Fortune Article

Good morning, WMPW readers! A woman was appointed secretary general of FIFA, the ex-lover of France’s president is expected to play a key role in his re-election bid, and Sheryl Sandberg made a moving speech about resilience. Want to get in touch? You can find me on Twitter at: @laurascohn. Have a great Monday!

THE BIG STORY

A female first at FIFA

There are few domains in the world more male-dominated than men's soccer. So the appointment of a woman to head FIFA, soccer's global governing body, came as somewhat of a surprise to me. Fatma Samoura, a veteran UN diplomat from Senegal, was appointed as secretary general of the organization to rebuild its reputation after last year's ethics investigation. Samoura said she hopes to grow the game worldwide and work on FIFA's reforms. There has been talk at FIFA about forming a separate women's division. Perhaps Samoura, the first woman to hold a top executive position at the organization, will get going on that too.New York Times

EUROPE/MIDDLE EAST/AFRICA

A loyal lover

It's not often that an ex-lover helps a world leader gain another term. But Segolene Royal, France's energy and environment minister and the former partner of President Francois Hollande, is so politically popular, she's expected to play a crucial role in his re-election bid.

Financial Times

Reverse pay gap

As I was digging through some wonky global data on the gender pay gap over the weekend, I noticed the United Arab Emirates has a "reverse pay gap," in which women earn more than men. But before we get too excited, here's the reason: female workers in the UAE are small in number and more highly educated than men.

Economist

How green are your emeralds?

When it comes to ethically-produced stones, diamonds tend to grab all the headlines. Instead, Caroline Scheufele, the creative director and co-president of luxury jeweler Chopard, is focusing on high mining standards for emeralds. The actress Julianne Moore approves so much she wore Chopard's emerald earrings on the red carpet at the Cannes film festival.

Financial Times

ASIA-PACIFIC

Missing Kiwis

Last week, I wrote about how things were looking up for female execs in Australia, but it appears to be a different story in New Zealand. A review of the top 50 firms in the country found that none of them have female CEOs, a fact Theresa Gattung—who in 1999 became the first woman to run a big public company in New Zealand—said left her "gobsmacked."

RNZ

Sharing stress

If you're an entrepreneur and your partner or spouse is one as well, it's a recipe for disaster, right? An Indian daily newspaper interviewed couples in such a situation and found it actually works quite well because you can empathize with each other and perhaps even share vendors.

Live Mint

THE AMERICAS

Sandberg opens up

Just over a year after losing her husband, Facebook COO and "Lean In" author Sheryl Sandberg made an incredibly moving speech about resilience in a commencement address at the University of California at Berkeley. "I learned that in the face of the void—or in the face of any challenge—you can choose joy and meaning," she said in remarks well worth a read.

Fortune

Kirchner indicted

It's been a rough couple of days for current and former female politicians in South America. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was suspended late last week, and now former Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has been indicted on charges of manipulating her country's central bank.

New York Times

Trump's women problem

A lot of ink has been spilled on Donald Trump and his interaction with women. But the "New York Times" took another crack at it, interviewing dozens of women who knew Trump professionally. The results show a history of undesired come-ons, disturbing workplace behavior, and constant comments on appearance by the presidential candidate.

New York Times