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Martin Gruenberg heads FDIC when FDIC is the subject of WSJ investigation and Congressional hearings about practices that show little respect for women employees. These practices have not been completely changed to restore dignity and respect for women employees.

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The popularity of women's performers including Taylor Swift with the ERA's tour, and groups of women attending such events during the summer, is the subject of this report in WSJ. With more women joining the workforce after the pandemic, increase in women's wages, there is more spending power to boost the economy of different regions in the US.

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With Obama's popularity rating in 2016 similar to Reagan's in his last year in office at 51%, he announced his endorsement of Hillary Clinton for president. Obama is likely to campaign in 2016 for Hillary to reunite the Democratic Party, bring Bernie Sanders and Sander's supporters behind the Democratic nominee, including younger women.

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Three women who ranked in the top three of the IAS exams in India. The IAS provides the people who run the Civil Service in India and fill most senior government positions throughout India. Shruti Sharma, 26 years, is from Delhi, and studied History at St Stephens College and JNU. Her family is from Bijnore, Uttar Pradesh. Ankita Agrawal, 25 years, is from a business family in Kolkata. She has a Bachelors in Economics from St Stephens, and studied political science, international relations. Gamini Singla, 23 years, is from Punjab's Sangrur, and has AB Tech from Punjab Engineering College in Chandigarh. She chose Sociology as optional subject. 

All three want to contribute to education, women's empowerment and to society. All three did not pass on the first attempt. They did mostly self-study and used newspapers to follow current affairs. 

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Irish prime minister Varadkar resigns after what critics call a "gimmicky" referendum to change language respecting women's role at home to coincide on International Women's Day. It was rejected by about 70% of the vote with about 44% of people voting and little understanding of what this was about as the wording was poorly done and it was not well thought out. If it was about respecting women and promoting participation outside the home the government could take steps as Japan and India at different economic stages are doing. Would changing the Indian or Japanese constitutional wording make a difference or the government making the efforts to broaden opportunities and remove obstacles and impediments to women's participation.

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Wyson Lungu returned to Zambia after studying in the US and joined a telecommunications company in Lusaka. On one of his trips to a remote part of Zambia his car broke down and needed repairs. It took 24 hours before a man with a bicycle helped get him to a place 8 hours away by bicycle. This was one of the few bicycles in that village. Most women simply walked 4 hours carrying farm produce for sale on roadsides starting at 2 or 3 in the morning. This is when Lungu started a bicycle business for farming villages, and so far has sold 3000 bicycles to women in farming villages, with bicycle repair places set up in the villages for bicycle repair and maintenance. This is changing lives in these remote farming villages of Zambia and helping women who do agricultural work in small farms. Lungu relies on cooperative associations he sets up in the villages to organize the sales including payment in instalments and through barter of commodities such as crops or maize. ...

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Sadanand Dhume in WSJ reflects opinion in the US that is wary of handout politics that has been carried to an extreme in India's election. In Venezuela the bad turn for the oil rich economy was when Chavez's successor Maduro ignorant of the problems it would create decided to give oil at almost no cost to all Venezuelans. In India the leading opposition party offered $1 lakh rupees to every woman in the state of Uttar Pradesh. India's federal government under Modi has given free food to about 800 million people and renewed the pledge this year because of the pandemic's devastating the rural economy- about 60% of India is still rural. This is essential for India to advance to build a broad based growth model for India similar to China 1990-2010 and Japan 1890-1915 and 1950-1970 during the transformation of their economies, similar also to the US under FDR/Truman/Eisenhower/Kennedy 1940-1965.  Clean environments Swacch Bharat was essential for basic sanitation and toilets to reduce health risks, cooking gas to shift rural women from firewood and health risks, direct deposit bank accounts for 300 million rural households essential to eliminate leakages, solar energy is planned to cut energy cost  This has brought and will bring the level of income and consumption power of the lower and middle classes to create a 500 million strong consumer base for industry. It is a carefully planned effort based on the success in states such as Gujarat, and looking at the way this was done in China and the US for learning lessons. It is not a reckless effort to win votes such as the offer of 1 lakh rupees to every woman in Uttar Pradesh state with no plan for industrialization and modernization of the Indian economy to make it the third largest ahead of the EU by 2035. Dhume is right to point this out and it is apparent to any outsider who looks at Sab Ka Vikas Sab Ke Saath- prosperity for all, including all parts of society irrespective of caste and religion.  ...

