Sunday Sauce #1

Welcome to our very first Sunday Sauce. This is where we round up the week’s interesting titbits – morsels of news for you to devour with mug of tea in hand.

Where female current affairs dwell, we dwell too. So we’ve gone through the week’s news with a fine-toothed comb to pick out our five most interesting bits. Without further ado…

1. We need more women in tech – the data prove it. Derek Khanna, The Atlantic
Eagle-eyed Twitter lovers may recognise this one. It’s a mini-cheat, because strictly speaking it came out last week, but as it’s our first Sunday Sauce, you’ll have to forgive us. We’re sharing it here because we’re really interested in the growing voice of those who are lamenting the lack of girls going into the technology industry (Belinda Parmar is another one to watch). Here, Derek Khanna explains why nobody wins – and why the situation has to change.

2. How more paternity leave will spell less discrimination against women. Caroline Criado-Perez, The Guardian
On Tuesday our ambassador Caroline Criado-Perez wrote this piece advocating the equal splitting of time off for parents – ‘the obvious and equitable way’ of solving the problem of ‘covert, wink-wink discrimination’ against young women in the workplace. It’s an impassioned defence of ‘brilliant women floundering in their careers, overtaken by men not as a result of merit, but as a result of a shrewd cost decision.’ Definitely worth a read.

3. Where women are more competitive than men, Uri Gneezy and John List, Time Ideas
This one’s adapted from a book – and we liked the article so much, we may treat ourselves on Amazon. It describes an experiment with different matriarchal and patriarchal societies, aiming to establish whether women occupied fewer management positions because they’re biologically less competitive, or because they’re affected by societal factors. Members were invited to throw a tennis ball into a bucket, and chose whether they’d compete with another. The results are perhaps unsurprising: in the matriarchal society, more women chose to compete, and in the patriarchal one, the results were flipped. So there you go. Time to change society!

4. Female genital mutilation is child abuse. We are failing young British girls. Leyla Hussein, The Guardian
We’ve actually already blogged about Leyla this week, because we’re so impressed by how much awareness she’s raised for FGM in the past few weeks. Here, she writes about her own harrowing experience, and argues that stopping FGM is the responsibility of the Home Office – as well as our own. Her shocking fake survey revealed that some Britons won’t stand up against FGM for fear of appearing racist – even going so far as signing in favour of the act of cutting young girls’ genitals.

5. ‘Sorry skirts’ women missing out on top jobs. Louisa Peacock, The Telegraph
We’ve been particularly interested in the themes of confidence and ambition in the workplace of late, following our exploration of Imposter Syndrome – so we were disappointed and interested in equal measure by this piece. According to a study by the Chartered Management Institute, ‘Masculine workplaces, fear of failure, a "sorry skirts" culture and lack of flexibility from employers is causing women to leave the workplace at senior management level’. Hop over to our post on the Women’s Business Council for more info on how these problems can be tackled – and who will benefit (hint: it’s everyone).

Food for thought indeed. Tweet us at @whatiseeproject if you've got some views to share, or comment below.

Image source - Flickr: Windell Oskay