Weekly round up: anyone for tennis?

As Adele would say, hello. Ahead of a long (in the UK, at least) weekend, here’s my round up of gender related news, plus a recommendation for a novel.

There’s still lots of noise around the gender pay gap. And I feel that my prediction earlier this year that it’s THE human capital news story of 2016 is very much the case. The Huffington Post asked – just how persistent is the gender pay gap? Apparently, even companies that practice “salary transparency” – making all employees’ salaries publicly available – may end up paying men more than women.  And a report by the UK Women and Equalities Select Committee said the government has failed to close the pay gap and called for action on what it dubbed the ‘motherhood penalty’.

Meanwhile, anyone for tennis? The sporting pay gap story of the week played out in a series of comments, resignations and backtracks. Firstly, Indian Wells Tennis Garden CEO Raymond Moore’s allegation that female tennis players “ride on [the] coattails of the men” hit the tennis world like a bombshell, prompting his subsequent resignation. While Serena Williams called his statements “mistaken and very, very, very inaccurate,” Novak Djokovic firstly took the opposite view, saying he believes there is data to support the notion that men bring in more fans, swiftly followed by HIS backtrack,  claiming he had been misunderstood and that it wasn’t his “intention” to cause offence (thus proving my oft-repeated point that it’s never about intent but always about impact). Game, set and match to Serena Williams and Andy Murray, I think,  who both come out of this debate with dignity and gender equity support intact and consistent.

In US politics, The New York Times reported on how white men are pushing back on supporting Hillary Clinton, whilst Donald Trump’s “problem with women” may cost him the Republican nomination (and that would be a real definition of soft power,  if it happens).

“To win the White House Donald Trump will have to accomplish one of the great political seductions of all time. Having insulted the women of America as bimbos, fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals, he will have to persuade them to vote for him.”

(I can’t actually bear to illustrate this story with a relevant image,  so please use your imagination, if you can stand to do so.)

Thanks to ELLE’s Hannah Swerling sharing the details of it with us at Soho House last week,  I finally caught up with this New York magazine story on why and how young single, female voters hold the power in 2016 – why the shape of marriage and family life is changing and how the practicalities of female life independent of marriage give rise to US demands for pay equity, paid family leave, a higher minimum wage and broadly accessible reproductive rights; many of these are issues that have, for years, been considered too risky to be central to mainstream Democratic conversation, yet they are policies today supported by both Democratic candidates for president.

Last week, Sheryl Sandberg celebrated the two year anniversary of the release of the Lean In Collection on Getty Images, a library of thousands of creative images devoted to changing the portrayal of women and girls in media and advertising. In the past year, searches for “woman entrepreneur” have increased by 402% on Getty’s website — and searches for “empowered women” increased by 772%. As Sandberg shared on Facebook, “We also need to broaden the images we see of men, and there are signs that these depictions are changing. In 2007, the most downloaded image of a father was a dad playing football with his son. In 2015, the most downloaded image showed a dad reading a tablet with his daughter. They say a picture is worth a thousand words — and in an age where visuals are everywhere, it is so important to think about the messages those images are sending.” This link shares what role imagery in advertising can play, so that we can “be what we can see.”

It was reported in the UK that the so-called “tampon tax” (wherein sanitary protection products are taxed as a LUXURY item) is to be abolished and chef and campaigner Jamie Oliver came out swinging in favour of breastfeeding, saying that “we need to support the women of Britain to breastfeed more, anywhere they want to”, although he then ran into a wall of criticism, mostly from women who felt that it wasn’t down to a man to “mansplain” such a female function.

The Pool shared some revised ideas about what dressing for work now looks like and discussed how women’s wear has evolved over the last fifty years. And Lauren Laverne used the site to urge us all to speed up the pace of change.

Finally, books.

The Observer ran a nice piece on Caitlin Moran talking about her new book, Moranifesto and the same paper’s This Much I Know column featured feminist icon Gloria Steinem.

I read and enjoyed After the Last Dance by Sarra Manning; it tells the story of Rose (set in 1940s’ wartime London) and the (initially unlikeable) current day Jane, slowly unfolding their connection. A beautiful woman in a wedding dress walks into a seedy bar in Las Vegas and asks the first man she sees to marry her; in 1943, Rose runs away from home and ends up in London where she volunteers at Rainbow Corner, a nightclub for American GIs. It’s a slow burning read but I enjoyed it – perfect for a rainy afternoon and a hot cross bun.

