Girls, women, and intellectual empowerment

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s nickname in law school was “Bitch.” Senator Elizabeth Warren was sanctioned by her GOP colleagues when “nevertheless, she persisted” in her questioning of soon-to-be Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Senator Kamala Harris reminded Vice President Mike Pence “I am speaking, I am speaking,” as he attempted to interrupt and speak over her in a recent vice presidential debate. CNN found it more important to report that two women won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry than to report the names of the women who won it.

An article from Oxford University Press's Academic Insights for the Thinking World. A four minute read.  How we can empower women in simple but effective ways. 

Did you know that 8 March is International Women's Day and has been since 1911!

Hope for the future this International Women’s Day

This International Women’s Day, Firefox is raising awareness against bias, and raising a hand for equality.

We went to women in tech whose work we admire and asked them: what do you hope for women on the web? 

Go here and hear what they had to say - three minutes of inspiration!

Let's make this true of Science and Finance!

Auditing, matching pay and accountability will close the gender pay gap: study 

This is an article from Australia, but the message is clear and  SA may follow a similar trend of improvement with intervention and monitoring - but not enough...'leadership accountability is the key ingredient'.

'Taking action such as correcting like-for-like pay gaps, analysing performance pay and reporting the results to company boards are effective in closing the gender pay gap, new research shows.

We found organisations that completed a pay gap analysis in the 2015-2016 financial year and took action, saw the total salary gender pay gap among top-tier managers reduce on average by 5 percentage points a year later. This compares to a reduction of only 0.22 percentage points for companies that did not take any action at all.

Using data reported to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency each year, we examined the pay of more than four million employees across 11,000 employers. We also assessed what actions companies are taking to address pay equity and what happens down the track as a result.'

Read more here, 5 minutes. 

Four big lessons from the UK’s new gender pay gap reporting rules and what’s next for equality

This article by Jana Jarvonik, Director of the Noon Centre, Social Sciences, University of East London, was written in August 2018 and highlights that gender pay gap and equality are often conflated. It's not just about hiring more women in the workplace - read more to find out the difference.  Jarvonik highlights the worst offenders of the 2017/2018 reporting cycle in this excerpt:

3. The worst offenders

The 2018 reports reveal striking differences between sectors, with financial and insurance services as the standouts with a sizeable gap of 35.6%. 1.5% of employers reported a median gap of over 50%.

Even the female staff at Buckingham Palace are paid a mean of 12% less than the men. This extends to Claire Foy, for her work playing the Queen in Netflix series The Crown, who was paid less than her co-star, Matt Smith, who played Prince Philip.

The issue here is more than one of fairness: for an economy held back by low productivity growth and skill shortages, the under-use of female talent represents a major cost.

Please read more here [five minutes]

Be prepared for what awaits you in the workplace. How will you handle these issues?

Let's build a gender-balanced world

Balance is not a women's issue, it's a business issue. The race is on for the gender-balanced boardroom, a gender-balanced government, gender-balanced media coverage, a gender-balance of employees, more gender-balance in wealth, gender-balanced sports coverage ...

Gender balance is essential for economies and communities to thrive.

internationalwomensday.com/Theme

The above excerpt is taken from the link provided. 

Women in STEM (article from The Conversation - Africa)

On 11 February the world marked the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. Over the past 15 years, more and more women and girls have been drawn into careers in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), among other disciplines. But much remains to be done to close the still large gender gap.

Ntombizikhona Beaulah Ndlovu, Amanda Weltman, Amélie Beaudet, Judith Koskey, Marilyn Ronoh, Melisa Achoko Allela and Mercy Muendo tell us about their experiences as women in STEM, and what advice they have for those who want to follow in their footsteps.

Want to be a woman in science? Here’s advice from those who’ve gone before

[reading time - 5 minutes]

Why are women under- represented in science and business?

I am sure you have your own ideas but there is reason to believe that on-screen roles have a part to play in this and that for business, diversity is not taken seriously - at least according to Kiran Trehan

.

