GEC

Author: Future Manager Research Center Today’s protagonist is a woman who has carried a burden on her shoulders that few other people would have been able to carry. We are not talking about a politician or a business woman, much less an acclaimed writer; this is the story of a mother, Marisela Escobedo Ortiz. Before talking about her tragic fate, let’s try to retrace the sad facts that struck the whole Escobedo family and, first of all, the young Rubí. The Escobedo family consisted of Marisela, her husband and five children who were very close to each other: Juan, Jessica, Alejandro, Pablo and the youngest, Rubí. It was a very humble Mexican family; Marisela worked nights as a nurse and her husband was very busy as well, so their sons and daughters helped with the housework. They all lived in Ciudad Juárez, the most populous city in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. It has been named the world’s most dangerous city, in particular because of its problems with the drug cartels and with missing women. Being a woman in this city seemed to carry a death sentence. When Marisela opened a woodshop and furniture store in Ciudad Juárez, a guy showed up one day looking for a job. He seemed to need help, and Marisela agreed to let him work in her shop. She was totally unaware of what would happen from there some time: that man was Sergio Barraza Bocanegra. At that time, Rubí was a wholesome, smart and beautiful 13-years-old girl.  Despite her young age, Sergio (9 years older) fell for her charm and they started a relationship that Marisela objected. The reason for this dissent was due to the fact that the story between the two turned out to be a sick love: Sergio took Rubí to live with him and he made her stay in the apartment all day long, isolating her from the rest of her family. Even if Marisela was extremely worried about her daughter’s condition, she also balked at the fear that Rubí would hate her if she came between her and the man she loved. At that point, Marisela decided not to get involved. Sometime later, Rubí got pregnant but when the little girl was born, Sergio was unemployed and with money worries. One day Rubí’s brother, Juan, went to the apartment where the couple was staying, but they were gone. The entire Escobedo family was immediately alarmed, especially when they found the baby with Sergio, who claimed that Rubí had gone away with another man. Marisela thought this was not possible; everyone knew that Rubí would never abandon her daughter. The day after, they discovered that Sergio was gone too. Something bad was going on and they started looking for her. It took her mom a month and a half to be able to file a police report, since the cops insisted she had left. The family was completely alone in the search for Rubí, they also offered a reward to anyone who had any information about her disappearance. Suddenly, one day, someone called: this young man asked Marisela to meet in person and confessed what he saw and heard. He was hanging out with some friends, Sergio showed up, he looked agitated and asked for someone to help him haul some furniture. His brother, Andy Alonso Barraza Bocanegra and some other guy went to help him.  Hours later, they returned and both Andy and Sergio told everyone the truth: Sergio Rafael killed Rubí and then burnt her body. Rubí’s family finally knew the truth but they had to find proof. After a series of vicissitudes that have done nothing but demonstrate the ineptitude of the Mexican authorities, Barraza confessed to killing Rubí in June 2009 and led police to a place where pigs are “farmed” and subsequently slaughtered (a place called marranera), where her burned remains were left in parts after he had dismembered her. In the state’s unusual move to prosecute a woman killer, Barraza was tried in a court of three judges, but was released for what the judges considered a lack of evidence. Like many, Marisela was shocked at the decision and vowed to appeal and to continue protesting the injustice. She did this for over a year. By the time Sergio Barraza was released, Rubí’s case and Marisela’s struggle to bring her daughter’s aggressor to justice were widely known. Often covered by the local press, her walks for justice were made familiar to newspaper readers. She was supported by various anti-femicide activists and by the impetus of social pressure gained through her mobilizing efforts. In another unusual move, the state penalized the judges who dismissed the case and agreed to retry it, but law enforcement officials claimed they could not find Barraza. Marisela with her son Juan and a few friends located him in Barraza, then living with another woman in the state of Zacatecas. Sharing the results of her own investigation, Marisela reported Barraza’s location to the authorities in Chihuahua and Zacatecas, who did NOTHING. Unrelenting, Marisela continued her protests at the governor’s palace in the city of Chihuahua. From Marisela’s perspective, the governor’s inaction signalled his complicity (later Juan told that Barraza received protection from “the Zetas”, a drug cartel in northeastern Mexico known to do contract work with state officials). A week before her assassination Marisela confronted the governor “in his face. In a less-than-polite and emasculating way, she said to him in front of others: “You should be ashamed that a woman like me is doing your work.” On December 16, 2010, she was killed outside the governor’s palace, her death captured on palace videotape for the world to see. In the video, viewers can see that the streets, normally bustling with police and security guards, have been cleared. A gunman emerged, pulled out the weapon, chased Marisela across the street, and shot her dead.   In a surprising turn of events, in November 2012 the then fugitive Sergio Barraza was…

