Women's Views on News |
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- Welcome to our new site!
- Uruguay congress votes to legalise abortion
- Female athletes and stereotypes: looks vs. ability
- Campaign calls for retailers to Shelve It!
- Rape really is no joke
- More women managing household finances
| Posted: 01 Oct 2012 01:40 PM PDT  |
| Posted: 01 Oct 2012 07:09 AM PDT
…to the refreshed and re-launched Women's Views on News (WVoN) site! We're back after a short break with a new structure, making it easier for you to find articles and blogs on your favourite topic. The refreshed site lets you 'share' WVoN posts with friends and followers on different social media platforms. We also have a new RSS newsfeed so you can get your WVoN content delivered directly into your favourite newsreader. UK Focus After much discussion, we've decided to re-launch as a news and opinion hub with a stronger focus on women, gender issues and feminism in the UK, due to the dearth of media outlets accurately communicating our diverse experiences. However, we remain committed to featuring voices of across the globe, which is why we've launched our 'International News' category. New Categories Our new categories are:
We also have new ‘Campaigns’ and ‘From Blogs’ sections which will showcase campaigns and blogs that we want to promote. If you have a campaign or blog you want us to post that is relevant to women , gender or feminism, please get in touch by emailing: As ever, we interested in content that you wouldn't find in the mainstream media. Commenter Guidelines: stimulating healthy debate Love them or hate our articles, we want to hear your views. But we also want to protect our readers and writers from the abuse and personal attacks which are rife on so many forums. Given the controversy and strong opinions a lot of our content can stimulate, we think this is particularly important. That's why, with our re-launched site, we're also launching a set of Commenter Guidelines (under ‘About’ menu). It's important to us that whilst WVoN is a platform for healthy, intelligent debate, it bucks the trend of some mainstream discussion forums where hatred and personal attacks against people – especially women – are espoused freely.  |
| Uruguay congress votes to legalise abortion Posted: 01 Oct 2012 05:35 AM PDT Uruguay could become only the second Latin American country to legalise abortion Uruguay could become only the second Latin American country to legalise abortion. This week the Uruguay’s lower house voted 50 to 49 for a bill that would legalise abortion within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. The bill must now be approved by the Senate, after which President Jose Mujica will have the final veto. Mujica has already gone on record saying that if the Senate approves the bill he will also sanction it. The new law will mean that Uruguay will join Cuba in being the only other country which allows abortion in Latin America. Cuba currently allows abortion at the woman’s request up to 10 weeks. The Urguguan bill, if passed, will allow women access to safe abortion up to 12 weeks into pregnany, with the condition that she is interviewed by a gynocologist, a phychiatrist and a social worker. In addition the law permits abortion in the case of rape up to 14 weeks, and for later term abortions where the mother’s life is at risk. Currently the punishment for abortion in Uruguay is between 3 and 12 months for receiving an abortion, and between 6 to 24 months for those performing an abortion. However, as with countries the world over, the criminalisation of abortion does little to lower the actual rate of abortion; in 2008 the abortion rate in Latin America was 32 per 1000 women, higher than the global average. Rather, in countries where abortion is illegal, women seeking abortions are forced into having unsafe procedures. The World Health Organisation qualifies an unsafe abortion as one where the procedure is carried out by someone without the neccesary skills, or in an environment that does not meet minimal medical requirements, or both. In Latin America it is estimated that 95% of all abortions are unsafe. An estimated 67,000 women die annually as a result of unsafe abortions. While pro-life groups in Uruguay have opposed the bill, supporters have criticised it for not going far enough. “This is not the law for which we fought for more than 25 years,” said Marta Agunin, who directs Women and Health, a non-governmental organisation in Uruguay. Groups, including Amnesty International, have said that the bureaucracy involved, which includes interviews with the panel of three professionals and a 5 day ‘waiting’ period for women who seek an abortion, will create barriers to women accessing a safe and legal abortion within the given 12 week timespan. Women are required to meet with a social worker before any termination is allowed who will be required to advise the woman about alternatives to ending the pregnancy, including adoption and social welfare programs that could help her to care for a newborn infant. Amnesty International Uruguay director Mariana Labastie said that the legislation “treats [women] as if they weren't capable of responsible decisions about their lives and their health; this isn't just a lack of respect, it's discriminatory." While Uruguan women will still face these challenges to accessing safe abortions, it is at least a positive step in the right direction towards safe and legal access to reproductive healthcare for all.
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| Female athletes and stereotypes: looks vs. ability Posted: 01 Oct 2012 05:34 AM PDT It’s a well-established stereotype that more attractive female athletes get the lion’s share of media attention, regardless of sporting success. But does the very fact that we can have this conversation show how far women’s sports have come? Pretty female athletes get all the fame, wealth, and accolades; no matter how successful or talented an athlete is, she usually doesn't get her share unless she has the looks to match. As women's sports gain more attention in today's media, this is the stereotype all female athletes must confront in some way. The "hot" athletes have to do more to justify the attention; others have to come to terms with not getting their share of it. Maybe you've heard about Olympic hurdler Lolo Jones. Maybe you've heard about her too much. She's been all over the media this summer, and will stay in the public eye with all the endorsements she has lined up. Maybe you've heard of Dawn Harper and Kellie Wells. They ran in the same event at the Olympics, and even beat Lolo to win silver and bronze, respectively. They've heard about Lolo too much, and have made it clear that they resent the attention and earning power her looks have given her. If you've ever come across women's golf, you've heard about Natalie Gulbis. You haven't heard of Yani Tseng unless you follow women's golf. Gulbis has won three tournaments in her career; Tseng has won as many this year, is three wins away from making the hall of fame, and is ranked No. 1 in the world by the Ladies Professional Golf Association. Gulbis is on that same list, on page 4, ranked at 77. If you've heard of Gulbis, it's probably from The Natalie Gulbis Show on the Golf Channel, or from her column in FHM. Then there’s the time she modeled in nothing but body paint, and the rumors of her dating other pro athletes. Again, when it comes to earning potential, looks trump ability. It's important to look at how sports have changed in our culture. The lines between sport and Hollywood are blurring. In the 1920s, if a woman played golf, it was because she enjoyed the game. There was no other motive, no visions of endorsements or magazine covers. Now, those things are expected, and are even seen as additional motivation to stay out on the links and practice. We'd all agree it's naive to think that the drive of a modern athlete stems only from a samurai-like love of craft and perfection. Likewise, sports coverage has changed over the years. Sports media used to exist to tell people what had already happened. Not everyone could watch the Yankees play on cable, so reporters wrote what happened, with details and imagery, making Babe Ruth a little more palatable, and less like a hothead who punched umpires in the ear. Once cable and satellites came along, the angle become one of speculation about the next Yankees game. Now we have sports award shows, sports reality shows, and a whole lot of who's dated whom, and who Brett Favre texted what. Professional sports has become Hollywood. I think the issue here is that there's a large part of the population that doesn't want sports to be that way. A lot of us know that the pursuit of fame for its own sake is a hollow one. A lot of us don't value women solely on their looks. A lot of us also recognize sports as an excellent way to develop character, offering tangible rewards for persistence, discipline, and teamwork. We want to be able to point to Paul Bunyan and Babe Didrikson when we talk about sports, but instead, people see Terrell Owens, and Anna Kournikova in a bikini. Women's sports have come a long way. Women didn't used to run marathons. Not because they didn't want to, but because some men thought women couldn't handle it. They thought that the strain of running a marathon would cause a woman, any woman, to die — because her uterus would fall out. This was in 1967. For real. Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to run the Boston marathon in 1967. She had to enter on the sly and was almost tackled by a race official, but she finished, uterus in place. The marathon still wasn't an Olympic event for women until 1984. Equally, the idea of millionaire women athletes, equal athletic scholarships for women's sports, a women's national basketball league, and a woman hosting a golf show would have been laughable only a few decades ago. Now there's a generation who can't fathom a world without those things. Our main concern is no longer if women can succeed in sports, but how they do it. The good part of the style vs. substance debate is that at least we are having it. We no longer have to prove that women can achieve great sporting success, and are free to focus on making women's sports better. Maybe we should look past the sports world's glamorous sheen. Perhaps the answer lies in the wisdom of old Hollywood and sports sayings: there's no such thing as bad publicity, and if you want to know who's winning, look at the scoreboard. Tom Robinson is a staff writer for NerdWallet, a personal finance website dedicated to helping consumers find the best information on credit cards, education, travel deals and more.  |
| Campaign calls for retailers to Shelve It! Posted: 01 Oct 2012 05:32 AM PDT
Shelve It! is a digital campaign led by the Birmingham-based Women’s Networking Hub which aims to challenge retailers to be more responsible in how, and where, they display “lads mags” and porn. Shahida Choudry, founder of Women's Networking Hub and leader of the Shelve It! campaign, explains what inspired the idea; “I only have to walk into our local store for a pint of milk and scan the shelves of the magazine section to witness the dehumanisation and sexualisation of girls and women amongst the 'men's health' and 'lifestyle' titles. “Only this morning, whilst picking up the papers from my local supermarket chain, did I need to bring to the attention of the staff that their so called 'top shelf magazines' were in the line of vision of my 10-year-old daughter. “Yet, there would be outrage if we allowed our children to view an adult movie containing sexually-explicit content, or the adverts shown between the children's television programmes promoted 'Big Boobed Brunettes' or scantily-clad women wearing little more than a thong, playing to the camera lens in sexually provocative poses.” The campaign hopes to highlight the way in which such magazines are displayed, and recommends that retailers move them above child sightlines, ideally with so-called modesty covers. However, the organisers are well aware that moving or covering such images is just a small step towards solving a much bigger problem; “The Women's Networking Hub is extremely concerned about the sexualisation of girls and young women and the pressure to conform to what amounts to a distorted image of women. “We are concerned about the impact this has on girls' and young women's self-image and about how conforming to unhealthy and worrying stereotypes results in low self-worth and a lack of confidence. “This is a huge issue that needs addressing promptly with direct action, lobbying and campaigning. Shelve It! is a campaign focusing on one small part of the wider issue – the shelf position of lads' mags.” The campaign comes at a significant moment, given the ongoing No More Page 3 campaign and petition, which has received wide-spread mainstream media coverage in recent weeks. The petition, which calls for an end to over 40 years of topless women in The Sun (and which you can sign here), has gained nearly 40,000 signatures to date, and recently featured as a discussion on Newsnight. The debate about the sexualisation of women in the media, and its effect on children and other women is ripe for discussion. Last year the feminist campaign groups Object and Turn Your Back on Page 3, made a joint submission about “the hyper-sexualisation of women in the press” to the Leveson enquiry. If the No More Page 3 campaign succeeds many would see it as a potential watershed moment in the way women are portrayed in the media. The Shelve It! campaign will be organising several days of action, the first of which is today. For their first action, called ‘Rate that Rack’, Shelve It! are asking supporters to take three key steps. 1.Check It! Out shopping? Check the magazine aisle. 2.Rate It! Give the retailer a rating using the Shelve It! Rate Your Retailer questions. 3.Share It! Show others how responsible your retailer is by uploading your feedback to the Shelve It! website. The Shelve It! website features a ’Porn Map‘ where rated retailers scores will be shown. Once the information has been fed back to Shelve It! they will be contacting retailers and asking them to sign a responsible marketing pledge. “We are calling for retailers to act more responsibly by ensuring that these so called ‘lads mags’ and other forms of porn, out of the reach of children, and that the images are hidden or concealed,’ says Choudry. “From our initial groundwork we have found there is no consistency within retail chains within Birmingham. We want better regulation across the board, and for retailers to take a more proactive stance on shielding adults and children, from images and language which can only be deemed as harmful and damaging, both to our sexual identity and perceptions of women and girls in society.” If you live in Birmingham and want to get involved with the campaign you can follow them on Twitter at @shelve_it and on Facebook. You can join in with the day of action using the Twitter hashtags #shelveit and #shelveitbrum. For those of us outside of Birmingham, perhaps now is a good time to consider how we could make a similar impact on our own local communities. Object have a nationwide campaign called Feminist Fridays which encourages people to take action in their local newsagents, or you could consider writing to your MP, or mobilising a targetted action like Shelve It! are doing in Birmingham. The sexualisation of women in the media, and the proliferation of lads mags and porn has a massive impact on how all women are perceived, it affects the way young girls growing up see themselves, and how their male counterparts are taught to see them. As campaigns like Shelve It! and No More Page 3 gather speed let’s all take the opportunity to demand long overdue change.  |
| Posted: 01 Oct 2012 05:31 AM PDT
A new campaign has been launched against comedians who make jokes about rape. Rape is No Joke was set up after reports of widespread misogyny at this year’s Edinburgh Festival. This included a widely publicised incident when comedian Daniel Tosh told a woman who stood up and told him that his rape joke was no laughing matter, that it would be really funny if she was raped right there. "The woman who stood up at the gig was very brave, but it would be good to have a campaign with lots of people to say that is not acceptable," said Sarah Wrack, one of the campaign organisers. Rape is No Joke is asking comedians, venues and organisers of comedy events to sign up to their pledge that they will not make rape jokes themselves or book acts who make them. "The campaign will target those who make rape jokes and urge people to organise local events so that people can go to a venue and know they are not going to have to sit through that sort of thing," said Wrack. The group is planning a major launch event, but is also asking supporters to organise local events. NB: The above group should not be confused with a non-UK group of the same name, known as RINJ, who we mention in this piece.  |
| More women managing household finances Posted: 01 Oct 2012 05:30 AM PDT Women are increasingly taking control of family finances in the UK a recent study has revealed. According to The Lloyds TSB Family Savings Report women under 45 are more likely to manage important matters like choosing a mortgage and making provisions for savings and spending. This is thought to affect the rate of savings in the UK overall: figures show that in households where women are in charge of financial planning, 91% of households have money put aside. Where men are in charge this figure is a lot lower. Women were found to have higher savings balances than men on average, but were less likely to invest in stocks and shares. This shift should have a positive impact on the economy in general. Greg Coughlan of Lloyds TSB stated, "Female control of the family purse strings is likely to give rise to an increase in households' savings, as women tend to be more cautious savers in terms of the vehicles they save in, and have a longer-term orientation to saving. "This in turn means that mortgage repayments and consumer spending could become less vulnerable to turmoil in employment or financial markets in the future." It is hoped that this shift may have a positive impact on power relations between men and women. The study also analysed spending habits in China and Germany, finding that almost six in 10 young German women were controlling household finances among younger couples. However a slightly different picture was painted in China, with no clear trend towards rising female financial power.  |
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