Thursday, May 24, 2012

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Women’s rights group launches campaign to end child marriage in Yemen

Posted: 23 May 2012 09:00 AM PDT

Samantha Reeve
WVoN co-editor 

International women’s rights advocacy group, Equality Now, has launched a campaign for a law to end child marriage in Yemen.

It is calling on the government to enforce a law introduced in Yemen’s parliament in 2009, establishing a minimum marriage age of 17 for girls.

However, the bill, which prescribed penalties and punishment for violators, was blocked by the Shariah Law Committee which issued a 15-page response, arguing (among other things) that early childbearing prevents breast cancer.

Equality Now says that, without a law banning child marriage, child brides remain at constant risk of exploitation and abuse.

They are unable to obtain a divorce without the repayment of their dower and receive no redress post-divorce, other than being returned to the families that sold them off.

Take the case of Wafa,an 11-year-old girl who was married off to a 40-year-old farmer who repeatedly raped and tortured her.  She ran away after a year and returned to her family home, where she threatened to kill herself if they asked her to go back.

Equality Now and the Yemen Women Union found a lawyer to take up her case and she was granted a divorce in 2011, but only on condition that she pay back her dower – money her father had spent before he passed away.

A relative, acting under duress and threats from her husband's family, borrowed money to repay the dower, but then forced her to drop out of school to beg on the streets. He also attempted to sexually abuse her and pressured her to marry him. Wafa is currently in temporary lodging and has resumed her education.

And although women played an important role during the anti government demonstrations last year (Tawakkol Karman won the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts), women are still marginalised in society.

The current political unrest is also contributing to an increase in the number of child marriages, according to a study published last year.

Equality Now is urging people to take action now and contact the Yemeni President, Minister of Justice and the Speaker of the House, asking them to enforce the law on child marriage.

Kristof and WuDunn’s ‘Half the Sky’ to be televised

Posted: 23 May 2012 07:00 AM PDT

Natalie Calkin
WVoN co-editor 

Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn's book 'Half the Sky' will be aired as a four-part television series on the US’ Public Broadcasting Station in October.

Half the Sky, written by Kristof and WuDunn in 2009, highlights the challenges women face around the world – and provides inspirational stories on how women are addressing these challenges.

The book achieved international acclaim, with over 300,000 copies sold in the US alone.

Now, Kristof and WuDunn are working with PBS to take the message of the book to audiences in the US and across the globe.

A recently released trailer taps into the power of political and celebrity advocates to promote the "Half the Sky" movement.

American actresses Olivia Wilde, Eva Mendes and America Ferrera are featured in the documentary and accompany Kristof as they seek testimonies from women in Cambodia, Kenya, India, Sierra Leone, Somaliland, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Liberia and the US.

All these women face varying challenges in their everyday lives and are held together by the aspiration for a better, more equal world.

Rebecca Lolosoli from Kenya, one of the women featured in the trailer, is a community activist in Kenya and established the "Umoja Women's Village," which unites and supports women who are survivors of violence, torture and rape.

Along with providing each other moral support, women in the village have been able to establish new forms of livelihoods by making money from selling beadwork and opening the village to tourists.

In the trailer, Lolosoli aptly describes what she strives for:

"We want to choose our husbands. We want to own the land. We want to go to school….and make decisions.  We want to be able to participate in politics, to be leaders. We want to be equal.”

Co-author WuDunn knows that the goal of achieving women's equality is not an easy one but she feels it is "the moral challenge of the century,” according to the trailer.

Women make up half the world's population – hence the metaphor and title of the book “Half the Sky” – and so a woman’s struggle is an issue for all of humanity.

The television series will continue the fight for a woman's equal role in society, and the metaphor that this must be achieved to ensure that women really do "hold up their half of the sky.”

Half the Sky will air October 1 on PBS and internationally in 2013.

Glass ceiling, glass cliff and now – the glass escalator

Posted: 23 May 2012 05:53 AM PDT

Natalie Calkin
WVoN co-editor 

Research suggests that women have a new challenge to deal with in the workplace – the glass escalator.

This refers to the fact that men are entering work sectors more "traditionally" dominated by women – nursing, teaching, administration – and are promoted more quickly than women, creating the effect that they are gliding past women as if on an escalator.

The analysis, based on research by professor Caren Goldberg at the American University’s Kogod School of Management, shows that more men are entering so-called female fields of work and are advancing more quickly.

For example, men who enter the nursing profession are more likely to be promoted to a senior administrative role.

Goldberg stated that in these types of professions: "When you look at senior management, you tend to see men disproportionately represented".

In 2005, the British Journal of Management published research about the "glass cliff.”  This is when women are given more senior/chief executive roles, but they are roles that men may not be willing to take on, like those with higher potential risk of failure.

In a recession, women are seen to be more suitable for those roles because of their perceived ability to heal a broken situation, or to turn a crisis around. Does this set them up to fail?

Given that more men are now entering "female" fields of work, due to issues like the economic downturn resulting in redundancies and the decline of certain industries, the glass escalator presents women with new challenges.

On the one hand, it is great that stereotypes are being broken down regarding what is "women's work" and what is the domain of men. In addition, salaries in female-dominated sectors may rise due to the fact that more men are moving into these sectors.

"Having a greater proportion of men does raise salaries," said Goldberg.

On the other hand, women are still being side-lined in terms of career progression, and long-held views that men are characteristically "stronger leaders" do nothing to subvert the status quo.

Regardless of the glass ceiling, the glass cliff or the glass escalator, what is clear is that the battle for equality in the workplace is far from over.

Death of the original disco diva Donna Summer

Posted: 23 May 2012 05:00 AM PDT

Abi Johnson
WVoN co-editor

The news that 'Queen of Disco' Donna Summer has died came as a shock and surprise for her millions of fans around the world, myself included.

Her voice was the soundtrack to my life as a child growing up in the 1970s. I loved twirling around to her music in my bedroom, hairbrush in hand, my Afro swaying, flares flapping – me, the original 10-year-old Donna Summer wanna-be.

From hits including Hot Stuff, Love to Love You Baby, I Feel love, On The Radio and She Works Hard for the Money, the sensual tones and pulsating beats which defined her sound saw the birth of a musical genre which went on on to inspire everything from house to hip-hop, garage to grime.

The strong, powerful vision of big hair, bright teeth and dazzling outfits meant a new image of black women in entertainment was emerging – Donna Summer was the original mama of Bling!

With tributes pouring in from presidents to pop stars, the five-time Grammy winning songstress inspired generations of people from all cultures and creeds with the irresistible foot-moving disco music she came to epitomise.

US President Barrack Obama said in a statement: "Michelle and I were saddened to hear about the passing of Donna Summer."  Music journalist Paul Gambaccini added that Summer will have “a lasting legacy."

With respects being paid from singers in genres spanning pop, gospel, urban and soul, as well as just your regular fan on the street, it goes without saying that Donna Summer's music will live on.

Summer died of lung cancer but few of us knew she was suffering from it. Such was the intense privacy with which she managed her illness.

She believed she succumbed to the disease as a result of breathing in particles of dust and deadly asbestos from the September 11th terrorist attacks.

Summer was in New York at the time and, according to The Mirror, felt this was the cause. Whether it developed from the debris, or from being exposed to fumes from the smoky nightclubs in which she sung back in the day, or even from being a previous smoker, we will never know.

Whatever the cause of her cancer and, ultimately, of her passing, Donna Summer should be remembered as the woman who redefined what it meant to be a black woman in the music industry in the 1970s.

The irresistible beat and pumping rhythms filled dance floors the world over and got even the most nervous of movers onto the dance floor!

Summer, like Nina Simone and Billie Holliday before her, owned her music and made it her own. In doing so she became a powerful symbol of black womanhood.

It was a sensual symbol, one which meant black women were for the first time in charge of defining their own sexuality rather than being harnessed with an image given to them by the media or the music industry itself.

The confidence and sensuality with which singers like Beyoncé, Rihanna and Nicki Minaj take to the stage today, owes much in part to pioneers like Summer.

Pioneers who weren't afraid to celebrate their sexuality and let it take centre stage alongside their music.

Rest in peace Donna Summer.

Hospitals keeping babies as Greek crisis worsens

Posted: 23 May 2012 03:00 AM PDT

Julie Tomlin
WVoN co-editor

A women’s campaign group stepped in to prevent a hospital from keeping a baby until her mother could fork out for the cost of giving birth, heightening concerns that women will bear the brunt of austerity measures in Greece.

Only those who are in the workforce or don't owe money to the state are eligible for free healthcare in the country as a result of austerity measures imposed by the European Union as bailout conditions.

