Europe

Stories about any of the 44 countries on the European continent.

The ‘Woman in Charge’: Diane von Furstenberg’s Lifelong Commitment to Empowering Women, Fashion and Philanthropy

Though her fame as a designer came through the success of her iconic wrap dress, Diane von Furstenberg has said, “I don’t think I had a vocation for fashion; I had a vocation to be a woman in charge.”

Towards the end of the exhibit—on display at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles until Aug. 31, 2025—a QR code directs visitors to sign up for her more recent innovation: the “InCharge platform,” which serves as “a place to rally, where we use our connections to help all women be the women they want to be.” Its aim urges women to make “first a commitment to ourselves” by “owning who we are” and then to use the platform to “connect, expand, inspire, and advocate.” It is her latest project in a lifetime of advocacy meant to strengthen women.

This Week in Women’s Representation: Record-Breaking Governors, Legislative Wins and a Global Call to Action for Gender Equality

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation. 

This week’s Weekend Reading includes on-the-ground updates from the 2024 Reykjavik Global Forum; the progress of women in state legislatures, particularly in New Mexico and Minnesota; the record number of female governors in the U.S.; and the ongoing global fight for women’s representation.

Free Screening: World War I Documentary ‘The Hello Girls’ Introduces the First Women Allowed to Serve in the U.S. Military

In honor of Veterans Day (celebrated each year on Nov. 11), the nonprofit organization Foundation for Women Warriors is set to host a screening of the powerful documentary The Hello Girls on Nov. 6, 2024. This screening aims to shed light on the extraordinary stories of women who broke barriers and paved the way for women’s role in the military.

The documentary tells the inspiring tale of 223 women who answered President Woodrow Wilson’s call to serve their country during World War I. The Nov. 6 event will feature a screening of the documentary, followed by a panel discussion with experts on women’s history and feminism. Attendees will gain insights on the Hello Girls’ experiences and their enduring impact on society.

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation: Complicated Origins of the Electoral College; With Women in Power, Women’s Lives Improve

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation. 

This week’s Weekend Reading covers our 2024 Declaration of Sentiments, the need for bipartisan solutions in state government, ditching (or at least reforming) the electoral college, historic elections in Canada, declining women executives in the U.K., and the Indian Women’s Reservation Act.

Gisèle Pelicot, the Woman at the Center of France’s Mass Rape Trial, Takes the Stand for the First Time

“I never, even for a single second, gave my consent to Mr. Pelicot or those other men.”

Halfway through the mass rape trial in France that has been shocking the world and brewing feminist rage since September, survivor Gisèle Pelicot took the stand for the first time on Wednesday to share her nightmarish story.

On why she’s taking a stand: “I wanted all woman victims of rape—not just when they have been drugged, rape exists at all levels—I want those woman to say: Mrs. Pelicot did it, we can do it too.”

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation: U.S. Politics Is Halfway to Gender Parity; Feminists’ Presidential Dream Team

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation. 

This week: Influential figures in Brussels are backing away from equality commitments; women make up less than 27 percent of all U.S. House candidates; rank your presidential dream team; two U.S. states receive an “A” grade for gender parity; and more.

She Surfed the Biggest Wave in the World. ‘Maya and the Wave’ Captured It.

In February 2020, Brazilian surfer Maya Reis Gabeira surfed a 73-foot wave (the height of a seven-story building) in Nazaré, Portugal.

With her documentary Maya and the Wave, filmmaker Stephanie Johnes tells a story of working with, not against, the ocean, and doesn’t shy away from the intensity of the sport. In an interview with Ms., Stephanie Johnes details what it is like to be an elite female athlete in a male-dominated sport.

“What I hope that the film accomplishes is to connect with people who are not necessarily surfers or even athletes, but who have felt that feeling of isolation when they’re trying to do something extraordinary or trying to do something in a male-dominated environment.”

Feminist Film History Is Alive in Bologna

Last month, 3,000 cinephiles congregated at dusk in the Piazza Maggiore in Bologna, Italy for an outdoor cine-concert of The Wind (1928)—a silent film about desperate love in bad weather—with the message “FREE ABORTION” projected on a church at the side of the square.

It’s all part of the the feminist programming at Il Cinema Ritrovato. The annual archival film festival spotlights long unseen, unjustly forgotten but urgently timely works from the celluloid archive and unleashed them onto the volatile, open-ended present. The Ritrovato is nothing less than a celebration of the capacity to create community around films that you quite literally could not see anywhere else—long obliterated from the archive due to a combination of material decay, political censorship and ideological incomprehension. I was especially struck this year by the feminist themes that emerged.

Ms. Global: Increasing Access to Contraceptives in Sub-Saharan Africa, Taliban Demands Afghan Women Be Left Out of U.N. Conference, and More

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The U.S. ranks as the 19th most dangerous country for women, 11th in maternal mortality, 30th in closing the gender pay gap, 75th in women’s political representation, and painfully lacks paid family leave and equal access to health care. But Ms. has always understood: Feminist movements around the world hold answers to some of the U.S.’s most intractable problems. Ms. Global is taking note of feminists worldwide.

This week: News from Afghanistan, South Korea, Bulgaria, Serbia and more.