 

Thanks to Sphere and NetGalley for the chance to read After the Last Dance.

 

#Gender stuff that’s caught my eye this week

Here’s my semi-regular round up of gender related news items which have caught my attention of late.

Firstly,  we seem to have moved into a time when we now monetise International Women’s Day (which falls next week, Tuesday 8^th March – how will you mark it?) – somewhat ironic,  given its origins in communist states such as Russia and China, no? I saw in The Observer that L’Occitane have launched this £4 pot of Ultra Soft Balm; they’re donating all profits to women’s projects in Burkina Faso – this, from their website:

L’OCCITANE has been working with the women of Burkina Faso for over 30 years to produce the shea butter used in our award-winning product collections. What started as a partnership with just 12 local women has now developed into an enterprise with over 17,000 women who produce the exceptionally versatile ingredient that both nourishes and protects the skin, even in extreme conditions.

I was also interested to read a very rare interview with Pakistani schoolgirl and activist Malala Yousafzai’s mother, Toor Pekai – aged 44 and usually in the shadows when it comes  to press coverage about her daughter; even the recent film about Malala’s life and experiences focused on her father, with its title [my emphasis] HE Named Me Malala. But now Toor Pekai shares how she is learning to read and write and explains that Malala nags her to do her homework.

“If I get poor marks, she says to try harder.”

Still on Pakistan, Nicholas Kristof  used a recent New York Times column to write about his Pakistani friend, a former Taliban supporter who now risks his life condemning the Taliban and standing up for women’s rights. His journey is about the power of education — but with a caveat, for what matters is not any education, but the right kind. The article touches on how he evolved from pro-Taliban and anti-American to a voice for moderation and the empowerment of girls. He also has something to say about how Americans like Donald Trump inadvertently help the extremists.

“The most effective opponents of Muslim extremists are the many Muslim moderates whom we in the media often ignore.”

Three of my favourite things are anything which celebrates the achievements of women; fashion; and social history. On that basis, an exhibition which focuses on all three of those activities is very high up on my “Yes, please!” list. Last year, just such an event, “Fashion on the Ration”, was held at the Imperial War Museum in London and I spent half of my birthday wandering around it, looking at the various clothes and artefacts made, worn and modified by women during the Second World War. The exhibition has now closed,  but the Julie Summers’ book which supported it is still available and is a very interesting read (better in the analogue book form than the digital though,  as it’s got great illustrations). A similar exhibition, “Fashion and Freedom” focuses on women in the First World War and is due to open on May 13^th at the  Manchester Art Gallery. It sounds fascinating – this link shows some of the photos and gives more details.

Back in the present day, a group of women in California have launched a project they’re calling The Elephant in the Valley – a safe and anonymous forum in which women can tell their stories about gender discrimination and bias in Silicon Valley.  Their hope is that sharing stories “will lead to the type of change that will make Silicon Valley a place of even greater innovation by making it a place of greater equality.”

And Accenture have released some new research in which they suggest that ‘digital fluency’ may be the key to improving workplace gender parity;  if we double the rate at which women become digitally fluent, defined as “the extent to which people embrace and use digital technologies to become more knowledgeable, connected and effective”, developed countries could see workplace gender parity by 2040 – 25 years sooner than the current World Economic Forum estimates.

Finally – who you gonna call? The all-female ‘Ghostbusters‘ reboot released its trailer this week, ahead of the film’s release in July. Nice quote from director Paul Feig:

“I seem to have a very feminine take on the world,” Feig said in a recent interview with The Mary Sue. “It is just who I am. I get sent scripts all the time, and when it’s a typical male character who has things together but is faced with a problem, I zone out. I just get completely uninterested. I’ve realized after years of watching movies, I’ve tired of the problems of men. I’m tired of seeing it portrayed.”

Next week, I’ll be blogging about International Women’s Day, women and power and talking to another awesome woman as part of my continuing #PowerofThree series of profiles. I welcome suggestions for interviewees for this series – please contact me if you’d like to bounce around some names.

 

Celebrating #WorldBookDay 2016

Today is World Book Day and my Facebook timeline is full of wonderful photos of children dressing up as their favourite characters from fiction. So far, I can see Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, several Harry Potters, ditto Hermione Granger, a cute Tiger Who Came to Tea, Mr Bump (from the Mr. Men books), Veruca Salt and a very impressive Tamora, Queen of the Goths from Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus. This is such a great idea, as is anything which encourages reading. And a literary poll of memorable children’s novel characters has revealed that heroines and female villains outnumber heroes and male baddies – but the top hero and the top villain are both male: Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort, respectively. Two of my favourite heroines appear in that list, too: Jo March from ‘Little Women’ and Anne Shirley from the ‘Anne of Green Gables’ series.

