From AI to Akoko

Welcome to Mostly, the weekly list of top links for women who are living their best life in leadership (most of the time!).

Each week, look forward to a carefully chosen collection of links from across the web to inspire, motivate and lift your week. Because yes, there are fewer of us than there should be, but that doesn't mean those who are leading aren't loving it!

It isn't every week that we welcome a new female CEO to the FTSE 100, Big Six or Big Four. And this is one of those weeks when we don't. So this week, be inspired by those who are taking matters into their own hands.

Five women are doing more to keep us safe from AI than the rest of Big Tech put together. They deserve your attention. Maria Doughty describes how to get P&L experience. The Polish WI aren't messing around with baking. Gabby Logan...Wow! Plus, Forbes has advice on household C-Suite (if you try this, let me know how it goes). Read about China, where women are buying themselves Ferraris, and marriage is at an all-time low (that's not in the story, it's a separate and probably unrelated fact). Ruth E. Carter is the first Black woman ever to win two Oscars—she talks about Black Mentorship and Costuming History. If you're a Caroline Criado Perez fan girl, I will see you soon! A volunteering opportunity with perks and a restaurant recommendation with a smug picture of me.

Have a great week!

If you read one article, it's this one. It's important. Meet Safiya Noble, Timnit Gebru, Joy Buolamwini, Rumman Chowdhury, and Seeta Pe?aGangadharan. It kind of blows my mind that this is a Rolling Stone article rather than the front page of every business paper, but...

Meet Maria Doughty, CEO of The Chicago Network. She has advice for those looking to get into the CEO succession pipeline—"My biggest piece of advice is to gain P&L responsibility.” Plus, she explains how to do it.

Members of the ko?o gospodyń wiejskich (a type of women’s club common in rural areas, usually translated as “country housewives association” —I am imagining a Polish WI), grew tired of waiting for local authorities to begin constructing the footpaths. So they decided to take matters into their own hands – literally – by paving all of its footpaths themselves.

Gabby Logan is on the cover of Women's Health UK, and she... I want to say she looks amazing, but it's more than that. It's not just how she looks. She is unapologetic, but that sounds cliché. You're just going to have to check out her BTS photos on Insta and see for yourself.

The C-suite at home? According to the Wall Street Journal, married couples are coming up with a new way to define their division of household labour: CFO and COO. In a move from the corporate playbook, one person is taking on budgeting and financial planning while the other handles logistics and scheduling. I suspect I may also be the CTO in my house.

Feel the need, the need for speed? Over a quarter of all Ferrari sales in China are to female owners, far more than in any other country. Property entrepreneurs and tech execs are among the women flocking for Ferraris in China, a country that’s second in the world for billionaires and where the number of marriages has declined for nine consecutive years, falling by half in less than a decade.

Ruth E. Carter, is the first Black woman?ever to win two Oscars. A fascinating interview with this Oscar-Winning Costume Designer on Black Mentorship and Costuming History. "In order to rise above that, you have to see yourself in a bigger light — that is someone who is worthy of opportunity, worthy of knowledge, worthy of beauty on your own standard."

Tickets have just gone on sale for the Trouble Club Big Night Out. Featuring Caroline Criado Perez (!!!), Kelechi Okafor and Bronwyn Sweeney. If you haven't heard of the Trouble Club, they are a talks and dinners club where you can hear some of the finest voices talking on everything from politics to fiction. They all happen to be women, but men and women are welcome to attend talks. Let me know if you're coming!

If you're looking for a fun and worthy volunteering opportunity, UN Women UK are looking looking for four Guardian Angels on Thursday, 24th August and nine on Sunday, 27th August, at the Lost Village Festival (Lincolnshire). Guardian Angels get free tickets to attend the festival, meals covered while on shift, bystander intervention training, a free t-shirt and travel expenses covered (up to ￡35). https://unwomenuk.typeform.com/to/p2tO0dkt

And finally, last week, I went to Akoko —"Our approach to cooking is inventive, centred around a trilogy of live fire cooking, umami, and spices. Drawing inspiration from founder Aji Akokomi’s West African heritage, our culinary team skilfully create family recipes as well as innovative dishes that combine the finest seasonal British produce with specially sourced African spices."

It's the shit, and I wholeheartedly recommend it.