Monday, May 12, 2014

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Getting women onto bicycles

Posted: 09 May 2014 06:11 AM PDT

Breeze, the big bicycling programme for women, join usBig programme aims to get more women cycling for fun. 

‘Breeze’ is a programme run by British Cycling, and is the biggest programme ever to get more women into riding bikes for fun.

The aim of Breeze is to help women feel more confident and comfortable out on the roads in traffic.

Cycling is a big activity for men, but while the activity in general is on the increase, the amount of women taking it up is in decline.

Breeze hopes to change this by training Breeze Champions in all areas of the country, who will then go out and provide their community with rides for varying levels of ability.

Lots of women would love to cycle, but cite lack of time, confidence and safety as reasons why they don't cycle.

Breeze Champions are there to take the worry out of cycling, by providing a nurturing and friendly environment.

Rides often start and finish at a local café, so there is also an opportunity to  socialise and make friends.

The Breeze network currently offers around 200 rides per week across the network, all at different speeds and aimed at different abilities, so there is usually something to be found for everyone.

If you are interested in getting back onto the saddle, or want to improve your cycling ability, take a look at the Breeze website, and book a free, guided, women-only ride.

Today, maybe.

‘Elementary’s Joan: my favorite Watson

Posted: 09 May 2014 04:05 AM PDT

Lucy Liu, the best Watson ever, ElementaryLucy Liu’s Watson is the best, according to Robin Hitchcock.

Our regular cross-post from Bitchflicks.

By Robin Hitchcock.

Having recently written about my new TV crush Abbie Mills, I feel compelled to sing the praises of another woman of color making television a better place: Lucy Liu as Joan Watson on Elementary.

I, like a lot of television viewers, felt predisposed to dismiss the CBS series as a too-soon, too-similar knockoff of the BBC's Sherlock. I thought setting it in New York City and casting Lucy Liu as Joan Watson were superficial moves made to solely differentiate the Modern Sherlock TV Adaptations beyond "one came second."

So when it debuted last year, I wrongly dismissed Elementary. But indifference was not enough for a lot of television fans. The cool kids who are 100 percent fine with 79,481 adaptations featuring the public domain characters Sherlock and Watson, but HOW DARE THOSE SELLOUT HOLLYWOOD BASTARDS MAKE A 79,482nd?

Anglophilia also contributed to BBC Sherlock fans rejecting Elementary, but Anglophilia all too often functions as a flimsy cover for flat-out racism. My Bitch Flicks colleague Janyce Denise Glasper mentioned viewers "boycotting Elementary due to Liu's Asian background" in a great piece on the actress's versatility last spring, and I balked, "how can they be so unapologetically racist?"

Because they can hide it behind hipster "I liked this centuries-old character first" and the "Keep Calm and Fetishize Your Former Colonial Oppressors" vogue. And because racist people are often not particularly concerned with how racist they are. Especially with sexism along for a kyriarchical yhatzee!

With that sooooo-2012 background established for behind-the-times people like myself, let's move on to the important issue: Joan Watson is THE BEST.

I almost wrote, THE BEST WATSON EVER, but I would have to watch and read several thousand more adaptations before I could state that with any statistical confidence. So I'll just hyperbolically say, as my brain does when I am watching Elementary, that she is The Best.

Joan started off on different footing than many other versions of Watson not only because of her sex and race. One of the most compelling particularities of Elementary as an adaptation is that is centers Holmes's drug addiction; with Jonny Lee Miller's Sherlock fresh out of a sixth-month rehab stint at the start of the series, and Liu's Watson having just signed on as his sober living companion, a career she transitioned into after accidentally causing the death of one of her surgical patients. This initial role gave Watson a real reason for being there, and for putting up with Sherlock's nonsense, as their relationship formed. Which not only put some slack back into the audience's suspension of disbelief, but presented an entirely different status balance between this Holmes and Watson, one that is frankly less creepy to watch (particularly with a woman in the role). It also fits perfectly with the compassionate nature essential to Watson's character, regardless of sex.

But even with a plausible justification for her patience, Watson must still be a master of exasperation, given Sherlock Holmes is one of the all-time annoying weirdos of the literary canon. Good thing Lucy Liu can write a sonnet of frustration with an eye roll and create a symphony of had-enough with the angry clomps of her chic boots storming up the stairs to her room.

After Joan's tenure as Sherlock's sober companion ends, she chooses to continue doing detective work with him instead of moving on to her next client. The plot required Watson to stick around for more than a few months, but instead of accomplishing that with some glossed-over contrivance, Joan's personal satisfaction with her shifting career paths became a major story arc in the first season. We even see her friends and family weigh in out of concern while ultimately respecting her decisions about her own life! I literally got misty-eyed when Joan changed her television-equivalent-of-Facebook work status to "consulting detective."

While watching Joan's relationship with Sherlock transition from guardianship to partnership has been a pleasure, it was only through the depiction of Joan herself changing. She got to be a real character instead of a sidekick. That's more than you can hope for for a lot of female co-leads of a TV series, much less a woman of color cast in a traditionally white male role.

First female LibDem MP to attend Cabinet

Posted: 09 May 2014 03:26 AM PDT

There is only one mother in the UK Cabinet.Historic moment highlights huge equality gap.

A newly-created role that brings Liberal Democrat MP Jenny Willott to Cabinet meetings when shared parental leave and workplace rights are on the agenda serves as yet another reminder of how far from equality are women in politics and Parliament.

Willott is the first Liberal Democrat woman to sit at the Cabinet table.

She is also the only mother in the UK Cabinet.

And the number of women in the Cabinet is at a 15-year low.

Willott is covering LibDem MP Jo Swinson’s ministerial duties as the Minister for Employment Relations and Consumer Affairs in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and the Women and Equalities Minister in the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, as Swinson is currently on maternity leave.

Willott's new role comes hot on the heels of the Conservative Party's admission that the new Women's Minister, Nicky Morgan, is effectively subordinate to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media, Sport and Equalities, Sajid Javid.

Previously, the role of Minister for Women and Equalities had been one single post.

However, following Maria Miller's resignation after her expenses scandal, the ministerial post was split because Morgan had previously voted against gay marriage.

Nicky Morgan also ‘attends Cabinet’.

Willott is a mother of two, a fact that shouldn't need to be relevant to her professional work.

It is relevant, however, simply because of the lack of politically powerful women who are mothers.

In 2012, researchers Dr Rosie Campbell and Professor Sarah Childs examined the parental status of MPs.

They found that 'women MPs are less likely to have children than male MPs; more likely to have fewer children than male MPs; and enter Parliament when their children are older than the children of male MPs.

'Those staggering differences are clear evidence that there are serious barriers to Parliament for those with caring responsibilities, most often mothers,' Campbell said earlier this year.

And Deborah Orr wrote in the Guardian recently that 'Women have good reasons to be suspicious of any argument that comes within a million miles of 'reducing me to a womb'.

‘But the paradox is that institutional discrimination against women can never be defeated unless institutional discrimination against mothers is defeated, too.

'Because, until it is, there won't be the necessary critical mass of women in a position to answer that fundamentally important call to arms.'

Following Maria Miller's resignation and the ensuing mini Cabinet reshuffle, Nan Sloane, director of the Centre for Women in Democracy pointed out that the number of women in Cabinet was now at its lowest level since 1997, more than 15 years ago.

And when the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) reported in January 2014 on the proportion of women cabinet ministers, the UK was 20 out of 28 EU countries and 54 worldwide.

Without a consistently strong voice for women, essential perspectives, experiences and diversity of opinion are left out of government policies.

Also writing in the Guardian, Lola Okolosie pointed out that many of the major policy wins for women and equality have come not from the Minister for Women and Equalities but from other departments, organisations and campaigns.

Ever since Harriet Harman, the first Minister for Women and Equality (MWE), took up the post, 'every MWE has held another, often high-profile, ministerial role – ensuring it is seen as more of an extracurricular activity than a cabinet position.'

'What are the chances of real change when the portfolio so evidently remains little more than a tokenistic exercise aimed at feminising the image of a government where women are so sadly lacking?' Okolosie asked.

Ignoring the women in Northern Ireland

Posted: 09 May 2014 01:28 AM PDT

the good friday agreement, equality, inclusion, history, forgetting the women in northern irelandThere was a commitment to build a new Northern Ireland on the foundations of inclusion, equality and human rights.

By Niki Seth-Smith.

The work of peace building is still ongoing in Northern Ireland. International media, when they accept a simplified story whereby the conflict often called the 'Troubles' has ended, can overlook this reality.

Yet the upsurge of civil unrest played out in the flag protests since December 2012 and the recent row over the On the Run revelations demonstrate that the peace process is far from being complete, and there are signs that it is regressing.

The recent arrest of Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein, the second largest party in the Northern Irish Assembly, over the murder of Jean McConville in 1972, shows again that the past has not been dealt with in many cases, but brushed under the carpet.

Why have the hopes invested in the Good Friday Agreement not been fully met, sixteen years after it was signed?

The Good Friday Agreement was much more than a power-sharing settlement between political parties.

It harnessed the knowledge and insight of civil society to envision a transformed Northern Ireland. Central to this vision was the input and leadership provided by women, who not only played a key role in these negotiations through their work in women's centres, organisations and networks and through the Women's Coalition, but who throughout the conflict held communities together and helped to build a shared future.

The 'Agreement', as Beatrix Campbell sets out in her book of the same name, was intended to address gender inequalities, as well as the disadvantage and exclusion suffered by both Protestant and Catholic working-class people.

There was a commitment to build a new Northern Ireland on the foundations of inclusion, equality and human rights.

That vision of a transformed, peaceful and stable Northern Ireland is yet to be fulfilled.

This [is one of a] series of articles [which] will make  the case that this failure, and the failure to deliver on commitments to women's full and equal participation in Northern Irish society made in the Good Friday Agreement are intimately linked.

The argument that state security is best achieved through implementing gender equality has been convincingly made by Valerie Hudson in her book 'What sex means for world peace'.

Her observations on the correlation between a country or region's treatment of women and the likelihood of conflict are acknowledged in part by the United Nations resolution 1325 on Women and Peace building.

Yet that resolution has not been implemented in Northern Ireland. Meanwhile, the history of women's role in peace building since the conflict began has been written out of most history books.

A new round of negotiations is now underway in the shape of the ongoing, although stalled, Haass / O'Sullivan talks. This is an opportunity to recognise the key role played by women peace builders in Northern Ireland, and propose that women's voices must have equal weight if current challenges to the region's fragile and compromised peace are to be confronted. It is also an opportunity to engage with a wider global audience, and allow for a sharing and comparison of transitional justice perspectives.

The ongoing protests over the flying of the Union Jack at Belfast City Hall began on 3 December 2012, when Belfast City Council voted to fly the flag only on days of celebration or commemoration in line with the rest of Britain, rather than all year round as had been the practice in the region for more than a century. In response, loyalists began holding street protests throughout Northern Ireland. While many were peaceful, by November of last year 560 people had been charged or reported over the protests, following riots and clashes with police. The Haass-O’Sullivan talks, which began in late 2013, are part an attempt to address this latest upsurge of civil unrest.

There is also a growing security threat from dissident Republicans, with bomb disposal officers called to more than one alert per day during 2013.

The Haass-O’Sullivan talks, named for the negotiation chairs, Richard Haass and Meghan O’Sullivan, were launched with a remit to contend with the past and to deal in particular with ‘parades and protests’ and ‘flags and emblems’.

The arrest of Gerry Adams last week looks set to destabilise the peace process still further.

The leader of Sinn Fein turned himself in to police on Wednesday 30th April, over allegations of his involvement with the killing of Jean McConville in 1972. McConville is one of the fifteen Disappeared, having been accused by the IRA of being a British informer. To date, only eight of the bodies have been found, including McConville’s, on an Irish beach in 2008.

Adams, whose party is active in Northern Ireland and the Republic, has now been released without charge after five days of questioning.

He has never denied involvement with the IRA but branded the McConville accusations a “sustained, malicious, untruthful campaign” against him. Deputy first minster and former IRA commander Martin McGuiness had warned that Sinn Fein could withdraw its support of the Northern Ireland police if Adams was charged.

This latest upheaval comes on the back of the On the Run letters revelations in March, which led to a stall in attempts to resurrect the Haass talks that had failed to reach consensus by the deadline of 31 December 2013.

The On the Run letters relate to a previously secret scheme involving individuals suspected of crimes relating to the conflict. First Minister Peter Robinson accused Westminster of sending out ‘get out of jail free cards‘ to suspects fleeing justice without his knowledge.

Details of the scheme were only made public in March this year, when the trial of John Downey led to Sinn Fein’s Gerry Kelly stating that 187 people had received letters assuring them that they did not face arrest and prosecution for IRA crimes. The shockwaves this sent through the Assembly, with Robinson threatening to resign, and the arrest of Gerry Adams causing anger and dissent amongst nationalists and Republicans, has brought up once more the issue of problems of the past having been 'plastered over' or 'swept under the carpet' in Northern Ireland.

Haass / O'Sullivan had a mandate to contend with the past and "seek the views of, and evidence from, interested stakeholders on how best to address the issues that cause community division." In its consultation process, the Panel held over 100 meetings with over 500 individuals, and received more than 600 submissions from individuals and organisations. It offered confidentiality but some chose to make their submissions public.

The Women's Resource and Development Agency, an umbrella organisation that supports women's groups across Northern Ireland, provided a submission to the talks in writing and in a meeting. It was drawn from the concerns expressed by 200 women who attended an October 2013 conference on dealing with the past.

The Northern Ireland's Women's European Platform also made its submission public.

These submissions both express a number of concerns including the ongoing influence of paramilitary organisations in controlling communities; the insufficient support for sufferers of mental illness; the inequalities experienced by women in participating in public discourse and policymaking; the extent of socio-economic inequalities and the high rates of domestic and sexual violence.

These concerns were not reflected in the Haass-O'Sullivan draft proposals, which only mentions gender explicitly once, in the list of issues to be covered by a new Commission on Identity, Culture and Tradition, to be created in order to "increase the understanding among citizens of the appropriateness and importance of identities in Northern Irish society".

According to MP Naomi Long, Northern Ireland is once again facing “an incredibly volatile and extremely serious situation.” Long was one of only two women on a panel of twelve participating in the talks.

The failure of the Haass / O'Sullivan talks reflects a larger failing of Northern Irish society to fulfill commitments made in the Good Friday Agreement to “the right of women to full and equal political participation” and for the government to pursue “the advancement of women in public life”.

Today, women make up only 19 per cent of MLAS and have occupied around a third of all public appointments for the last two decades.

A further obstacle is the failure to enforce UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which requires signatories to adopt gender perspectives in post-conflict reconstruction.

Disagreements over the definition of conflict in relation to Northern Ireland have prevented the implementation of UNSCR 1325 in Northern Ireland, an issue we will be publishing on in the series.  Despite links being made between the Good Friday Agreement and UNSCR 1325, there has been little real action to ensure women’s participation in the latest round of negotiations for a peaceful, safe and stable Northern Ireland.

Peace building is still considered to be a man’s business, and accounts of negotiations in Northern Ireland tend to tell of political parties and paramilitaries, not of the actions of civil society and the women’s movement.

As Margaret Ward describes in a piece that helped inspire this series, the role of women in the peace process has been overlooked, and the opportunities for women to speak and share their views have only decreased throughout the peace process.

Yet Northern Ireland cannot deal with the past and move towards a shared future without recognition of the differential impact of the conflict on women.

The legacy of conflict, including chronic mental and physical health issues as well as drug and alcohol dependency – Northern Ireland has the highest recorded levels of PTSD – have produced a set of gendered problems.

There is a perception among communities that domestic and sexual violence in Northern Ireland is increasing, while sexual exploitation of young girls within paramilitary settings continues.

Some women living in areas with issues of anti-social behaviour and criminality, say they felt ‘safer’ during the conflict.

These are only some examples of the many ways in which the experience of the conflict and violence, its legacy and of the peace process, is gendered.

As more than 50 per cent of the population, women are entitled to equal representation and participation in peace building. A convincing case has also been made that such full and equal participation is in fact a necessary requisite for building just societies and sustainable peace.

Research such as Cynthia Cockburn's work on Northern Ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Israel-Palestine shows common patterns across conflict and post-conflict areas in the relation between the treatment of women and state security.

The argument for the full inclusion of women in peace building in Northern Ireland is strengthened further by the central role that women have played in the history of building a shared future in the region, one that has to a large extent been written out of history.

This series of articles aims to profile the critical perspectives of women peacebuilders in Northern Ireland as they build the argument.

At a time of resurgent tension and renewed negotiations, this is an urgent task.

As the series will set out to show, without women's voices included at all levels, Northern Ireland's currently fragile and compromised peace may be further jeopardized, and a true and lasting peace can only be established when the voices of all are heard.

A version of this article appeared on OpenDemocracy with the title ‘Why are the hopes of the Good Friday Peace Agreement still unfulfilled?’ Niki Seth-Smith is a freelance journalist and Commissioning Editor for OpenDemocracy’s 5050.

Join global move on women’s sexual rights

Posted: 08 May 2014 07:30 AM PDT

28 May, women's sexual health rights, International Day of Action for Women's Health, Women's Rights Defenders WorldwideHelp promote, defend, and demand women's sexual and reproductive health and rights.

The 28 May International Day of Action for Women's Health is to be re-launched this year, as part of a major call by women's rights defenders worldwide for the inclusion of women's sexual and reproductive health and rights in the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

The re-launch this May is in commemoration of 30 years of struggle and activism reflected in the victories of the women's rights movement in the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994 and in the IV World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.

Women's rights defenders and activists worldwide are now calling on governments to ensure a holistic, inclusive, and human rights-based approach to women and girls' health, which includes sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

On 28 May 1987, during the IV International Women's Health Meeting in Costa Rica, women's rights activists proposed to celebrate 28 May as the International Day of Action for Women's Health, as a means to speak out on sexual and reproductive health and rights issues faced by women and girls all over the world.

Nearly 30 years on, activists warn that the full realisation of all women's sexual and reproductive health and rights remains far from being addressed.

'Women's health' has simply too often been reduced to a limited understanding of maternal health, overlooking the actual needs of all women in their diversities.

As a result, significant challenges persist, in terms of recognising sexual rights in addition to reproductive rights, ensuring universal access to contraceptives and safe and legal abortion, as well as comprehensive sexuality education for young people, among other critical sexual and reproductive health and rights issues.

"This narrow and limited understanding of women's SRHR is especially evident in the realities of women and girls in vulnerable situations," Kathy Mulville, of Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR) explained, "such as young, single or unmarried women, older women, women of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities, indigenous women, women living with HIV, sex workers, and women living with disabilities, among many others."

Evidence from the ground confirms huge shortcomings in achieving women's sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Adolescent girls, for one, are less likely than older women to access sexual and reproductive health care, including modern contraception, and skilled assistance during pregnancy and childbirth.

Across the globe, moreover, indigenous women, women living with HIV, and women living with a disability, among other groups, have been subjected to forced or coerced abortion or sterilisation, with such cases documented in the Czech Republic, Namibia, Chile, Mexico, and India, among others.

As well, older women, particularly those who are widowed or single, are routinely excluded from sexual and reproductive health programmes.

And they are reported to find it embarrassing or difficult to procure condoms or to seek advice on safer sexual practices, although a recent report from the World Health Organization (WHO)  and UNAIDS showed an increase in HIV and STIs among older people.

"In spite of these realities, there is a lack of meaningful commitment on the part of governments to address our needs and ensure all women's rights to decide freely upon all aspects of our body, our sexuality and our lives, free from discrimination, coercion and violence," Kathy Mulville said.

"We need to hold governments accountable to their existing commitments, and ensure that national policies effectively guarantee and support women's choices and rights in relation to all aspects of their sexual and reproductive health and rights, throughout their whole lives," she added.

Governments around the world are currently involved in the process of evaluating the achievements made under the present global development agenda expressed in the Millennium Development Goals, set to end in 2015, and as such are also in the midst of formulating a Post-2015 Development Agenda.

As women worldwide will be affected by the decisions their governments make when framing the Post-2015 Development Agenda, women's rights advocates urge women, stakeholders and allies worldwide to make their voices heard, and highlight the diverse nature of women's sexual and reproductive health and rights issues that arise throughout women's lives.

In collaboration with over 20 international, regional and national organisations, WGNRR is undertaking the re-launch of the 28 May campaign in an effort to mobilise women all over the world to demand the inclusion of their human right to health in the Post-2015 Development Agenda, of which our sexual and reproductive health and rights are an integral part.

With less than three weeks left to go before the International Day of Action for Women's Health, WGNRR is calling on members, allies, partners, as well as the general public to become part of the movement and join global efforts to promote, defend, and demand women's sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Interested?

Individuals and organisations are encouraged to visit may28.org to learn more about the campaign, the 28 May Call for Action, what they can do in their communities and ways in which they can participate.

But as per 8 May, 2014, The International Day of Action for Women's Health is being coordinated by the Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR) in collaboration with the following partners:

AIDS Accountability International; Asia Pacific Alliance for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (APA); Asian-Pacific Resource & Research Centre for Women (ARROW); Asia Safe Abortion Partnership (ASAP); ASTRA; ASTRA Youth; Centre for Reproductive Rights; CREA; Decidir Nos Hace Libres; Human Rights in Childbirth; International Centre for Reproductive Health (ICRH); International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW Global); International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion; IPPF – Western Hemisphere; PopDev, Hampshire College; RODA; Sonke Gender Justice Network; Talking About Reproductive and Sexual Health Issues (TARSHI); Women's Networking Zone for the AIDS 2014 Conference; Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition (WHRDIC); WomenDeliver; World YWCA and the Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights (YCSRR).

Additional partners are set join the 28 May campaign throughout the month. Please click here for updates.

Concern over Modi and women’s rights

Posted: 08 May 2014 04:40 AM PDT

Southall Black SIsters and Awaaz express concerns over Gujurati Minister, prime ministerial candiate for BJPmodiReport examined the effects of the rise of Hindu nationalism and fascism led by Narendra Modi.

India’s 2014 general election is taking place from 7 April to 12 May, in nine phases in India, the longest election in the country’s history. The results will be revealed on 16 May.

Southall Black Sisters (SBS) has a long history of campaigning against religious fundamentalism in all religions, examining its effects on women's rights in particular in communities, locally, nationally and internationally.

SBS is part of the group Awaaz, which is campaigning against the rise of Hindu nationalism/fascism led by Narendra Modi, the prime ministerial candidate of the BJP in India, and produced a report examining the effects of the rise of Hindu nationalism and fascism led by Narendra Modi.

Modi presided over one of the darkest episodes of communal violence in India: in 2002, over 2,000 Muslim men women and children were killed, raped and mutilated and hundreds of thousands displaced.

Modi could be voted into power in the ongoing Indian elections.

Along with many others, SBS are extremely concerned about the impact of Modi and Hindutva politics on Indian democracy, Indian women and the rule of law.

Awaaz organised a parliamentary meeting in February which produced a briefing report which included an analysis of Hindu right-wing politics in India and the UK, 'its impact on Muslims, other minorities and women and dispels myths about Modi's style of governance'.

For further details on the parliamentary meeting on 26 February 2014, click here.

The ‘Parliamentary Briefing and Forum’ examined the role and politics of Narendra Modi during the Gujarat 2002 communal violence which led to over 1500 deaths, of mainly the Muslim minority community.

The riots also led to hundreds of rapes of women, and over 200,000 people were displaced.

The forum also analysed Modi's "good governance" and the branding of Gujarat as a dynamic and economically viable state.

