Women's Views on News |
- Unfairness of the cuts in detail
- Labour pledge on domestic violence
- Launch of Digital Women UK ‘timely’
- Calls for more female Liberal Democrat MPs
| Unfairness of the cuts in detail Posted: 02 Oct 2013 08:04 AM PDT
Hetty Bower, has been a peace activist and anti-poverty campaigner for the past 90 years. Invited to speak against austerity cuts, at a Labour Conference Fringe meeting in Brighton last week, she told her audience that: "I’ve lived through two world wars and I have spent most of my adult life working for peace on our planet. “I don’t think human beings are civilised while we still waste time and money killing each other, when we should be sitting at a table discussing how to improve the lives of ordinary people,” The Mirror reported. When she met Labour party leader Ed Miliband, he asked her for advice. The 107 year-old campaigner said: "To stick to the principles that started the Labour Party – social justice." The BBC reported that Bower, who was born in the year that Kier Hardie was elected Labour leader, in an impassioned defence of the welfare state, said: "I can remember hearing a mother discuss whether she could pay for the visit of a doctor or whether [the money's] got to go on food for the family. “I can remember women singing in the street for pennies generous people threw at their feet. Those days must never return." Sharing the conference platform with Bower were Mary Laver, who is disabled by rheumatoid arthritis and has just seen her personal care cut by 46 hours per week; and Jack Monroe, the blogger ‘A Girl Called Jack, who has won acclaim for her accounts of how to feed a child good food on a shoestring budget. Laver, a disabled former RAF woman who carried the Olympic torch in 2012 and who is now losing the Independent Living Fund, said that the cuts to care, brought about by the Coalition austerity cuts, left her in a state of despair. She said: "I will lose 46 hours of care a week. I'll make up most of the 46 hours sitting in my home in a wet patch all day getting pressure sores, wanting to go to the bottom of my garden and put my head in the pond. I'm absolutely petrified." Monroe, The Mirror reported, told the meeting about of her experience: "There's nothing cosy and nostalgic about unscrewing the light bulbs so you can't accidentally turn them on, or selling your son's shoes, or drinking the formula milk that the food bank gave you because there's nothing else." "You get up the next morning and give your child one of the last Weetabix, mashed with a little water, with a glass of tap water to wash it down with. 'Where's mummy's breakfast?' he asks, all big blue eyes and innocent concern.” The Conservative Party conference begins this week and Monroe will be speaking, on behalf of Oxfam, at a Conservative Fringe meeting about food poverty ‘The Rise of Food Banks—A Sign of Hope or Failure?’ Originally her application for a conference pass was refused, but after protesting, she has now received one.  |
| Labour pledge on domestic violence Posted: 02 Oct 2013 06:43 AM PDT A Labour government would appoint a national champion for victims of rape and domestic violence. Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary – who is also shadow minister for women and equalities – has claimed that women are less safe under a Coalition government because of cuts in policing and local authorities. She told the Labour’s Women’s Conference last week: "Since 20 per cent police cuts started, 13 per cent fewer domestic violence cases and 33 per cent fewer rape cases have been referred to the prosecution – even though reported cases are going up. “Two women a week still die at the hands of a partner or ex. “If there was this level of violence and murder at football matches it would be a national scandal, there would be Government task forces, new laws and standards to meet." The Independent reported that a Labour government would create a dedicated Commissioner for Domestic and Sexual Violence to ensure police, prosecutors and local authorities co-ordinate to prosecute perpetrators and prevent attacks. Polly Neate, chief executive of Women’s Aid, which runs a network of 350 domestic and sexual violence services across the UK, told The Independent: “I would welcome this in the strongest terms. “It shows that domestic and sexual violence is being taken seriously as a major social problem.” More than 1,000 delegates attended the third Labour Women’s Conference; labourlist sums up some of the highlights. These include learning from our ancestors such as Mary Barbour who protested against landlords raising the rent during the First World War and made such a noise that the government was forced to take action. In today’s world garnering online support can be an effective catalyst for change as Caroline Creado-Perez proved. She successfully campaigned for a female to be represented on a British banknote and then had to tackle sexist abuse which her higher profile attracted. And Melissa Benn described how Mumsnet's online campaign Let Girls Be Girls had forced shops to remove sexualised girls’ clothing from stores. Cooper, referriing to Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, whose book Lean In urges women to assert themselves at home and work, ended her speech saying: "I say women should lean out. “Women and men should lean out and reach a hand to other women to encourage them to go forward, encourage them to break new barriers, smash more glass ceilings, make the most of every opportunity and to stand together for women's equality too."  |
| Launch of Digital Women UK ‘timely’ Posted: 02 Oct 2013 04:10 AM PDT
August 2013 was an intense month for social media, women's rights, feminism and race. Twitter has come under fire for dragging its heels over abuse on its site after the high profile trolling of bank note campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez. But the #SolidarityisforWhiteWomen hashtag has crystallised the benefits of Twitter by sparking an overdue debate on the white middle class nature of feminism, one that Words of Colour Productions has been championing for the last few years. The hashtag #SolidarityisforWhiteWomen, orginated by blogger Mikki Kendall, is still trending and has raised serious questions about the inclusiveness of feminism, a topic that has been on Words of Colour's agenda for some time. Women from all over the world have posted their observations about how white middle class women dominate the feminist agenda, including a belated response to a New York Times article that, without any irony, discussed"The new shades of feminism" alongside an image of four young well-groomed white, middle class women, actors from the US smash hit comedy Girls. The British media that has picked up this story is not without its faults, however. Only recently the Observer published an article discussing the future of Britain’s "new wave" of feminism with an all-white cast, and last year the Daily Telegraph's publicity image for its new Wonder Women column featured eight white women. This apparent "blind spot", which operates within the media, is reflected in all aspects of life.At a recent event at the Tate Modern looking back at the history of the women's movement in the UK, there was a distinct lack of diversity among the older women (over 60) who gathered to talk about their experiences. As #SolidarityisforWhiteWomen has shown, social media is a powerful tool, potentially providing all women with an opportunity to ensure their voices and perspectives are heard. Helping women to use these tools effectively was part of the reason behind Words of Colour's decision to launch Digital Women UK for female creative practitioners. Over the past 18 months we became aware that a lot of women writers and artists were interested in using digital technology, but were unsure of how to launch themselves into the digital world or build on their existing online presence. Digital Women UK, which launched on 25 September at City Hall with support from Assembly Member Jennette Arnold, will provide advice, training and mentoring to women who want to use social media, and also engage with the issues to do with gender, race and class that have been thrown up in recent months. A Words of Colour event last May on Twitter clout was prompted by concerns that so few women featured on a number of so-called influence lists, including the Independent's Twitter 100, which only had 18 women. It's clear that social media also mirrors what is going on in the traditional media. Research by City University has shown that women are less likely to be included in shows as experts and are more likely to be talking emotively or speaking as case studies. Developing clout is one that Digital Women UK wants to explore. Our new blog platform is one way we will be doing this, along with interviews, podcasts and events. With a diverse and engaging team of contributors we hope the blog will develop as a space where a wide variety of perspectives can be shared. As the threats made to bank note campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez have shown, something needs to be done about online abuse if more women are to be encouraged to engage in social media. Julie Tomlin is Words of Colour Productions creative programmes manager (social media and online journalism). A version of this article first appeared on the Words of Colour site.  |
| Calls for more female Liberal Democrat MPs Posted: 02 Oct 2013 01:09 AM PDT
The shockingly low number of female Liberal Democrat party (Lib Dem) MPs has led to calls for drastic change. Traditionally, all-women shortlists have been considered against the values of the party, but with the worst gender ratio record of all three major parties, a number of party members believe something needs to be done. Female MPs make up just 12 per cent of the party's 57 MPs, compared to 16 per cent of the Conservative party’s 304MPs and 31 per cent of the Labour party’s 255. Ed Davey, a Lib Dem cabinet minister who supports positive discrimination, has called the present situation "deeply frustrating" and says the party's record is "not good enough". Speaking to the Guardian, Davey, whose wife Emily has stood unsuccessfully for parliament several times, said: "Current efforts to get more female MPs without positive discrimination are rightly being tested to destruction. "I would think long and hard about positive discrimination if it doesn't work next time." The calls for more action come just after Sarah Teather, one of the most high-profile female Liberal Democrat MPs, announced she would be standing down from her Brent Central seat. And there are fears that the party will lose further female MPs, most of whom are in tough, marginal seats. Both the Conservatives and Labour have implemented programmes to encourage female MPs. Ahead of the 2010 election David Cameron – albeit temporarily – introduced an "A-list" to promote female MPs, and Labour has had a policy of female-only shortlists in a number of constituencies. The pressure to implement change is not only because of the low number of women in prominent positions in the party – there are only three female Lib Dem MPs holding government jobs and none in Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg's side of the cabinet – but also the because of the recent sexual harassment scandal and accusations of ingrained sexism. The scandal, in which the former Lib Dem chief executive Lord Rennard was accused of inappropriate behaviour by female activists, was extended by the lack of investigation undertaken by the party, something Mr Clegg has admitted. Ingrained sexism was discussed at a fringe meeting at the recent party conference as a particular problem with the Lib Dem selection of who gets into Westminster. Marion Wilson said female members going through held-seat selections had been asked: "Are you planning to get married? Are you going to have children? How will that impact on you being an MP?" It also emerged that some politicians had complained that Jo Swinson, their Business Minister, had dared to get pregnant while in a government post. But despite the pressure, many party members still remain adamantly opposed to any form of positive discrimination. Lorely Burt, MP for Solihull and chair of the Liberal Democrat Women group, is opposed to change and believes the existing selection mechanisms should be maintained. She said: "We can do what we had last time, which is have 40 per cent of our best target seats with women fighting them, but we didn't win them." She went on to suggest it was the first-past-the-post system that was holding women back in the Liberal Democrats, saying: "Unless we win some more seats we are not going to get more votes." Linda Jack, who chairs the Liberal Left group, is prepared to consider women shortlists as a necessary evil if the party wants to reflect society "in terms of women, BMEs and class". She said: "If you say you just rely on the best person always getting the job, you would have to say women and BME candidates are by their very nature inferior, because they are so under-represented." The Liberal Democrats need to improve their record on women if they are going to be able to live up to their claims that they are the party of equality and fairness.  |
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