Women's Views on News |
- Has the UK’s gender digital divide vanished?
- Progress in women’s road cycling
- Who’s in and who’s out?
| Has the UK’s gender digital divide vanished? Posted: 16 Oct 2013 07:09 AM PDT
Published within days of each other, research from the Oxford Internet Institute (OII), the UN's International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the UN's Broadband Commission reported on the state of gender equality in the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). Moving up three positions from last year to eighth place in the 2013 edition of the ITU's Measuring the Information Society report, the UK broke into the top ten of overall national ICT development behind only South Korea and Scandinavian countries. Not only are 80 per cent of UK households connected to the internet, more than double the global average, but the ITU report commended the UK on the affordability of its broadband. As internet usage grows, so too does the volume of daily life conducted online. From banking to shopping and booking holidays, the Oxford University research found that eight out of ten people, up from six out of ten a decade ago, now rely on the internet for everyday activities. And, the OII declared in its report that ‘There is no longer a gender gap in access to the Internet in Britain’. While good news, access is only part of e-equality. Usage and benefits must also be considered. Research published by Spanish scientists in 2012 in the International Journal of Society Systems Science ranked 31 European nations in e-equality and found the UK to be 'below the mean average [and out of the top ten] at number 18.' The work examined a range of indicators of ICT use by men and women, including computer use, internet access, online banking and e-commerce that included healthcare. While the gap between numbers of male and female users of ICT in developed countries is relatively small, the UN Broadband Commission report emphasises the global socioeconomic benefits of getting more women and girls online in every country. The Commission estimates that if an additional 600 million women and girls were online, the global GDP could rise as much as USD18 billion, an untapped market that could outstrip even the size of the opportunity of such large emerging economies as China or India. Linked to the gap in access to and the use of ICT technologies is of course the continued lack of professional equality in the fields of science, technology, engineering and maths. It is estimated that by 2015, 90 per cent of all formal employment will require ICT skills, and encouraging more girls and women to pursue ICT careers has become a worldwide imperative. The BBC recently announced its new scheme focused on increasing the knowledge and use of coding and general discussions about digital creativity. Martha Lane Fox, government advisor on digital policy and development and head of Go On UK, an organisation whose goal is to help make the UK the world's most digitally skilled nation, said, "We are going to need a million more people who can work in the technology sector over the next 10 years. [Right now], we don't have them." As the Broadband Commission said, "Since the internet is now a channel that is empowering stakeholders and acting as a catalyst in the delivery of critical services such as education, healthcare, government services, employment opportunities and financial services, gender equality would be fair, just and appropriate."  |
| Progress in women’s road cycling Posted: 16 Oct 2013 03:00 AM PDT
Tour of Britain organiser SweetSpot group announced last week that the women's race, to be held for the first time in May 2014, will be categorised 2.1. This is the third of four statuses used to categorise elite stage races, and places the women's event on an equal footing with the men's. Although it has only been awarded the third-highest status, it will now be one of the highest rated women's races in the world, which will allow it to attract the very best riders. Lizzie Armitstead, silver medallist in last year’s Olympic road race, has spoken in the past of her support for an event in Britain to match the men’s tour. “It’s refreshing to hear someone talk like that,” she told the Guardian in September. “If there is a women’s Tour of Britain next season I would base half my year around trying to win it.” The first edition of the women's race was announced in July. Then head of British Cycling Brian Cookson said at the time that it would be "the first step" towards an equivalent Tour of Britain for women. Cookson has since been elected as the new head of the global cycling governing body the UCI. During his campaign, he spoke of the need to support women's road cycling, which falls well behind the men's sport in terms of sponsorship, media coverage and rider development. He has already taken steps to implement his manifesto. In addition to the Tour of Britain categorisation, he announced last week the creation of a new commission to support the growth of women's cycling. He also announced that the upper age limit of 28 currently in place for elite women's teams would be abolished. The five day race will begin in Northamptonshire on 7 May, 2014. The full route has yet to be revealed.  |
| Posted: 16 Oct 2013 01:09 AM PDT
However, with a number of women promoted to mid-level ministerial positions, (whisper it) there is the potential for change on a grander scale next year when the parties prepare more fully for the forthcoming 2015 election. The Liberal Democrats kicked off the recent reshuffles by making one cabinet-level change, moving one man out and another in to the post of Scottish Secretary. Prime Minister David Cameron said that he wanted more women, more northerners and a wider diversity of backgrounds in his Cabinet and in Parliament, but he remains some way from that goal. The Cabinet's youngest member, Chloe Smith, started the Conservative reshuffle by announcing her resignation, following a series of controversies, including a poor television performance that led to her former boss, George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, being called an 'arrogant coward' for not defending Treasury policy himself. She said in her resignation letter that she intends to focus on constituency work and getting more young people involved in politics. All four female Cabinet members, Home Secretary Theresa May; Culture Secretary Maria Miller; International Development Secretary Justine Greening; and Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers, do remain in post, as does Baroness Warsi, a Cabinet-meeting attendee in her role as joint Senior Minister for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for Communities and Local Government. But with some central government departments still led by all-male ministerial teams, it may be some time before he achieves another of his goals, which is making sure that at least one third of all ministerial positions are held by women. And the BBC's North East and Cumbria political editor Richard Moss pointed out, ‘the problem is there are too few candidates to choose from.’ Another Conservative female MP making headlines was Anna Soubry, MP for Broxtowe, in the East Midlands, who, as Parliamentary Under-Secretary, became the first female minister in the Ministry of Defence. Other promotions of women within the government included Loughborough’s MP Nicky Morgan to be Economic Secretary of the Treasury; London’s MP Jane Ellison to be Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Public Health; and Liverpudlian Esther McVey, who moved up within the Department for Work and Pensions to become a Minister of State; and there are three women in the Whips office – Claire Perry from Devizes and Amber Rudd from Hastings and Rye were appointed and Karen Bradley, MP for Staffordshire Moorlands, was promoted. As would be expected, both Labour and the Green Party have a more equal mix of men and women MPs, with Green Party leader Natalie Bennett pointing out that there are 15 women among the party's 27 official spokespeople. In Labour's shadow cabinet, there are now 11 female shadow cabinet ministers with three women among the additional five MPs who ‘attend meetings’. Rachel Reeves will replace Liam Byrne as shadow work and pensions secretary, Mary Creagh leaves the environment, food and rural affairs brief to become shadow transport secretary; Maria Eagle moves from being shadow transport secretary to environment, food and rural affairs; Emma Reynolds replaces Jack Dromey as shadow housing minister; and Gloria de Piero becomes shadow minister for women and equalities – a shadow cabinet post that was previously held by Yvette Cooper, who continues in her main role as shadow home secretary. Perhaps the biggest disappointment for many following the reshuffles was Labour leader Ed Miliband's demotion of former Labour-leader candidate and long-serving (since 1987) MP Diane Abbott. Simon Wooley, of Operation Black Vote, reacted to the news by saying, "What troubles me is that when I look at the candidates that ran for the Labour leadership, all of them have extremely prominent positions inside or outside national politics and the Labour movement. "By contrast, Diane Abbott has once again been outcast from political power. "What signal does this send to the black voter?" Speaking to the BBC, Abbott said, “I think Ed wants more message discipline. I will live. These things happen.” “I want to go back to campaigning for Hackney, in a way that I did not have the freedom to when I was a frontbench spokeswoman.”  |
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