Lebanon’s maid trade and other gender stories of the week

Welcome to your weekly digest of stories about how the gender gap plays out around the world – in business, health, education and politics.

What Sheryl Sandberg gets wrong about success. Not everyone should lean in. (New Republic)

Want more women in the workforce? Copy the Nordic countries. (World Economic Forum)

Paternity leave alone won’t close the gender gap. Until both parents are treated as crucial to a baby’s wellbeing, mothers will be overloaded. (World Economic Forum)

The most influential woman you’ve never heard of. Why Sheryl Sandberg and Oprah love Mellody Hobson. (Vanity Fair)

Female-run VCs alter the status quo. If investors are white men, no wonder most entrepreneurs are too. (New York Times)

Reinventing the Avon Lady for the digital generation. Willa recruits the most influential sales force imaginable: teenage girls. (Fortune)

Successful women share their secrets. “Never be too focused that you don’t hear opportunity knocking.” (World Economic Forum)

She sounds smart, but look at her hair! Even professional women suffer a red-carpet style dissection. (New York Times)

Pao hopes her case will tackle Silicon Valley sexism. “Women shouldn’t have to go through this legal experience to fix [the system].” (Financial Times)

How to make your company less sexist. It’s all about overriding subconscious biases. (The Atlantic)

“I am strong. I am not a victim.” One of Turkey’s few female co-mayors speaks out. (PRI)

Afghanistan’s female mountain climbers. “There’s freedom up there.” (NPR)

Lebanon’s maid trade is modified slavery. Reports abound of pervasive abuse, including beatings and withheld wages. (Al Jazeera)

Making jewellery out of rubbish. The women of a Kenyan slum weaving their way out of poverty. (The Star)

Iran’s subterfuge over women’s rights. Iranian women face discrimination at every turn. (Human Rights Watch)

Kidnap, rape and ‘honour’ killings. On the road with a female reporter in rural India. (Guardian)

The power of a mobile phone. By giving access to financial services, mobiles can lift women out of poverty.  (New York Times)

One of the UK’s first female firefighters retires. “I battled fires and sexism in the eighties. But I won.” (Telegraph)

Statistic of the Week

The world’s top 20 companies for gender diversity had an average return on equity of 8.5% compared with 7% for the 20 least diverse, according to a report by Ernst & Young.

Quote of the Week

“My choice: to marry or not to marry; to have sex before marriage, to have sex outside of marriage, to not have sex. My choice: to love a man, or a woman, or both.”

Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone, in a controversial video championing women’s rights.

Author: Saadia Zahidi is a Senior Director, Head of Gender Parity and Human Capital and Constituents at the World Economic Forum.

Image: A woman visits the interior of the Madrid train bombing memorial at Atocha station, in Madrid March 11, 2014. REUTERS/Susana Vera