Author: Future Manager Research Center The early 1990s were often described as onna no jidai 女の時代 or “the era of women”. Women in Japan had not only attained a large measure of equality in a highly affluent society, but they could exercise freedom in choosing from a variety of options. At that time, it seemed they could aspire to lead fulfilling, happier, fuller, and more balanced lives than their male counterparts who were tied exclusively to their work.  It was also the period of significant strides made by women in securing greater rights and opportunities in the home, workplace, schools, and the political field, particularly in the decade following the United Nations International Women’s Year in 1975. The passage of the Equal Employment Opportunity Law (EEOL) in 1985 opened up the previously all-male career track within Japanese companies to university-educated women. The Child Care Leave Law of 1991 required companies to grant unpaid leave to either parent until the child reached the age of one. A number of professions and occupations previously open only to men now admitted women, many of whom were coming from four-year universities, and were perhaps affected by the growth of women’s studies courses on many college campuses. Local, regional, and national female politicians increased in numbers and visibility. Married women, including  those with children, entered the labor force, and also participated in a wide range of activities outside the traditional confines of the home, including adult learning and community-related programs, volunteer work, and environmental, political, and peace movements. While these were tentative steps, the climate seemed charged with optimism. There seemed to be no end to women’s increasing ascendance. Almost thirty years later, the picture is less rosy, for there is little progress to be seen. A number of simple facts tell the story: first, the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) rates the extent to which women participate in economic and political life by assuming positions of leadership and policy-making. In 2020, the GEM reported that Japan’s ranking was 121st out of 153 nations, in terms of gender parity, a decline of 11 places compared to its ranking a year before, when it ranked 110th, and a decline of 41 places compared to the 2006 report, the first year of the index when it ranked 80th. Based on the current ranking, Japan’s gender gap is the largest among advanced economies. Trying to understand what is behind Japan’s persistent gender gap, means dealing with a delicate and complex subject. Instead of dwelling on the negative aspects of the topic, perhaps it is most appropriate to give credit and visibility to episodes that are signs of a better future in the field of gender equality. One such relevant and deeply interesting episode occurred last month in Japan, the protagonist of which is a 22-year-old Japanese university student named Momoko Nojo. As if the Tokyo Olympics didn’t have enough hurdles to leap over, what with the ongoing global pandemic causing people to question whether the postponed 2020 Games should still go on this summer, the former prime minister of Japan and president of Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Yoshiro Mori, recently made a shocking statement about women on the global stage: “You have to regulate [women’s] speaking time to some extent, or else we’ll never be able to finish.” These were the words pronounced by Yoshiro Mori speaking to members of the Japanese Olympic Committee (with reporters present), when he was asked to comment on the plan to increase the number of female board members to more than 40%.  This was not his first “slipup”, however this time it hasn’t gone unnoticed. This is where Momoko Nojo came into play. Like many across Japan and the world, the fourth-year economics student at Keio University was deeply offended by the Prime Minister’s statements, so much so that she decided to launch an online campaign against the powerful Tokyo Olympics chief and the sexist remarks he made. Momoko Nojo would never have expected that her initiative could generate such huge waves in the media. In fact, in less than two weeks, her hashtag #DontBeSilent campaign (organized with other activists) gathered more than 150,000 signatures, galvanising global outrage against Yoshiro Mori. The sexist statements led to calls on Twitter for Mori to resign, with some readers noting that discrimination against women, or discrimination in any form, be it over race, religion, nationality or sexual orientation, goes against the Olympic Charter.  Nojo’s activism was born from a year studying in Denmark, a country that chose a woman (Mette Frederiksen) as prime minister in 2019. At that time, the desire and the need to do more for gender equality in her native country was born within her, so two years ago she started her nonprofit “No Youth No Japan“. During an interview, this brave young woman shared a little more about her position on the subject. She said her activism was motivated by questions she has often heard from male peers like, “You’re a girl, so you have to go to a high school that has pretty school uniforms, don’t you?” or “Even if you don’t have a job after graduating from college, you can be a housewife, no?.” Now you can understand where Momoko’s disappointment comes from. What happened after her public intervention is unbelievable. Despite initial refusals to apologize or step down, under extreme public pressure, Yoshiro Mori eventually resigned as the president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee. His resignation came just over five months before the postponed Olympics are to open in the middle of a pandemic with public sentiment overwhelmingly against the games. The executive board did not immediately choose a successor for Mori, leading many to assume that he would eventually be replaced by an older man. A short time later, against all odds, Seiko Hashimoto was called to replace him. Ms. Hashimoto is a former Olympic champion and well-regarded politician, which represents a double victory for Ms. Nojo and for Japan. It is also relevant to note that, in her fight, Ms. Nojo leveraged the…

