Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Malawi’s Joyce Banda becomes Africa’s second female president

Posted: 10 Apr 2012 08:00 AM PDT

Mariam Zaidi
WVoN co-editor

Women's rights champion and vice president Joyce Banda has been sworn in as Malawi’s president following the death of Bingu wa Mutharika who suffered a cardiac arrest on Thursday.

According to Malawi's constitution, the vice president will assume the presidency should the incumbent die.

But following Mutharika's death, it was very uncertain as to whether Banda would indeed assume the presidency, as she had fallen out with Mutharika in 2010.

He then kicked her out of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, but she fought hard to remain as vice president and formed her own People's Party.

She has now become the second female leader in Africa.

The first of is Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.  Speaking to the BBC Sirleaf joked that she would no longer be lonely and added that Banda's appointment had strengthened the potential for women leadership at the highest level.

Banda entered politics in 1999 during Malawi’s second democratic elections. She won a parliamentary seat in the party of then-president Bakili Muluzi.

She has long campaigned for better rights for women and has advocated for gender equality.  She has travelled the country trying to get women involved in business and has also established the Joyce Banda Foundation to advance girls’ education.

Five black women die needlessly every day from breast cancer in some US cities

Posted: 10 Apr 2012 06:00 AM PDT

Heather Kennedy
WVoN co-editor 

In a country where access to health insurance can make the difference between life and death, mortality from curable illness is an uncomfortable reality. And the inequalities created by the health care system in America are stark.

A new study from the Sinai Urban Health Institute found that five black women die needlessly every day from breast cancer.

One of the most common forms of cancer for women, it has also become one of the most treatable in recent years.

One in nine women in the United States will develop breast cancer in her life time, but with early detection and good quality treatment, the outlook for women is very good.

So why are so many women still dying of this disease in one of the globe's richest countries?

The 2012 Racial Disparity in Breast Cancer Mortality Study shows that societal factors are behind the differences in breast cancer mortality rates between white and black communities.

Genetics can only be blamed for a very small level of the disparity. Black women on low incomes are dying because they don't have access to the information and treatment that could save their lives.

Researchers found that 21 of the 25 largest US cities have significant differences in breast cancer mortality rates between white and black women. In New York and Chicago, more than one black woman dies needlessly every week from the disease.

The findings paint a disturbing picture of a society where health outcomes and life chances are dramatically determined by ethnicity and economic status.

"Our research shows societal factors – not genetics – are largely to blame for the racial disparity in breast cancer mortality nationwide," said Steve Whitman, one of the study's lead authors.

"It's incumbent on society to improve access to quality mammography and to ensure that breast cancer treatment is available to all women, including the under- and un-insured" he said.

The Sinai Urban Health Institute has issued a number of recommendations to address these shocking findings.

They recommend that all women, irrespective of their ethnicity or income, have access to high quality early detection screening and treatment. They also call for funded awareness raising programmes, giving all women access to the vital  information that could save their lives.

Social media helps women’s football

Posted: 10 Apr 2012 04:30 AM PDT

Sarah Macshane
WVoN co-editor 

The new season of women's football is upon us, and social networking is helping to propel the game off the sidelines.

Research shows that although women's football is the third biggest team sport in the UK in terms of participation, it receives very little coverage in mainstream media.

Since the launch of the Football Association's Women's Super League (WSL) last year and through social networks like Facebook and Twitter, however, fans can now follow the sport more interactively.

WSL's second season kicked off on Sunday and eight top footballers were displaying their twitter name on their kits in order to promote the sport and interact with the fans whilst boosting the league's profile.

The WSL is a new semi-professional league, launched by FIFA in 2011 in order to drive women's game forward. Since its launch, attendances have increased by 600% and social media channels attract more than 80,000 followers.

FIFA women's world cup was the most tweeted-about event in the world in July 2011, with 7,196 tweets per second.

Kelly Simmons, FA's head of the National Game wants 2012 to be a "starting point for greater support for women's football."

However, even though there are 12 times as many news articles with mentions of women's football per month, men's football still dominates the headlines threefold.

