Female

‘Cuties’ isn’t what I expected. It’s a powerful portrait of female rage

By Gertrude Aziz 5 days ago

Médina El Aidi-Azouni, left, and Fathia Youssouf in a scene from "Cuties." <span class="copyright">(Netflix)</span>
Médina El Aidi-Azouni, left, and Fathia Youssouf in a scene from “Cuties.” (Netflix)

Well, I finally watched that movie everyone is talking about.

No, not “Tenet,” which did not manage to single-handedly revive the film industry from its pandemic-induced coma in a week. I watched “Cuties,” Maïmouna Doucouré’s film about an 11-year-old Senegalese immigrant in France who rebels against her conservative culture by hurling herself into certain extremities of the modern world — social media and sexually provocative dancing — only to find them just as oppressive.

You know, the pedophile movie.

I’m not trying to be flip about pedophilia — the sexual abuse and exploitation of children are real and never funny.

It’s also absolutely not the way any sane person would categorize this movie.

In the essentials, “Cuties” is a fairly basic and recognizable story: troubled girl attempts to find herself by gaining the acceptance of others and

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What Citigroup’s new female CEO Jane Fraser means for business and the next generation

By Gertrude Aziz 1 week ago

Citigroup’s announcement this week that Jane Fraser would become its next CEO is leading to applause nationwide. She is now the first woman to lead a major bank.

This comes as no surprise – especially with COVID changing so much of the way we live now and the #BlackLivesMatter movement calling for unprecedented action relating to women, diversity and equal opportunity.

CITI CEO MICHAEL CORBAT TO RETIRE IN FEBRUARY

And indeed, there are a host of incredible women in banking driving growth and innovation – from U.S. Bank’s Kate Quinn to Bank of America’s Cathy Bessant, to name a few.

But the implications are far greater than just having a woman at the top.

This generation has made a seismic shift in equality – something that is likely to trickle down to where they bank.

Imagine if the 170 million adult women – just over 50% of the U.S. population

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Egypt female social media influencers get two-year jail terms

By Gertrude Aziz 2 months ago

Cairo (AFP) – An Egyptian court Monday sentenced five female social media influencers to two years in jail each on charges of violating public morals, a judicial source said.

The verdict against Haneen Hossam, Mowada al-Adham and three others came after they had posted footage on video-sharing app TikTok.

“The Cairo economic court sentenced Hossam, Adham and three others to two years after they were convicted of violating society’s values,” the judicial source said.

The ruling, which can be appealed, included a fine of 300,000 Egyptian pounds ($18,750) for each defendant, the source noted.

Hossam was arrested in April after posting a three-minute clip telling her 1.3 million followers that girls could make money by working with her.

In May, authorities arrested Adham who had posted satirical videos on TikTok and Instagram, where she has at least two million followers.

Lawyer Ahmed Hamza al-Bahqiry said the young women are facing

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Egypt female social media influencers get 2-year jail terms

By Gertrude Aziz 2 months ago

Cairo (AFP) – An Egyptian court Monday sentenced five female social media influencers to two years in jail on charges of violating public morals, a judicial source said.

The verdict against Haneen Hossam, Mowada al-Adham and three others came after they posted footage on video-sharing app TikTok.

“The Cairo economic court sentenced Hossam, Adham and three others to two years after they were convicted of violating society values,” the source said.

The ruling — which can be appealed — included a fine of 300,000 Egyptian pounds ($18,750) each, the source added.

Hossam was arrested in April after posting a three-minute clip telling her 1.3 million followers that girls could make money by working with her.

In May, authorities arrested Adham who had posted satirical videos on TikTok and Instagram, where she has at least two million followers.

The arrests highlighted a social divide in the deeply conservative Muslim country over

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The 25 best CEOs of 2020, ranked by female employees

By Gertrude Aziz 2 months ago

Google CEO Sundar Pichai was ranked highly as an effective leader by female employees.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai was ranked highly as an effective leader by female employees.

Stephen Lam/Reuters

The past few years have sparked many important conversations around gender in the workplace. 

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s seminal book “Lean In,” sparked discussions around gender and race in corporate America. The #MeToo and #TimesUp movements shined a light on assault and harassment against women in various industries and across the globe. The coronavirus pandemic made more executives aware of the unpaid household and childcare duties women disproportionately take on, and who was most economically impacted by the pandemic’s economic fallout.

Now, calls for diversity and inclusion from workers amid Black Lives Matter protests are forcing corporations to take a look inward and make changes.

For leaders looking to make change, knowing which corporate leaders rank highly among women can help. It could also help female workers looking to potentially switch companies. Career website

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Black, female entrepreneurs are changing Silicon Valley

By Gertrude Aziz 3 months ago

SAN FRANCISCO – In the early days of Zume Pizza, visitors to Julia Collins’ robotic food prep company in Silicon Valley would greet her at the door and say, “Can you grab me a water? I’m here to meet with the founder.” When pitching her business to investment partners at venture capital firms, Collins was nearly always the only woman and always the only black person in the room.

Then, late last year, a hairline crack surfaced in the invisible yet seemingly impenetrable barrier that limits black women’s access to the tech world. A $375 million investment gave Zume Pizza a valuation of $2.25 billion.

It wasn’t just the company she co-founded that reached unicorn status. Collins did, too, as the first black woman whose tech company is valued at $1 billion or more by investors. Now that she’s working on a new startup in regenerative agriculture, investors are calling

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KNC Beauty Founder Launches Zoom School for Black Female Entrepreneurs

By Gertrude Aziz 3 months ago

Click here to read the full article.

Beauty entrepreneur Kristen Noel Crawley, the founder of KNC Beauty, is starting an online educational platform meant to help other Black female entrepreneurs succeed with their beauty businesses.

The program is called KNC Beauty School and it makes its debut online July 14. Crawley and other Black female executives, including Trinity Mouzon of Golde and Melissa Butler of The Lip Bar, will provide four semesters of free information on entrepreneurship, facing adversity, social media and marketing and strategic partnerships and investors.

“We’ll be going over resources and giving advice from other female founders to women of color who want to start a business or are in the early stages of their business,” Crawley said.

Interested entrepreneurs can sign up through a registration link available via Crawley’s Instagram account, where she has more than 400,000 followers.

Crawley had found that after speaking at industry

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Here’s How Cartier Is Helping Female Entrepreneurs Make a Big Global Impact

By Gertrude Aziz 3 months ago

Click here to read the full article.

Ready for a little good news? Cartier has announced 21 finalists for its Cartier Women’s Initiative, three of which hail from North America. Each year since 2006, the French jewelry and watch maison has used the platform to support female entrepreneurs with start-up businesses aimed at making a social or environmental impact. To date, CWI has given over $3 million to aid 240 women from 56 different countries. Of the various female-run companies to participate over the last 14 years, 80 percent are still in operation 15 years later, according to Cartier CEO Cyrille Vigneron. That is an impressive number given that statistically, only 25 percent of new businesses survive to the 15-year marker.

While the businesses that take part in CWI are for profit, Vigneron says their ultimate goal is to make effect change for the good of humanity. “They work deeply

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