A website that I really love, even more so since my niece was born a few years ago (“though she be but little she is fierce”) is A Mighty Girl   which dubs itself as the world’s largest collection of books, toys and movies for ‘smart, confident, and courageous girls’. Their book section alone has over 2,000 girl-empowering books starring stellar Mighty Girl characters.

Some recent reads of my own (and note that, coincidentally, a couple of them are priced at 99p today, 3rd March, for the Kindle editions), by either fabulous female authors and/or which feature strong, thought provoking heroines and real life women, are:

FICTION

• The Interestings, The Position and The Wife by Meg Wolitzer. I think I first stumbled over a Meg Wolitzer novel as a Kindle Deal of the Day and since then have worked my way through the rest of her output. Often set in New York, always featuring smart characters and definitely worthy of a read, particularly if, like me, you love the work of writers like Alison Lurie and Anne Tyler. Start with The Wife and see if you can spot the plot twist.
• Rebel of the Sands – Alwyn Hamilton. A great new Young Adult novel; read my review here.
• The Help – Kathryn Stockett. I re-read this recently, following a holiday to the USA and was reminded again of what a powerful book it is (and a first, rejected by many publishers, novel too) and also what a great job they made of the film adaptation. So many great female characters, both heroines and villains. Chocolate pie, anyone?
• Life After Life – Kate Atkinson. This is rapidly becoming my new comfort read – I love twentieth century history and fiction at the best of times; Atkinson’s telling of Ursula’s birth in 1910 and then her varied, potential lives is a modern classic and one to which I return time and time again (appropriately).

What if you had the chance to live your life again and again, until you finally got it right?

• Summertime – Vanessa Lafaye. Another holiday read, this is also a first novel and tells the story of a huge hurricane which hit the Florida Keys in the 1930s. Very thought provoking images of race and place.
• This Charming Man – Marian Keyes. Not her most recent novel but I think, her best – an amazing depiction of domestic violence and the “charming man” who inflicts it upon a number of very different women.
• Just One Damn Thing After Another – Jodi Taylor. The first in the brilliant “Chronicles of St. Mary’s” series of novels about time travelling, tea fuelled historian Max.
• The Versions of Us – Laura Barnett. Not the first time I’ve raved  about this book, I know, but the characters seems to have taken up residence in my head.
• The Light Years – Elizabeth Jane Howard. This would probably be my desert island book. A much missed, under rated writer and the author of this, the first in the Cazalet quartet. And then read about her actual childhood and the life she led which gave rise to the fictionalised account in her autobiography, Slipstream.

NON FICTION

I’ve had something of a phase of reading about women’s lives in the twentieth century of late, as evidenced by some of these choices, starting with: Her Brilliant Career: 10 Extraordinary Women of the 1950s by Rachel Cooke
Shamefully, I hadn’t heard of any of these women before I read this book; it was a real eye opener to learn more about women working as architects and film producers, at a time when women in general were being urged back into the home after their brief period of wartime liberation. (And I also love the cover, see above). Which brings me neatly to:

• The Fifties Mystique – Jessica Mann: in which we get to learn about why the 1950s weren’t (spoiler alert) actually All That for women, in spite of the current vogue for re-casting history in a more favourable, vintage light.
• Debs at War: 1939-1945 – Anne de Courcy. I came to this having read the author’s excellent book on the women who sailed to India to find husbands  and also because I wanted to read more about women in World War 2 after one of my re-reads of Life after Life. This really opened my eyes as to how the lives of upper class women were changed beyond measure by their involvement in war work – as nurses, drivers, code crackers at Bletchley Park and pilots.
• A Curious Career – Lynn Barber. The fearless interviewer ‘Barber of Fleet Street’ describes how she fell into a career as a journalist and recalls some of her more memorable interviews and encounters. She is also the author of ‘An Education’, another example of a great book and a worthy on-screen interpretation. The film also stars Carey Mulligan, seen more recently in ‘Suffragette’, who is rapidly becoming one of my favourite actors.
• I Am Malala. Read my review here.
• My Life in Houses – Margaret Forster. This is Forster’s last work of non-fiction, before her recent sad death and tells her life story through the medium of all the places she’s lived. As much of a social history of housing (I can’t imagine a young married couple now being able to buy a Whole House in north London in their early twenties) as it is her memoir, it’s a charming read and she will be much missed; I have all of her books. And finally, but by way of a contrast:
• The Big Fat Surprise: Why Meat, Butter and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet – Nina Teicholz  Something of a crossover read for me, combining as it does my interest in food with a very solidly researched book by a female writer. I first read this in 2014 and it’s completely changed my approach to food, cookery and weight loss.

