The Times: BBC bows to age rage and brings back mature women. Three women over fifty, Fiona Armstrong, 53, Julia Somerville, 62 and Zeinab Badawi, 50, have been hired as presenters on the BBC News Channel. This is a pleasant change in a world in which older women mysteriously disappear from news programs, when women are allowed to report/present “hard news” at all. Related: here’s a good article from a few years back on women in the news by BBC news presenter and feminist Fiona Bruce. She’s commonly asked ‘What do you wear under the desk?’ and ‘What is your favourite recipe?’ Also check out the Global Media Monitoring Project, which follows trends in gender in the media around the world.
AP: Serena Williams is 2009 AP Female Athlete of Year. Would you like to know the runner up? It was a horse.
Times of India: Bangalore police want ban on women bartenders. This follows the abduction (and rescue, don’t worry!) of twelve bartenders on their way home on Saturday. As interviewee K.S. Vimala says, ‘Sexual harassment of women is happening in other work places. That does not mean, we’ll stop them from working altogether. What is needed is proper safety and security for women at their work places’. The Bar and Restaurant Owners’ Association is stepping up security.
LA Times: In Iran, a blind musician leads the way for a women’s orchestra.
DailyCamera.com: Healing Nepal: All-female guide company empowering women one trek at a time. ‘After hearing from several disgruntled female tourists, complaining of male guides disrespecting them, the sisters — armed with basic mountaineering skills — opened the country’s first female-owned trekking company, run by and for women.’ The three Chhetri sisters have also opened a children’s home for girls age 7 to 16 who have been rescued from child labor. And 3 Sisters Adventure Trekking has a non-profit arm called Empowering Women of Nepal, which has a number of programs that sound amazing.