Author: Future Manager Research Center In an in-depth interview for Japanese political affairs magazine Chuo-Koron, Gro Harlem Brundtland discussed everything from the secret of successful leadership to achieving a nuclear weapon-free world. When she was asked about the most necessary characteristics to be a leader she answered: “I think you have to be grounded in yourself. You have to trust your own instincts. You have to be able to convey what you believe in. And you just have to have convictions and a moral compass that other people can sense, because then they can rally around you and they know where you are, they understand what you’re saying, and if they agree, they can follow and be part of something together.” Deeply rooted in fundamental human rights, Gro Harlem Brundtland’s beliefs have not wavered despite the criticisms that they have provoked. In addition to being a famous prime minister of Norway in the 1980s and 1990s, this woman was an important leader of the environmental and feminist movements of the 1970s and 1980s. For decades, she has championed public health as a human right and put sustainable development on the international agenda. Born 20 April 1939, in Oslo to a prominent family of social democrats, Gro Harlem Brundtland grew up with politics. Daughter of Gudmund Harlem, who was a medical doctor who specialised in rehabilitation medicine. Her father was also a politician, who became a cabinet minister twice. Because of her father’s duties, when Brundtland was ten years old, the whole family moved to the United States. Several years later, they moved to Egypt, where Gudmund Harlem accepted a position as a United Nations expert on rehabilitation. The return to Norway came when he became a prominent member of the Labour Party, rising to the position of Minister of Defence. Her parents taught their children to care about the health of nature and of society; they raised them in an egalitarian way, without distinguishing between sons and daughters. Political debate was always present at home and her parents fostered her belief that women could achieve just as much as men. Thanks to their teachings, when Gro Harlem was a mature woman, she was convinced of the equality of men and women and of the social importance of good health. Like her father, she studied medicine and became a physician. In 1963, she received her medical degree from the University of Oslo and a Master of Public Health from Harvard University in 1965. From 1966 to 1969, she worked as a physician at the Directorate of Health (Helsedirektoratet), and from 1969, she worked as a doctor in Oslo’s public health service. As a university student in the early 1960s, she discovered that sexism existed in society. Soon she was attracted to the feminist movement arising in that decade. As a physician and as a social democrat she became an active member of the abortion rights movement, when it was not yet legalized in Norway. Because of her activism in the abortion rights movement and because of the fact that she repeatedly spoke out on environmental subjects, Brundtland was asked to enter government in 1974. At the age of 35, she became Minister of the Environment and six years later became Norway’s youngest and first female Prime Minister at the age of 41, and forty percent of her second cabinet were women. Under her presidency, Norwegian Parliament adopted the Gender Equality Act (1978), which promoted gender equality and aimed at improving the position of women. The purpose was to provide to both women and men equal opportunities in education, employment, and cultural and professional advancement.  The following year she became deputy leader of the Norwegian Social Democratic Party and in that position, she fought for feminist and environmental objectives. It was in 1979, that she had to leave the cabinet precisely for her outspoken feminist views. When she married Arne Olav Brundtland, she found herself living with a partner who had different political views. Indeed, he was a staunch conservative, but also one of the few husbands with a brilliant career of his own who would simultaneously support feminism not only in theory but also in practice. He supported emotionally his wife from the beginning, and gave her advice on foreign affairs, but what was surprising for the time was that he shared household duties and the care of their four children with her. She increasingly became a leader of her party, a politician sensitive to problems of social security, workers and environment: Brundtland fought hard for laws on pollution control and for regulations on natural resources. While many of her colleagues mocked her over some of her great concerns they deemed bizarre, Brundtland got her revenge when her precautionary actions prevented a disastrous accident on an oil platform in the North Sea. Upon a request by the United Nations in 1983, Brundtland became chair of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED). Also known as the “Brundtland Commission”, it developed the epoch-defining concept of “sustainable development”. In 1998, she became the first female Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) to 2003, becoming a leading