Women's Views on News |
- Pay and pensions: a vicious circle
- Coventry Women launch harassment project
- Campaigners plan to ‘Occupy Barbie’
| Pay and pensions: a vicious circle Posted: 10 Apr 2013 10:55 AM PDT
The gender pay gap is something which is discussed with depressing regularity, with the most recent disparity recorded at a cringe-worthy 9.6 per cent in 2012. But news last week also showed how this gap carries on throughout a woman's working life and into retirement, where the economic chasm remains – and widens – in the pension gender gap. According to research carried out by insurance company Prudential, the pension gender gap has this year increased by 13 per cent, to an eye-watering 36 per cent, where women can now expect to receive a retirement income of £6500 less than men. That's a third less. Shocking, I know. Prudential's 'Class of 2013' research looked at the retirement plans and expected incomes of around 1000 adults who were retiring this year. The expected annual income through pensions for a woman taking retirement in 2013 is an average of £11,750 per year – down from £12,250 in 2012. This figure is a five-year low, and includes income from private, state and company pensions. What is worse, this devaluation is now in its fifth year - women's pensions have been in a steady decline by around £500 a year since 2008. For men, the trend is reversed, with the average income for a man retiring this year expected to be £18,250 – up from £18,000 last year. It is all so disappointingly familiar. So what is going on? Why does a woman, who may have experienced a substantial gender pay gap her whole working life, have to face an even bigger one in retirement? Simply put, women are being penalised with smaller pension pots because of the disparity in pay they earn throughout their working lives, and because of interruptions to work patterns to raise families. According to the Office of National Statistics (ONS): 'The low income levels of women pensioners reflect the gender pay gap during people's working lives as well as interrupted working histories due to caring responsibilities, which impair the ability of women to save for retirement though the pension system. ‘In addition, many older women pensioners are widows, and the level of occupational pension received by a widow is generally only half the level of the pension received by the couple when the man was alive.' So women are victims of the apparently unassailable gender pay gap when they are working, and then again when they retire. It is like perpetual motion. For taking care of families, bringing up children, sacrificing career aspirations and taking lower paid jobs to juggle family life, women are being penalised as they reach pensionable age. A spokesperson for the Prudential acknowledged that the disparity in retirement income has increased over the last few years, and that it would not disappear 'for years to come'. Women are all too aware of this. Far less women in the Prudential study felt financially prepared for retirement than men. And to add insult to injury, the new flat rate pension of £144 per week, which will now be introduced in 2016, will see over 30,000 women lose out on around £310 a year. According to the Telegraph, a particular group of women will suffer 'because people are only entitled to the new flat rate state pension when they reach state pension age. ‘Women born between April 1952 and July 1953 will lose out because they will reach state pension age before April 2017, and will therefore miss out on higher flat rate state pension payments. ‘Men born between these dates will reach state pension age after the change takes effect.' The new flat rate pension is a quagmire of difficulties anyway, and although designed to benefit numerous women in the long run, it is cold comfort to the 30,000 or so who fall through yet another gender gap. Sarah Pennells, who founded SavvyWoman, a financial website for women, said she was in favour of simplifying the current complex and confusing state pension system and welcome the aims of a flat rate scheme. “However,” she said, “Thousands of women born before April 6th 1953 feel aggrieved that they won't qualify for the new pension, even though men born on the same date will.” Unsurprisingly, Labour's Shadow Pension Minister Gregg McClymont MP, was less than complimentary, saying that 'there is significant confusion surrounding the pension changes. ‘In pensions, clarity is key particularly for those so close to retiring and the government is failing. Hundreds of thousands of women close to retirement are now set to lose out thanks to this government's plans. 'First we were to see the new pension in 2016, then it was "too complicated", now they have decided it isn't that tricky after all. ‘The truth is the coalition approach to pensions is in utter disarray.' The government’s approach to equality is certainly no better. It's about time they took into consideration the enormity of what women actually do – work (often in lower paid jobs), sacrifice career and earning potential to raise families, care for other relatives – and stop penalising us for doing so.  |
