Fishing for trouble
Stop saying women have Imposter syndrome
Welcome to The Chief Brief, where every Sunday I spotlight global, diverse, and innovative female leaders, and the news influencing them to change the world. And there’s always a link to reach out and connect with the women you resonate with. Don’t forget to send me feedback, or stories about the amazing things you, or someone you know is up to. Let’s build an international and connected community.
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Let’s talk about
Going Fishing for trouble
The Salmond-Sturgeon war is building into something epic in Scotland. The two have gone from being the closest friends to the fiercest foes. So you know this battle is going to get nasty and fast.
Salmond, led the Scottish National Party (SNP) for 20 years, and Nicola Sturgeon was his deputy for 10 of those years. They are now locked in a battle that has ramification that will go well beyond the remit of their party. Salmond has accused the current First Minister of Scotland and senior people in the SNP (Sturgeon’s inner circle including her husband) of tarnishing his reputation (he was accused of sexual assault and subsequently acquitted). He alleges Sturgeon lied to the Scottish parliament and that the civil service and prosecution were complicit. Sturgeon’s camp vociferously denies his claims saying, Salmond’s ego and claims are damaging the very institutions Scotland is dependent on.
This mess is not just a question of whether the ruling party will be weakened by internal fights in a Scotland that has been their turf since the Brexit vote. A Brexit, Scottish voters did not support. (Pro-Union parties Tory/Labour haven’t had even a toe-hold in the country for a while). This fishwives’ fight may well burst the bubble for many in Scotland, who have backed the ‘Scottish independence’ party, to potentially rejoin the EU. Support for independence weakened in this week’s latest poll. The first in 22, to not have independence lead the tally.
EU wanted it’s cake, but noone’s eating
Ursula von der Leyen’s vaccine mis-steps are coming home to roost. She almost crossed the line with the Northern Irish protocol, and created an all out PR battle with AstraZeneca to get the jabs she needed. But only to find noone wants the Astra jab on the continent, and especially in Germany. She’s now had to go as far as saying she’ll take the Astra jab herself, to show it is safe. And she’s pushing for vaccine nationalism too. Von der Leyen has said she will ban vaccines from leaving the EU if suppliers like AstraZeneca fail to deliver again. The pledge comes as EU leaders issued a statement this week promising to “accelerate the provision of vaccines”, with just 8% of the adult population in the EU having received a jab compared with 27% in the UK.
The rollout failures in the EU has seen Italy break ranks with Brussels on vaccine strategies, division across the board about proposals for vaccine passports, and Hungary accepting and using Russia’s (as yet not approved in Europe) Sputnik V vaccine. The failure has implications for the EU project beyond the obvious ones of solidarity, efficiency, and Brussels role in citizens’ lives in member states. It is also re-establishing accusations of vaccine hoarding by developed countries, which the WHO has strongly warned against. Von der Leyen did offer an olive branch for that on twitter. She said the EU was sending masks, ventilators and PCR tests to the African continent. But no mention of vaccines.
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Policy Matters
The new vaccine barters
Have vaccines? Will give healthcare workers in exchange. That’s the barter the Philippines is offering. It will lift its cap on high skilled workers allowed to leave the country, thus permitting thousands of its healthcare workers (mostly female nurses) to take up jobs in Britain and Germany, if the two countries donate coronavirus vaccines. Read more here.
Updates on the new U.S. Cabinet
Linda Thomas Greenfield
Linda Thomas-Greenfield is the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Her 35-year career with the State Department has her well prepared for the landmines she will have to maneuver around in that role. She’s lived through, and survived Rwanda’s genocide for one. She was also Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs between 2013-2017 for the U.S. State Department, Ambassador to Liberia (2008-2012), and has had multiple foreign postings in Switzerland (at the U.S. Mission to the U.N), Pakistan, Kenya, The Gambia, Nigeria, and Jamaica.
Her confirmation comes right on time, with the country poised to take over the U.N. Security Council presidency on March 1st. She’ll also be on President Joe Biden’s cabinet. Bipartisan support for her appointment came from the likes of even Lindsay Graham. Other Republicans supporting her included Mitt Romney, Mitch McConnell along with Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy from her home state Louisiana. Read more here.
Deb Haaland
Joe Biden’s nominee for interior secretary will be the first Native American Cabinet Secretary in the United States. Deb Haaland is the child of two highly awarded military veterans, a single mother who brought up her child with food stamps, went on to set up a successful business and sit on the board of one of the largest tribal casinos in the United States. She then joined politics, and has stood shoulder to shoulder with the Native American community at Standing Rock to advocate environmental protections for natural resources, and is congresswoman for New Mexico.
