Women's Views on News |
- Another step in equality for women
- Construction industry needs more women
- There’s still nothing funny about sexism
| Another step in equality for women Posted: 25 Mar 2014 09:25 AM PDT
The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) has approved a UN document promoting equality for women. The final declaration reaffirms the sexual and reproductive rights of all women and endorses sex education for adolescents. However, the Commission remains concerned that the UN's progress towards its goal of gender equality and the empowerment of women continues to be "slow and uneven". The Commission also maintains that "the feminisation of poverty persists" and that equality for women is essential for sustained economic development to be achieved. The 45-member Commission called for equality, empowerment and human rights for women to be a major element of new UN development goals being adopted next year. The 24-page final declaration document, which was approved on 22 March, calls for "universally accessible and available quality comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care services, information and education". This should include "safe and effective methods of modern contraception, emergency contraception, prevention programmes for adolescent pregnancy … [and] safe abortion where such services are permitted by national law". Women's rights activist Mervat Tallawy, the Egyptian delegate to the Commission, welcomed the final document and said it reaffirmed all the gains women have made since the 1994 UN population conference in Cairo and the 1995 UN women's conference in Beijing. "We will never give in to the prevailing web of conservatism again women in all regions of the world," Tallawy said. She added: "I am speaking for all the women of the world. We will continue to struggle for our rights." The final vote on the document had been delayed by Russia, who tried to insert a reference to sovereignty – an attempt that failed. Conservative nations were able to block any reference to different kinds of family structure and to problems that women face because of their gender identity or sexual orientation. The US representative to the Commission, Terri Robl, praised the final conclusions and applauded the Commission's "commitment to fighting discrimination and prejudice, which for too long has denied many women and girls the ability to contribute to economic growth and development." She was disappointed, however, that the Commission "did not explicitly acknowledge the vulnerabilities confronting women and adolescents as a result of their sexual orientation or gender identity." The Commission also asked for an end to early and forced marriage, as well as female genital mutilation. Regarding sex education, the document calls on parties to develop and implement education programmes for human sexuality "based on full and accurate information, for all adolescents and youth … with the appropriate direction and guidance from parents and legal guardians." Qatar, Malta, the Holy See and Pakistan were among those who expressed reservations about these directions on sex education. But Shannon Kowalski, director of advocacy and policy at the International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC), said: “The commission recognised that sustainable and meaningful development must address the root causes of gender inequality, which deny women and girls an education, the right to make decisions about their bodies and childbearing, to decent employment and equal pay, and to live free of violence.” “We have achieved what we came to do against great odds and the determined attempts by the Holy See and a few conservative countries to once again turn back the clock on women’s rights.”  |
| Construction industry needs more women Posted: 25 Mar 2014 04:58 AM PDT
The report was recently produced by the Smith Institute, an independent think tank that promotes policies for a fairer society. It reveals that women account for just eleven per cent of the construction workforce and a mere one per cent of workers on site. This is despite the fact that women now make up nearly half of the overall workforce, a figure which has increased by more than 20 per cent over the last 20 years. And the construction industry urgently needs to take on more skilled and diverse workers – around 200,000 by 2020 – to meet demand and keep up with technological advancements. Paul Hackett, director of the Smith Institute, said: "The sector can neither justify nor countenance remaining a 'no-go area' for women. "In order to fill the skills gap it will have to recruit and retain more women, and not just in support roles." Gender stereotyping and a macho culture have long barred women's entry into the industry, as well as a shocking gender pay gap of 23 per cent, which is higher than the national average. The Smith Institute has called for the government to take "significant action" to eliminate these barriers to entry. "The government needs to take a stronger lead in articulating the business case for change and helping to increase those programmes currently in operation. "Culture change is essential to make the industry more welcoming of women; eliminating a perceived bullying culture will help everyone. "Working on this would enhance the image of the construction sector, showing it as a modern and welcoming industry, somewhere to make a career," the organisation declares, in the ‘Building the Future: Women in Construction’ report. Employers also need to take action, including reviewing their recruitment processes, training schemes and existing practices. As Sarah Davis, chair of Women in