With “Wonder Woman” blazing a trail at theaters across the United States, the female superhero is being hailed as a powerful new role model for girls and a break away from sexism in Hollywood.

The film, starring Israeli actress Gal Gadot, smashed box office records on its opening weekend, raking in more than $103 million in the United States – a record for a movie directed by a woman, Patty Jenkins. The film broke the previous record for a movie directed by a woman held by Sam Taylor-Johnson for “Fifty Shades of Grey”.

Online debates ahead of the film’s release about the Amazonian superhero’s lack of armpit hair and the furor surrounding her selection last year as a U.N. honorary ambassador, have only served to boost box office takings.

But it is above all the depiction of the sword-wielding, lasso-tossing character as an empowered woman that accounts for the film’s triumph, said Melissa Silverstein, founder of the Women and Hollywood blog and co-founder of the women-focused Athena Film Festival.

“It’s almost an exclamation point on what women have been saying for a long time – in the industry, outside the industry; that our stories matter, we are the heroes of the stories, we can kick butt as well as anyone else and we’re equal,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a phone interview.

Wonder Woman was first imagined in 1941 as an icon of female empowerment – even appearing on the inaugural cover of the flagship feminist publication Ms. magazine three decades later.

But her modern portrayal has been criticized for shifting to a sexualized buxom character, typically clad in a red, white and blue body suit.

The United Nations dumped Wonder Woman less than two months after naming her as an ambassador for women’s and girls’ empowerment amid criticism that her pin-up image sent the wrong message.

The film reverts to her original incarnation.

“Wonder Woman” is one of three comic-book superheroes from the 1930s and 1940s whose stories have been published almost without interruption – alongside Batman and Superman – according to Harvard history professor Jill Lepore.

Yet, Jenkins’ film is the first theatrical release starring the Princess of the Amazons. Her debut on the silver screen has prompted a host of celebratory initiatives.

In New York, “Wonder Woman” enthusiasts have raised more than $8,000 in six days to send high-school girls to a screening in Washington D.C.

And female-only showings by the cinema chain Alamo Drafthouse have sold out from Austin, Texas, to New York, with promises of proceeds going to Planned Parenthood, a women’s healthcare provider.

Silverstein said the blockbuster should herald a new era in a Hollywood film industry skewed in favor of male characters and filmmakers.

Last year, females comprised just 29 percent of protagonists among the 100 top-grossing U.S. films, according to the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, California.

Behind the scenes, women made up just 7 percent of directors working on the top 250 domestic grossing films in 2016, a study by the same centre shows.

“The bigger picture is, for me, that women stories are as valid as male stories,” said Silverstein.

By Sebastien Malo, Editing by Emma Batha. c Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Most people in emerging and developed economies believe men are now more involved in parenting than ever before, with many saying the role of women should not be confined to the home, a global survey has indicated.

Nearly 70 percent of people thought men had a “greater responsibility for the home and childcare” than they had ever had, according to a survey of 18,180 adults across 22 countries including India, United States, Indonesia, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, Mexico and Britain.

Respondents from India, Argentina and Indonesia were most likely to say that men now had more parenting duties, while those from Russia were least likely to agree.

The online poll also found that only 37 percent of people thought the role of women was to be “good mothers and wives”.

The three countries where most respondents agreed that women belonged in the home were Indonesia (76 percent), Russia (69 percent) and India (64 percent).

“The world remains divided over the role of women, but the majority do not think women should stay at home and have children,” Claire Emes, senior director of Ipsos MORI, said in a statement.

Balancing work and family was the biggest challenge that prevented women’s participation in the labour force in developed and emerging economies, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said in a recent study.

Worldwide, 70 percent of women and two thirds of men would prefer that women work in paid jobs, it said.

A World Economic Forum study last year found efforts to close gender gaps in workforce participation and pay had slowed so dramatically in the past year that men and women may not reach economic equality for another 170 years.

Women on average earn 77 percent of what men earn, according to ILO data.

By Lin Taylor @linnytayls, Editing by Emma Batha. c Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Young people have started to question how their clothes are made but consumers of all ages need to do more to tackle fashion labor abuses, according to a British lawmaker and sustainable fashion campaigner.

