The mothers of invention – Can women change the world?
Fiona Crack
Editor Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 100 Women season
Tagged with:
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 100 Women returns with a brand new challenge and they need your help.
What have windscreen wipers, computer software, stem cell isolation and dishwashers got in common? Give up? They were . Sadly I’ve no prize to offer those who know their female inventors but it does set the scene for 2017’s 100 Women Season.
It’s five years since and we’ve always tried to refresh the structure and format of 100 Women but this year we decided to really go rogue.
The message we’ve been hearing loud and clear from women across our audiences is that they want action. 100 Women shouldn’t be just talking about issues anymore; it should also look at doing something about them. So this year we need your ideas to tackle some of the biggest issues facing women today.
Taking a look at solutions is not something new for us. The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ has been exploring offering more over the last couple of years; introducing the reporting of responses to problems alongside the problems themselves. It means not only looking at what has happened but how to improve things in the future.
100 Women has been building up to this. In 2015 we hosted 150 debates in 10 languages and 30 countries and last year people added 450 deserving but over-looked women to Wikipedia and now in 2017 we're taking it to a whole new level of participation.
The will bring together some of the best and brightest women in their field to work on finding solutions to four issues which are holding women back across the world; the glass ceiling; female illiteracy; harassment in public spaces; and sexism in sport.
Our approach, we hope, will take solutions journalism to a new frontier. This won’t be a season just reporting on people and companies who have invented innovative ways to tackle issues. This will challenge teams of women to develop, design and create a product or campaign live over the course of a week.
The challenge begins in San Francisco on Monday October 2nd with the first team looking at breaking through the glass ceiling. The next team will be based in Delhi, tackling female illiteracy (October 9th - 13th). Then we’ll be in London where a team will try to improve safety on public transport with inspiration from women based in Nairobi (October 16th-21st), highlighting the global nature of the issues. And finally for the fourth week it’s off to Rio de Janeiro beat sexism in sport (October 23rd – 28th). There will be live updates throughout each week on with all the hard work captured by World Service Radio and on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World News TV.
But they can’t do it on their own and that’s where you all come in. What are your experiences – they could provide inspiration for our teams. Have you come across something that has helped you, your friends, family or colleagues beat the issue in your community – perhaps it could work elsewhere? Do you know someone who’s managed to make a change? We want to hear about it.
It's going to be exciting but also a bit nerve-racking to see what these talented 100 will come up with and if they can pull it off in a month. .
Fiona Crack is Editor, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 100 Women.
- Find out more at the
- Follow on twitter
- Read the press release about the 100 Women Challenge on the