With record unemployment at over 21 per cent, and a growing number of people in debt as a result of rising taxation, Greek women are having to pay for the costs of childbirth.

Those who can't are being turned away.

In a new twist, a woman who had a caesarian section in an Athens hospital was told she had to pay 1,000 euros to take her baby home – an amount she had no hope of paying as she – and all her family – is unemployed.

Dr Katarina Stipsanelli, a hospital employee and member of the Initiative of Greek Women against the Debt and the Austerity Measures (IGWDAM), persuaded staff to allow the mother to take her baby home after she agreed to pay the debt gradually.

"We have heard about this happening before," Stipsanelli told Chloe Hadjimatheou, a BBC World Service journalist who has previously reported on the growing number of women who are unable to look after their children.

The hospital denied the claims that they prevented the young woman from taking her baby home.

Last year, questions were raised in parliament about another woman who was prevented by the same hospital from taking her baby home for a week.

There have also been reports of hospitals refusing to issue birth certificates for the babies of children who cannot pay.

The IGWDAM has drawn attention to the fact that women are facing the erosion of their rights as they face not only unemployment and hardship, but also bear the brunt of cuts in state activity, as Women’s Views on News previously reported.

Sonia Mitralias, a founding member of the organisation, said it would continue its campaign against the excessive charge for giving birth and the refusal of some hospitals to admit women who could not pay.

"Our campaign denounced the fact that the government gives priority to reimbursing the banks and other creditors and not to the satisfaction of the elementary needs of its population," she said.

"Our fight will not be easy.  But we no longer have a choice.  Millions of Greek women must fight now for their survival."

Join the discussion about women, the media and social media

Posted: 23 May 2012 01:00 AM PDT

Julie Tomlin
WVoN co-editor

A recent spate of online spats has shown how quickly discussions involving women can become personal – and sometimes hateful and vitriolic.

We’ve seen abuse hurled at freelance journalist Samantha Brick after the Daily Mail published her article claiming other women hated her because she was so beautiful.

BBC1's The Voice UK sensation Ruth Brown was taunted about her weight, and we’ve had the row over columnist Grace Dent's response to a Tweet sent by PR man Mufadal Jiwaji.

Whether you like her politics or not, Conservative MP Louise Mensch being called a "Tory whore" is just another case in which the Twittersphere, like most online comment pages, has become a forum for mockery and sexist insults to abound.

Female bloggers and writers recently spoke out about the torrent of sexist abuse they receive when they post.  A few weeks ago, TV historian Mary Beard took critic A.A. Gill to task for saying she was too ugly for television.

This focus on a woman’s appearance was cited by City University's director of broadcasting Lis Howell as a reason why women were so reluctant to sign up to take part in TV discussions when they were invited.

Howell is currently conducting research into women’s participation on TV and radio as part of Broadcast magazine’s Expert Women Campaign, which encourages broadcasters to ensure that at least 30 per cent of interviewees are women.

Of course, as Howell pointed out, concern that they will have to endure insulting remarks about their appearance doesn't explain why so few women appear on radio programmes like BBC Radio 4's Today, or why, when they do appear, they are usually speaking as case studies or as victims.

When the Independent released its Twitter 100 on 1 March this year, only 18 of those featured were women.  The majority of those were celebrities or fashion writers.

If the Independent's list is to be believed, social media is recreating the cliché that women's interests equals niche interests.

Women can speak authoritatively on childcare or schools, for example, but it’s much more rare for them to be considered authoritative voices on issues that are not personal to them, like world affairs or the economy.

In an attempt to explain the lack of women among the "titans of Twitter,” the Independent's Laura Davis sparked further debate when she suggested that perhaps women are just not very good at supporting one another.

There are plenty who disagree with her, but a lot of questions remain about women in both the mainstream media and social media. Are women de-selecting themselves or are the selection processes themselves at fault?

Are there practical steps women – and men – can take to help themselves and others break through to have their voices heard and taken seriously, not just on so-called women's issues?

The real debate hasn't even begun.

For those of you who want to discuss this hot topic further, a Words of Colour debate is taking place at London’s Free Word Centre at 6.30 pm on 30 May.

Lis Howell, BBC Persian’s Sanam Dolatshahi and prominent bloggers Minna Salami and Hana Riaz will take part.