advocate on global preparedness for pandemics. On 18 July 2007 in Johannesburg, South Africa, Nelson Mandela, Graça Machel, and Desmond Tutu convened a group of world leaders to contribute their wisdom, independent leadership and integrity to tackle some of the world’s toughest problems. Nelson Mandela announced the formation of this new group, The Elders, which included also Gro Harlem Brundtland. In a speech delivered by Mandela on the occasion of his 89th birthday, he commented: “Together we will work to support courage where there is fear, foster agreement where there is conflict, and inspire hope where there is despair.” She has been referred to as the “Iron Lady of the Left”, a counterpart to Britain’s “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher, who was prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party during the same period. Brundtland is a woman whose career is difficult to summarize in…

Author: Future Manager Research Center Gender-based violence can happen to anyone, children or adults, regardless of one’s gender orientation or sexual identity. We are living in a moment in history in which traditional power structures are being meaningfully challenged and marginalized voices are speaking out about their experiences. These voices are an attempt to challenge our current heteropatriarchal world. Heteropatriarchy refers to a social and political system where the male gender and heterosexuality exert a dominating influence over other genders and sexual orientation. What these men and women carry out with their testimonies is a real battle against the the power structures run by male élites who continue to reinforce and reify their own dominance, often through very violent means. The 2013 global review of violence against women made by the World Health Organization was the first study of its kind in history. It estimated that 35% of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence. In 2017, the Me Too Movement (#Metoo) against sexual harassment and sexual assault ignited in the United States, because of sexual abuse allegations against the film producer Harvey Weinstein. It went viral as a hashtag on social media, like many other hashtag protests in the early 21st century’s rise of digital activism. While a debate about sexual harassment and abuse has swept the globe in recent years, in Greece, a generally socially conservative country, the old reflex to remain silent on the issue has remained strong. When the Greek sailing gold medallist in the 2005 Olympics, Sofia Bekatorou, opened up last month about being sexually assaulted by a sports official as a 21-year-old, it came as a breakthrough in a country where confronting such abuse has been rare. Now things are changing. Let’s find out more about the life of this athlete: Σοφία Μπεκατώρου is her Greek name, born 26 December 1977 in Athens. Reserved and soft-spoken woman, whose passion for sailing has enchanted her since she was a child. However, she must immediately deal with the prejudice that profoundly governed this sport: before she could join sailing classes near her home in Athens, the 8 years-old Sofia had to show an instructor she could tie a basic knot properly. Bekatorou spent her early afternoons in a bathtub-sized sailboat, but the coaches took note of the girl’s determination and on her 12th birthday, she was outperforming her male opponents in various competitions. It was clear that Sofia was already on the way to winning gold medals and becoming a great champion. The great results are not long in coming: at the 2004 Summer Olympics sailing competition in Athens she won the gold medal in the women’s double-handed dinghy event in the 470 with her pair Emilia Tsoulfa. After a serious back injury, she won a bronze medal in the yngling keelboat class at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Another very significant event for her sporting but also personal career followed eight years later, because Sofia Bekatorou was the first-ever woman selected as standard-bearer to represent Greece in opening ceremonies at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. She dedicated the honor at Maracana Stadium to her older sister, who had died of brain cancer four months earlier. During an online sports seminar, Sofia Beakatorou made an unexpected statement. Sofia told she was sexually assaulted at the age of 21 by a male official (that she did not name) from the Hellenic Sailing Federation during preparations for the Sydney Olympic Games. It is the country’s first high-profile accusation of sexual assault and abuse of power since the #MeToo movement swept the world in recent years, bringing down powerful figures in the media, politics and sports worlds. Her declarations gained national attention and elicited statements of support for Bekatorou, in particular from the first female president of the country, Katerina Sakellaropoulou.  Over the years, despite constantly struggling with the memory of that terrible experience, Sofia managed to become one of the most decorated athletes in Greek history, to have two children and to obtain a degree in psychology. Bekatarou said she hoped the reaction marked a turning point for Greek society, which often seems resigned to official cronyism and impunity. Thanks to her confession, Greece finally has its #Metoo movement and a conversation about gender roles, discrimination, power dynamics and daily sexism in the country has opened. Her voice encouraged many people who had found themselves in a similar situation to step forward and share their stories too. A prosecutor has now launched an investigation into reports of violence, sexual harassment or abuse in the arts sector, the focus of many of the new allegations.

