Women's Views on News |
- International cookbook launch
- #FemFuture: a necessary conversation
- Higher tuition fees widening gender gap
| Posted: 19 Apr 2013 06:45 AM PDT
An international cookbook, celebrating our common humanity. For nothing conveys our interdependence or strengthens our bonds with family and friends more compellingly than the food we eat and the recipes in this uplifting book celebrate this. Recipes from the women living in the war-torn countries in which Women for Women International (WfWI) operate and from renowned international chefs such as Alice Waters, Maggie Beer and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and humanitarians such as Aung San Suu Kyi, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Emma Thompson, Richard Branson, Paul McCartney and Mia Farrow. Everyday dishes, family meals, and recipes perfect for sharing and celebrating. Ranging from traditional Afghani bichak pastries and Congolese sticky doughnuts, to spicy cashew and tomato soup, beef rendang and orange-scented almond cake. The book has a foreword by Meryl Streep and is illustrated with stunning photography of the countries as well as the food. And interspersed throughout are inspiring stories from the women whose lives have been changed through the intervention of WfWI. Women for Women International works with socially excluded women in eight countries where war and conflict have devastated lives and communities. Each woman WfWI works with has her own story – some of loved ones murdered, and others of physical and emotional trauma. Most have endured a horrific struggle for survival. When women enroll in WfWI’s one-year programme, they learn job skills and receive business training so they can earn a living. The women become confident, independent and productive, embracing their importance in rebuilding their families, their communities and ultimately their nations. All the royalties from the book will support WfWI’s farming and food training initiatives, as well as provide micro-financing in the eight countries in which WfWI operate – Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Kosovo, Nigeria, Rwanda and South Sudan. The book launch is on 16 May 2013, but it is already available for pre-order: click here.  |
| #FemFuture: a necessary conversation Posted: 19 Apr 2013 04:23 AM PDT
‘#FemFuture: Online Revolution’ is a research paper looking at how to strategise and how best to sustain and build on the successes of online feminism. It was produced by Vanessa Valenti, co-founder of US feminist website Feministing, and Courtney Martin, in conjunction with the Barnard Center for Research on Women. The paper highlights the significance that the internet, and in particular social media, is playing in creating an online feminist community, not only raising awareness of gender inequality, but aiding the organisation of action to bring that inequality to an end. It reveals how the world wide web is enabling individual voices to join together and form a chorus against patriarchal injustice. A recent study from a US think tank dubbed American women between 18-29 years of age "the power users of social networking" and reveals that almost nine out of ten use social media. Whether signing an online petition, joining a twitter campaign, or writing a blog, these technological tools are not just consciousness-raising, but also have the capacity to mobilise thousands in the time it would have previously taken to come up with a rousing protest banner. Indeed, as the report is keen to accentuate, so loud is the cacophony created by online campaigns that they often have the power to actually change things. Last year the Komen Foundation announced that it was going to withdraw funding from American women's health organization Planned Parenthood because it offers abortion services in conjunction with its reproductive health services. In response to this threat, digital strategist and women's activist Deanna Zandt set up a Tumblr page entitled Planned Parenthood Saved Me. Featuring stories from hundreds of women around America, it became a testament to the essential services offered by the reproductive healthcare provider. The report suggests that the collection of narratives on Planned Parenthood Saved Me played a significant part in compelling Komen to change direction, a notion borne out by a statement issued by Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood's director, on the issue. “During the last week, millions spontaneously joined a national conversation…”Richards said. “This compassionate outcry in support of those most in need rose above political, ideological, and cultural divides, and will surely be recognised as one of our nation's better moments during a contentious political time. Planned Parenthood thanks each and every person who has contributed.” There are similar stories of online activism bringing about change in the UK. Writer Elizabeth Plank was so incensed by the International Boxing Federation's decision to force female boxers to wear micro-minis while they competed at the Olympics that her outraged tweet led to a 50,000-strong online petition and eventually resulted in the decision being overturned. “I started out alone, but social media became my megaphone. It allowed me to amplify my voice and reach thousands of other voices that were dying to be heard too,” Plank explained. It is the 'thousands of other voices' which abound on feminist