When founder and CEO Stacey Boyd set out to create her company, Olivela, she wanted to establish a luxury shopping platform with a philanthropic mission baked into the core business model. The 5-year-old company donates 20% of net proceeds from every purchase to the consumers charity of choice from Olivelas list of partners, at no cost to the consumer or brand partners.

There are three pillars we work in, Boyd said on the latest episode of the Glossy Podcast. Olivela focuses on womens empowerment, climate action and health and wellness. The name is Olive for olive trees, a symbol of growth and wisdom, and vela, which is Latin for the sails of the ship, with the idea that we help set people forward on the best path in life.

Purpose matters to [our customers], said Boyd. As we think about developing and creating the Olivela website, no one is going to buy something simply because it does good. Our customer is going to buy a bag because she loves the bag. Shes going to choose to buy it from Olivela versus somewhere else because of the good that it does and because she has a choice as a consumer.

Below are additional highlights from the conversation, which have been lightly edited for clarity.

Olivelas approach to curation

We have a more curated selection [than other luxury retail platforms]. Weve honed and refined the number of brands on our site. We sell ready-to-wear, shoes, handbags, [jewelry, accessories, home] and beauty. Beauty has been a big part of what our consumer has looked for, particularly over the course of the past few years. We have some pretty wonderful brands in [our beauty vertical], including Dr. Barbara Sturm, Vintners Daughter and Augustinus Bader. Our focus is on finding the brands we know our consumers will really love. We focus on these brands and tell their stories.

The power of pop-ups

We find, especially in a location like Nantucket, [pop-ups] are a wonderful way to acquire a VIP customer, those that we do a lot of personal shopping for in the luxury space. Pop-ups have been a wonderful way for us to get the word out on the brand and what it is we do. We have a great Instagram wall. Early on in our pop-up [journey], Jennifer Lawrence walked in and bought a classically Nantucket straw bag. There, on the wall, was: Thank you, Jennifer. You just sent a girl to school for 22 days. Everybody who buys something in our store has [access to] this Instagrammable wall, so its a great way for us to acquire new customers.

The future of luxury

I was talking with the chairman of LVMH, and we were talking about how the world is really stuck in 1832, Paris. Then, it was the cholera outbreak. All of the haves left Paris, while all of the have nots stayed. This wasnt something that lasted a number of months, it lasted years. The chairman thought the merging of the haves and the have nots is whats unique about Olivelas business model. Finding a way for those two [ideals] to live together and support one another is a really important part of luxury going forward. While [Olivela] might have been a little bit ahead of our time, youre seeing luxury brands thinking more about that and that being the beginning of how people are shifting and moving. Its very challenging times, and [the chairman] is right about this place the world is in. Its a scary place, in a lot of ways. There needs to be, especially given the income inequality at the heart of a lot of the unrest, this knitting together. There are a lot of different ways we can do it. Olivela is a very small example of one way businesses could think about that.

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Olivela's Stacey Boyd: 'No one is going to buy something simply because it does good' - Glossy

TORONTO, May 17, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The rate of digital fraud originating from Canada decreased in Q1 2022, with suspected online fraud attempts declining -40.6% from the same quarter last year, in line with the global decrease of -22.6%. TransUnions (NYSE:TRU) quarterly digital fraud analysis observed that while the overall rate of suspected fraud declined in Canada, there were significant shifts year-over-year (YoY) in suspected digital fraud rates within certain industries. Sectors such as financial services, telecommunications, communities (i.e. online dating), and gambling all saw a YoY decrease in the attempted digital fraud rate from Canada. Conversely, fraudsters in Canada significantly increased their scams in sectors such as insurance, gaming, and travel and leisure.

What we are observing in Canada, and on a global stage, is that these sophisticated fraudsters are shifting their focus to target new industries as prior industry targets have ramped up fraud prevention measures. In other words, fraudsters are constantly seeking out new opportunities based on vulnerabilities, said Patrick Boudreau, head of identity management and fraud solutions at TransUnion Canada. Whats critical is that companies dont become complacent with fraud prevention measures as fraudsters become ever more sophisticated. At the same time, companies should leverage this temporary shift in fraudulent activity to focus on optimizing customer experience without compromising security.

Rate of Digital Fraud Attempts Decrease in Canada, but Some Industries See Growth

The financial services industry saw the largest YoY decrease in the suspected fraud attempt rate for digital transactions coming from Canada at -88.2%. When digital fraud in financial services did occur, TransUnion found the most dominant type in that industry was first party application fraud. Thats when an individual completes a fraudulent application(s) that contains intentionally inaccurate or manipulated information with the intention of receiving a lower rate or better terms for a policy or contract.

