Some stunning news out of Nepal: on Sunday morning, 13-year-old Malavath Purna reached the summit of Mount Everest, becoming the youngest female climber to do so. After a 52-day expedition, she and a fellow student, 16-year-old Anand Kuma, climbed 29,029 feet to reach the peak from the Tibetan side of the mountain.
More from Refinery29 (image via The Times of India)
India Opens First State Bank For Women
India opened the country’s first state-owned bank for women Tuesday, aimed at strengthening their financial security in a country with stark rates of gender inequality. In a country where only 26 percent of women have accounts with financial institutions, the bank is focused on lending to women and aims to employ a mostly female staff
“The sad reality is that women in India face discrimination and hardship at home, at school, at their place of work and in public places. Their social, economic and political empowerment remains a distant goal,” said Prime Minister Singh at the launch.
“The setting up of the Bharatiya Mahila Bank is a small step towards the economic empowerment of women,” he added.
(Source and Image Source: Al Jazeera America)
Mirrors and Windows is a portrait series by Italian photographers Gabriele Galimberti and Edoardo Dilelle that draws insight into the lives of women across the world based on their intimate living spaces. Here’s a tour:
Abu Dhabi
China
Germany
Greece
Haiti
India
Thailand
UK
USA
Today Google honors India’s “human computer” Shakuntala Devi, a mathematical prodigy who held a Guinness World Record for her lightning-speed calculations. Here are some other badass women who have been doodled:
Costume designer Edith Head
Celia Cruz, “Queen of Salsa”
Kenyan activist Wangari Maathai, the first black woman and the first environmentalist to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Rosalind Franklin, the first scientist to photograph DNA
Frida Kahlo, painter
Amelia Earhart, aviation pioneer
Google Loves Lucy
Martha Graham, the “Picasso of choreography”
Alicia Moreau de Justo, Argentinian human rights advocate
Maria Mitchell, first woman astronomer in the U.S.
And in true Lean In spirit, Google honored the working woman this Labor Day.
When we talk about women in leadership, we often mean women in America and Europe. And yet some of the latest trends in women’s leadership internationally and in emerging markets may tell a more significant story. 11% of CEOs in the largest 250 Indian companies are female and in Brazil they make up 12% in the largest companies. In the US and UK it is a mere 3-5%.
It’s a result of more opportunities (thanks to the cultural shift that’s occurring) and the overt ambition these women possess.
“When I decided to be a mother I didn’t decide to stop working or leave my career. I just decided to be a mother in addition. I had my family’s support and my own belief in myself,” says Lucia Arduin, a Brazilian corporate lawyer.
The western world should take note that these women are just as much a part of the transformation.
Dharavi, India’s biggest slum, is full of enterprises run by feisty women who are the primary breadwinners.
In the 65,000 rural markets that are held in India every week, nearly 75 percent of the vendors are women,“ says Chetna Sinha, founder of the Mann Deshi Mahila Bank, a woman’s rural cooperative bank.
Women owning small business are not a new phenomenon, but they are rarely mentioned in India’s growth story. However, despite all of the obstacles, these women aren’t giving up.
Mumbai slum entrepreneurs mean business (Al Jazeera)
Meet Naina Lal Kidwai, the first woman to be appointed president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce. She is the face of Indian capitalism.
Naina has been a trailblazer for women since she became the first woman to be hired by PwC in India after graduating from college. And she doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon.
India’s trailblazer for women (The Guardian)
As India Celebrates 67 Years of Independence, Women Demand Freedom of Their Own (Catalyst)
This year, let’s consider not just our freedom from colonial rule, but also the freedom of our own citizens, particularly our women. Do we want India to be a global cultural center with a thriving economy? Or do we want it to be a country in which half of the world’s population is afraid to travel?
The new bill, which now needs the President’s nod to become law, makes it mandatory for companies to spend on social welfare, empowers investors against frauds committed by promoters, encourages companies to have women directors, and seeks to bring in greater transparency in corporate governance matters such as executive salaries and the role of auditors.
"If I walk into a room with a male junior colleague, the customer will assume he’s the managing director and I am the secretary. This happens regularly."-
Ameera Shah, managing director and chief executive of Metropolis Healthcare Ltd.
Read Women at Work: Metropolis Healthcare’s CEO at The Wall Street Journal
