Friday, May 18, 2012

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

US army allows women to take on combat related roles

Posted: 17 May 2012 09:00 AM PDT

Deborah Cowan 
WVoN co-editor

This week saw the US military take another step towards gender parity when it announced that around 14,000 jobs would be made available to women in combat related positions.

The move follows an announcement earlier this year by the US Marine Corps School that they would enrol female students for the first time (see WVoN story).

The policy change announced earlier this year now opens up six occupational specialities in the US Army to women across nine brigade combat teams.

The specialties are in the fields of artillery rocket technology and deployment, radar, tank systems repairs, artillery mechanics, and other combat vehicle maintenance.

Women have previously been banned from combat roles in both the army and the marines due to concerns about their strength and stamina.

They have not been allowed assignnments to direct ground combat units which include infantry, artillery and tanks.

While the Pentagon are still reviewing whether to allow women to engage in direct combat, supporters of the changes and army officers say that female soldiers have been serving in combat related positions for years, even if they have not been structurally recognised.

The US Army currently have in place The Ground Combat Exclusion Policy, which is supposed to keep women out of ground combat.  However, women soldiers have served in Afghanistan and Iraq for over ten years, with women soldiers fighting and dying in combat.

In all, 144 women soldiers were killed in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq according to the Pentagon, with a further 853 wounded, despite measures to exclude them from any combat related roles.

Moreover, more than 135,000 female soldiers have served, winning more than 400 valour awards between them.

Brigadier General Barrye Price, director of human resources policy at the Army G-1 (personnel) said:

'The last 11 years of warfare have really revealed to us there are no front lines. There are no rear echelons. Everybody was vulnerable to the influence of the enemy.'

It seems, then, that women are already fighting up front and centre.  But as long as 30 percent of army jobs are still restricted to men, what chance do they have of proving themselves in the absence of a level playing - or indeed fighting – field?

Cannes 2012 under fire for male-only Palme d’Or shortlist

Posted: 17 May 2012 07:30 AM PDT

Alex Morgan
WVoN co-editor

The Cannes film festival opened earlier this week amidst a row over sexism, with no female directors on the shortlist for the prestigious Palme d'Or prize.

The result is that 22 male directors will compete for the prize in the French Riviera resort this week.

The controversy erupted after a group of well-known female French directors, including Virginie Despentes, director of “Baise Moi”, wrote an open letter to French newspaper Le Monde, to voice their dismay.

The letter read that: “Men love their women to have depth, but only when it comes to their cleavages” and claimed that women were only allowed to walk the Cannes red carpet "on the arm of a prince charming".

It criticised the Palme d'Or for having ignored women directors throughout its 65 year history, with only Jane Campion ever having won the prize for her 1993 film, The Piano.

The letter also pointed to the fact that an image of the American actress Marilyn Monroe – who died 50 years ago – was being used on the official festival poster this year, and that talented women were mainly acting as comperes.   

However, Thierry Fremaux who heads the committee in charge of selection of films for the Cannes Festival, rejected the criticisms, saying that judges “would never select a film that doesn’t deserve it just because it is directed by a woman”.

He added that the lack of women directors on the shortlist was reflective of an industry wide lack of female directors.

Computer giant Dell red-faced after speaker’s misogynist rant

Posted: 17 May 2012 06:00 AM PDT

Deborah Cowan
WVoN co-editor

News from America this week has reported a fall in the number of women in senior positions in the technology industries for the second year in a row.

Several reasons have been put forward for this decline, including persistent problems attracting women to tech jobs, and retaining and promoting them.

But what could possibly be putting women off joining such a burgeoning industry?  Could it be the stubbornly held attitude that technology is a man's world, with no place for high ranking women?

Perhaps. Only last month, computer giant Dell held a global conference in Denmark, attended by upwards of 800 Dell partners and employees, including Michael Dell himself.

The role of moderator for the day's discussions was filled by Danish 'lifestyle speaker' and celebrity/comedian Mads Christensen.

Unfortunately for all of the above, also in attendance was Christiana Vejlø, founder of the digital lifestyle magazine Elektronista, who shared the events of the conference with Danish readers on her blog.

It wasn't pretty.

Much to the horror of the powers that be in Dell, Mads Christensen managed to pull off a routine that was, by all accounts, cringe-making and misogynistic in the extreme.

Immediately following a 20-minute speech from the eponymous Mr Dell, Christensen offered the gem:

”The IT business is one of the last frontiers that manages to keep women out. The quota of women to men in your business is sound and healthy.’

Tarry, it gets worse.

He said that men were responsible for the greatest inventions in history, but that we could 'thank women for rolling the pin.”

He also asked some of the women who were present 'What are you actually doing here?'

Other corkers included urging all male attendees to go home that night and tell their wives or girlfriends to “shut up, bitch”.

Although this event happened last month, it was only when Vejlø's original Danish blog was translated into English earlier this week and subsequently posted on social media site Reddit, that cyberspace really sat up and took notice.

Strangely, it was also around this time that Dell felt compelled to distance themselves from the toxic comments of Christensen.

Writing on their Google account, they insisted that they were committed to equal rights in the organisation:

'As members of our Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network know, Dell is an enthusiastic and committed advocate of women in business and IT. These comments do not reflect Dell’s company values.

'Over the last few years we’ve launched several internal and external initiatives designed to accelerate the increasingly powerful role women play in driving economic growth.'

Bearing in mind that women run two of the world's largest computer companies – IBM and Hewlett Packard – Dell were also quick to point out that, due to in-house programmes designed to promote women, they had laid claim to a number of accolades, including being named among The Times list of Top 50 Employers for Women in the UK for the second year in a row.

They also said, 'Mads Christensen made a number of inappropriate and insensitive remarks about women.  Dell sincerely apologises for the comments.

'We will be more careful selecting speakers at Dell events.'

Dell have had their fair share of trouble in the past. An advertising campaign in 2009 rather gave the impression that they believed their female customers used laptops predominantly to track calories and look up recipes.

They also settled a gender based lawsuit filed by two female employees to the tune of 9.1 million dollars.

And what of Mads Christensen?  Well, no comment has been forthcoming, but a quick look at his website gives a little insight into the man, describing him as 'a unique entertainer with stylish hair and stylish anecdotes.' Ahem.

And it may just be a quirk of translation, but according to the English version of his own website, Mads Christensen is also known as 'bladder ass'.

Indeed.

Transgender ad complaints against bookmaker Paddy Power upheld

Posted: 17 May 2012 04:30 AM PDT

Lucy Miller
WVoN co-editor 

The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has upheld complaints that a TV advert for  betting company Paddy Power featuring 'transgender ladies' was offensive.

The advert, shown in February before the Cheltenham Festival, received 470 complaints after telling viewers “that we’ree going to make Ladies Day even more exciting by sending in some beautiful transgendered ladies! Spot the stallions from the mares!”.

The ad then presented a series of shots of people at the event while the voice-over attempted to guess their gender.

Paddy Power said it was 'saddened' by the decision, and that it had consulted the Beaumont Society, a leading transgender organisation, about the advert.

The Society, however, said that it had not been shown the final advert, and was not happy with the use of the terms 'stallion' and 'mare'.

The ASA concluded that the advert encouraged discriminatory behaviour towards the transgender community.

It said: “We considered that the ad trivialised a highly complex issue and depicted a number of common negative stereotypes about trans people.

“We considered that by suggesting that trans women would look like men in drag, and that their gender could be speculated on as part of a game, the ad irresponsibly reinforced those negative stereotypes.

“And, particularly by framing the game in a way that involved a member of the public who had commented on Paddy Power’s Facebook page, the ad condoned and encouraged harmful discriminatory behaviour and treatment.”

The advert can no longer be shown in its current form, although it remains on Paddy Power's YouTube channel.

Memorial service held for journalist Marie Colvin

Posted: 17 May 2012 03:00 AM PDT

Lucy Miller
WVoN co-editor 

A memorial service was held this week to pay tribute to the  journalist Marie Colvin, who was killed in Syria in February.

Politicians, journalists and leading figures from the art world gathered at St-Martin-in-the-Fields in Trafalgar Square in London to celebrate the life of the Sunday Times war correspondent.

Her editor John Witherow called her 'the greatest war correspondent of her generation', and former foreign secretary David Miliband performed a reading.

Witherow revealed that a scholarship for young journalists would be set up in Colvin's name.

Singer Cerys Matthews performed two songs, and BBC foreign correspondent Lyse Duchet, who worked with Colvin in Israel, Iraq, Libya, Egypt, Afghanistan and Syria, also paid tribute to her, saying “the bravest of the brave was also the kindest of the kind”.

Colvin's close friend, Deputy Times Literary Editor Alan Jenkins, read a poem entitled 'Reports of my survival may be exaggerated', which he composed three days after her death.

Colvin was killed on February 22 when the building serving as a media centre was struck by a Syrian army mortar.

What does the future hold for Afghan women after the US withdraws?

Posted: 17 May 2012 01:30 AM PDT

Kathy Audin
WVoN co-editor

After more than a decade in Afghanistan, the US is set to withdraw its military presence by the end of next year.

Despite emphasising the importance of the human rights and safety of all citizens in the country, President Obama has not prioritised women’s rights since the invasion in 2001.

The question, posed by Time Magazine in August 2010 with a cover story about a young woman whose nose was chopped off after running away from her abusive husband, was a good one: ”What Happens If We Leave Afghanistan”

Although maternal mortality rates have decreased from one in 11 to one in 50, more women are in parliament  and more girls are in school, the fear is that Afghan women will be hung out to dry when the troops go home.

It was September 2001 when President Bush declared the war on terror, but it was First Lady Laura Bush who promised in a radio address in November 2001  that: “the fight against terrorism is also a fight for the rights and dignity of women”.

A sentiment repeated by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she declared earlier this year that: “insurgents who want to reconcile in the end must commit to abide by Afghanistan's constitution and the rights enshrined in it, most particularly women's rights”

There have been signs of progress recently, after the relatives of a young girl, Sahar Gul, who were found guilty of torturing her, were jailed for ten years.

Sadly, her story remains the exception, rather than the rule.

In March 2012 Human Rights Watch reported that more than 400 women had been imprisoned for “moral crimes”, including ”zina” which means having sex outside of marriage, after being raped or forced into prostitution.

For his part, President Karzai has hedged his bets, at times playing the western diplomatic game by supporting women’s rights; but at others playing to his domestic audience by endorsing an edict that women are secondary to men.

Security is the only issue on the agenda for NATO's 60-country summit next month.  There is no mention of women’s rights.

It does not augur well for the future of women in Afghanistan.