Certain business sectors, however, were more prone to digital fraud attempts, with fraudsters having cycled through certain industries during the pandemic and now rotating to other vulnerable industries. The insurance industry exhibited the greatest YoY growth in the rate of suspected digital fraud coming from Canada in Q1 2022 by 150.8%, potentially because of the large transactions involved in insurance. Travel and leisure showed the second highest YoY increase by 59.9%. As the Canadian economy normalized from the height of the pandemic, this sector has opened up with Canadians resumed travelling again. The gaming industry experienced the third highest YoY increase at 20.2%. This was followed by the logistics industry, which increased 13.2% YoY, mostly impacted by shipping fraud which is when a buyer spoofs a shipping address or when a seller receives payment for goods or services, but never ships to the buyer.

Year-over-year Growth Rates of Digital Fraud Attempts (Q1 2021 to Q1 2022)

While there has been an overall decrease in suspected digital fraud attempts on businesses, the overall rate of fraud attempts reported by Canadian consumers has not shifted significantly, according to the recent TransUnion Consumer Pulse Study. The survey of 1,069 Canadian adults conducted from Feb. 14-17, 2022, determined that 32% of Canadians had been targeted by digital fraud in the last three months compared to 33% the previous quarter. Among those surveyed, 26% say they had been targeted by a fraud scheme but did not become a victim of it while 6% did fall victim.

Of those Canadians who say they had been targeted, the types of schemes they reported included:

As digital fraud rates stabilize in Canada during a period when fraudsters are searching for new vulnerabilities, its important that organizations shift their focus to identifying more of the good customers and transactions to drive revenue and customer lifetime value. By reducing false positives, false declines and manual review rates, organizations can improve their customer experience through trusted connections while still keeping the fraudsters at bay, said Boudreau.

For worldwide and regional breakdowns around how much the suspected digital fraud attempt rate recently changed, what types of fraud are most prevalent in certain industries and more, download this infographic.

TransUnion came to its conclusions about fraud against businesses based on intelligence from billions of transactions and more than 40,000 websites and apps contained in its flagship identity proofing, risk-based authentication and fraud analytics solution suite TransUnion TruValidate. The percent or rate of suspected digital fraud attempts are those that TruValidate customers either denied or reviewed due to fraudulent indicators compared to all transactions that were assessed for fraud.

About TransUnion (NYSE: TRU)TransUnion is a global information and insights company that makes trust possible in the modern economy. We do this by providing an actionable picture of each person so they can be reliably represented in the marketplace. As a result, businesses and consumers can transact with confidence and achieve great things. We call this Information for Good. TransUnion provides solutions that help create economic opportunity, great experiences and personal empowerment for hundreds of millions of people in more than 30 countries. Our customers in Canada comprise some of the nations largest banks and card issuers, and TransUnion is a major credit reporting, fraud, and analytics solutions provider across the finance, retail, telecommunications, utilities, government and insurance sectors.

Continued here:
Rate of Suspected Digital Fraud Attempts Coming from Canada Decreased 41% as Fraudsters Recognize More Businesses are Implementing Fraud Prevention...

Representative photo: Trust Katsande/Unsplash

A lot has changed since Kamala Sohonie, the first Indian woman to do her PhD in science at a British university, was kept from joining the Indian Institute of Science because of her gender. From institutes posting about womens empowerment to friends reminiscing about their role models, the chants of resilient women in science echo everywhere as womens history month whooshed by in March.

But they remain echoes.

Around 40% of those in undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD programmes are women. However, many of them dont go on to become members of institute faculties. Science institutions remain hierarchical and patriarchal for the most part, discouraging women from enrolling or staying there.

A recent study explored the support systems that women scientists need to balance their professional and personal lives. Anitha Kurup, head of the Education for the Gifted and Talented Program, and Anjali Raj, consultant in the women in STEM project, both at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bengaluru, interviewed 130 women scientists to understand changes in the responsibilities of women in STEM 1 in India.

Also read: The Implicit and Explicit Biases That Follow Women From School to the Lab

Lack of support

While Indias womens work-force participation has been decreasing overall, there are also more women in science today than there were before. But within the scientific workforce, women are still often expected to fulfill gendered societal expectations, especially of being caregivers. This puts paid to a healthy balance.

The general belief is that things are changing especially for women in metropolitan cities. Thats not true, Kurup told The Wire Science. I know several women who struggle to negotiate a proper work-life balance. We showcased the reality of women researchers in the study.

We want women scientists to have fulfilling careers and happy personal lives, Raj said of the studys purpose, with academic institutions supporting them to achieve that.

For their study, Kurup and Raj interviewed 130 women scientists of various institutes, fields and ages from 2016 to 2018, including about their strategies to maintain work-life balance on three fronts: supporting partners, childcare support and support for/of extended families.

The authors presented their findings as personal narratives instead of as data. Numbers cannot capture what we observe. The dynamic responses from the women from different caste, class, religious and rural/urban backgrounds cannot be fit into neat boxes, the authors wrote.

