then it is a sunshine and wintry showers following. showers moving into northern ireland. wintry showers down those north sea coasts. most of the rain and snow will be falling in northern parts of scotland. it's windy everywhere, and the winds gusting 70 mph northern scotland. add on the strength of the wind, and it will feel probably a bit more like the middle of winter. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: documents for a return to normal life — the fa cup final — set be be among the pilot events for the government's covid passport scheme in england. a traffic light system for countries is being planned for the re—introduction of international travel from england. but a warning not to book foreign holidays just yet.

royal crisis injordan — a former crown prince says he's under house arrest. prince hamza's accused of being involved in a plot to destabilise the country. and — a scaled back easter sunday, although the choir was able to perform at canterbury cathedral. while at the vatican, the pope called for vaccines to be shared with the world's poorest countries. now on bbc news: global questions talks to two former female presidents, one from africa and one from europe, who've both been trailblazers for women's rights for decades. hello, and welcome to global questions. thousands of women all over the world are protesting against gender violence and sexism, and are demanding an end to the violation of their right. this week, we have two distinguished former female presidents, one from africa and one from europe, answering questions about why women still have to endure discrimination.

that is gglobal questions: sexism and violence against women in a patriarchal world. to bring you this addition are our two panellists and specialists joining us via video link from all over the world. let me tell you who is in the hall this week giving the answers, we have two leading global states women who were co—chairs of the woman leaders network of the africa europe foundation. mary robinson was the first female president in the republic of ireland, elected in 1990.

before becoming a politician, she trained as a lawyer on leaving office she became the un high commissioner of human rights. and ellenjohnson sirleaf there must was the first woman to be elected head of state in africa. she was president of liberia until 2018. an economist by training, she was the joint recipient of the nobel peace prize in 2011 for her work in promoting women's rights and for her leadership during and after a liberia's civil war. welcome to you both. remember, you, too, canjoin the conversation using the hashtag on screen. we have lots and lots of great questions and i'm sure some really brilliant on those from a two panellists so let's get straight down to business and faith immanuel in lagos, nigeria. your question. hello, good evening. really excited to be here. my question is, given our culture, why is there a sense of male entitlement?

this gets straight down to business, doesn't it? why does the patriarch you still exist? the long—standing cultural assumptions are what gave credence to the patriarchy. women have been addressing this over the years. fortunately, in more recent times as a result of this continued struggle on the part of women, some of these assumptions are increasingly no longer valid and we need to continue to make sure we make that point. i agree very much with ellen. i think a lot of boys think they are valued more than girls, then they see their role models, the president is a man, prime minister as a man,

judges are all men and it reinforces that sense that men are more important and therefore have that sense of entitlement. that's what we need to change. both of you think it's a cultural problem, not something that can be addressed with legislation, because faith asks why there is a sense of male entitlement and it seems to be resistant to even good laws trying to eradicate it. i think the laws can help. removing the laws that this grenade can help and also a kind of educational change based on equality. we just one generation equality, the forum taking place in mexico and paris this year is all about that, it's all about asserting the true equality and the more women move into high office in various ways and we deal with it at local level, the more we will address it.

laws will help but unless they are implement than we have the environment in which the implementation is insisted upon by those in society, both men and women, then it is most difficult to get away from those assumptions. over to casablanca, morocco. what do you want to ask ellenjohnson sirleaf and mary robinson? thank you, both madam president, what an honour to be with you in the session today, thank you for the opportunity, bbc global questions. my question today is about women in leadership positions. many of us in this position hear that we are too articulate, too direct or even too confident. why do people make these kind of statements and do you think this can lead to self—limiting ambitions for women and many other girls who are growing to be these leaders? thank you. mary robinson, what is your answer?

