BBC 100 Women Challenge: Solutions revealed and final names added to BBC 100 Women list
As the BBC 100 Women Challenge draws to a close, the final names on the BBC 100 Women list have been announced and the teams taking part in the challenges have revealed their suggested solutions to four problems blighting women’s lives around the world.
Published: 2 November 2017
It’s been a privilege watching these talented women come together to brainstorm, create and deliver their prototypes, campaigns and suggested solutions
Throughout October the 100 Women Challenge has brought together all-female teams of experts, academics and talent from across the industries and given them a week to come up with ideas and innovations to:
- break the glass ceiling
- combat sexual harassment on public transport
- improve female literacy
- tackle sexism in sport
Their suggested solutions include apps and wearable tech encouraging women to speak up in business meetings, a badge that encourages bystander intervention on public transport, an e-book and traditional Street Play aimed at boosting female literacy, and a YouTube channel with female-led football masterclasses designed to make women’s participation in sport more visible.
Director of World Service Group Francesca Unsworth says: “This year, BBC 100 Women did something new, challenging teams of female experts to help find solutions to four problems experienced by women today. It’s been a privilege watching these diverse teams of talented women from across the world come together to brainstorm, create and deliver their prototypes, campaigns and other suggested solutions.
"From apps, e-books and YouTube videos to performance pieces, catchy branding and clever taglines, the challenges have raised the visibility of these four global problems and launched new conversations about how they can be solved.”
Documentaries charting each challenge will air on BBC World News and the BBC News Channel starting Saturday 18 November and airing across four weeks.
The final names in this year’s BBC 100 Women list have also been revealed, including many women who inspired or assisted directly in the Challenges. New names added to the list include:
- Chilean Astronomer Maria Teresa Ruiz (71) who was the first woman to study astronomy at the University of Chile and went on to discover an unusual celestial body - the first free-floating brown dwarf, which she called Kelu 1.
- Ethiopian long distance runner Derartu Tulu (48) who was the first African woman to win a Gold in the Olympic Marathon at Barcelona in 1992.
- Women's rights activist and mountaineer Weerahennedige Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala (38) from Sri Lanka, the first Sri Lankan to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
- Chinese chess grandmaster Hou Yifan (23) who became the youngest ever female chess player to qualify for the grandmaster title at the age of 14 and is currently the FIDE top-ranking female chess player.
- Drummer Savita Devi (35) from India, who leads the only all-women drum band in one of India’s poorest states.
- Bella Devyatkina (5) from Russia, who at just five years old is already fluent in eight languages and reads with ease in six European languages.
- Mexican journalist and blogger Tamara De Anda (34) who successfully filed a civil case report against a taxi driver who accosted her verbally while she was walking down the street.
- Angie Ng from Canada (38), who is a founder and organiser of SlutWalk Hong Kong, which campaigns against sexual violence and victim-blaming.
- Hanne Bingle (58) originally from Denmark who was an underground driver in London for 13 years and a member of Transport for London's Women's Network. She is now a powerlifter.
Breaking the glass ceiling
#TeamLead in San Francisco created two unique products aimed at supporting women’s success in the workplace:
- An app called all.ai (pronounced 'ally') which uses voice recognition technology to track participation and linguistic dynamics in workplace meetings.
- A piece of wearable tech jewellery called Collective Sisters, which uses signals from the body to help the wearer overcome the physical manifestations of nervousness and accept supportive messages from 'allies' via a connected app.
- An art installation called #me too, subtitled 'what does sexism sound like?' - which uses audio testimonials of everyday sexism, crowdsourced by the BBC‘s outlets around the world, and 'flips' the gender of the speaker to confound the expectations of the viewers.
Tackling female illiteracy
#TeamRead in Delhi drew on technology and traditional Indian street theatre and created:
- A short play to be performed in schools or community settings illustrating the challenges faced by girls when trying to get an education and underscoring women’s right to education.
- An ebook and a vocabulary builder aimed at improving reading ability. The book is not reliant on wifi, and the content can be uploaded and updated using an SD card.
Combating harassment on public transport
#TeamGo in London devised ‘Unmute The Commute’ to encourage bystander intervention:
- They created a prototype badge to be worn by people who were willing and trained to safely intervene. The badge would light up when someone in the nearby vicinity reported they were being harassed via technology such as an app.
- Developed branding and signage for a London bus to break the culture of silence on public transport and encourage people to intervene when others are in need of help.
Tackling sexism in sport
#TeamPlay In Rio explored ways of supporting women in sport and created:
- A YouTube channel aimed at making women’s participation in sport more visible, with female-led masterclasses and tutorials showing girls and young women how to develop their football skills.
- Designed a new set of rules for football, which would level the playing field and encourage male and female players to integrate as one team.
- Created slogans specifically for girls, boys, and parents to encourage a cultural shift around including girls in sporting leisure activities.
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