Gender Bias

'Manosphere' intensifies misogynistic threats, language after US election

In the days after the presidential election, Sadie Perez began carrying pepper spray with her around campus. Her mom also ordered her and her sister a self-defence kit that included keychain spikes, a hidden knife key and a personal alarm. It's a response to an emboldened fringe of right-wing manosphere influencers who have seized on Republican Donald Trump's presidential win to justify and amplify misogynistic derision and threats online. Many have appropriated a 1960s abortion rights rallying cry, declaring Your body, my choice at women online and on college campuses. For many women, the words represent a worrying harbinger of what might lie ahead as some men perceive the election results as a rebuke of reproductive rights and women's rights. The fact that I feel like I have to carry around pepper spray like this is sad, said Perez, a 19-year-old political science student in Wisconsin. Women want and deserve to feel safe. Isabelle Frances-Wright, director of technology and societ

Breaking the glass ceiling: Why Kim Kyung-Ah's Samsung CEO role matters

Kim Kyung-Ah's appointment as CEO of Samsung Bioepis breaks an 86-year tradition, making her the first woman outside the founding family to lead a Samsung company

Shivraj to launch campaign against gender-based violence on Nov 25

Rural Development and Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will launch the third edition of Nayi Chetna-Pahal Badlaav Ki, a national campaign against gender-based violence on November 25, an official statement said. Minister of Women and Child Development Annpurna Devi will also be present at the event in "a collective effort of the government to eliminate gender-based violence", the Rural Development Ministry said in a statement issued on Saturday. The month-long campaign, organised by the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) under the aegis of the Ministry of Rural Development, will run across the country until December 23. This initiative, led by DAY-NRLM's extensive Self-Help Group (SHG) network, embodies the spirit of Jan Andolan. The campaign is a collaborative effort and will witness participation of nine ministries and departments, including Ministry of Women and Child Development; Health and Family Welfare; ...

Over 850 million women face 'very poor' gender equality conditions: Report

No country has achieved the gender equality targets set by the United Nations for 2030 under the Sustainable Development Goals, said the report

Olympian boxer Imane Khelif sues Elon Musk, JK Rowling over gender remarks

At the Paris Olympics, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif faced intense scrutiny over her gender on social media after her opponent exited their August 1 bout in the 66 kg boxing category in just 46 seconds

Amid shortage of professionals, chipmakers ramp up campus engagement

Companies such as Intel India, AMD, Applied Materials India, and Tessolve are collaborating with students and staff on practical projects and setting up labs at institutions such as IIT-Bombay

Algo rhythm: Making way for women in the Indian technology industry

The survey by the Talent500 unit of ANSR involved 3,000 women working in technology companies

'Toughen up', not 'man up': Govt releases gender-neutral language guide

In a bid to promote the use of gender-neutral language, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani on Tuesday released a guide which administrators and educational institutions will be encouraged to refer to. The Guide on Gender Inclusive Communication' has been compiled by the National Gender and Child Center, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and UN Women. The guide highlights the importance of the gender spectrum, and also provides a lexicon on gender neutral language. The guide attempts to give a breakdown of gendered use of language and stresses on making a deliberate effort to become conscious of existing biases in commonly spoken language. The guide has over 60 words and phrases, and recommends the use of 'toughen up' instead of 'man up', 'owner' instead of 'landlord or landlady', 'humankind or humanity' instead of 'mankind', 'workforce or workers' for 'manpower', 'transgender .