thank you. it is true that women in leadership are oftenjudged differently than men. the traits that are valued in men, like decisiveness, assertiveness, old action, can sometimes be seen as shrill, bossy, all the negative terms when a woman is doing exactly the same thing. that is a cultural trait itself. i actually think the best way to counter it is to ignore it. i remember when i was elected president of ireland in 1990, i was the first woman president and i was absolutely determined to do it confidently, feeling that actually i would do a betterjob precisely because i was a woman. i didn't want to be seen as being the likely men, i wanted to do it differently and use all my skills and leadership

qualities as a woman to do the job and i think that is the way to counter it. ellenjohnson sirleaf, societal expectations of women, they shouldn't fight in combat or go into space and not be too confident, what do you think about this? if these values, articulate, direct, were the ones that are attributed to women, that would be great. we would claim it. most times, the values that are attributed are the ones that have a negative overtone. too many times, when women are assertive, it's said that they are aggressive even though men would be called assertive. so i don't think we have a problem with these particular attributes,

and women are just prepared to stand up and accept those. they have no problem with being called articulate. we would like to see that and so what we need to do is make sure women continue to speak out and have their voice, and continue to be regarded as the ones that are going to claim the leadership they rightfully deserve. what do you want to say to our two modern presidents? thank you very much. this is reassuring. i myself believed in this from day one since i was a little girl in the southjordan fighting the stereotypes. i'm so happy there are other leaders encouraging and inspiring in these emerging markets and around the world to really break these barriers and stereotypes. thank you very much.

our next question is from rachel wong, you are the ceo of the think tank women's forum australia. fire away. it really is a privilege to discuss these issues. my question today is, when are we going to see an end to objectification. for women and culture, with shaped misogynistic attitudes in pornography among other things, how can we address it? this is a huge problem, isn't it? the sectoral objectification of women deeply embedded in particularly popular culture. it really is. 0bjectification of women is a problem that's got to be resisted in the strongest of ways. people are very critical to how we shape the attitudes of women

in society and let me say, the media is a major concern in this regard. the media can be positive in being able to uplift the voices of women but the media can also be very negative and we've seen so many cases in recent times where women who have achieved leadership roles are told... when conveying the leadership roles, are conveyed in a negative sense and the director of the world trade organization, ngozi 0konjo—iweala, in which she was ported and elected in this position but on announcing it, she was called names that were degrading.

you're talking about the former nigerian finance minister ngozi 0konjo—iweala who hasjust become the minister of the world trade organization. what are you referring to there? she was being attacked because she was the first woman to be elected as director general of the world trade organization and they did not want to give her the credit for her talent and her managerial expertise. they just wanted to say she was merely a grandmother and should not be there. and i think they need to apologise for that statement. that is a disparaging statement but let's move on to how women are addressed in advertising and pop videos and all the rest of it. we need consumer revolt against that

kind of objectification, that misuse of the image of women to sell product in a very sexy way and so on, and also the problems of social media that ellen was talking about what we need to be careful that we do not intrude on freedom of expression and have a censorship that can be counter—productive, that can actually cause another kind of reaction. it goes right across the board. women when elected to high office do suffer from complaints about how they dress, how they speak, how they work, how they smile, and it's a much tougher world for women in public positions and we know that, and part of it is the fact that we allow an objectification and it's how we really try to counter that by having a society that values gender

equality and that will not tolerate as consumers this objectification, it will take time. rachel, do you have any ideas yourself about how governments can address this because it is a question you posed? yes, i couldn't agree more we need to ensure a quality across the board for women with men, but i really don't think we can do that unless we seriously address the issue of pornography. to recognise that porn is normalising violence against women and this conditioning men from when they are just young boys to view girls as sexual objects to be used and abused and say nothing of

the sexual violence and exploitation that takes place on the porn industry itself, and sign the government acknowledged the inherently obstructive nature of porn and address it in the correct way. to audrey, your question. thank you for having me. modern presidents, i'd be interested to know what steps men can take to achieve gender equality. it is really important that we engage men because gender equality matters for both women and men, and there are un men adopting a he or she approach to be champions of gender equality and ellen has been seeking to bring male presidents in africa together on this issue, so i will pass to her in a moment but i do think it is really important to have men take on the child rearing, the homemaking, the care of elderly so the burdens and responsibilities at home are shared because until we do that, we will not