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The impact of coronavirus deaths is higher for men with certain behaviours such as smoking and alcohol consumption. For infections it is not clear that the rate is much higher for men than women. The data from graphs provided by WSJ of global data from different countries shows a higher rate of infection for men in Italy, just about 52% in men in China, but a lower rate for men in South Korea and France. Some of the higher impact of coronavirus death can be explained by habits such as smoking in men- in China smoking for men is ten times that of women. In Italy over twice as many men smoke than women. Researchers say that the prevalence of the receptor that helps the new coronavirus enter human cells is higher in smokers. The other reason researchers say is higher alcohol consumption in men than women. China's data also show more men infected because most of the people in the labor trades such as construction and other work is done by men. This made them more exposed to the pathogen in the local market where the virus originated. ...

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Women voters made up 53% of the voters in the 2012 election. The 2016 U.S. presidential election in unique because of the first women candidate for president with advantage in the women's vote. Also unique is the split between the college educated and the non college educated voter, something that has into happened in an election in this way for a long time. A pro business party such as Republicans finds itself with a significant part of the non college educated vote.  Another difference is the huge turnout of Hispanic voters, and questions raised about how their loyalty may have shifted for decades with Republican positions on immigration and deportation. The demographics have also shifted with college educated voters in suburbs of southern states such as Georgia, Colorado and North Carolina. States that once dominated the national election such as Ohio with a larger number of non college educated voters are now not as significant as in the past. As a result the picture is changing in the electoral map. ...

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A sharp drop in men's college enrollment of 62% between 1959 and 2021 has led to women catching up from being way behind which is a good thing, yet the sheer size of this drop has created a new problem for both men and women as Americans. The college enrollment now is 60% women, 40% men- not a good one by any stretch of the imagination.  It is bound to have serious negative effects on women being able to find college educated men to share life's experiences. Yet more profound and insidious is the danger it poses for America's economic prospects and its leadership role in the world. The Biden administration seeks to correct one part of the problem which is the declining access to a college education because of cost. It wants to provide access to  college education at no cost through community colleges. This is only the first step and is part of the $3.5 trillion dollar plan for workers and families in America. A national consensus is needed on such an important issue before the American people- to make America a place of opportunity for all its people.  ...

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Emmanuel Macron graduated from Sciences Po University in 2004 with a degree in public affairs. He joins the Finance Ministry as an inspector and then buys himself out of government service contract by 2008 to join a private bank. He arranges an acquisition from Nestle and other business deals during this period. In 2012 he is appointed as deputy secretary general for the president's office after Francois Hollande a socialist is elected to the presidency. In 2014 he is offered the position of Minister of Industry and Digital Affairs in the second Manuel Valls government. He makes some changes to French government but opposes the wealth tax or tax on business, and is generally pro-business, though he acts as a member of the Socialist party.  He uses this period to build momentum for his own run for the presidency as support for Hollande falters having lost support from his working class base with Macron and Valls inspired changes.  Macron finally announces he will run for the presidency forming his own En Marche movement which he finances with his own fund raising. Throughout this period right up to the election in 2017 Macron has not run for public office. When he wins the presidency in that year he lacks the experience needed as the youngest president in French history at the age of 39. Like another young president Obama he handles his public image with the media for his En Marche movement promising to unblock France. This public image and his lack of experience makes him impervious to the social changes going on in France that lead to the yellow vest protests in 2018. This is a period when there are changes in the midwest as workers in Michigan and other midwestern states turn away from Hillary Clinton and Obama.  French workers are in the position of workers in the US with the decline of manufacturing, much of it shifted with the supply chain to China and Japan, and the gap opening between rural and urban tech educated areas. Macron follows Obama's quick rise from Senator to run for president yet lacks experience, and lacks sufficient grasp of the social changes with loss of manufacturing, the wide gaps between rural and urban tech educated people, conditions in the rural and farming areas. Macron survives this period, is reelected in 2022 with the help of socialist Melenchon voters. He says he will govern differently, less distant from average Frenchmen, but his instincts are to push for pension reform. At a time of cost of living crisis, and when the French budget office says the change in pension from 62 to 64 was not critical at the present time when inflation was hitting the public after the pandemic. Macron does this by Article 49 in the way he has done under the Manuel Valls government, by executive action alone. This time he faces a no confidence motion in parliament in March 2023 following some of the largest protests France has seen in years, with two thirds of the French according to FR24 opposing the change in pension law. Women see this as coming at a time when age discrimination hurts their chances of earning a living after 50 years of age.  Age discrimination is widespread in France, in a way it is not in Germany, say reports in the NYT. And with the cost of living crisis acts as a major hurdle for the average French person, if pensions are delayed without addressing these cultural issues in France. The result is that the protests have substance and Macron is seen as not sensitive to this at a time when he lacks a majority in parliament. ...