Baroness Lola Young said young people are increasingly engaged with political and economic issues and willing to fight on social causes – and labor abuses in the garment industry were no exception.

Young, a former actress who was made a life peer of Britain’s House of Lords in 2004, said harnessing this energy was vital to revolutionize the fashion industry which has come under pressure since more than 1,100 workers died in the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh in 2013.

“A lot of young people are very concerned about a whole range of social justice issues and therefore are quite willing to go into the fray when they know what is going on,” said Young, who founded an All-Party Parliamentary Group on Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion.

Young said transforming consumer behavior in the West and changing the model of the “throwaway disposable society” is an important way to tackle labor abuses, particularly in the fast fashion sector.

Many big fashion brands have been criticized for failing to improve the conditions for workers in their global supply chains – from poor health and safety standards and long working hours to low pay and bans on forming trade unions.

WAY FORWARD

She said while young people could often not afford more expensive clothing, she hoped exchange ventures at retailers such as Sweden’s H&M – where customers return old clothes for recycling in return for vouchers – could show a new way forward.

She said they are also getting more engaged even as many have concerns over a period of global instability.

“Paradoxically, what feels like current political volatility has made some people sit up and think: ‘What are we doing here? We’ve got to take more control over what’s happening in this world and fight some of these injustices much more openly,'” Young said in an interview.

She said different sectors of the fashion industry – from fast fashion to haute couture – had different challenges and will have to take different approaches to the problems.

Yet Young added that fully addressing the issues surrounding the supply chain was a “big ask” for the industry as “we need to look again fundamentally at how the garment industry works”.

“You really need to look at your business models because they’re not delivering this ethical industry that many of us would like to see,” said Young, who will be on a supply chain transparency panel at the Copenhagen Fashion Summit next month.

Young said while Western awareness of the issues has grown recently, many people still don’t think about where their clothes come from until their attention is drawn by a large-scale event such as the Rana Plaza disaster.

Young said one of most effective ways to tackle the problems would be to support organizations working on the ground to implement a effective monitoring system that would empower workers and enable them to fight for better conditions.

Yet she emphasized the urgency of tackling these issues.

“Time is running out in relation to the environment, time is running in terms of the dreadful impact that it’s having on various communities and individuals around the world. So you’ve got to get on and do something really really quickly,” she said.

By Ed Upright, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith; c Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Disney expand the Star Wars universe by creating all-female animated shorts and a new line of toys aimed at a female audience. 

Disney are celebrating the girl power of ‘Star Wars’ by creating short on-line animations based on iconic female Star Wars characters including Rey, Jyn Erso, and Princess Leia.

Entitled ‘Star Wars Forces of Destiny’, each episode will focus on one female character, which will be voiced by the franchise’s original actresses – excluding the late Carrie Fisher, who will be replaced by actress Shelby Young.

“These pieces are all interconnected within the larger story universe of Star Wars. They are told in a way that they are self contained,” says Vice President of Lucasfilm Animation Development, Carrie Beck.

“So if you know nothing you can come in and experience these stories brand new. But if you are a fan and you know everything about Star Wars, this will add new dimension and new layer to the characters you already know and love.”

Disney haven’t just stopped with the animation series. They are bringing out a whole new set of more doll-like action figures aimed at girls too.

“We know that, through our testing, that this (the action figures) appeals to both boys and girls,” says Senior Vice President of Hasbro Brands, Samantha Lomow. “Of course you’ve got these great heroic female leads but we also have the really fun sidekicks that they interact with in the entertainment. We really wanted to bring those out as well. You may even see a villain or two on the way.”

‘Star Wars Forces of Destiny’ will begin on Disney’s YouTube channel in July.

By Rollo Ross

Up to one-third of British jobs could be taken over by robots by the early 2030s, impacting 10 million Britons but with women less likely to face redundancy, a recent UK study has shown.

The research, by accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, found 30 percent of UK jobs could face automation compared to 38 percent in the United States, 35 percent in Germany, and 21 percent in Japan.