Author: Future Manager Research Center “My advice for more women in top jobs: be daring, claim and enjoy your position at the table, introduce other great women. You already make the difference by being female. To organisations: equality is a success if for every mediocre man you select with the same ease mediocre women.” Neelie Kroes was born on 19 July 1941 in Rotterdam, Netherlands. She is a retired Dutchpolitician of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie, VVD). This famous businesswoman served as European Commissioner from 2004 to 2014, where she was responsible for the Digital Agenda for Europe (2010-2014). Kroes attended a Protestant grammar school in Rotterdam then she continued to a Protestant high school. In 1958, she went to study economics at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. In 1961, Kroes was praeses of the R.V.S.V. (the largest Rotterdam sorority). She was also elected as a member of the University Council. After obtaining a Bachelor of Economics and later a Master of Economics degree in 1965, she became a research fellow at the economic faculty at that University. During this period, Kroes was involved in the women’s organisation within the VVD. She spent a big part of her career in the family business (her father owned the transport company Zwatra) and as a professor at the Erasmus University. It was however, in 1971 when she began her ascent in politics, first as a member of parliament Netherlands, then she served as the Dutch State Secretary of Transport and Water Management from 1977 to 1981 and subsequently was appointed as the Minister of the same department. After her time as minister, Kroes became a member of the Rotterdam Chamber of Commerce and, in 1991, she became chairwoman of Nyenrode University, a private business school and served on the boards of various Dutch companies. As chairperson of Nyenrode Business University, Kroes awarded an honorary doctorate to Microsoft founder Bill Gates in 1996. After her activity in national politics, Neelie Kroes was appointed the European Commissioner for Competition in 2004. She was the first woman to hold this post, but initially her nomination was heavily criticized because of her perceived ties to big business and because of her alleged involvement in shady arms deals. Over the years, Kroes has tried to uphold her integrity: she won over her previous critics and has proven both her integrity and business acumen. Her directness and straight talking approach as a tough defender of free markets has earned her the nickname “Nickel Neelie.” In 2008, Neelie was awarded the prestigious Kiel Institute Global Economy Prize, the first woman to receive this honor, which is given in recognition of ground-breaking thinking and mediation in the challenging times of globalization. Her contributions have also been recognized by other awards including being named Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion, and Grand Officer of the Orange-Nassau of the Netherlands. In 2008, she was named as one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. Regarding her commitment to fighting gender inequality in the business world, it is clear that Neelie is a passionate advocate for greater representation of women in senior business and political positions and considers her function as a role model and mentor of women as a great privilege. On several occasions, she advocated for feminist policy interventions to identify gaps, expand frameworks and create, in essence, “gender sensitive” policy to acknowledge and distinguish between the various socioeconomic positions of men and women, recognizing relations that arise from these positions. Neelie Kroes has always been bothered by business leaders who justified themselves for not hiring a woman from their ranks and she stated: “I don’t buy the argument when someone tells me he can’t find women to hire. I tell them ‘go see your eye doctor!’.” Neelie Kroes kicked off of the ambitious Female Tech Heroes network, which was launched in 2019, as part of Dutch Technology Week, at High Tech Campus Eindhoven. More than 600 tech women were present for a day of presentations and debates on the theme of women in tech. Kroes believed and still believes that women are underrepresented in tech and that needs to change. That’s why she supported this great initiative, in order to make women enthusiastic about technology.  Kroes has held and still holds many side offices, mainly in cultural and social organisations. She is chairperson of Poets of all Nations, the Delta Psychiatric Hospital and of the board of the Rembrandt House Museum. Then, at an age when many have already retired, Kroes was asked by the Dutch government to act as special envoy for startups and scaleups. In short, Neelie Kroes is still an avant-garde woman, sensitive to the issues of gender equality and a leading figure in the business world.

Author: Future Manager Research Center “I assure you, they can’t strangle me in a dark corner!” said Anne Lauvergeon, the embattled boss of one of France’s largest nuclear enterprises, when told that some would not mind strangling her out in the open, she leaned back and laughed. Known for her tenacity, she is one of the most prominent female executives in Europe, and one of the most independent minded, perhaps too much so for France’s male-dominated elite. In her professional career we find everything and its opposite. Great successes and bitter failures, master strokes and uncontrolled slips. This is probably what explains why some may be enthusiastic about her, praising her audacity and her intelligence unreservedly, while others hate her and criticize her authoritarianism and her side as an “iron lady“. Anne Lauvergon was born on 2 August 1959 in Dijon (in the Côte-d’Or), her father taught history and her mother was a social worker. She studied at Lakanal high schools in Sceaux, Voltaire and La Source in Orléans, at the École Normale Supérieure and at the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines (ENSM) in Paris. Graduated in physical and engineering sciences from the Corps des Mines, in the 1980s she held positions of responsibility at Usinor, CEA, Regional Directorate for Industry and Research (Drire) Île-de-France, at the General Council of Mines and she held courses at the ENSM in Paris. During the second presidential term of François Mitterrand (1990-91), she was placed in charge of the mission for the international economy and foreign trade. The following year, within a few months, a dual role was proposed: vice-secretary general and sherpa of the president, responsible for preparing international meetings (such as the G7 summit). After the adventure at the