They found that women scientists are slowly shifting the nature of gender relations both at home and at institutional space through personal negotiations. Some assumed the superwomen role and others actively challenged gender norms but yet others made personal compromises to achieve their professional goals.

A 2010 report Kurup coauthored, entitled Trained Scientific Women Power: How Much Are We Losing and Why?, is considered to be a pioneering effort that influenced policies for women in STEM as well as the creation of the All-India Survey of Higher Education (AISHE) database.

It noted then that an important reason for women to drop out of science was the absence of familial support. This appears to be continuing to be the case.

The problem exists because the onus of striking a work-life balance is dumped solely on women, Reeteka Sud, a research coordinator at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuroscience, Bengaluru, said. If the solution is also dumped on women, we are not going to get very far.

This should be the responsibility of science institutions, which, many women scientists have said, need to provide housing on campus, transportation, flexible timings and childcare and eldercare facilities for both men and women in science. Only then can women be free of their prescribed gender roles.

But the situation in most of these institutes is far from this ideal. For example, the Maternity Benefit Act 2017 mandates every establishment with 50 or more employees to have a crche. But most science institutes dont have this facility.

Without supportive facilities, women scientists especially in institutes and universities in small towns find professional growth harder because they also need to contend with academic check posts that have been designed keeping the more agile work-style of their male counterparts in mind: fixed working hours, research trips and quick workaround on weekends, etc.

For this reason, just having a female director is not going to change that, Vinita Gowda, an associate professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhopal, said. We need to have women across the hierarchy in science. The lack of diversity in administration contributes to the male [perspective on] measuring womens work.

Also read: To Be a Woman in Science

Marital status

All this said, Kurup and Rajs study was undermined by one oddity. It acknowledged that a work-life balance is not limited to married women but extends to include married men, unmarried men and unmarried women. But of the 130 women scientists interviewed, only 16 were unmarried.

As things stand, the high workload in labs pushes researchers to focus on science first often to the detriment of their personal commitments. Sud said that married women are particularly vulnerable to this and that this could have skewed the results. But you face challenges as a woman in science, regardless of marital status, she added.

Aashima Dogra, cofounder of The Life of Science, echoed her: By limiting the concept of work-life balance to only married women, the study reinforces gender norms. It would have been more interesting to broaden the scope to men and unmarried women as well.

The authors acknowledged the need to include unmarried women and men in the study. But due to time and funding constraints, they couldnt do so, they said.

Kurup also reasoned that: Most women in the STEM disciplines have a family and are/were married. The numbers in the study reflect the proportion of women in these disciplines in India.

Nonetheless, Gowda also wished that the category of single parent with child was included. Our challenges are different from married women with family support.

A second criticism is that the study did not address the causes of differences between the work-life balances of men and women. But the authors attributed these forces in their paper to the most fundamental one of them all that Indias science institutes have been run by men, that they were designed for men who had a wife that stayed at home, and that they admitted women only very recently into their ranks.

The other causes, according to them, are superficial manifestations of this history.

C.M. Manasvi is a freelance science communicator. She has written for The Print and The Life of Science. She is currently an MSc plant systematics student at the University of Trans-Disciplinary Health Sciences and Technology (TDU).

Originally posted here:
Lack of Family, Institutional Support Continues to Beleaguer Women in Science The Wire Science - The Wire Science

CEO Joanna Riley and Executive Board Member Monica Bua to join the US board of So They Can

SAN FRANCISCO, May 17, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Censia CEO and cofounder Joanna Riley and executive board member Monica Bua have joined the US board of So They Can, an international non-profit organization committed to breaking the poverty cycle in Africa through education.

Censia Logo (PRNewsfoto/Censia)

Joanna Riley, CEO and co-founder of Censia Talent Intelligence, has a deep personal connection with this mission. "I am excited to work with So They Can to open the floodgates to education so that every child has the opportunity to step foot inside the classroom, regardless of their identity, upbringing or the hardship that they have been born into. Censia exists to unleash the full potential in every single individual to contribute to the global economy, and I strongly believe that our partnership with So They Can is the most effective way to create greater prosperity for these children and families."

"Education is key to reducing poverty, improving equity, saving the planet and ensuring we have enough human capital to advance our world. We are building our ambassador program in the US which will have a dramatic increase on the number of girls we will put through school every year in Africa." said Monica Bua.

"Right now 258 million children are left without access to education. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rates of education exclusion, with over one-fifth of children between the ages of about 6 and 11 not attending school." says So They Can co-founder Cassandra Treadwell. "We look forward to scaling our impact with the support of Joanna Riley, Monica Bua and the rest of their committed team.

So They Can is educating 33,000 students annually and, to date, has graduated 474 teachers, and provided over a million meals. The organization also provides medical services and has treated more than 20,000 individuals. You can learn more about the organization's impact by visiting https://www.sotheycan.org/what-we-do/our-impact/.