blogs and micro blogs that reassure those who thought they were alone and reinvigorate those who thought nobody was listening. What the report also highlights, however, is that with bloggers, campaign organisers, and founders of online feminist communities sometimes holding down other jobs or fighting for 'scraps' from donors and third-party advertising companies to fund their projects, the inevitable fatigue is waiting to set in. The report lays out a number of interventions to avoid this kind of burn-out, but they all build towards one main goal: developing interconnectivity between the vast and disparate feminist online communities and collectives, so that they can work collaboratively, exchanging skills and sharing the load. Political analyst Zerlina Maxwell contends that 'online feminists shouldn't have to be unpaid martyrs for the cause' and this is certainly true. However, by taking the metaphorical room of one's own that the internet has given many women, shouldn't we be suspicious about that room being moved into a house – even if it is with like-minded individuals? A number of feminist bloggers have come out and criticised the report, in particular because of the apparent desire for a few – dare I say white, middle-class, mainstream feminist New Yorkers – to take control of the many. A large proportion of those who have come out against the findings not only feel that women of colour are barely represented in the report, but they absolutely, positively, do not want to be subsumed under the umbrella of online feminism as laid out by the authors. A number of others have turned to the internet exactly because they do not live in a big city or because they have health issues which limit their ability to participate in feminist activities in person; in this regard they feel that the issues that they face as a result of their isolated situation cannot and should not be conferred upon by those that do not understand the challenges they face. And it is here that we reach impasse. The internet certainly is arguably the most valuable ally that feminism has found in the 21st century, but many of the challenges that this report highlights really are threatening the progress that we are on the brink of making. So while the proposals laid out by #FemFuture may not be the answer, there is certainly a discussion that needs to be had until the future of online feminism can be secured. You can follow the full discussion on Twitter on #FemFuture  |
| Higher tuition fees widening gender gap Posted: 19 Apr 2013 01:00 AM PDT
The increase in tuition fees was introduced in 2012 where universities can charge up to £9,000 per year for tuition. In areas where fewer young people have been accepted to university, the gap between men and women has widened significantly under the new tuition fee regime. A report by The Independent Commission on Fees (ICOF) found that the number of men from working-class areas accepted to university fell by 1.4 per cent while the number of women rose by 0.9 per cent between 2012 and 2010. Increasingly more young women than men have been going to university since the mid-nineties; women are now a third more likely to go on to higher education than men. The report noted 1,700 fewer men from areas of the UK where university participation is the lowest were accepted for places in 2012 than in 2011, representing a 5.4 per cent decline in the number going to university. The fall in the number of girls going to university from the same areas in the same period was smaller, at 3.7 per cent. The change in the gender gap in the highest participation areas was 1.6 per cent from 2010 to 2012, compared to 2.3 per cent in those areas with the lowest. This fall in acceptances did not have a disproportionate impact on less priviedged areas of the UK overall because there is an increase in young women from those areas attending university. However, while the number of men accepted to university from the highest participation areas fell by 6.4 per cent between 2010 and 2012, 20,000 more males from those neighborhoods still go to university than their peers from the lowest. Will Hutton, chair of the ICOF, suggested that the higher fees may be having a disproportionate impact on men and that the government, universities and schools might want to consider if “specific measures” are necessary to address concerns around this issue. “Today's report shows that the first year of fees produced a worrying widening in the university gender gap. “In working class areas, there has been a decline over two years in the number of boys accepted for university, while the number of girls accepted has risen. This is particularly worrying, because women are already a third more likely to go to university than men, and the danger is that the higher fees may be having a disproportionate impact on men, who are already under-represented at university.” However, the report concluded that the introduction of higher fees was too recent for “strong conclusions” to be drawn from data at this stage. The report also noted that the impact of the increased fees is difficult to differentiate from many other variables affecting acceptances generally. It noted that the gender differential, particularly in less privileged areas, remains a potential cause of concern and that the ICOF will carefully monitor the data for the coming year as that data emerges.  |
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