You can listen to the conversation between Kiran Trehan and Andy Lee, Strategic Lead for Diversity in Business at Natwest, on the need for more women CEOs on the University of Birmingham’s Unfiltered podcast.

What are your thoughts and experiences about South African business in terms of representation of women?

Why the world needs more women CEOs

October 18, 2018 12.46pm SAST

Female CEOs of large firms are a rare breed. In the US in 2015, there were more CEOs called John running big companies in the US than women. In 2016, there were only six female CEOs in the firms covered by the FTSE 100 index and 12 in the FTSE 250 index. In the FTSE 100, there were only four women chairs, 185 women on the executive committee out of 991 positions, and 283 board members out of 1,065 positions.

There is a similar, but not as stark, underrepresentation in the UK public sector. For example, I recently published a report with Jenny Phillimore, Jane Glover and Yanan Zhang, which shows that in 2017 women made up only 13.1% of the directors of corporate boards in the largest West Midlands professional services companies and the public sector. Over half of the companies (55.9%) have male-only boards, whereas two companies have female-only boards.

Although this article from The Conversation is drawing stats from the UK, if you want to see more women taking on the role of CEO you should read it and listen to the conversation between Kiran Trehan and Andy Lee.

Read more - four minutes - here...

Too few women in on-screen STEM roles

Caitlin Mullen, Bizwomen contributor
Oct 3, 2018, 9:06am EDT

Male TV and film characters holding jobs in science, technology, engineering and math outnumber women nearly two-to-one, a new study conducted by the Lyda Hill Foundation and the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media finds.

The “Portray Her” study analyzed STEM characters in entertainment media and surveyed women about their perceptions of STEM careers.

About 83 percent of girls and women think it’s important to see women in STEM on screen, but just 37 percent of STEM characters are female, according to the institute, whose motto is “If she can see it, she can be it.”

Read more here for four minutes (you could go further if you follow the leads)

Nadia Murad and Denis Mukwege were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their campaigns against sexual violence. That is something worth acknowledging.

Very few women have ever been awarded the Nobel prize for science - why is that?

Why more women don’t win science Nobels

October 6, 2018 1.38am SAST

Mary K. Feeney, Arizona State University

Progress has been made toward gender parity in science fields. But explicit and implicit barriers still hold women back from advancing in the same numbers as men to the upper reaches of STEM academia.

One of the 2018 Nobel Prizes in physics went to Donna Strickland, a major accomplishment for any scientist. Yet much of the news coverage has focused on the fact that she’s only the third female physicist to receive the award, after Marie Curie in 1903 and Maria Goeppert-Mayer 60 years later.

Though biochemical engineer Frances Arnold also won this year, for chemistry, the rarity of female Nobel laureates raises questions about women’s exclusion from education and careers in science. Female researchers have come a long way over the past century. But there’s overwhelming evidence that women remain underrepresented in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

Studies have shown those who persist in these careers face explicit and implicit barriers to advancement. Bias is most intense in fields that are predominantly male, where women lack a critical mass of representation and are often viewed as tokens or outsiders.

When women achieve at the highest levels of sports, politics, medicine and science, they serve as role models for all of us, especially for girls and other women. But are things getting better in terms of equal representation? What still holds women back in the classroom, in the lab, in leadership and as award winners?

Read more here...for 8 minutes and it's a very good read!

Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Nadia Murad and Denis Mukwege for campaigns against sexual violence

John Brewer, Queen's University Belfast

Nadia Murad and Denis Mukwege have been awarded the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize for their work in trying to end sexual violence during war and armed conflict. There are many tragedies in war and among the worst are victims of sexual violence. Women’s bodies have become battle sites and sexual violence a weapon of war.

Murad is one such victim, developing a global witness as a UN Goodwill Ambassador to the abuse she suffered as a Yazidi at the hands of Islamic State. She has campaigned for the protection of survivors of human trafficking.

