Let’s Hear It For The Girls
October 11 is International Day of the Girl Child. But what does that actually mean? It’s a UN initiative which has run every year since 2012 and, this year, the theme is ‘With Her: A Skilled GirlForce’.
According to the UN, today’s generation of girls is preparing to enter a world of work that is being transformed by innovation and automation. Educated and skilled workers are in great demand, but roughly a quarter of young people – most of them female – are currently neither employed nor in education or training.
Of the one billion young people – including 600 million adolescent girls – that will enter the workforce in the next decade, more than 90 per cent of those living in developing countries will work in the informal sector, where low or no pay, abuse and exploitation are common.
Under the theme, With Her: A Skilled GirlForce, International Day of the Girl Child will mark the beginning of a year-long effort to bring together partners and stakeholders to advocate for, and draw attention and investments to the most pressing needs and opportunities for girls to attain skills for employability.
To my mind, the UN has a lot of slightly bonkers special days – such as Television Day! – but this is one I’m fully in favour of.
An Exciting New Neighbour
I must admit I’m not always a fan of the seemingly endless proliferation of new hotels popping up across the island and can often be heard grumbling “Who’s going to stay in them?” However, there’s one new arrival I’m very happy to welcome to our shores, having visited its sister property in Beirut. The Merchant House, part of the Campbell Gray Hotels, is due to open in the heart of Manama next to Bab Al Bahrain and the souq, which is an area undergoing a vast regeneration project. An all-suite hotel, it will have open-plan kitchen, dining areas and sitting rooms. And, if its sister property is anything to go by, we’re in for a treat.
Blind Leading the Way
Visually impaired women in India are learning to use their heightened sense of touch to become medical tactile examiners (MTE), helping other women at risk of breast cancer. Once trained, an MTE can cover the whole breast area centimetre by centimetre in 35 to 45 minutes and can detect lumps as small as 0.5cm. Braille markings are used to indicate the exact spot for attention by a doctor. It’s not an alternative to a mammogram but can be really useful in helping with early diagnosis, particularly for women who might otherwise not get checked. I’d love to see this programme spread worldwide.
choiCrossing the Line
There’s been anger in the UK after a male Credit Suisse director, Philip Bunce, appeared on the Champions of Women in Business list of top 100 female executives. Mr Bunce is a man but claims to be ‘gender fluid’ and non-binary – neither male nor female. But, and it’s a big but, he is not female, does not identify as female, despite wearing women’s clothing approximately 50 per cent of the time, and made his way successfully in the business world as a man before starting to cross-dress openly about four years ago. Seems to me there were plenty of women, either born female or transitioned, who could have been lauded instead. This looks a bit like political correctness taken to the needless nth degree.