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About CensiaCensia harnesses the power of deep system intelligence applied to an exceptional master dataset to recruit, develop, and retain a high-quality, diverse workforce and forecast future talent needs. We supercharge talent decisions across multiple industries. For more information, visit http://www.censia.com.

About So They CanSo They Can is an international NGO that delivers education and empowerment programs in some of the most vulnerable communities in East Africa. To learn more, visit https://www.sotheycan.org/what-we-do/our-impact/.

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Censia Joins the US board of So They Can to Support Children's Education in Africa - Yahoo Finance

Moonchild Sanelly - real name Sanelisiwe Twisha - is gearing up to release her long-awaited second album next month. Phases will be released via Transgressive Records on June 10. Today, she shares the new single "Cute" featuring Trillary Banks.

A straight-up empowerment anthem, Moonchild explains, "The song is about bad boss bitches with big dick energy who look fly while they're running their s. We can be cute, so our power might look unthreatening, but don't be fooled, we're powerful and we're here to f s up!"

Trillary adds, "Recording the track was a cool, fun experience. I love the Two Inch Punch production. Meeting Moon in person was also great, we were able to go to a gig, vibe at the studio, do some shopping and discuss visual ideas. What a crazy but cute 24 hours."

Forming a sonic foundation that veers between Amapiano, Gqom, grime, pop, house and R&B while showcasing her vocal talents on more downtempo songs, Phases' 19 tracks document the varying chapters of a toxic relationship and subsequent freedom. A double album, the first side is a journey through the relationship with production reflecting those different moods and aspects of her personality; the second side, meanwhile, leads into a clubbier amapiano space.

The tracks on it, she says, are a way of empowering all different types of girls and promoting respect for women: "Over You" finds strength and power in breaking-up with a cheating ex; "Strip Club", featuring Ghetts, flips the male-led narrative, instead putting the woman in charge.

"I want people to relate to the stories I'm telling," she says. Moonchild Sanelly has become well known for unapologetically spreading her message of female empowerment: "liberation for women, in the bedroom, in the boardroom, knowing your power... I need to be heard by a lot of people".

Carrying South Africa along with her has long been important for her, too, and it's something that's reflected on Phases, as she is joined by two of the country's most exciting rappers: Blxckie on "ULi" and Sir Trill on "Soyenza".

Collaboration has been core to Moonchild Sanelly since her award-winning debut album Rabulapha!, having not only dominated the gqom and amapiano scenes in SA but with her international hits and collaborations with Wizkid, Beyonce (featuring on "MY POWER"), Gorillaz ("With Love To An Ex") and Ghetts ("Mozambique").

Phases is a highly collaborative record, too, with production and guest features from Sad Night Dynamite, Wesley Joseph, Xavier Thomas (Dbruit), TOKiMONSTA, HOLLY and Aramboa.

The album's title takes on a multitude of meanings: via the range of genres covered across its runtime, the different sounds and styles that it encompasses and the personal journey that Sanelisiwe Twisha has taken to get to this point. But, for Moonchild Sanelly, it's more literal than that: "I think that, with this album, I've managed to piece all the different parts of me together, because I'm known for different things in different parts of the world. I think you get to know me better with Phases - all the different sides of me."

Watch the new music video here:

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Moonchild Sanelly and Trillary Banks Share Empowerment Anthem 'Cute' - Broadway World

The pastseveralyears have seen a dramatic increase in the amount of positive, inclusive marketing efforts centered on the female body and womanhood in general. The overarchingideais that thebody is a source of pride to the autonomous woman who possessesit. The national chain where I get waxed encourages its freshly depilated clientele to strut confidently into the world.The online boutique where I buy bras bills its extensive size range as part of a bold inclusivity crusade to outfit every body. Power in motherhood proclaims a popular spin studio, while the website of the industrys biggest shapewear brand cheekily announces its corporate HERstory in bright red letters. International Womens Day and Womens History Month have become occasions for businesses, from beauty concerns to less-obviously-female-focused banking, to uncontroversially and unspecifically bill themselves as on the side of womens empowerment, bodily and otherwise.

For all these vague statements of sisterhood, every single one of these, and most other, brands have remained deafeningly silent on the most fundamental issue facing women now: the rollback of reproductive rights crystallized by the leaked Supreme Court brief signaling the imminent reversal of landmark 1973 decision Roe v Wade.

In this supposed age of woke capitalism and milquetoast you-go-girl empowerment, why have so few companies spoken out on abortion rights that have been encoded into law for half a century? And, given corporations are, despite their rosy rebranding as communities or even families, amoral, profit-seeking entities, should we even expect that they take a principled stance on abortion rights, and be outraged at its absence?