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The female labor participation rate for India is as low as 15%. Delayed entry into the labor force by further education, improving incomes leading to women not working, and a bias against hiring women, cultural and security factors, are some reasons for the low participation rate for women.

For women the labor participation rate dropped from 15.5% in 2016 to 11.9% in 2017 and 11% in 2018. 

This report shows average labor participation rate in India is low of 47% in 2016 (mainly because of dismal participation rate for women) compared to world average of 66%.

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China is moving closer to the day when its population shrinks. This would be a sign of a seriously aging population with fewer young people as workers to support the older people and retired workers. The number of births fell for a fifth year in a row. In 2021 births were at 10.6 million dropping from 12 million in 2020, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.  The year 1961 the last year of the Great Leap Forward under Mao was the first time in its recent history that China actually had population decline with famine and other problems. This situation of population decline is fast approaching or already happened. In 2021 there were 10.1 million deaths. Women in China are not interested in having children. Typical is this woman in Beijing quoted in this WSJ report- she is 28 and teaches Korean language. She says she doesn't want to spend her savings on kids.  In China education is the pathway to a better life and income. And it is not cheap. Most of the savings of mothers will go into educating their children. Tutoring costs had become so high and the competition so intense that the government to tackle this problem announced that this will from now on be a non profit industry. ...

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According to researchers at AARP and the Economic Policy Institute women over 50 years have a harder time than men of the same age in finding good jobs since the 2008 financial crisis. Older women who were laid off have a very hard time finding employment and steady jobs, as this report by Patricia Cohen in the NYT shows. Age, lack of internet skills, shifting networks, caregiving responsibilities and time off taken to care for children, all have worked against older women over 50 years. A study by the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis shows that compared to 2006-2007 before the financial crisis hit when about a quarter of the unemployed for women over 50 years were unemployed over 6 months, by 2012-2013 the jobless women for more than 6 months had gone up to about half of the unemployed women in this age group.

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The way people in England have responded to England's win over Norway 8-0 and Sweden 4-0 is transforming English women's soccer and women's soccer around the world. England is now headed to the final with Germany at Wembley stadium in London with a worldwide audience of soccer fans.

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Jorg Asmussen, Germany's representative on the ECB'S Executive Board, will take the position of deputy secretary in the Labor Ministry in the new coalition government of Angela Merkel with the SDP. He moves to Berlin from Frankfurt to be close to his two small children and family, who continued to live in Berlin after Asmussen moved to Frankurt ECB headquarters. Germany is likely to nominate Sabine Lautenschlager, member of the executive board of the Bundesbank, to Asmussen's position on the executive board of the ECB. The ECB Governing Council, including the six member executive board and the heads of 17 central banks, will now have the first female member. Ms. Lautenschlager's expertise is in banking regulation, which is relevant today because of the ECB's new role as regulator of banks in the eurozone. Asmussen, who is from the SDP, assumes a position under Labor minister Andrea Nahles. He will be responsible for introduction of the national minimum wage, which was a key demand of the SDP for joining the coalition with Merkel....

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Masoud Pezeshkian is elected president of Iran with 54% of the vote. He leads a reeformist faction which seeks respect for minorities, women in Iranian public life, and is against strict Hijab laws in Iran requiring women using headscarves covering. He is for getting US and EU sanctions lifted on Iran so that life of ordinary Iranians is not miserable.

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Ms. Powell Jobs, the wife of Steve Jobs of Apple has a long relationship with Kamala Harris since the days she ran for Attorney General of California. She has followed Kamal Harris's career in politics over 2 decades. It is a friendship of shared interests in arts and culture, in political philosophy, and shared feelings in being women in the spotlight, says this report by Theodore Schleifer in the NYT. It is less about money, though it sounds odd to say this, than in a shared sense of purpose and as women caught up in events at this time in history.

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The differing biological changes happening in the bodies of men and women as they age, the differences in longevity, how they age and their attitudes to aging are shown here by Clare Ansberry of the WSJ. This is relevant in the context of healthy living and also as both tackle the pandemic. There is a 5 year difference in longevity with men aging faster than women. Some groups of men have a tendency to eat less healthy and smoke than women in general which may account for some of the difference in longevity particularly in the U.S.