see a full equality. how achievable is that? ellenjohnson sirleaf, how achievable is it in africa to get the men to agree to be homemakers and take 50—50 share in the child rearing? 0h, we are way off from that. we have to ask the question, when will men recognise the value of women as men to know the contribution that women can make to society? they are equally smart, knowledgeable, they are courageous, what does it take for them to recognise those value is that reside in there? their wives is like their daughters? what does it take?

what does that take, ellenjohnson sirleaf? you are posing the question and we want to know. policies. we need constitutional change if that is required but we haven't able to change the attitudes. for people to see women be young, that says they ought to be in the home. what do you think about what you've just heard? these are excellent responses and thatjust back to the thought that someone running an nonprofit to get more than in the industry and talking about the 50, men will notjust that from the conversation, they need to be active and that means really calling out my progressions, telling people when it's not ok to do or say certain things and these responses make me optimistic about being

a woman in the industry. that is great. we like optimism in the industry. not all doom and gloom. it's an honour to be here. thank you so much. my question is, what do you think the biggest hurdle to achieving gender equality and women's economic empowerment across the globe? biggest hurdle? attitudes. male domination. it's still what keeps women behind. how do we change the attitude?

that's what we need to address. lots of progress in there, as we mentioned, men who have now been liberated from these all the attitude and we need to expand their numbers. attitude, attitude, attitude. i agree and i think what we really need is to have a sense that in the modern world, we all benefit from more equality therefore for men and women, this is the goal and i think this is something that young people understand more. young girls are leaving as climate activist full they are showing by

the passion and how articulate they are that they will change the rules, if i can put it that way, and i do think that a big hurdle is the fact that there is a lack of resources for what women want to achieve. very little trickles down to women at local level in their communities to make them resilient to climate, for example. and not only is power on the side of men, so our resources. thank you. now to saudi arabia for our last question. thank you for having me. i am 17 years old, i am part of the un generation of equality for youth group and i am also a un delegate for girls learn international and i run my own nonprofit and my question is, how can we ensure that women have equal representation in power in places of decision—making and leadership. thank you. all that and you're only 17.

my goodness. coming to you. how do we ensure equal representation and power in decision—making and leadership? and can ijust say, i know liberia introduced a new law preserving parliamentary seat for women, young people and people with disabilities. we need more than that, we need an enabling environment. for that, go back changing attitudes. women cannot be the only ones that fight to change these attitudes. men have to weigh in. we are trying to write a letter to all the male presidents and e—mail readers, and ask them to be willing to give an open commitment

to gender equality. how will they respond? we do not know, but i think we ought to ask them to do it. thank you. what is your answer, mary robinson? i agree but women have to be smart. take the africa euro foundation that you mention that the beginning. you mentioned we are co—chairs of a women is a leader in network and that did not exist. we invented it because the africa europe foundation was going to be chaired by two men, we were invited to be honorary presidents, which is not very significant but we made it more significant by deciding to have the network and we already find the network is giving a gender lens to the whole of the africa europe foundation, all eight strategy committees and what it is a great

power in women led networks at all levels, at local level, goals, networking. i'm sure each of the questioners as part of a network. there's a lot of trust in women leader networks because we know that if we are not therefore our ego but they are to change things, they are to problem solve, they are to collaborate. can i ask you both because you are older states women and you've both been in positions of leadership, but the progress hasn't been great, how is it? in both your countries, the number of women parliamentarians is only around 10%, one in ten women leaders globally is female, so why is it even when have women such as yourself positions of leadership that the numbers just don't stack up on the progress isn't as great as we would like it to be?