First, its worth noting how halting the recognition of women as consumers, much less full citizens, has been. For much of American history, advertising that targeted women sold products considered almost exclusively feminine: think care of body, home, and family. Once more women worked outside the home, and then gained access to credit, they were marketed edgier items in a way that recognized, and even celebrated, this newfound independence: a lady could smoke cigarettes marketed with the slogan youve come a long way, baby after going for a jog in her Liberator sneakers. But these congratulatory advertisements rarely did much to disrupt the assumption that an ideal woman invested her money and energy in being slender, fashionable, and self-disciplined.

But as ideas about women evolved, so have ideas about effective advertising. The social revolutions of the 1960s often explicitly critiqued capitalism, but American business deftly morphed to market a version of hipness and counterculturalism compatible with both this irreverent sensibility and market imperatives. This conquest of cool, as historian Thomas Frank styles it, explains why instead of categorically avoiding controversy, major corporations increasingly calculate that taking stances on hot-button issues can be worth the reputational riskand even insulate them from it. In a moment when silence is violence is a catchphrase, speaking out on racism, gun control, and LGBTQ rights has become more common: when Nike signed Colin Kaepernick despite (or because) his taking a knee during the national anthem, some conservatives burned their apparel, but others sported swooshes ever more proudly. After the murder of George Floyd, corporations from Peloton to McDonalds clamored to showcase their solidarity in the fight against systemic racism. Each school shooting garners similar statements, often explicitly indicting those who stay silent or, worse, offer only thoughts and prayers. We are two weeks out from Pride Month, and if recent years are any indication, financial institutions and grocery stores alike will be dutifully wrapping themselves in rainbow flags.

And yet the line seems drawn at abortion rights. I spoke with an executive at a major media company that often takes progressive public stances; she enthusiastically came aboard precisely for this outspokenness, and is proud of her employers record, and of her own role in it. But when months ago, she floated a proposal to craft messaging strategy around the likely overturn of Roe, her superiors told her to slow down. In stark contrast to the aftermath of George Floyds murder, or more recently, the Dont Say Gay bill, when her team was immediately authorized to spring into action to partner with activists and nonprofits, she was told further research was needed in the case of reproductive rights. Conversations about an action plan have restarted since the Roe news, but she was frustrated at how we absolutely do the right things on these other issues, but when what is considered a traditional womens issue is at stake, theres just that much more pause.

This silence on abortion can feel like a gut-punch, but those who have been paying attention are disappointed but unsurprised at the narrow definition of which womens issues are perceived by brands as worth courting controversy. A decade of girlboss inspoand the expansive critique that followedhas made crystal clear the hollowness of corporate feminism, in both outward messaging and internal practice. The examples touch almost every issue affecting women. Nike announced its embrace of women athletes of all sizes, but it turned out was enabling the eating disorder of one of its athletes. So too did it celebrate active motherhoodwhile cutting the pay of pregnant runners who took time off from competition. Rent the Runway touted its commitment to fair labor practices and female leadershipand was accused of exploiting its workforce comprised mostly of immigrant women. When a Levis executive who began tweeting about the impact of school closures on children and mothers, her employer pushed back so strenuously she ultimately resigned. (Levis has taken a stand on the Roe decision, but the resistance to one of its top women executives addressing an issue affecting millions of women and children speaks to the limitations of this advocacy.) And across the board, women remain underpaid relative to men and underrepresented in C-suite positions. To the exec I spoke with, changing that representation is at least part of the solution to the situation that enabled this silence on abortion rights. I know, in part, that we acted so bravely on LGBTQ issues because for my boss [a gay man], it was personal. What if we had more women in positions of power to make their personal issues a priority?

I should say that some companies are taking stronger action to ensure abortion access for their own employees, and to a lesser extent, to fight for reproductive rights more broadly. But these moves arent nearly energetic enough, especially given the standard that now exists around companies speaking out on fraught political issues. During the Black Lives Matter protests in summer 2020, a common criticism was that brands were only posting a black square on social media but doing little else to combat structural racism. Peloton emerged as a positive exception, committing to company-wide policy changes including changing hiring practices, raising wages, and donating to the NAACP, in addition to featuring Black instructors more prominently on the platform. On reproductive rights, however, Pelotons official accountand unofficially, many of the instructorshave been silent. It would feel like progress to be able to call out companies for not fully living up to their professed commitment to womens reproductive rights, but we are not even there yet.

Indeed, one of the of the nations largest public relations firms advised its clients to stay silent on abortion rights, for it was a no-win issue. Im no PR expert, just one frustrated feminist-scholar-consumer, but I can only surmise about this logic: is the idea that abortion rights appears to a coveted, cool, young consumer as an issue of their mothers generationand is thus unlikely to fire them upyet is still sufficiently controversial to alienate others, so not worth taking on? Well, it should be said that the maintenancenot even expansion!of abortion rights has the support of a majority of Americans, and even more so67 percentof voters under 45. Anecdotally, the crowds of high school and college students at #BansOffOurBodies protests in the last several days suggest that young people are impassioned by this issue and would support companies who articulate commitments to womens reproductive rights as loudly as they do to other issues perceived as less inflammatoryor worth taking heat for.

