see this and say stuff like that happens to him all the time, but I doubt it”, she smiles.
The band have just released their third album, California Soil, and Hannah’s experiences of a “sexist” music industry crop up more than a few times in its lyrics. More
Rachel Andrew is one of the leading cricketers in an island nation famous for its stunning beaches. She has scored more runs for the women’s national team than anyone else and averages an impressive 11.50 with the ball.
Cricket is her passion, as it is for many women in Vanuatu – an archipelago across the Coral Sea from Australia, whose population of 307,000 is roughly the same as Nottingham. Its women’s T20 team ranks 28th in the world, making it probably the country’s most successful sporting side.
Despite that, traditional values have created barriers that have prevented many of Vanuatu’s ‘mamas’ from playing sport – but the Vanuatu Cricket Association (VCA) is trying to change that.
“I heard some people saying ‘mamas, they belong in the kitchen, clean the house, looking after the kids’, but no – it’s wrong,” said Andrew.
“We’ve got to help each other and promote gender equality. Let them know they have the right to enjoy themselves out there in sports or any activities.” More
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
Popular culture is generally associated with youth. But a new Netflix series that has a 49-year-old female lead, fighting the ravages of middle age, is being hailed for putting the spotlight on women’s lifelong battle with their own bodies.
In one scene of Bombay Begums, Rani, played by Bollywood star-turned-filmmaker Pooja Bhatt, abruptly walks out of a board meeting.
While her colleagues try to figure out why, the camera finds her in the bathroom, splashing cold water on her face, trying to dry her armpits under the hand dryer.
“Most people said they thought she was having a heart-attack,” says Namita Bhandare, gender editor for news website Article 14, “but I knew exactly what was happening.”
What was happening to Rani was menopause. More
Barclays is to become the Women’s Super League first ever title sponsor, in a deal the Football Association has called “the biggest ever investment in UK women’s sport by a brand”.
The three-year partnership, understood to be worth in excess of £10m, will start from next season.
The competition will be rebranded the Barclays FA Women’s Super League and include a prize-money pot of £500,000.
Previously, WSL winners have not been awarded any official prize money.
“It’s a real landmark moment in the development of the women’s game,” the FA’s director of the women’s professional game Kelly Simmons told BBC Sport.
“We obviously want to get more fans and more revenue behind the game, making sure it’s secure and sustainable for the future.
“But also the investment in schools makes sure lots of girls get the chance to play football, which is our pipeline for the future.” More
Meryl Streep has said sexual harassment wouldn’t have been tolerated in Hollywood if there were more women on the boards of entertainment companies.
The star is getting together with other well-known actresses to demand equal representation in boardrooms.
She said balanced boards wouldn’t have approved pay-offs like those given to some of Harvey Weinstein’s accusers.
“If the boards of the company were half female, there wouldn’t ever have been pay-offs to anybody,” Streep said. More
One of the first stars of English women’s football is to be immortalised with a life-sized statue.
The sculpture of Lily Parr, who played professionally in the 1920s, will be unveiled at the National Football Museum in Manchester in June.
Parr, who died in 1978 aged 73, was the first woman to feature in the museum’s Football Hall of Fame in 2002.
A spokeswoman for the Football Association said: “She deserves recognition as a true pioneer.”
She added: “It’s only fitting that she takes her place alongside other football legends and becomes the first woman to be celebrated with a statue in her honour.” More