Thursday, April 19, 2012

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Swedish culture minister in racist art row

Posted: 18 Apr 2012 09:00 AM PDT

Alison Clarke
WVoN co-editor

The Swedish culture minister, Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth, has been urged to resign after she performed a clitoridectomy on a cake depicting the torso of a black woman.

The cake, created by a black male artist Makode Aj Linde, was supposed to highlight the issue of female circumcision.

It was part of an art exhibition to celebrate World Art Day on April 15th at the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm.

Aj Linde posted a photograph of the minister cutting the cake on his Facebook page, which resulted in a flurry of online comments accusing the minister of racism, among other things.

The National Afro-Swedish Association called it a “racist spectacle” and said that Liljeroth should resign.

For her part, the minister says she can understand the Association’s concerns but that the situation had been misinterpreted.

“I understand quite well that this is provocative and that it was a rather bizarre situation,” she said.

“I was invited to speak at World Art Day about art’s freedom and the right to provoke. And then they wanted me to cut the cake”, adding that “art needs to be provocative”.

Here’s a video of the event so you can decide for yourself.

Tennessee bans discussions of holding hands from schools

Posted: 18 Apr 2012 07:00 AM PDT

Polly Trenow
WVoN co-editor 

Tennessee Senators have approved amendments to a bill that would make it illegal for educators to discuss "gateway sexual activity" which could include kissing and hand-holding.

The 'Family Life Instructions Bill' or HB3621 states that teachers may not "promote any gateway sexual activity or health message that encourages students to experiment with non-coital sexual activity".

The definition of ‘gateway sexual activity' has been left intentionally vague so that it could include something as innocuous as holding hands.

The changes are thought to be related to an incident that took place in Hillsboro High School, when an AIDS awareness group demonstrated fellatio on an anatomically correct model and recommended regular masturbation to a group of teenagers.

Recent amendments to current sex education now outlaw any discussion of non-coital sexual activity in addition to the exclusively abstinence-only curriculum and gives parents the right to sue teachers for failing to comply with the law.

Under current provisions, discussions of contraception are only allowed if abstinence is promoted as the primary means of pregnancy and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.

Tennessee Planned Parenthood have come out against the bill and urged senators to block it.

"The vast majority of the public supports sexuality education in schools that discusses abstinence, contraception, STIs, decision-making and refusal skills, but HB3621 would make it nearly impossible for teachers to effectively teach these skills to our teens," said Barry Chase, President of Planned Parenthood Greater Memphis Region.

The bill was passed by the Senate with a 28-1 vote.

The bill’s only dissenter, State Senator Beverly Marrero, said . "I think all of us realize that abstinence is the absolutely only way to prevent any kind of sexually transmitted disease,"

"However, I think the young people who need education are the ones who are not always getting our advice"  she said.

Companion legislation is still in committee in the House but is expected to pass.

Tennessee has a higher rate of teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases compared to the rest of the country. In 2009 the Tennessee teen birth rate was 50.6 per 1,000 among Tennessee females ages 15-19, compared to 39.1 per 1,000 for the entire US with some counties seeing a rate of 60%.

Last month in Tennessee the infamous 'Don't Say Gay' law was placed on hold by Tennessee lawmakers. The bill sought to ban any mention of homosexuality in education up to eighth grade but was shelved when they realised sex education wasn’t actually taught before the eighth grade anyway.

EU and UN Women partnership to improve global gender equality

Posted: 18 Apr 2012 05:00 AM PDT

Ellie Watmuff
WVoN co-editor 

The European Union (EU) and UN Women have set up a new partnership scheme to foster greater cooperation between them.

Ratified on Monday at the EU Sustainable Energy for All Summit in Brussels, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) commits the two organisations to support gender equality and women's empowerment around the world.

It will also ensure closer collaboration, allowing them to share information, expertise and analysis in order to effectively advance women's rights.

Given the ways in which which women are negatively impacted by the lack of modern energy services, the MoU can only be a good thing.

Energy plays a fundamental and varied role in women's daily lives, from helping feed their families to ensuring personal safety to meeting their wider needs, allowing them to study in the evenings, providing street lighting for safety and enabling communication.

The MoU was signed by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton, Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs and the Executive Director of UN Women Michelle Bachelet, who described it as a "strategic partnership".

Piebalgs said:

"As I travel around the world, I can see that women are the agents of change. There will be no human and economic development without a sound respect of women's rights and conditions.

“This is a fundamental part of the development policy that I wish to champion. I'm convinced that this partnership will take our collaboration with UN Women to a new level, ensuring more efficiency and better support to women all over the world."

Although the two organizations are already working together on other gender equality initiatives, this new agreement is a timely reinforcement of their commitment  to promote the empowerment of women, in light of the advancing deadline by which to achieve the Millenium Development Goals in 2015.

Speaking about the new commitment, Ashton said:

"Discrimination against women and girls remains the most pervasive and persistent form of inequality. Together with UN Women we will work to improve the role of women in political and economic decision-making.

“We will also fight impunity for perpetrators of sexual violence, ensure better protection of women and improve their access to justice. These are issues that need our full attention and this new partnership enhances our ability to work even harder to reach these goals."

Both the EU and UN Women have also pledged to improve access to work for women, as well as social opportunities.

Women in Westminster – tackling the gender divide

Posted: 18 Apr 2012 03:00 AM PDT

Theodora Clarke
Director of Communications 
Conservative Women’s Organisation 

The debate on whether we should have more women in Parliament is once again back in the news. The Conservative MP, Priti Patel, argued in The Sun last week that Westminster IS women's work.