Speakers included MPs, families of victims, academics, human rights lawyers and activists and community leaders.

To download a copy of the briefing report, click here.

Pragna Patel, director of Southall Black Sisters contributed a chapter entitled "Violence and Control: Modi, Hindutva and Women."

She discusses the crucial issue of the patriarchal cast of Hindutva ideology.

In 2002 it was manifested as systematic rape and assault of Muslim women in Gujarat. Modi's deep-seated belief in the exercise of control over women continues to be in evidence in Gujarat since 2002.

Her chapter examines three critical areas:

Rape and violence against women as an instrument of subjugation;

Modi and the lack of state accountability;

The sexual politics of Modi and the Sang Parivar.

And Patel concluded that Modi had "failed to uphold the constitution of India and the standard of due diligence under national and international law and obligation to prevent grave human rights abuses."

Women failed by short-term contraception

Posted: 08 May 2014 01:09 AM PDT

More than half of young women who had an abortion were using short-term methods of contraception at the time of conception.Family planning doesn't start and stop with condoms or the pill.

A study of women aged 16-24 who had had an abortion at one of Marie Stopes' UK clinics, revealed that 57 per cent of respondents were using contraception when they fell pregnant, and that most were using ‘short-term’ methods such as condoms and the pill.

Many of the women surveyed did not know why they got pregnant, suggesting a low level of awareness about the risks of failed contraception and inconsistent or improper use of such short-term methods of contraception.

Reasons for women not using contraception at all included statements such as: I didn't think about it; I just didn't get round to it; I got carried away; I thought I could not get pregnant, and 8 per cent of the women reported lack of access to contraception.

Genevieve Edwards, director of policy at Marie Stopes UK, believes the findings reflect a lack of support and awareness.

“Women have three fertile decades to manage,” she said, “but too many women are being let down by a lack of on-going support in choosing and using the most effective method of contraception.”

“Not all methods provide the same protection,” she explained.

“With typical use, around 9 in 100 women will become pregnant each year on the pill, while condoms have a failure rate of 18 per cent, compared to less than 1 per cent for long-acting methods like intrauterine contraceptives and implants.”

The findings also revealed that only 12 per cent of women surveyed had used emergency contraception.

“We are particularly concerned about low awareness of emergency contraception,” Edwards said,

“Family planning doesn't start and stop with condoms or the pill and much more needs to be done to support women on choosing and using the contraception that suits their lifestyle and stage of life.”

Despite numbers of abortions going down in general, and a high level of post-abortion contraceptive uptake recorded in Marie Stopes' data, statistics show a worrying increase in the number of women accessing more than one abortion in the UK, suggesting women's contraceptive needs are not being met in a sustained fashion.

Edwards believes that to address this trend, we have to get better at talking about contraception and abortion.

And this included increasing knowledge of and access to the reliability of long-acting reversible contraception (LARC).

“Getting this right is also good for the public purse. Fitting a coil costs about £40 and lasts ten years – that's less than 8p a week and it repays the NHS many times over in abortion or maternity costs,” she said.

Kylie Harrison, Marie Stopes' Media and Public Affairs Adviser said that simple educational steps are needed to bring down the numbers of young women having unwanted pregnancies.

These include increasing knowledge of and access to more reliable LARC, like coils and implants; improving sex and relationship education; increasing awareness of when and how to use emergency contraception; increased investment in contraceptive training for health professionals and bridging the gap between abortion, contraception and sexual health services.

If we invested in these measures, Edwards agreed, “we'd see the rates of unwanted pregnancies plummet.”

There was also a need to improve the quality of information about, and facilitate more effective use of, the full range of contraceptive methods by providing continuing support to young women who use these methods to help them manage side effects.

But one of the most important findings of the study, however, showed that unwanted pregnancy is not something that happens to a particular 'type' of woman.

The socio-demographic details recorded by the researchers showed no significant correlation between women having unwanted pregnancies and age or economic deprivation.

As Edwards explained: “It can happen to any of us.”

Women join the Tour de France

Posted: 07 May 2014 06:39 AM PDT

Women cyclists to join the Tour de France for a stage in ParisIs the inclusion of women in the 2014 Tour de France a giant step forward for women’s cycling?

The Tour de France is one of the sports world’s most famous sporting competitions. Traditionally a men’s cycling race, 2014 sees the first women’s race in the Tour de France planned.

It is only a partial victory for the women's Tour advocates. Called ‘La Course’ the women’s part will be a one-day event, not a full three-week Grand Tour.

It is, however, the first time since 1989 that women cyclists will be able to race alongside men.

And it has been described by English former professional triathlete and four-time Ironman Triathlon World Champion, Chrissie Wellington, as ‘a giant step forward in women’s cycling’.

Race organisers from the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) announced that this elite women's race, La Course by Le Tour de France, will finish on the Champs-Elysees on 27 July 2014, but ahead of the men.

The race is expected to be broadcast in over 147 countries, effectively shining a very bright light on women’s cycling.

The campaign for a women's race at the Tour de France began in July 2013 when four women – pro cyclists Kathryn Bertine, Emma Pooley, and Marianne Vos, and four-time world Ironman champion Chrissie Wellington – circulated a petition which received more than 90,000 signatures.

Their goal was a full-length Tour for the women run concurrently with the men's race.

La Course is a huge step forward for women and equality in the sport of cycling, but it does not quite bridge the full gap.

Not one day rather than three weeks.

Nonetheless, Olympic and World Champion, Mariane Vos wrote on the official Tour de France site: “I am delighted that the ASO has decided to organize a women's race this year.

“I am very excited to be taking part, especially with the majestic finish on the Champs Elysées.”

The flat profile of La Course will not elevate the race to the hardest in the women’s cycling calendar but a prize fund of 22,000 Euros – equivalent to that received by the men’s winner of the first stage – will make it possibly the most profitable.

Oh yes, and the podium winners will be greeted by podium boys’ kisses!

OK, for me this is perhaps a step too far.

I’m a huge cycling fan but I have never quite understood the need to have tall, slim, female models wearing short dresses ‘rewarding’ men for their successes – in any sport.

Rather than providing the women with podium boys, the feminist in me would have much preferred the organiser to simply just rid the men’s race of podium girls. The prize money is sufficient.

There is no denying the Tour de France is a very special race, with a huge following. It can only provide a much needed spotlight and prestige for women’s cycling.

A giant step forward?

There’s still some way to go to reach equality for women in the world of cycling, but this is a truly great step forward.

Why the UK’s children die

Posted: 07 May 2014 04:15 AM PDT

child deaths, why children die, UK's shocking figures, new reportUK children are at a higher risk of premature death than their Western European counterparts.

This is due to the growing gap between rich and poor and a lack of targeted public health policies to reduce child deaths, finds a new report from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) and the National Children's Bureau (NCB), launched recently.

Every year, an estimated 2,000 additional children – that is 5 a day – die in the UK compared to the best performing country, Sweden.

The report, ‘Why Children Die’, was written by Dr Ingrid Wolfe and other leading child health experts Alison Macfarlane, Angela Donkin, Russell Viner and Michael Marmot.

It finds that many of the causes of child death – including perinatal deaths and suicides – disproportionally affect the most disadvantaged in society, and says that many child deaths could be prevented through a combination of societal changes, political engagement and improved training for children's healthcare professionals.

Why Children Die has reviewed existing UK evidence on child deaths and their causes, and found that:

In 2012 over 3000 babies died before age one;

Over 2000 children and young people died between the ages of one and nineteen;

Over half of deaths in childhood occur during the first year of a child's life, and are strongly influenced by pre-term delivery and low birth weight; with risk factors including maternal age, smoking and disadvantaged circumstances.

Suicide remains a leading cause of death in young people in the UK, and the number of deaths due to intentional injuries and self-harm have not declined in 30 years;

After the age of one, injury is the most frequent cause of death;

Over three quarters of deaths due to injury in the age bracket of 10-18 year-olds are related to traffic incidents.

The report highlights the importance of access to high quality healthcare for children and young people.

The authors call for a reduction in preventable deaths through better training of healthcare professionals to enable confident, competent, early identification and treatment of illness, and better use of tools such as epilepsy passports, asthma plans and coordinated care between hospitals and schools.

Dr Hilary Cass, President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said: "We know there are things that all healthcare professionals can be doing better to help reduce avoidable child deaths – whether that's early detection of problems, safe prescribing or using effective tools such as asthma plans to manage conditions.

"But if we're to make real inroads into reducing these tragic mortality figures, we cannot do it alone.

"It's time that political parties of all colours took health inequalities seriously. At the moment, policies to reduce child mortality are too piecemeal, not targeted and fail to address the underlying causes."

Dr Ingrid Wolfe, lead author of the report and child public health expert, said: "Social and economic inequalities are matters of life and death for children. Countries that spend more on social protection have lower child mortality rates.

"The messages are stark and crucial. Poverty kills children. Equity saves lives. Social protection is life-saving medicine for the population."

Many of the causes associated with preventable child deaths affect the poorest families.

For example smoking in pregnancy is  one of the most important preventable factors associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes – attributed to around 2,200 preterm births, 5,000 miscarriages and 300 perinatal deaths ever year in the UK.  And mothers who smoke during pregnancy are much more likely to be from poorer families.

Dr Hilary Emery, Chief Executive of the National Children's Bureau, said: "There are currently 3.5 million children living in poverty across the UK, that's 1 in 4; twice that of many industrialized nations.

"This report clearly illustrates the direct impact persistent inequality in our society has on the life chances of the most disadvantaged children and young people.

"Government needs to bring forward a revised child poverty strategy that has tackling health inequality as a central focus to prevent the disproportionate number of deaths amongst children in low income families.

"Equally important is enhancing the wellbeing and resilience of our children through education, and ensuring that every child grows up in a place that is healthy and safe.

"Now is the time to act, to ensure that all our children have the opportunity to fulfil their potential and live long and healthy lives, regardless of their circumstances."

Both the RCPCH and the NCB have made specific recommendations on some of the most preventable causes of death highlighted in Why Children Die – including deaths from injuries, poisoning, road traffic accidents, poor mental health and neonatal deaths caused by risky behaviours during pregnancy.

These include:

Taking action to reduce poverty and inequality, for example by withdrawing the new cap on welfare spending and implementing a safety net so that the risks of rising living costs do not hit families with the lowest incomes;

Implementing measures to promote healthy pregnancy – including high quality PSHE and SRE lessons in schools and action across the health system to promote smoking cessation in pregnancy;

Creating healthy, safe communities and environments, by for example, introducing minimum unit pricing for alcohol, reducing the national speed limit in built up areas to 20mph and introducing Graduated Licensing Schemes for novice drivers of all ages;

Creating an action plan for improving child and adolescent mental health services. The Department of Health should commission a regular survey to identify the prevalence of mental health problems among children and young people. Ofsted's inspection framework for early years settings, schools and colleges should include consideration of the extent to which these settings provide an environment that promotes children and young people's social and emotional wellbeing;

And better training for healthcare staff.

All frontline health professionals involved in the acute assessment of children and young people should utilise resources such as the 'Spotting the sick child' web resource and complete relevant professional development so they are confident and competent to recognise a sick child

Clinical teams looking after children and young people with known medical conditions should make maximum use of tools to support improved communication and clarity around ongoing management, for example: introduction of epilepsy passports or asthma management plans where appropriate; cooperating with schools to meet their duty to support pupils with medical conditions.

The report also calls for a national child mortality database to ensure data can be compared and analysed throughout the UK.

We should not accept food poverty in the UK

Posted: 07 May 2014 01:13 AM PDT

open letter to prime minister david cameron; we should not accept food poverty in the UKPublic health experts send open letter on food poverty in the UK to Prime Minister David Cameron.

The UK is in danger of standards of ‪nutrition‬ regressing decades and undoing the advances made since World War Two, a coalition of 170 public health experts has warned.

In an open letter on food poverty in the UK to Prime Minister David Cameron posted in The Lancet they wrote:

‘There is a worrying gap in health circumstances and outcomes between rich and poor people in the UK. Complex though the reasons for this inequality are, the reality is that many hardworking families in the UK are living in poverty and do not have enough income for a decent diet. UK food prices have risen by 12 per cent in real terms since 2007, returning the cost of food relative to other goods to that in the 1990s.

In the same period, UK workers have suffered a 7·6 per cent fall in real wages. It therefore seems likely that increasing numbers of people on low wages are not earning enough money to meet their most basic nutritional needs to maintain a healthy diet.

We should not accept this situation in the UK, the world’s sixth largest economy and the third largest in Europe.

We urge you to set up an independent working group to monitor nutrition and hunger in the UK. We also ask you to act on the findings of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hunger and Food Poverty’s parliamentary inquiry, which will improve people’s health when published.

We wish to draw attention to three specific issues. First, food poverty is increasing. It is not just that more people are using food banks. Food banks are a symptom of a more extensive pressure for emergency food aid, which was summarised for your government in a report to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) released this year.

Food bank numbers are an inadequate indicator of need, because many households only ask for emergency food help as a last resort. A huge amount of on-the-ground experience and Trussell Trust data, including the rise of food aid, suggests that the welfare system is increasingly failing to provide a robust last line of defence against hunger. More and more households, now including those in work, find themselves unable to afford a decent diet. Reliance on food aid should not be part of any modern, society-wide and evidence-based approach to public health policy.

Second, there is the underlying issue of food costs and prices. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) and DEFRA have shown that the rising costs of food during the past 6 years are proving increasingly hard for lower-income households to manage. The food industry is well aware of these problems; nevertheless, food is likely to continue to cost more in the future.

During the past 5 years, food has been one of the three top factors in price inflation, sufficient to worry even higher-income consumers. In a time of high fuel prices, this inflation has translated into families cutting back on fresh fruit and vegetables and buying cheap, sweet, fatty, salty, or processed foods that need little cooking. A vicious circle is set in motion, with poorer people having worse diets and contributing to the worrying rise in obesity, diabetes, and other dietary-related diseases.

The third issue is the problem of stagnant incomes and wages among the low paid. In real terms, according to the ONS, incomes have fallen in the first substantial manner since the 1960s. The ONS calculates that UK workers have experienced a 7·6 per cent fall in real wages during the past 6 years. Increasing numbers of people on low wages are not earning enough money to meet their most basic nutritional needs.

Our concern is that this situation puts an overwhelming strain on household food budgets. An affordable, nutritious diet is a prerequisite for health. We view the rise of food poverty as an indication of the reversal of what was a long process of improvement in food availability and affordability since World War 2. The full situation is complex. Nonetheless, public debate about food poverty is sometimes too quick to blame the poor without understanding the pressures poorer families are under.

As public health professionals, our role is to improve the health and wellbeing of the people we serve. The Chief Medical Officer for England has recently raised concerns about obesity becoming the norm. Our organisations and fellow health professionals are committed to helping the public and the food industry to take the healthier route. Failure to do so will come with immense costs to individuals, families, communities, employers, the National Health Service, and government.

Food poverty has never been acceptable in a modern UK. We urge you to act on the findings of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hunger and Food Poverty’s inquiry that will improve people’s health to make clear that this injustice is not acceptable now.

The UK Faculty of Public Health urges you to instigate an independent working group to monitor UK nutrition and hunger status. We are willing and ready to offer our professional expertise to support this group, and national efforts to alleviate food poverty and improve the nation’s health.

We declare no competing interests.’

To see the list of the 170 signatories to this open letter, click here.

Spot the mistake in newspaper headline

Posted: 06 May 2014 07:32 AM PDT

Screen-Shot-2014-05-04-at-21.32.14.png'Wife's affair cost her her life'.

Not the jealous husband who bludgeoned her to death with a dumbbell, then?

On 20 July last year Nirmal Gill allegedly murdered Rosemary Gill in their Bristol home.

Bristol Crown Court recently heard how Nirmall Gill, having fitted a tracking device to Rosemary Gill's car and paid a private investigator to follow her, allegedly carried out the fatal attack with a metal dumbbell after suspecting that she had been meeting her ex-husband.

Prosecuting QC Michael Fitton told the jury that Nirmal Hill admits the  manslaughter of Rosemary Gill through a loss of control, but denies murdering her.

'He didn't lose control of himself when he heat her to death, he knew what he was doing,' Fitton said.

'He was killing her in revenge for what he had discovered about her behavior because she had been unfaithful.'

'He was killing her,’ Fitton continued, ‘because he was a jealous man who was never going to forgive her, not just for the affair but for lying to him.'

'She paid for her affair with her life.'

Echoing Fitton's questionable concluding remark, The Western Daily Press, a daily tabloid covering parts of South West England, ran the tragic incident as their front page story with the headline: 'Wife's affair cost her her life.'

The Western Daily Press has subsequently received an understandable amount of criticism on Twitter regarding this instance of victim-blaming.

Editor and blogger VJD Smith (@Glosswitch) tweeted the newspaper to draw their attention to the @CountDeadWomen campaign.

Rosemary Gill is one of at least 50 women in the UK who are reported to have been killed by suspected male domestic violence during the first four months of 2014.

The words of a lawyer didn’t kill Rosemary Gill. Nor did a newspaper’s  headline.

Nor did her actions. And to imply otherwise is insensitive and irresponsible.

Recent statistics show that only 15 per cent of victims of domestic violence report offences to the police.

Headlines like these contribute to a climate of victim-blaming in which vulnerable women and girls are reluctant to seek help.

To complain to the Western Daily Press either tweet the paper (@WestDailyPress) or email the editor at wdnews@bepp.co.uk.

And chillingly: ‘The couple argued, with Mrs Gill calling police for help on four separate occasions between June 9 and 21, the lawyer said‘.

Events 5 May – 11 May

Posted: 06 May 2014 04:56 AM PDT

Diary. Here are some dates for your diary of woman-centric events going on around the UK this week.Here are some dates for your diary of woman-centric events going on around the UK and Dublin this week.

Wherever you are:

7 May: Wear Red! Education for Women and Girls around the world.

On 7 May 2014 we are inviting you all, women, men and children, to wear red in support of the One Million Women march in Abuja, Nigeria, on 30 April, for the 200 plus abducted schoolgirls.

Please wear something red and take photos of yourself and/or your friends, work mates, colleagues, family etc. holding signs saying #BringBackOurGirls , education for all women & girls, love & support from ……… and insert the name of your town/city and country. Then post the photos on the Wear Red facebook page.

We will then forward them to the organisers of this march to show our on-going support for the girls and their families.

#BringBackOurGirls solidarity protests and vigils are planned in Dublin, Nottingham and London.

And sign the petition.

Brighton:

7/8 May: Sister at Marlborough Theatre, 4 Princes Street, Brighton, from 7.30pm.

Amy and Rosana are sisters. Amy has worked in the sex industry. Rosana is a lesbian with a shaved head and hairy armpits. They are both feminists.

‘Sister’ sees them revealing everything in an attempt to understand their own and each others’ sexual identities, and how the world they grew up in shaped them into the women they are today.

Tickets £8.50/ £6.50.

Part of Brighton Fringe Festival, a completely open-access festival, which means anyone can put on an event and be included in the festival programme. Brighton Fringe can also include any art form.

No artistic judgement or selection criteria are imposed on participants, enabling the development of both new and established work to attract fresh audiences, press and promoters.

Leicester:

8 May: Book launch: The Illicit Worlds of Indian Dance, by Dr Anna Morcom,  at The Guildhall, Leicester LE1 5FQ at 5.15pm.

As part of the Let's Dance International Festival in Leicester, Anna Morcom launches her new book, The Illicit Worlds of Indian Dance, about India’s performance arts over the last century and its female, transgender and cross-dressed dancers.

Free.

London:

10 May: Gender, Fundamentalism and Racism at the Centre for Research on Migration, Refugees and Belonging (UEL) and Centre for Gender Studies (SOAS) at Khalili Theatre, SOAS, London WC1H, from 2-5pm.

Georgie Wemyss, UEL, and Rebecca Durand: Voices from Adult Education;

Rita Chadha, RAMFEL: Faith, the new Border Agent for Immigration: Perpetuating sexism and inter-community racism within faith based organisations–an East London case study;

Hana Riaz, LSE: The Woolwich Attack: The racialisation of Islam and Muslim identity in Britain;

Pragna Patel, Southall Black Sisters: Excusing the inexcusable: Some reflections on the place of gender in the politics of race and religion in the UK.

Tickets free.

Until 31 May: Judith Barry: Cairo Stories at Waterside Contemporary, Clanbury Street, London, N1

This is the first Judith Barry’s solo exhibition at Waterside Contemporary where she presents her project “… Cairo stories” consisting of a video and photographic installation.

Created from a collection of more than 200 interviews Barry conducted with Cairene women between the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the beginning of the Egyptian Revolution in 2011, “… Cairo stories” is a series of short video monologues.

The stories chronicle personal experiences of women from a variety of social and economic classes in Egypt and expand the artist’s concerns with notions of representation, history, subjectivity, and translation – particularly as these ideas circulate across cultures.

A selection of 15 narratives is performed by actors, highlighting that all stories, including those we tell ourselves, are ultimately fictions.

“… Cairo stories” is a continuation of Not Reconciled, a series of ‘as told to’ stories Barry recorded in a variety of countries and cultures, and bears witness to the artist’s long-term interest in the strength and the political implications of the voice.

Since the Egyptian revolution, the voice – and the right to vote or ability to speak out – has become a central concern in everyday life.

The position of women in the public, political – and private – spheres is also at the forefront of these discussions.

Free entry.

Oxford:

7 May: Alyse Nelson, president and CEO of Vital Voices Global Partnership, at the Oxford Union, Frewin Court, Oxford, from 7pm.

The Oxford Union and Oxford Women in Politics are pleased to host Alyse Nelson, president and CEO of Vital Voices Global Partnership, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that identifies, trains and empowers emerging women leaders and social entrepreneurs around the globe, the aim of which is to enable them to create a better world for us all.

Nelson has worked with women leaders to develop training programmes and international forums in more than 140 countries and has interviewed more than 200 international leaders. Under her leadership, Vital Voices has tripled in size and expanded to serve a network of more than 14,000 women leaders in 144 countries.

Previously, Nelson served as deputy director of the Vital Voices Global Democracy Initiative at the U.S. Department of State. She helped former First Lady Hillary Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's commitment to promote the advancement of women as a US foreign policy objective. She has helped design and implement Vital Voices initiatives throughout the world.

From July 1996 to July 2000, Nelson worked with the President's Interagency Council on Women at the White House and US Department of State. She is a Member in the Council on Foreign Relations. She serves on Secretary Clinton’s Advisory Committee on Strategic Dialogue with Civil Society and is a Board member of Running Start and RAD-AID International.

She is also the author of ‘Vital Voices: The Power of Women Leading Change Around at the World,’ which tells the stories of remarkable, world-changing women, as well as the story of how Vital Voices was founded.

In 2006 Nelson was named one of ”Ten Women to Watch” by the Washingtonian Magazine, in 2011 she was featured in Newsweek as one of ”150 Women Shaking the World,” and in 2012 she was The International Alliance for Women (TIAW) World of Difference 100 Award recipient.

9/10 May: The Vagina Monologues at EP Abraham Lecture Theatre, Green Templeton College, 43 Woodstock Road, Oxford, from 8pm.

The award-winning play is based on V-Day Founder and playwright Eve Ensler’s interviews with more than 200 women. The piece celebrates women's sexuality and strength with humour and grace.

For more than a decade, The Vagina Monologues has given voice to experiences and feelings not previously exposed in public and brought a deeper consciousness to the conversation around ending violence against women and girls.

And through this play and the liberation of this one word, countless women throughout the world have taken control of their bodies and their lives.