Researchers, however, said this wouldn’t necessarily lead to less employment as jobs may change rather than disappear.

But the distinction between men and women was clear, with PwC estimating 35 percent of men’s jobs were at risk compared to 26 percent of women’s because of the high number of women in sectors requiring social skills like education and health.

Male workers are also more concentrated in jobs requiring lower education levels, like transportation and manufacturing.

PwC Chief Economist John Hawksworth said in the future employees of both genders will “have to be more adaptable, not stuck in the stereotypes”.

He said this could present an opportunity for men and women to break down traditional gender gaps and progress in careers, provided they can upskill or access training opportunities.

“The whole thing has become more fluid,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

However, it was uncertain whether these changes would have any impact on the gender pay gap. Figures from the UK’s Office of National Statistics show on average women earned about 18 percent less than men in Britain in 2016.

By Sally Hayden @sallyhayd, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith; c Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Saudi women from adventurers to inventors hope a unique conference in Riyadh will highlight their changing roles and inspire younger women to push for new opportunities in the ultra-conservative kingdom.

The event comes at a time when reforms are slowly affecting women’s lives in one of the world’s most gender-segregated countries – where women live under the supervision of a male guardian and cannot drive.

Women can now sit on the government advisory Shura Council, vote in municipal elections and work in some retail and hospitality jobs with the government’s Vision 2030 trying to diversify the oil-reliant economy by boosting female employment.

At a one-day conference run by Alwaleed Philanthropies, a charitable group working to help women, Saudi women from various walks of life took to the stage alongside international speakers such as British women’s rights campaigner Cherie Blair.

Raha Moharrak, 31, who made history in 2013 as the first Saudi woman to climb Mount Everest (pictured above), said girls in Saudi Arabia must be taught that they are not less than boys.

“My journey started as a mini-rebellion … I wanted to shock my parents,” said Moharrak, who was determined to do something different after studying abroad and won her reluctant father over by explaining why climbing was important to her.

“In our culture we are taught to be quiet, taught that being bold is ugly, that being different is discouraged. I think that bold is beautiful, that being different is unique.”

Other speakers included Hadeel Ayoub, who invented a smart glove that converts sign language to text, and writer Kawthar Al Arbash, whose son was killed in 2015 trying to stop an Islamic State suicide bomber.

“SAUDI WOMEN CAN”

Princess Lamia bint Majed Al Saud, secretary general of Alwaleed Philanthropies, said the conference, with the slogan “Saudi Women Can”, was part of a campaign to draw attention to their achievements and inspire the next generation.

After the conference – which she hopes to make annual – a microsite SaudiWomenCan.com with a mobile app will issue daily motivational quotes, and other initiatives are planned.

“I want to give the younger generation role models to show them that, no matter what obstacles, there are opportunities and give them stories to inspire them,” Princess Lamia told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, which is partnering with the charity to provide training for Saudi journalists on women’s issues.

Speaker Eqbal Darandari, associate professor at King Saud University who was elected to the Shura Council in 2016, said it was important women learn responsibility and leadership.

“We need to teach females to be stronger … to make change, to work on their own,” said Darandari, adding the biggest progress would come if women were given decision-making roles.

“We are achieving things but not as fast as we would like. But this is a problem not from the top but from down, from the people, as what is needed is social change and that is slow.”

Saudi Arabia is ranked 141 of 144 countries in the Global Gender Gap, a World Economic Forum study on how women fare in economic and political participation, health and education.

A state policy of gender segregation between unrelated men and women is strictly enforced with separate areas in public spaces and separate entrances at workplaces.

In public all women must wear a head-to-toe black garment.

Moharrak, a graphic designer, said women need to get the support of their fathers and brothers for real change to happen.

“All the women who have managed to achieve independence have two things in common: a rebellious heart and an understanding father. We don’t grow up with an easy path but no one wants to be disowned or disrespect their father,” she said.

By Belinda Goldsmith @BeeGoldsmith, Editing by Ros Russell and Ellen Wulfhorst. c Thomson Reuters Foundation.