Category: coding

A Hamleys revolution: letting children be children, regardless of gender

It was interesting to read in Tuesday’s Times newspaper that Hamleys, probably the most famous toy store in the country, had decided to change its long-held policy of separating out ‘girls’ toys’ from ‘boys’ toys’. Hamleys is synonymous with children’s toys and by association with much, much more: childhood, Christmas, innocence, fun … it is …

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Preparing girls to ‘have it all’ in life

On Wednesday I addressed an audience of Sixth Form girls at Wellington College in Berkshire, at a conference designed to explore whether it is possible for girls and women to ‘have it all’ in their lives. My approach was straightforward – the answer is, quite simply, ‘yes’ – they just need to work out what …

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Why we need to keep up the pressure for women on Boards

It was good to read last week that David Cameron had written to the chief executives of the FTSE 100 companies to remind them of their obligation – recommended in Lord Davies’ report on Women in Boards published last February – to work out how they are going to aim for 25% female representation on …

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“Women earn more than men”: should we be excited?

An article in yesterday’s Independent by Richard Garner, the Education Editor, drew attention to the content of this year’s Elizabeth Johnson Memorial Lecture at the Institute of Physics. Betty Johnson, who died in 2003, was a great supporter of women in the sciences, and in her honour, this lecture this year was given by Mary …

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Women’s depression rates: how can we prevent them rising further?

A relatively well-considered article in the Daily Mail last week drew attention again to the rise in the number of women who are being treated in this country for depression, and who are as a result of this diagnosis are being prescribed anti-depressants. As usual in the Daily Mail, it is important to read beyond …

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Women in teams: the way to combat the gender pay gap?

I missed this article, ‘Women compete better in teams’, which appeared in Sunday’s Observer, but luckily one of my senior staff passed it on to me. It gave details of research published in the Economics Journal about an experiment conducted by researchers about team exercises, and the results were fascinating, with implications for understanding and …

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Boardroom quotas and social change

A very interesting comment piece appeared in The Telegraph on Wednesday of this week, and I thoroughly recommend that you read it. Entitled ‘Quotas won’t resolve the battle of the sexes’, it was written jointly by Dominic Raab and Priti Patel, Conservative MPs for, respectively, Esher and Walton, and Witham, and it challenged the recommendations …

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How to ensure we don’t wait 70 years for equality

Two weeks ago I wrote about the recent report published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, ‘Sex and Power‘, which had calculated the rather gloomy statistic that in some areas of public life, we will most probably need to wait 70 years until there is equality of gender representation at the highest levels. Can …

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Sex and power: 70 years until equality?

Amongst all the high emotions and press coverage of the A Levels and university entrance last week, a report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission slipped right under the radar. This report, entitled ‘Sex and Power’, looked at the number of women in power or influence in Britain in 2010-11, and compared it with …

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