Her confirmation hearings for the Interior Secretary role have been ugly to say the least. She has faced a grilling in her confirmation hearings from an all-white male panel. Accusations of racist bias are flying fast at Republican senators objecting to her appointment. In one instance, Wyoming U.S. Sen. John Barrasso (a Republican), yelled at her in a disrespectful tone that many critics have said he would not have dared use, if she wasn’t Native Indian. It has also been noted that other objecting Republican senators who have called her “radical” for her views on reducing dependence on fossil fuels, all have ties to fossil fuel companies. Read more here.
Lebanon’s marital rape policy
Sexual harassment became illegal in Lebanon last year. It was considered a ground-breaking move for the country. But it left a loophole for marital rape. That’s still legal in Lebanon. But now women across the country are fighting for a second ground-breaking change to ensure marital rape is relegated to the annals of history too. Read more here.
Horizonte África
China’s domination of the continent of Africa has propelled other countries to get boots on the ground. Now Spain is attempting to reinvigorate its historic ties to the continent. Reyes Maroto, the Spanish Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism has initiated the ‘Horizonte África’ strategy. She aims for the new finance focussed strategy to support the presence of Spanish companies on the continent. Read more here.
Business not as usual
Pandemic - no excuse for pay gap
The gender pay gap has been reported in the U.K. since 2017 and it’s thrown up a few shockers. No shockers there! The purpose of the pay gap report is to do just that, provide transparency to create change. In 2019 it was reported that 8 out of 10 British companies paid men more than women. But 2020’s reporting which is due in April maybe used by some to simply not report. To avoid that scenario, the U.K.’s Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is giving those who can’t meet the April deadline a six-month reprieve before enforcement action is taken against them. Read more here.
Tech stuff
Virtual beauty
AI, AR, VR aren’t new to the beauty industry. But the Covid pandemic has sped up adoption, of the AI try-on technology trend. It’s changing the game for beauty testing and sales for retailers and behemoths like Chanel and Estée Lauder. Read more here.
Sugar Daddy’s Book
Sugar book, a Malaysian dating site describes itself as a website where ‘dating meets finance’ aka, where older men find young women whom they pay to ‘date.’ Turns out a lot of female students have ended up on it. What could possibly go wrong for the founder, in a country with strict moral laws? Read more here.
Apple’s Women’s History Month
Gear up to be bombarded across the Apple platforms in March with all things ‘women’. From stories on Apple news, highlighting apps made by women, interviews with female developers, and games featuring strong female characters, Apple is going all out as it celebrates ‘women’s history month’. Read more here.
Start-up Alert
Doubtnut
James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems leading a $31 million series B round for Indian ed-tech company Doubtnut is not surprising. Founded in 2016 by Tanushree Nagori and Aditya Shankar, the AI powered language agnostic ed-tech app caters to students (6th-12th grade) in smaller Indian cities, for maths and science subjects. A savvy tech move in a country with more than 22 official languages, and youth making up 27% of more than 1.3 billion people. The latest round takes the company’s total fund-raise to $50 million. Read more here.
Avokaado not Avocado
Mariana Hagström, a former attorney-at-law and managing partner at a law firm, founded Avokaado in 2016 to solve the clunky, inefficient processes around contracts. Now, the Estonia based contract lifecycle management platform (CLM) has secured €700,000 in pre-seed funding to continue expanding across Europe and into the UK. Read more here.
Influencing Raena
Singapore-based start-up Raena was founded by Sreejita Deb, Guo Xing Lim, and Widelia Liu. The company aims to fill the gap in the distribution market targeting micro-entrepreneurs and influencers in south east Asia in the beauty industry. Raena has now raised $9 million in Series A funding to enable its expansion plan. Read more here.
Caught my eye
Don’t say it
“Imposter syndrome,” is defined as doubting your abilities and feeling like a fraud at work. Using the word ‘syndrome’ gives the impression it is some sort of a medical condition too. It’s not. We need to stop telling women they have it. Read more here.
Drugs, trafficking and El Chapo's wife
Emma Coronel Aispuro, was arrested in a United States airport this week. Looks like Mexican drug lord El Chapo has been succeeded by his wife. She’s accused of continuing the family business of cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, and marijuana distribution. A court has decided to keep her temporarily in prison. Read more here.