Policy that protects abortion rights is worth fighting for, and yes, we should absolutely pressure corporations to step up the solidarity. Brand messaging on race, sexuality, age, ability, and so forth is of course often cynical and self-serving, but even in an amoral capitalistic system, representation matters and can move the needle in meaningful ways. Companies have a choice not to parrot the most cautious, focus-group-tested version of their consumers mindset, and instead to move the culture forwardif they are brave enough to try. Its our job to educate, the media executive told me with measured optimism, confiding she is glad to see people are starting to shake in their boots about how the Roe decision might set a precedent to roll back Brown v. Board of Education or Obergefell v. Hodges, since the specter of that slippery slope might be the only thing, for now, that spurs companies cowardly about questioning patriarchy to utter more than the usual statements of shallow sorority.

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Corporate Support for Social Issues Is All the Rage, Except When the Topic Is Abortion Rights - Observer

Two academics are joining forces to challenge generally accepted beliefs and premises about race in the modern day with two events coming this summer.

Jason Littlefield, a Fort Worth native, and Erec Smith, a professor in Pennsylvania, will be sharing their research about a united culture of greater humanity at the Ridglea Theater in Fort Worth on July 16, and a one-day workshop in Arlington on July 18 Progress4WARD at the Sheraton Hotel, 1500 Convention Center Drive.

Its for all people who are wanting to understand what's going on right now, why everything feels so divided and chaotic right now, and what else we can do to help, Littlefield says. Maybe with these ideas, people will understand why that's happening and become more united, more aware, and more hopeful.

Littlefield is a former teacher, in the classroom for 21 years before he began to question how the system was treating the issue of race in public education. He left the school system and traveled to China and Africa, returning to the states to be a social and emotional learning specialist for Austin ISD.

During the pandemic, he befriended Smith through social media, finding agreement with him on the issue of the approach to racism and healing in society. Smith is an associate professor of rhetoric and composition at York College of Pennsylvania. His A Critique of Anti-Racism in Rhetoric and Composition: The Semblance of Empowerment was published in 2019.

The two are united in their disagreement with the conventional approach of combating racism in the modern world.

At the invitation of Smith, Littlefield joined him in co-founding Free Black Thought and a leader of Empowered Pathways, organizations that reject ideology of Critical Race Theory, and they promote diversity of thought particularly in institutions of learning. Through their organizations, they began to promote their research through education and corporate training.

What I foresaw was ahead of society, Littlefield says. I also saw these practices as detrimental to our personal well-being. Not just within ourselves, but also an attack on societal and relational trust.

I told Erec that I feel like Ive been looking for him for a long time. Our main mission is the diversity of thought in black academia. They [the trainings] are well-intended practices but the approach is tearing us apart. We are on a mission to heal society and put some different ideas into the world.

The event at the Ridglea Theater will include an hour-long conversation followed by a performance by Cadillac Muzik. In Arlington on July 18, there will be a one-day workshop, Progress4WARD, that is aimed at educators and community leaders. The workshop will cover the stigma of the us vs. them concept, and how to reverse the damage caused.

The workshop is dedicated to addressing their concept of Fourth-Wave Anti Racism and how to dismantle barriers, strengthen connections, and work to engage in mindfulness exercises. Empowered Pathways has made a Go Fund Me for any donations that could contribute to the workshop and scholarships.

I hope that people walk away feeling a sense of calm and feeling like they are more grounded with more awareness of what is happening at this moment, Littlefield says. The tools and resources to A, not just cope and handle, but B, the tools and resources that can put forth some positive change.

Link:
Making A Different Case about Race in the Modern Day - Fort Worth Magazine

By Dr. Dyotona Sen

Enriching womens healthcare delivery is a vital step to gender equality in India. Its important to consider the facts currently, India ranks 140th of 156 countries on gender inequality, based on World Economic Forums 2021 Global Gender Gap Report. This reflects the countrys performance on numerous dimensions health and survival, economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, and political empowerment. To pave the way for gender equality, it is imperative to scale efforts to support girls and women across growth indicators. One such way is to advance womens healthcare, such as by supporting women to take charge of their health through initiatives that ensure equitable access to quality care.

The latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) showcased a picture of progress on gender equality and healthcare in India. More women nationwide have their own phones (although there remain disparities in rural India) now more than ever before. Additionally, married womens household decision-making relating to healthcare increased from 73.8% in 2015-16 to 92% in 2020-21. Even as growth is visible across womens healthcare, there are still gaps to bridge.