Men experience greater inflammation in the blood with aging, and lose anti-body producing B cells in the blood after the age of 65. Significant female advantages are seen in memory after age of 70. A look at protein level changes in blood showed more changes in men than women after age 65. Overall women's biology is seen by scientists as more stable than men's.

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After winning the Nation's League final over Netherlands next we will see her playing soccer in the Olympics. Aitana Bonmati talks about her life and experiences. Bonmati has given a boost to women's soccer with her talents, hard work and resilience, and by reaching out to fans all over Europe and the world. Alex Ibaceta interviews Spain's Bonmati in The Guardian. She started out playing with the boys because there were no girls to play with. She signs up for the town's football team Club Depotiu Ribes and Club de Football Cubelles playing with boys. As a cadete (14-15 years) she had to switch to playing on women's teams. This was a change at first as she had to learn to interact with girls. She says we had worse general conditions in life simply for being girls and even more in football. These were years when there was no professional women's soccer. She thought she wold play for a few years and then go to the US for studies, considering the University of Oregon. This is when she gets called to the women's first team. Bonmati talks about her mentality, not just the talent and hard work, but the mentality of sacrifice, resilience, fight and want to be better every day. To every young girl trying out a new sport, she describes this- it is a journey that is not pretty at times, there are bad moments, but these bad moments are what make you better as you learn to keep improving and know how to keep getting better. And to take on difficulties as opportunities. When she was goinghome from training with her father, they would use public transport and get home at 1 am. Looking back to where she is now idolized by young girls , what she has been able to accomplish she says it was not down to luck but all the hard work throughout the years. ...

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Even with the growth strategies of the Abe administration in 2014, projections of the IMF show growth rate for Japan are at 1.0% for 2015, compared to 3% for the U.S., 2.5% for UK, and 1.6% for Germany. The Third Arrow in prime minister Abe's Three Arrows program now follows the implementation of the other two Arrows- monetary easing and public works spending. Abe is faced with the task of convincing foreign and domestic investors that he can implement a winning growth strategy for Japan. The plan announced in June 2014 is an effort to overcome barriers to growth with a strategy that will work. The core of the plan is to cut the corporate tax rate from 35.64% to below 30% in the next couple of years. The corporations are expected to do their part to improve corporate governance and return on equity, so that shareholders, domestic and foreign investors, have more incentives to invest in the Japanese stock market. Analysts and economists say this plan has attractive features. It asks Japanese companies to increase ROE and ROI to global levels through a Tokyo Stock Exchange corporate governance code. Companies listed on TSE and not following the code will have to come up with reasons why they are failing to do so. Some analysts say this would increase the value of companies. Companies are more likely to make investments with cash that is not being invested. The plan includes measures for bringing more women into the workforce, which is seen as a serious committment to women. In addition to increasing the number of child care centers, this plan includes tax revisions that benefit women joining the workforce. Increased representation for women at the executive level is also part of this plan. Hiroshige Seko, a top adviser to Abe, says importance was given to execution for results, so that a score of 80 with definite results was preferred to an uncertain attempt to get a 100. To do this some compromises were made. The plan for special economic zones is still in the drafting stage as discussion is just beginning. A shakeup of the Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives and more flexible medical care will be taken up gradually. The efforts to increase ROI, ROE, and improve corporate governance were initiated from the time of the Koizumi administration, and the latest plan may bring results after over a decade of effort in this direction....

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What is remarkable about Finland's new government is not just that the prime minister Sanna Marin is 34 years old, but that the other members of parties in the Finnish centre left coalition government are also young and women. Sanna Marin has shown that it is alright to come from a household with two women as parents with the social changes in Finnish society.

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Since the last Women's World Cup Soccer the Netherlands and other European teams have caught up with the US. The gap no longer exists as shown in the Netherlands US women's soccer game in which the Dutch dominated the first half and led 1-0. The game ended 1-1 but the myths surrounding the US women's soccer team had fallen. The Dutch coach said his team was in better fitness shape than the Americans.

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Michelle Yeoh, Ocar winner, describes her role in promoting the UN Sustainability Goals, the millions of women who are part of the 2.7 billion people she says lack digital connectivity around the world, and face barriers to information and resources in all spheres of their lives. She wants to put the spotlight on the women who are on the frontlines of crisis- who are rebuilding their communities, taking care of children and older people, and putting food on the table. Yeoh says she is 60 and she know what perseverance means, but nothing compares to what these women are doing today.