This week women from both mainstream and fringe parties took to the airwaves to debate whether we need more female MPs. The general consensus was that Parliament should be more representative of the British electorate.

However, despite agreement on the lack of female representation the parties still disagree on how to tackle the problem.

The first question is do we need more female politicians? Yes. Women constitute over 50 percent of the country's adult population. There are currently only 143 women MPs which equates to 22 percent of the House of Commons.

This means fewer than a quarter are MPs and the fact remains that we have had only one female Prime Minister in our history, Margaret Thatcher. Parliament therefore needs to be more representative of the UK as a whole.

The Prime Minister has already made  clear his aspiration that 30 percent of  ministers should be women by the end of the first parliament of a Conservative Government.

We already have females in senior ministerial roles such as Justine Greening in Transport and Theresa May in Home Affairs – but there is still a long way to go until we get gender equality.

In 2008 a new committee was set up to discuss parliamentary representation. It made recommendations for rectifying the disparity between the representation of women in the House of Commons and the UK's population.

Labour's response was to argue in favour of quotas. As a result Labour has proportionately more women MPs (32 percent) than any other political party. The Green Party also uses quotas for women such as in their top up lists for the London Assembly. Both parties argue that positive discrimination in their selection process has resulted in more women being elected.

The Liberal Democrats, by contrast, do not support quotas. In 2001 at their conference the party debated proposals to improve the gender balance at Westminster.

Plans for all-women shortlists were rejected on the basis that rather than sexism being the central problem, the real barrier to equal representation was a lack of women coming forward for political roles at all levels.

I personally don't support all women shortlists. A meritocratic system is essential when selecting candidates. This is also why the Conservatives are opposed to them.

No one in this country should want someone chosen only because of their sex; we need the best person for the job regardless of their gender. Imposing centralised measures such as all-women shortlists does not solve the root cause of the problem that more men than women apply to be candidates.

Substantial progress has been made in the Conservative Party since David Cameron was elected leader of the party. The number of female MPs has increased from 17 to 49 (16 percent) which is a three-fold increase.

A number of specialist bodies have been set up to encourage political participation and activism such as the Conservative Women's Organisation and Women2Win.

In 2005 the Conservatives under Cameron's leadership also announced a priority A-list. This was one of a number of positive interventions that helped deliver more than 80 women candidates in winnable constituencies.

The list had a 50-50 split of both men and women from which associations could choose candidates. Many of the new intake, including Priti Patel, Claire Perry and Louise Mensch, were on this preferred list.

Another way to take positive action is to headhunt talent. Many women are actively involved in their local community and we need to reach out to them to encourage them to stand in local and national elections.

This means engaging with women in their communities and getting them interested in politics at a local level. The core message needs to be therefore that more women should be encouraged to apply.

There is no set route to becoming an elected politician. Candidates come from all walks of life and from across the UK. Some people have been a councillor or been active in their local political party. Others have been entrepreneurs, business leaders and have experience raising a family or being primary carers.

There are successful women across the UK who would make good politicians. They have skills which would be immediately transferable to public life.

The answer is to encourage more women to enter public life in the first place in any capacity. If we have more women choosing to engage with politics then we will have more women in Parliament.

One of the most serious barriers for women wanting to be parliamentarians is the lack of flexibility provided to parents of young children and pregnant MPs.

The House of Commons sits very late for the first half of the week with votes often held at night between seven and 10pm. These unsocial hours combined with the many weekend responsibilities in the constituency can be a deterrent.

It is still the case that women do the vast majority of care and work in the home which provides them with less time for political activities.

However, examples of senior politicians, such as Yvette Cooper, challenge this stereotype. She manages to combine her shadow cabinet responsibilities with being an MP and raising four children.

At the next election each political party is aware that there will be fewer winnable seats with the proposed reduction in the number of MPs. This might mean a drop in the number of women in parliament at the next election.

The Liberal Democrat's fielded even fewer women candidates in seats in the last general election than in 2005 and only seven out of 57 of their MPs are women.

Across the political spectrum, parties needs to increase female representation. Each of the parties has committed to enabling more women to get elected and there have been real advances made within the parties.

However, more needs to be done to increase female representation at all levels of public life. A gender balance of parliamentarians that reflects modern Britain is an achievable goal.

It has been over 30 years since the last female Prime Minister but with the talented new intake of women MPs leading the way this could be the moment for change.

Breakthrough Olympic news for Somalian women athletes

Posted: 18 Apr 2012 01:00 AM PDT

Holly Peacock
WVoN co-editor 

Mogadishu, the capital city of Somalia, was occupied by Al-Shabab insurgents until August 2011.

Despite the ever present threats facing female athletes in Somalia, more and more women are taking part in sport.

Yesterday Irin news, the global humanitarian news and analysis website, reported that The Somali Athletics Federation intends to send one female runner out of a field of ten to compete in this year's 400 metre race at the London Olympics.

Representing Somalia at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, 16 year old Samiya Yuusf Omar of Mogadishu achieved a personal best in the 200 metres. The BBC reported on her inspiring story, detailing the dangers she faced as a woman athlete in Somalia.

Although now living in Ethiopia, Omar has clearly inspired a new generation of female runners. The ten women, who train in bullet-ridden Konis Stadium, will be competing for the sole female spot in this year's Olympics.