For example, by 2025, there will be 1.1 billion menopausal women in the world. These are women in the prime of their life, possibly at the height of their careers, on whom society depends. Yet many women experience this life stage as a negative one. Half of menopausal women are unlikely to seek medical help for their symptoms even if some can be debilitating, owing to factors like social stigma and low awareness. As menopause is a natural stage of life, it should be recognized by society as such, with more openness to talk about it, its symptoms, and ways to alleviate them.

Also, to ensure women feel confident in opening up about their health, holistic support is key. It is important for women to have access to safe spaces so that they feel comfortable to have conversations where they can be empowered with relevant information and tools to manage their health concerns. By increasing opportunities for trusted interaction between health care professionals and patients, support, and psychological counselling options, we can foster high-quality patient centric care. Women, couples, or families taking the time to understand both the physical and emotional aspects of health complications have a greater chance of coping with situations better.

Moreover, womens health education is important not just for patients, but also for healthcare practitioners. This especially holds true for misdiagnosed and unrecognized conditions like endometriosis and anemia. By skilling healthcare practitioners, such as through training modules, we can expand the base of their knowledge regarding latest developments and effective practices. Pregnancy, for instance, can be a time filled with joy but also worries. To avoid health complications and support maternal health and safer childbirths, Abbott introduced Gynecology Anemia checklists across India with the Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India (FOGSI) to help doctors better manage iron deficiency anemia in pregnancy. Such measures streamline service delivery across the board with latest evidence-based recommendations.

As such healthcare solutions become available to support physicians and patients, another part of the larger picture must be to scale access. To reach women with healthcare solutions in underserved areas, including rural and peri-urban regions, collective action by multiple stakeholders is key. National and state governments, industry bodies, private players and public-private partnerships are all integral to a sustainable approach. Abbott supports work to overcome urban-rural disparity in accessing healthcare services, hospitals, and treatment through the Abbott Strengthening Healthcare Access (ASHA) initiative. Working with the Indian Medical Association (IMA) on educational programs, we also aim to empower healthcare professionals and rural health care workers to improve treatment options in rural areas. Leveraging collective strengths to set up and support primary health centre capacities are ways to reach women with health information and get a step closer to equitable health coverage.

By having access to trusted information, women can address health issues they may have previously neglected and thrive in their personal, social, and work life. In fact, Abbott is working to foster science-based learning amongst 1,500 young children 45% of whom are girls from socially disadvantaged communities. In addition to helping improve their problem-solving skills through access to digital tools for science-based learning, we are working to improve their knowledge of health challenges such as non-communicable diseases, nutrition and menstrual hygiene, while also providing them with access to indoor and outdoor sports. By empowering them with skills to be future-ready, such as by promoting healthy choices and preventive behaviours, we intend to ensure they maintain good health to reach their full potential.

Womens health needs to be a nationwide priority, upheld through the synergies between collaborative efforts and advanced health solutions. At Abbott, we believe that health and dignity are vital to every human beings ability to live a full life. We aim to continue to invest in expanding the scope of healthcare for women and girls so we can advance the future of equity and empowerment in Indian healthcare.

By Dr. Dyotona Sen, Head Medical Affairs, Abbott India

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Championing Womens Healthcare Needs: Towards Equity & Empowerment - ETHealthWorld

A new television series based on the life of Frida Kahlo is on the way. Variety reports that the artists estate has collaborated with the Miami-based company BTF Media to create a show offering a faithful and more authentic perspective on the artists turbulent life.

Few figures in the art world have undergone quite the level of speculation that the celebrated Latinx artist has been subjected to. Her legacy has been exhaustively excavated, inspiring a host of biographies, documentaries and films including the Oscar-winning biopic Frida [2002], starring Salma Hayek. And, despite the iconoclastic nature of her work and her personal ideology, her image has been appropriated endlessly as an icon of spurious girl power values across popular culture, commodified as Barbie dolls, face filters, emojis, cosmetics, and even co-opted by Theresa May who notoriously wore a bracelet adorned with Kahlos portrait when she took the stage at the 2017 Conservative Party Conference.

Kahlos existence was famously marred by pain, contracting polio as a child and being injured in a near-fatal traffic accident, the consequences of which plagued her throughout her brief life. Her dramatic marriage, divorce, and re-marriage to fellow artist Diego Rivera are well-documented. In the pages of her own notebook, she compared their meeting to a deathly tragedy: I suffered two great accidents in my life, one in which a streetcar knocked me down the other accident is Diego.

This upcoming TV series promises to offer a new perspective on the much-mythologised artist. According to the painters great-niece, Mara Romeo Kahlo, the series seeks to portray Frida as she has never been seen before. The goal is to present a unique perspective based on what her family knows about her and show how she really lived her life.