Happy reading.

 

 

 

This week, I’m reading: Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton

Rebel of the Sands is the first book, published today, in a forthcoming trilogy of what is billed as a Young Adult (YA) series, but which could be enjoyed by anyone who loves a strong story set in a fictional, dystopian world, fully fashioned by first time author Alywn Hamilton. The world in question, centred around the unforgiving, dead-end town of Dustwalk and the deserts which surround it, is an at times unnerving steam-punkesque mash-up of nineteenth century wild west USA and an Arabic-type fundamentalist religious culture, in which plural marriages, the servitude of women, covered heads and faces and calls to prayer abound. As one character comments:

“I’m a girl who could’ve done just about anything if I’d been born a boy.”

In this setting, we first meet our sixteen year old heroine Amani, disguising herself as a boy and using her sharpshooter skills as the Blue Eyed Bandit to find a way to escape her life as an orphan in her uncle’s home.

Various adventures, encounters and shoot outs lead to her going on the run, before falling into an oasis (in every sense of the word) of allies, family members and a new understanding of herself and her background. The latter half of the book is full of spoilers (which are in turn, I would guess, setting up all manner of plot twists for the forthcoming sequels) so I’m being deliberately vague here … but the pace really picks up as the novel progresses and I found it to be a riveting and compelling read. And,  as one review I read commented, I did indeed find myself: “cheering for Amani the whole way as she escapes the bonds of oppression and finds her own power.”

From both a feminist and a diversity perspective, I loved the fact that Amani is such a strong protagonist – and that all we initially know of her appearance is that she has blue eyes, which in this world indicates that she’s from “foreign” stock.  There’s lots of coded stuff in the book about being different, Other, standing out or fitting in, being included and excluded. And, as with other YA series (like the Divergent and the Hunger Games books) Rebel of the Sands gives a clear message  about the role of women and how different societies can limit or grant freedoms.

The book was sold at auction and is due to be made into a film – I can already imagine some of the special effects and shapeshifting that we’ll see on the screen and I’m so curious to learn who’s been cast as Amani; it will be a gift of a part for a young actress and this is a gem of a book.

 

Thank you to Faber & Faber for the pre-publication copy of this book.

Hillary has (just) triumphed in Iowa – but who remembers Shirley?

On our recent USA road trip holiday, we drove nearly 2,000 miles across four states – but I only saw ONE Vote for Hillary car bumper sticker (just about pictured here – and no, I wasn’t driving when I took this photo). Due to the curiously American habit of using one’s vehicle as a mobile billboard to proclaim various relationships, allegiances or preferences (“I Brake for a Double Latte” being a great example of the latter) I was able to monitor the growing tide of public support for assorted potential Presidential candidates as we drove around – and can say that, based on what we saw, Ted Cruz was doing pretty well amongst SUV drivers, shortly followed by Donald Trump.

(As an aside, I think it’s an interesting metric-cum-weather-vane as to how a state’s voters think when you look at their bumper stickers – so I wonder which US state is currently leading the pack with regard to Hillary support on cars? Has anyone ever measured this?!)

I’m a huge fan of the work of journalist and author Nicholas Kristof, co-author with his wife Sheryl WuDunn of books “Half the Sky” and “A Path Appears” as well as a roving op-ed columnist for the New York Times. He sends out a regular e-newsletter related to his columns and a recent edition referred to Hillary Clinton’s changed approach to referencing her feminism, commenting that:

“It’s a measure of how much the country has changed that these days Clinton is running as a feminist, after decades of skirting the issue. In 2008 she barely mentioned her gender; now it’s a refrain.

“This really comes down to whether I can encourage and mobilize women to vote for the first woman president,” Time quoted her as saying. She even said she’d be open to choosing a woman as her running mate.

Kristof expanded on this in the newsletter, opening up with:

“One gauge of this election’s weirdness: It may result in a female president, or in a president (Trump) who has been a champion of sexism. And on the sidelines, President Obama has weighed in with a call for a tax break for tampons. Women increasingly are affecting the national conversation, and change is afoot.

