Amazons Watch Magazine
Category

Happenings

Category
Happenings

A Changing Middle East: New Jobs for Women in Saudi Arabia

By: Katie Beiter For the first time, women in Saudi Arabia are being allowed to work in pharmacies, herbal medicine stores and optical stores in malls. The new opportunities are part of a plan, called Saudi Vision 2030, to diversify its economy away from a reliance on oil by utilizing a traditionally untapped resource: women. The ultra-conservative Wahhabi nation, known for having repressive laws surrounding women, has committed itself to increasing female employment rates from 22% to 30% mainly by reforming laws. “They are marketing it as a social reform but it is very much tied to the economic situation in Saudi Arabia,” Adam Coogle, a Middle Eastern researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW), told The Media Line. Saudi Arabia, which has a population of roughly 31 million, is a vital member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Around half of its gross domestic product is based…

Keep Reading
By
Happenings

Women have been named to some of Japan’s top posts, but the country still lags on female empowerment

By: Ann M. Simmons Acknowledging that Japan has failed to fully promote the advancement of women, the Japanese government has pledged to elevate their status in the workplace and in the country’s political arena. In the last five months, three women assumed high-profile political positions in Japan: The country’s new defense minister, the governor of Tokyo and the leader of the opposition Democratic Party are all women. In the corporate world, “male business leaders started to view women’s empowerment not as a human rights issue but an economic issue,” said Kaori Sasaki, a prominent women’s rights advocate and president and chief executive officer of ewoman Inc., a think tank and consulting firm. “Public companies have started to open the doors for women to be on boards — that’s why I’m sitting on several public companies’ boards,” Sasaki told The Times during a recent interview. “Also, companies started doing a lot…

Keep Reading
By
Happenings

Tanzania Women’s Bank, First Bank Nigeria, 4 Others Emerge Africa’s Leading Women-Friendly Banks

The Amazons Watch Magazine’s online poll to gauge African financial institutions with the Best Women Supportive programmes and policies ended on Thursday with Tanzania Women’s Bank Limited (TWB) maintaining the vanguard position as the Most Women-Friendly Bank in Africa, closely trailed by the First Bank Nigeria Plc. TWB, Africa’s first women bank incorporated in 2007 with a passion and commitment towards female entrepreneurs, empowering women economically and socially, polled 30.8% of the total votes cast; while First Bank, Nigeria’s largest financial services institution, established in 1894, which has over the years demonstrated commitment to promote women empowerment with women-supportive products, secured 23%. Nigeria’s Bank of Industry (BOI) maintained the third position with 22% of the total votes cast; and the duo of Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (GTB) Nigeria and Diamond Bank Plc Nigeria sit at the fourth position with 10% at a tie. The Lift Above Poverty Organisation (LAPO), one…

Keep Reading
By
Happenings

Poll: Tanzania Women’s Bank, First Bank Nigeria Lead as Africa’s Best Women Supportive Bank

  By Ehis Ayere Few days to the close of voting, Tanzania Women’s Bank (TWB) has taken the lead as the Best Women Supportive Bank in Africa, with programmes, products and services that have significantly empowered and impacted the financial lives of women, providing them with the ability, opportunity, and skill to generate and control their own incomes. TWB polled 25% of the total votes cast, closely trailed by Bank of Industry Nigeria, with 16.5% of votes cast. Click here to cast your vote. The Amazons Watch Magazine launched the poll November 17 with the aim of recognizing and promoting the Top 5 Women Supportive Banks in Emerging Economies (Africa); with programmes and services that have significantly empowered women, increasing women’s access to financial services, improving the well-being of women, and bolstering gender equality, with notable impacts, transcending beyond the individual woman level to improvement in the standard of living…

Keep Reading
By
Happenings

Poll: Cast Your Vote for the Best Women Supportive Bank in Africa

  The Amazons Watch Magazine invites you to participate in the online Poll for the Top 5 Best Women Supportive Financial Institutions in Emerging Economies (Africa) aimed at recognizing and promoting the financial institutions with the best programmes, products and services tailored towards increasing financing for women in emerging economies. The poll, which is one of the Magazine’s strategic public engagement tools, aimed at engendering healthy competition, peer review and promoting good women supportive financial services, will be organized in four (4) phases across the regions of developing countries, beginning with the African region, followed by Asia, Middle-East, and then South-America. Women make up about half of the world’s population, but are unfortunately disproportionately burdened by work and poverty in some developing countries, excluded from the political, economic, and social power structures. One of the identified ways women are today being significantly empowered is providing them with the ability, opportunity,…

Keep Reading
By
Happenings

Puerto Rico Women’s Project Uplifts Domestic Violence Survivors

Women in Puerto Rico have recently  launched ProyectoMatria, a store to showcase art, clothing, accessories and products for mother and child, all produced by survivors of domestic abuse and other forms of gender-based violence. The new store, called Matrias, is a pilot project initially scheduled to run until December in San Juan’s Santurce district. It is an offshoot of the business incubator initiative, known as Libera, which seeks to provide women with alternatives to discrimination and violence. “When you buy a product at Matrias, you are supporting our participants’ empowerment and self-sufficiency,” ProyectoMatria case manager Tanagra Melgarejo Pulido told Puerto Rican outlet Noticel. “But more important still, you are promoting social justice.” Organizers behind the initiative will help end the cycle of domestic abuse in part by providing women with more opportunities for economic self-reliance and a greater sense of confidence that often accrues from that independence. “If women in…

Keep Reading
By
Happenings

Iranian UN Envoy Says Women ‘Key Resource for Promoting Peace’

Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations Gholam Ali Khoshroo has recently highlighted the important role of women in promoting peace and stability across the world and said Tehran backs the UN’s decision to include women’s leadership in “Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism”. “Women are a key resource for promoting peace and stability,” Khoshroo said in a statement, addressing the UN Security Council Open Debate on Women and Peace and Security in New York. He stated that women’s participation and inclusion makes humanitarian assistance more effective, strengthens the protection of civilians, contributes to the political settlement of disputes and helps maintain sustainable peace and accelerates economic recovery Khoshroo noted that the adoption of the agenda for sustainable development, the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action all reminds people that there is strong direct relation between sustainable peace and security and sustainable development, and the fact…

Keep Reading
By