Gender roles

Why are millions of Indian women dropping out of work?

  •  Nearly 20 million Indian women quit work between 2004-05 to 2011-12
  • The labour force participation rate for women of working age declined from 42% in 1993-94 to 31% in 2011-12
  • Some 53% of the total drop - the largest chunk - happened among women aged 15-24 and living in villages
  • In rural areas, the female labour force participation rate dropped from 49% to 37.8% between 2004-05 and 2009-10
  • While more than 24 million men joined the work force between 2004-5 to 2009-10, the number of women in the the work force dropped by 21.7 million

I acted as a man to get work - until I was accused of rape

Pili Hussein grew up in a large family in Tanzania. The daughter of a livestock keeper who had many large farms, Pili's father had six wives and she was one of 38 children. Although she was well looked after, in many ways, she doesn't look back on her upbringing fondly.

"My father treated me like a boy and I was given livestock to take care of - I didn't like that life at all," she says.

But her marriage was even more unhappy, and at the age of 31 Pili ran away from her abusive husband.

Brazilian president under fire over praise of women's supermarket skills

Wednesday's speech began cordially enough, with compliments to female representatives of the Senate and Lower House, who were present at the event at the Planato presidential palace.

He highlighted the importance of women's struggles in Brazil, from gaining equal voting rights to fighting femicide.

He compared the country's successes to others who still treat women as "second class citizens," and praised his wife Marcela and other women in his life for everything they do "in the house, in the home and for their children."

Women work 39 days a year more than men, report says

Women work on average 50 minutes more a day than men, data from the WEF's Global Gender Gap report suggests.

The report says the prevalence of unpaid work burdens women and estimates that economic inequalities between the sexes could take 170 years to close.

The gap in economic opportunity, the WEF says, is now larger than at any point since 2008.

Nearly a quarter of a billion women have entered the global workforce over the past decade, the report says.

These emoji from Google show women in powerful careers instead of doing their nails

As Amy Butcher in The New York Times notes, "Where was the lawyer? The accountant? The surgeon? How was there space for both a bento box and a single fried coconut shrimp, and yet women were restricted to a smattering of tired, beauty-centric roles?"

Four Google designers are on it.