Women's Views on News |
| Posted: 31 Mar 2014 07:52 AM PDT Initiatives often overlook one fundamental structural cause of gender inequality: unpaid care work. An op-ed by Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, Magdalena Sepulveda Carmona, and UN Women's deputy executive director for Policy and Programme, John Hendra. As the debate about a future global development agenda to succeed the Millennium Development Goals in 2015 gathers pace, there is broad agreement that gender equality and women's empowerment are crucial components. A growing body of robust evidence shows that countries that have achieved greater gender equality in employment and education also report higher rates of human development and economic growth. Women's empowerment is also increasingly seen as central to reducing poverty and creating better public health outcomes. Many proponents of gender equality seek to pursue this goal by promoting women's access to work and entrepreneurship opportunities, and increasing women's political participation. All too often, however, these initiatives overlook a fundamental structural cause of gender inequality – women's overwhelming responsibility for unpaid care work in homes and communities all over the world. Unpaid care work is the cooking, cleaning and direct care of persons that keeps our societies and workforces running; in many developing countries it includes fetching water and fuel for domestic consumption. The time demands are enormous. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, women and girls spend 40 billion hours a year collecting water, equivalent to a year's worth of labour by the entire workforce in France. Women's disproportionate responsibility for unpaid care work, and the persistent and powerful gender stereotypes that underpin this unequal distribution, represent a significant obstacle to achieving gender equality and women's rights. Such rights include the right to decent work, the right to education, the right to health and the right to participate in public life. Unpaid care work is a major obstacle to women taking on paid employment or starting an income-generating activity outside the home. For example, a study in Latin America and the Caribbean showed that over half of the women aged between 20 to 24 years of age, do not seek work outside the home because they are performing unpaid care work. Moreover, women's participation in paid work is not in and of itself empowering if women are still bearing primary responsibility for work in the home – in effect working a 'second shift' after their paid workday ends. Further, unpaid care work restricts women's opportunities for professional advancement, limits their pay level and increases the likelihood of women ending up in informal and insecure work. At the same time, the gender stereotypes that put the burden of care on women also negatively impact men, who experience social pressure to be 'the breadwinner', providing for their family financially rather than by caring for them more directly. Girls' right to education is also at stake. In the most extreme cases, girls are pulled out of school to help with housework and to care for younger children and other family members. More often, girls' chances of achieving equal education are constrained because their domestic responsibilities leave them less time than boys for studying, networking or extra-curricular activities. Without equal educational opportunities, women and girls are even less able to access well-paid, decent jobs that could enable them to escape poverty. Ultimately, the unequal distribution of unpaid care work undermines poverty eradication efforts. Poor women cannot afford outside help or time-saving technologies such as grain-grinders and fuel-efficient stoves, and they often cannot rely on decent infrastructure such as piped water or electricity. Their unpaid care work is therefore particularly intense and difficult. Time poverty also affects women's political and social empowerment – how can women be expected to attend community meetings or leadership training if there is no one else to care for their children or for sick and frail family members at home? Care is a positive and irreplaceable social good, the backbone of all societies. Giving care can bring great rewards, fulfilment and satisfaction. Yet for millions of women around the world, poverty is their only reward for a lifetime of caregiving. Unpaid care is the missing piece in debates about empowerment, women's rights and equality. Without concerted action to recognize, support and share unpaid care work, women living in poverty will be unable to enjoy their human rights and benefit equally from development. We must acknowledge that the costs of providing care are unequally borne, and that this distribution is far from benign, natural or inevitable. Progress in this area requires long-term cultural change. However, development policy can make a major contribution by recognizing care as a social and collective responsibility and as an important human rights issue that is crucial for poverty reduction globally. States and development partners can take concrete action to reduce and redistribute women's care work by improving public services and infrastructure in disadvantaged areas, investing in affordable domestic technologies, and providing child benefits and childcare as well as incentives for men to provide more care. It is time we stopped looking away from the women in the kitchen, by the bedside, and at the water well, and instead make the recognition, reduction and redistribution of unpaid care work central to our efforts to achieve equitable and sustainable development. The formulation of the new post-2015 development agenda is a good place to start. A version of this post appeared on UNWomen’s site on 25 March 2014.  |
