Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

“War does not mean licence to rape”, says UN rapporteur

Posted: 27 Feb 2012 01:00 PM PST

Sara Dzregah
WVoN co-editor

A United Nations report has, for the first time, named the worst offenders of conflict-related sexual violence.

Among those listed in the report, presented to the Security Council last week, are the Lord’s Resistance Army in the Central African Republic and South Sudan, armed groups in Côte d'Ivoire and the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Margot Wallström, the UN’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict said:

“Conflict-related sexual violence is not specific to one country or continent: it is a global risk. The terror of unarmed women facing armed men is age-old and universal.”

The report also provided examples where rape and sexual violence have threatened security in post-conflict situations such as Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The report highlighted the need for further preventative work and early identification of sexual violence in conflicts.

“The terms of the debate have shifted from reacting to sexual violence like any other tragedy, to preventing it like any other threat,” Wallström said.

She added: “As a process of intimidation, targeted rape is often a precursor to conflict, as well as the last weapon to be relinquished in its wake. It is important not to exclude from consideration sexual violence that continues after the guns fall silent.”

Wallström also highlighted what has been achieved so far in recognising that rape can be used as a tactic in conflict and war.

“What we have already achieved gives us hope. The actions of this Council tell survivors that their lives matter.

“It also tells perpetrators and potential perpetrators that war does not mean licence to rape. The world is watching,” she said.

Colombia SlutWalk draws thousands

Posted: 27 Feb 2012 11:00 AM PST

Reproduced with permission from Colombia Reports

Thousands of protesters, primarily women, took to the streets in several Colombian cities on Saturday to demand an end to gender-related violence and discrimination.

According to local media, the march in the capital Bogota drew some 2,000 women while marches were also reported in the cities of Barranquilla, Medellin, Pereira, Tunja, Villavicencio and Manizales, and on the island of San Andres.

The Colombian version of the so-called SlutWalk, originally started in Canada, was “to redefine the word slut so that it is not used as a form of aggression” (see WVoN coverage).

While the march was intended to promote gender equality, one of Colombia’s biggest radio stations,Caracol, interpreted the march as a sex workers’ rights protest.

The first SlutWalk was held in the Canadian city of Toronto in April last year to reject statements by a local police commander who had suggested that “women should avoid dress provocatively, like sluts.”

In response, one Bogota protester painted “I reserve the right to dress the way I like” on her naked body.

This article first appeared in Colombia Reports.

Campaign to reveal names of violent abusers moves forward

Posted: 27 Feb 2012 09:00 AM PST

Jackie Gregory
WVoN co-editor 

A British father's fight for a law to allow men and women to find out if their partners have a violent past is gaining momentum.

Michael Brown launched the campaign last year after his daughter Clare Wood, pictured, was raped and murdered by George Appleton in Salford, northern England.

Last week, Salford MP Hazel Blears handed in a petition to 10 Downing Street (home of the British prime minister) calling for Clare's Law to be implemented to help protect victims of domestic abuse.

Wood had met Appleton via Facebook and was subjected to months of assault before he strangled her and set her on fire.

Officers knew of Appleton's three previous convictions for harassment but current legislation prevented them from warning Wood, although she contacted the police for help.

Blears said: "This campaign is so important to thousands of women and men who suffer at the hands of abusive and violent partners.

“We wanted to make sure it is recognised at the top of Government, by the Prime Minister as well as the Home Secretary.

"The petition has shown that many people want to see this change in the law, but importantly, it has also highlighted more cases, similar to Clare's, of people who desperately need this change now."

The proposal is now being put to Parliament as part of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill 2010 -12 and will go to the House of Lords for debate later this week.

Clare's Law also received backing this past week from West Yorkshire chief constable Sir Norman Bettinson.

He told The Yorkshire Post: "You will never find a chief constable who does not think offending behaviour should be made more public.

"What we have lived through is decades of protections being given to offender and the context that goes around that relates to data protection and human rights legislation    …. if this were legislated for, the disclosure of people's offending behaviour seems to me to be likely to put a brake on their future behaviour."

However the proposal has proved to be contentious, especially the possibility of police pro-actively giving out information even when they have not been specifically asked for it.

Journalist Libby Brooks writing in The Guardian in June 2011 when the proposal was first launched, said:

"If a woman is warned, but the relationship is in its early stages and she convinces herself that things will be different this time, how much more vicious will the national sport of victim-blaming be when she finally reports an assault?

“Worse, what happens when she confronts her new boyfriend with the information she has received?

"This shift of responsibility from police and perpetrator to potential victim may be couched in the language of empowerment.

“But in essence it is a distraction, not only from failure to enforce existing legal protections, but also from the coalition’s devastating cuts  – to refuges, housing benefit, legal aid, jobseekers’ allowances and the rest – that will trap women in violent relationships."