Tickets £5. Profits go to the Oxford Rape Crisis Centre and V-Day.

You can’t be what you can’t see

Posted: 06 May 2014 01:09 AM PDT

EWL investigation, collected images, Investigation into images in print media found far more men portrayed than women.Investigation into images in print media found far more men portrayed than women.

For four months, the European Women's Lobby (EWL) team cut out all the pictures of men and women from 136 different publications.

They used 87 titles from 22 EU-member countries.

The result was expected.

After pasting the images onto long sheets of paper, and when laid out end-to-end on an athletics track, the images of men stretched many metres beyond the collective total of images of women.

Only 30 per cent of the photos collected, including advertisements, were of women.

Compounding the invisibility of half the population was the detrimental style of the depiction.

Not only were there extraordinarily few healthy images of women and girls, less than four per cent of the images portrayed were non-stereotypical.

Wife, mother, actress or model were the most commonly used categories for images of women.

In only 12 per cent of all the news stories covered by EU media was a woman the central subject.

And only five per cent of the sports photography had a woman or women as the subject.

The project made visual what many of us know intellectually – women are not portrayed as experts.

In the UK, the websites HerSay and thewomensroom were launched in response to the BBC's notorious 2012 claim that its Today programme had been unable to find any women experts for discussions on breast cancer and teenage contraception.

As The Women's Room said, 'women represent 79 per cent of victims [portrayed in the media, yet] three-quarters of 'experts' are men.'

Such complete erasure of women's talents and integral roles in today's societies is extraordinarily detrimental to young girls and adults.

In addition to her looks, a woman, even when being interviewed or participating as an expert, is subjected to lines of questioning that men, rarely, if ever, face.

Does she have children? Why or why not? How does she balance family and professional life?

If girls do not see the broad range of career options available to women, because women are rarely, if ever, depicted visually as anything other than a face or a body, what hope is there for ridding society of such limiting and degrading stereotypes?

Power, age and experience are no barriers to such sexism.  In 2012, Hillary Clinton was subjected to questions about her apparent lack of make-up at official events.

‘It’s just not something that deserves a whole lot of time and attention. If others want to worry about it, I’ll let them do the worrying for a change,’ she said.

The EWL’s project also clearly revealed the level of ageism within the media.

Only 16 per cent of the images collected over the four months showed women over 45 years of age.

In an interview for the project, Nora van Oostrom-Streep, a professor of law and substitute judge in the court of appeals in the Netherlands, said that she had lost count of the times that she has been asked if her various professional appointments have been because of her looks, being blonde and or a woman.

Who and what is portrayed, as well as who and what are ignored, by the news media is exceptionally important in shaping individual and group identities.

The project calls on editors to consistently do more to improve the healthy portrayal of women in the media.

Otherwise, we all lose as we continue to miss out on half the stories of the world.

Call for UK to protect two girls facing FGM

Posted: 02 May 2014 06:19 AM PDT

Nigerian woman seeks refuge in the UK to prevent her daughters facing FGM in Nigeria.Will the Home Office listen?

A Nigerian woman is seeking protection in the UK from an abusive husband and Female Gential Mutilation (FGM) for her daughters.

So far, 114,000 people in the UK and George Mudie MP, support her.

Will the Home Office?

Scared for the safety of her one year-old and three year-old daughters, Nigerian-born Afusat Saliu, who has herself been ‘cut‘, fled Lagos and sought refuge in the UK.

Concerned her children would be forced by her abusive partner to undergo female genital mutilation, Saliu fled to the UK in 2011 after she was told by her mother-in-law that her eldest daughter would face genital mutilation.

Now living in Leeds with her daughters, who have turned two and four years old, Saliu and her children are facing deportation back to Nigeria.

“I don’t want them to be mutilated,” Saliu said. “I know it will happen if I have to go back with them, I know it because it is the culture of my family.”

Saliu’s 2012 application for asylum was refused and her appeal dismissed. A second application with further details of the dangers faced by her daughters was rejected around 25 April 2014.

Facing detention, Saliu has received support from MP George Mudie, Labour MP for East Leeds.

Mudie has written twice to James Brokenshire, the Security and Immigration Minister and is awaiting his response.

“The assumption is that this is a pause,” said Mudie. “I would be extremely disappointed if they tried to detain her while this is still going on.

“This is so important and sensitive.

“[Brokenshire] has got to satisfy himself that he is absolutely certain that these children are not in danger. It would be unforgivable if anything happened to these children if they go back.”

Alongside support from MP, George Mudie, Saliu has received over 114,000 signatures on a Change.org petition set up by her friend, Anj Handa, requesting that her case to be reviewed.

The petition specifically requests the Home Office to:

Review new evidence, which was presented, but appears to have been overlooked;

Consider Case Law precedent, where a materially similar application for asylum was upheld;

Ensure the safety and well-being of her two small daughters who are now well settled in Leeds (including the youngest, who was born in London), but who are likely to be subject to FGM should they return to Nigeria;

Pay due regard to the imminent danger involved to her and her family should she be returned to Nigeria, given the latest information that Nigeria is unlikely to be able to provide sufficient protection for her and her family and

Take note of the community contribution already made by Afusat.

Although Saliu has not been allowed to legally work while in the UK, she has helped with fund-raising for her eldest daughter's pre-school, and as a volunteer, worked with student midwives, teaching them how to recognise the signs of FGM so that they can protect others from being cut.

This case comes barely two months after Michael Gove agreed to write to schools to highlight the signs of FGM and to remind them of their duty to protect schoolchildren.

I hope James Brokenshire and the Home Office accept and acknowledge the very real risks these children face if they are returned to Nigeria.

I hope James Brokenshire and the Home Office refuse to deport Saliu and her children.

What better way to show how serious the UK is in its stand against FGM, against women and children forcibly having their genitals mutilated?

If returned to Nigeria, this is exactly what will happen to Saliu’s daughters; they will have their genitals mutilated.

Saliu told the Yorkshire Post she is terrified by the prospect of returning to Nigeria, knowing she will be homeless and there will be nothing she can do to protect her daughters.

"I am scared as I know what it's like and that, as a woman, you do not have a say," she said.

To sign the petition asking the Home Office to review the fresh evidence submitted for Afusat Saliu’s asylum case properly, click here.

Game of Thrones – and that scene

Posted: 02 May 2014 04:45 AM PDT

game of thrones scene sparks internet debate and rape questionsControversial Game of Thrones scene sparks internet-wide discussion for all the wrong reasons.

Warning: Spoilers Ahead.

If it wasn’t already clear, major spoilers abound in this article for Game of Thrones, season four.

To recap, one of the beginning scenes in the third episode of this season is Jaime Lannister forcing himself on his twin sister, next to the dead body of their son.

It remains unclear as to why exactly the directors and writers chose to frame the scene in this way, when in the books it is consensual (though still disturbing) sex.

One interpretation, the most charitable one, is that perhaps they did not realise that many viewers would interpret the scene as rape.

This is backed up by the statement from Alex Graves, director of the scene, who said: “Well, it becomes consensual at the end, because anything for [Cersei and Jaime] ultimately results in a turn-on, especially a power struggle.”

He also expressed one of those sentiments that many of us have heard so often: “And also, the other thing that I think is clear before they hit the ground is she starts to make out with him.

“The big things to us that were so important, and that hopefully were not missed, is that before he rips her undergarment, she's way into kissing him back. She's kissing him aplenty.”

In other words, he repeats the same thing many of us have heard when discussing sexual assault and rape: well, she was kissing him/flirting with him/leading him on, so obviously she actually wanted it.

During the whole scene, Cersei is saying no, attempting to push Jaime away, and at the end she is sobbing.

It’s hard to imagine how anyone could think these actions expressed consent.

There is always the possibility that, after several misogynistic acts – Daenarys’ rape by Khal Drogo comes to mind, as does Ros’s death, her friend whom Joffrey forced her to beat, and the poor girl Ramsay Snow had torn apart by dogs – those involved in the show are simply beginning to get acclimatised to violence against women.

Given that there is only one woman out of nine current writers and directors, it is possible that the perspective of the thousands of women who have had something similar happen to them was simply not considered.

But it is important for anyone who creates art to remember that they are not creating it in a vacuum.

Directors and writers of popular shows like Game of Thrones should never lose sight of that fact.

They should never forget that millions of people from all sorts of backgrounds will be watching what they make.

Perhaps after the backlash over this, they will take it into consideration in the future.

But somehow, I doubt it.

Women less optimistic about economy than men

Posted: 02 May 2014 03:55 AM PDT

Gender gapYouGov infographic shows gender gap in confidence in economic recovery widening.

Recent good news about the economy seems to be leaving women cold, according to statistics released the polling organisation YouGov.

YouGov has been asking respondents how they thought the financial situation of their household would change over the next 12 months since 2011.

While men's financial expectations have moved from net minus 46 per cent from 2011 to minus 13 per cent in to 2014, women's expectations have moved improved from minus 54 per cent to minus 27 per cent in the same period.

The gap between men's and women's expectations is widening as women are now 10 per cent more likely to say their finances will be worse in a years' time than men’s when in previous years the gap was 7 per cent.

These trends are also reflected in women's approval of the government's handling of the economy.

Men's approval of the government's ongoing economic record went up from minus 16 per cent in 2011 to minus 1 per cent in 2014, women's approval rating on the economy currently stands at minus 14 per cent, up from minus 24 per cent in 2011.

YouGov offers a number of possible explanations:

Firstly, women have been hit harder by benefit cuts.

Secondly, they are – were – more likely to work in the public sector, which has experienced cuts and job losses.

And thirdly, they are more likely to be hit hard by recessions generally as many women tend to occupy low skilled, insecure jobs which are the first to suffer.

New platform for women’s rights in Europe

Posted: 02 May 2014 01:06 AM PDT

new platform for women's rights in the European Union launched, vote for womenGender equality is a fundamental principle enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty on the European Union.

A new platform spearheaded by France to promote the rights of women and equality in the European Union was launched recently.

The Minister of Women's Rights, City, and Youth and Sports, Najat Belkacem-Vallaud, and the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, presented the initiative in honour of the 70th anniversary of women's right to vote in France.

The Platform for Women's Rights in Europe urges the European Union to redouble its efforts to ensure gender equality within its own institutions and put girls' and women's access to social, economic and health services at the heart of its policies.

It intends to secure the EU's role as a leader in the fight for women's rights around the world.

The launch statement reads:

‘At a time when European citizens prepare to renew their European institutions, we recognise that equality is one of the fundamental values that enabled to build trust and cooperation among the member states and secured peace, democracy and prosperity of the European continent for many decades.

We are determined to continue building on the value of equality and revive the EU's role as a vanguard in the fight for women's rights around the world.

Gender equality is a fundamental principle enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty on the European Union and in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

This principle is the core of the European charter for equality of women and men in local life.

It is based on the firm conviction that only a society that recognises the equal participation of women and men in all areas can be truly democratic and prosperous and safeguards the rule of law.

However, women still earn 16 per cent less than men per hour worked. Women represent 27 per cent of national parliaments and 18 per cent of company boards. 21 per cent of women are low income workers when 13 per cent men are. 62 million women are victims of physical and sexual violence.

These factors hinder women to unfold their full potential in society and hinder the EU economy to grow substantially via a strong participation of women in the labour market.

Since the conclusion of the Rome Treaty, the European Union has put the issue of gender equality at the heart of its objectives.

It must redouble its efforts to live up to its ambitions and become the exemplar continent for the promotion of equality.

We are convinced that a strong EU, based on gender equality will also positively influence the situation of women in non EU states which are its partners.

We must refuse to move backwards.

We categorically reject attempts to challenge or limit women's rights, autonomy or freedom, for any reason.

Lack of access of girls and women to sexual and reproductive health and rights, to schools, university, jobs, equally paid work, violence against women, reinforce poverty and hinder economic and democratic development of entire societies. That is why women's rights and gender equality must be at the heart of EU policies.

In order to redouble its success in achieving gender equality, parity must be automatic in all EU institutions.

We demand that candidates for positions in European institutions express themselves publicly in favour of a Europe that is equal and boasts freedom and women's rights.

Gender equality and women's rights must be a fully-fledged policy and priority of the European Union.

This requires concrete commitments that offer guarantees, including:

Complying with the requirement of parity when designating members of the Commission;

Having a Commissioner also explicitly in charge of Women's Rights;

Mandating a gender equality aspect in the economic governance of the Union, leading to annual recommendations by the Commission to Member States on how to better promote gender equality;

Defining parity rules that apply to all appointments to key positions in EU institutions and organs and

Implementing gender mainstreaming into all policy of the EU through an ambitious action plan on gender mainstreaming.

We call on all European women and men to consider candidates for positions in European institutions in terms of their concrete commitments made in favour of gender equality and women's rights.

We recall the special responsibility of local authorities and call on them to engage in this cause and join the European charter for equality of women and men in local life.’

The European Elections take place on 22 May this year. You have until 6 May to register to vote.

Please register and vote. And support women’s rights.

Protest a new Taliban-like penal code

Posted: 01 May 2014 08:50 AM PDT

Stop the Sultan of Brunei implementing draconian punishments and introducing stoningWhy women shouldn't support hotels owned by the Sultan of Brunei.

It has recently come to light that the Sultan of Brunei is implementing a Taliban-like penal code in the industrialised, oil-rich country, which would unleash a slew of draconian punishments on the citizens of Brunei.

The Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF) had planned to hold its annual Global Women's Rights Awards, co-chaired by Jay and Mavis Leno, at the Beverly Hills Hotel, but now it has cancelled in protest.

Instead, the awards event will be held on the evening of May 5 at the Hammer Museum in the Westwood area of Los Angeles.

The Beverley Hills Hotel is part of the Dorchester Collection, a hotel group owned by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, dictator of the Southeast Asian nation, Brunei, and which includes the Dorchester and 45 Park Lane, in London and Coworth Park Hotel in Ascot.

FMF has now joined with gay and lesbian and women's rights groups to protest the Sultan's proposed gross violations of human rights at a noon rally on May 5, across from the street from the hotel in a park on Sunset Boulevard.

"We cannot hold a human rights and women's rights event at a hotel whose owner would institute a penal code that fundamentally violates women's rights and human rights," said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation (and publisher of Ms.).

One of the most disquieting of the new codes calls for gay men and lesbians and people convicted of adultery to be stoned to death.

Another permits the public flogging of women who have abortions. A third would jail women who become pregnant outside of marriage.

"Kill-a-gay' laws, or laws that allow the flogging of women for abortion, violate international law and have no place in civilized society," Feminist Majority Foundation board member Mavis Leno said.

The laws will be introduced in three phases over the course of three years. Phase one will punish certain offenses with hefty fines or prison time, phase 2 will add such punishments as amputations and floggings for other crimes and the third phase will include crimes punishable by stoning to death.

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said it had "deep concern" about the proposed new laws and the ramifications it would hold for human rights in Brunei.

"The United Nations must condemn the government of Brunei's plans and explore additional options, including sanctions, if Brunei fails to rescind this decree," added Kathy Spillar, executive editor of Ms. and the event director.

FMF and Ms. have launched a petition drive calling on the government of Brunei to immediately rescind the new code and asking the United Nations to take action if these laws go into effect.

Please sign the petition here, or send a letter to the government of Brunei here.

You can also join the conversation on Twitter by tweeting with the hashtag #StopTheSultan.

Margo MacDonald: the feisty campaigner

Posted: 01 May 2014 07:45 AM PDT

Margo MacDonald MSP, nationalist figure in Scottish politics, has died.Scotland 'has lost one of its finest public servants'.

The independent Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), Margo MacDonald died last month, aged 70, after almost four decades campaigning for Scottish independence.

A humanist memorial was held for her at the home of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in Edinburgh, the building in which the Scottish Parliament met during the early years of devolution.

Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond was joined by the leaders of all Scotland's political parties as they remembered the woman who has been one of Scotland's most recognisable public figures since she was first elected to  any parliament.

Born Margo Aitken in 1943 into a mining family from the Lanarkshire coalfields, she went to Hamilton Academy, an academically rigorous school which took gifted pupils from all over Lanarkshire.

From there she went to the Dunfermline College of Physical Education, where she excelled in swimming, She taught PE for two years, married publican Peter MacDonald worked as a barmaid and had two daughters.

She joined the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) after Winifred Ewing's inspirational victory at Hamilton when she became the first female Scottish National Party MP.

In 1970 MacDonald contested Paisley, but was soundly beaten after a ‘feisty campaign’.

In 1972, aged 29, she was elected a party vice-chairman.

The feisty campaign stood her in good stead – she was chosen to run for  Govan in 1973 and won a sensational by-election victory, taking what had until then been a Labour stronghold with a majority of 571.

It created turmoil in the Scottish Labour Party and a commitment to devolution, and was to have consequences which are still with us, as veteran politician Tam Dayell wrote, in the form of the Scottish Parliament and huge arguments about Scottish MPs voting on English matters.

And, as the Scotsman put it 'in the midst of her Govan triumph she took London-based journalists around what were some of the worst slums in the city.

'It was her way of graphically illustrating the poverty that blighted many, arguing that Westminster rule had done nothing for those marginalised by bad housing and low incomes.'

Her tabloid image was as a glamorous young publican's wife, but, as the Telegraph reported, ‘while her fervour and good looks made her a natural for television, she was serious about her politics and resented being called a blonde bombshell’.

She lost the seat – by 543 votes – in the February 1974 election but the SNP gained six other seats. The panic in both main parties continued.

Deputy leader of the SNP from 1974 to 1979, she was also a member of the left-wing '79 group' of Nationalists, a faction of activists who wanted to anchor SNP policy in socialism – a group which included Alex Salmond and Kenny MacAskill – but resigned in protest after several of the group were expelled from the SNP in 1982 for their activities.

When Labour got its devolution scheme on to the Statute Book, and a referendum was set for March 1979, she joined the ‘Yes’ campaign, and worked with the then leader of the two-MP Scottish Labour Party, Jim Sillars, who she married in 1981.

She then embarked on a career as a journalist and broadcaster, and presented programmes on both radio and television.

Returning to the SNP, she was elected as an SNP list MSP for Lothian in 1999, but was officially expelled from the party in 2003, after John Swinney replaced Alex Salmond as its leader, and decided instead to stand as Independent in elections that year.

She won a seat then, and was re-elected as an Independent MSP in both 2007 and 2011.

She was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease in 1996, made her illness public six years later, and demanding the legal right to end her own life, launched a campaign for assisted dying to be legalised, and worked with a BBC documentary exploring both sides of the argument.

Paying tribute to her, Holyrood's Presiding Officer, MSP Tricia Marwick, said: "She had a rare skill in being able to translate political speak into language we could all understand."

And Alison Johnstone, Green MSP for Lothian, said: ” Compassionate and brave, she was a role model for new and experienced politicians alike.

“Her no-nonsense approach was massively popular with the people in Lothian she represented so well. Regardless of party affiliations Margo’s star quality was indisputable. She will be much missed.”

Writing for Professor Tom Devine's Being Scottish in 2002, MacDonald said: "I don't know from where my nationalism came … Being Scottish was simply what I was.

"Later, my nationalism meshed with other beliefs and assumptions.

"I was anti-nuke, anti-Vietnam War, pro-civil rights, pro-Hungary and the bittersweet Prague Spring of Alexander Dubcek.

"With the beginning of political analysis came the start of a love-hate relationship with my fellow Scots. How could they claim nationhood yet not demand the sovereignty for which people elsewhere gave their lives?"

Sillars, speaking at the memorial event, spoke of how MacDonald had lately become troubled by the divisions in Scottish life evident in the ongoing run-up to the September referendum.

She was, he said, concerned by the "palpable air of bitter antagonism" generated in some debates in the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood.

Referring to the Referendum, voting for which will take place from 7am until 10pm on 18 September, Sillars said they had talked about how, at one minute past 10pm, those divisions must come to an end and, whatever the result, seek a unity of purpose.

Women’s power to stop war: hubris or hope?

Posted: 01 May 2014 04:30 AM PDT

Women's power to stop war: hubris or hope? WILPFMany of our fore-runners addressed injustice, inequality, exploitation and freedom – and peace.

By Cynthia Cockburn.

On 28 April, ninety-nine years ago, was the sixth day of the Second Battle of Ypres, one of the First World War’s most futile and costly engagements. Chlorine gas, a new weapon of choice, was seeping over the trenches.

The battle would end in stalemate, leaving 105,000 dead and wounded men.

On that day, a mere hundred miles north of the battlefield, at The Hague, in neutral Netherlands, more than a thousand women assembled to talk peace.

They travelled there from twelve countries, on both sides of the Atlantic and both sides of the conflict, drawn by a belief that women could achieve something male leaders were unwilling or unable to do: stop the carnage. When the congress ended, they despatched women envoys to heads of state in belligerent and neutral countries, urging them to initiate a peace commission. In vain. The war continued for another three years until 37 million men, women and children had died..

The organization emerging from the Hague Congress called itself the International Women’s Committee for Permanent Peace. A few years on, it would be renamed the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, (WILPF) and establish an office in Geneva. So, today, we of WILPF are mourning the victims of Ypres and simultaneously marking our 99th birthday.

As we do so, and prepare for our centenary a year hence, we are rolling out a world-wide mobilization under the bold banner-headline: Women’s Power to Stop War.

Bold… but also bald. The slogan stops people in their tracks, we find. They pause and puzzle over it. Are WILPF making a statement of fact here, or is this mere aspiration? The story of the Hague Congress hardly inspires confidence in women’s power to stop war. Besides, the very fact that we have a centenary to ‘celebrate’, that we have had wars to contest throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, suggests not power but impotence.

If we really mean women have the power to stop war, in what does that ability reside? Why has it been ineffective till now? How may we believe in it?

Recently I was invited to sketch out the first draft of a new Manifesto for WILPF. It will be debated in the organization throughout this year, and a final version issued at our centenary Congress a year from now, when we shall once more assemble in The Hague. To prepare for this daunting writing job (or to put it off a little longer?) I sat down, as is my wont, to read.  Setting aside for the moment women’s failure in 1915 to achieve a peace initiative and end the war, I took from my shelf some books about women’s activism in the preceding period, in the early 20th and late 19th century.

What they reminded me was that the concern with ‘peace’ of many of our fore-runners emerged from, or combined with, engagement in other social movements.

They did not limit themselves to the injunction ‘thou shalt not kill’, but addressed injustice, inequality, exploitation and unfreedom, laying the groundwork for a women’s peace movement in the 20th century that would understand these wrongs as presaging violence, and indeed as of themselves violent. Women’s campaigning tended to be joined-up, holistic.

The rapid urbanization of Britain, the USA and other industrializing societies in the latter part of the 19th century had brought widespread, and highly visible, suffering to the poor. Exploitative conditions of labour, together with appalling housing conditions, lack of sanitation and consequent disease experienced by the growing industrial workforce and their families gave rise to socialist and social reform movements. Many women gave their energies to humanitarian philanthropic work. Others were active in the anti-slavery movement. And some joined campaigns against war – the Crimean war, the American civil war, the Franco-Prussian war, the Boer war.

Middle class women’s exposure to the oppression of others heightened consciousness of their own oppression as women. The more involved they became in social and charitable projects, the more they felt the injustice of their inferiorisation by the confident public men who led these institutions. (For decades after their foundation in 1816 the Peace Societies did not allow women members to speak at meetings. It would be 73 years before the men agreed to accept a woman on the national committee.) Unlike male pacifists, then, whether secular or religious, women were liable to note the gender implications of war. Had not Mary Wollstonecraft, first and boldest of feminist writers, stated emphatically way back in 1792 that militarism threatened women by reinforcing masculine habits of authority and hierarchy? She wrote, in A Vindication of the Rights of Women, ‘Every corps is a chain of despots…submitting and tyrannizing without exercising their reason’. The failure of successive Reform Acts to accord women the vote led to a surging suffrage movement, at its height just before the outbreak of World War I.

