Friday, January 31, 2014

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Yours sincerely, Me, voter

Posted: 30 Jan 2014 07:28 AM PST

register to vote, 5 February, national registration dayNational Voter Registration Day is taking place on 5 February.

Far too many people who should be able to cast their vote at election time are not registered to do so – and at present only around half of all young people are currently registered to vote.

National Voter Registration Day takes place on the anniversary of the Great Reform Act of 1832 which first introduced voter registration.

It is aimed at encouraging those not currently on the electoral register to do so, to enable them to vote in any – all -  upcoming elections.

The event is organised by the campaign organisation Bite the Ballot, a party neutral movement on a mission to empower young voters.

The National Union of Students (NUS) is also taking part, working alongside Bite the Ballot.

The day aims to highlight the importance of being on the register to vote and will involve finding out the issues that you, on your campuses and in your communities, care about.

The next couple of years will see a number of opportunities to vote take place which will have significant implications for the future of Scotland and the United Kingdom.

This year elections for the European Parliament are taking place on 22 May and Scotland's independence referendum on 18 September.

And a General Election will have to take place before May 2015.

It is therefore really important that everyone who is entitled to have their say at elections is registered to vote.

As Bite the Ballot points out, albeit in 2010, only 44 per cent of 18-24 year-olds voted, while 76 per cent of those aged 65 plus cast their vote.

And groups with the lowest turnout rates – the youngest and the poorest – have been faced with cuts of 20 per cent in their annual household income, while those who were more likely to vote – older and richer voters – saw their budgets fall by 12 per cent.

Chance?

When politicians think about writing policies, they write policies for the people on the electoral register and those who vote.

And who do they see when they look at the electoral register? Once again, not young people. Only about half of young people are registered, whereas 96 per cent of older people are.

If you're not registered, and you want something done, but someone who is registered wants something else done – whose opinion will count more to a politician?

It doesn't matter who you vote for. Just by being on the electoral register you even out the balance.

If there is no one on your local list who you feel represents you, remember you can spoil your ballot. That is always better than not turning up, as a spoiled ballot paper does get looked at: the candidates’ agents have to look at them and check that they all agree that a spoiled vote is spoiled, so your protest is noticed.

Or if you can do a better job than those on offer then stand for election.

Just being registered to vote gives you power. Really. You can, for example, sign off any communication with a politician with Yours, Me, Voter.

Think about it… because far, far too many people who should be able to cast their vote at election time are not registered to do so.

The aim of National Voter Registration Day is to get 250,000 new people on the register.

This will demonstrate to those in decision-making positions in local and national government how important it is to have policies that relate to the wider electorate of the UK.

If you are not registered to vote at present, you can sign up to do so here.

Don’t cap maternity pay

Posted: 30 Jan 2014 04:04 AM PST

National Childbirth Trust asks for no cap on maternity payThe struggle to make ends meet could trigger depression and relationship breakdowns.

Citing the need to make more than £60 billion of additional savings, including £17 billion this year, the chancellor George Osborne said in a recent speech, “Welfare cannot be protected from further substantial cuts.

“Government is going to have to be permanently smaller – and so too is the welfare system.”

And he said that the Conservative party will make £12 billion more in welfare cuts after the 2015 election.

Key to the plan is the Conservative's proposal for the first ever cap on total government spending on benefits.

Pension costs are excluded from the cap, but maternity and paternity pay is not.

And to keep costs within the boundaries of the cap, Osborne also announced plans to increase certain benefits by a set amount each year, currently one per cent.

This is instead of raising payment as needed in order to keep pace with the rate of inflation.

Experts say that decoupling benefits from the rate of inflation is in fact a decrease in real terms.

Expressing her concern over the proposed plans, Belinda Phipps, the National Childbirth Trust's (NCT) chief executive, has written to both the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, appealing to them in their roles as fathers.

In her letter, she wrote 'Being a parent, you will understand the value of the first thousand days of parenthood – throughout pregnancy and until a child turns two.