| Coventry Women launch harassment project Posted: 10 Apr 2013 05:00 AM PDT
To coincide with Anti-Street Harassment Week 2013 women’s organisation Coventry Women’s Voices (CWV) is launching a new initiative to map the harassment women experience in Coventry. The Coventry Harassment Project will give women the opportunity to share their experiences of street harassment in Coventry. This project launches off the back of a survey conducted by CWV and Coventry University which examined women's experiences of harassment in public spaces in Coventry. The report produced from this survey, ‘An Everyday Occurrence (pdf)’ was published last night at an event hosted by CWV and Coventry Feminist to coincide with Anti-Street Harassment Week. The report contains quotes that may be triggering to survivors. The survey found that 61 per cent of those asked had experienced sexual harassment in the last 12 months; incidents which included unwanted sexual comments (37 per cent), wolf-whistling (32 per cent) and being groped (12 per cent). Author of the report, Jane Osmond, said, “When we began the data collection back in October, I don't think any of us expected to be shocked by the findings, but we are. “Most shocking is how routine and accepted public sexual harassment of women is and also the range of incidents, from wolf whistling to rape.” The international movement Stop Street Harassment says that around the world between 70-100 per cent of women have experienced some form of harassment in public. This harassment can include anything from leering, wolf-whistling and sexual comments to groping, masturbation and assault. The Coventry Harassment Project hopes to create a fuller picture of the scenario when it comes to harassment in Coventry. People will be able to share their experiences of harassment in two key ways. People can follow, and submit their stories, via the Twitter account @CovHarassment and Tweet with the hashtag #CovHarassment. Or people can submit longer anecdotes to this email address. These submissions will be posted on a regular basis on Coventry Women's Voices' blog. Anonymity can be requested. Coventry Women's Voices will collect and share these stories to create a fuller picture of what happens in Coventry, and where. This information will add to that collected in the survey and begin to map where, and how frequently women experience harassment in the city. Coventry Women’s Voices member Mary-Ann Stephenson said, “The findings of the survey showed us that harassment in public spaces is a concern for many women living and working in Coventry. “We hope that the launch of The Coventry Harassment Project will give women a voice to share their experiences and will allow us to extend the reaches of the survey in mapping what women experience and where.”
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| Campaigners plan to ‘Occupy Barbie’ Posted: 10 Apr 2013 02:05 AM PDT
Franziska Sedlak a 24-year-old student and left-wing activist first heard of Austrian businessman Christoph Rahofer's plans to erect a lifesize pink Barbie doll’s house when she attended a debate about sexism at the end of last year. Sediak and her friends in the Left Party’s youth organisation and Socialist Alternative decided to organise a campaign against it. The doll’s house, to be situated on a 26,000 square-foot site in Berlin's central Alexander Square, was due to open on 26 March, but this was put back to 16 May. Sediak and her friends are using the time to organise a broad-based campaign. They have set up the 'Occupy Barbie' Facebook page, which already has over 700 followers and are organising leafleting sessions and meetings to talk about role models, sexism and the economic situation faced by women. They plan to organise a demonstration in the run-up to the opening in May. Sediak said the Barbie Dreamhouse would consist of ten rooms full of clichés. Young girls will be offered catwalk training, styling advice and a photoshoot. The highlight of their visit will be to choose whether they want to be a superstar or a top model. "Barbie is pushing a completely unnatural beauty. If she were a human she would not survive, she would break in two. "What is being suggested is that the only role of the woman is to be beautiful, to wear high-heels and at the same time have a fresh cake in the oven. "These childhood role models will shape their whole lives," she said. "The Barbie Dreamhouse is a symbol of women's oppression. Women are paid less than men, women must always be beautiful and well made up, as well as working and cleaning. "It's about sexism, and the Barbie Dreamhouse is a symbol of this," said Sediak. Rahofer plans touring the house round Europe when it has finished its stint in Berlin. Sediak is clear that if the house comes to the UK, feminists and political activists should use it as an opportunity to educate society. "Start a campaign against sexism and use it as an opportunity to engage people in a conversation," she said.  |
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