Building Services Engineering (WiBSE), pointed out, "If assumptions are made about women with children not wanting more responsibility, this can preclude them from even being offered career advancement." Like Davis, the Smith Institute believes that career advancement is a problem area for the industry. The Institute has called for ‘better conditions, flexible working policies and a commitment to supporting those women who wish to go into management’. This would ‘provide an attractive career path, but also build up a more diverse management, who in their turn are more likely to attract and recruit a diverse workforce’. A handful of employers are leading the way through apprenticeships, mentoring programmes and the active recruitment of women. The Leeds College of Building is at the forefront of such progress, training 900 women a year and working with local schools. The Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians (UCATT) is also helping women to access employment opportunities by offering DIY taster courses for women seeking construction work. However, funding for such schemes is often scarce . The Smith Institute insists that this must change: "Funding for apprenticeships and courses for those choosing a new career should be a priority for government and industry alike. "Contractors need to ensure that those in training can secure work placement."  |
| There’s still nothing funny about sexism Posted: 25 Mar 2014 02:09 AM PDT
In early March, comedian Jenny Collier was booked to perform at a comedy venue in Haslemere, Surrey as part of a multi-comedian show. That was until she received the following email: “I’m really sorry but the venue have decided they don’t want too many women on the bill and unfortunately we need to take you out of this one. We hope that this doesn’t cause any inconvenience.” In fact the main 'inconvenience' in the decision was Collier's gender. After posting the email on Twitter, Collier received an outpouring of support from other female comedians sharing their experiences of what, it emerges, is an industry-wide problem. Some have attempted to analyse what exactly it is that people fear about female comedians moving into a traditionally male-dominated industry. Comedian Ava Vidal pointed out that part of the problem is that there is a general consensus that women comedians will only joke about sex, female genitalia and bodily functions that no one wants to hear about. She told her own story of being replaced with a male panellist on a high profile comedy show because there were supposedly 'too many women' in the series. "People seem to fear that too many women will spoil a comedy night and yet have no fear that too many men will do the same thing," she said. Another part of the problem is the 'women aren't funny' debate which so often raises its ugly head in public discourse, as Dean Barnett wrote in the Guardian. "Women haven't exactly been given much opportunity to say anything [in public] in the past, let alone make jokes", he adds. However, women being underrepresented in the realm of public humour is just half the problem. Humour is also used extensively as a mask for everyday sexism. We have all been there – the chauvinist or sexist comment followed by the dubious disclaimer: 'Can't you take a joke?' This particular brand of sexist humour is cultivated in institutions, friend groups, businesses, schools, on the streets and on the internet: it's euphemistically called 'banter' and it allows all manner of sins to go unchallenged. Laura Bates, founder of the Everyday Sexism project, said that ‘banter’ is used to veil serious forms of harassment or even assault: “[b]y calling something ‘banter’ perpetrators implicitly suggest that anybody who protests doesn’t have a sense of humour — or just doesn’t get the joke. It is a very clever method of isolating critics.” Sexism disguised as 'banter' appears in the disproportionate sexist heckling of female comedians. It often predominates in male-dominated offices, or in male-dominated industries, for example, football. Commentator Andy Gray described his sexist comments as a "private bit of banter" after his fall from grace in 2011. But perhaps most worryingly of all, ‘banter’ is prevalent in schools: recently at my teenaged sister's school, the launching of a Feminist Society was swiftly followed by a group of boys launching a 'Misogynist Society' – leaflets and all. Nothing whatsoever was done about this by the school, because it was deemed a 'joke' and just 'boys being boys'. Similarly, a 17 year-old started a Feminist Society at her school in 2013 and received a torrent of online abuse disguised as 'banter' from male peers. The young woman wrote in a Guardian article: "I fear that many boys of my age fundamentally don’t respect women. They want us around for parties, banter and most of all sex. "But they don’t think of us as intellectual equals, highlighted by accusations of being hysterical and over sensitive when we attempted to discuss serious issues facing women." Tellingly, she felt the need to write anonymously to protect herself from further attack. Humour can be a powerful tool in the fight against sexism, but too often humour performs the role of providing a 'safe' arena for public sexism and sexist attitudes. From preventing women accessing positions of public humour to the use of 'banter' to allow blatant sexism and misogyny to go unpunished, we need to assess the role humour plays in hampering progress towards gender equality. It is important to have a sense of humour in life, but there's nothing funny about humour being the crutch for sexism.  |
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