Friday, February 3, 2012

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Fancy going feminist?

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  Karen Whiteley WVoN co-editor  I know, you’re already a feminist, right?  Of course you are. But if you’re in London this weekend, take some time out from the annoyances of the Patriarchy to treat yourself to a day in the glorious company of other feminists. Because the Go Feminist conference, taking place this Saturday, [...]

Bread basket, not black hole

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Rachel Salmon WVoN co-editor  Rumana Hashem  is one of a group of campaigners successfully fighting plans by a British company to dig a massive open cast mine on prime agricultural land in north western Bangladesh, which could displace nearly a quarter of a million people. I spoke to her recently about the campaign and how she became [...]

Documentary exposes China’s “sexist culture”

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Laura Bridgestock WVoN co-editor Every year in China, says documentary maker May Tchao, more than 300,000 foetuses are aborted because of their gender, and more than 500,000 baby girls abandoned. Thousands more girls and women, she says, face domestic abuse and even kidnapping. Tchao, born in China but now resident in the USA, is on [...]

Lord O’Donnell criticises private sector approach to gender equality

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Liz Draper WVoN co-editor  British private sector companies are appointing women to non-executive positions instead of senior executive roles, according to former cabinet secretary Lord O’Donnell. In an interview with the Financial Times, he suggests that businesses are artificially improving gender balance on their boards by appointing more women as non-executives, rather than having women [...]

Women may feel more pain than men, new study reveals

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Liz Draper WVoN co-editor  Women feel pain more acutely than men, according to a new study by Stanford University in California. Researchers analysed the perceived pain of 11,000 people suffering from a variety of health problems. Patients were asked to rate their pain on a scale from zero to eleven. In 39 of the 47 [...]

TV audiences call for more older women

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Mary Tracy WVoN co-editor  Television audiences have expressed concern over the lack of older women on the screen, according to a new report. Question Time, Mock the Week and QI were singled out for failing to have women on their programmes, or relying on "token women". The report was commissioned by the BBC on behalf [...]

Justice for low paid women at Bury council – finally

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Alison Clarke WVoN co-editor A council in England yesterday settled a long-running equal pay dispute with the union representing nearly 1,000 low-paid female staff. Public sector union, UNISON, said that the women who included carers, cleaners and cooks were paid less than their male colleagues for doing work of equivalent value. Bury was the first [...]

Tackling the acceptance of rape culture

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Meg Kissack WVoN co-editor  I was walking back from a lecture today and I received this text message: From West Mercia Service ATTENTION ALL GIRLS AND LADIES: if you walk from home, school, office or anywhere and you are alone and come across a little boy holding a piece of paper with an address on [...]

Story links, 2 February 2012

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Every day we'll post up a number of story links that we think are interesting. They won't necessarily be from that day, but usually will not be more than a few days old. Story links: There is no honour in killing, The Commentator, Feb 1, 2012 Women taking the lead in Egypt’s economic revolution, Daily [...]

UK government cuts leave vulnerable women out in the cold

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Laura Bridgestock WVoN co-editor The devastating impact of UK government cuts on services for vulnerable women was revealed in a major new report this week. Last year Women's Aid was forced to turn away an average of 230 women every day due to lack of space, according to the report  – around nine per cent [...]