by Bryce Cohen | 23 Jun 2025 | Education, Hewitt, Student Posts, Women, Youth Voices
Around the world, data shows that girls do better in school when there are no boys in the class. Students hold up their hands in a class. (Illustration by News Decoder) This article, by high school student Bryce Cohen was produced out of News Decoder’s school...
by Camille Johnson | 2 Jun 2025 | Sports, Student Posts, Tatnall School, Women, Youth Voices
From Olympic racers to WNBA ballers, women are now getting the fandom and respect they have long deserved. For girls getting into the game? It’s just a start. Chicago Sky guard Arella Guirantes moves the ball against Brazil forward Ayla McDowell in a WNBA...
by Shefali Malhotra | 25 Feb 2025 | Culture, India, Women
It’s been a decade-long journey from film school to red carpet for Mumbai director Payal Kapadia. If you want to follow her path she’s got some advice. Director Payal Kapadia at 2024 Cannes Film Festival for the world premiere of the film “All We...
by Ferrukh Faruqui | 3 Feb 2025 | Economy, Health and Wellness, Human Rights, University of Toronto Journalism Fellows, Women
Some believe the business of surrogacy commodifies women. Does everyone have the right to a biological baby or does surrogacy violate the rights of the child? 3D image of a human fetus inside a womb. (Credit: digitalgenetics/Getty images) This article was produced...
by Meera Raman | 9 Dec 2024 | Culture, History, United States, University of Toronto Journalism Fellows, Women
It wasn’t too long ago that a woman wouldn’t dine alone in the United States. Two women decided to change that by opening their own restaurant. A notice once on the wall of Bread and Roses now housed at the The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on...
by Lizan Nijkrake | 27 Mar 2024 | Africa, Decoder Replay, Health and Wellness, Human Rights, Women
Millions of girls around the world undergo a brutal and unnecessary surgery. Gambia, which banned the practice, is set to reverse course. Doctors in Somalia perform a repair surgery on a patient who had previously undergone female genital mutilation, 8 February 2022....
by Ashley Perl | 7 Mar 2024 | Culture, Educators' Catalog, Europe, History, University of Toronto Journalism Fellows, Women
There isn’t much of a gender gap in Iceland, except in its maritime industry. But go back in time, and you’ll find women pulling in nets and steering the helm. A painting of Foreman Thurídur by Marian McConnell. Habitually clad in trousers, a rust-coloured...
For the world’s most gender-equal country, Iceland has a maritime industry that is surprisingly gender inequitable. Why and how has the status of Icelandic seafaring women regressed over the years? This piece by Ashley Perl gives an overview. In the article’s accompanying classroom activity, have students try their hand at uncovering the history of traditionally gendered professions in a research assignment well-suited for Women’s History Month.
Exercise: Read the article as a class, and then discuss the factors that have contributed to an increasing gender gap in the fishing and maritime industries in Iceland. Afterwards, have students select a profession that has a large gender imbalance in your country (perhaps teaching, nursing, engineering, etc.). Instruct students to research the history of the profession to see if these gender imbalances were the case historically, too. As part of this assignment, you may consider teaching research skills like assessing source credibility and using databases like Google Scholar.
by Thomas Hickey | 4 Jan 2024 | Middle East, Politics, Syria, University of Wisconsin, Women, Youth Voices
The Kurdish people in North Syria are attacked by Turkey to the north and Syria to the south. No one wants them there but they have nowhere to go. People attend the funeral of four Kurds in the town of Jinderis, Syria, 21 March 2023. The assailants shot the Kurdish...
by Ayeshah Haque | 22 Dec 2023 | Health and Wellness, History, University of Toronto Journalism Fellows, Women
Across cultures and times, midwives have been at the side of women, helping bring healthy babies into the world. Finally, the world recognizes their value. Midwife Sifa Ndeze attends to mother and baby. (Credit: UNFPA DRC/Junior Mayindu) Call them “baby catchers,”...
by Maggie Fox | 1 Nov 2023 | Decoder Replay, Politics, Women
Abortion is wrapped up in politics in many nations including the U.S. But one in four pregnancies ends in abortion, making it a global health issue. A woman demonstrates for the legalization of abortion, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 28 May 2019 (Nicolas...