Women's Views on News |
- Elaine Morgan dies aged 92
- Supporting victims of rape in conflict
- Ending Victimisation by #ShoutingBack
| Posted: 31 Jul 2013 09:12 AM PDT
A coal-miner's daughter, born Elaine Floyd, Morgan studied English literature and language at Oxford before teaching for the Workers’ Educational Asscociation (WEA). Determined that her bookish only child should free herself from a life of grinding poverty, her mother had given her every encouragement. She passed her 11-plus and won an Exhibition to read English at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where she became secretary, then chairman, of the university's Labour Club. She met her husband Morien at a political rally, and after their marriage in 1945 the couple moved to the Mountain Ash area of Wales, which would become their home and community for the rest of their lives. At the age of 11 she was paid a guinea by the Western Mail for a story and in 1952 she sold her first television play, Mirror, Mirror. After winning a writing competition in the New Statesman, Morgan joined the BBC where, between 1955 and 1988 she wrote for television dramas that included How Green Was My Valley and Dr Finlay's Casebook. She won two Baftas, one for a five-part series on the life of Marie Curie, and one of her two Writer of the Year awards was for her work on Vera Brittain’s ‘Testament of Youth’. Never afraid to give an opinion, Morgan challenged the scientific establishment by developing an alternative theory of human evolution. Published in 1972, The Descent of Woman became an international bestseller. In it, Morgan critiques the male-centric approach science has used to explain evolution, calling it 'Tarzanist.' She asked what role early women had to play in evolution since women must have protected themselves while men were away hunting. Morgan also pointed out what she believed to be a systemic confusion within the scientific community, which was mixing up the evolution of man-the-species with men-the-individuals. Her intellectual curiosity eventually led her to further develop Sir Alister Hardy's Aquatic Ape theory – the idea that women helped humans evolve by moving from the African savannah to the relative safety of water's edge. He made the case, in her words, that differences between people and apes "could be much easier to explain if our ancestors had lived not on the open grasslands but at the water's edge". The professor had reasoned that "a naked skin lined with a layer of fat is unknown in other land mammals, but relatively common in aquatic mammals" and "wading would have provided a strong incentive for walking upright on two legs". Although popular with the public, Morgan's theories did not gain widespread scientific support. But on the title page of her 2008 work ‘The Naked Darwinist’ she put the following quotation from philosopher Daniel Dennett: "During the last few years, when I have found myself in the company of distinguished biologists, evolutionary theorists, paleoanthropologists and other experts, I have often asked them just to tell me, please, exactly why Elaine Morgan must be wrong about the aquatic theory. “I haven't yet had a reply worth mentioning, aside from those who admit, with a twinkle in their eyes, that they have also wondered the same thing.” The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis has acquired some scientific currency in recent years following the discovery of fossils which suggest that humans became bipedal before the savannah developed. Sir David Attenborough used his presidency of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1991-92 to organise the first full-day discussion of Elaine Morgan's "engaging" theory, and even Desmond Morris has said that he believes an aquatic phase of human development is "highly likely". In 2003, she became a columnist for the Western Daily Mail, writing on a broad range of topics in her customary style – 'direct, spare, conversational and punchy’ and in 2011 she won the Columnist of the Year award from the Society of Editors at the Regional Press Awards. Morgan extended her customary honesty to herself, writing openly about ageing, including recounting the difficulties she faced in adjusting to a less independent lifestyle following a stroke in 2012. "My son Huw is sorting out all the various unknown people who are putting alarms and rails and things into the house before I move back in. I want to help out, but at the moment people are helping me out." It was only at the beginning of 2013 that Morgan retired from her writing career. In addition to her Baftas and Writer and Columnist of the Year awards, Morgan received an OBE in 2009 for services to literature and education and one of the highest honours of the internet age when she was invited to deliver a TED talk to a global audience. She was an honorary Fellow of both Cardiff and Glamorgan universities. And in April 2013, Rhondda Cynon Taf council bestowed its highest honour on Morgan by presenting her with the Freedom of the County Borough. Following the announcement of Morgan's death, Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones said: "Elaine Morgan's contribution to the fields of literature, science, journalism and Welsh life is immeasurable, particularly her role in promoting gender-equality and women's rights. "Her work was internationally acclaimed and its influence continues to be felt to this day. Despite her many successes she always remained deeply devoted to Wales and to her home in Mountain Ash. She will be sadly missed.”  |
| Supporting victims of rape in conflict Posted: 31 Jul 2013 06:43 AM PDT
Between 1999 and 2012, Panzi Hospital, in Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) treated 19,270 survivors of sexualized violence. The hospital's medical director and international advocate for survivors of rape in conflict, Dr Denis Mukwege, told the BBC: "These weren’t just violent acts of war, but part of a strategy. “You had situations where multiple people were raped at the same time, publicly – a whole village might be raped during the night. In doing this, they hurt not just the victims but the whole community, which they force to watch. "The result of this strategy is that people are forced to flee their villages, abandon their fields, their resources, everything. It’s very effective." The suffering of many survivors is compounded by an indirect but effective ban on abortion provision by many humanitarian organisations. One of the main causes of the abortion ban is the USA's infamous ‘Helm's Amendment’, which states that: “No foreign assistance funds may be used to pay for the performance of abortion as a method of family planning or to motivate or coerce any person to practice abortions." Although a US policy, the Helm's Amendment has an international impact on aid, as the UK's Department for International Development (DFID) and other national funding programmes do not require