🎉 Welcome to episode 16 of The Upgrading Women Newsletter 

I’m your editor, Rebecca Leppard, a feminist and communications nerd who simply loooves MSG in her food despite it being demonised by the media.

And recently I read on NPR that umami is now considered a primary taste – alongside sweet, sour, bitter, and salty. NPR’s Yuki Noguchi wanted to learn what makes this complex taste – and is the only one where smell plays a part. She found years of racist resistance from Western cultures tied to MSG myths, but now we know that umami is everywhere!

If anyone wants to try proper savoury taste, come to mine and I’ll cook for you!

Enjoy this episode, ladies. ✌🏽

What happened recently:

Mexico will have its first female president!

When Mexican presidential contenders Claudia Sheinbaum and Xochitl Galvez entered politics at the start of the century, more than four in five senators in the country were men. Today, most are women. Hurray!

The rise of Sheinbaum, who has been named the ruling party's candidate for next year's presidential election, and Galvez, the opposition contender, is the result of a rapid process of female inclusion in politics in the country.

"Just imagine having a female president in a country as macho as Mexico!" said Maria del Carmen Garcia, 70, a secretary who said women's pay needs to catch up with men's.

The latest polls suggest either former Mexico City Mayor Sheinbaum, the current favourite and candidate of leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, or Galvez, a businesswoman-turned senator, are likeliest to win the election.

Source: Reuters

Women can be in the men’s game too!

Exhibit A 👆🏾
Former Irish rugby player and captain Joy Neville made history when she was the television match official in the game between Italy and Namibia at the 2023 Men’s Rugby World Cup.

Neville represented Ireland at both the 2006 and 2010 Women's Rugby World Cups, and in 2013 she was a member of the first Irish women's team to win the Six Nations Championship.

Exhibit B 👇🏿
For the first time at the FIFA World Cup, female referees will officiate men’s games. Six women will take the pitch in Qatar, including Japan’s Yamashita Yoshimi in the picture below.

For the first time: an all-Black gymnastic podium

No Worries If Not!

Speaking of game, here’s a satirical one for you! Based on real-life setbacks and the pitfalls of daily life, it’s a game about the “game” women hate playing: people-pleasing, overthinking, multitasking, over-apologising, and so bloody on. Sounds… fun, right? Nope. The rule of the game is very much like the story of my life.

• Play with a group of 2-4 friends and try to be the first to reach Everyone’s Happy and No One’s Mad Land.

• Navigate the (doomed) paths of Judgment Junction, Self-Doubt Spiral, You Look Tired Triangle, and more!

• Make some power plays and try not to get knocked off track before the time is up.

Oh here’s another kicker: it’s been sold out already. So, no worries if not!
Anyway when asked why self-care brand Billie launched this limited edition, its answer was:
At Billie, we believe the world is a better place when women don't have to face constant judgment—on their appearance, choices, or existence. We want to make room for women to make their own rules, create new routines that truly serve them, and shake off the old pressures. Usually we make body products—this time we made a board game.

Update from around the world:

South Korea: Lesbian couple welcomes child in historic first

As Choi Jeong-Yun reported in The Korea Herald: Kim and her wife’s journey to becoming parents was rockier than they had anticipated.

Their domestic options were limited with sperm banks limited to heterosexual married couples with fertility issues, while France – where fertility treatment for non-heterosexual couples and single women is legal – was experiencing a shortage of donor sperm. Kim and her wife found an alternative in Belgium.

Japan’s snowy beach is worth a visit!

This literal wonder of a beach is located in San’in Kaigan Geopark, which was declared a Japanese Geopark in 2008 and a UNESCO Global Geopark in 2010. Located in the west of Japan on Hokkaido Island, the geopark contains an immense diversity of geological sites that are related to the formation of the Sea of Japan.

The frozen features are delivered to the beach due to the punishing winds that blow drift ice, frozen chunks of freshwater, from the far-off Amur River to the beach at certain times of the year. The snow and ice arrive at the beach primarily between late January and early February, overtaking the beach and sea with a series of mini-bergs. Cute! So now you know where to go in 2024!

A message from a communications nerd:
AI is here for good

Believe it or not, the Internet used to be called a fad. In fact, the dotbom bubble burst when Gen Z was a baby.

Back then, the launch of Apple’s iPhone in 2007, the first buttonless phone, divided the world into iPhone adopters, Blackberry loyalists and Nokia patriots.

And now that we’ve finally calmed down from the ChatGPT frenzy I’d like to invite you to embrace AI in your everyday lives including, but not limited to, streamlining your operations and marketing your brand.

In case you’re in search of beautiful, kind, empathetic marketers who genuinely want to help you communicate your message better, check us out. In the meantime, you’re welcome to devour UN’s Sustainable Fashion Communication Playbook!