Elysée she landed at the Lazard bank, the sanctuary of capitalism across the Alps. In this environment Anne Lauvergeon did not feel at ease with her, disturbed by that male chauvinist world that will accompany her throughout her career and with which she will have to live and fight. Finance Minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn pushed her to lead the Compagnie Générale des Matériaux Nuclear (COGEMA), future Areva NC of which, in June 1999, she became CEO. In 2001 she built Areva as a merger of other French companies, a company for which she had global aspirations. From 2001 to 2011, she continued to lead Areva, becoming one of the most influential and feared public managers in France. Areva was engaged in nearly all aspects of nuclear energy, from mining and engineering to construction and recycling. At the command of Areva, Anne Lauvergeon has embodied for a whole decade the French nuclear industry, of which everyone knows the real and symbolic weight. Taking the lead of such a giant in such a sensitive industry brings enormous power, but also a great responsibility. It is above all in the course of the twelve years in which she was at the head of Areva that Anne Lauvergeon choosed, through her conduct, to become the symbol of female power: her seductive but at the same time unassailable from a managerial point of view irritated French establishement on all fronts. When french corporate heads opposed quotas and feminists and hampered gender equality, Anne Lauvergeon wanted to see more women on boards, stating: “What will really matter is to change the roles of women within all companies. When we look at candidates with the same level of competencies, we’ll take the woman. If you want to be in the energy business, you need to reflect the societies as they are. And diversity is an added value to sell products.” When Nicolas Sarkozy took over the French presidency in 2007, the disagreements between the latter and Anna Lauvergon were already well known. The proof of this conflicting relationship arose when Sarkozy, in 2011, refused to renew her mandate at the helm of Areva, preferring Luc Oursel to her. There was talk of her as minister of industry, then as number one of the public investment bank, or as president of France Télécom. She was included for three consecutive years (2008, 2009, 2010) by Forbes magazine in the list of the most influential women in the world. Various assignments that ultimately prove one thing: Anne Lauvergon is an example of how a woman can do everything. No women in France held equivalent positions, but to navigate and last in the political-industrial sphere, where lies, betrayals and the violence of low blows are commonplace, you need to be ready for anything. In the face of this “Atomic Anne”, as the American press had dubbed her, a character that she herself helped to shape, everyone seems obliged to take a position: we are for or against. Friend or foe. There are no half measures.

Author: Future Manager Research Center Although the actual situation continues to be difficult to assess, the last two decades in Catalonia seem to have had a happy conclusion in the public sector, since the Catalonian Parliament approved the Law of Equality for Men and Women in July 2015. It was an incredible news, because it demonstrates that the feminist impulse has been kept alive in Catalonia; without it, the law would not exist. It also indicates another reality: that the strong push for women’s rights in the 1970s, which culminated in the Jornadas Catalanas de la Dona and in publications like Vindicaciòn Femenista has not been muffled. It is not only the English suffragette movement that embodies feminism as a culture rooted in the exploits of its supporters; there are lesser known and less acclaimed stories of women around the world who have contributed to the achievement of great egalitarian goals. It is equally true that feminism in Catalonia was not born yesterday. Since the mid-nineteenth century, this movement has had great figures, such as Dolors Monserdà, Teresa Claramunt, Frederica Montseny, Aurora Bertrana, Anna Murià, Maria Aurèlia Capmany and Maria Mercè Marçal. Alongside these great figures stands another, a writer, essayist and literary critic: María Ángeles Cabré. She is a “thoroughbred” Catalan, she was born in Barcelona in 1968 and, in the same city, she graduated in Hispanic Philology and was a teacher of the Master of Gender and Communication at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Starting in the late 90s, she began working in the publishing sector; she published poems, novels, short stories, essays, anthologies, biographies, becoming a renowned literary critic and translator. By her own admission she has been a feminist since childhood, so much that in 2013 she founded the Observatori Cultural de Gènere (OCG) in Barcelona, ​​an independent entity not linked to any political party or association, although it aspires to maintain relations of exchange with all those who are willing to establish a dialogue on equality in culture. The OCG aims to be a forum for reflection, debate and action around women who work in the various fields of culture in Catalonia. Her book that more than any other focuses on the relationship between literature and feminism in the development of Catalan culture is El llarg viatge de les dones. Feminisme a Catalunya (The Long Journey of Women: Feminism in Catalonia), published by Edicions 62. It contains 50 individual texts written by 33 different female authors ranging between the 19th and 20th centuries. This anthology is, therefore, a brief history of Catalan feminism, a book that highlights the contributions of the past that are extremely significant for the author. Cabré found it frustrating that feminism in Catalonia was little or not at all known and she wanted to claim through her pages the work of some women whose determination and sacrifices served to design a brighter future for women today. Among the most recent contributions by María Ángeles Cabré it is important to highlight the speech she made on 5 October 2020 on the theme Feminism in times of Pandemic. On this occasion, Cabré pointed out that “in 25 weeks we have gone back 25 years“, denouncing the situation in which many women find themselves due to COVID-19 and the mismanagement of the emergency. The Catalan author continues by stating that the pandemic cannot allow gender inequality to worsen. In essence, Maria Àngeles Cabré was a supporter of a movement born of the Catalan desire to reclaim the local struggle by giving a voice to women from all walks of life, a movement that extends to become a “movimiento feminista plural” at an international level.