It's view backed by family law barrister Lucy Reed who wrote in The Guardian the following day that improving police responses to domestic violence calls and helping victims to find a way out of the relationships would be a better way to stop abuse.

A Home Office spokesperson said: ”Violence against women and girls is completely unacceptable and the government is determined to eradicate it.

“We have consulted on how we might introduce Clare’s Law, and are currently considering the responses.”

Rural women top of agenda at UN conference

Posted: 27 Feb 2012 07:00 AM PST

Sara Dzregah
WVoN co-editor 

The empowerment of rural women is top of the agenda at a United Nation (UN) conference opening today in New York.

The annual Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) will this year focus on rural women’s role in poverty reduction and development.

Rural women constitute a quarter of the world’s population but their contributions, needs and rights are often overlooked despite the key role they can play in global development and hunger reduction.

The economic empowerment of rural women could result in up to 150 million fewer hungry people around the world.

The current chair of the CSW, Liberia’s Marjon Kamara said:

“These are exciting times when women ministers and experts on gender equality converge in New York to discuss issues pertinent to women.”

Experts made the case for empowering rural women in a report submitted to the UN Secretary General in December last year.

Although rural women are by no means a homogeneous group, they share one common nominator – vulnerability to poverty. Of the world’s 1.4 billion extremely poor, 70% live in rural areas.

The report recommended that rural women’s access to financial services be improved, that the burden of unpaid care work be reduced, and that specific support should be developed for female smallholder farmers.

The other key themes at this year’s meeting are financing for gender equality and the engagement of young people.

The Commission on the Status of Women is the UN’s policy-making body dedicated to gender equality and the advancement of women.

Join the debate about gender equality in the EU

Posted: 27 Feb 2012 05:00 AM PST

Jackie Gregory
WVoN co-editor 

How the European Union can achieve gender equality is up for debate at a forum to mark International Women's Day.

And women from across Europe and beyond can take part via a live link-up set up by the team from Women’s Views On News.

Our writers will be live blogging from 'A Woman's Place Is In Europe' this Friday, March 2,  between 10am and 12 noon and will pass on questions and comments posted online.

Topics under the spotlight include:

  1. What has the EU done so far to advance the cause of gender equality in Europe?
  2. What further measures are in the pipeline?
  3. Should Europe do more or does it need to interfere less when it comes to improving women's lot, particularly in the work place?

The line up of speakers include Emma Reynolds, shadow minister for Europe; European MPs Marina Yannakoudakis (Conservative) and Mary Honeyball (Labour) who both sit on the Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee.

Also on the panel is Heather McGregor, who authors a weekend column in the Financial Times and is a director of communications at headhunters Taylor Bennett. The moderator is Shirin Wheeler, presenter of BBC's The Record Europe.

Alison Clarke, founder of Women's Views On News, said: “In lots of ways the European Union has been a driving force for gender equality with the introduction (and implementation) of legislation to combat violence and discrimination against women.

"But we need to ask why women across Europe are still paid less than men, are so badly represented in parliaments and are still being trafficked across European borders.

"This event gives us the opportunity to talk about these issues and to ask questions of a well-informed panel.

"We look forward to seeing you there but remember, if you can’t make it, you can still make your voice heard by clicking onto WVoN's site and posting your comments on the live blogging post.”

The event is being held at Europa House, 32 Smith Square, London, SW1P 3EU.

To register, contact lucinda.pickersgill@europarl.europa.eu

Gender pay gap gains are at risk of erosion

Posted: 27 Feb 2012 03:00 AM PST

Thelma Etim
WVoN co-editor 

Amid the bleak economic outlook, women in the UK had a little something to smile about just before the festive season got under way.

This was owing to the revelation by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) that the gender pay gap had narrowed markedly.

Figures showed it had dropped below 10% for the first time, with women’s earnings increasing faster than men’s. The gap between men’s and women’s median full-time hourly earnings had fallen from 10.1% in April 2010 to 9.1% in April last year.

The change followed a 1.9% increase in women’s earnings – up from £11.69 an hour to £11.91 – compared with a rise of 0.8% for men, from £13 to £13.11.

Meanwhile, women working part-time were also being paid more than their male counterparts. The gender pay gap for part-time workers was -5.6%, widening from -4.3% last year, the ONS said.

But this hard-won progress is in danger of disappearing in a puff of austerity smoke as more and more women lose their jobs.

Female unemployment in the UK is at its highest in 23 years – 1.13 million according to the ONS. Women workers also made up two thirds of the 48,000 hike in the number of people out of work in the three months to December, which brought the jobless figures to 2.67 million.

Putting aside the top earners, those women still managing to hang onto their jobs – amid whole swathes of public sector redundancies sweeping across the country – are struggling to keep a roof over their heads.

In a report last year, the Resolution Foundation noted that “while the National Minimum Wage protects workers from falling too far into poverty, it does not guarantee a decent standard of living.”

