• The UN underwhelms. On Thursday, the Security Council formally recommended Antonio Guterres, former PM of Portugal, to be the next Secretary-General of the United Nations. The General Assembly is expected to approve his appointment next week.

In its more than 70 years of existence, the UN has never had a female head—a fact that even Ban Ki-moon, the outgoing Secretary General, has said that it's "high time" to change. Yet, despite drawing a record seven qualified female candidates (in a field of 13), another man is now poised to get the job. The BBC digs into why: BBC

• Entertaining to whom? Donald Trump is attempting to spin the various derogatory statements he has made about women as pure showmanship. In an interview with Las Vegas' KSNV-TV, Trump said: "A lot of that was done for the purpose of entertainment; there's nobody that has more respect for women than I do." Politico

• Can I get a lift, Mary? Speaking to Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and Fortune editor Alan Murray at the Dreamforce conference, General Motors CEO Mary Barra talked about how ride- and car-sharing are transforming the way her company operates. Fortune

• Not your fault, Kim! Unfortunately, it sounds like Kim Kardashian is buying into some of the victim blaming that's gone on around the attack she experienced in Paris. Fortune's Valentina Zarya looks into the ways the current celebrity culture makes us more obsessive—but less empathetic—about stars. Fortune

• Clinton's closer. If you want to know where Hillary Clinton's trouble spots are, follow Michelle Obama on the campaign trail. Called "the closer" during her husband's 2008 presidential run, the first lady seems to be playing a similar role in Clinton's campaign. New York Times

• That's a stretch. NPR is in the midst of "Stretched," a two-week series examining the challenges facing working parents. Two segments already have been posted on the site, and more will roll out between now and Oct. 14. NPR

• Tune in! On this week's Broad Strokes, Valentina and I talk Trump (of course), gender and tech, and violence against women. Plus: we get to sit on a couch! Fortune

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Tricia Stitzel has been promoted to president and COO of Tupperware Brands. WNBA chief of basketball operations & player relations Renee Brown is stepping down after 20 years with the league.

• Mind the gap. First the good news: A third of London tech companies are 50% to 75% female. Now the bad: Nearly half of the execs said in a survey that they don't think increasing diversity would improve their company's growth.  Fortune

• Paikidze's big move. U.S. chess champ Nazi Paikidze will boycott February's Women's World Chess Championship in Iran because the players will have to wear hijabs. She also launched a petition demanding that the World Chess Federation reconsider allowing Iran to host the event. Washington Post

• Costly care. The American Action Forum, a right-leaning think tank, crunched the numbers on Donald Trump's proposals to cut childcare expenses and provide paid maternity leave. It says the policies could cost the government a half-trillion dollars over the next decade. The group previously analyzed Hillary Clinton's plans to tackle the same issues, reporting that they would likely cost about $1.5 trillion over the same time period. WSJ

• Sickening numbers. Self digs into the devastating effects that cancer can have on women's financial lives. According to one study, uterine cancer survivors between the ages of 20 and 34 filed for bankruptcy at 10 times the rate of same-aged women without the disease. Self

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Stella McCartney launches menswear  WSJ

Old ladies who really, really want to see Hillary Clinton become our first female president  Cosmopolitan

VA will begin covering IVF and adoption costs for wounded vets  Washington Post

Sarah Jessica Parker is launching a book imprint  New York Magazine