Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, and the highest paid women in entertainment in 2019
Forbes released a list of the highest-paid 100 celebrities. While there were only 16 women who made the list, Taylor Swift was No. 1, raking in $185 million in the last 12 months. Beyoncé was No. 20 with $81 million, Ariana Grande hit No. 62 with $48 million and Scarlett Johansson made No. 42 with $56 million. No female athletes made the cut this year.
Serena Williams will be “fighting For equality” until her death
Between losing Wimbledon and the French Open this year, Serena Williams has faced serious setbacks in her tennis record. Tennis legend Billie Jean King commented that Williams is overextended between raising her baby, fighting for gender and racial equity and serving on the Billie Jean King leadership initiative. She said she wished that Williams would put everything aside and focus on winning. In a post-Wimbledon match press conference, Williams responded to the comment by saying: “The day I stop fighting for equality and for people that look like you and me will be the day I’m in my grave.”
Body-positivity advocate Jessamyn Stanley: Yoga isn’t just for ‘one type of person’
Jessamyn Stanley is a leader in modern yoga and body positivity. Through her app, The Underbelly, Stanley teaches yoga to everyone in the world from her studio in Durham, North Carolina. In this feature by Know Your Value, Stanley talked about being a “fat girl” of color in the yoga world and how alienating but rewarding it can be. “Right now, yoga is marketed toward thin, white, affluent people,” Stanley said. “That’s such a small percentage of who exists, and it’s not the group of people who need yoga the most.”
Emmy 2019: Writing, Directing nominations far from parity
The Emmy 2019 nominations are out, and while there are some major wins for women, the overall gender inequity among the nominees is still staggering, particularly in the writing and directing categories. In directing, the drama nominees are 75 percent male and 25 percent female, while the comedy category is 83.3 percent male and 16.7 percent female nominees. For best writing, the drama category breaks down as 77.8 percent male and 22.2 percent female nominees, all of whom are white. While all of this is an improvement from last year, there’s still a long way to true equality.
Women with paying jobs see slower memory loss later in life
In a new study, UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health found that women with paying jobs face less of a risk of memory loss as they age, likely due to the stimulation and social aspects of working. Women currently comprise two-thirds of Alzheimer’s patients. “Policies that promote equal pay for equal work, paid family leave and affordable child care” could one day be part of the conversation about women’s dementia in old age, according to Elizabeth Rose Mayeda, who led the research as an assistant professor of epidemiology.
New clues as to why women’s Alzheimers is different than mens
We know that women comprise two-thirds of Alzheimers patients, and that it affects men and women differently, but we don’t know why. New clues through various university studies point to the destructive tau protein, which seems to spread more widely in a female Alzheimer’s brain than a male’s. Also, women metabolize sugar better, but their brains might be overcompensating and causing further damage. Genetics also play a role, according to a University of Miami study.
After years of “glacial change” women now hold more than 1 in 4 corporate board seats
After languishing at 16 percent for years, women now hold 27 percent of board seats in the S&P 500 according to new data. One notable company is Best Buy, which added five women in the last five years. All-male boards are dying out, according to the new study. In 2008, 56 firms did not include any women, and as of June this year, there is only one all-male board: Copart, a Dallas online vehicle auction company. Copart stated that it intends to bring a woman onboard this year.
U.S. City ranks the best in the world to be a female entrepreneur
San Francisco has displaced New York as the No. 1 city to be in if you’re a female entrepreneur, according to the Women Entrepreneur 2019 Cities Index. New York is now in 2nd place, followed by followed by London (3rd), Boston (4th) Los Angeles (5th),Washington D.C. (6th), Seattle (7th), Paris (8th), Toronto (9th) and Stockholm (10th). Criteria was based on markets, talent makeup, capital, culture and technology access to women. At the bottom of top-50 list were Istanbul (48), Jarkata (49) and Delhi (50).
Halley Bondy