It stated: “The Living Wage is currently set at £8.30 in London and £7.20 in the rest of the country.”

On 9 February, BBC’s Newsnight programme carried a report in which a woman employed by a supermarket chain store revealed she was in rent arrears despite working and receiving benefits.

The night-shift shelf-stacker told the reporter she could not imagine being able to survive on her low income with the additional responsibility of having children to feed and clothe.

Research undertaken by the Save the Children and Daycare Trust charities last year revealed low-income families were having to turn down jobs or were considering leaving work because they could not afford to pay for childcare .

The situation has clearly worsened since then given the shocking results of a survey carried out by parenting website Netmums, which revealed some parents are now turning to loan sharks to keep their families afloat .

Of the 2,000 mothers who took part in the website’s survey, a staggering 70% were teetering “on the edge” of financial disaster; 61% were short of money on a weekly basis and 20% were eating less in order to conserve money for the maintenance of their children (see WVoN story).

In this context, Joanne Mallon, author of Toddlers: An Instruction Manual: A Guide to Surviving the Years One to Four, is now calling for childcare to be viewed as a joint enterprise rather than the sole responsibility of women.

She said: “As a mother I would absolutely go without whatever I needed to, to make sure my children have what they need, without a second thought.

“Both mothers and fathers benefit from being able to work whilst their child is in childcare, so both should contribute towards this expense.

“But very often this doesn’t happen, and mothers are left financially worse off as a result.”

In the same vein, the European Federation of Public Service Union (EPSU) has warned of a “roll back” in the strive for equal wages, if governments do not take into account that women are disproportionately affected by major cuts in the public sector.

Under these circumstances, I am inclined to agree with Gloria Mills, the Chairwoman of EPSU’s women and gender equality committee, who stated: “Equality on all fronts is a mark of a united and civilised society – it is not just for times of economic prosperity.”

This article originally appeared in the Huffington Post.

Legislation is “only way” to get more women into UK boardrooms

Posted: 27 Feb 2012 01:00 AM PST

Alison Clarke
WVoN co-editor 

Just over a year ago today, Lord Davies of Abersoch produced a report about the lack of gender equality in Britain’s boardrooms.

It was not encouraging. Using the most recent figures (from 2010), he reported that women made up only 12.5 per cent of board members of FTSE 100 companies.

At that rate of change, he reckoned that it would take over 70 years to achieve gender-balanced boardrooms.

Things have improved slightly over the past year, with the result that the figures have now inched their way up the scale to 15.2 per cent, according to Board Watch.

So what needs to happen to speed things up?  Quotas, according to Averil Leimon, director of leadership consultancy, the White Water Group. She says we need a “paradigm shift” to get things moving and the only way to do that is through legislation.

“Take the example of seat belts,” she says. “The campaign to get people wearing them relied on logic and statistics to begin with.

“That didn’t work so the government moved onto appealing to our emotions, with images of peaches being smashed by hammers to indicate what would happen to us if we continued to resist.

“That didn’t work either so eventually they introduced a law which changed our behaviour almost overnight. Now, we automatically get in our cars and put our seat belts on.

“It was a behavioural change and that’s what it’s going to take to improve women’s representation on boards.”

And it seems that more and more women agree with her. Although initially (and sometimes still publicly) resistant to the idea,  women in business are beginning to see the light, she says.

“I’ve noticed that over the last year, when I talk to senior women leaders and mention the “q” word, they still recoil in horror to begin with, but once I set out the business case and tell them the stats, the change is remarkable”.

That made her start to wonder, a year on after the Davies report, whether she could find out what more of these women really thought about the state of Britain’s boardrooms.

So White Water Group polled the leaders of  30 corporate women’s networks representing more than 10,000 women at some of Britain’s leading firms.

And the results were surprising. Far from shying away from the idea of quotas, almost two thirds of those asked (64.5 per cent) said that quotas were needed to achieve the target set by Davies of 25 per cent of women on boards by 2015.

The same percentage said that the Davies report had not improved opportunities for women in their own companies.

But even if the government introduces quotas (and prime minister David Cameron hinted earlier this month that he might), Leimon  says that more is needed to change the culture in companies.

“We also have to convince the men at the top of the need for change. They can make a difference as they are the ones in the positions of power, so we need to convince them to sponsor and promote women”.

That should not be difficult, she argues, given the clear business case for change.

"We've shown that businesses with equal numbers of men and women at the senior management level are more profitable than businesses with predominantly male leaders.

“What's more, demographic shifts mean that by 2030 the UK will be short of 1.3m people of leadership age. More women in senior management would address both these issues."

Whatever way you look at things, the lack of women in leadership represents a “serious waste of talent. If we were to squander any other resource in the same way, shareholders would be asking some very challenging questions.

“So perhaps” she says “it’s about time they asked themselves where all the women are”.