Women's Views on News |
| Posted: 05 Jun 2013 09:00 AM PDT
Reanne Evans, an amateur snooker player, has become the first ever woman to qualify for the final televised stages of a ranking tournament. Reanne has been playing snooker since she was 13. The first time she played, just to have a go, she got a twenty point break. Since then, she has won the World Ladies Snooker championships nine times in a row, from 2005 – 2013. Reanne Evans is one of the few well known women snooker players, and the first to compete equally against men in a televised final. Indeed, the wiki page for women players links to only four names. Perhaps this isn’t surprising, given that snooker has traditionally been perceived as a man’s sport, associated with all the trappings of a supposedly man’s world – pubs, pints and smoke. It is still perceived by many as belonging to a man’s sphere. Evans told BBC Breakfast how, when she was younger, women were sometimes not even allowed in snooker halls. The only women there were those working behind the bar. Attitudes like this have certainly played a role in hindering the emergence of women snooker players. There have also been practical barriers to women players, who do not have the same access as men to benefits such as prize money and sponsorships. Case in point: last year Evans was awarded £400 in prize money for winning the ladies’ championship. Ronnie O’Sullivan received £250,000 last year for winning the men’s championship. Prize money enables players to dedicate themselves to their sport. Without sponsorship or decent prize money, women have to juggle practising with working a job that pays the bills. Despite this rather bleak scenario, there are signs that the tide may yet be turning for women’s snooker. The World’s Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) is keen to encourage more women to get involved in the sport. Indeed, they will need more women players if they are to succeed in their aim of making snooker an Olympic sport. They see no barriers for women to compete at the professional level, with chairman James Ferguson saying, “Snooker is one of the few sports with total fairness in terms of who can participate”. Last April, they organised a Ladies’ Day at the World Championships in Sheffield to promote the sport to women and showcase the skills of leading female players. Yet the Ladies Day was still very separate from the men’s championships. It was held in the Winter Garden, described by the Independent as a “shopping centre-cum-glasshouse”. WPBSA also aims to increase the number of women players through the ‘Cue Zone into school’ initiative, which aims to increase participation at the grassroot levels. Schools will set up ‘cue zones’ with tables, encouraging pupils to play during their breaks and before and after school. According to the WPBSA website, the Cue Zone initiative should get an extra 10,000 pupils playing snooker by the end of the year. Encouraging snooker in schools is an excellent way to increase participation in the sport, for boys and girls alike. However, if the WPBSA truly intends for snooker to be a sport without barriers it needs to address a range of issues – from prize money to sexism in snooker halls.  |
| Posted: 05 Jun 2013 04:00 AM PDT
Subject: persistent lenient sentencing of fine upstanding men for sexual assault and voyeurism and imagery of girls. I am not a particularly punitive person, but this is the third time in about 2 months that I have had occasion to write to you on sentencing regarding sexual offences against girls. Perhaps it is the Savile case and the constant tales of grooming and sexual abuse – I see that police are investigating 54 gangs for grooming, abusing and internally trafficking girls – that have made me more alert to these stories. I do suspect however that there is a wider pattern at play here in which such crimes and offences are clearly not being taken seriously enough. I note too that in each of the cases issues such as the respectable, upstanding nature of the chap, his previous supposed good character (having not previously been caught) and the effects on him and his family are used as the excuse for the lenient sentencing. I have already written with regard to Bob Bellew in which his status as an international gym coach was both his opportunity to repeatedly commit his offences and the excuse for which the judge was lenient. I have written already with regard to Gary Karn in which the impact on his family in case they faced eviction – undoubtedly a very real and awful risk – but this was the excuse not to impose a custodial sentence and I read with disappointment today that it is decided not to pursue an appeal against lenient sentencing in this Karn case. I am today writing with regard to Lieutenant Colonel Mark Smyth. There are high rates of sexual assault in the military, and traditionally it is expected that we should accord an enormous amount of respect to the military. This again makes it far easier for such a man to have access to children as there is a sense of trust and respect due to his office. This man had thousands of images of girls on his computer, secretly took and uploaded images of girls "upskirt" and in the swimming pool being cited and shared these on paedophile and voyeur websites around the world as far as Russia. He also changed his name to try to evade being associated with this muck. I am shocked at the fact that he has received a community order and 60 hours sex offending course and that the risk to his million pounds worth of earning and pension was one of the reasons cited for so light a sentence. I wait to see if the installation, unknown to the women, of secret mirrors [for the ladies' room] of Shimmy’s nightclub – surely illegal voyeurism – is prosecuted at all, let alone whether [anyone is] suitably sentenced. Yours etc. Eaves is a member of the End Violence Against Women Campaign (EVAW). This is an unprecedented coalition of individuals and organisations who are calling on the Government, public bodies and others to take concerted action to end violence against women. We are activists, survivors, academics and service providers. The EVAW Campaign's vision is of a society where women and girls can live their lives free from violence and the threat of violence.  |
| Gender equality at heart of UN plans Posted: 05 Jun 2013 01:09 AM PDT
A panel of senior politicians and officials, set up to identify future development goals for the UN, has concluded that it should be possible to eradicate extreme poverty, hunger, disease and illiteracy and preventable deaths by 2030. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon set up the UN High Level Panel on the Post 2015 development Agenda (HILP) to devise goals and targets for international development after 2015, when the Millenium Development Goals, agreed by the UN in 2000, run out. The panel by UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of Indonesia handed him their report last week. The report argues that eradicating extreme poverty must also be linked to sustainable development – tackling poverty and protecting the environment should no longer be seen as separate issues. Economies, it says, should be developed to create jobs and provide benefit to a wide range of people, there should be a focus on promoting peace and effective, open and accountable institutions, corruption, money laundering and tax avoidance must be challenged and governments should work together with their people, so that no-one is left behind. The report proposes a set of 12 goals to bring this about. Near the top is empowering women and girls to achieve gender equality, along with quality education, healthcare and food, sanitation and water. The panel hopes that these goals, if implemented, will help reduce inequality, promote peace, address climate change, improve our cities, address the concerns of young people and enable sustainable consumption and production. The report suggests that there should be a set of 'universal goals', along with targets for individual countries. The panel also calls for a 'data revolution'. Technology should be used to enable people to connect with each other and tools like crowd sourcing used to ensure their voices are heard. To read the full report, click here.  |
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