Denis Mukwege is a medic based in the Democratic Republic of Congo and he and his staff have helped thousands of victims abused in its prolonged and bloody wars - and many more forcibly removed people besides. Mukwege also speaks, at much risk to himself, against Congolese governments and others who shield military rapists.

Read more here - three minutes reading a lifetime of thinking 

Macquarie Group Appoints First Female CEO

CEO’s exit underscores how few South African women hold top jobs

January 30, 2019 , Nadia Mans-Kemp

The CEO of one of South Africa’s top four banks – Absa – announced this week that she is retiring after 10 years in this role.

Employment equity at the bank improved under Maria Ramos’s guidance. Both the number of black women and men in senior management positions increased during her period as CEO.

Given that she was the only female CEO of the Top 40 companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), gender diversity has taken a knock as a result of her retirement.

There are now no female CEOs running any of the country’s 40 largest listed companies. In addition, women make up only a fifth of the directors who serve on the boards of companies listed on the JSE.

Read more here and see how much work still needs to be done in SA in this respect. [five minutes]

Below is an interview with Maria Ramos on what leadership and negotiating skills she learned which equipped her as Chief of Absa Bank Ltd. 

10 of the most powerful black women in the world

and one of them is an actuary   Yay!  Read more about the 10 women in today's edition of Destiny. 

Marjorie Ngwenya 

Ngwenya is the first non-British-based person to be appointed President-Elect of the UK’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA).

She was the Chief Risk Officer for Old Mutual’s African Business unit and took up her position as IFoA President-Elect in 2016 and the role of president in June 2017.

According to the IFoA, she was previously a director at Marzars in London, the editor of The Actuary magazine for three years, and locally, served as a trustee of the SA Legal Resources Trust. 

When Marjorie came into office in June 2017 this is what she said:

“It is a real honour to be elected by my fellow Council members to the Presidential team.  The profession is continuing to expand its reach across the globe, and I am proud to be the first IFoA President-elect to be based outside the UK.

“I am looking forward to continuing the important work done by those who have held the role before me, and to bringing the benefits of actuarial science to more people around the world.  The actuarial profession is continuing to expand into new disciplines and I look forward to contributing to this impressive work to move the profession forward.”

The Rise Of The African Woman    By Forbes Africa October 31, 2017

A 2 minute read and an enlightening one at that, of women entrepreneurs globally, sadly leaving South Africa ranked amongst the lowest bottom half of the 6 African countries surveyed in the overall 54 country survey.  Keep up the good work Uganda!

'In March, the MasterCard Index of Women Entrepreneurs (MIWE) report was released and it contained good news. Uganda has the highest percentage (34.8%) of women business owners in the world.

The East African country led in various key components of the survey; the highest percentage (90.5%) of female entrepreneurs in the world borrowing and saving money to start a business, highest (93.9%) labor force participation rate and a 100% women entrepreneurial activity rate, meaning women are as likely as men to start a business. Notably, cultural perceptions of female entrepreneurs in Uganda were surprisingly higher (68.8%) than the average (41.3%). Second in the index was another African country – Botswana at 34.6%. Sadly, out of the six African countries included in the 54-country survey, four were in the bottom half – South Africa, Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria.'    Read more 

Who we are

Uganda Women Entrepreneurs Association Limited (UWEAL) was established in 1987 over 30 years ago by four visionary women in business as a membership based organization incorporated during that time when the idea of women in business was considered a taboo in Uganda. They set out to change perception and set up in place platform to promote women in business Uganda and network with other women in business globally.

UWEAL has spearheaded the transformation of the landscape that gives women in business a voice to show case that women are as capable to start and run a businesses as much as men. The association is currently firmly placed in the private sector to assist and provide the necessary support and guidance to women in business and to advocate for favorable policies through which women entrepreneurs can flourish.  Read more
Read More

August 2017 at an end ... and women ascending

It seems appropriate that with August being Woman's Month, we should inspire everyone out there with stories of women who have made great strides in Science and Finance, despite these disciplines being mostly the domain of men as far back as we can remember.  One such woman is the first woman to have ever won the Fields Medal, Maryam Mirzakhani,  who sadly passed away this year on July 14 at the age of 40.  In the words of her Iranian compatriot Mehrdokht Pournader, she was not only a brilliant mathematician, but a role model as well.  Pournader writes an interesting tribute well worth reading which begins like this...

