Motherhood traps and other top 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.

The motherhood trap. A high proportion of the most successful women in politics are childless. (New Statesman)

The youngest mum in the office. “I made changes to free up more time for the baby, [my partner] didn’t.” (New York Times)

Female bosses just can’t win. Study shows men operate fairly with everyone except them. (World Economic Forum)

Liberate women from full-time work. An alternative to family-friendly work policies. (New Republic)

IBM to ship employees’ breast milk home. Tech companies realise they need to do more to keep working women on board. (Fortune)

The overlooked gender gap. Women are still much less likely to get credit, whether from a bank or informal moneylender. (Quartz)

The engineer who uncovered Silicon Valley’s gender problem. She’s not, as one brogrammer put it, “too pretty to code”. (Mother Jones)

UK’s prime minister tells business to come clean on pay gap. Watch them squirm. (Financial Times)

British women on being the top earner. “I don’t buy dinners, even coffees.” (Financial Times)

… and how Rwandan women cope. “I may be earning more than him but we are equal partners.” (New Times)

Is it time for a woman to run the UN? Campaigners join forces. (Al Jazeera)

Ethnic Vietnamese women as road maintenance crews. And other surprising solutions to development problems. (World Economic Forum)

Gender puzzles in attitudes to climate change. Why men notice the change in climate but women are quicker to adapt. (World Economic Forum)

The Cairo streets where girls pretend to be boys. “Boys get complete freedom on the streets – it’s different for girls.” (The Guardian)

The worst place in the world for female entrepreneurs? India – the fastest growing start-up ecosystem in the world – is a bleak place for women. (Quartz)

Middle East lags behind in putting women in top jobs. “There needs to be more focus on changing perceptions.” (Arabian Business)

Death from childbirth is unusually common in the U.S. Why are maternal mortality rates creeping back up? (The Economist)

Statistic of the Week

In developing regions, up to 95% of women’s employment is informal,according to UN Women.

Quote of the Week

“Gender equality is not only morally right. It is also an extremely potent development and growth booster.”
Stefan Löfven, Swedish Prime Minister

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

Image: Italy’s Member of the European Parliament Licia Ronzulli (C) arrives with her daughter Vittoria to take part in a voting session at the European Parliament in Strasbourg February 15, 2012. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler