Women's Views on News |
- Let toys be toys
- Laura Robson wins player award
- Congolese women: we have had enough
- New women drivers overtake men
| Posted: 04 Dec 2012 05:58 AM PST
As I launched myself, bleary-eyed, into another week, I was bombarded by constant reminders that now December has begun it is ‘nearly’ Christmas. My daughter is five in January and I’m acutely aware that this may be the first Christmas that she will remember in years to come. And I always get a little insane around this time of the year and I expect this time I’ll go even further overboard. It seems that I am not alone. ‘Mega Monday‘, on 3 December, demonstrated that the heart of Christmas today, commercialism, is beating strong. Recession or no, Visa Europe predicted 6.8 million online sales with £320m being spent, a 21 per cent increase on the same time last year, making it the busiest shopping day ever. By 11am John Lewis claimed it was receiving two orders a second and had more than doubled its total sales, while Marks and Spencers broke their sales per minute record by lunchtime. I will be joining the masses and doing the bulk of my shopping online. But while the convenience of shopping from home is a draw, my main motivation is the variety provided by virtual shops. When shopping for gender-neutral toys for children, variety really is something you have to hunt for. Since having my daughter I have been appalled at the sexism and gender stereotyping that goes on. The associated marketing to parents begins before you even give birth via the ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ sections of Mothercare and the like but the children become direct targets frighteningly early. It is so pervasive and subtle that it seems almost insurmountable. Despite a conscious effort to teach my daughter that she can play with cars and boys can push pushchairs or that pink and blue are lovely colours, but what does she think about green or yellow – her regularly touted favourite colour - she has, to my dismay, informed me that boys like blue and girls like pink and that cars are ‘boys toy’s’ dolls, ‘girls toys’. Most of the year this is an issue that has little direct impact on my shopping experience. But at Christmas, when stocking fillers are high on my list, being confronted by a wall of pink and blue, ‘helpfully’ labelled ‘girls toys’ and ‘boys toys’ is enough to set my blood boiling. Girls, apparently, only want to play with dolls, fluffy animals and plastic cooking and cleaning equipment while their male counterparts are busy crashing cars, fighting with robots and sticking themselves together with all things gooey. When you start looking at these shelves in more detail it is quite sickening how soon the brain-washing - for that is what this is - begins. This is what inspired sisters Abi and Emma More to form Pink Stinks, in 2008. The organisation aims to work towards a gender-neutral environment for children to play in. Alongside a number of campaigns, the website provides a useful resource for parents looking to find suitable, gender-neutral books, clothes and toys. I am routinely frustrated by the lack of dolls that aren't doused in pink and frills or espousing a life of make-up, fashion and shopping. There is the slightly more to rufty tufty Lottie who is much more age-appropriate, but she is still heavy on the cutesy pinks and pastels. It’s not just dolls; the spread of pink and blue effects even the most neutral of toys. A few days ago 13 year-old Mckenna Pope started a petition on change.org to demand a gender-neutral Easy Bake Oven from Hasbro for her chef-in-the-making brother. Elsewhere toy catalogue Top Toys made headlines last week for mixing gender-stereotypes in their Swedish catalogue. The girls got guns while the boys had fun with dolls. It came a long three years after the Swedish Advertising Standards Authority reprimanded them for a catalogue that ‘preserved an anachronistic view of the sexes’ and showing both boys and girls in a ‘disparaging way’. Even Lego was accused of turning the clock back with the launch of their ‘Lego for girls’ range, Lego Friends, earlier this year. The colours, look and feel and perhaps more importantly branding and marketing pander to and perpetuate the belief that all girls want is pretty colours and hairdressing salons! A blogger over at Gizmodo points out that the Lego pieces are standard ones in different colours and that we shouldn’t be so offended by it, arguing that, although he doesn’t like the branding, it might draw girls into playing with Lego. I’d argue that that is part of the problem; by repeatedly force-feeding our children with these ridiculous ‘rules’ around toy use, we are creating a scenario where girls won’t play with anything that isn’t pink and boys wouldn’t be seen dead holding a doll. We talk about gender differences, and it is a massive area of study. But with the toy world the way it is right now, and the cynical marketing that goes on from (pre)birth, it is practically impossible to know how much of those differences are down to nurture (or brainwashing) over nature. Emma Moore, from Pink Stinks, has this to say :"The question which we constantly ask is ‘who benefits from this?’ because by segregating children’s play from the moment they’re born, we certainly don’t think that children do. “This kind of marketing is purely that – a marketing tactic which boosts profits, and it’s high time we – as parents and consumers - voiced our concerns loudly and take our purchasing power elsewhere. “Choose wisely this Christmas. Let toys be toys and kids be kids."  |
| Laura Robson wins player award Posted: 04 Dec 2012 02:29 AM PST
British tennis player Laura Robson was named newcomer of the year by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Player Awards last week. The award, decided by votes from international media, follows a breakout season for the 18 year-old Londoner. She won silver at the Olympics in June, partnering Andy Murray in the mixed doubles, and gave her best ever Grand Slam showing at the US Open in September, beating Kim Clijsters and Li Na to reach the fourth round. Former newcomers of the year include Maria Sharapova, the Williams sisters, and Martina Hingis. The WTA accolade caps off a modest, but nonetheless emotionally significant, resurgence in the fortunes of British women's tennis during the 2012 season. Robson is the first British tennis player to win a WTA award since Virgina Wade in 1977, and her Guangzhou run made her the first British woman in 22 years to reach a main tour final. Just three weeks later, fellow Brit Heather Watson made her own headlines by taking her first WTA title in Osaka, Japan. Her win ended a 24-year title drought for British women. Robson, who started the year outside the top 100, is now ranked 53rd in the world. Watson lies just a few places ahead, at 49th. With the momentum of their late-season wins behind them, the two are well-placed to make further improvements in 2013. Other WTA Player Award winners included Serena Williams, player of the year, and Sara Errani, most improved player.  |
| Congolese women: we have had enough Posted: 04 Dec 2012 01:30 AM PST
They live in poverty, in fear of being raped, and of daily losing their sons and husbands to endless fighting. When M23 rebels seized Goma they reignited a war that has ravaged the region for 16 years. And the UK has suspended aid to Rwanda amid concerns about its role in the conflict in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo. Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, is a major city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with a population of about 1 million people; its centre is only 1 km from the Rwandan border. Announcing the news, the UK's International Development Secretary Justine Greening said the money would not be released because Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame’s government had ‘breached agreements.’ President Kagame has been praised for improving the economic and social conditions in Rwanda since he came to power at the end of the 1994 genocide in which some 800,000 people died. But a UN report claims that Rwanda’s defence minister is effectively commanding the rebellion group in the east of the DR Congo (DRC) and the BBC has uncovered evidence that Rwandan support for the rebels may be more widespread than previously believed. The UK government will, however, be giving £18m for 'immediate humanitarian needs in the DR Congo'. Congo is home to the second largest rain forest in the world, behind Brazil, and 60 percent of all Africa's forests, has enough hydropower potential to power all of Africa, and an estimated 24 trillion dollars of mineral wealth. It is, apparently, far greater un-monetized wealth than any other nation in the world. According to Susannah Sirkin, writing for CNN recently, the single largest UN peace-keeping force in the world, MONUSCO, just stood by as some 1,500 M23 rebels overran Goma - and the Congolese troops, many of them hungry and penniless, ran for the hills. And in the midst of all this, Neema Namadamu and a group of grassroots women leaders who call themselves the Mama Shujaa (Swahili for ‘Hero Women’) are calling on you and US woman leaders Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice, Valerie Jarrett, and Michelle Obama to take immediate action in solidarity with the women of the Congo. "We are," they say, "brutalized in unconscionable ways by monsters wearing military uniforms. We are tired of this. We have had enough." In July Neema Namadamu set up a women's internet café and media centre and gathered together grassroots women leaders across the region to discuss the future of their country. Within two months they had nearly 200 women activists reporting about life in war-torn DRC through the action media network World Pulse. But then the rebels took hold of Goma, inflicting more horrors upon its women and children – even pregnant women. And, writes Neema Namadamu, from Bukavu, the captial of South Kivu provence, 'they threaten to advance to our area'. By December 2 government soldiers were marching back towards Goma, which fell to rebel forces close to a fortnight ago, but, said the Telegraph, it is not clear when or where the next round of peace discussions will be held. The Mama Shujaa are asking for the immediate appointment of a special presidential envoy to work with the African Union and United Nations to forge a peace process that addresses both the immediate crisis and the underlying longer-term economic and political interests of the parties involved. They believe that only through a mediation of this level 'can we hope to establish resolution among the numerous states, rebel armies, and special interests who have long fueled this conflict and humanitarian crisis'. And, they add, 'we ask that any action ensures Congolese women have a voice in the peace process and a seat at the table’. And they are asking us to sign a petition and help them get the support they want.  |
| New women drivers overtake men Posted: 04 Dec 2012 01:27 AM PST
There has been much written about the stereotypes of male and female drivers, and in the past, they have mostly been at the expense of women. According to most men (and some tabloids) women can't park, they apply their make up as they drive and are generally a danger to themselves, and to all creatures, when they take to the road. Driving, they say, is a man’s domain. Perhaps that is why, historically, there have been more male drivers than female drivers in the UK (and, of course, because we women are killing ourselves in our millions due to cosmetic related collisions). But this trend, at least, looks like it's reversing. According to a new report, the gender gap on the roads is narrowing, with the number of new women drivers rising almost twice as fast those of new male drivers. The report, compiled for the RAC Foundation, found that the number of women with driving licences increased by 23 per cent between 1995 and 2010. In real terms, that meant that there were 11.2 million women drivers in 1995 and 13.8 million in 2010. During the same period, the increase in new male drivers was only nine per cent, so rising from 14.9 million to 16.3 million. If this trend continues, with women learning to drive and passing their tests in numbers that greatly outstrip men, it won't be too many years until women drivers outnumber men completely. The report suggests that this trend will indeed continue, as the sharpest drop in male drivers is among young men in their twenties. Curiously, among this age group, those taking to the road dropped by 14 per cent. Professor Stephen Glaister, Director of the RAC Foundation, said the rise in female drivers reflected ‘growing social and financial independence over recent decades’. In a pedal-to-the-metal cliché-fest, Professor Glaister also said: 'Women are in the overtaking lane when it comes to licence holding. No longer are they sat in the passenger seat, simply along for the ride.' Of the narrowing gender gap, he said that women are now economically more independent, more likely to work and generally have children later, if at all. They are, he said 'on the move like never before’. The RAC report, entitled 'On The Move', is an academic study headed up by Dr Scott Le Vine and Professor Peter Jones for Imperial College, London. It also reveals that women are driving greater distances now than they were fifteen years ago while, once again, this trend was in reverse among men. So, to sum up. There are more women on the road now than ever before. Which means that there are more safe drivers on the road than ever before, according to statistics. Yes, various surveys over the years have found that men are, in fact, by far the worse drivers. Behold, the truth…
So with more women on the road than ever before, there is a higher percentage of safe drivers and, as a result, less crashes. Perhaps this should be taken into consideration when setting insurance premiums. Oh wait, that would be ridiculous…  |
Mothers of Congolese children have had enough of war.
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