MUMBAI: Women will be better represented in the BBC's global output in future, the BBC pledged as it launched a new season of programming, 100 Women.
The season will turn the spotlight onto women's lives around the world, and kick start a drive to feature more women's voices and women's stories on the BBC's global news channels - BBC World News, BBC.com and BBC World Service.
The 100 Women season of special reports, programmes and discussion will run during October 2013. It will culminate in a global conference where 100 women from around the world will assemble at new broadcasting house in London to discuss some of the crucial issues facing women today.
Editor of the 100 Women season Fiona Crack said: "We're determined to make sure we are hearing women's voices and telling women's stories on all of the BBC's global news channels. This season is a chance for us to look at the big picture and take stock of where we are with women's rights around the world."
"More women than ever are finishing school, getting jobs and making their way in politics and in business. But violence remains a real threat to millions of girls and women around the world. And what about the demands of balancing work and family life? We want to look both at how things are changing, and into the future to see where these trends may take us," she added
Controller of Language Services Liliane Landor said: "This season comes in direct response to our audience's feedback. Women have told us they want to hear themselves and their experiences better reflected and represented on the World Service."
Starting from 1 October 2013, content will run on TV, radio and online, including: Katty Kay will report on how more US families now depend on women's wages, Anne Soy will report on Uganda's Nobel prize-winning midwife and the changes in maternal mortality in the country. With rape reporting doubling in the last year in India, authorities are looking at more ways to make women safer, including female police patrols in Delhi, Rupa Jha will look at how effective changes have been. While Karishma Vaswani will ask how this will change women's lives and job opportunities with a moratorium on domestic workers being introduced from 2016 in Indosenia. Shaimaa Khalil will go home to Cairo to see what girls and women could learn from their sisters in Kurdistan about curbing the practice. VladSokhin will examine the extreme levels of violence against women in Papua New Guinea. Mishal Husain will interview Pakistani school girl, Malala Yusufzai in her first broadcast interview since surviving being shot in the head by the Taliban last October.
The 100 women conference will be streamed on a live event page on the BBC News website and broadcast live in English on BBC World News TV and World Service radio, as well as by many of its 27 global languages services.