Author: Future Manager Research Center In Italy she is known for being one of the most respected and feared journalists on television, a woman of undeniable elegance, severe and balanced who is not afraid to say what she thinks. Lilli Gruber is not just a character on the small screen but she is much more: award-winning journalist, former MEP, correspondent and reporter in war zones and today she is also a committed writer. She has always been a defender of gender equality and an ally of women, despite never wanting to define herself as a real “feminist”. Lilli Gruber was born in Bolzano on April 19, 1957, her first name is Dietlinde, name of Germanic origin and variant of the historic and royal name “Teodolinda” whose meaning is “benevolent towards the people”. She is the daughter of the entrepreneur Alfred Gruber, owner of a construction machinery industry. After her parents’ separation, she grew up in Egna (a town in northern Italy on the border with Austria and Switzerland), with her two older brothers. After completing her high school studies, the young Lilli Gruber moved to Venice to study foreign languages and literatures (she actually speaks Italian, German, English and French). After graduating she returned to Alto Adige-South Tyrol: the passion for journalism blossomed precisely in these years, she began her apprenticeship at the Telebolzano TV station, at that time the only private television in South Tyrol. She wrote for two newspapers and became a professional journalist in 1982. After two years of collaboration with Rai in German language, in 1984 she was hired by the Regional Tg3 of Trentino-Alto Adige; later she will be included in the foreign policy editorial office. Her exploit came in 1987 when she was promoted to run the network’s main newscast, becoming its point of reference, without however neglecting her experience as a correspondent. She thus became the first woman in Italy to lead a prime-time newscast. In 1988 she worked as an international politics correspondent: she was first in Austria to follow the Waldheim scandal and the following year in East Germany where she witnessed the Fall of the Berlin Wall. In these years she dealt with the most important foreign political events: from the Gulf War to the collapse of the Soviet Union, from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the Middle East Peace Conference, to the victory of Bill Clinton in the 1992 American presidential elections and followed the trips of Pope John Paul II in 2000 to the Holy Land and Syria. Her activity took place both in Italy and abroad where, thanks to her multilingualism, she hosted a monthly talk-show on Europe for German public TV. A little break from her journalistic career came in 2004 when she was elected to the European Parliament, an experience that ended six months later to return to her usual profession and in 2008 she became the presenter of Otto e Mezzo, one of the most famous daily deepening programs in Italy. A life dedicated to journalism, but also to trade union activities where she fought for transparent career paths, the rights of precarious workers and women. It was thanks to her decades of experience in the field of journalism and foreign and local politics that Gruber felt the need to write down her position regarding the role of women in our society. For a long time, Gruber herself wanted to believe that a woman only needed her skills to excel, but she had to change her mind. Here is her recent book Basta! Il potere delle donne contro la politica del testosterone (That’s enough! The power of women against the politics of testosterone) has become the emblem of the fight against male domination, a true reportage of the battle for female power. The ingredients of Lilli Gruber’s “recipe” are masterfully and clearly expressed down on paper and leave no room for misunderstandings. A book that has become a huge motivational message: women, don’t be afraid to say “that’s enough!” Scream “that’s enough” to the men who do not choose you as newspaper managers, who do not invite you to the front row at the conference tables, who do not go directly to you to ask for your order at the restaurant. Say enough to yourself above all, stop pulling back for fear of not being up to par, do not overlook this violence and injustice, do not allow your wings to be clipped, indeed fly high. Gruber launches a real call to action, stating: “The time for change is now. The three masculine Vs, vulgarity, violence, visibility, which are the result of an impotent and aggressive virility, must be replaced by empathy, diplomacy, patience. It is no longer tolerable that so many important countries in the world, from the US to Brazil, are in the hands of an international of misogynistic yokels who do damage not only to women, but to everyone. For me it was also urgent that women understand that we have to wake up, because both in terms of gender and environmental balance, it is five minutes to midnight, as the Germans say. The males in power are leaving a world in pieces: public debt, taxes, unemployment, talent flight, lack of services, inequalities, schools and bridges collapsing, territory falling apart. The battle for women’s power goes hand in hand with the battle for the survival of the planet”. A strong message that demonstrates how the vehemence and uniqueness of Lilli Gruber lies precisely in the fact that she has never been afraid to speak clearly, to mention the names and surnames of the people involved. In this regard, she takes the responsibility (or perhaps it would be better to say the right) to mention one by one the men who, through their “testosterone policy”, have contributed to the ruin of the world: Putin, Trump, Xi Jinping, Bolsonaro, Erdoğan these are just some of the many men who have favored the spread of a climate of absolute overbearingness and arrogance, undermining democratic…