recipient organisations like The Red Cross to separate out their funds to allow abortion provision. A new Early Day Motion (EDM), sponsored by Katy Clark MP, calls on the government to: "review all funding to aid agencies operating in conflict zones to ensure that all aid providers in receipt of UK monies facilitate access to counselling and abortion services for all women and girls impregnated by rape." Only 52 MPs out of 650 have currently expressed support for the EDM and their names can be found here. If your MP is not among them – or if you would like yours to take further action – click here for details of the ongoing campaign to end rape in conflict. For previous coverage by WVoN click here and here. But for some international activists, it is all too easy for governments to ignore the complexity and context in which rape is employed as a weapon of war, particularly the often-neglected issue of the involvement of western states – including the UK – in supporting conflicts across the world. B K Kumbi, Congolese historian and activist, criticises UK government policy for encouraging the world to "forget about the role played by Rwanda in this tragedy." In a recent interview Kumbi added, "This kind of speech says nothing of those who allow these rapes to be possible." UK aid to the Rwandan government was frozen in July last year and reinstated in September, to be distributed by aid organisations. However, a £9m package of aid to the Rwandan government was announced in March this year, despite repeated claims from Human Rights Watch (HRW) that Rwandan soldiers have been crossing the border to take supplies to M23 Congo rebels. In its report, Human Rights Watch highlighted that the Rwandan-backed M23 rebels carried out at least 61 identified cases of rape in the Congo. In 2012, HRW also told of M23 fighters raping at least 46 women and girls, the youngest of whom was only 8 years old. The failure of the UK government to address the complexity and context of rape as a weapon of war in the DRC is also being challenged by the Labour opposition for being 'too soft' on Rwandan aid. Writing in the Telegraph, the shadow secretary for international development, Ivan Lewis, and shadow minister for Africa and the Middle East Ian Lucas said that if elected: "Labour will only support the reinstatement of direct UK funding if it can be demonstrated that for at least a 12-month period no direct or indirect support has been provided by the Government of Rwanda to militias operating in DRC." Beyond the complexities of international politics, Elizabeth Jean Wood, a political scientist at Yale University who has undertaken research on the use of sexual violence in conflict, believes that the use of sexual violence in conflict is not inevitable. Commenting on the Women Under Siege project’s site, Wood recently said: "That some armed groups do not rape civilians – at least some of the time – should give us hope. “Rape in war is not inevitable, and therefore current policy initiatives – including prosecution of perpetrators and their commanders – may reduce this form of wartime violence."  |
| Ending Victimisation by #ShoutingBack Posted: 31 Jul 2013 02:15 AM PDT
Guest blog from Everyday Victim Blaming. In case you've been hidden away, Caroline Criado-Perez of The Women's Room, started a petition and a fund raiser to get the Bank of England (BoE) to Keep a Woman on English Banknotes. Ms Criado-Perez would have taken the BoE to court to enforce their duty under the Equality Act 2010. As it happened, she didn't need to, as they had Jane Austen 'waiting in the wings'. It has certainly opened a can of worms! As a result of this, Twitter has been rife with misogynistic slurs, rape threats and the inevitable sexist comments about sandwich-making. Hilarious, lads. Like it probably stated on your school report – must try harder. Lots of commenters have suggested 'don't feed the trolls'. Somehow within all this, trolling – which can be very funny, see this example about #racistvan – has been confused with abuse. Being threatened with rape is not trolling. A tweeter threatening to cut off your head is not, under any circumstances, funny. Why not? Isn't it just 'banter'? One of the many reasons that these comments aren't funny is that they actually happen to women. Most women risk assess to a level that men would never consider. We check behind us when we are walking home, we check in the back of our car before we get into it, we are hyper vigilant when we are walking alone, we risk being killed by our partner or ex partner at the rate of 2 per week. Many of us will suffer domestic and sexual violence and abuse at the hands of men. These men – and they are usually men – who threaten women with violence and abuse have no idea of the levels of risk management that women take. And we have no idea whether they are a rapist, or an abuser – nor whether they may seek us out in 'real life'. So what do we do about this? We are supporting #ShoutingBack, because suggesting that we ignore online abuse is victim blaming. It is victim blaming because it tells women to change their behaviour to avoid abuse. It tells women to shut up, stop talking, stop demanding equality, stop campaigning for the increased visibility of women's achievements, stop talking about men's violence against women. It tells women that we don't want hear about abuse, we want to ignore it and hope it goes away. It does not tell abusers to stop, nor to take responsibility for their actions. One of the important features of our campaign is giving survivors the opportunity to shout back. It may not be to their abuser, but it is shouting to other survivors and supporters, safely and confidentially. It allows survivors to be heard, and to be believed. It gives those who have experienced abuse an opportunity to share their experiences with others, and to know that we are not going to suggest that a survivor could have avoided abuse by questioning: how you behaved; what you said; what you wore. We believe you, and we know the fault for the abuse is with the abuser who made the choice to behave abusively. We've been described as one of the Three Modern Heroines of Third Wave Feminism, alongside Caroline Criado-Perez and Laura Bates of the Everyday Sexism Project. We are flattered to be in such illustrious company! Our campaign has been set up to challenge the culture of institutional disbelief associated with domestic and sexual violence and abuse. To achieve our aim, we need our voices to be heard. We need to challenge those who tell us to 'ignore' the online abuse we receive. We wouldn't tell someone who had experienced domestic or sexual abuse to 'ignore' it. We would listen to them, hear them, support them. #ShoutingBack is about women's voices being heard, which is why we won't be boycotting Twitter on August 4. We will be loudly, and proudly, shouting back.  |
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