“I didn’t have space to get into it in the column, but there’s interesting research on the extent to which women leaders matter. For “Half the Sky,” Sheryl WuDunn and I examined female presidents and prime ministers around the world, and we found no impact on such metrics as maternal mortality, girls’ education or access to family planning. But there’s also an argument that the first woman leader in a country (think Margaret Thatcher or Golda Meir) is often particularly tough and less focused on women’s issues, but that later women will be. There’s also evidence, particularly from India, that women leaders matter at the grassroots: Female village leaders are less corrupt and more focused on women’s concerns than male village leaders. And there’s some evidence that women in power create role models who change expectations about what leadership can be.”

Kristof also notes that:

“Conversely, maybe it’s also a sign of progress that young women aren’t particularly inclined to support Clinton: They’re less likely to see their space defined by glass ceilings.”

– and I wonder if that’s because, if you’re of a certain age,  the idea that a woman could be Secretary of State, or a CEO, just doesn’t seem so impossible?  I’m certain that this is a measure of a progress and a good thing,  but this recent article on the BBC about Shirley Chisholm,  who ran for the Democratic Presidential ticket in 1972 and is now somehow almost forgotten in American history,  was a reminder about how far we’ve come, but how far we still have to go.

“She was a pioneer for her generation, a woman of many firsts – the first African American congresswoman. The first African American to run for president. The first woman to run for president.” 

Back to today: I’m glad to see that Kristof’s paper, the New York Times, has come out and endorsed Hillary for the Democratic nomination and I look forward to seeing how she does in the campaign.

(This link will allow you to sign up for Kristof’s newsletter, if you’re interested).

Women (and men) who mattered most in 2015

Happy New Year!

Welcome to my very (very) personal list of the women (and a few men) who made a difference to me,  and maybe to you, in 2015.

Who else would you add?

In the wider world:

• Laura Barnett: for writing my novel of 2015 and depicting fifty slightly alternative years over three slightly different women’s lives, all named Eva, in The Versions of Us.

  

  (c) Amazon

• Tea Leoni: as both Actress and Executive Producer in Madam Secretary, my binge watching choice of the year, with an honorary mention to Tim Daly for playing the trailing spouse and lead parent role with humour and grace;
• Catherine Mayer, Sandi Toksvig and Sophie Walker: for founding the Women’s Equality Party in March 2015, crowdfunding their war chest and showing us that single issue politics can mean more than just bigots in blazers in UKIP. As an aside, I wasn’t able to attend the recent WEP event in central London but barrister Max Hardy went along and wrote a very interesting blog piece of his own about it and how it feels to be one of the few men in the room;
• Viola Davis: for reminding us, as part of the ongoing discussion about diversity in showbiz, at the 2015 Emmys that “The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity” and that “Talent and opportunity are two different things”  – not just true in Hollywood,  but in the wider world too – particularly when anyone in the corporate world insists that merit trumps opportunity in the workplace;
• The gender pay gap has been much on my mind of late and clearly on Patricia Arquette’s too: she makes this list for calling it out at the 2015 Oscars;
• Similarly, props to Jennifer Lawrence for her Lenny essay – a timely reminder to us all about asking for what you want, deserve and are worth;
• My film of 2015 was the superb (and mysteriously overlooked in Oscar nomination terms) “Suffragette” – see my review here. In acting terms – Carey Mulligan is just incredible, but the whole production is a very female-centric one, and that’s still so rare as to be comment worthy.  If you need to wonder why I’m gushing like this, then you haven’t seen the film and so need to do so, immediately (the DVD is out in the UK on 29^th February);

• 

  (c) Vanity Fair/Pirelli

  Amy Schumer: for making me laugh, very hard, during “Trainwreck” and for participating in the Pirelli calendar with a fantastic, vanity free shot which shows that modern beauty does indeed come in many forms;

• And finally – Justin Trudeau, new man in Canada: for the best soundbite of the year:

And in my world:

• Foluke Akinlose: for never pausing in her attempts to showcase the achievements of so many brilliant women of colour with the annual Precious Awards;
• My friends: L and A, for always being there for me during what has often been a challenging year. And Kayleigh: my hairdresser, for working with me to sort out someone else’s horrible hair don’t (as executed upon my innocent head on 8^th July 2014);
• All the mostly, but not exclusively women, who follow my cooking, weight loss and eating photos on Instagram  (@lowcarbcleo) and who support me every day in my new low carb, healthier life.

Thank you all.  And here’s to an amazing, uplifting 2016.

This week, I’ve been reading: I Am Malala – How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World

Ahead of the UK release (in November) of the film He Named Me Malala, a revised and updated version of her original memoir has just been published, written by Malala Yousafzai (with renowned teen author Patricia McCormick) for her peers and containing some very thoughtful discussion materials at the end of the book.

But who is Malala? I first heard of the Pakistani school girl shot by the Taliban shortly after the attack (in October 2012) and of course she’s now world-famous as the youngest ever winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and as a global advocate for both peace and education, especially for girls (on meeting President Obama: “I told him that if America spent less money on weapons and war and more on education, the world would be a better place”).

Perhaps what I had not really appreciated, prior to reading this wonderful book, was the extent to which Malala, then a school girl with dreams and ambitions (“That summer I turned fifteen. …. I knew for certain now that I wanted to be a political leader. … I would do the things politicians only spoke of. And I would start with education – especially girls’ education.”) was specifically targeted by the Taliban, who knew of her through her BBC blog on life in the Swat Valley (near the Pakistani border with Afghanistan), her appearances in local media – “Throughout 2008, as Swat was being attacked, I didn’t stay silent. I spoke to local national TV channels, radio and newspapers. I spoke out to anyone who would listen.” and even her appearance in a New York Times feature. At the beginning of the book,  she describes the day of the October 2012 attack:

Two young men in white robes stepped in front of our truck.

“Is this the Khushal School bus?” one of them asked

The driver laughed. The name of the school was painted in black letters on the side of the van.

The other young man jumped onto the tailboard and leaned into the back, where we were all sitting.

“Who is Malala?” he asked

No one said a word, but a few girls looked in my direction.

He raised his arm and pointed at me. Some of the girls screamed and I squeezed Moniba’s hand.

Who is Malala?

I am Malala and this is my story.

A week later, Malala awoke in fear and confusion in a Birmingham hospital, recovering from her terrible injuries. She fought back to full health and now lives, with her parents and two brothers, in Birmingham – as well as travelling the world (“I met one of my favourite people in the USA, a man named Jon Stewart, who invited me to his TV show to talk about my first book and the Malala fund”.), studying, speaking and fund raising.

I love this quote from her speech to the United Nations:

One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world

At the end of the book,  she tells us that “I am Malala. My world has changed, but I have not … we have all adapted, little by little, to this new place. My father wears a handsome tweed blazer and brogues now when he goes to work. My mother uses the dishwasher. Khushal is having a love affair with his Xbox. And Atal has discovered Nutella.”

But yet she is still the same teenage girl who played in the streets, argued with her friends and learned English from DVDs of Ugly Betty and Mind Your Language.

It’s a wonderful book, thought provoking, uplifting and inspirational. Make a note of 12th July in your diary as Malala Day (it’s her birthday) and check out The Malala Fund at www.malalafund.org/voice

Celebrating women and girls of colour at the 2015 Precious Awards

Last week, I went for afternoon tea with nearly one hundred strangers. I was joining Foluke Akinlose MBE at her annual celebration of the best in black, British female talent, the ninth annual Precious Awards and,  aside from Foluke herself, I didn’t know a single other person at the event.

However! The room was buzzing, everyone was in celebratory mood, people were genuinely friendly and I learned that, in answer to the oft asked question “What brings you here today?” simply answering “I’m a friend of Foluke’s and I’m here to support her” was a great gate opener and conversation starter.

Foluke believes that “women of colour are virtually invisible in mainstream society today” and she established the Precious Awards in 2007 in order to shine a light onto black womens’ achievements, and to also ensure that women and girls of colour have no ceilings to their ambitions.

The awards are sponsored by Barclays and Credit Suisse and take place over afternoon tea – this year at the Banking Hall in the City of London. The awards themselves – full results are here – covered areas such as women in professional services, women in STEM, women in the creative industries, outstanding social enterprise of the year and outstanding leader. The Precious Man of the Year award, which goes to a public vote, was won by the heart-as-big-as-the-world Solomon Smith of the Brixton Soup Kitchen, a grassroots organisation which provides food and practical resources to the homeless;  the Precious Girl of the Year award celebrated two teenage girls who will one day lead the world, at a bare minimum. Congratulations, Lashai and Precious.

My biggest takeaway of the afternoon was the sheer joy that everyone there felt at being amongst their peers. I know from my work in training on bias awareness that we all instinctively feel most comfortable and like ourselves when we are with people like us – whoever and whatever that might be.  And many women at the awards told me that, so often, they were not only the only woman but usually too the only PERSON of colour in a meeting or at an event – so their enjoyment at being with their peers (“it’s so fabulous to look around this room and see so many beautiful black faces!”) was a wonderful thing.

My highlights of the day (aside from delicious rare roast beef sandwiches) were meeting, in no particular order:

• Kerrine Bryan: electrical engineer and (genuinely surprised) winner of the Women in STEM award, with which she was presented by MP and Shadow Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills, Chi Onawurah – herself a former engineer. In addition to holding down a senior level job in the oil and gas industry and visiting schools in her capacity as a STEM ambassador, Kerrine has also “in my spare time” co-authored a children’s book called “My Mummy is an Engineer” and will be releasing the next in the series, “My Mummy is a Plumber” before Christmas. She and Foluke were interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour programme the day after the awards – if you hurry, you should be able to listen to them speak at the beginning of the broadcast.
• Lashai Ben Salmi, the fifteen year old winner of the Precious Girls Creative Award: and her awesome mother Sabrina; Leshai won the award for her work to stamp out bullying via the use of her self-created book and app and she is also a very accomplished public speaker, who in her spare time is learning Korean. Yes, Korean. (I learned this fact when I asked her where she might like to go to university ..)
• This “spare time” thing was something of a motif of the day, as pre-tea, I got chatting to Claudine Adeyemi, who told me that she was a property disputes solicitor with top firm Mishcon de Reya (“I knew I wanted to be a lawyer from the age of twelve”). A job like that would probably be enough for most people but no – Claudine has also set up the Student Development Company,  a non-profit organisation which aims to support, develop and create career opportunities and improve employability for young people. And yes, Claudine was also a winner, taking home the trophy for Young Entrepreneur of the Year.
• Finally, the keynote speaker was a woman who announced to the room that she “had a strange passion for tights.” Bianca Miller, one of last year’s Precious winners (and runner up on the 2014 series of The Apprentice) is on the brink of launching her own hosiery business and has come up with such a brilliant idea that I’m sure her new product, Bianca Miller London, will fly off the shelves (I suggested her Christmas marketing slogan should be: “A Pair of Tights in Every Stocking”. You can have that one for free, Bianca). She’s launching a range of tights and hold ups which come in eight different skin tone colours, to match every woman’s idea of “nude”, irrespective of skin colour, and in different sizes too,  so that they will fit women sized from 8 to 22. Genius! And I loved Bianca’s comment that “it’s not about tights, it’s about diversity.” Anyway, the hosiery will be launching soon via her website and through a Big Department Store chain – watch this space.

So, that was my experience of the Precious Awards. Uplifting, brilliant, inspirational – and all down to the vision of one fabulous woman, Foluke Akinlose. We salute you. And I can’t wait for next year.

Profiling a Precious woman: Foluke Akinlose MBE

Last week, I was an attendee at the 2015 Precious Awards – an annual event which celebrates the achievements of women of colour in the UK. The ceremony was amazing – uplifting, inspiring, all the superlatives. I’ll blog a bit more about it and some of the women who I met in another post, but ahead of then: here’s a re-blog of an article I originally wrote in 2011.

The Precious Awards were set up by journalist, entrepreneur (and all round superstar friend) Foluke Akinlose. I profiled her for The Glass Hammer four years ago and thought that, as an introduction to the Awards, the article could do with a wider audience. Here it is.

* * * * *

As a child growing up in Manchester, Foluke Akinlose dreamed of launching a magazine for women and girls who looked like she did. But how did this childhood vision culminate in the creation of Precious Online, an e-magazine, network and resource for the UK’s c. 2.3 million women of colour and of the UK’s only awards for this community, described as a “memorable occasion” and “inspirational” by Prime Minister David Cameron?

“When I was younger, there were no British magazines that featured girls who looked like me. I’d spend my pocket money on American imports and they were great, but I really wanted to read about the Black British experience. When I grew older and started working in the media as a journalist, I quickly realised how expensive setting up a print magazine was. I just didn’t have those kind of funds, so I decided to put the magazine idea at the back of my mind for a while.

“In 1996, I began working in the online department of TV company ITN. Because of the nature of my job, I spent a lot of time researching online. I came across so many online publications aimed at African-American women but there was nothing for those based in the UK. I soon realised that the web gave me a publishing channel and that it was a way for me to launch the magazine of which I had always dreamed. So I followed my dream.

