Female construction workers are commonplace on Burmese building sites. Are they empowered or exploited?In the mountain village of Kalaw, Myanmar, a group of women in bamboo hats are busy laying the foundations of a road. They woke up at dawn, ate mohinga fish soup for breakfast and then joined other female colleagues in the boiling sun. Surrounded by red soil and gravel, the five-month baby of 21-year-old Cho Mi Ko is also on the roadside. He is sleeping under a makeshift shelter, oblivious to his mother’s hard labour.The sight of women building roads is common in Myanmar. From the rural Read More

Source:: The Guardian

An Arts and Crafts studio built for painters has been reinvented as a home full of lightTalgarth Road in west London is one of the capital’s busiest, dirtiest thoroughfares. With three lanes of traffic thundering to and from the M4, it’s easy to miss the row of eight Arts and Crafts-era houses when driving past Barons Court station.For architect Marius Barran and his wife Veronica, living in one of these historic homes, built in 1891 as artists’ studios, is worth the inconvenience of the busy road. Veronica first spotted the house online when the couple were looking to move in Read More

Source:: The Guardian

As a youth worker, Amy Barwise is used to dealing with pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, but after a week of revelations at home and work she decided safer was better than sorryAn hour before the kids get home from school on Friday, I check the kitchen drawer where I’ve left about 400 condoms for the boys. It’s virtually empty. Clearly it’s been a busy week on the sexual front in my small house. Nothing to do with me and I’ve been in all week, so I know there’s been no action within these four walls.I make a cup of Read More

Source:: The Guardian

Rise of social eating networks in Italy presenting women with opportunity to monetise skills not widely utilised in male-dominated restaurant kitchen cultureDuring the day, Claudia Proietti works in the insurance industry. But at night, she is dreaming up menus. Next week, the 59-year-old plans to serve a 16-people carnival-inspired feast that uses “all the colours of nature”, beginning with a velvety orange pumpkin soup with ricotta crostini and ending with a rich chocolate semifreddo with ginger, doused in a green pistachio sauce.While the menu may sound fit for a fine dining restaurant, Proietti will be seating her guests – who Read More

Source:: The Guardian

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Source:: The Guardian