Taking a lead: Startups beat corporates in gender inclusivity race

Women account for 35% of people employed in startups, compared to 19% in the corporate sector, shows a study

Gender shock: Share of Indian women in managerial roles declines

Country's progress in achieving board diversity falls behind comparable peers

India needs a gender strategy

It must adopt a holistic approach consisting of fiscal, administrative, and regulatory measures, combined with public messaging and mindset changes

EU Parliament condemns 'gender apartheid policy' of Taliban in Afghanistan

They also condemned the increase in human rights violations in Afghanistan, particularly arbitrary detentions, extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, and torture by former security forces

Gender bias seen in AI-generated content on leadership, new research says

New research has revealed an inherent gender bias in the content - text, images, other media - generated by artificial intelligence (AI). Analysing AI-generated content about what made a 'good' and 'bad' leader, men were consistently depicted as strong, courageous, and competent, while women were often portrayed as emotional and ineffective, researchers at the University of Tasmania, Australia, and Massey University, New Zealand, found. Thus, AI-generated content can preserve and perpetuate harmful gender biases, they said in their study published in the journal Organizational Dynamics. "Any mention of women leaders was completely omitted in the initial data generated about leadership, with the AI tool providing zero examples of women leaders until it was specifically asked to generate content about women in leadership. "Concerningly, when it did provide examples of women leaders, they were proportionally far more likely than male leaders to be offered as examples of bad leaders, .

Countries with high proportion of women MPs have reservation within parties

As Parliament debates a bill providing reservation to women in Houses of People, a think tank study shows several countries having a high proportion of women representatives do not have laws mandating a quota but there is reservation within the political parties. According to an analysis by PRS Legislative Research, countries like Sweden, where 46 per cent of the public representatives are women, Norway (46 per cent), South Africa (45 per cent), Australia (38 per cent), France (35 per cent) and Germany (35 per cent) do not have any law reserving seats for women but some political parties provide reservation. Bangladesh, which has 21 per cent women MPs, has a law providing reservations to women. Out of the 300 seats in the Bangladesh Parliament, 50 are reserved for women. The study also claimed that reserving seats for women in Parliament would restrict the choice of voters. According to the think tank, experts suggest reservation within political parties as an alternative or a syste

Women's reservation Bill is about removing bias, injustice: DMK's Kanimozhi

The women's reservation bill is not about reservation but an "act of removing bias and injustice," DMK leader Kanimozhi said in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday while asserting that women want to be respected as equals. Participating in the discussion on the constitutional amendment bill 'Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam', she said the clause pertaining to 'after delimitation' in the bill should be removed as there could be an inordinate delay in the implementation of the reservation for women. The 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, as proposed in the bill, will come into effect only after census and the delimitation exercise. "How long should we wait to see this bill implemented? It can be easily implemented in the coming Parliamentary elections. This bill, you should understand, is not a reservation but an act of removing bias and injustice," she said. She stressed that the politics of tokenism must evolve into politics of ideas. "This bill is called

Nine out of 10 people hold biases against women, says UNDP's report

The Gender Social Norms Index shows that 25% of the population in 80 countries thinks a husband beating his wife is justifiable

Great strides made but much room for improvement, say women entrepreneurs

Aside from factors such as social stigma, gender biases, insufficient capacity building and access to actionable knowledge, a pressing challenge for women entrepreneurs is access to capital, especiall

Some persons trying to mislead society on gender neutral policy: Kerala min

Kerala General Education Minister V Sivankutty on Saturday criticised the stand of certain IUML leaders on the state government's gender neutral policy, alleging that they were trying to mislead the people and sought to know why they are afraid of equal opportunity for women in the society. Slamming the statements of IUML leaders M K Muneer and P M A Salam on the issue, Sivankutty said the state government has repeatedly clarified its stand several times and those who are criticising the initiatives for gender equality, gender justice and gender awareness are not reading the writings of time on the wall. He was speaking on the sidelines of a students' programme organised at Kalamassery here. "In recent days, we have seen the statements of some leaders regarding gender equality. Why are they afraid of gender equality? Why are they worried about equal opportunity and equal justice for their mother, sister, wife and daughter?" he asked. Sivankutty made it clear that if it was the case

At 12.4 per cent, India has twice the number of female pilots as the US

Statistics raise questions about how a nation, placed 135th among 146 countries on the World Economic Forum's ranking of nations based on gender parity, was able to reverse the trend in the industry

Teleperformance aiming at more gender diverse, inclusive workforce in India

Business process management firm hired 4,500 people in Feb globally, of which 40% were women; the company is also