According to Steph Houghton, Arsenal Ladies and England international player "with social media, there's no holding women's football back."

Jill Scott – Everton and England midfielder believes that "FA WSL has made a big difference to women's football in England".

Scott’s desire is to see the games aired on BBC at primetime. However, she is aware that will be more challenging to accomplish. In the meantime she believes that women’s football should be streamed live on the internet to improve access for fans and increase viewing figures.

After all, the more people watch the sport, the better chance it has to land a prime spot on BBC1 on a Sunday afternoon.

Taxing strip clubs to fund rape services in Illinois

Posted: 10 Apr 2012 03:00 AM PDT

Heather Kennedy
WVoN co-editor 

Legislators in Illinois are proposing a new law that will enforce a levy of $5 on every customer who attends a strip club where alcohol is on sale.

If the law is passed, money raised from the levy will be ear marked for the Sexual Assault Prevention Fund which gives out grants to organisations providing rape and sexual assault support services.

Projects for victims of sexual assault have been hit hard by budget cuts and this move struck legislators as an innovative way to raise much needed funds. The idea of strip club frequenters paying for support services to assaulted women will hold a degree of karmic justice for some residents of Illinois.

Strip clubs owners are up in arms over the proposed levy, and have expressed concern over how their cash-strapped businesses will survive.

Owner of the Illinois club Big Al's complained: “To be truly honest with you, if it goes through, I’m not going to build [my new club],” Zuccarini said. “It’s not worth it….Maybe a McDonald’s or something will go there.”

The proposed law marks a change in strip clubs regulation for the Illinois Senate committee, which in the past has preferred a hands-off approach. The proposal is being led by State Senator Toi Hutchinson and Lieutenant Governor Sheila Simon.

Their proposal states that that “all types of crimes, especially sex-related crimes, occur with more frequency in neighborhoods where sexually oriented businesses are located” and that clubs “contribute to a culture that tolerates the sexual objectification and exploitation of women.”

Writing for the Huffington Post, Sheila Simon said "the Sexual Assault Prevention Fund would be created by charging a $5 per patron fee at strip clubs that serve alcohol, based on their correlation to negative secondary effects such as sexual abuse or rape.

"Research has shown sexually-oriented businesses such as strip clubs with alcohol are crime hotspots."

Strip clubs can avoid the $5 levy if they forgo the selling of alcohol in their venues. The Illinois Senate Committee will vote whether to pass the law later this spring.

Reform needed in Saudi Arabia says Princess Basma

Posted: 10 Apr 2012 01:44 AM PDT

Sarah Macshane
WVoN co-editor 

Princess Basma Bint Saud Bin Abdulaziz, the niece to King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al Saud, has said that reform is sorely needed if Saudi Arabia wants to progress.

In an interview with the Independent newspaper, the princess, a 47 year old divorcee, businesswoman, journalist and blogger confronts a number of sensitive subjects, in particular women's rights.

She questions the various prohibitions on Saudi women and asks "why don't we actually fight for a woman's right even to complain about being beaten up.”

The most important struggle, she says, is for civil rights.

She believes that allowing women to drive will come only after constitutional reform ensuring that men and women are treated equally before the law.

Even though it was her own father, King Saud, who established the first women's university in the kingdom, education reform is one of Princess Basma's top priorities. She believes the education system needs a complete overhaul.

Young children are taught from an early age that women's position in society is inferior. Women are taught that they are only allowed to worship their husband and God.

What is needed, she says, is a space for innovation and creativity so that young people can broaden their minds in order to better Saudi society.

She also wants women to have better access to social services and independent women’s refuges where their rights are upheld by laws that can override family traditions.

The only refuges that currently exist in Saudi Arabia are run by the state but by seeking refuge, women are seen as shaming their family. There have been many cases of suicide by women who have been sent back to their abusers. She wants this shaming to end and for women to be offered the real help they deserve.

For Princess Basma there are many aspects of her society she would change but what is needed is a fundamental change in the law and to establish ”essential rights of a human being – the right to mix between the sexes, to talk and study freely.”

Until this happens, more modest reforms will simply not happen.