'Leading child health experts worldwide agree that care given during this life stage has more influence on a child's future than any other time.

'The struggle to make ends meet may force parents back to work earlier than they planned.'

The government's recommendations come before additional flexibility in maternity and paternity leave takes effect early next year.

Changes made in 2011 mean that new parents are now able to share 52 weeks of leave between them, rather than having the bulk of that time reserved for the mother only.

The additional changes scheduled to begin in April 2015 will make parental leave much more flexible, with parents able to take time off more than once, spreading the leave between parents as needed or wanted.

Currently, any leave must be taken in a single block of time.

For the first six weeks of maternity leave, new mothers receive 90 per cent of their salary. They then receive £136.78, or 90 per cent of their salary depending on which figure is lower, for the next 33 weeks.

Fathers may be paid £136.78 for one to two weeks of leave, and additional leave may not be paid.

While commending the new and forthcoming flexibility in parental leave, Phipps added that, 'If the government's recent announcement on shared paternity leave is to be meaningful in any way, it is critical that we see increases in the rate at which it is paid.'

She pointed out that financial anxiety at a time of extreme stress as new parents adjust to life with a newborn could contribute to higher incidences of postnatal depression and relationship break-downs.

Phipps concluded her letter by saying that the NCT asks the government to reconsider its decision 'to put maternity and paternity pay inside the benefits cap, and increase it at a level which matches the cost of living.'

Looking at how young people see forced marriage

Posted: 30 Jan 2014 01:09 AM PST

Eaves, asking young people about forced marriageSome of the research results were as you might expect, some were surprising.

EAVES has just released a new report which looks at young people's views on forced marriage and its gendered differentials.

The research, which was partially funded by the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), involved interviews with 11 young people (male and female) and a survey with 101 respondents, and sought to look at young people's views on forced marriage, on the government's responses to it – notably criminalisation -  on their understanding of the gendered nature of the issue, and on what they see as the causes and motivations for the practice and what they would like to recommend as solutions.

Some of the findings were as you might expect:

There is a recognition that it is hard for boys to ask for help for this issue due to feeling embarrassed as a male to come forward as a victim and due to the fact that most services are targeted at women;

That some of the harm to women is more far-reaching than for men, including rape, abuse of sexual and reproductive rights, and a contraction or cessation of social, personal, professional and educational options;

That the mental health impacts for men and for women are probably equally as traumatising;

That the pressure brought to bear is mainly emotional;

That while the theoretical distinction of choice and consent between forced and arranged marriage is well known, the reality of it is very much harder to discern for young people, particularly where there is emotional pressure.

Some of the findings make sense but might be less obvious:

For example, 85 per cent of survey respondents either agreed or partially agreed that boys may find it hard to resist a forced marriage because they are expected to be enforcers for their siblings – this really highlights the role of young men both as perpetrators and as victims.

Parents' strategies to persuade a male or female child differ and reflect gender stereotypes such as appealing to a man's sense of adulthood, respect and power as a married man and as a standard setter for the family and highlighting that a young woman is being selfish and hurting her parents if she does not comply.

Males are more likely to go through with the marriage and still live their own chosen life on the side or to feel more confident about being able to get a divorce.

That there is a near unanimous support for the principle of criminalisation but a huge lack of confidence as to how helpful it will be in practice and a recognition that the issue is nuanced and needs suitably nuanced responses.

The culture of respect for one's elders and the belief that those elders know what is right and do the best for you is powerful and makes it difficult for young people to challenge the practice.

Some results were more surprising:

Young women were much more likely to perceive their parent's motives as benign, which could be an additional factor in their susceptibility to emotional pressure;

Young women showed extremely high empathy with male victims, in some cases considering it worse for men;

Young women had much higher tolerance or expectation that women will experience abuse and violence as "part of their lot";

Males are much less likely to expect or want third party intervention seeing it as a family matter and seeing the responsibility being on the victim to resist the pressure;

Despite being able to see that the impacts for women are often more far-reaching, very few participants addressed the issue as a matter of gender discrimination and inequality.

To see the full report, click here.