August 20
Sierra Leone: Sierra Leone's Women Farmers Use a Custom Called Bora to Access Land - but It's Making Them More Vulnerable
Bora - a type of thank you gift - is a Sierra Leonean custom of respect that is often used in relation to land. For instance, informal farmers pay bora to landowners to be able to… Read more »
August 15
Algeria: Women in Translation Month - a Moving Algerian Novel Tracks the Economic Struggles of Writers and Publishers
French-Algerian publisher Edmond Charlot is the subject of the Algerian writer Kaouther Adimi's third novel, and her first to be translated into English. Read more »
August 05
Algeria: Imane Khelif - the Algerian Boxer Who Overcame an Ugly Gender Furore to Win Olympic Gold
Imane Khelif's gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics meant also overcoming a furore that erupted around her and another boxer earlier in the games. Ugly issues of gender identity,… Read more »
August 08
South Africa: Sexual Abuse and Bad Pay - Women's Struggles in South African Live Music Exposed
Women working in live music as performers and in other onstage and behind-the-scenes roles in South Africa experience exclusion from decision-making, unequal pay, pressure to fit… Read more »
August 05
Algeria: Women's Boxing in Olympic Storm - Who Is Algeria's Imane Khelif and What Are the Issues She's Facing?
Imane Khelif from Algeria is one of two women boxers at the 2024 Paris Olympics making the news - as ugly issues of gender testing and testosterone levels once again raise their… Read more »
July 29
Africa: Moms Think More About Household Chores - and This Cognitive Burden Hurts Their Mental Health
When you think about housework, you likely think of actions: scrubbing the dishes, running errands, chopping vegetables for dinner. And it's not news to say that mothers often… Read more »
July 15
Nigeria: Pregnant Nigerian Women Need Faster Access to Hospitals - Technology Helped Us Calculate Travel Times
Nigeria contributes 28% of the 280,000 maternal deaths and about 10% of almost two million stillbirths that occur annually across the globe. Read more »
Africa: Gender Apartheid - Oppression of Women Should Be Made a Crime Against Humanity - Feminist Academic Explains Why
Crimes against humanity are occurring with impunity around the globe; from Myanmar to Sudan, Ukraine and elsewhere. And yet, unlike international treaties for the crimes of… Read more »
July 08
Nigeria: Surviving Breast Cancer - Nigerian Women Share Their Stories
"I believe I will still beat it again." These are the words of a Nigerian woman, Didi, who feared a recurrence of her cancer - but saw herself as a survivor. Read more »
July 04
Africa: Women Football Players in Africa Have Overcome Enormous Barriers - New Book Tells the Story
Women's Football in Africa, the first in-depth book on the subject, traces the history of women's soccer from initially being banned through to today's growing numbers of fans and… Read more »
June 13
South Africa: Searching for a Female Partner for the World's 'Loneliest' Plant
"Surely this is the most solitary organism in the world," wrote palaeontologist Richard Fortey in his book about the evolution of life. Read more »
June 09
Africa: Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa Is Linked to Increasing Obesity Rates in Women
Obesity and excess weight gain, traditionally perceived as health issues predominantly affecting high-income countries, are now increasingly prevalent in low and middle-income… Read more »
June 05
Africa: Female Giraffes Drove the Evolution of Long Giraffe Necks in Order to Feed On the Most Nutritious Leaves, New Research Suggests
Everything in biology ultimately boils down to food and sex. To survive as an individual you need food. To survive as a species you need sex. Read more »
May 26
Uganda: Men Still Dominate Uganda's Party Politics - Women's Participation Is Mostly Cosmetic
Electoral gender quotas in Uganda - first introduced in 1989 - have increased women's numbers in Uganda's parliament to 34%. Today there are 189 women out of 557 members of… Read more »
May 13
Tanzania: Tanzania's Political Parties Have Few Women in Leadership and Candidate Lists - Some Solutions
Tanzania, in keeping with global political trends, reserves 30% of seats in parliament for women. These so-called special seats were introduced with multiparty politics in 1992, in… Read more »
May 12
Africa: Female Genital Mutilation Is On the Rise in Africa - Disturbing New Trends Are Driving Up the Numbers
Thirteen-year-old Salamatu Jalloh had her whole future to look forward to. But in January 2023, her lifeless body was found wrapped in a pink and blue shroud on an earthen floor in… Read more »
April 28
Ghana: Margaret Busby - How a Pioneering Ghanaian Publisher Put African Women's Writing On the Map
Published in 1992, Daughters of Africa is a groundbreaking volume of writing by women of African descent. It was followed by an expanded second edition, New Daughters of Africa, in… Read more »
April 25
South Africa: Persisting Inequality Has Made Many Young South Africans Question the Choices Made By Nelson Mandela - Podcast
Some young South Africans have begun to question Nelson Mandela's legacy, and the choices made in the transition to democracy after the end of apartheid in 1994. Some have even… Read more »
April 22
Africa: Sex Differences Don't Disappear As a Country's Equality Develops - Sometimes They Become Stronger
The more gender equal a society is, the more similar men and women will be, adopting more similar interests, personality traits and behavioural patterns. Or so many people seem to… Read more »
April 18
South Africa: Climate Change Makes Life Harder - in South Africa It's Likely to Bring Heatwaves, Water Stress and Gender-Based Violence
South Africa is feeling the impacts of global warming. Heat is frequent and more intense. Human-induced climate change made the severe 2015-2017 drought three to six times more… Read more »
April 17
Africa: How to End Hunger in Sub-Saharan Africa - Fight Inequality, Gender Imbalances and Climate Change
A greater part of Africa's population can't afford a healthy diet than any other regional population. Food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa is caused by climate change, high levels… Read more »
April 12
Africa: Young, Black Woman Scientist Discovered Pivotal Leprosy Treatment in 1920s But Someone Took the Credit
Hansen's disease, also called leprosy, is treatable today - and that's partly thanks to a curious tree and the work of a pioneering young scientist in the 1920s. Centuries prior to… Read more »
April 07
Malawi: Have You Ever Suffered Intimate Partner Abuse? We Asked Girls in Malawi and 40 Percent Said Yes
Intimate partner violence starts early. Read more »
April 05
Rwanda: Rwandan Genocide, 30 Years On - Omitting Women's Memories Encourages Incomplete Understanding of Violence
The eruption of violence that Rwanda experienced beginning on the evening of April 6, 1994, continues to haunt the central African nation 30 years on - it has also changed the… Read more »
April 03
Kenya: Kenya's Wildlife Conservancies Make Old Men Rich, While Making Women and Young People Poorer
Kenya once had an exceptional abundance and diversity of wildlife. But as the country's population boomed, wildlife lost space to people, buildings, roads and agriculture. Read more »