Women's Views on News |
- The British Library and the sisterhood
- The symbolic use of women
- Church in Wales says yes to women bishops
| The British Library and the sisterhood Posted: 17 Sep 2013 08:39 AM PDT
The British Library’s Sisterhood and After website is part of a wider project the aim of which is to create an original and extensive oral history archive of the lives of feminist change-makers of the 1970s and '80s. The archive provides the resources for new studies of a whole social movement and its legacy, capturing the voices of a unique generation before it is too late. The site will also illustrate the continuities and changes that have marked women's struggles for equality and expression over time, and help answer questions about feminist histories and futures. Questions such as: Should boys and girls be educated together or separately? Does gender influence career choice? Should women be paid to do housework? Are masculinity and femininity opposites? What do women from different races and classes have in common? How do they differ? The women featured on the site took on these and other questions in an extraordinary period of British history. They strived for political and social equality, and struggled for changes that would grant both women and men new freedoms. This British Library site hopes visitors can learn about what they fought for, what they achieved and how they achieved it. The Women's Liberation Movement prided itself upon its lack of stars and a variety of views. There is no one history of feminism, but many, just as there is no one women's movement but many. Their stories are illustrated by oral history recordings and films that capture the voices of women at the forefront of the Women's Liberation Movement in the 1970s and '80s. Recordings from another oral history project, led by Dr Lucy Delap, and called 'Unbecoming Men: Masculinities and the Women's Liberation Movement, 1970-1985' also feature on this site. You can view this project at Who We Were, Who We Are. The full interviews from ‘Sisterhood and After: The Women's Liberation Oral History Project’ can be accessed here. This website, and the oral history behind it, captures only a fragment of a living archive that hopes are will grow at the British Library and elsewhere. The aim has been to represent a diverse range of voices, reflecting the multifaceted nature of the Women's Liberation Movement. Further details about the project outcomes, publications and partners can be found here. Ten films were specially commissioned for this project. They were directed and produced by film maker Lizzie Thynne and highlight key themes that were vital to the Women’s Liberation Movement. YBA Wife? She got involved in the 'YBA Wife?’ campaign and reveals her ongoing commitment to co-habitation and not going to weddings. To watch it, click here. The Feelings Behind the Slogans, 1-4 Jan's experience led her to work for the National Abortion Campaign. She remembers too the importance of a women's health group in allowing her to cherish her own body. To watch part 1, click here; part 2 click here; part 3 click here and part 4, click here. From GLF to WLM Moving from her early involvement in the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) kiss-ins and protests against the commercial club scene, she describes her trip to the 1971 Women's Liberation Conference at Skegness where the GLF women took decisive action to stop male activists running the show. To watch it, click here. Return to Sender This short film follows Rebecca Johnson, still a tireless campaigner for disarmament, go to the monthly women's peace camp at Aldermaston and to the now tranquil common where the missiles were once installed. To watch it, click here. Crossing the Divides As a member of the inventive Women's Coalition (1996-2006) Bronagh contributed to the 1998 Peace Agreement which brought an end to years of violent conflict in Ulster. To watch this film, click here. On Tools Barbara's enthusiasm for the trade is boundless and her belief that women can do anything in a traditionally male occupation is inspiring. To watch it, click here. In the Beginning We Demanded It was the first of several national conferences in the UK which formulated the demands of the women's movement and sparked the campaigns to make those demands – from equal wages to a woman's right to choose – a reality. Director Sue Crockford made 'A Woman's Place' a unique film about the event. She describes the excitement of this inaugural moment of modern feminism and the challenges of covering it. To watch it, click here. A Safe House Karen highlights the challenges and achievements of this vital organisation – working in a war zone, where men were often armed and police were reluctant to respond to calls from women in Republican areas. To watch, click here. A Democracy for Women Lesley Abdela, who had stood as a Liberal candidate, founded the 300 group to get 300 women into the parliament. Interwoven with glimpses of iconic women MPs from the past, Lesley relates the history and impact of the campaign and compares the situation in England with the relative advances of female politicians in the other UK nations and beyond. To watch, click here. Red Flannel: Liberating Women on Film She discusses the collaborative process of working on the film 'Mam' (1988) about the history of women in the Welsh valleys, whose lives and work had until then, scarcely been recorded. To watch this, click here. Many other oral history projects have been and are being carried out around the world. To find out more about some of the projects, and link to their sites, or to explore the British Library’s site further, click here.  |
| Posted: 17 Sep 2013 04:26 AM PDT
There is nothing new in using women as a cultural battleground. Women have regularly been used symbolically to signify and reproduce nations, cultures and religions; and the norms and values that constitute these. When the French colonized Algeria, for example, they used the status of women (thus constructing this status as a homogenous fact) to 'prove' how backwards and uncivilized Algerian (read: Muslim) culture was, and therefore to justify their civilizing mission. The fact that (some) women were covered, for example, supposedly showed the need for the French to liberate them—a narrative that actually still exists in France today, where calls to ban the burqa were made based on saving and/or civilizing French Muslim women. The Algerian freedom fighters manipulated the French assumption by using women to carry weapons. Since the French assumed that women were passive, they did not check them thoroughly at checkpoints. This allowed many women to smuggle weapons to the freedom fighters. So again, we see Algerian men using stereotypes about Algerian women for their own benefit (although one could argue that Algerian independence was a struggle both Algerian men and women supported and fought for). It is also important to not assume that Algerian women were unaware of their roles, but that the end was more important than the means. Another example is the way in which women's bodies have been used in nationalist movements. Nadia Fadil, for example, argues that in the Middle East, the "women's question" did not emerge due to the desire of women to be included as "equal citizens" (this is how it had emerged in Europe); rather, it emerged as a project by Egyptian men to be included in modernity and as a way for the men to assert themselves as political and modern subjects. She speaks about Qasim Amin in particular, who many see as one of the pioneers of feminism in Egypt. She argues that his interest in the "women's question" and feminism is because he saw it as a way for him to be seen as modern, enlightened, and on an equal footing with Europeans. In other words, he instrumentalised women in order to represent himself as modern and enlightened. We see a similar battle over women and women's bodies in today's mainstream media in Europe, particularly in efforts to demonize Muslims and/or Arabs. Women are consistently used to show how progressive and modern Europe is, either by images of them wearing a bikini/underwear/or as little as possible, or with statistics that show how emancipated women are because they work/earn money (despite this drawing them into a capitalist structure of repression). Not only does this create a narrative of women in Europe being 'free,' which is far from the case; it simultaneously creates the narrative of women who do not look like European women (whatever that is) or act like European women as backwards/traditional. Once this narrative is constructed, it becomes the lens through which women in non-European cultures are understood. Today we see many actors within Islamic movements using the bodies of women to construct certain narratives as well. Women must be conservative, remain pure and untouched, because they represent the nation and, more broadly, the ummah or global Islamic community. Any laws or movements that are seen as trying to "liberate" women are usually branded as imperialist and/or western and therefore to be rejected. While it is true that many women's movements in the Middle East are imperialist in nature and use Western feminist rhetoric, it is useless to categorize them all in the same way. In both cases, it is not women's best interests that are taken into account. When a European fashion magazine prints a picture of a woman wearing a bikini and represents this as her being "free" because she wears less than other women, it is not out of a genuine concern for women's freedom. Similarly, when an Islamic website wants to 'protect' women from immoral behaviour, they are not necessarily doing so out of a concern for women, but rather because of bigger religious assumptions about the danger women pose to the community. Women lose out because it is already pre-decided what "liberation" and "oppression" mean. It is not a choice. Women who cover their hair in the Netherlands are seen as oppressed by their culture and religion; and women who dress in a "Western style" are seen as oppressed by consumerism and a sex-obsessed culture. And within these binary narratives, how free are we as women, to choose what we want to wear, be, think, feel, or do? This is complicated even further if you are a non-white woman, because then it is not only patriarchy reproduced by men that affects you, but also imperial notions of feminism