Now – look where the founders of WILPF learned their activism. Jane Addams, who presided over the Hague Congress, was already well-known figure in the USA for her pioneering social work. She founded Hull House in Chicago, one of the first settlements, a refuge for the poor. She was incipiently socialist, campaigning nation-wide for child labour laws and trade unions. She espoused women’s rights, joining the suffrage movement. Then, as war threatened, she embraced peace campaigning. Addams was nothing if not holistic in her activism.  Historian Catherine Foster writes of her, ‘Partly because of her work with poor people [she] believed strongly that there could be no peace without social and economic justice’.

Then consider how many of the women who founded WILPF came to it directly from the struggle for women’s political representation.

In Britain as war approached there were two strong suffrage organizations, the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies with 50,000 members, and the smaller Women’s Social and Political Union. Both split on the war issue. While most of their members supported the government, some became the backbone of the women’s peace movement. Suffrage and peace activism remained tightly linked in the International Women’s Suffrage Alliance, to which many anti-war pro-suffrage women shifted their allegiance.

Consider two women who travelled from Europe to the USA in 1914 to galvanize women’s opposition to the war and support the launch of a National Woman’s Peace Party in Washington. One was Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, a British woman whose activism had been formed in both socialist and suffrage movements and whose concern with peace was founded, as she wrote, on ‘the idea of the solidarity of women [that] had taken a deep hold upon many of us; so deep that it could not be shaken even by the fact that men of many nations were at war’. Another was Rosika Schwimmer, a Hungarian feminist and suffragist, member of the IWSA. Often sharing a platform, these two women from enemy nations would later be present at the Hague Congress and go on to be active in the League. Aletta Jacobs, an opening speaker at the Congress, was president of the Dutch suffrage movement. Thus there was in the 1915 peace initiative a deeply embedded belief that women’s entry into politics bringing with them a wealth of fresh and gender-specific experience, their full acceptance on equal terms in public life, would of itself contribute to ending militarism and the taken-for-granted use of war as foreign policy.

The imbrication of struggles for social reform and women’s rights with the women’s peace movement showed its effects in WILPF’s campaign for a just peace after the 1918 Armistice.  The leaders that gathered in Paris in 1919 to dictate the terms of peace to the defeated Central Powers were all men, despite women’s appeal for the inclusion of women delegates. Women from seventeen countries therefore autonomously organized their own congress. It took place in Zurich just as the text of the Treaty of Versailles was issued. The women were shocked by its savagely punitive terms which condemned the defeated populations to hunger, poverty and disease for a generation to come.  And here we see clearly women’s distinctive ‘take’ on war – a recognition of the link between the power relations of the powerful and weak nations, the ruling and ruled class, and the dominant and subordinated sex.

The Women’s Charter issued by WILPF (which took its present name at the Zurich congress) was of course an appeal for universal disarmament, an international mechanism to ensure permanent peace and an end to the ‘right’ of any government to make war. But it also called for the social, political and economic status of women to be recognized as of supreme international importance. They demanded the franchise, freedom from dependence and full equality for women universally. They called for recognition that women’s services to the world as wage earners and homemakers are essential to peace. Women should be eligible for every position in the anticipated League of Nations. In addition, they showed concern for minority rights and racial equality; called for self-government for colonized peoples; the right of asylum for those fleeing persecution. They also had a revolutionary economic vision: fair distribution; and controls on capitalists and profiteers. They expressed sympathy for workers’ (nonviolent) uprising.

In this way, in explicitly seeking, beyond the end of one war, the eradication of war itself, WILPF was obliged to identify and address war’s root causes. It thus became a holistic movement for freedom and justice, against oppression and exploitation – in other words a movement against both physical violence and what would come to be termed ‘structural violence’. In doing so it drew strength and experience from the campaigns from which it had originally sprung: those for social reform and women’s rights.

It is this holistic, multi-facetted struggle for a nonviolent revolution in the relations of gender, class, ethnicity and nation to which we shall soon commit ourselves anew in our forthcoming centenary Manifesto. If we assert, with breath-taking optimism, Women’s Power to Stop War, it’s not to suggest that women ‘have power’ – on most counts we have little. Rather, it’s to remind ourselves that we have agency. Of course, not all women lack privilege and security. Nonetheless, women as a sex have seen millennia of injustice, many of us have learned how to organize, and above all we have reach, into every corner of life, into the heart of families, into civil society and, increasingly, into the structures of governance. ‘Our weapons’, reads our campaign website, ‘are dialogue, knowledge and insistence.’ Women as women are the ones who have the potential to translate the principle and practice of ‘care’ from the individual to collective, so that a caring society becomes the principle of politics, embraced by men and women alike. And war becomes unthinkable.

A version of this article first appeared in OpenDemocracy on 28 April.

Attitudes to men and fatherhood

Posted: 01 May 2014 01:27 AM PDT

fathers shouldn't need 'cojones' to look after their own childrenMen shouldn’t need “cojones” to take care of their own children.

By 2015, it is expected that parents will be able to share 12 months of leave between them.

Under new plans, which start in April 2015, a couple will have to give their employers an indicative breakdown of how they plan to share their leave eight weeks before it starts.

They will then be able to change their proposals twice during the year-long leave.

In an effort to allay fears of the impact on smaller firms, employers will have to agree any proposed pattern of time off and have the right to insist it is confined to a continuous block.

Fathers will also get a new right to unpaid leave to attend up to two antenatal appointments.

These new laws are very welcome for those of us who believe that couples should decide between themselves how much leave they should take for a new baby.

Not only should this begin to put paid to the common belief that women are a liability at work in case they need maternity leave, but it should also help to start redressing the imbalance in how much unpaid domestic work women do as opposed to men.

But Miriam González Durántez intervened at a question session held by her husband Nick Clegg on the subject of parental leave recently to emphasise the need to change attitudes towards fatherhood.

She should be commended for her support of the many fathers who doubtlessly miss their children, and for her attack on the patriarchal stance that caring for children is a woman’s job.

However, the phrasing she used is a little troubling.

She said: “If you and other modern working fathers start saying, not only loudly but also proudly, that taking care of your own children and being responsible for your children does not affect your level of testosterone – and that those men who actually treat women as equals are the ones with most cojones.”

It should not be a contest of manliness to take care of one’s own children.

Though often seen as an effective tactic with issues that are commonly seen as only relating to women, such as the ‘Real Men Don’t Buy Girls’ campaign, to appeal to a sense of “being a man” still contains the implication that not being a man/masculine is a bad thing.

What should be being said is that a good parent spends time with their children, no matter what gender they are.

Ultimately, this acknowledgement that every parenting couple has different circumstances can only be a step forward.

But those in power should be careful not to over-praise fathers simply for doing what mothers have already been doing for centuries.

Workfare raises ethical questions

Posted: 30 Apr 2014 07:30 AM PDT

Which charity would want to push someone into the hardship, hunger and insecurity of benefit sanctions?Which charity would want to push someone into the hardship, hunger and insecurity of benefit sanctions?

Voluntary groups have been warned that they could end up exploiting the people that they exist to help if they fall for a new government scheme that is misrepresented as "volunteering" or "work experience".

The coalition government’s new ‘Community Work Placements’ (CWP) programme will force unemployed people to work with a charity or faith group full-time for six months for no wages whatsoever. Their benefits will be cut if they fail to accept.

The warning comes from the Boycott Workfare campaign and with the National Coalition for Independent Action (NCIA), who work to keep the voluntary sector free of government interference.

CWPs were a flagship policy announced by George Osborne at the last Conservative Party conference as part of what the coalition government calls its ‘Help to Work’ measures.

The scheme actually began on 28 April, but the policy is already in trouble, with two of the largest charities to use existing workfare programmes – the Salvation Army and YMCA England – saying they will not join CWPs.

And just 1 day since launch, already over 100 organisations have signed up to support a new campaign to Keep Volunteering Voluntary.

Joanna Long, of Boycott Workfare, said: "Osborne is relying on charities and community organisations to make this scheme possible but who wants to police forced work?

"Which charity would want to be responsible for pushing someone into the hardship, hunger and insecurity of benefit sanctions?

"Osborne's vision of mass forced unpaid work won't be easy to implement – claimants are taking direct action and charities will not risk the damage participation would do to their reputation."

What is wrong with workfare?

As Keep Volunteering Voluntary sees it:

1. It undermines genuine volunteering.

Workfare is forced labour – the opposite of volunteering.

As Oxfam has pointed out, "These schemes involve forced volunteering, which is not only an oxymoron, but undermines people's belief in the enormous value of genuine voluntary work."

The one in three unemployed people who volunteer are increasingly being forced to give up volunteering because they have been sent on workfare placements.

Bryn Tudor, managing director of Mobility Advice Line, told Third Sector that he lost five volunteers in six months to workfare schemes: “We invest a lot of money in training our volunteers, and I can’t continue like this."

Welfare to Work providers sometimes tell charities that the schemes they want them to participate in are voluntary for participants.

However there have been reports of claimants being made to do compulsory unpaid work after refusing to take part in a voluntary scheme.

The target-based environment of Jobcentres leads to many claimants, often the most marginalised, being given the impression that schemes are mandatory when they are not.

2. It doesn't help people find jobs.

There is no evidence that workfare helps people get real jobs.

Even the Department of Work and Pensions's own research has concluded that “there is little evidence that workfare increases the likelihood of finding work".

In fact workfare reduces claimants’ chances of finding a real job – people earning less than £2 an hour on full-time workfare schemes don't have the time or resources to look for work or take up training or volunteering opportunities.

Only 3.2 per cent of the 1.5 million people sent on the Work Programme since its launch in 2011 have found long-term jobs, less than would have been expected to find stable employment if left alone to do so.

3. It puts claimants at risk of sanctions and destitution.

A claimant who does not take a workfare placement, or who fails to meet strict criteria during their placement, can have their benefits stopped – be ‘sanctioned’ in the language of workfare.

Sanctions can be imposed for absurd reasons and leave claimants without even a subsistence income for between four weeks and three years.

Any charity involved with workfare is responsible for reporting claimants for sanctioning.

Sanctions are on the increase and getting tougher - you are  twice as likely to be sanctioned on a workfare scheme than get a job at the end of it.

Some companies managing workfare placements refer 45 per cent of people on them for sanctions.

The increase in sanctions is one of the key contributors to the huge increase in demand for foodbanks.

Religious leaders have condemned the 'terrible rise in hunger in Britain' as a ‘national crisis'.

Manchester Citizens Advice Bureau has found that 71 per cent of sanctioned claimants cut down on food, 49 per cent cut down on heating and 24 per cent applied for a food parcel.

Some scrounge for food from skips or bins, or resort to begging to feed themselves.

Homelessness charity SHP left the Work Programme warning that sanctions were pushing vulnerable individuals further into poverty and leaving them with little option but to beg and steal.

Oxfam has refused to take part in workfare schemes because they "are incompatible with our goal of reducing poverty in the UK."

4. It undermines core charitable values.

Involvement in workfare can undermine a charity's reputation for acting according to its charitable aims and values.

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations suggests that charities consider reputational risk, alongside financial risk, before offering workfare placements.

The Directory of Social Change has suggested that "charities need to consider the element of coercion involved, and whether treating people in poverty and the vulnerable as free labour and engaging in forced unpaid work schemes is charitable activity."

Liverpool Volunteering Centre suggests charities "ask yourself if, in all good conscience, you could report someone for not turning up or being late, knowing that their benefits will then be stopped?"

Independence and the right to speak out on issues of concern are fundamental charitable values.

Charities involved in delivering workfare programmes are increasingly being forced to sign gagging clauses preventing them from saying anything about their experience of workfare “which may attract adverse publicity”.

Charities “shall not make any press announcement or publicise the contract in any way” without government approval.

5. It undermines real job creation and supports exploitation.

While workfare does little to help claimants find work, it actively increases unemployment by offering free labour to companies who prefer not to pay wages to their employees.

Companies such as Argos, Asda and Superdrug have used workfare labour to cover seasonal demand over the Christmas period instead of hiring extra staff or offering overtime.

One company sacked 350 workers in Leicester, and moved production of its pizza toppings to Nottingham, where it took on 100 benefit claimants “to give them an idea of what it's like to work in the food sector”.

The Trade Union Congress has described workfare as "a failed policy" that exploits those taking part and threatens the jobs and pay rates of workers.

"These programmes presume that unemployed people have a ‘motivation problem’ and that the answer is to make unemployment even more unattractive than it already is – the same attitude that inspired the workhouse."

Unite's assistant general secretary, Steve Turner, said: "It is outrageous that the government is trying to stigmatise job seekers by making them work for nothing, otherwise they will have their benefits docked.

"The hours demanded by workfare are greater than a community service order you would get for a criminal offence, such as punching someone in the street – this is just bonkers.

"What the long queues of Britain's unemployed need are proper jobs with decent pay and a strong system of apprenticeships for young people to offer them a sustainable employment future.

"What is being introduced today is shoddy," he continued.  "It will displace existing workers and enslave work-seekers or see them join the foodbank queue.

"We urge our [UK] charities to have nothing whatsoever to do with this abusive scheme."

Women in IT sector would help UK economy

Posted: 30 Apr 2014 04:45 AM PDT

More women in IT could boost the British economy significantly, says new report.But the sexism inherent in the tech sector has been making too many headlines.

Increasing the number of women working in IT could add as much as £2.6 billion to the British economy every year, according to a new report released to mark ‘International Girls in ICT Day‘ last week.

The report, ‘Women in IT: closing the gender gap’, claims that women currently make up less than one fifth of Britain’s IT workforce and, based on current trends, the gender gap is set to widen slightly over the coming years.

The imbalance, it claims, stems back to education; just a third of ICT A-level students are female and less than a tenth of those pursuing computer studies at the same level are female.

The problem continues at university, with women making up just 19 per cent of students taking computer science degrees.

And currently, only nine per cent of those female students taking IT degrees will go on to pursue a career in IT, compared to 26 per cent of men.

If the same number of women studied computer science degrees as men, and the same proportion of women as men went on to work in the IT industry, the overall net benefit for the UK economy would be £103 million every year, the report claims.

The study is based on research among IT decision makers in UK businesses, 59 per cent of whom believe that their IT team would benefit from having a more gender-balanced workforce.

The research also found that 53 per cent agree that women find working in technology jobs less attractive than men do.

Of these, 60 per cent believe that the IT profession is still perceived to be male-dominated, and 33 per cent think IT is not promoted enough as a viable career option for girls in school or college.

However, there are signs that the IT industry is increasingly recognising the importance of attracting more women.

Almost a quarter of those surveyed said that their company is promoting IT roles expressly to women, and a fifth are visiting schools and universities specifically to speak with girls and young women.

Gill Crowther, director of Human Resources at internet registry company Nominet, who commissioned the research, said: "Given the extent of the IT skills shortage, we can't afford to only recruit from half the talent pool.

"It's alarming to think that, if current trends continue, the IT gender gap will get bigger rather than smaller.

"We need to attract more women into the technology industry at every level and this starts with encouraging girls at school and university to study IT subjects.

"The new curriculum coming into force in September offers a fantastic opportunity for girls to become engaged with more technical subjects as the study of computing – and coding – becomes compulsory for all schoolchildren," she continued.

The sexism inherent in the tech sector has long been making headlines, and ranges from ‘booth babes’ at tech events to the ‘brogramming’ culture of Silicon Valley (just hyper-masculine computer programmers, in case you were wondering).

One of the latest testosterone-fuelled atrocity to hit the headlines in the USA is ‘CodeBabes’, a website which uses women’s bodies to teach basic coding skills.

Anne-Marie Imafidon, founder of Stemettes, an organisation set up to inspire the next generation of females into STEM fields, including technology, believes that choosing computer science is an unnecessarily tough choice for a girl, with most opting for ‘safe’ subjects they know they will get a good grade in.

"Some schools, often girl-only schools, simply don’t offer ICT at A-level and the girls wanting to do it have to go to a nearby boys school to learn it," she said.

"In other schools, computer science often clashes with things like drama or music, meaning the girls can’t do both.

"If every other girl is doing drama, you’d want to be in a class with all your friends rather than take the difficult route and do computer science."

Could this be down to the way we compartmentalise our children’s options at such an early age?

If we’re teaching pre-schoolers that there are certain things that boys do, and certain things that girls do, it’s no surprise that when they get to secondary school they’re more likely to take the options they’ve been taught are more fitting for their gender.

Red tape better than bloody bandages

Posted: 30 Apr 2014 01:09 AM PDT

28 April, Worker's Memorial Day, TUC new report published on safety at work in the UK.Government cuts in vital health and safety 'red tape' threaten lives at work.

Every year more people are killed at work than in wars, according to Trades Union figures.

Most don’t die of occupational diseases, mystery ailments or in tragic “accidents”. They die because an employer decided their safety just wasn’t that important a priority.

The figure that is often given as an indicator of how safe Britain's workplaces are is the number of workplace fatalities that occur as a result of an injury at work.

This is published by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), a national independent watchdog for work-related health, safety and illness, every year, and in 2012/13 that number was 148 – one of the lowest ever.

That, however, is far less than even one per cent of the number of people whose lives have been cut short as a result of their work, say the TUC.

If you include those who die from occupational cancers, other lung disorders and cardiovascular disease caused by work and people killed on the roads while working, at least 20,000 people die prematurely every year because of occupational injury or disease, but the real figure could be even higher.

Workers' Memorial Day, on 28 April, commemorates those workers. This year marks the 22nd year that it has been commemorated in the UK, and diverse events took place throughout the country.

And as well as remembering the dead, the day also serves as a reminder that workplace-related deaths are not inevitable and can be prevented.

On 28 April this year the TUC published a new report, called ‘Toxic, Corrosive and Hazardous: The government's record on health and safety’.

And warned that the government's persistent ideological attacks on key health and safety legislation threaten even more accidents, injuries and deaths at work.

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a federation of trade unions in England and Wales, representing the majority of trade unions. There are fifty-eight affiliated unions with a total of about 6.2 million members, around half of whom are represented by Unite, which represents a third of a million working women, or UNISON, a union with women making up two thirds of its 1.3 million membership.

This report revealed that in the last four years the government has drastically cut Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspections, cut funding to the HSE by 40 per cent, blocked new regulations and removed vital existing protections, prevented improved European regulation on health and safety, cut support for employers and health and safety reps, seen local authorities reduce their workplace inspections by 93 per cent, and made it much harder for workers to claim compensation if they are injured or made ill at work following employer negligence.

The government is now trying to change the law to exempt large numbers of self-employed workers from health and safety protection.

This, the TUC said, is a huge concern as self-employed people are more than twice as likely to be killed at work than other workers.

The TUC believes that if this government assault on basic workplace protection continues it will have a significant impact on the health and safety of people at work – and that many more lives will be unnecessarily put at risk.

Unions have developed a list of 10 simple measures which they believe will vastly reduce the number of illnesses, injuries and deaths caused by work.

The TUC is calling on the government to:

Ensure all workplaces are inspected regularly by the enforcing authority;

Revise the law on safety reps and safety committees to increase the areas they cover and their effectiveness;

Give occupational health the same priority as injury prevention;

Introduce a new, legally binding dust standard;

Ensure exposure to carcinogens in the workplace is removed;

Introduce a law governing maximum temperature in the workplace;

Increase protection for vulnerable and atypical workers;

Place a legal duty on directors;

Ensure health and safety is a significant factor in all public sector procurement; and

Adopt and comply with all health and safety conventions from the International Labour Organisation.

The TUC's General Secretary Frances O'Grady said: "The government says that the UK is a safe place to work and that we don't need any more regulation.

"If only this were the case.

"With the UK ranked just 20th in the health and safety risk index of 34 developed nations, we've hardly got a record to be proud of.

"Good employers who work closely with unions improving health and safety at work don't see regulation as an intrusive burden.

"But rogue bosses, who are happy to cut corners and take risks with their employees' lives, do.

"There is a real danger that further cuts and deregulation will destroy the workplace safety culture that has existed in Britain for many decades – with a disastrous effect on workers health and safety.

"But there is an alternative – a government that is committed to protecting workers and puts a stop to the large-scale negligence that claims the lives or health of far too many workers and costs the state billions of pounds."

Guilty verdict for Max Clifford

Posted: 29 Apr 2014 07:20 AM PDT

guilty verdict for Max Clifford, charged with sexual assault of women and girls as young as 15.Remarks on the ‘guilty’ verdict in the Max Clifford case.

PR man Max Clifford has been found guilty of eight indecent assaults on women and girls as young as 15.

Clifford was a key player in the British media in the 1990s and 2000s.

According to the BBC, he orchestrated tabloid revelations about the sex lives of politicians, including Labour’s John Prescott, sporting figures such as David Beckham and Sven-Goran Eriksson, and actors including Jude Law. Conservative cabinet minister David Mellor was forced to resign after Clifford exposed he was having an affair with actress Antonia de Sancha.

Clifford was arrested by detectives from Operation Yewtree – the national investigation sparked by abuse claims against Jimmy Savile, and BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said the verdicts were “hugely significant” as the first Yewtree conviction.

During the trial, the BBC reported, prosecutors portrayed Clifford as a well-practised manipulator who promised to boost his victims’ careers and enable them to meet celebrities in exchange for sexual favours.

Eaves, a charity aiming to mission is to expose and address violence against women and girls in the UK, released a statement following the guilty verdict in the case against the Max Clifford.

‘We applaud the CPS for continuing to bring cases despite a barrage of hostile media coverage when they do so.

‘We particularly applaud the victims for having the courage to bring their case in this hostile climate where so many of these cases end (rightly or wrongly) in not guilty verdicts and where so much of the coverage either blames or disbelieves the victims and implies they are just "jumping on the bandwagon".

‘Indeed even in this case the direction of the judge to the jury seemed to imply as much telling the jury they should consider why the alleged victims, who were aged from 14 to 20 when they say the assaults took place, had not complained to police until after the Jimmy Savile scandal.

‘It is little wonder that only 15 per cent of 85,000 women (a year) report rape at all let alone in the case of a powerful and famous man.

‘Indeed until this verdict the only case since the Savile case broke which has achieved a conviction has been the case where the defendant, Stuart Hall, pleaded guilty.

‘Denise Marshall, chief executive of Eaves said, "We had in fact prepared a press release in readiness for a not guilty verdict, not because we had an opinion on the guilt or innocence of Clifford but given the pattern of such cases.

"I hope this lays to rest all the chatter about anonymity and all the attacks on the CPS for rightly pursuing such cases.

"However, we fear that the clamour by powerful, famous men and some women supporters to change the rules around anonymity may still continue despite having been investigated and rejected".

‘We maintain the position that victim anonymity in rape remains important and relevant.

‘We maintain the position that naming the defendant is the right course of action.

‘We know that reporting for rape is low precisely because of the culture of disbelief and victim blaming and as the likelihood of a conviction is so slight.

‘Since most rapists are repeat perpetrators sometimes having multiple victims and since both the reporting and conviction rate is low, a named suspect is often key to enabling his other victims to find the courage to come forward.

‘When university ‘lads’ wear T-shirts bearing as the slogan "85 per cent of rape cases go unreported. That seems to be fairly good odds" they are telling us something about their own attitudes but also about our own society.’