This project will allow Frida to be shown as a woman whose art represented empowerment, hope and power, and will allow her family to share with the audience how her legacy continues to inspire thousands of people around the world, said Alfonso Duran, general director of Frida Kahlo Management.

BTF co-founder Ricardo Coeto added, Frida was known for her colourful self-portraits. Her self-portraits had different themes, such as her identity, her human body, and death. She was considered a hero to many because she did not allow society to get to her; instead, she used her struggles as her strength.

Each episode will undertake to explore the lesser-known aspects of Kahlos life and reveal truths about the real artist, as known and loved by those closest to her. More details of the project are set to be unveiled at a later date.

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A new TV show will reveal the truth about Frida Kahlo - Dazed

Newly formed council brings together seven global health experts to more equitably advance behavioral design approaches and strengthen impact

NEW YORK, May 17, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Non-profit behavioral design firm ideas42 today announced the formation of a new specialized advisory council to significantly expand the potential impact of behavioral science in the global health sector.

ideas42 (PRNewsfoto/ideas42)

The Behavioral Science in Global Health Advisory Council draws from the diverse expertise of seven women with a wealth of experience improving public health programs, policies, technologies, and services around the world.

The Advisory Council will provide strategic guidance to ensure that the strategies and research priorities of applied behavioral science capture the needs of the global health sector and ensure a diverse range of perspectives, based on lived experience and disciplinary expertise, shape the direction of applied behavioral science in global health. The Advisory Council represents an expansion of ideas42's commitment to and expertise in using behavioral design to more equitably strengthen global health programs, and by extension the health and well-being of millions.

"As the application of behavioral science continues its exciting expansion, we're being intentional about pushing ourselves to do our work better," said Jana Smith, Managing Director at ideas42 and a leader of the organization's Global Health team. "This includes incorporating new methods and exploring bolder approaches to generate impact for people around the world, and the Advisory Council is a major step in that direction. We're honored to work with such an accomplished group of women as they contribute deep disciplinary expertise and rich personal experiences to this aim."

The inaugural council will serve an initial two-year term and meet biannually to advance the Advisory Council's strategic goals. ideas42 selected council members based on their unique areas of expertise, and to ensure more diverse gender and geographic perspectives in the behavioral science field.

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Hawa Talla has over 25 years of exemplary experience in family planning (FP), reproductive health (RH), social communication for behavior change, program implementation, and technical leadership. Ms. Talla currently serves as the Country Director for the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) in Senegal, where she leads CHAI's efforts to expand its transformational, results-oriented portfolio of public health programming. She earned a master's degree in strategic planning and management of reproductive health programs from CESAG in Senegal.

Marie Ba is the Director of the Ouagadougou Partnership (OP) Coordination Unit and a leading advocate for women and families in West Africa. As Director, Marie leads collaboration and coordination among the OP's stakeholders, which collectively contribute over $150 million per year to advance reproductive health options and outcomes in the region. She earned her master's degree in international development and peace/conflict resolution from American University.

Dr. Olufunke Fasawe is the Senior Director (global) for Primary Health Care at the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), and the Director of Programs and Lead for the Sexual, Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Program for CHAI in Nigeria. She has over 10 years of experience in global health working across policy, program design and planning, implementation, grant management, monitoring, and evaluation.

Dr. Priya Nanda is a Senior Program Officer in the measurement learning and evaluation team at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in India, where she leads a portfolio of research on health systems strengthening and family planning with a focus on gender, social norms, and equity. Her expertise includes research, measurement, and evaluation of women's economic empowerment and access to health services, including reproductive and sexual health.

Dr. Rhoda Wanyenze is a Professor and Dean at Makerere University School of Public Health in Uganda. She has vast experience in public health, including clinical, program management, policy development, and research.

Sanam Roder-DeWan, M.D., is a family physician, implementation researcher, and public health professional who studies, designs, and implements health system interventions to improve equity, quality, and outcomes for mothers and children in low-income settings globally.

Wambui Gachiengo Nyabero is an inventor and innovator with more than 20 years of expertise in the development of medical devices from the idea stage through commercialization. She is currently the Chief Technology Officer at Villgro Africa. She earned her master's degree in manufacturing systems engineering from Stanford University.

In addition to supporting the Advisory Council's goals, members will also collaborate and share insights with other behavioral science practitioners working in global health.

Learn more about ideas42's work in global health here.

About ideas42ideas42 is a non-profit that uses insights from human behaviorwhy people do what they doto help improve lives, build better systems, and drive social change. For more than a decade, we've been at the forefront of applying behavioral science in the real world. ideas42's work in global health to date includes dozens of novel solutions, powered by insights from behavioral science, across more than 25 countries. ideas42 has partnered with a wide range of governments, foundations, and NGOs across family planning, maternal and child health, nutrition, HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, and gender-based violence.

For more, visit ideas42.org.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Mitra Salasel, mitra@ideas42.org

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