Lingerie love
Going by the latest estimates, it looks like our love affair with Lingerie is going to pay-off for brands like Intimissimi, H&M, Victoria’s Secret, and others. The global market is set to grow at 7.6% every year, from a global $37,000 million to $57,000 million by 2026. Read more here.
Suggested Sunday Read
Juanita Moody. The Cuban Missile Crisis. A secret story of saving the world from world war three. Now declassified, the story of the 38 year old code breaking woman who headed the U.S. National Security Agency’s (NSA) Cuba Desk in the 1960s can finally be told . Read more here.
Have you met
Joanna Coles, Media heavyweight turned SPAC-prenuer
SPACs are all the rage and Joanna’s getting ready to be a Queen in that action. Joanna was Chief Content Officer for Hearst Magazines, in a 12 year stint that saw her move from editor in chief of Marie Claire to Cosmopolitan, to the Hearst board. She left in 2018, and took a deep dive into the world of corporate finance and the blank check companies famously called SPACs (What is a SPAC?). Her Northern Star II SPAC (which she heads with partner Jon Ledecky) announced this week it is merging with Apex, a company that claims it is the fintech for fintech. Read more here.
On the move
In South Africa
Nomkhita Mona has been appointed CEO of the troubled South African Post Office (Sapo). Nomkhita is the CEO of the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber. She has previously served as a CEO of Eastern Cape Tourism and as Eastern Cape planning commissioner.
In the United States
Thasunda Brown Duckett has been named CEO of 103-year-old retirement and investment manager TIAA. She will also become 1 of 2 black female CEOs in the Fortune 500. She is currently CEO of Chase Consumer Banking.
Stephanie Linnartz has been appointed President of the Marriott group. The appointment comes on the back of the unexpected death of Marriott CEO and President Arne Sorenson.
In the United Kingdom
Claire Armstrong has been appointed as Scotland Managing Partner, a newly created role at the international law firm Dentons. The move completes an all female Scottish leadership team for the firm.
In Australia
Fiona Johnston, CEO of UM Australia, has been promoted to chief growth officer of Mediabrands Global/EMEA. She will relocate to the UK to take up the new position.
Artsy entertainment
NYC’s lost it’s art
New York City lost two thirds of its arts and entertainment jobs in 2020. Employment dropped 66%, the largest loss of any sector in the city. Prior to the pandemic, arts and entertainment generated $7.4 billion in wages in New York. Read more here.
Tasteless
A Chinese variety show called ‘Who's the Murderer?’ edited a post-surgery photo of US pop star Selena Gomez and actress Francia Raisa. It was taken after Raisa donated her kidney to Gomez, who suffers from Lupus, in 2017. They replaced the duo with men, in a comedy sketch. Users on China's Weibo social media site created an outcry, branding the image "disrespectful." The show had to apologise.
Emma Watson NOT Retiring
Stop listening to social media gossip. ‘nuf said. Read more here.
Who got the dogs back?
Lady Gaga’s pooches got dog-napped in an armed robbery. The singer offered a $500,000 reward. The two french bulldogs were returned. The end. Read more here.
Bollywood still has a ‘fair and lovely’ problem
A new AI study by Carnegie Mellon University has examined social biases in the $2.1 billion Indian film industry. Researchers analyzed movie dialogues from the last 70 years and found Bollywood still projects light skin colour as being the ideal. It seems the ‘Fair and Lovely’ cream debate has a long way to go still. Read more here.
Must Watch
Nollywood meets Bollywood! It took a woman in her directorial debut to address colour, cultural and race bias in both communities, and she’s done in in a way that is anything but preachy! Over the top melodrama drama, side splitting laughs, and some Nolly-Bollywood costuming are all combined in ‘Namaste Wahala’ ( transl. Hello trouble).
The 2020 Nigerian cross-cultural romantic comedy film has been produced, written and directed by Hamisha Daryani Ahuja. The film stars Ini Dima-Okojie and Ruslaan Mumtaz in lead roles and is available to watch on Netflix.
Tip of the week
Popcorn & Women’s history month
As we head into women’s history month in March, I thought I’d suggest a movie or three to watch for inspiration and some much needed upliftment this month! But narrowing down the list proved a doomed adventure. I couldn’t possibly satisfy all our varied tastes. Instead, my tip this week is a smorgasbord of feminist movies you can choose from all month. Get the comprehensive list here.