'On July 14, Maryam Mirzakhani, Stanford professor of mathematics and the only female winner of the prestigious Fields Medal in Mathematics, died at the age of 40.

In just a few hours, her name, both in her native Farsi (#مریم میرزاخانی) and English (#maryammirzakhani), was trending on Twitter and Facebook. Most major news agencies were covering the news of her death as well as recounting her many achievements.

The grief was especially hard-hitting for a generation of younger academics like me who have always held Maryam as a role model whose example is helping redefine women’s status in science and especially mathematics.

The irony was that Maryam always tried to avoid the media’s spotlight. Her modesty and simplicity despite being the only woman to gain such high status in the world of mathematics – winning what’s often called the “Nobel Prize of math” – stood out to those who knew her.

Unfortunately, I did not get the chance to meet Maryam personally. But like many of my Iranian peers in academia, I looked to her example as proof that the world would welcome us and our scientific contributions no matter our skin color, nationality or religion.

As people around the globe grieve the loss of this talented mathematician, Maryam’s life stands as an inspiration for young girls and boys from all walks of life the world over...'

Read more... [estimated reading time 5 minutes]

A Tribute to Maryam Mirzakhani

"When I woke up on July 15 and learned that Maryam Mirzakhani had died, I felt as though I had been punched in the gut. Maryam was an extraordinarily talented and accomplished young mathematician who was thrust into the limelight when she received the Fields Medal in 2014. After breaking the glass ceiling as the first female Medalist, she accepted with grace her role as a symbol for women's achievement. An Iranian--American, she served also as a reminder of the international character of the mathematical enterprise. Maryam Mirzakhani left us in the prime of her professional life. Her passing is a great loss to the mathematical community."
---American Mathematical Society (AMS) President Kenneth A. Ribet

Thifhelimbilu Daphney Bucher is a nuclear physicist whose life story can only inspire us all to achieve our dreams in our own country - no matter the odds. Coming from a poor home in rural Limpopo she tells her story in brief here [2 minute read] of how she acquired her PhD through dogged determination and self belief. Abroad in America at a TED conference in 2010 she so inspired Google that they donated one million US dollars to AIMS - the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences and the sponsor of her doctorate.  Thifhelimbilu Bucher is considered one of South Africa's leading emerging scientists who finds her work 'enthralling ' because it has the potential to make a difference to people's lives.  As an actuary you too have the potential to make a difference to people's lives.  

For more inspiring stories on emerging female scientists in South Africa visit http://www.womeninstemi.co.za/stories 

In an article by Sue Grant Marshall in Fin24 in April 2017, Magda's year old company Sygnia Umbrella Retirement Fund, an offshoot of Sygnia which has been in existence for a decade,  is described as having 'disrupted' the financial services market.  Magda, like Maryam and Thifhelimbilu above also had to overcome challenges as a young person which seem to have given her the 'grit' to succeed and lead in a male dominated arena. Besides being the only female CEO of a fintech company in Africa Magda is an actuary and consumer advocate. In the article Winning women: Queen of disruption which you can access on line or in the Resources tab, Magda gives a short account of the strategy which has led to Sygnia's success and some insight as to how her own life as an immigrant in South African may have influenced her drive to make a difference. [estimated reading time 3 minutes] 

To give you a glimpse of how persistent Magda Wierzycka is about challenging the status read her article published in the Daily Maverick, Business leadership SA finally wakes up, which although is dated April, is still pertinent today. [estimated reading time 3 minutes] You may have very different views to hers and if so, please let us know about them  Both articles are also available in the Resources tab.