| Posted: 31 Mar 2014 04:15 AM PDT
Until 5 April: International Anti-Street Harassment Week Catcalls, sexist comments, flashing, groping, stalking, and assault in public spaces…. Gender-based street harassment impacts all women and many men, especially in the LGBQT community, worldwide. It makes us feel less safe, it restricts where we go. IT MUST END. Join rallies, marches, and workshops, tweet chats, wheat pastings and chalkwalks going on around the world to bring attention to this problem and engage our communities in solutions. Together, we can stop street harassment. Edinburgh: 2 April: 'Welfare Reform' and women's equality at Committee Room 3, Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh, from 6pm. Engender, Scottish Women's Aid, Close the Gap and Scottish Refugee Council invite you to join us for a discussion of our joint position paper on the gender inequality of 'welfare reform'. 'Welfare reform' directly penalises women. Of cuts totalling £14.9 billion since 2010, 74 per cent has been taken from women's incomes. What can the Scottish government do to address this gender impact in its response to ‘welfare reform’? The evening is kindly hosted by Jayne Baxter MSP. This event is free, but booking is required. Glasgow: 5 April: UK Feminista's Scotland Activist Training at The Albany Learning and Conference Centre, 44 Ashley Street, Glasgow, from 10am. Get together with feminist activists from across Scotland to share successes, learn new skills and find solidarity! This event is perfect for anyone organising for a world without sexism, from seasoned campaigners to those looking for confidence to get started. It's a great opportunity for those involved in women's and feminist groups as well as individuals to learn and share ideas and skills to make change happen. The event will include practical workshops on doing activism as well as open spaces for people to share skills and discuss opportunities for working together on action for gender equality. Skills workshops: Hitting the Headlines – Claire Black, Journalist; Being what we see: Building an Intersectional Movement – Talat Yaqoob, Community Organiser and campaigner; Feminism for educators: challenging patriarchy in schools, colleges and youth clubs – Liz Ely, Zero Tolerance; Getting Mobilised: How to Build Our Movement - Talat Yaqoob, Community Organiser and campaigner; Piling on the pressure: How to influence local government - Hollaback! Edinburgh. For the full programme of events and to book your free space for this event, click here. London: 31 March: Silent Vigil Against the Porn Industry at Trafalgar Square, London WC2N, from 6pm. Anti Porn London (The London Feminist Network London Anti-Porn Group) will be holding a silent vigil to protest that pornography is violence against women. All women welcome. Meet up is at Pret a Manger in Trafalgar Square. Please bring placards if you can. 4 April: Beyond the Sheets: Sexualities in the Age of Digital Reproduction at Goldsmiths Writers' Centre, Lewisham Way, London SE14, from 9.30am The representation of sexuality within culture has become deeply contested. Sexual imagery is ubiquitous in contemporary media, and yet writers often struggle to write convincingly about sex. The internet has democratised pornography and exotic dancing is the new jazzercise. While many are concerned about the sexualisation of childhood, others lament that adulthood is being neutered. Within this confused and pressurized atmosphere, writing about sex remains notoriously difficult and is becoming increasingly risky. This interdisciplinary conference will bring together writers and thinkers for a one-day event that includes keynote speakers, academic papers, discussion panels, performances, and all forms of creative writing. To book tickets, click here. Sheffield: 31 March – 4 April: The Red Tent Sheffield at The Red Tent, Gallery Eye, Sheffield Students' Union, Sheffield. Sheffield Students' Union will be hosting the Red Tent! This is a great space for women and those with complex gender identities to relax and celebrate their bodies and menstruation. Each day's activities have a theme: Monday: Welcome Day; Tuesday: Ethical and Environmental Day; Wednesday: Physical Health Day; Thursday: Mental Health Day; Friday: Celebration Day. Wakefield: 1 April: Women Modernists in dOCUMENTA (13) at Hepworth Wakefield, Gallery Walk, Wakefield, from 5pm. Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Director of dOCUMENTA(13) will be in conversation with Professor Griselda Pollock on the theme of women modernists, in dOCUMENTA(13) with reference to Barbara Hepworth. dOCUMENTA(13) took place at Kassel, Germany, from the 9 June until 16 September 2012 on the theme of Collapse and Recovery. It was the thirteenth edition of the contemporary art exhibition, documenta, which was conceived by German painter Arnold Bode in 1955. Click here to find out more about documenta amd dOCUMENTA(13). Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev is currently Leverhulme Visiting Professor at the University of Leeds and previously to her role at dOCUMENTA(13), was senior curator of exhibitions at MoMA PS1, chief curator at the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art in Turin, co-curator of the first Turin Triennial and artistic director for the 16th Biennale of Sydney in 2008. Professor Griselda Pollock represented the University of Leeds at dOCUMENTA(13) and is the author of the dOCUMENTA(13) Notebook no.28 on artist Charlotte Salomon. She is one of the country’s leading cultural theorists and feminist academics and is currently Director of the Centre of Cultural Analysis, Theory and History at the University of Leeds. Tickets for this event are free but please book your place by emailing hello@hepworthwakefield.org or calling 01924 247360.  |
| Police fail domestic violence victims Posted: 31 Mar 2014 01:09 AM PDT
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) has found that police response to domestic violence cases are not good enough and must be improved. In a damming report published last week they found that only eight out of 43 forces were adequately serving domestic violence victims. The report said there were 269,000 domestic-abuse-related crimes in England and Wales between 2012 and 2013 and 77 women killed. Domestic violence incidents accounted for eight per cent of all recorded crime and one third of assaults with injury. One in four young people aged ten to 24 said they had experienced domestic violence or abuse during their childhood. On average an emergency call is made to the police about domestic violence every 30 seconds. And domestic violence is estimated to cost £15.7bn a year. While most police and crime commissioners say that domestic violence is a priority this is not being translated into reality. Lancashire was deemed to be performing best, and seven other forces including Norfolk, Northumbria and Suffolk were praised, but the report found weaknesses in all other forces. The authors had 'very serious concerns’ about the performance of the Greater Manchester, Bedfordshire and Gloucestershire forces which were causing particular concern. The report found the initial response from police was too often poor, with inadequate collection of evidence, at the scene. One third of victims interviewed said they felt no safer after a police visit and many said they didn't always feel they were being taken seriously or believed. The report concluded that many officers lacked the skills to properly deal with domestic violence cases. It also found some officers had poor attitudes towards victims. The centralisation of Serious Rape and Sexual Offence centres following spending cuts was creating 'risky gaps' in support available to victims. The report said forces' approaches to risk assessment were 'confused' and punishment of perpetrators 'inconsistent'. The authors call for the establishment of a national oversight group to report on progress on a quarterly basis, calls for all forces to have action plans for tackling domestic violence in place by September and that they should focus on improving police culture and attitudes. Data, including the views of the victims, should be rigorously collected, analysed and published. The College of Policing should review the way risk assessments are carried out, improve training and circulate good practice. The inspectors say there should also be an investigation into the way health, local authorities and voluntary agencies work together with police to tackle domestic violence. The Home Secretary, Theresa May, said the report made 'depressing reading', and that she would take personal charge of the response by chairing the national oversight group. "The police now must take urgent action. The HMIC report shows that there needs to be a fundamental change in police culture," she said. But domestic violence charity Refuge called for a public inquiry. The charity’s chief executive, Sandra Horley, said it was a national disgrace that, decades after opening of the first refuge the police were still not responding adequately. The government also launched the 2014 Action Plan of its strategy ‘A Call to End Violence Against Women and Girls’. In it, the government pledges to improve public awareness and attitudes, and will do so by including better education in schools, providing better training for frontline workers and supporting those affected by honor killings, Female Genital Mutilation and support for girls involved in gangs.  |
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