Does Oxbridge fail female graduates?

Posted: 29 Apr 2014 04:20 AM PDT

does Oxbridge fail female students?Oxbridge gender gap means more men than women graduate with firsts.

More men than women are graduating from Britain’s top universities with first-class honours degrees.

Of last year’s cohort of Oxford graduates, a third of men achieved first-class degrees, compared to just a quarter of women.

In two of the university’s most popular subjects the gap is even more pronounced.

In chemistry, 52 per cent of men were awarded firsts in 2013, compared to just 30 per cent of women; in English, 42 per cent of men achieved a first-class degree compared to 29 per cent of women.

And men received more firsts in 26 of the 38 schools examined at Oxford.

Of Cambridge University’s graduating class of 2013, almost 28 per cent of male students were awarded firsts, compared to just under 20 per cent of female students.

The gender gap is not something that is reflected nationally; the distribution of first-class degrees across the UK is pretty even between the sexes.

Some students have blamed the ‘masculine environment’ at Oxford for the huge gap in achievement between the sexes.

"There's a certain type of confidence that seems to come from being at a certain type of all-male, public school: when you come to Oxford and it feels familiar, you may have a sense of belonging that isn't accessible to everyone," said one female Oxford graduate of 2013.

“If you don’t feel like you should be there, or feel that you’re an ‘admissions error’ that could mess up at any moment, this confidence is always in jeopardy,” she explained.

Speaking to the Oxford Student, the student unions news site, Sarah Pine, the university’s student union’s vice-president for women, said: "The structure of an Oxford education is also thoroughly masculine: combative, rather than co-operative behaviours are valued in tutorials, for example."

Deborah Cameron, professor of language and communication at Oxford University and also the author of The Myth of Mars and Venus, said that women’s experiences at Oxford most likely contribute to the gap.

“Under-performance by [some] women is the end result of their whole experience of being educated at Oxford,” she said.

Cameron claims that some female undergraduates on the borderline between a 2:1 and a first “are not getting the same attention that men of similar ability get from tutors”.

“The men are getting pushed harder because of the cultural tendency to think that men should excel, whereas it’s OK for women to be competent rather than brilliant,” she concluded.

Varsity, the student newspaper for Cambridge University, claims that "many students have expressed dismay at being told by academics to "write more like a man" if they want to get a first."

Cambridge University’s Women in Science has launched a study to investigate why men are outperforming women in physics at the institution, with a particular focus on how the genders respond differently to examination questions.

Roberta Wilkinson, a first-year student at Cambridge, said: "Women generally tend to be less confident in their own abilities (unsurprising in a society which is still so unequal and often doesn't value women's voices), and I can see this playing into how we approach exams.

"I think it's likely this is exacerbated in subjects [like Physics] where we're in the minority. It'll be interesting to see the results of this study, to see if it really does make a difference."

A spokesperson from the University of Oxford said: “Since 2007, the university has itself conducted extensive research into gender attainment, focusing on a number of possible hypotheses.

“The results showed that the issue is complex, with no one significant factor influencing results across the board.

“Instead a range of factors are involved, which vary from subject to subject, from student to student and from year to year.

“Focusing on one year’s results can be misleading as cohorts are often small and the advantage between male and female frequently fluctuates in some subjects.”

Hunger and food poverty inquiry launched

Posted: 29 Apr 2014 01:20 AM PDT

all-party inquiry into the causes and extent of food poverty and hunger in 21st century UK launchedApril 2014 saw the launch of an inquiry into hunger in 21st-century Britain.

An All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Hunger and Food Poverty in Britain is now taking evidence on the extent and causes of hunger in Britain, the scope of provision to alleviate it and a comparison with other Western countries.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Hunger and Food Poverty was established by Laura Sandys, Conservative MP for South Thanet, and Frank Field, Labour MP for Birkenhead, in October 2013, in order to proactively investigate the root causes behind hunger and food poverty in the UK and the huge increase in demand for food banks across Britain.

The APPG announced in February 2014 that it was commissioning a Parliamentary Inquiry into hunger and food poverty in Britain, and that Inquiry was launched in April at Lambeth Palace.

Its terms of reference were finalised following a research summit organised by Sarah Newton, Conservative MP for Truro and Falmouth, and the Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology (POST).

The Inquiry is chaired by the Bishop of Truro, Tim Thornton, and Frank Field MP.

The group's officers, Laura Sandys and Sarah Newton, will form the core of the Inquiry team and will be joined by Emma Lewell-Buck, Labour MP for South Shields,  John Glen Conservative MP for Salisbury, and other members of the APPG.

If you wish to make a submission to the Inquiry please visit this web link.

The Inquiry is to proactively investigate the root causes behind hunger, food poverty and the huge increase in demand for food banks across Britain and has planned a series of regional meetings to gather evidence from people living in poverty and those engaged in food banks and similar provision.

The first regional evidence session will take place in Birkenhead on 23 May 2014, followed by Salisbury on 6 June 2014; Truro on 20 June 2014; South Shields on 4 July 2014 and one in South Thanet in July/August, the date of which is still to be confirmed.

A series of ‪public meetings will be held in London too, in order to gather further evidence.

The final report is to be published by the end of 2014.

The Inquiry intends to pose a series of key questions to each of the political parties in the run-up to the next General Election, due in 2015, about how they will respond to rising hunger and food poverty in this country.

For further information about the inquiry, click here.

Think before you flush

Posted: 28 Apr 2014 07:57 AM PDT

beach survey, waste, only 3 things should be flushed down our loos: pee, poop and toilet paper“There are only three things that should be flushed: pee, poop and toilet paper.”

According to the Women's Environmental Network, WEN, the average woman throws away an astonishing 125 to 150kg of tampons, pads and applicators in her lifetime.

In the UK, the use of tampons, pads and applicators generates more than 200,000 tonnes of waste per year and disposal of menstrual products is a major problem.

The great majority of these products end up incinerated, in landfill, or reappearing in our seas and rivers.

Along with cotton buds, tampons, applicators and panty liners make up 7.3  per cent of items flushed down the toilet in the UK.

And according to the Sewer Network Action Programme, even products that are described as flushable or biodegradable can contribute to more than half (55 per cent) of sewer flooding due to blockages in sewers.

And for every kilometre of beach included in the Beachwatch survey weekend in 2010, 22.5 towels/panty liners/backing strips, and 8.9 tampon applicators, were found.

Various reusable options are available that provide a more ecological alternative to the industry standard: menstrual cups and washable towels for example would cut some of those figures dramatically.

The manufacture, use and disposal of so-called sanitary products also releases pollutants into our environment.

And as far as pollutants go, says WEN, conventional cotton production accounts for 16 per cent of insecticide release into the environment worldwide, and exposes growers and pickers – many of them children – wildlife and the environment to poisoning.

Buying 100 per cent organic cotton tampons reduces pesticide use, and avoids inadvertently using products containing genetically modified (GM) cotton or that has involved child labour.

One to three per cent of agricultural workers worldwide suffer from acute pesticide poisoning – pesticide residues may be found in non-organic cotton – and at least 1 million require hospitalisation each year.

These figures, say WEN, equate to between 25 million and 77 million agricultural workers worldwide.

The purchase of organic cotton products also supports the development of organic cotton production, where cotton farmers – the majority of whom are women in developing countries – can safely grow food crops between the cotton and reduce their families' exposure to pesticides.

For more than 20 years, the Women's Environmental Network (WEN) has campaigned for greater awareness of the health and environmental issues around sanitary protection, or what WEN prefers to call 'menstrual lingerie' – the waste it generates; what those products contain; and the options available.

WEN is a registered charity set up to educate, inform and of course empower women and men who care about the environment. It researches and campaigns on environmental and health issues from a female perspective.

WEN points out that if we were to change certain social attitudes towards periods, we might positively affect the way we experience them, and make different choices about the menstrual lingerie we use, which in turn could have a major impact on our health and environment.

But WEN is not the only party concerned about what we flush down our toilets.

Tracey Moore took a good look at more immediate issues regarding toilet-blocking material recently, and wrote about it for Jezebel in a brilliant article called Time To Accept Reality and Stop Flushing Tampons Down the Toilet.

She interviewed Lyn Riggins, spokesperson for the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission in Maryland, one of the largest wastewater facilities in the USA, who said: “It’s pretty simple from our perspective, which is pretty much standard industry-wide.

“There are only three things that should be flushed: pee, poop and paper (and that’s toilet paper).”

Events 28 April – 4 May

Posted: 28 Apr 2014 04:05 AM PDT

Diary: Here are some dates for your diary of woman-centric events going on around the UK this week.Here are some dates for your diary of woman-centric events going on around the UK this week.

Edinburgh:

2 May: Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre Film Fundraiser at The Banshee Labyrinth, 29-35 Niddry Street, Edinburgh, from 7pm.

Invite your friends and go along to see the award winning and critically acclaimed Hunger Games and its sequel The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

There’s a £4 suggested donation and all money raised will go towards funding the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre.

London:

28 April: Evening drinks with lawyer on apostasy and asylum at The George, 213 Strand, London (nearest Tube: Temple) from 6.30-8pm.

Please feel free to join a Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB) event after the protest against the Law Society Guidance on Sharia-compliant wills taking place outside the Law Society building on 113 Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1PL from 5-6pm.

Ana Gonzalez, a lawyer of a well-respected law firm which has represented a number of apostasy asylum claimants and CEMB members will speak about the right to asylum and apostasy. There will also be time to mingle and socialise during the event.

Entry: £3; £1 unwaged.

30 April:  Counter-movement, space, and politics: ‘How the Saturday Mothers of Turkey make the enforced disappearances visible’ in Room 101, Clore Management Centre, Torrington Square, 2 Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, from 6.00pm-8.30pm.

Speaker: Dr Meltem Ahiska, Professor, Department of Sociology, Bogazici University Istanbul, Visiting Research Fellow in the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities.

This talk explores the trope of counter-movement as a political capacity inspired by the Gezi Resistance that started in late May 2013 in Turkey.

During this political upheaval, the repressed histories within the national frame were brought into a dialogue in the present, producing a new contemporaneity. This provides a conceptual framework through which Dr Ahiska re-visits the particular case of the Saturday Mothers – the mothers of the disappeared in Turkey.

Ahiska examines how counter-movement has taken a vital role not only for producing a new space for politics, but also for enacting political memory. And argues that the politics of the Saturday Mothers that made the enforced disappearances visible was possible by a counter-movement. A movement that re-casts time and creates a new space, and re-moves the subject from the space of violence 'naturalised' within the national temporality.

Entrance free, but you need to book. To book your place, click here.

1 May: Gender and Sexuality Talks: Disability, Relationships and Sexuality at The Open University, 1-11 Hawley Crescent, London NW1, from 7pm.

Our May event from Gender & Sexuality Talks, held in partnership with Outsiders, an organisation that has offered peer support, information and advice on sex and relationships to people living with social and physical disabilities since 1979.

The event will bring together a panel of Outsiders members to share their own experience of navigating sex, sexuality and relationships.

Speakers include: Gregory Sams, a sexually-active wheelchair user from the age of 18 and now, at 65, chairman of the Outsiders Trust, changing public attitudes to sex and disability.

Charlie is a young bisexual man in his late 20s who wants to speak about how ableism has caused his relationships with non-disabled men to get in the way. He has cerebral palsy, has a full-time job and is also a Brighton comedian.

Janet Jones is a butch lesbian mature student with MS who made a film “Butch Losses” about her difficulties in dealing with new lovers and explaining about her body. The film has been used by a health professional teacher to help people see where their prejudices lie.

Tickets on a sliding scale, based on income.

2 May: Film Premiere of Women's Day at  the Odeon Cinema Covent Garden, 135 Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H, from 6pm.

Part of the second London Labour Film Festival, which hosts a variety of very diverse and stimulating films from around the world which are all completely different but share a common theme: how labour issues affect us all as a society, as well as on a more personal and emotional level, the individual.

Described by many as a Polish 'Erin Brockovich', Women's Day follows the troubles and dilemmas of the heroine, Halina Radwan (Katarzyna Kwiatkowska) in her fight for justice against an unscrupulous, low-cost supermarket-chain, 'Motylek' (Butterfly).

The plot is based on the true story of a former manageress of a cut-price supermarket chain in Poland. She took the chain to court for twenty-six thousand złoty (over five thousand euro) for two-and-a-half thousand hours of unpaid overtime.

The film is an indictment of what Poles call 'dziki' (wild) capitalism in which employees are compelled to work semi-legally. Such capitalism is a result of Poland's comparative poverty by European Union standards, with minimum wages as little as (one euro) an hour, and chronic unemployment which forces workers to fight to keep almost any kind of employment.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the film's director, Maria Sadowska.

3 May: Justice for Cleaners At the Royal Opera House at the Royal Opera House, Bow Street, London WC2E, from 5.30pm.

This is a fight for all workers, unions, migrants and women struggling against corporate abuse and aggression.

Cleaners working at the Royal Opera House, employed by the cleaning contractor MITIE, will be staging a militant mobilisation at the Royal Opera House.

In the past, the cleaner’s union the IWGB has been banned by MITIE from the Tower of London and other sites, thus removing the cleaner’s trade union rights.

Until 31 May: Judith Barry: Cairo Stories at Waterside Contemporary, Clanbury Street, London N1.

Judith Barry’s first solo exhibition at Waterside Contemporary, where she presents her project “… Cairo stories” consisting of a video and photographic installation.

Created from a collection of more than 200 interviews Barry conducted with Cairene women between the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the beginning of the Egyptian Revolution in 2011, “… Cairo stories” is a series of short video monologues.

The selection of stories chronicles personal experiences of women from a variety of social and economic classes in Egypt and expands the artist’s concerns with notions of representation, history, subjectivity, and translation – particularly as these ideas circulate across cultures.

The original interviews were conducted in simultaneous translation to maintain fluidity and integrity of tone and meaning, and Barry considers them to be collaborations between her and the subjects. The vast source material was then ‘vetted’ by a diverse range of Cairene women. The emotional integrity of each woman’s story is the crux of this project; the translators and interviewees remained active participants in both the narrative arc of their stories and the development of the project.

In the gallery, a selection of 15 narratives is performed by actors, highlighting that all stories, including those we tell ourselves, are ultimately fictions.

“… Cairo stories” is a continuation of Not reconciled, a series of ‘as told to’ stories Barry recorded in a variety of countries and cultures, and bears witness to the artist’s long-term interest in the strength and the political implications of the voice. Since the Egyptian revolution, the voice – and the right to vote or ability to speak out – has become a central concern in everyday life.

The positions of women in the public, political – and private – spheres is also at the forefront of these discussions.

Free entry.

Redhill:

29 April: Lady in Red at The Harlequin Theatre and Cinema, Redhill, from 7.30pm.

A contemporary look at domestic violence.

Lady in Red combines superb dialogue, a compelling plot, inspired performance and evocative colours to create an unforgettable experience – a journey through one woman’s attempts to leave an abusive relationship.

It is Christmas Eve and ‘Rose,’ a woman in a red dress, awakes to find that she has no memory of who or where she is. As she gradually weaves the threads of memory together, a dark and violent picture begins to emerge. Compelled to leave for fear of her life Rose begins to pack… but it’s dark outside and the house is full of strange noises. Will she escape, before her attacker returns? Or is he still in the house?

This performance includes an after-show discussion with the writers and actors.

Tickets free.

Unstone:

2-5 May: Breaking the Frame Gathering, Unstone Grange, Crow Lane, Unstone, Derbyshire S18 4AL.

This gathering on the politics of technology brings together campaigns on the technology politics of food, energy/climate/ environment, work/economics/austerity, the military, the internet, surveillance, health, and gender.

Trade unionists, radical scientists, artists, activists, and alternative technologists will learn from each other and build a new network to make issues about technology more central in radical movements.

Tenth country signs Istanbul Convention

Posted: 28 Apr 2014 01:09 AM PDT

call for UK to ratify Istanbul Convention Call for UK to ratify European treaty on violence against women.

Last week Andorra became the tenth country to sign the European Treaty on Violence Against Women and Girls. Denmark followed days later.

Which means it will soon be legally binding on the countries who have ratified it.

The treaty will be legally binding on all 11 countries from August this year now that it has been ratified by the required ten countries, eight of which had to be members of the Council of Europe.

The treaty is a 'comprehensive legal framework' aimed at preventing domestic violence, protecting victims and prosecuting perpetrators.

The treaty characterises violence against women as a violation of human rights and a form of discrimination.

It states, in its Article 5, that countries should exercise due diligence when preventing violence, protecting victims and prosecuting perpetrators.

The Convention defines gender as “the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for women and men”.

It sets out which offences states ratifying the convention must criminalise including: psychological violence; stalking; physical violence; sexual violence, including rape, forced marriage; female genital mutilation; forced abortion and forced sterilisation.

Sexual harassment must be subject to “criminal or other legal sanction”.

The Convention also includes an article targeting 'honour based' crimes.

Countries ratifying the treaty must also establish services such as hotlines, shelters, medical services, counselling and legal aid.

Known as the Istanbul Convention, it is the first European treaty aimed specifically at combating violence against women and girls.

"This is a defining moment for women in Europe for whom the home is a place of danger," said Gauri van Gulik, global women's rights advocate for Human Rights Watch.

"This treaty will oblige governments to take concrete steps to help women and girls facing violent attacks."

According to a survey of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency one in three women in the European Union has experienced some form of physical and/or sexual assault since they were aged 15.

Over half of the 43 Council of Europe member states, including the UK, have now signed the treaty – the first step in the process of ratification.

The UK signed the treaty in 2012, but has not yet ratified it. Women's Aid and the TUC are among organisations campaigning for it to do so.

They argue the UK is still a long way from providing the level of services to women who have experienced violence that the treaty stipulates, and point to cuts in specialist provision and support to voluntary organisations providing support to women in recent years.

The UK would also have to show it was tackling the root causes of violence against women namely sexism and gender stereotyping.

"Ratifying the Istanbul Convention will send a clear signal that the UK will not tolerate violence against women and be a vital step in moving towards a society that enables women to escape, cope and recover from violence," wrote Claire Laxton, public policy manager for Women's Aid.

Laxton urged supporters to sign this petition and encourage others to do the same.

Puzzle over new Minister for Women

Posted: 25 Apr 2014 08:15 AM PDT

Is the UK's new women's minister going to be subordinate to a man? Two men, even.Is the UK’s new women's minister going to be subordinate to a man? Two men, even.

After the recent departure of the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and Minister for Equalities Maria Miller, who resigned after an expenses fiasco, the equalities and women's ministerial posts have been separated.

Sajid Javid, who was appointed as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport is also Minister for Equalities at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, and Nicky Morgan, MP for Loughborough, is taking on the role of Minister for Women.

According to GovUK, the Minister for Women has overall responsibility for policy on women, and reports directly to the Prime Minister.

The Minister for Equalities has overall responsibility for policy on sexual orientation and transgender equality and is responsible for cross-government equality strategy and legislation.

Although Morgan will attend Cabinet, Downing Street admitted that women's issues fall within the "over-arching" equalities portfolio run by Javid.

The Labour Party is among those who have criticised the appointments.

A Labour party spokesman said: "David Cameron's blind spot on women has been exposed.

"There are now just three women running government departments out of a possible total of 22.

"There is now no full member of the cabinet speaking for women.

"What is clear," the spokesman added: "is that they are now in a mess about who speaks for women in the cabinet.

"It seems clear there is no full cabinet member speaking for women.

"This is clearly an unsustainable and unacceptable position."

In response, a spokesman for the Prime Minister said: "The secretary of state for culture remains the secretary of state for culture media, sport and equalities.

"So there has been no change.

"He has over arching responsibility for the entire equalities portfolio. Within that portfolio there is now a separate minister for women."

When asked if Morgan was subordinate to Javid, the spokesman said: "He is the cabinet minister. She attends cabinet."

Downing Street has said it is "beefing up" its focus on equalities, appointing four ministers to positions concerning equalities, namely Javid, Morgan, Jenny Willott and Helen Grant.

The Downing Street spokesman said: "There is now going to be a standalone minister for women who will attend cabinet.

"The reason why we have done that is because it is an important agenda."

So that’s clear at least.

But Morgan voted in favour of Conservative MP Nadine Dorries’ 2011 proposed amendment to the Health and Social Care Bill, which would have stopped the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (bpas) and Marie Stopes from providing counselling to pregnant women and forced women to seek “independent” counselling.

“Independent” in this case included faith-based and/or anti-choice organisations such as crisis pregnancy centres, as pro-choice campaigner Casey Burchell pointed out.

This proposed amended highlighted the lack of respect and trust that the anti-choice movement has for women and pregnant persons. It was, luckily, defeated.

Pregnancy termination is a medical service 1 in 3 women in the UK will need in their reproductive lifetime, and over 75 per cent of the UK are pro-choice.

So Prime Minister David Cameron has appointed a Minister for Women who does not support the full range of reproductive health care required by many women.

It is unclear, Burchell said, if Morgan’s anti-choice position is an oversight or an active selection by Cameron, however both options cast doubt on the seriousness of the government’s commitment to reproductive rights and healthcare.

A plea for more Roseannes

Posted: 25 Apr 2014 04:10 AM PDT

call for more working class female roles on film and TV; it's not like the stories are not there.Rachel Johnson bemoans the lack of working-class characters in US films and TV.

Is it so different in the UK?

Our regular cross-post from Bitchflicks.

By Rachael Johnson.

Noam Chomsky recently observed that America is engaged in "a long and continuing class war against working people and the poor". (Noam Chomsky: America Hates Its Poor, Salon, Dec 1, 2013). I would add that American popular culture does not, for the most part, represent poor or working-class American citizens. US television shows and movies about less privileged people are exceptionally rare. This lack of representation is becoming increasingly indefensible in the face of acute – and expanding – economic inequality. It is also a vital feminist issue as women are still poorer than men in the United States.

The US government itself released a report in March 2011- the 'Women In America' report – showing that a wage and income gender gap between men and women still exists in the 21st century. Poverty rates for less advantaged women are higher because they are in low-paying occupations and because they are often the sole breadwinner in their family.

There are stories behind the figures, of course, but they are seldom told on the screen. Clearly, it is time for filmmakers of all backgrounds to address this unjust and frankly absurd lack of representation. The issue should also, of course, be of interest and concern to both critics and consumers of American popular culture.

Of course, it goes without saying that there are not nearly enough American movies with female protagonists and characters in general. Even less common, however, are features with less advantaged women.

An arbitrary list of films with female protagonists and important characters covering the last decade might include Lost in Translation (2003), The Kids are Alright (2010), Black Swan (2010), Under The Tuscan Sun (2003), Up in The Air (2010), Julie and Julia (2009), Secretariat (2010), Eat Pray Love (2009), Bridesmaids (2011), Sex and The City 1 (2008) and 2 (2010), The Devil Wears Prada (2006), The Holiday (2006), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) Fair Game (2010), Young Adult (2011), Zero Dark Thirty (2012), Stoker (2013), Side Effects (2013) and Gravity (2013).

Clearly, all these movies are about professional and/or privileged women.

The heroines of contemporary American television are, also, for the most part, professional, upper-middle or upper-class women. Over the past decade, there have been a fair number of US TV shows revolving around the lives and careers of doctors, surgeons, medical examiners and lawyers. Damages, Gray's Anatomy, The Mindy Project, Body of Proof, Bones, Private Practice and The Good Wife are among them. Currently, there are also shows depicting the lives of women who work for, or have a history with the US government, such as Veep, Parks and Recreation, Homeland and Scandal. The heroines of 30 Rock and Nashville work in the entertainment industry. It was a similar scene, of course, in the late 90s and early part of the Millenium when shows like Sex and the City and Desperate Housewives enjoyed mass popularity.

My point is not to knock the shows and movies cited. Some are interesting, stylish and entertaining, and a number have compelling female protagonists. It is, also, of course, essential that we see female characters make their own way in professions traditionally monopolized by men. They reflect social change as well as inspire. It is equally essential that women of power are portrayed on the big and small screen with greater frequency as well as with a greater degree of complexity.

American films and television programs should not, however, block out the lives of working-class and poor women. So many stories, struggles, journeys and adventures, remain unacknowledged and untold. It is a strange and troubling thought that contemporary American audiences are simply unaccustomed to seeing interesting, strong and resourceful working-class women. Whether ordinary or extraordinary, working-class women of all races and backgrounds, need greater representation.

I am, of course, aware that the term "working class" is rarely used in American public discourse. The term "middle class" is, in fact, used to refer to average Americans. The definition of "middle class" is, in fact, quite a fuzzy one but that does not stop US politicians from using it.

For many non-Americans, this is a curious thing. Although the US definition of "middle class" is bound up with the meritocratic ideals of the American Dream, it ultimately represents a denial that class itself exists.

To quote Chomsky again, it is, in fact, a deeply political tactic used to mask social division and economic inequality: 'We don't use the term "working class" here because it's a taboo term. You're supposed to say "middle class", because it helps diminish the understanding that there's a class war going on.'

This article specifically refers to the lack of representation of working-class and poor women on the screen. I am talking about the lives of waitresses, factory workers, maids, cleaners, cashiers, childcare workers, married home-makers and single mothers as well as those on the margins of society.

I am, also, fully aware of the eternally-repeated claim that American audiences do not like TV shows or movies about poverty and working-class life because they find them just too damn depressing.

Let's take a look at that claim.

Firstly, we have to ask ourselves who's making it. To be blunt, it smacks of privilege and complacency. Who's the American audience in question anyway? Advantaged viewers? And what about working-class audiences? Do they not want to see their lives represented on the screen? Surely American popular culture should not merely provide narcissistic identification for the comfortable and well-heeled. Behind the contention lies the implication, of course, that working-class life is invariably depressing. This is patronizing and, frankly, offensive. Although poverty should never be romanticized, both American television and cinema should recognize that humor, love and culture are all part of life for less privileged people. The fact that I have to even make this ridiculously obvious point is an indication of the way millions of people been obscured from the national narrative of the United States. The powers that be – and their pundits – should also, in any case, not make assumptions about what movie or show will be a great critical or commercial success. Nor should they patronize contemporary American audiences about what they can or cannot handle. Many of the best-loved shows of the Golden Age of TV have featured unsanitized, hard-hitting scenes showing human life in all its ugliness and glory. Can't poverty be processed by TV audiences? Will class always be unmentionable?

We also have to ask if there is strong historical evidence to back up the claim. A quick study of American films and television shows over the last 40 years or so shows that working-class female characters have, from time to time, actually been celebrated in popular culture. Roseanne is, of course, the most famous small screen example. Featuring a fully-realised working-class female protagonist, the hugely popular, award-winning sitcom ran from 1988 to 1997. Roseanne was, in fact, exceptional in that it gave the world a ground-breaking TV heroine as well as a funny and compassionate portrait of an ordinary, loving blue-collar American family. Memorably played by Roseanne Barr, the matriarch of the show had warmth and wit as well as great strength and character. She was that most uncommon of creatures on US television: a working-class feminist. I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that America and the world needs the wise-cracking words of characters like Roseanne more than ever. A cultural heroine is currently badly needed today to deflate the criminal excesses of corporate masculinity.

In the 70s and 80s, there were even films about heroic female labor activists. Take Norma Rae (1979) and Silkwood (1983). Drawing on the real life experiences of advocate Crystal Lee Sutton, Norma Rae (1979) tells the tale of a North Carolina woman's struggle to improve working conditions in her textile factory and unionize her co-workers. Silkwood (1983) chronicles worker and advocate Karen Silkwood's quest to expose hazardous conditions at a nuclear plant in Oklahoma. Both films feature well-drawn dynamic, complex female protagonists, vital, persuasive performances and compelling story lines. Meryl Streep is customarily exceptional as Karen Silkwood while Sally Field won a Best Actress Oscar for Norma Rae. The latter's 'UNION' sign is, in fact, the stuff of cinema history. Although these narratives center around the individual – in a classically American fashion – they are, nevertheless, about women who are fighting for others. There have been other female labor organizers in American history of course. Why are filmmakers not interested in their extraordinary careers? Why can't there be biopics about women like Dolores Huerta? And tell me this: Why is no one interested in the pioneering life of Lucy Parsons?

A few mainstream films have endeavored to expose brutal maltreatment of working-class women in American society. Based on a true story, The Accused (1988) is about the gang rape of Sarah Tobias (superbly played by Jodie Foster), a waitress who lives in a trailer home with her drug dealer boyfriend. Jonathan Kaplan's drama is actually quite unusual for an American film in that it acknowledges the factor of class in the victimization of its female protagonist. For the "college boy" rapist in particular, Sarah is nothing more than "white trash".

Have there been more historically recent exceptions to the bourgeois rule? Over the last decade or so, there have been a small number of films that have featured disadvantaged female protagonists. Patty Jenkins' Monster (2003) is a striking example. Monster is based on the real-life story of Aileen Wuornos, a street prostitute and killer of seven men in Florida in the late eighties and early nineties. Unusually, sexuality, gender and class intersect in the film. A sex worker in a relationship with a young lesbian woman, Wuornos defied the gender and sexual norms of her time and place. Money – the lack of it – is also seen to play a pivotal part in her fate. Jenkins paints Wuornos as an unstable, brutalized woman wounded by past abuses.

Monster is a controversial film. Some argued that provided a too sympathetic interpretation of the convicted killer. Was Wuornos an unbalanced, victimized woman or simply a cold-blooded psychopath? What is clear is that Monster tries to contextualize violence. Not many American filmmakers dare to seriously address the social and psychological effects of poverty and abuse in their portraits of murderers. Channeling the fractured psyche of this most marginalized of women, Charlize Theron's Oscar-winning incarnation as Wuornos is, simply, a tour de force. Why Monster was not nominated for Best Film or Best Director tells us a great deal about misogyny and classism inside the Academy.

Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby (2004) is another well-known film also about a less advantaged woman. It is the story of Maggie Fitzgerald (played by Hillary Swank in another Oscar-winning role), a waitress who wants to be a boxer. While its portrait of the movingly dogged and committed Maggie is greatly sympathetic, that of her family – including her mother – is deeply offensive. They are characterized as "white trash" welfare parasites. Maggie is depicted as a very different, noble creature who must cut loose from her nasty roots and class. In Million Dollar Baby, we have, in fact, a well-drawn, sympathetic female character of modest origins as well as an ideologically-loaded, hateful take on working-class men and women. Maggie is a working-class girl who has been emptied of all class-consciousness. Audiences and critics alike always need, therefore, to ask themselves how less privileged women are being portrayed on the screen and how class is being represented. They should call out discriminatory portraits.

More recently, there have been movies about less advantaged women but they remain uncommon. Debra Granik's Winter's Bone (2010) is a critically-successful case in point.

Set in a crime-scarred community in the rural Ozarks, Winter's Bone is the story of Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence), a 17-year-old girl struggling to save her family home. Ree's missing father, a local meth cooker, has put the family property up for his bail bond and she must find him or risk losing everything.

Granik provides the viewer with a sympathetic portrait of a determined yet disadvantaged young woman at risk. Winter's Bone never, however, drowns in sentiment. The scene where Ree surrenders her horse – she can no longer afford to keep it – is portrayed in poignant yet understated fashion. Winter's Bone contains intimate scenes of quiet power. We watch Ree teach her younger siblings to prepare deer stew and to shoot and skin a squirrel. This is a world you rarely see in Hollywood movies.

Winter's Bone has its flaws, all the same. The skies are perpetually grey and there is an improbable lack of humor in the community portrayed. More importantly, while it depicts hardship and shines a light on rural social problems, Winter's Bone cannot really be said to critique class or structural inequities. Its narrative is typically or mythically American. Granik's heroine is engaged in a personal rather than collective struggle. In the end, Winter's Bone is a tale of a tough, sympathetic individual fighting for her family's financial security.

There are other filmmakers who are interested in the lives of struggling and dispossessed women.

Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy (2008) is a deeply humane story about a young woman's search for work in the American North West. It is a simple tale that provides the viewer with a little understanding of what life is like for a girl (Michelle Williams) who sleeps in a car, with only her beloved dog for company. Its sensitive observations and empathetic insights, in fact, make Wendy and Lucy quite invaluable.

Released the same year, Courtney Hunt's excellent crime drama Frozen River is about a store clerk who becomes a people smuggler. Its central character (terrifically played by Melissa Leo) is a strong woman who has chosen to take a criminal path to support her sons and save her home.

Working-class female protagonists remain rare, however. More often than not, working-class women play supporting roles as mothers, wives or lovers. Their characters are invariably underwritten or stereotypical.

A case in point is the character of Romina (Eva Mendes), a diner waitress and lover of the male protagonist in Derek Cianfrance's tragic though self-indulgent sins-of-the-fathers epic, The Place Beyond the Pines (2013). The purpose of Romina, it seems, is to wear a pained expression and bear witness to reactionary patriarchal sentiment. Again, we need to respond to representations of working-class women critically.

While sexual abuse and domestic violence is a fact of life for women and girls across the socio-economic spectrum, it is, arguably, more common for working-class female characters to be portrayed as victims on the screen. I am not, of course, saying that filmmakers should not shine a light on the suffering of poorer victims of abuse. What I am suggesting is that the imbalance locks less privileged women and girls into the victim or martyr role in cultural representations. As powerful a depiction of abuse Precious (2009) is, it arguably perpetuates deeply offensive classist and racist stereotypes.

Less privileged women are perhaps even more poorly represented on the small screen.

Some may suggest that the question of money, or the lack of it, is being addressed in shows such as Girls and Two Broke Girls. The former, of course, revolves around the personal struggles and adventures of a twenty-something woman finding her way in New York. The comedy-drama, however, does not explore what it's really like to be without money in a big city and its characters are not, of course, working-class girls with few options and no cushion. The comedy Two Broke Girls does have a working-class protagonist. Yet while it is about women who have two jobs, and while its humor is, in part, directed at privilege, it cannot be accused of being a great satirical comedy about economic inequities. It is, in fact, both classist and racist in its humor.

Are there, in fact, any contemporary US comedies that truly target economic inequality? Are there any US dramas that express anger at class divisions? What is, unfortunately, apparent is that the current Golden Age of American television does not have authentic working-class heroines.

Clearly, there needs to be a much greater representation of working-class and poor women in US popular culture. How can the lives of millions of American citizens be reflected so rarely on the screen?

There should also be socially-aware portraits of such women. Filmmakers should respond to the outrage of millions and confront economic inequality. They should, also, not be frightened of being political. Economic inequalities should not remain unanalyzed and unchallenged. Hardship should not be hidden but movies and TV shows that represent working-class life should capture both its joys and struggles.

Working-class women need not be portrayed as angels or martyrs. Vivid, complex characters are needed. Filmmakers need to remind themselves that there have been great working-class heroines in American film and television. More stories are needed about less privileged women who work to change the lives of themselves and others. Writers and directors should portray the lives of politically-active working-class women as well as the careers of great social activists. They are the stuff of great drama.

The huge popularity of Roseanne illustrates that Americans have been more than willing to embrace shows about working-class life. Roseanne also showed that the lives of working-class women can be depicted with both heart and humor. Imagine, if you will, a satirical sitcom set in a Walmart-like store. If braver choices were made, and if braver filmmakers were given greater attention, a working-class feminist consciousness would be given a voice in American popular culture.

Teachers feeding poverty-stricken pupils

Posted: 25 Apr 2014 01:09 AM PDT

nasuwt speaks out; Pupils' educational opportunities 'blighted by the Coalition's social and economic policies'.Survey shows poverty and homelessness taking a physical and emotional toll on UK schoolchildren.

The educational opportunities of children and young people are being blighted by the impact of the Coalition's social and economic policies, teachers are reporting.

A recent survey commissioned by the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), the largest of the UK’s teachers' unions, asked teachers to share any experiences of the impact of family financial pressures on their pupils which they had witnessed in the last 12 months.

It elicited stories of children coming to school hungry and unable to concentrate, exhausted from living in cramped and inadequate housing and unable to afford to join in activities such as school trips.

Almost 4,000 teachers responded to the survey from a range of schools.

Around a quarter of the teachers who responded said they worked in schools with an 'average' demographic in terms of deprivation.

Results included:

80 per cent saying pupils are lacking energy and concentration as a result of eating poorly;

82 per cent saying pupils were arriving to school in clothes inappropriate for the weather conditions;

27 per cent saying they had brought in food for hungry pupils themselves and 63 per cent said they had lent or given pupils school equipment;

and 53 per cent saying they had witnessed pupils missing out on important educational activities due to lack of money to pay for them.

Housing was reported as a significant problem, with 27 per cent of respondents saying they knew of pupils who had lost their homes, and 36 per cent saying they had taught pupils who were living in temporary accommodation such as bed and breakfasts and hostels.

Some teachers talked about the physical and emotional toll this was taking on pupils, many of whom were having to share beds, had no time or space for homework, and were forced to travel long distances to school.

When asked what effect financial pressures were having on pupils, 69 per cent said they were more likely to be absent from class, 66 per cent said they were less likely to be able to concentrate in lessons, and 40per cent said their pupils were more likely to feel disaffected and alienated.

Comments included: ‘Their whole outlook is one of misery and dejection. It is hard for them to feel hope for their future’ and ‘They are sad and ashamed. All day, every day’.

According to the charity Child Poverty Action, 3.5 million children live in poverty in the UK an the figure is set to rise by 600,000 by 2015/16 as a result of the coalition government's policies.

It also reports that on Christmas Day last year over 80,000 children were homeless, and currently 35 per cent of those using foodbanks are children.

Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, said: "These are shocking, shameful and heartbreaking statistics.

"The lives of children and young people are being degraded by poverty and homelessness.

"Teachers and other public service workers are struggling to pick up the pieces caused by this Coalition's economic and social policies.

"Poverty and homelessness take a physical and emotional toll on children.

"They often suffer more ill health and absenteeism from school, cannot concentrate when they are in school because they are tired and hungry, have no space to do homework and have to travel long distances to get to school from temporary accommodation.

"Schools," she pointed out, "cannot overcome the profound adverse impact of poverty and homeless alone. The Government has a responsibility to tackle, not generate, poverty and homelessness."

Evans court case raises several issues

Posted: 24 Apr 2014 08:06 AM PDT

Nigel Evans 'not guilty' but court case raises other issues at WestminsterIf someone told you that they had been sexually assaulted, would you laugh it off?

Nigel Evans, former Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, has been cleared of a series of sexual assaults and one rape after a court case that raised several issues of public interest.

The jury unanimously accepted that his behaviour had been "over-friendly, inappropriate behaviour by a drunken man" rather than a criminal offence.

Among the complainants in this case were two young parliamentary researchers whom the Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston had helped contact the police.

Since Evans's acquittal, Wollaston has faced "rank hostility" from other MPs, including fellow Consrvatives some of whom have demanded she apologise and reflect on her role in the case.

Her critics have included Anne Widdecombe, who gave a testimonial during the trial saying Evans was "truthful, considerate, kind and gentle".

On Newsnight, Widdecombe said: "I think the fact that somebody makes the odd drunken pass does not make them a rapist, and I never believed the allegations that were made."

But Wollaston has defended her decision, saying she had no choice but to go to the police after the internal disciplinary process failed and the Conservative Whips' office brushed the matter the two were complaining about "under the carpet".

Wollaston said she would step down if the two researchers she helped had felt pressured by her to contact the police, but said that "they were both very clear with me that they had not felt that I had pressured them".

Addressing her critics directly, she said: "To them, I ask this: what would you do if, in a social setting, someone told you that they had been sexually assaulted by one of your most popular colleagues?

"Would you have laughed off the allegation, or brushed it aside? I did not."

Another issue raised by this case has been whether or not there is a culture of ‘drink-fuelled promiscuity’ at the Commons.

A poll conducted by Channel 4 News of young men and women working in parliament found that 40 per cent of men they questioned had received unwanted sexual advances and a third had experienced sexual harassment.

Evans, who has said he never behaved inappropriately towards the complainants or could not recollect the events, denounced the portrayal of Westminster as debauched, but the Conservative Party has nonetheless said it would now ask all its MPs to sign up to a new code of conduct setting out their rights and responsibilities as employers. There will also be a new party grievance procedure for staff.

Evans’ acquittal has also led to further questions being asked of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and its handling of sex offences.

Evans has said the anonymity of complainants in sex offence cases should be re-examined, something the coalition government had pledged to do but later dropped over concerns it would prevent victims coming forward.

David Davis, the former shadow Home Secretary, has suggested the practice of using lesser charges to "reinforce" a more serious one should be looked into.

But, as Wollaston said, "MPs should not use this case as a pretext to interfere with the independence of the CPS" and that it should not be made harder for potential victims to come forward.

Join peace league’s Thunderclap

Posted: 24 Apr 2014 06:00 AM PDT

join the wilpf 's anniversary thunderclap and the women stop war campaignHelp a women’s peace movement on the run up to its founding day.

April 28 marks the 99th Anniversary of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).

The league wants to celebrate the day and would love your support.

In 1915, 1,200 women from different cultures and speaking different languages came together in The Hague during World War I, to study, make known and eliminate the causes of war.

They issued resolutions, sent out delegations to most of the countries engaged in the war – and created an organisation called the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. WILPF for short.

The purpose in founding WILPF was to have an organisation through which women could work for peace and freedom by claiming women's right – and responsibility – to participate in decision-making on all aspects of peace and security.

WILPF's International President Jane Addams was personally received by President Woodrow Wilson in Washington.

WILPF's beliefs provided President Wilson with nine of his famous Fourteen Points, the basis of a peace programme that was used when Germany and her allies agreed to an armistice in November 1918.

WILPF has, since then, organised dialogues between women in the Middle East, sent delegations of women to North and South Vietnam to oppose the Vietnam War, and worked closely with the UN to enact change for women's peace and security.

And not only is this the oldest women's peace organisation in the world, it can also boast two Nobel Peace Prize winners: in 1931, for Jane Addams, WILPF's International President, and in 1946, for WILPF's first International Secretary, Emily Greene Balch.

Help celebrate the countdown to the 100th Anniversary Celebrations in Spring 2015 at The Hague by joining a Thunderclap.

Ever met a Thunderclap?

‘Thunderclap’ is a social media platform that helps people be heard by sharing a message collectively and that's exactly what we want to do on 28 April.

If enough people support our Thunderclap, it will blast out a Facebook post or Tweet from all supporters at exactly the same time, creating a virtual wave of attention.

The aim is to get 250 supporters before 28 April 2014 at 08:00 (UTC) – but if this goal isn’t reached, the Thunderclap won't happen.

That is why you are needed.

If you use Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr please take 2 minutes of your time to become part of the #WILPF100 Thunderclap – and help spread the word by sharing with your family and friends!

Click here to register for this Thunderclap.

Help make this Thunderclap happen – and make the world aware of the peace league’s 99th Anniversary.

And next year?

In 1915, 1136 visionary women came together in The Hague, the Netherlands, anxious to stop World War I.

In 2015, 1136 women will again come together to participate in the second women's peace and security conference of a century, uniting the global movement 'Women's Power to Stop War‘.

Women's Power to Stop War is the global anniversary movement of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and is aimed at strengthening, connecting and celebrating 100 years of peace-building from a gender perspective.

The conference will take place from 27-29 April in the World Forum in The Hague.

Join in. Keep an eye on this website, as the conference programme, ticket registration pages and loads of other information will come up soon.

Thank you for your support.

Report highlights negative media influence

Posted: 24 Apr 2014 01:04 AM PDT

UN report highlights in your face sexism in UK mediaCriticism of Rashida Manjoo's report ignores the every day, 'soft' sexism endemic in the UK.

Last week Professor Rashida Manjoo, the United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women, ended her 16-day mission to the UK.

Her task had been to assess the UK's performance in tackling and preventing abuse of women and girls.

Concluding her visit, she released a statement in which she praised the progress made in relation to stopping violence against women, but she expressed concern about sexual bullying, and 'negative and over-sexualised media portrayals of women and girls'.

Discussing media sexism, Manjoo said that 'sexist culture' had not been 'so in-your-face in other countries' she had visited.

Seizing on her comparison of the UK to other countries, various media outlets and social commentators have reacted to Manjoo's findings with ridicule and disbelief.

Dismissing the UN report as 'nonsense', Kathy Gyngell wrote in the Daily Mail that 'the enlightened West' should not bother fighting 'such harmless sexism', as ‘women do not just have parity with men, actually we now have the advantage over them’.

However, this response to Manjoo's findings misses much of her point, for while women in the UK may have their rights enshrined in law, workplace discrimination and the threat of domestic and sexual violence still remain a reality for many.

Furthermore, while these stark realities may not be the direct result of the sexism, clichéd gender roles and objectification of women's bodies that we see in adverts, on television and in newspapers, the two do not exist in isolation.

As Manjoo's report pointed out, 'Violence against women needs to be addressed within the broader struggles against inequality and gender-based discrimination'.

The incidents of supposedly 'harmless' media sexism that we at Women's Views on News often highlight are far from inconsequential – they form the cultural context in which violence, intimidation and discrimination against girls and women is allowed to continue on our doorstep.

In our faces.

Abuse of women in news media global

Posted: 23 Apr 2014 08:15 AM PDT

Report reveals the global abuse of women in news media and a feeling of impunityReports of a climate of impunity and that reporting abuse made the situation worse.

The London-based International News Safety Institute (INSI) and the Washington DC-based International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) ran a survey from August 2013 to January 2014 'to gauge the nature and frequency of [the] types of violations' experienced by women journalists.

While the number of journalists killed in 2013 was lower than in 2012, 'the number of journalists subjected to assault, threat or attack, [whether] physical, verbal or digital, shows no sign of abating'.

And because of their gender, women journalists are subject to additional threats.

Gender-specific threats range from biases towards what topics are appropriate for women to cover to cultural norms that ostracise, or worse, women who perform the most basic tasks of their profession such as speaking to (male) sources and questioning the status quo.

Most worrying is that 'the survey found that the majority of threats, intimidation and abuse directed towards respondents occurred in the work place and was perpetrated most often by male bosses, supervisors and co-workers.'

As is well-documented in cases of violence and harassment against women, 'most incidents were never reported, even though a majority of women who experienced them said they were psychologically affected.'

Nearly two-thirds of survey respondents said they had experienced acts of intimidation, threats and abuse in relation to their work.

More than one-fifth (21.6 per cent) of respondents said they had experienced physical violence, and approximately one-third of those respondents reported the incident(s).

Of the 14 per cent of survey respondents who said they had experienced sexual violence, only 19 per cent reported it.

Nearly half of respondents had experienced sexual harassment, but less than one-fifth of those reported the incident(s).

Many women reported a lifetime of sexual harassment on the job, using the word 'ongoing' and suggesting that it is a routine aspect of working in the news media industry.

Sadly, the overwhelming majority of responses to the question 'What was the outcome of reporting the intimidation, threats and abuse?' alluded to 'a climate of impunity.'

Some women were told to stop complaining, others were told to ‘grow up’ and others said they regretted reporting the abuse.

Responses to reports of violence and harassment 'ranged from nothing changing to [the women reporting abuse] being forced out of a job.'

Because war zones and hostile environments are the assumed places for occurrences of violence and harassment, it is even more disturbing that survey respondents say the majority of the harassment and intimidation they experience occurs in the workplace.

And with the recent years of economic upset largely affecting women's jobs and support services for women, the number of freelancers in many industries, including the media, has risen.

So add being a freelance journalist to being a woman and many professionals are made doubly vulnerable.

A BBC report into journalism safety in January 2014 said that 'News editors, faced with dwindling budgets and a 24-hour news culture, rely on freelancers' contributions more than ever before.'

Yet freelancers often lack the formal support of a large news agency.

After decades of such a notorious lack of support for freelancers, particularly in conflict and war zones, Vaughan Smith of the UK's Frontline Club started the Frontline Freelance Register (FFR) in summer 2013.

It is run by freelancers, for freelancers, and it aims to provide foreign and conflict journalists with representation and a sense of community, vital in such a fragmented profession.

While the safety of journalists continues to attract more and more international support and effort, it is still far too little too late for the many who have already died in the line of duty.

Attendees at the BBC's Safety of Journalists Symposium in April this year discussed 'the importance of supporting families of killed journalists' and the need to use court prosecution as a deterrent for future attacks.

Earlier this month, two experienced women Associated Press journalists were shot by an Afghan police officer; the photographer Anja Niedringhaus, who died almost immediately from head wounds, and journalist Kathy Gannon, who required surgery.

While discussion is less helpful than action, official conversations are at least making steps in the right direction.

But, as a statement issued by many of the attendees at the BBC's Safety of Journalists Symposium in April 2014 said, 'It is an affront to justice that in recent times fewer than one in ten of all killings of journalists have resulted in convictions for the perpetrators.'

App launch to help voters choose a party

Posted: 23 Apr 2014 06:00 AM PDT

Vote Match launch on 28 April part of project to enable voters to be clear about party programmesThen all you have to do is remember to go and vote on 22 May.

With elections to the European Parliament only a month away, Unlock Democracy is launching a new version of Vote Match dedicated to the European elections.

Vote Match is a proven, successful, award-winning browser-based app which helps users decide which political party best matches their views in an election.

Vote Match Europe will run simultaneously in 12 countries across the EU.

The aim of Vote Match?

Vote Match is, basically, an educational tool.

It has the potential to promote European citizenship, to better inform citizens about elections for the European Parliament (EP), teach voters about the differences in the programmes of the contesting parties and to increase voter turn out.

Setting up Vote Match in all of the EU member states would not only establish a network between the different organisations in all the participating EU countries, it would also mean there was a platform which would enable people to get acquainted with the different opinions on all the important European issues in the countries participating.

The ultimate goal is to set up a Vote Match for all 27 member states in the European Union.

In Britain, Vote Match UK teamed up with political scientists from the London School of Economics (LSE) to ask UK political parties for their positions on the top issues for the European elections.

Vote Match allows users to match their positions to those of the political parties, based on the issues which they select as most important.

Vote Match has been designed to be fun, but it also aims to encourage turn out, inform voters about policy differences between parties, and foster informed debate on political issues.

Since the first version, launched back in 2008, over 2 million people have used Vote Match. The 2010 general election Vote Match, for example, was used by more than 1 million users.

Feedback from users showed that Vote Match really does make a difference:

75 per cent of users were more aware of the policy differences between the parties after using the app;

12 per cent of users changed their minds as to who to vote for on the basis of their result;

4 per cent (1 in 25) said that they voted as a direct consequence of using the app;

Alexandra Runswick, director of Unlock Democracy, will introduce and demonstrate the tool at the Vote Match Europe UK launch on 28 April.

Click here for event details.

The launch event give you the opportunity to test the tool yourself and find out how it works, answer the Vote Match Europe statements, and see how your result matches your voting choice.

As will the app.

Then all you have to do is remember to go and vote on 22 May.

You will need to register to vote by 6 May. To find out how to register, click here.

India joins the third gender leaders

Posted: 23 Apr 2014 04:30 AM PDT

In its ruling, the Indian Supreme Court said that recognising transgender people is a human rights issue.

India officially recognises transgender people: court says recognition ‘is a human rights issue’.

The plurality of society is increasingly being recognised around the world, with both marriage equality and non-binary gender labelling gaining ground.

India's recent announcement of equal opportunity irrespective of caste, religion or gender brings official recognition to the millions of people in the country who do not fit into the male-female binary.

All official Indian documents will now have a third gender option, transgender, as a broad umbrella term for anyone choosing not to identify themselves as only male or female.

The ruling also places the category of transgender on the list of minority groups that are eligible for reserved government jobs and university places.

Campaigners in India hope that the inclusion on the government quota list will finally allow transgender individuals the opportunities they need to be able to fully contribute to society as equals, rather than scrabble for a living in the margins as many in the community currently are forced to do as they beg for a living.

In its ruling, the Indian Supreme Court said that recognising transgender people is a human rights issue.

The decision follows the state's Election Commission's recent inclusion of 'other' as a third gender choice on voter registration forms.

But this Supreme Court decision is the latest step forward in the global campaign for equality for the transgender community.

As the world's communities grow bolder in their recognition of the spectrum of the human experience and preference, the words and phrases used to recognise or categorise people are increasingly being debated as an important part of identity.

And gender neutrality is a growing topic of discussion and campaign, with some of those involved disliking the use of the term 'third gender', saying that all it does is change gender from a binary into a trinary.

Other categories or labels that are currently in use in official capacities include 'x', 'other' and 'indeterminate.'

Australia and the United States both introduced gender-neutral passports in 2011.

Australia updated its laws again in 2013, and now offers 'x' as a gender option on all personal records for people who identify their gender as indeterminate, intersex or unspecified.

As part of its 2011 law, the United States changed the words 'mother' and 'father' on family travel documents to 'parent.'

In 2012, Sweden began the official use of 'hen' as a gender-neutral pronoun after decades of its unofficial use.

In November 2013, Germany introduced a third option for birth certificates, allowing parents to choose between male, female or indeterminate when filling out the form.

The change allows individuals to choose their sex when they are older, or, if they prefer, to continue using indeterminate.

The UK, however, does not recognise a third gender or the term intersex and retains only two gender options on official documents despite calls, since at least 2011 following the change of law in Australia, for gender-neutral passports.

Writing on her UK-based blog Complicity, Zoe says that 'gender is fluid and on a spectrum, and not subject to being placed into little pots'.

Another UK-based blogger, Genderqueer in the UK, agrees and suggests replacing Ms and Mr with a new formal salutation such as Mx or Misc in order to include people who choose not to be identified as male or female.

With same-sex marriage now legal in the UK since 29 March 2014, pressure is mounting on officials and organisations to find ways to better reflect the plurality of our society.

Cacophony not just driving away women

Posted: 23 Apr 2014 01:09 AM PDT

Women are not the only ones driven away by PMQs. The sexism debate has become the focus and obscured the actual issue.

The atmosphere of ‘histrionics and cacophony’ at Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) makes a mockery of its democratic purpose, driving away men and women in the process.

The Speaker in the House of Commons, John Bercow, drew attention to this recently when he said that some MPs, and particularly female MPs, are avoiding PMQs because it is “so bad”.

In an interview with BBC Radio 4's PM programme, Bercow announced his fears that members from both sides of the House “with a lot to contribute” were put off attending the weekly PMQs session by the “histrionics and cacophony of noise”.

“I think it is a real problem. A number of seasoned parliamentarians, who are not shrinking violets, not delicate creatures at all, are saying, ‘This is so bad that I am not going to take part, I am not going to come along, I feel embarrassed by it’,” he was quoted as saying.

Many female MPs have been called upon to share their views on the issue as news outlets have pounced on the gendered aspect of the story.

Sarah Champion, Labour MP for Rotherham, told the BBC that the atmosphere at PMQs was “very, very testosterone-fuelled” and that sexism was part of the problem.

And Conservative MP Andrea Leadsom drew attention to Bercow's role in perpetuating a culture of personal slights towards colleagues, saying, “He’s as bad as anyone when it comes to personal insults. And sometimes it’s funny but other times it’s just downright quite hurtful.”

Former Conservative MP Louise Mensch said that the implication of Bercow's statement itself was sexist, implying that women are staying away because they are “tea-sipping flowers with the vapours”.

And Anna Soubry, the Defence Minister, agreed that Bercow is contributing to “the stereotype that all women are shrinking violets. It's a very old fashioned view of us.”

“Some of the most vocal people in PMQs are women on both sides of the chamber,” she argued, continuing to draw on examples of female MPs who actively engage in the 'histrionics and cacophony'.

“The Eagle sisters for Labour are more than robust and perfectly able but my goodness they can dish it out.

“From my vantage point I regularly see Fiona Mactaggart heckling. Emily Thornberry can bellow with the best of them.

“A lot of the people the Speaker tells off are Tory women: myself, Claire Perry and Therese Coffey.”

Other commentators interviewed blamed the women who reportedly raised the issue to Bercow for playing the 'sexist card'.

Former Conservative MP Anne Widdecombe has responded to the issue by saying, “I don’t think it’s especially difficult for women and I do hate the sort of whinging grievance culture which some women promote whereby it’s especially difficult for us. No it isn’t.”

She then went on to argue: “If we get in there [Parliament] on the same basis as men, which I appreciate an awful lot of women don’t these days because of positive discrimination, but if they get there on the same basis as the men, they compete with the men, so no it’s not different for women.”

From the fact Bercow felt the need to highlight that the offended parties are not “delicate creatures”, through Mensch and Soubry's decrying that women are 'as good as' men at the highly-charged, noisy banter that is PMQs’ signature to Widdecombe's confused argument that Bercow has fallen victim to the supposed “whinging grievance culture” of women who both somehow have and have not reached their positions on the same basis as men – the sexism debate has become the focus and obscured the actual issue.

Namely that some MPs are not attending PMQs due to the wholly unproductive atmosphere.

Yes, some of those MPs will be women. Some will also be men. Some will be strong characters. Others may be more introspective. Some may take public humiliation badly. Others will brush it off.

The only thing they have in common is a rejection of the way PMQs are conducted – something which they share with the British public.

A recently published survey of public attitudes towards PMQs by the Hansard Society found that the respondents disliked the noise, the inauthenticity, the perceived bullying and the evasive answers.

Those surveyed variously described the event as 'a pantomime', 'a pathetic spectacle', 'a scene from a school playground', 'noise and bluster' and a 'farce drama' which makes a 'joke' of the serious issues being discussed.

The study authors concluded that PMQs, in principle, are an important democratic opportunity to hold the government to account, however, in practice, they alienate, anger, embarrass and frustrate the public.

Bercow himself has said that “Most people think it doesn’t reflect very well on Parliament when there is a huge decibel level and a Punch and Judy show or just a complete shouting match”.

Certainly there may be gendered problems with PMQs, for example Mensch reported that Bercow should 'call a few more women' to ask questions during the weekly event, indicating perhaps that they do not get as much 'airtime' as male colleagues.

Much has also been written on the imbalance of male to female MPs, especially since Maria Miller’s recent resignation.

Concerns have also been raised over the years about the level of attention paid to the looks and dress of female politicians in a way that male colleagues rarely have to deal with, something Liberal Democratic peer Baronness Williams, for one, has talked about.

However, women are not the only ones who may feel deterred by the noise, the unproductive atmosphere and the bullying at PMQ.

As Champion pointed out: “Anything that people can use as a tool to put people off their stride, they will do, whether that’s your weight, which team you support, your gender, or your sexuality, you’ll hear those comments.”

“I understand in that sort of environment that people do say and do things that are slightly more extreme than they would do in a normal environment,” she continued, “But PMQs is there so that we can have a serious discussion, a serious debate, and ask the right question to our prime minister.

“The environment we’ve got at the moment … is just not right.”

Even Widdecombe acknowledged that not only women are offended by the atmosphere at PMQ, when she said: “There are some MPs, both male and female, who find it a bit difficult.”

And Soubry said: “I'm sure there are people on both sides who don't like this aspect of the Commons but it's got nothing at all to do with sex.”

The "histrionics and cacophony" in fact makes a mockery of the discussion of issues that people of all genders and vocal-capability hold dear.

PMQs signature banter may well play on tropes of gender and other personal identifiers, but all that does is make a farce of the issues being discussed and alienate anyone who wants to see this supposed democratic mechanism function as more than a shouting match.

As one respondent in the Hansard Society study pointed out: “Can you imagine any other sphere of adult life where one would act with so little respect?”

Row over what moves community spirit

Posted: 22 Apr 2014 08:15 AM PDT

MPs should 'recognise all the good work which is done by non-religious people' 'right across the country'.MPs should ‘recognise all the good work which is done by non-religious people’ ‘right across the country’.

University professor Dr Susan Blackmore has called upon a Plymouth's MP Gary Streeter to apologise after he suggested Christians did more to help the needy than non-believers.

She said that research showed that the proportion of volunteers who were religious and non-religious was almost the same.

The Plymouth Herald reported that in an open letter to Streeter, Blackmore said: "Either way you look at it, while churches may do good in their communities, so do non-religious people.

"Your faith might be the thing which motivates your charitable work, to whatever extent it is that you do support charities or volunteer, but all sorts of people volunteer in their communities – simply because they want to."

In a debate on Radio 4's Today programme Streeter, chair of the cross-party Christians in Parliament group said it was "the churches, not the secular groups, not the atheists" leading community work in his constituency and across the country.

Refuting this, Blackmore pointed out that the 2011 Citizenship Survey showed that 39 per cent of non-religious volunteers took part in formal volunteering at least once a year.

"That is precisely the same proportion as those volunteers who are religious – a figure which includes Muslims, Jews, Hindus and other non-Christians.

"When it comes to informal volunteering, the numbers are slightly in favour of non-religious people," she added.

Regarding Plymouth, she said, "According to the latest Census figures, 32.9 per cent of people in Plymouth report having no religion. Comments which alienate one third of voters aren't just divisive and untrue, but politically foolish.

And she called upon Streeter to apologise to his constituency "and to recognise all the good work which is done by non-religious people not just in South West Devon, but right across the country."

She also said that Prime Minister David Cameron's recent call for the country to be "more evangelical" in matters of faith would only divide the nation.

"It would," she said, "be deeply divisive, setting one type of belief against another and making out that the non-believers amongst us are somehow inferior or less altruistic than believers when this is not true."

Blackmore is one of several public figures including scientists, novelists and politicians who have accused David Cameron of 'fostering division' within the UK by claiming that Britain is still a "Christian country".

In an open letter published recently in the Telegraph, they said that his remarks "needlessly fuel enervating sectarian debates that are by and large absent from the lives of most British people, who do not want religions or religious identities to be actively prioritised by their elected government."

The letter, largely hidden behind the Telegraph's paywall, runs as follows:

‘SIR – We respect the Prime Minister's right to his religious beliefs and the fact that they necessarily affect his own life as a politician. However, we object to his characterisation of Britain as a "Christian country" and the negative consequences for politics and society that this engenders.

Apart from in the narrow constitutional sense that we continue to have an established Church, Britain is not a "Christian country". Repeated surveys, polls and studies show that most of us as individuals are not Christian in our beliefs or our religious identities.

At a social level, Britain has been shaped for the better by many pre-Christian, non-Christian, and post-Christian forces. We are a plural society with citizens with a range of perspectives, and we are a largely non-religious society.

Constantly to claim otherwise fosters alienation and division in our society. Although it is right to recognise the contribution made by many Christians to social action, it is wrong to try to exceptionalise their contribution when it is equalled by British people of different beliefs. This needlessly fuels enervating sectarian debates that are by and large absent from the lives of most British people, who do not want religions or religious identities to be actively prioritised by their elected government.’

It was signed by Professor Jim Al-Khalil, Philip Pullman, Tim Minchin, Dr Simon Singh, Ken Follett, Dr Adam Rutherford, Sir John Sulston, Sir David Smith, Professor Jonathan Glover, Professor Anthony Grayling, Nick Ross, Virginia Ironside, Professor Steven Rose, Natalie Haynes, Peter Tatchell, Professor Raymond Tallis, Dr Iolo ap Gwynn, Stephen Volk, Professor Steve Jones, Sir Terry Pratchett, Dr Evan Harris, Dr Richard Bartle, Sian Berry, C J De Mooi, Professor John A Lee, Professor Richard Norman, Zoe Margolis, Joan Smith, Michael Gore, Derek McAuley, Lorraine Barratt,  Dr Susan Blackmore, Dr Harry Stopes-Roe, Sir Geoffrey Bindman QC, Adele Anderson, Dr Helena Cronin, Professor Alice Roberts, Professor Chris French, Sir Tom Blundell, Maureen Duffy, Baroness Whitaker, Lord Avebury, Richard Herring, Martin Rowson, Tony Hawks, Peter Cave, Diane Munday, Professor Norman MacLean, Professor Sir Harold Kroto, Sir Richard Dalton, Sir David Blatherwick, Michael Rubenstein, Polly Toynbee, Lord O’Neill, Dr Simon Singh and Dan Snow.

Events 22 April – 27 April

Posted: 22 Apr 2014 03:34 AM PDT

Some dates for your diary of woman-centric events going on around the UK this week.Here are some dates for your diary of woman-centric events going on around the UK this week.

Bristol:

24 April: Bristol Bad Film Club and What The Frock!: Supergirl at The Cuban, Harbourside, Bristol, from 8pm.

The Bristol Bad Film Club is teaming up with What The Frock! Comedy – the only regular all-female comedy event in the South West of England – to do a special screening of cult superhero classic Supergirl, complete with stand-up comedy from Amy Howerska.

Tickets £7.

London:

22 April: East London Fawcett debate: Fifty Years of Feminism at Rich Mix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, London E1, from 7pm.

In a society where the full-time gender pay gap is 10 per cent, only 23 cent of UK MPs are women and 44cent of women still experience physical abuse, East London Fawcett (ELF) asks: what can today’s feminists learn from the Second Wave feminists of the 1970s and ’80s?

We ask: What has the legacy of the Women’s Movement done for women living in the 21st century? And how do today's feminists' lives compare to their mothers'?

ELF will host a debate on the legacy of feminist campaigners from the Second Wave, featuring recordings from The British Library's new feminist oral history project.

The panel discussion will be a celebration of the determination and courage of the men and women who fought for equality then. It will be a celebration of how far we've come but also a reflection on what still needs to change.

This fascinating debate about the past, present and future of feminism, will be chaired by Jude Kelly, Artistic Director of the Southbank Centre.

Panellists so far confirmed are Melissa Benn –author, journalist and campaigner for the comprehensive education system, Beatrix Campbell – writer, journalist, playwright, social commentator and Green Party candidate, Laura Bates – journalist and founder of the Everyday Sexism Project.

Tickets free.

26 April: Let’s Start a Pussy Riot  – part of the Salons at the Feminist Library, 5 Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1 7XW from 6 – 8:30pm.

For the second Salon at the Feminist Library series you are invited to an evening on Pussy Riot, dissent and feminist collective activism, from the creators of this inspiring new book.

Lets Start a Pussy Riot! is a creative response founded by Free Pussy Riot, Girls Get Busy, Not So Popular and Storm In A Teacup.

A collective of collectives whose aim was to bring together voices from the arts in support of Pussy Riot.

Let's Start a Pussy Riot was published in June 2013 by Rough Trade Records, and have been touring universities in order to inspire activism and keep the dialogue and discussion about Pussy Riot alive.

At the Feminist Library we will be discussing the story of Pussy Riot (their motives, their influence and the future of Pussy Riot), exploring the context – Russian State and the Orthodox Church, the degradation of LGBT rights in Russia, and encouraging all to use the idea of Let's Start a Pussy Riot to create their own forms of collective.

Until 31 May: Judith Barry: Cairo Stories at Waterside Contemporary, Clanbury Street, London N1.

This is the first Judith Barry’s solo exhibition at Waterside Contemporary where she presents her project “… Cairo stories” consisting of a video and photographic installation.

Created from a collection of more than 200 interviews Barry conducted with Cairene women between the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the beginning of the Egyptian Revolution in 2011, “… Cairo stories” is a series of short video monologues.

The selection of stories chronicles personal experiences of women from a variety of social and economic classes in Egypt and expands the artist’s concerns with notions of representation, history, subjectivity, and translation – particularly as these ideas circulate across cultures.

The original interviews were conducted in simultaneous translation to maintain fluidity and integrity of tone and meaning, and Barry considers them to be collaborations between her and the subjects. The vast source material was then ‘vetted’ by a diverse range of Cairene women.

The emotional integrity of each woman’s story is the crux of this project; the translators and interviewees remained active participants in both the narrative arc of their stories and the development of the project. In the gallery, a selection of 15 narratives is performed by actors, highlighting that all stories, including those we tell ourselves, are ultimately fictions.

“… Cairo stories” is a continuation of Not reconciled, a series of ‘as told to’ stories Barry recorded in a variety of countries and cultures, and bears witness to the artist’s long-term interest in the strength and the political implications of the voice. Since the Egyptian revolution, the voice – and the right to vote or ability to speak out – has become a central concern in everyday life. The positions of women in the public, political – and private – spheres is also at the forefront of these discussions.

Free entry.

Oxford:

26 April: Disco for Choice meeting at the corner of Staunton Road and Headley Way, Oxford, from 2.30pm.

Every month, people who would seek to end a woman’s (and transmen and gender fluid/queer people’s) right to choose what happens to her (his/their) body picket the entrance to the hospital.

They call it a “prayer vigil” but as a commentator in Cardiff recently pointed out “since when have a prayer vigil needed placards?”

Oxford Feminist Network will counter this protest, as they do every month, with a pro-choice disco – bringing joy and fun to celebrate a woman’s (transman, gender queer/fluid person’s) right to choose.

Bring your best moves, a placard if you want to but definitely some fun spirit for which will hopefully be a lovely sunny picnic and disco.

Sheffield:

26 April: LaDIY Through This at The Audacious Art Experience, 107a Harwood Street, Sheffield, from 8pm.

Join LaDIYfest Sheffield to celebrate twenty years since the release of Hole’s album Live Through This (LTT).

If you’ve ever been a teenage girl, school misfit or music fan worth your salt then Live Through This is an album you’ll likely be all-too familiar with – if not, get listening!

Hole were one of the most well-known bands associated with the early 1990s riot grrrl scene and Live Through This marked their breakthrough into the mainstream. Their music – and that of many other women-fronted bands of this time – is part of our proud LaDIYfest lineage.

We’re planning to celebrate LTT’s coming of age with a special birthday party, starring (in no particular order): Annette Berlin, Hysterical Injury, Kinky and Nervous Twitch.

Suggested donation £4 to cover bands’ costs and fund this year’s festival, but as usual it’s pay what you can.

Expectations affect equality in the home

Posted: 22 Apr 2014 01:09 AM PDT

If expectations are not challenged, women will have to wait until 2050 before housework is equally sharedWe take ‘the path of least resistance’.

Outdated expectations still lead to a traditionally gendered division of labour in UK households.

UK men may be doing more housework than their European counterparts, but women still perform up to 70 per cent of all housework in the UK.

In addition, women still perform nearly two thirds of all housework even when they work over 30 hours per week, the 2013 European Social Survey (ESS) found.

So far, so unsurprising. Similar findings have been uncovered by studies before.

Indeed, an Oxford University study in 2011 found that if current trends continue, women will probably have to wait until 2050 before men are doing an equal share of the household chores and childcare.

However, this ESS study also found that despite being responsible for most of the housework, women working full-time did not experience greater feelings of work-life conflict than men working similar hours.

In short, Northern European men report more work-life conflict when they are doing less housework than their female partners – something the researchers suggest could be down to the level of conflict created in their relationship by the unequal division of labour in the home or perhaps guilt at not taking on more chores.

Brigid Schulte wrote in the Guardian that the problem comes down to particular expectations of ourselves and our partners.

She argued that our lives are governed by 'powerful and well-worn cultural expectations of how we think men and women are supposed to act: the work-devoted ideal worker/distant father who devotes body and soul to the job 24/7, and the self-sacrificing ideal mother who selflessly dotes on her children’s every whim'.

She cited these norms as pushing many of us into a state of what she calls 'Overwhelm' where many of us cannot imagine a way out.

For example, she said, 'Talk to a father about cutting back on work hours to become more involved at home, and the ideal worker takes a tug… Talk to a mother about stepping aside to let the father do more with the kids and … cultural norms yank that chain and shut her up. Aren’t women just naturally meant to be the better parent? Isn’t it selfish for a mother to want to work?'

Similar expectations about women 'naturally' being responsible for housework are also foisted on women at work, as Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg recently highlighted in an interview with the Guardian.

“Men aren’t asked: ‘How do you do that? How do you do this? Do you have nannies? Do you have a cook?’ My husband has never been asked. I am asked that all the time,” she said.

Similar expectations exist around childcare.

Research conducted earlier this year showed that 80 per cent of UK women feel 'guilty' about going back to work after having children, showing how strongly women are made to feel they are responsible for home life.

The same research found that more than a fifth of men wished they could stay home to look after their children rather than returning to work, with more than a third of men questioned reporting being offered no flexibility at all by their employers, showing how strongly men are made to feel that their role is in the workplace.

Schulte quotes Jessica DeGroot from the ThirdPath Institute on how these powerful stereotypical expectations affect men and women who “both end up taking the path of least resistance… [and] get stuck".

While the government claims its policy of shared parental leave as a measure that can help working families achieve a better work-life balance, changing policy is not enough to overcome the vastly unequal division of labour in UK households and families.

We also need to challenge our often unconscious expectations of ourselves, our partners and our colleagues.

And if the ESS results are anything to go by, it is not only women who will gain from a more equal division of labour in the home, as the study suggests a correlation between men doing a more equal share of household work and experiencing less work-life conflict.

Ultimately, however, everyone would benefit from removing one of the main sources of conflict in relationships by working out a system of household chores that prevents couples and families taking the path of least resistance towards outdated stereotypes.

Shut the myth up

Posted: 18 Apr 2014 08:10 AM PDT

women's groups say no to anonymity for alleged sexual offenders on trialCrown Prosecution Service must continue to prosecute cases if there is evidence.

Following the acquittal of Nigel Evans MP for sexual assault and rape  on 11 April, women's groups have expressed concern at calls from politicians and others for a review of the Crown Prosecution Service's handling of sexual offences – and for defendants in such cases to be granted anonymity.

These women's groups say that such calls are not based on fact or evidence, rather on the myth that allegations of sexual offences are often made up.

There is strong evidence to show that around 1 in 10 of people who experience rape do not report to the police and that, contrary to public perception, false allegations in rape cases are extremely low.

The government has already considered, and rejected for lack of evidence, a proposal to change the law to give defendants in rape cases anonymity.

Organisations that support survivors have welcomed the increased efforts made by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), in the wake of the failures connected to Jimmy Savile's behaviour, to improve prosecutions of such offences.

It must continue to prosecute cases where there is evidence to do so.

Speaking of these concerns, Professor Liz Kelly, director of the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit, said: "The current debate sends an extremely negative message to survivors of sexual violence, and tells potential perpetrators that they will not face criminal sanction.

"At this time of ongoing high profile trials, political interference undermining work to improve prosecutions of sexual offences should desist."

Lee Eggleston, chair of Rape Crisis England and Wales, pointed out that: "It is critical to ensure that all survivors of sexual violence have access to specialist support, whether or not they report and regardless of how long ago their experiences took place."

And, as we at WVoN have made clear before, other victims find the courage to speak out when they know that their rape was not an isolated incident.

And yes Evans may be feeling hard done by, but the case did draw attention to several other issues that need to be addressed. Legal aid cuts being one of them.

Optimism after Russia and Ukraine talks

Posted: 18 Apr 2014 07:45 AM PDT

EU USA Ukraine and Russia in talks to deesculate the current situation‘All  sides  must  refrain  from  any  violence,  intimidation  or  provocative  actions’.

Four-sided talks with Russia and Ukraine over ending the Kremlin-backed incursions into eastern Ukraine after the Russian annexation of Crimea took place in Geneva on 17 April.

Afterwards, Catherine Ashton, John Kerry, Andrii Deshchytsia and Segei Lavrov, who were representatives of the European Union (EU), the United   States, Ukraine and the Russian Federation respectively, issued the following  statement:

‘The  Geneva  meeting  on  the  situation  in  Ukraine  agreed  on  initial  concrete  steps  to  de-­escalate  tensions  and  restore  security  for  all  citizens.

‘All  sides  must  refrain  from  any  violence,  intimidation  or  provocative  actions.  The participants  strongly   condemned   and rejected   all   expressions  of   extremism,   racism   and   religious  intolerance,  including  anti-­semitism.

‘All  illegal  armed  groups  must  be  disarmed;  all  illegally  seized  buildings  must  be  returned  to  legitimate  owners;  all  illegally  occupied  streets,  squares  and  other  public  places  in  Ukrainian  cities  and  towns  must  be  vacated.

‘Amnesty  will  be  granted  to  protestors  and  to  those  who  have  left  buildings  and other  public  places  and  surrendered  weapons,  with  the  exception  of  those  found  guilty  of  capital  crimes.

‘It  was  agreed  that  the  OSCE  Special  Monitoring  Mission  should  play  a  leading  role  in  assisting  Ukrainian  authorities  and  local  communities  in  the  immediate  implementation  of  these de-escalation  measures  wherever  they  are  needed  most,  beginning  in  the  coming  days.  The  US,  EU and  Russia  commit  to  support  this  mission,  including  by  providing  monitors.

‘The announced constitutional  process  will  be  inclusive, transparent  and  accountable.  It  will  include  the  immediate  establishment  of  a  broad  national  dialogue,  with  outreach  to  all  of  Ukraine's   regions   and   political   constituencies,   and   allow   for   the   consideration   of   public  comments  and  proposed  amendments.

‘The  participants  underlined  the  importance  of  economic  and  financial  stability  in  Ukraine  and  would  be  ready  to  discuss  additional  support  as  the  above  steps  are  implemented.’

Speaking at a press conference there, Ashton said, “These have been very frank, but I think constructive discussions that are looking to find the concrete steps, real, practical things that can de-escalate the tensions in Ukraine.

“I think it was extremely important to bring us all together here to have that process of dialogue begin.

“It has to be the first priority that we focus on, to see a de-escalation of the situation, and collectively, as you've indicated, we agreed a number of concrete steps that we can see implemented immediately.

“The word "immediately" is extremely important in this context. We want to see these happen so that we can see things achieved,” she continued.

“The [Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe] OSCE's Special Monitoring Mission, as [John Kerry] indicated, will play a leading role in this.It will assist the Ukrainian authorities and local communities to take the necessary measures that they need to take.

“And we absolutely welcome the Ukrainian commitment to conduct an inclusive and transparent constitutional process.

“We know that free and fair presidential elections on the 25th of May are the best way to express the will of the people of Ukraine, as is this process of constitutional reform, and we want to see all candidates behaving well and being treated with great respect in that process.

“We remain committed to the unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Ukraine. In the meantime, the European Union will continue to support efforts to stabilise the situation in Ukraine economically, financially and politically.”

“Today, President Barroso of the European Commission wrote to President Putin on behalf of the European Union, accepting President Putin's proposal for consultations with Russia and Ukraine, trilateral consultations on the security of gas supply and transit.”

And she closed her statement by saying that she believed that by discussing constructively the solutions and actions, that this was the best way to find a way out of the current crisis.

However she affirmed that the EU remained committed to Ukraine’s sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity.

Ashton also announced there would be a three-way meeting involving EU, Russian, and Ukrainian officials to discuss supplies of Russian gas reaching Europe through Ukraine.

Radio Free Europe reported Moscow that had threatened to suspend supplies of gas to Ukraine due to Kiev’s multi-billion dollar bill, raising fears in the EU that gas supplies could be reduced or cut off to Europe.

Spike Lee’s annoying “Essential Films” list

Posted: 18 Apr 2014 04:15 AM PDT

spike lee makes a list of films for students. must-see films. one female director among them. More annoying than your average list. Only one female (co)director on 87 ‘essential’ films?

Our regular cross-post from Bitchflicks.

By Robin Hitchcock.

Any list of the "greatest" "essential" "best" "definitive" films (or books/tv shows/albums/Got Milk? ads/insert your pop cultural poison) is going to have its detractors. The controversy that inevitably follows these lists is a big part of the reason we make them in the first place. Dissecting a list's failures and defending its bold choices is most of the fun.

So I suppose I should thank Spike Lee for giving us all another opportunity to quibble, with his 2013 selection of 87 "essential" films he tells his NYU students every aspiring filmmaker must see. But mostly, I'm just so tired of this bullshit.

The only movie on the list with a female director is City of God, co-directed by Katia Lund. Spike Lee thinks aspiring filmmakers will have the essentials even if they have only seen one movie with a female (co)director.

Which I don't have that much to say about. I am ZERO SURPRISED. The marginalization of women filmmakers is nothing new. Seeing it happen again annoys me, of course, but it also EXHAUSTS me.

We keep telling male cultural arbiters, "HEY, DON'T IGNORE US" and they keep doing it.

And what makes me particularly upset in this case is that Spike Lee released this list in the context of trying to prove his genuine support of filmmakers excluded from the Hollywood power system.

Spike Lee is funded his recent project with Kickstarter. Like Rob Thomas's and Zach Braff's recent Kickstarter campaigns, this has generated a bit of controversy. Sure, we're all excited there is going to be a Veronica Mars movie, but most of us have mixed feelings about established artists crowdsourcing their projects. It seems to co-opt the platform from the truly independent artists initially associated with Kickstarter, artists without access to the alternative resources (including, among other things, significant personal wealth) these established filmmakers could tap if necessary.

Spike Lee argues that criticism is a fallacy. Kickstarter isn't a zero sum game, and he's bringing people who have never even heard of Kickstarter, especially people of color, to the site and to the crowdfunding movement generally. I have no idea if that is true. He says there is data regarding Thomas's and Braff's Kickstarters bringing in first-time backers, but I haven't actually seen that data. Anyway, it's a plausible idea, and a nice one. I hope it is true.

But wishing doesn't make it so. And when Spike Lee points out that he's been crowdsourcing his movies his whole career, he seems to fail to recognize that so has every other independent filmmaker in the history of ever and the entire point of the Kickstarter revolution is to help out those people who don't have the personal networks he refers to. [I know Spike Lee has had trouble with studios over fear of controversy, and that his films haven't been huge financial successes, but he is a LIVING LEGEND. When he makes those phone calls, people will answer.]

Spike Lee also argues that he must be on the side of young filmmakers because he's taught at NYU for fifteen years and has donated USD20,000 to the Spike Lee production fund at NYU for young filmmakers. [Lee's Kickstarter goal is USD1,500,000.]

[He also name drops Mike Tyson as "his good friend." I can't tell if he is kidding?]

Lee shared this list, part of his curriculum for this students, as evidence of this "I just want to advance the medium" message. And then the list pretty much ignores women, and is surprisingly mainstream in a lot of other ways. I'm not reassured by it at all.

Though I'm guessing this additional angle of controversy brought more eyes to Spike Lee's Kickstarter. Someone remind me when I'm famous and revered to use my immense media platform to argue that Gremlins 2: The New Batch is the greatest film of the 20th century so I can generate some hype through grumpy blog posts like this one.

Robin Hitchcock is an American writer living in Cape Town who really does love Gremlins 2, even if it isn't quite as good as Do the Right Thing.

Yes to radical change after police failures

Posted: 18 Apr 2014 02:54 AM PDT

radical proactive chagne needed on domestic abuse; education and resourcesTackling domestic abuse: education is paramount and resources are vital.

A report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) recently said that the police are failing domestic abuse victims; they are not tackling domestic abuse effectively, and the Home Secretary, Theresa May, said she is going to chair a new group to look at 'radical change'.

Theresa May, when you chair this group, please remember one thing: domestic abuse is society's issue.

It belongs to us all.

Blaming the police for not protecting victims doesn't help and it focuses the attention on one group without considering other outside factors.

Police forces are dealing with a 20 per cent reduction in their budgets and do not have the resources to deal effectively with the number of cases that come to their door each day. This reduction certainly is not going to help them 'tackle domestic abuse effectively'.

Like with so many key issues in the UK, the government is trying to 'tackle problems' without resourcing them properly.

In the UK one person rings the police every minute regarding domestic abuse. One woman is killed every 3 days.

These statistics have not changed since statistics began on domestic abuse.

A radical change is certainly needed.

However, the problem isn't down to one person or organisation.

The media like to link into a story and blame someone, but this is dangerous territory for victims of domestic abuse.

We all need to be involved in tacking domestic abuse. Education is paramount and resources are vital.

Domestic abuse can be said to happen for all kinds of reasons – poverty, mental health, illness, drink, drugs – and apparently even the weather and sporting results can be seen to contribute.

However, the reason behind domestic abuse is solely behaviour. Controlling behaviour. And our behaviour patterns are determined quickly, from the minute we're born.

I am constantly amazed at the attempt of programmes to try and change the behaviour of adults, particularly so called ‘perpetrator programmes’.

They may have their place, but I am and always have been frustrated at the lack of work done with young children and young people to tackle domestic abuse.

During my years at Women's Aid we worked tirelessly to get some funding so that we could work in secondary schools. We were often successful and managed to work with older pupils about safe relationships.

The results were often astonishing.

Boys would often say that they thought it was perfectly reasonable to monitor their girlfriend's telephone calls and I remember clearly one being open enough to say he would hit his girlfriend if he caught her kissing someone else.

Girls also felt that girls deserved to be shouted at for 'flirting' and that it was their own fault if they made their boyfriends jealous.

There we were at schools, talking to 15 year-olds – those who would turn their iPods off – trying to show them what a safe relationship was, what a healthy relationship was.

We also talked to them about their life at home, about domestic abuse in the home, and often there would be a young person hanging around at the end wanting to open up about their home life, most of the time for the first time ever.

The point of the above is that we as volunteers and paid workers of a charity had to beg organisations to give us some money and we then used this money to get into maybe only a couple of schools.

Just to get into a couple of schools.

Some schools wouldn't let us in; they didn't think parents would want their children hearing about domestic abuse.

What I want to see is not organisations scrabbling for funding and getting into a few schools to talk to young people who mostly have already made their mind up about what is a safe relationship or not.

I want all schools, firstly primary schools, to have education about what is right and wrong in relationships, appropriately of course but to teach young ones not only about safety but what they should expect from a healthy relationship and what constitutes a bad one.

Why wouldn't parents want their children to learn about having a healthy relationship? What is there to be scared about?

Why, more importantly, won't the government fund these services so that experts can provide a preventative service around domestic abuse instead of a reactive one?

Funding for organisations such as Women's Aid has been depleted massively over the years, women with vast experience and passion find themselves out of a job, charitable organisations fight over funding and the government is refusing to fund core services.

It makes so much sense to utilise these experts and fund them to provide preventative work. Doesn't it?

Without preventative work and on-going support from domestic abuse organisations society will not change.

Without education and resources in schools, attitudes can't change.

We have to stop trying the same old tactics; increasing training for the police on how to handle the woman who has been abducted and assaulted by her partner isn't going to stop domestic abuse.

We're not just failing domestic abuse victims by not responding to their calls for help; we're failing domestic abuse victims from the minute they're born.

Theresa May, be radical please. Also be proactive. Not reactive.

Fawcett pushing for ministerial places

Posted: 18 Apr 2014 01:09 AM PDT

fawcett society campaigning for equality and for more women ministers in the CabinetThe number of women in the Cabinet hits a 15-year low.

After last week’s mini reshuffle, women hold just three Cabinet posts out of a possible 22.

How has this happened?

Ahead of the 2010 General Election, the Prime Minister said: 'If elected, by the end of our first Parliament I want a third of all my ministers be female'".

But with just over a year to go until the next election the very top table of British politics – the Cabinet – is now almost 90 per cent male!

Politics is still dominated by men, with the Cabinet only marginally worse than Parliament when it comes to the absence of women.

Decisions that affect everyone in this country – how to balance the nation’s budget, the UK’s foreign policy, what to teach in our schools to name a few key policy areas – are being decided on in a Parliament almost 80 per cent male

Join Fawcett in demanding change.

Politicians need to know the nation is watching what is happening, and this continued failure to involve women in politics will hurt when it comes to the elections.

Established in 1866, Fawcett is campaigning for equality between women and men. The vision is of a society in which women and men enjoy equality at work, at home and in public life.

In the meantime – work at hand:

Push David Cameron to keep his promise.

David Cameron pledged that 1/3 of his Ministers would be women by the end of his first term as Prime Minister.

Well, 2015 is not far away and currently there are only four women members of the full  Cabinet and only 22 of the 122 Government ministers are women.

This means that decisions of national importance are being made without women round the table.

We can and must do better than this.

Sign the petition asking the Prime Minister to keep his promise that one third of all ministerial places will be held by women by 2015.

Tweet your MP.

Tweet your MP asking that s/he work to create a more representative Parliament – use the hashtag #countingwomenin

Email your MP asking s/he work to create a more representative Parliament.

Anti-fracking protestors not guilty of charges

Posted: 17 Apr 2014 08:41 AM PDT

no shale gas no fracking, activists found not guilty of charges after Balcombe arrests‘The only safe and responsible thing to do with shale gas is to leave it in the ground’.

All five of the Balcombe anti-fracking campaigners on trial at Brighton Magistrates' Court have been found not guilty of obstructing the public highway and failing to comply with conditions imposed by a senior police officer.

The five, Ruth Jarman, Caroline Lucas, Sheila Menon, Ruth Potts and Josef Dobraszczyk, were amongst hundreds of people who were peacefully protesting against Cuadrilla's plans to start fracking at Balcombe in Sussex last August.

The peaceful protest highlighted widespread opposition to fracking – a controversial process where a mixture of water, sand and chemicals are pumped underground, under high pressure, to force gas and oil from rock layers.

Cuadrilla has been carrying on exploratory drilling at Balcombe to see if the area has oil and gas bearing rocks.

Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion, said: "We were peacefully protesting outside Cuadrilla's site in Balcombe to highlight the environmental impact of fracking, particularly its role in accelerating climate change.

"We are pleased that the court upheld our right to peacefully protest against fracking, but this judgement is not a victory or cause for celebration.

"We will continue to campaign to end fracking and will only celebrate when that has been achieved.

"In the light of the UN's latest report on climate change, it is clearer than ever that exploiting new sources of fossil fuels such as shale gas is fatally undermining the Government's stated ambition to protect Britain from the worst impacts of climate change.

"The only safe and responsible thing to do with shale gas is to leave it in the ground.

"Drilling for shale gas could also cause severe harm to our water resources, countryside and wildlife.

"The current regulatory framework is simply not fit for purpose – putting communities and our environment at serious risk."

"Now, more than ever, the government must show some leadership. As a first step, David Cameron must announce an immediate end to fracking and redouble efforts to make the most of the UK's rich renewable energy resources.

"Public support for shale gas drilling is falling, whilst support for clean energy such as wind and solar is growing. The Government should listen to the public and to climate scientists and stop letting oil and gas industry lobbyists dictate UK energy policy."

The trial coincided with the release of two major UN studies on climate change.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC)  latest report warned that greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels were rising faster than ever and highlighted that we can still avoid the worst impacts of climate change but only by urgently switching to renewable energy, reducing energy demand  and phasing out our use of fossil fuels.

An earlier IPCC report concluded that climate change is already happening and examined the impacts of climate change such as storms, droughts and flooding as well as the risks of inaction on health, food security and water supplies.

Climate scientists agree that delaying action to cut carbon emissions is dangerous and will increase the costs of tackling climate change significantly.

Experts are clear that around 80 per cent of unexploited fossil fuels will have to remain in the ground to avoid catastrophic climate change.

Caroline Lucas said that the way forward was being shown by initiatives like REPOWER Balcombe, a new community cooperative set up by local residents with the aim to generate the equivalent of 100 per cent of the village's electricity usage from clean, renewable energy sources.

REPOWER Balcombe's spokesperson, Joe Nixon, said: "We all need energy, but buying dirty fossil power from giant utilities is no longer the only option.

"Advances in renewable technology mean that communities like ours can now generate the energy we need ourselves, locally, in a way that benefits us directly instead of big power companies – and helps the environment instead of harming it. This is win-win for Balcombe and for the planet."

Caroline concluded: "I know that this is very important to a large number of my constituents, because so many of them have written to me about the environmental risks posed by fracking, and the urgency of tackling climate change.

"All five of us would like to thank all of the supporters who have turned up to support us today and thank the thousands of people who have sent letters, emails and tweets to express their support."

Post-natal care vital

Posted: 17 Apr 2014 07:09 AM PDT

24 hour signs, Royal College of Midwives new campaigns Royal College of Midwives launches campaign to improve care after childbirth.

Pressure Points is a new series of research reports from the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) designed to highlight what they see as the shortcomings of post natal care in the UK.

The most recent report is called 24 hour signs and symptoms.

It focuses on how well mothers are being told, within 24 hours of the birth, of the signs and symptoms they need to look for in their own health and in the health of their new baby that should alert them to any need to seek medical attention.

The Royal College survey involved asking mothers, midwives and maternity support workers (MSWs), and they say the results they got back are 'a concern'.

Only around a quarter of mothers (24 per cent), surveyed by Netmums, recalled being told about the signs and symptoms to look for, while almost a half (47 per cent) said they were definitely not told.

The RCM says women don't get this information because midwives are overstretched and don't have the time to give women the care they need – and deserve.

When surveyed by the RCM less than a quarter of midwives believed that the number of postnatal visits a woman received was determined by her needs; almost two thirds thought the number was determined by the pressures on their maternity unit.

Over a third of midwives and maternity support workers (MSWs) said they wanted to spend more time with women at this crucial time.

Cathy Warwick, chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives, said: "It is clear that there is a great deal of frustration amongst maternity care staff because they want to do more but can't because of the lack of numbers.

"It is clear that mothers, babies and families are being short-changed when it comes to postnatal care.

"Midwives want to give better care but can't because there aren't enough of them, especially in England, and resources are too thinly spread."

The first report in the Pressure Points series focused on improving the mental health and emotional wellbeing of new mothers.

The RCM is urging supporters to ‘like’ their campaign on Facebook, follow it on Twitter using the hashtag #pressurepoints and by sharing their infographic.

"Birth will always be special, but postnatal care is just as important to get right.

"Good maternal health and high quality maternity care throughout pregnancy and after birth can have a marked effect on the health and life chances of newborn babies, on the healthy development of children and on their resilience to health problems encountered later in life.

"Postnatal care is crucial in ensuring parents feel adequately supported and equipped with the skills and knowledge to give their baby the best possible start in life," Warwick said.

"Please support our campaign to make sure that happens."