Women's Views on News |
- The Women’s Library: all change
- Support for over-the-counter Pill grows
- Why women need a say on natural resources
| The Women’s Library: all change Posted: 10 May 2013 08:41 AM PDT
After eighty-seven years, thousands of visitors and months of a very long campaign to prevent this happening, activists have said farewell to the Women's Library. Founded in 1926 as the Library of the London Society for Women's Service, the Women's Library has housed artifacts from women's history spanning four centuries in a purpose-built site in Aldgate, in London's East End. In 2012, it was threatened with closure by London Metropolitan University (London Met), who argued that too much of the library's use came from outside the university. Threatened with closure despite the fact that it is the only library in this country where men and women can access the full spectrum of female fiction and non-fiction. And despite the fact it is one of the only resources for feminist activists and still one of the only libraries to have a respectable zine collection The London Met branch of UNISON did try to save it, and a petition against the closure gained over 12,000 signatures. But now the London School of Economics (LSE) will house the collection in a reading room and a planned exhibition space in the British Library of Political and Economic Science on Portugal Street. Researchers and students will continue to have full access to this unique accumulation of women's social history. The purpose-built East End site – bought only ten years ago with a £4.2 million lottery grant – will remain in the hands of London Met. The staff from The Women's Library and the collections will transfer to LSE's Lionel Robbins building, on Portugal Street, near The Strand, in Central London. The Women's Library will be thus be closed until 30 July 2013. Archive and museum collections will be available from August 2013, books, periodicals, pamphlets and other printed materials will be available from September 2013. And until the completion of a new reading room, The Women’s Library service will operate from LSE Library’s existing Archives Reading Room. Further information about ‘The Women’s Library @ LSE’ can be found here. In the meantime, if you missed seeing the library's exhibition Dirty Linen: The History of Women and their Laundry, in 2002, you can catch up with it now, as it has been transformed into an online exhibition. The exhibition ran at The Women’s Library from 28 September to 21 December 2002. Edited highlights from the exhibition text and photographs are now being presented online. Click here to have a look. The Women’s Library occupied the site of the old Goulston Street Baths, which opened in 1846. Introduced by Victorian philanthropists to offer local women the means to keep both their clothes and themselves clean, Wash Houses became a social focus for many women and for the lengthy work of washing. Goulston Street Baths was one of the first Wash Houses in the East End and was set up as a model institution, to be emulated by others. The exhibition Dirty Linen celebrated the building’s history and place in the locality. Dirty Linen looked at how cleanliness is sold to us as a moral necessity and at how it has become a modern obsession. For what is basically a chore for most women is often portrayed as a means to shining – white – goodliness. The hard labour of washing has, thankfully, been replaced by technological advance, but it is suggested that the extra hours gained only release us to keep more things clean. The exhibition closes with a look at doing the washing now. Still women’s work? More marketing is now aimed at men, but they still do less laundry. And what do heavily perfumed products actually keep clean? Probably not our environment.  |
| Support for over-the-counter Pill grows Posted: 10 May 2013 05:40 AM PDT
A growing number of women in the US favour over the counter contraceptive pills, a survey has revealed. About 30 per cent of women using either no birth control at all or depending on condoms said they would consider the Pill if it was sold without a prescription, researchers found. Dr Daniel Grossman, from the University of California, San Francisco and the non-profit Ibis Reproductive Health, who led the new study, said it remains to be seen how this would play out in reality but the finding shows some indication that making the Pill available over the counter could help improve use of more effective contraception, help women use the method they would like to use and could potentially reduce unplanned pregnancies. Grossman told Reuters Health that there was mounting evidence that this was safe and effective and that women really wanted it. According to Think Progress, research has shown that the prescription requirement prevents many women from gaining access to and using birth control. Studies have revealed that women who get the Pill without a prescription stay on it just as long or even longer than women who have to get a prescription for refills. The report claims that women who are able to get the pill over the counter like the convenience of getting it directly in a pharmacy without a prescription, and that they still see their providers for well-woman care. Being able to pick up your pills at the store, without needing a prescription or paying additional costs, would provide relief for many women, particularly those who currently face the biggest barriers to getting the birth control they need on time and affordably. For the new survey, about 31 per cent of participants each said they were “strongly” or “somewhat” in favour of women being able to buy birth control pills without a prescription, according to findings published in the journal Contraception. However, there were concerns that women need a doctor to determine whether the drugs are safe given their particular situation, and that the women will not go for regular check-ups if they can get pills without a doctor’s help. In 2008 the British National Health Service (NHS) started making birth control pills available without a prescription as part of a pilot project in several London pharmacies. And the pilot scheme found a significant drop in emergency contraception after the launch of over-the-counter pill access. Meanwhile, an Advisory Group on Contraception audit has found that 28 per cent of NHS Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) have no strategy to address unintended pregnancy. Last year an NHS report suggested that the contraceptive pill should be available at pharmacies without a doctor’s prescription, including to some under-16s. It also suggested widening the service to include girls as young as 13 – two schemes offered this in the Isle of Wight and Manchester – not without controversy. But as Dr Richard Ma, a GP in Holloway, north London, and London sexual health champion, has pointed out: 'There could be concern about pharmacists offering contraception to under-16s, but there is an unmet need.’  |
| Why women need a say on natural resources Posted: 10 May 2013 02:02 AM PDT
On 4-5 April, representatives from civil society, government and the United Nations gathered in Dar Es-Salaam, Tanzania, to discuss how they could work towards a gender-responsive extractive industry. This was the first milestone in a new partnership between Publish What You Pay, a coalition which campaigns for transparency in the gas, oil and mining sector, and UN Women. Publish What You Pay is a global network of more than 650 member organisations around the world, including human rights, development, environmental and faith-based organisations. They campaign ‘for a world where natural resources benefit all citizens, today and tomorrow’”. Carlo Merla, Africa Programme Manager for Publish What You Pay, explained that "We formed this partnership in order to explore how we can combat the negative effects of extractive projects on women, while at the same time harnessing the economic opportunities and giving them a greater say in the management of their natural resources. “It is only by giving women a space at the table that we can ensure natural resources truly benefit all citizens". Natural resources have the potential to deliver change to the lives of millions of people. In 2008, natural resource exports from African countries were worth nine times more than aid. Yet natural resources are not always harnessed to their full potential and to the benefit of people in their source country. And in many communities around the world, oil and mining projects have had a negative and specific impact on women. Although the dangers of extraction for whole communities and countries are well known – from environmental disasters to civil wars – the impact they have on women's day to day lives rarely make the headlines. Yet this impact is immediate and significant, with women often the most vulnerable to the negative effects of extractive projects. This problem is compounded by the fact that they have very little say over how their natural resources – and their extraction – are managed. What happens when an extractive project is launched next to a community? Firstly, communities often lose land, to be used for extraction rather than farming. In areas where women make up the majority of rural smallholders farmers, they are often the first to lose their livelihood. Communities are transformed when an extractive project starts, with an informal economy springing up that revolves around the project. It also means a very significant – and sudden – increase in the price of basic foodstuffs. And as women are often taking care of providing food for their families, this makes their lives particularly difficult. Women are often – also – in charge of providing water for their families. If they have to go out to fetch water to their homes, any environmental spills mean that they have to go further, and expose themselves to more dangers, in order to get to safe water. The influx of transient male workers and disposable cash also creates dangers for women and can expose them to increased sexual violence and sexually transmitted diseases. For more on the impact of extractive projects on women, the World Bank has a number of resources and Oxfam Australia conducted a study on gender and mining in 2009. This isn't to say that women are merely victims in this situation. In many communities they have sought to capitalise on the informal economy that springs up around a project. They have adopted new jobs and ventures – from selling beer, to washing clothes for the workers or selling mining-related implements. Yet is shouldn't be a case of women having to make the best of a bad lot. Women should be more involved throughout the whole extractive process. When environmental and social impact assessments gauging the effects of a project are carried out, they should take into account the specific – and different – impacts on women. If women had seats at the negotiating table they could talk about and make clear how they are affected by extractive projects – and ensure that suitable steps are taken or that adequate compensation is arranged. These – and other initiatives – were discussed at the workshop, which you can find out more about here. It's not a case of 'saving' women from the extractives, but of giving them a say – over how their natural resources are managed and exploited and where the revenues go. With full participation and transparency natural resources are more likely to benefit all citizens, including women.  |
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