Women's Views on News |
- Maternity campaign to probe impact of cuts
- Avoid blurred lines: teach about consent
- Women in quagmire of gender bias at work
| Maternity campaign to probe impact of cuts Posted: 24 Sep 2013 08:04 AM PDT
The Valuing Maternity campaign, which is made up of advice providers such as Citizens Advice, specialist charities like Maternity Action and trade unions and is asking women to come forward with their stories about how cuts to welfare benefits have affected them and their families Valuing Maternity say that in last year's Autumn Statement the Chancellor announced that Statutory Maternity Pay and Maternity Allowance would increase by 1 per cent per year over the next three years. This was below inflation and would result in a reduction in income of up to £221.87 by 2015, compared to indexing in line with inflation. They say that this reduction in statutory payments comes on top of a series of recent cuts to maternity and child benefits, for example the Health in Pregnancy Grant, a £190 payment to all mothers in the later stages of pregnancy, which ceased in 2011. The Sure Start Maternity Grant (SSMG), a one-off payment of £500 for parents on lower incomes to assist with the costs of a new baby, was restricted from 2011 to first babies and multiple births. Child Benefit, a weekly payment of £20.30 a week for the first child and £14.30 for subsequent children, was frozen from 2011 and will be restricted from 2013. The payment was previously paid to all parents and will now be phased out where one parent earns between £50,000 and £60,000. Valuing Maternity believes that the cumulative loss of benefits and reductions in maternity payments leaves women with up to £911.87 less during pregnancy and maternity leave. For women on low incomes, this is a clearly a significant amount of money. They believe that concerns about finances may be forcing women to cut short their maternity leave, and that added stress during and after pregnancy could lead to more cases of post natal depression. They point out that mothers also face new costs in exercising employment rights; new legislation brought in by the coalition government means that from 2013 it will cost £1,200 for a woman to take a pregnancy discrimination claim to the employment tribunal. Valuing Maternity say research from 2005 found that 30,000 women each year lost their jobs as a result of unlawful pregnancy discrimination. This is 8 per cent of all pregnant women in the workforce. They say Maternity Action and other advice agencies have observed an increase in pregnancy discrimination since the onset of the recession. Valuing Maternity is continuing to push for parents to have the right to return to the same job after taking leave. They want better protection against unfair selection for redundancy during pregnancy and leave, and are also exploring new ways to strengthen the hand of parents negotiating with their employers to balance work and caring responsibilities. Valuing Maternity is working with the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) to prepare guidance on breastfeeding on returning to work but will continue to push for the legal right to breastfeed at work. They will also be documenting and critiquing the impact of austerity policies on NHS maternity services and services for pregnant women and new parents. Valuing Maternity is urging supporters to sign up to the campaign. Join them on Twitter using the #ValuingMaternity hashtag.  |
| Avoid blurred lines: teach about consent Posted: 24 Sep 2013 04:08 AM PDT
Campaign4Consent is a Twitter Youth Feminist Army (TYFA) campaign to get sexual consent taught in schools as part to the sex and relationships education (SRE) National Curriculum. Campaign4Consent believes that the current curriculum is lacking information in important areas of teaching teens how to have happy, healthy sexual relationships, about LGBT+ sex and relationships, and about abusive relationships or consent. All of these are important and need to be taught, but it is crucial, campaigners stress, for consent to be taught immediately as it is universally relevant as well as just a very basic concept that should be common knowledge. It is, however, very often overlooked. The concept of consent is easy: if someone wants to engage in sexual intercourse, they will give their consent – in other words, they will agree. So there is no confusion. There are no "blurred lines" when it comes to sexual activity. If someone is crying, admits to feeling pressured, says no or is unable to give consent (underage, incoherently drunk, etc), they have not given consent, and should not be persuaded or forced to do anything. No-one should be taken advantage of when they are vulnerable, and that is a moral code which we hope a greater understanding of consent will promote. No matter what someone is wearing and no matter how much they may have been "flirting", no-one is ever asking to be assaulted – ever. And Campaign4Consent wants every student in the country to know this, so that such terrible crimes as sexual assault can be prevented. In an open letter to the Department for Education, Campaign4Consent is asking the government to ensure that: By the age of 16 all children in the UK have received adequate information regarding sexual consent and associated issues. Teachers have received training in delivering this information, and are also aware of how to respond when they have knowledge of a student being a victim of sexual assault. And more specifically, that children are taught: What sexual consent is i.e. Clear and enthusiastic agreement from both parties when involved in any form of sexual contact. What sexual consent isn't. This will involve