Good morning, Broadsheet readers. American Apparel just announced its first female CEO, and Facebook’s first female engineer spoke out on the tech gender gap. Read on for my exclusive interview with the co-founder of the Malala Fund about yesterday’s heinous act of violence in Pakistan. Have a safe Wednesday.
EVERYONE'S TALKING
• American Apparel's big makeover. The teen retailer has, at long last, fired its infamous CEO, Dov Charney, and replaced him with Paula Schneider, a fashion business veteran who has worked at such companies as Big Strike and Max Azria. Schneider will be charged with turning around a once-hot brand that is now suffering from disappointing earnings and a destructive company culture. Fortune
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
• Paid maternity leave is good for business. In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, who is pregnant with her fifth child, writes that when Google (which owns YouTube) increased paid leave to 18 weeks, the rate at which new mothers left fell by 50%. "Support for motherhood shouldn’t be a matter of luck; it should be a matter of course," she writes. WSJ
• Behind some powerful women...are powerful men. In the case of Charlene de Carvalho, the sole heir to the Heineken fortune, that man is her husband, Michel de Carvalho, who was once a movie actor and three-time Olympian and is now a vice chairman of investment banking at Citigroup. Fortune's Pattie Sellers has the exclusive scoop on the critical role Michel has played in making Charlene the global brewer’s formidable controlling owner after she had no active role in the family business for decades. Fortune
• Facebook's first female engineer 'disappointed.' Ruchi Sanghvi says a lot has changed (for the better) in the decade that she has worked in tech, but that she still struggles to adapt her non-aggressive personality to the male-dominated industry. Sanghvi, who now is VP of operations at Dropbox, adds that she is "disappointed" that it's still news every time a woman becomes CEO of a Fortune 500 company, but that she doesn't see the numbers dramatically changing anytime soon. Wired
• Learning to say no. Jane Fraser, the CEO of U.S. consumer and commercial banking at CitiMortgage, told CNN that being an executive with young children made her realize the importance of saying no. Telling clients or coworkers that she couldn't make a certain meeting because of her kids made her human, she said. "If you don't have humanity then you're just not relevant." CNN
• 'Cooper what?' Caroline Baumann, director of New York City’s newly-refurbished and reimagined Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, is sick of people having no idea what Cooper Hewitt is. She hopes an $81 million transformation into a cutting-edge digital showcase will make the space unforgettable. Fortune
• Resume update: Julie Hamilton, executive assistant to Coca-Cola chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent, will become head of global commercial strategy in April.
BROADVIEW
Malala Fund CEO speaks out on Taliban school attack
When 17-year-old Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head on a school bus by the Taliban in 2012, she became the first Pakistani student to be targeted by the militants. Two years later, Yousafzai is tragically joined by hundreds more.
Tuesday's Taliban attack on a school in Peshawar left more than 130 schoolchildren dead. Shiza Shahid, co-founder and CEO of the Malala Fund, an organization working to break the cycle of poverty and empower girls through education, has devoted much of her life to championing women around the world. In an exclusive interview with Fortune, Shahid -- who grew up in Islamabad and is speaking here as a Pakistani advocate -- shared her initial reactions.
Edited excerpts:
Why do schoolchildren remain a target for the Taliban?
Significant progress has been made by the military to root out certain terrorist leaders and this was really an act of retaliation. This is a school that mostly has children of military officers and cadets, and their wives were teachers. So really, this was retaliation to what was done by the military, and it shows how long this battle is going to be.
Also, there is nothing more precious than our children. By going as far as attacking children, they are saying that nothing is off limits, so there is an utter lack of humanity. There have been instances where terrorists have bombed empty schools as a way to protest the teachings of western ideologies, but this act was clearly and deliberately meant to kill children, and it is as heinous as can be.
Are you fearful that this will deter children from going to school?
This has been happening for a while. In the past, areas around schools have been targeted and school buses have been threatened and, for a while now, military schools have been targeted as well. I live about a mile away from the Navy complex in Islamabad, and for a while there has been heavy security. If children aren't given an education there really isn't anything left. So hopefully we will take the time to grieve, and hopefully the people will come together and do everything we can to protect children. For more children to lose their one chance to get an education will result in many more tragedies just like this.
How can concerned people outside of Pakistan help?
I am a big believer in finding local activists and advocates and supporting them. That is very much the model that I work with at the Malala Fund. Now I am working on a social impact fund that will invest on the ground, and there are some great organizations that try and highlight local leaders and amplify their work.
To share The Broadview and read my full interview click here.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
• Rape report. The U.S. Department of Justice published a report on rape and sexual assault on college campuses that said female college students are much more likely to be sexually assaulted than are college-age women who are not in school. CBS News
• 'It’s just cheap.' After 20 years in the retail business, women’s contemporary clothing designer Trina Turk isn't worried about the influx of fast fashion brands like H&M and Forever21. “I don’t think people have an affinity for Forever21. It’s just cheap,” she says. Fortune
• Time to review. After the University of Toronto's business school became infamous for a sexist case study that seemed to be loosely modeled on characters in Legally Blonde, the administration is reviewing its courses to "nurture inclusiveness." The Star
ON MY RADAR
Should women seek male mentors? Fast Company
Aspirin risks outweigh benefits for young women NYTimes
Study: Top execs are fairer than you are Bloomberg
3 tips to make your voice heard at work Fortune
How the most successful night owls manage to wake up early Fast Company
QUOTE
We are at a point now where the country needs to stand up and stand up together. We need to grieve for who has been lost and take action for once and for all, and we need to say no more and say never again.
Shiza Shahid, the co-founder and CEO of the Malala Fund, on how Pakistan should recover from the Taliban school attack.