reproduced by white feminism. A case in point is Laura Bush's plea to "help" liberate women in Afghanistan that functioned as a justification for the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq. It is no accident that her plea found wide resonance in some circles, where yet again Muslim women's bodies were seen in a certain way—a process which Muslim women themselves, in their heterogeneity, have no control over. The solution is therefore more complicated than simply "allowing" women to speak or choose. We are all constructed by intersections of identity, and so different experiences and positionalities will ultimately affect our choices. At the same time, it is necessary to stand up to the use of women's bodies in attempts to legitimize culture, nation, war, humanitarian assistance, or anything else. This use inevitably embeds certain narratives about women that are difficult to deconstruct, and also rarely strengthens grassroots women's movements in any meaningful way. "You have to understand the Arab mind," Capt. Todd Brown, a company commander with the Fourth Infantry Division, said as he stood outside the gates of Abu Hishma. "The only thing they understand is force — force, pride and saving face." New York Times, December 7, 2003. This racist, dehumanising and imperialist understanding of the Eastern world is more than rampant in the West and its armed forces: It's ingrained. This article appeared recently in Media Diversity UK, a site set up to tackle the lack of diversity in UK media and the ubiquity of whiteness.  |
| Church in Wales says yes to women bishops Posted: 17 Sep 2013 01:09 AM PDT
In what some have called a ‘landmark’ vote, the Church in Wales – the Anglican church – has agreed to consecrate women bishops, some 15 years after female priests were first ordained in the ministry. On 12 September the Church in Wales Committee voted overwhelmingly in favour of the motion, having narrowly rejected the move five years ago. The decision means women bishops could be ordained in Wales in the next twelve months, although despite both Scotland and Northern Ireland already allowing female bishops, so far none have actually been elected in the UK. Supporters hope the move will put further pressure on the Anglican church in England to follow suit; the Church of England voted against women bishops just ten months ago and is due to revisit the debate in November. The Welsh decision has been welcomed by many Christians, and met with cheers, but there are still ‘traditionalists’ within the church who are strongly opposed to the move. Canon Peter Jones, of Conwy in North Wales, claimed that women bishops were against scripture, saying: “It's the wrong decision, wrongly made. Women bishops are not compatible with the teaching of the Holy scriptures or the mainstream Christian position.” And Father Ben Andrews, from Barry, near Cardiff, said: “The bishop’s role is to hold the diocese together, and for those of us who in good conscience cannot accept the sacramental ministry of a woman bishop means we cannot be in communion with that bishop.” Senior members of the Church in Wales had originally wanted a second bill to allow for those conservative members who would find it ‘difficult’ to serve under a woman, but this was replaced at the eleventh hour by an amendment that called for a ‘code of practice’ instead. The committee will now have to consult with its members to find a way to appease conservative priests who use scripture to justify their misogyny. I can understand that concessions had to be made in order to pass the motion, but the fact that we are still debating this subject just astounds me; it is 2013 and women are still being denied the opportunity to take the top jobs, regardless of the profession. Many women may not feel this decision is relevant to them or their lives, but the fact that this kind of inequality is still rife in some of our oldest institutions is something which should concern all of us. In any other workplace, this kind of discrimination would be totally unacceptable and, in fact, illegal. But then, religious institutions are exempt from the Equality Act 2010. All three of the Abrahamic religions are used to justify female inequality across the world. From repressing reproductive rights to branding menstruating women unclean, religion has done plenty to ensure women remain subservient to men. The Bible says: ‘I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent’, see 1 Timothy 2:11-12, but it also commands slaves to obey their owners, and today that doesn’t make slavery ok. Religion itself may not be inherently misogynistic, but the interpretation of it – in the past mostly by men – is. It would be naive to think that ordaining a handful of women bishops will drastically change the way Christianity is interpreted, but for many Christians it is a key step to establishing equality in the Anglican church. The fact that concessions will have to be made, however, to accommodate religious conservatives will only undermine those women who do eventually take up the most senior roles within the church.  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Women's Views on News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |