You could graduate from Harvard University or bag a Ph.D. from MIT, and rise to become the managing director of the World Bank who wins the heart of 164 countries to be voted WTO DG and still be primarily described as a “66-year-old Nigerian grandmother”.
At least three Swiss newspapers — Luzerner Zeitung, Aargauer Zeitung and St. Galler Tagblatt — have all primarily described Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the recently-elected director-general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), as a 66-year-old Nigerian grandmother.
While Okonjo-Iweala is indeed a grandmother and a 66-year-old, describing her as such after this type of major appointment has led to a heavy backlash on and off social media.
The reportage from this section of the Swiss media has been known as an expression of racism and gender discrimination.
“This Grandmother turns into the new boss of WTO,” the headline of a file by Luzerner Zeitung read, pronouncing Okonjo-Iweala’s choice because the director-trendy.
The article become posted inside the online and hardcopy version of the newspaper. But following the backlash on social media, the net version of the object became edited to read “This 66-yr-old Nigerian will head WTO”.
Linda Klare-Repnik, the coordinator environmental and social control machine, on the International Union for Conservation of Nature, called the newspaper out on Linkedin.
“Gender discrimination and racism: Swiss newspaper headlines the nomination of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for WTO Director General as ‘This Grandmother becomes the new boss of WTO,” she wrote.
“If it were a white guy, the title could have been along the strains of ‘Harvard Economist, ex-World Bank Managing Director and ex Minister of Finance …’
Nadja Schnetzler, who co-founded a Swiss mag called Republik, requested how the reporter would have written the election of Joe Biden as American president.
“What might you think in case you wrote approximately Biden ‘this grandfather might be US President’?” she tweeted.
Aargauer Zeitung, which also published the same article written via Jan Dirk Herbermann, apologised for the “wrong” reportage.
“Nigerian Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is the primary lady to head the World Trade Organization. We supplied the 66-12 months-antique economist and previous World Bank deputy head in a portrait and centered on her role as a grandmother within the name. That became wrong,” the newspaper tweeted, after the backlash.
“Okonjo-Iweala is lots extra than that. For instance, Harvard economist, as you may study in our textual content,” the newspaper brought, sharing an updated version of the thing.
A Ugandan-born instructional and improvement economist in Germany highlighted that the same media might consult with Angela Merkel, who's additionally 66 as mother, but talk to Okonjo-Iweala as a grandmother.
Okonjo-Iweala has a Bachelor’s in economics from Harvard University and a Ph.D. In local economics and development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She also holds honourary stages from over a dozen universities globally.
She changed into a two-time minister of finance in Nigeria and minister of foreign affairs. She is the first woman to absorb both jobs.
She is a board member at Twitter, Standard Chartered Bank, and African Risk Capacity. The sixty six-year-antique become up till February 2021, the co-chair of the Global Commission for the Economy and Climate.
She is a member Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) international advisory board; IMF external advisory board; and AU special envoy.
She received the global finance minister of the 12 months 2005 by means of Euromoney. She was one of the pinnacle one hundred most influential humans inside the World for 2014 by using TIME Magazine.
She turned into also one of the pinnacle one hundred international thinkers for 2011 and 2012 with the aid of Foreign Policy.
The top a hundred maximum effective ladies in the global by using Forbes Magazine would not were complete in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 without her name.
She holds a number of the highest countrywide honours from Nigeria, Liberia, and Cote d’Ivoire.
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