This week’s Upside project looked at how to make better men, bolder women and a fairer settlement between the genders

A female friend once got stuck in a lift in Moscow on International Women’s Day. It was suspended between two floors, with the doors jammed open, so you could only see her ankles and shoes.

A gallant fellow assessed the level of the crisis and raced off for assistance. He returned 10 minutes later – not with an engineer but with a bunch of flowers. She might be stuck for hours, but at least it would smell nice in there.

It feels like a grand metaphor for gender misunderstandings as we hit another International Women’s Day, with womankind still stuck in the broken lift of life and men wondering if roses or lilies would be best with that.

So what is being done? The Upside reports this week from the developing world on efforts to use sport to reshape boys’ attitudes towards the other sex. We celebrated one woman with one of the most intriguing titles in public service anywhere: you could call her “minister for the unborn”.

And we combed over gender pay gap data to discover that more than half of all UK companies who have filed data have managed to narrow the gap between male and female pay.

Our colleagues around the Guardian, meanwhile, saluted the plethora of stories about successful and brilliant women, from the astronauts who will perform the world’s first all-female spacewalk, to the Pakistani women bravely standing up for their rights in a patriarchal society.

Elsewhere, there was more cautiously positive news in the hunt for a cure for HIV after the virus was eradicated from a patient who underwent a bone marrow transplant. It is the second time this has happened. As a result, doctors think a solution could lie in gene editing.

What we liked

The cost of medicine is one of those perennial scandals crying out for innovative solutions. Tina Rosenberg of the New York Times investigated an inventive Australian approach known as the “Netflix model”.

The BBC Crossing Divides season is in full swing again, with its focus on reconciling antagonists whether they are the still segregated communities of Northern Ireland or just someone you don’t like in the office.

And it was good to hear that the Philadelphia Inquirer is starting its own strand of “good news“ – and has even decided to call it The UpSide. Welcome to the club.

What we heard

There is so much negativity and it’s great to hear positive news. You have a separate section for environmental defenders. Can we too have a section for social responsibility? This is after all what we are missing in the whole world. All we read about is inequalities, social injustices and greed by those with wealth and power. [It would] be great to showcase what people are doing in the world for others to copy.

Simon de Verteuil, by email

I read with great interest your recent piece on the Welsh future generations commissioner. I thought you might be interested in one possible lever that could be at the hands of public authorities to address socio-economic inequalities in the UK. It is the socio-economic duty. Established in Section 1 of the Equality Act 2010, the socio-economic duty would require public authorities to actively consider how their policies and strategic decisions can contribute to reduce inequalities. Successive UK governments have failed to activate the duty. The duty is in force in Scotland since April 2018 under the name Fairer Scotland Duty. And Wales is considering implementing it as well.

Koldo Casla, by email

Where was the Upside?

In Mali, where the government committed to providing free healthcare for pregnant women and children under five.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest That’s better Photograph: Courtesy of MUSO

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