Happy International Women's Day! Let's celebrate some of the brilliant female pioneers, leaders and creators driving change, from conservation to gender equality.
The sea is a ‘white space’, said Zandile Ndhlovu, the founder of Black Mermaid Foundation and the country’s first black African freediving instructor. In addition to a systemic cultural fear of the sea, she explains that barriers stem from the inherited “historical trauma of the transatlantic slave trade” and apartheid when black South Africans were “forcibly removed from their ocean-facing homes”. Her workshops inspire children from Soweto to become ocean guardians.
Silvia Dan, Romanian folk singer, 80, has released her debut album, Interbeing, to help regenerate the landscape that inspired her grandmother to write this traditional music. She lives in the remote village of Nucsoara, surrounded by forests inhabited by lynx, wolves and bears. But this ‘Amazon of Europe’ is threatened by illegal logging. Album sales fund a project called Forests without Frontiers that plants native trees that are protected by law. “It has been devastating to see the destruction, and this project gives me hope,” said Dan.
While studying industrial design and technology at London’s Brunel University, Solveiga Pakštaitė, created a way to reduce food waste by updating the expiry date system and creating Bump (first called Mimica Touch) which is a plant-based gel incorporated into a bottle cap or product label that changes to a bumpy texture when food spoils. She has developed labels for red meat and dairy, seafood, juice and smoothies. “The fact this came from a university project and we’ve got a waiting list of customers in the food industry makes me incredibly proud,” said Pakštaitė. Trials show that the Bump Cap enabled 97 per cent of households to use orange juice for up to six days longer than they would have with current guidance.
Joeli Brearley, Pregnant and Screwed. Being sacked the day after she told her boss she was pregnant inspired Joeli Brearley to highlight the discrimination of working mums and campaign for women’s rights. She launched her charity Pregnant Then Screwed on International Women’s Day in 2015, and provides help and support to thousands of women through a free advice hotline, useful resources, a mentor scheme and workshops. Brearley, who published her book The Motherhood Penalty last year, believes women need support to access the justice they deserve as much as they need help “to recover from the mental health impact of discrimination”.