i was actually going to pick up on the importance of quotas. i think they do help to accelerate the equality and i fully agree with them, i've seen at work in so many countries. why is scandinavia seen as being very good on women playing a 50—50 role in parliament and cabinets? because they began with quotas. and i think we can all learn, we have quotas in ireland which are not working as well as they should but i do agree and i think it is very important that we work at this during this gender equality year. very quickly, progress has been very slow, here you are on the world stage for many decades but we still only have four countries in the world with more than 50% of their cabinet members are women. the progress is real and that may have led to a back that we were moving too far, too fast. but i think we need tojust continue and the timing is now.

if there is any time where we have been exposed, it is in this year, and now is the time to push even harder and i believe the progress women have made can now be discussed. we mention the quota system, some countries have resisted the basis of competition and this would not allow composition society but we agree with that might disagree with that because women are ready to compete fully for any leadership position or any position in society. thank you. a country which in many people's hasn't got the best record, let's put it that way, on women's rights. saudi has seen a slow but steady and promising progress in terms of women's rights in recent years, we are given the right to drive in

2018, the patriarchal system is dissolving a it is still exist in some circumstances unfortunately and i think international pressure has been working release activist from jail and increase rights. i'm an optimistic person and i do believe in the country's ability to make a lot of gender equality progress in the future. thank you and very good to end this programme with a very articulate 17—year—old they are. thank you very much indeed to my two panellists. and thank you to my question is who joined us from all over the world and to you wherever you are watching this programme. that's all from this edition. sexism and violence against women and a patriarchal world. remember, we are the programme bringing you the trend lines behind the headlines and if you want to be part of our next question time, submit one. for now, from me, goodbye.

thank you very much indeed. it has been a cloudy day today across scotland and northern ireland. cool there as well. cold air to the north of scotland and thatis air to the north of scotland and that is proper arctic air. that will sweep down across the whole of the country during monday and the risk of some wintry showers. today, with the wind is not coming in of the north sea it has been much warmer priest in parts of england in the sunshine and we are ending the day were sunshine here as well. that patchy rain further north sweeps

further south overnight and the winds pick up in the air gets colder and the showers turn more and more wintry in northern scotland. frost for the far north of england. not quite so cold elsewhere. cowed by the end of the night. maisie raine. wintry in there. that pushes through and then sunshine and wintry showers monday. most of the snow falling in northern scotland. wintry showers down those north sea coasts filtering into northern ireland and heading over the irish sea. many inland areas are going to be dry and sunny in the afternoon. all areas will be windy. strong to gale force to winds. 60 to 70 mph in north—west scotland and temperatures will be lower. 3— you add on the strength of the wind it will probably feel more like the middle of winter despite the sunshine. the clearer skies quite why the other night we will have a widespread frost early on tuesday. icy patches where we had wintry showers. most of the snow across the north of scotland. a few

more of these wintry showers around western coasts and down those north sea coast that we could see more wintry showers heading inland across scotland and into wales and the midlands two. temperatures on a par with lows of monday. it is going to feel cold. it is april, after all. so it is worth pointing out the impacts from snow are more likely to be felt across northern scotland and thatis be felt across northern scotland and that is where we are likely to have snow lying and blizzards because of the strength of the wind. a really cold arctic winds get swept away on wednesday out into the north sea and this is where weather starts to come from on wednesday and thursday. more from on wednesday and thursday. more from atlantics. so it is not going to be but not very warm. it will not be as windy at all. many places dry on wednesday and patchy rain in the north on thursday.

this is bbc news. the headlines at 5pm: certificates for a return to normal life — the fa cup final set be be among the pilot events for the government's covid passport scheme in england. a traffic light system for countries is being planned for the reintroduction of international travel from england. but a warning not to book foreign holidays just yet. royal crisis injordan — a former crown prince says he's under house arrest. prince hamzah is accused of being involved in a plot to destabilise the country. a second night of violence in the outskirts of belfast — the police describe an orchestrated attack on officers. a scaled—back easter sunday, although the choir was able to perform at canterbury cathedral.

at the vatican, the pope called for vaccines to be shared