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Editor’s Note: World Wide Women is our new weekly column featuring the latest international news and inspirational stories from around the globe. Presented by Christina Yiannakis, you’ll get a weekly round-up of the best news curated just for you. Robelen x

The news this week has been abuzz with women’s achievements, with the key word across all fields seeming to be “entrepreneur”.  Of course, this isn’t news to us here at woman.com.au. You only need to browse through our list of inspirational women to see an exciting display of entrepreneurship. 

1. Sheryl Sandberg leans in

The noteworthy achievement that set international papers alight with tales of women’s growing presence in business the last few weeks was the crowning of Sheryl Sandberg’s new book, Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead as the number one best seller on Amazon.com for March 2013.  Written in response to her 2010 TEDtalk, the book focuses on the need for women to work towards and embrace positions of power, without holding back for fear of the anticipated challenges.  As the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, Sandberg’s book is packed with inspirational and down to earth advice for women in business, and particularly those trying to get ahead in tech. 

2. Renegade Martin writes the rules

Amy Jo Martin’s book Renegades Write the Rules continues to impress audiences with its practical advice on using social media in business.  After being told it would be impossible for her to achieve simultaneous success in her career, personal life and family life, Martin quit her job and moved on to build her own business providing social media strategies to a variety of organisations. Martin’s book utilizes her experience in business development and social media to provide practical advice for readers with an interest in innovative business branding and marketing.  Check out more information on Renegades Write the Rules here.

 3.  Setback for coffee table book Toasted

It hasn’t all been good news for women in business.  Nichole Ciotti and Blinc Agency, the group behind the coffee table book initiative Toasted, fell short of their online fundraising goal that they had hoped would allow them to meet publication costs.  The project planned to present 25 female entrepreneurs across its pages, with each ambitious woman being associated with a delectable cocktail to further inspire the reader.  We hope that such an amazing
idea, involving so many awe-inspiring women will go ahead despite this setback!  Watch this space for developments.  

4. Payal Kadakia dances her way into business

Business development in today’s world strongly depends on technology to get the wheels turning.  However, Payal Kadakia found out that you might not need to go beyond your own body to find inspiration for a business idea.  After years of dancing Kadakia started the Sa Dance Company, which has become a well-known New York dance establishment.  Since Sa’s beginnings in 2008, Kadakia has gone on to create classtivity.com, a site that searches for classes (dance, gym, yoga, you name it!) at a convenient time and place for the searcher.Get more info on Kadakia’s story here.

5. Women flock to MBA school

With more news on women’s business achievements than we can report on, it should come as no surprise that the enrolment levels of women attending Masters of Business Administration courses across the globe are sky rocketing!  This week it came to our attention that female applications to MBA programs were up by 12% in 2012, with the number of women earning MBAs rising by 75% between 1997 and 2012.  For more interesting statistics on women’s participation in higher education check out this link.