Author: Future Manager Research Center One of Argentina’s most distinguished and long-lived feminists and socialists, Alicia Moreau de Justo was a teacher, doctor, socialist activist, and journalist and was closely involved in the foundation of several human and women’s rights organizations. She has come to be viewed not only as a seminal figure in the first wave of the Latin American women’s movement but also as a reformer who was ahead of her time. Moreau was born in London in 1885, where her French socialist parents had been exiled after the fall of the Paris Commune in 1871. The family emigrated to Argentina in 1890, where Moreau’s father worked as a journalist and Social Party activist. Early in her life, she began to write in the Socialist media, focusing on inequalities created by capitalism and the need to uplift the living conditions, as well as the civil rights of workers of both genders and all ages. By 1910, she was engaged in public lectures and writing on behalf of feminist organizations and the Social Party, a path that she followed during the next four decades. Alicia Moreau studied medicine, taught anatomy, graduated from the University of Buenos Aires in 1914, and practiced in working-class clinics. Always politically and socially at the forefront, Moreau put the fight for social-justice issues above individualistic goals.  In her teens, the young Alicia helped set up the Centro Femeneno Socialista (Feminist Socialist Center) with her faithful friends and colleagues Fenia Chertkoff de Repetto and Gabriela Laperrière de Coni. She was a staunch advocate of women’s suffrage and a firm believer in women’s intellectual capacity to engage themselves in civic life. During that same period, she held childcare and hygiene courses at the Buenos Aires Center and fought assiduously against prostitution.  In 1918, she helped found the Unión Feminista Nacional and its journal, Nuestra causa, in which she published many of her articles on women’s political rights. Moreau’s early writings also covered themes of pacifism, antialcoholism and health. In 1919, she attended the International Worker’s Congress of Women Physicians in New York. She married Juan B. Justo (after the death of Justo’s first wife), who was the leader of the Argentine Socialist Party, and had three children with him. This marriage tied her to the party’s fate. After Justo’s death in 1928, she maintained her commitment to suffrage through the Socialist Committee for Women’s Suffrage. The influence of the Socialist Party began to wane in the 1930s, divisions in the party and political repression increased. Although they belonged to different political camps, Moreau and the writer Victoria Ocampo led the women’s movement in the 1930s and fought proposed changes in the Civil Code.  The vote for women came close to being approved in 1932, when it was endorsed by the House of Representatives. During the 1930s Argentina chafed under a military cuop d’état. Moreau was among those commenting on the political scene in Vida femenina, a Socialist journal founded in 1933 and lasting through 1943. Throughout these years, she assumed a pacifist posture, foresaw the rise of European fascism and militarism, and criticized Argentine political corruption. WWII gave Moreau the chance to define the democracy-fascism dyad and sponsor inter-American solidarity. When she published La mujer y la democracia  (1945) she was convinced that only democracy would enable women fully to achieve their rights. When women’s suffrage was approved in 1952, it was not the result of the work of the first-generation feminists such as Moreau but of the political will of Juan Domingo Perón and his wife Evita Perón (better known with the diminutive “Evita”). Under the Perón administration, Socialists bore the brunt of governmental attacks. However, the suffrage law generated considerable controversy, including from supporters of the movement. Harsh criticism came from the Left, especially from the Socialist Party, the earliest advocate of women’s suffrage in Argentina. Also, feminists who had done so much to build the case in favor of voting vehemently opposed the reform, viewing the Peronist suffrage plan as a cynical attempt to boost Evita’s political career. Moreau opposed Peronism and said in a 1977 interview that she never understood completely the importance of nationalism to Argentines. Moreau rode the fate of her party with dignity and the breadth of her writings and activities defy categorization, but her commitment to human rights, the welfare of children, the rights of women and workers, and the principles of democracy make her an outstanding woman.