Leadership in Civil Society

Women in cinema are still relishing Kathryn Bigelow's best director win at the Oscars, but, at a women's film festival in Paris this week, admitted the challenges they face in the film industry cross the gender boundaries.

"Film directing is like leading an army", Dorothee Van Den Berghe said, "which is not what women are used to". She said she works "spontaneously" and shows she has doubts, which does not always go down well.

Directing can be a very peripatetic and precarious job, said Van Den Berghe, and "women may find it less easy to live with this uncertainty".

In Belgium Van Den Berghe notes a "growing conservatism" over the last ten years in young people's attitudes, more centred now on marriage, family and the home.

Wherever women are vastly underrepresented--whether in churches, high finance, or the highest levels of science--the argument for opening male preserves to women should not be based in dubious notions of female ethical superiority.

The empowerment of women is, above all, a matter both of common sense and justice. It is wrong to deny people power and opportunity because of their sex. And it is simply stupid to underutilize women's capacities. As to whether more women in power would reform Wall Street or the Catholic Church, we would have to wait and see. I think there will be many more women heads of Fortune 500 companies before we see the Catholic Church agree to a female priesthood.

The BBC has come under renewed criticism for ageism after a study showed that only one in five of BBC One's presenters are over 50, compared to one in four for ITV1.

Selina Scott, a former BBC newsreader, says women over 50 who have remained in front of the camera have had to become caricatures.

Three women are flying aboard space shuttle Discovery. With another female astronaut awaiting them at the International Space Station, that makes for a record-setting four women in space at the same time.