cleocatra

Yes – still here,  still blogging and prompted to do so again by noting that there’s a link to the Gender Blog on my new employer’s intranet – so hello, new colleagues from the Women Professionals Portal ! Here I am in my new hard hat,  as handed out during induction on Day One a couple of weeks ago. My next post will be about what I’ve been up to in recent months but here in the interim is a useful reminder,  courtesy of Forbes Women , as to the value women bring to leadership positions... Read Full Story

If you’re in the UK,  did you fill in your census form this weekend?  I did,  and it made me think … about how much my life has changed in the last 10 years (I got married,  moved to my current house, have done all sorts of things in work terms) and also about what stories my house could tell if it could talk. It was built in 1909 (here’s a rather wonky photo of the street from an old book of the era)  and so the house would have been quite “new” at the time of the 1911 census.  I wonder... Read Full Story

Facebook are always exhorting us to share, with the question “what’s on your mind?” So here,  in no particular order, is what’s on MY mind. Thought for the day … is the concept of dressing for success only a female thing? I’m currently doing some interim in-house corporate communications work around connecting the employee engagement and diversity agendas.  Part of this has entailed helping the company to set up a women’s network, which launched earlier this week (hence, no blogging... Read Full Story

- declared Natasha Walter in The Guardian earlier this week,  in her column about the centenary of International Women’s Day . Meanwhile,  back in my spiritual home of India, Dr Elizabeth Menon ‘s piece in The Hindu reminded us that equality for some is still very elusive. For me,  IWD was all about spending the day at a university,  at which I spoke and chaired an event called “Breaking Glass”.  I heard about the glass ceiling as it exists within academia and learned,  not altogether... Read Full Story

… this very short film, directed by Sam Taylor-Wood, voiced by Dame Judi Dench and starring Daniel Craig,  tells us so much about where women are in 2011.  We’ve come a long way, baby – but there’s still so far to go. Read Full Story

Today is my last day in Goa; tomorrow I fly home via Mumbai,  after another month in this beautiful, heartbreaking, bewitching, chaotic, colourful, frustrating country. It’s been a busy week, with a mixture of freelance writing, charity work for Educators’ Trust India and, unexpectedly,  a sidebar trip to Chennai. Monday saw me spending the day working on the “Volunteer with Us” section of their website ,  and hammering out the framework by which ETI can take on around 20 volunteers for... Read Full Story

This is a guest post by Dr. Dhiru Mistry, an Indian born British GP who took early retirement from the National Health Service in order to return to India and devote his life and his medical skills to helping the poor and dispossessed. * * * * * Namaste, as we say in India – it is a lovely greeting from the heart. The greeting has inner significance, let me just explain briefly.  By holding both hands in a prayer position and looking at the eyes of the person you are greeting, this means... Read Full Story

Yesterday Diego from Educators’ Trust India drove me about 20 kilometres inland from the Goan coastline, to a field not far from the famous weekly Anjuna market,  which is taking place as I write. In this field is a banyan tree,  pictured,  which is regarded as holy and sacred around the world and which here is also on the site of an open air Hindu temple, complete with altar and access to clean running water. It’s also the place where the Educators’ Trust India team have struck a deal... Read Full Story

I’ve just persuaded Sangeetha to let me take her photograph – here she is, second from right, with her 11 year old daughter (with the plaits), a friend and the extremely photogenic Parras! Read Full Story

A few days ago,  I went over to see the Educators’ Trust team at the Leading Light school in order to update their website.  While I was there,  as is always the case,  I was interrupted frequently, including being asked to help  interview a lady called Sangeetha.  Ian,  the charity’s project manager,  was talking to her and it was obvious to me,  while I was sitting at the opposite end of the veranda, that she was very uncomfortable being on her own with a man,  and with a western man at... Read Full Story