“Precious got underway in 1999 and was the first publication of its kind to launch in the UK. We now get 80,000 unique website visitors each month and reach 10,000 women via the mailing list – our goal is to be the premier destination for women of colour on the web.”

Precious aims to provide resources for and to showcase women of colour and to shine a light on their achievements in business and life. The site runs articles on health and beauty and profiles black writers and artists, as well as organising events every quarter on topics such as the joy of networking or audiences with entrepreneurial women.

The living embodiment of the phrase “seeing a gap in the market”, Foluke then launched the Precious Awards in 2007, as a result of “always being invited to awards ceremonies and yet rarely seeing black women receive recognition.”

“The Precious Awards are unique, in that they are the UK’s only awards to focus on diverse women of colour. Back in 2007, I went in to see Pearson, who agreed to host the first awards and to support it. I had no budget initially, so had to do everything myself. The first awards honoured women in six categories, which included leadership in the workplace, best social enterprise, best creative business and best start-up. Pearson are still big supporters and I’m very grateful for their vision and involvement.”

Foluke’s own vision and determination to succeed saw her lobbying the great and the good of British society to ask for their support for the Precious Awards – which in turn led to her receiving messages of support and goodwill from then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, his wife (and social activist) Sarah Brown (“she was great – she re-Tweeted the details of the awards to her thousands of followers and encouraged them to nominate women”) , (then) Deputy PM Nick Clegg and many other luminaries.

In the fifth year of the awards, Foluke introduced new categories, which in 2011 included Mentor of the Year, Blogger of the Year and Precious Man of the Year, for which actor Idris Elba, rapper Tinie Tempah and politician Chuka Umunna were nominated.

As for the awards in the future, Foluke would like to find a major sponsor who will commit to supporting Precious over an extended period and being part of their success.

“The awards have had a huge impact on women’s professional and business lives. To win, or even to be nominated, gives them so much confidence and is a wonderful platform for any sponsor.”

So, where next for this intrepid woman?

“I would like to create a Precious presence in every corner of the globe – that’s my aim and I want to encourage young girls everywhere to be the best that they can be. I see myself returning to my childhood dream, when I read those American magazines – I would love to do an event for women of colour in New York.

“Here in the UK, Precious is proud to partner with [high school] St Matthew’s Academy in south London – we work with their pupils, both girls and boys, to inspire and encourage them to see that being a woman of colour and having your own business is a possibility. I want to make an impact and to show girls that you can achieve whatever you want to achieve.

“I hope that’s what Precious shows them.”

Earlier this year, Foluke published her first book, The Precious Book of Quotes, which features inspirational advice from 50 women of colour. She is now working on a novel and would like to create a publishing wing of the Precious empire by establishing an imprint for young female writers.

“I’m passionate about what I do and I hope to continue being an inspiration and a role model to other women.”

Awarded the MBE in the 2010 New Year’s honours list for her services to the creative industries (“I thought it was a spoof call at first when the Cabinet Office called to tell me I had been nominated”), Foluke is proof of the strength, talents and diversity of the black British community.

In the mail this weekend …

(c) ShotDeadintheHead

Mad Men time (or related ephemera) again … an offer to buy one of these mugs has just popped into my in-box ( available as a t-shirt too – why, hello, Peggy).

You can also get Mr Sterling, Mr Campbell (why, though?), Mr Draper,  Little Miss Betty and Little Miss Peggy immortalised in earthenware and 100% cotton.

And I received a copy of this book – Women’s Roles in Twentieth Century America – through the actual post today – together with an invitation to go along to the launch of the new Sky TV channel,  Sky Atlantic and attend a cinema based screening of their 1920s set flagship series Boardwalk Empire.

I was very excited,  as I don’t usually get to hang out at such meeja events, but, due to the PR connectivity of the TV channel and the book,  I’m somehow on the guest list as a blogger.  Fame at last.  However,  upon closer examination of the invitation (“we’d love to take you for a drink first before Prohibition kicks in …”) – I see that the meeting point is at that oh-so-glamorous venue,  Yates Wine Bar.

British readers will sense my hesitation immediately;  American readers: it’s somewhat the equivalent of holding an event in a Denny’s,  ie,  dialled down a fair way on the Glam-o-Meter.

(Unless of course that’s the point and it’s been converted into a speakeasy,  where they’re serving gin in teacups and the like).

Still,  at least I won’t have to dress up … I hope. No mention made of fancy dress required.

Watch this space … will report back –  if I can get there in time from my interim job on the other side of London.