18 must-read 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.

Wonder women and macho men. Latin American women are making great strides but culture is not keeping up. (Economist)

Why we should value office “housework”. It helps employees meet their potential. (Harvard Business Review)

How to end the “office housework” gender bias. There are ways for women to avoid it without seeming selfish. (Fast Company)

Impossible tightropes we ask working women to walk. How to negotiate, how to look, and whether to be tough or kind. (Vox)

The 26%. Women speak out on tech’s gender crisis. (Re/Code)

How to get more women into work – by tackling sexual exploitation. (World Economic Forum)

Which start-up cities hire the most women? Of those surveyed, not one tech hub reached the 30% mark. (World Economic Forum)

More South African women have bank accounts than men. But they are dropping out of the workforce. (World Economic Forum)

Sushi showdown: women challenge one of Japan’s male bastions. (Associated Press)

Japan’s boardrooms must be more foreign and female. Appointing foreigners will lead to extra scrutiny. (Financial Times)

Saudi suffragettes. Women register to vote for the first time in Saudi Arabia. (CNN)

Saudi businesswomen use Instagram to bypass men. It’s providing them with the ultimate empowerment: their own income. (Bloomberg)

Kenya’s female business owners sharpen skills. “Empowering women is not philanthropy … it simply is smart economics.” (Daily Nation)

Female entrepreneurs in India on the rise. But there is little support for women-owned mid-caps. (Forbes India)

Vietnam’s start-up queen. “I don’t believe in work-life balance.” (BBC)

The deal-making women pushing into fashion. A private equity firm with 40% female managers. (Bloomberg)

Why Flibanserin is not the “female Viagra”. The drug’s controversial approval comes amid questions about whether it really works. (The Atlantic)

It is high time a woman led the UN. Since its inception in 1945, it has always been led by a man. (New York Times)

Statistic of the Week

Since 2005 there has only been a 3.5% increase in the global number of female government ministers. Today, there are 715 female minsters worldwide; just 18% of the global total.

Quote of the week 

“As president I’m going to do everything I can to make sure not just the president gets paid the same, whether it’s a woman or a man, but every woman in every job gets paid the same as the men who are doing that job.”

Hillary Clinton, US presidential candidate, responds to an astute question from a little girl