highlighting situations that are often mistaken for consensual but are not, including – but not limited to – cases where a victim of assault was under the influence of alcohol or substances and feels that they did not give permission for sexual contact; asleep but had consented when conscious or in a marriage relationship without giving consent to their partner. How non-consensual sexual contact of any form can be damaging to the victim both physically and emotionally. This can be taught by giving personal accounts of rape-victims' experiences and also by being shown statistical evidence. Students will understand that sexual assault can be detrimental to the victim's mental health; up to two thirds of rape victims develop Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and physical health; assault can lead to the spread of STIs and can also be the cause (regarding intercourse) of unwanted pregnancy. How non-consensual sexual contact of any form can have negative implications for the perpetrator. This would include educating pupils about the justice system and laws regarding sexual harassment. And a general overview of why consensual sexual contact is important for everyone to be respectful of others, to stay safe and to have healthy, happy relationships. Yours, etc. – letter ends. To read a more detailed outline of the campaigners' proposals – and to find how to support them – click here. To sign a petition calling on the government to listen to young people and insist that all schools teach an SRE curriculum fit for the 21st century, click here.  |
| Women in quagmire of gender bias at work Posted: 24 Sep 2013 01:35 AM PDT
Nothing puts a damper on the annual back-to-school-and-work energy of early autumn better than a new batch of statistics revealing the huge financial disadvantages faced by women in the workplace around the world. In the UK, male managers are paid bonuses that are double the amount women receive, and, for the first time in five years, male managers' earnings are rising faster than women's. In Australia's finance industry, bonuses paid to men are three times the amount of those paid to women, and men are more likely to receive bonuses in general – 52 per cent of men versus 44 per cent of women. Plus, the bonus gap in the sector is increasing, having grown by 28 per cent in 2012. In the United States, managers are far more likely to approve requests for flexible working patterns from men than from women. And the likelihood of men being granted flexible working increased if the request was made to advance their career. Women, on the other hand, were just as likely to have their request turned down whatever the reason, whether for childcare or career development. Which led the researchers to conclude that ‘managers respect high-status men more than high-status women’. Bonuses paid to managers in the UK put numbers to that claim, with research by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) finding that male managers received an average of £6,442 in bonus pay while women received an average of £3,029. Over a lifetime, that is £141,000 more for men than women – in bonus pay only. At the most senior levels of management, the disparity in bonuses is even greater. Women directors receive an average bonus of £36,270, whereas male directors receive £63,700. Dr Ruth Sealy, senior research fellow at the Cranford School of Management, said, 'It is not surprising. Bonuses are a method of payment that can be used with discretion.' Ann Francke, CMI's chief executive, called the news shocking and bad for business. 'If organisations don't tap into and develop their female talent right through to the highest levels, they will miss out on growth, employee engagement and more ethical management cultures.' Women are still financially penalised if they have children, with the average female executive earning on average £423,390 less than the average male executive over a lifetime. The slow pace of change in the workplace is exacerbating the gap, with many women forced to take lower paid, often part-time, jobs that are below their professional ability and that are 'occupations [with] less of a culture of bonus payments,' said Mark Crail, XpertHR's head of salary surveys. Maria Miller, minister for women and equalities, said 'The Government is playing its part. 'We have made pay secrecy clauses illegal, and we've introduc[ed] shared parental leave and the right to request flexible working to all employees.' Businesses, however, continue to show themselves less than willing in making the necessary changes. In the two years that it has been running, only 120 organisations have signed up to the government's Think, Act, Report programme that encourages companies to improve the way they recruit, promote and pay women. Writing in the Telegraph, Cristina Odone, research fellow at the Centre for Policy Studies, disagreed with the claims that it is predominantly institutional change standing in the way between equality in the workplace. 'Most women between 20-45, from all walks of life, lack the will, and sometimes the gumption, to rise to the top in their profession.' Francke disagrees, saying 'This is about changing our approach to management to allow for greater flexibility, less masculine cultures, more emphasis on outcomes rather than time in the office and greater transparency around performance and rewards.' For true cultural change to occur, CMI recommends three broad actions: Demand measurement and public reporting of equality Extend flexible working for both genders, especially at the most senior levels Sponsor and mentor women ‘Diversity,’ said Francke, ‘delivers results.’  |
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