Women's Views on News |
- Anti-nag gag taken off shelves
- Scottish Greens launch Europe manifesto
- Questions to ask would-be local politicians
| Anti-nag gag taken off shelves Posted: 13 May 2014 06:05 AM PDT
But it shouldn’t have been there in the first place. After comedian Jenny Bede came across the “novelty” item and tweeted it, garnering support (and well-deserved anger) from hundreds of women, River Island pulled it from the website. And in that familiar form of bland statement that is very carefully not an apology, a spokesperson from River Island said: “As soon as this product was brought to our attention we withdrew it from sale and removed it from our website.” Which, considering how much attention goes into PR these days, is phrased rather oddly: are they claiming they were unaware of one of their own products? In any case, one crucial issue here is how many people must have said ‘yes’ to the decision to create, market, and sell such a product. When people try to tell you that sexism isn’t over, look at products like these and think about how they must have got there. First, somebody thought of the idea. Then they felt confident enough of their audience to pitch it – apparently a group backwards enough that whoever came up with this disaster was fairly sure they wouldn’t be shouted down. It then had to go through several stages of design, marketing, and planning. Undoubtedly with several people on each team involved. For example, someone had to come up with the phrases to go on the packaging, such as “Turn the footy off!” and get each one approved. The finished product then had to be signed off by someone senior, who looked at it all and thought “Yep, that is not a sexist piece of rubbish at all! Let’s associate our brand with it.” This is just one more example of the kyriarchy we live in, where portraying women as joyless harpies out to suck the fun out of men’s lives is seen as an acceptable thing to sell. What we need to do in these situations is exactly what Jennifer Bede and her Twitter followers did: speak out, do it loudly, and to hell with those who would gag us.  |
| Scottish Greens launch Europe manifesto Posted: 13 May 2014 03:05 AM PDT
The Scottish Green party has launched their manifesto for the 22 May elections for the European Parliament. The party is giving top billing to protecting public services and investment; welcoming newcomers to the country; and promoting Scotland's role in ending conflict through peace-keeping. The Greens, who secured over 7 per cent of the vote in 2009, are seeking backing for one of Scotland’s six MEP seats. The Green campaign themes also highlight the starkest possible contrast with UKIP in the race for that sixth and final Scottish seat. Maggie Chapman is the Greens’ lead candidate for the European elections. She is also an Edinburgh City councillor for the Leith Walk ward and, with Glasgow MSP Patrick Harvie, co-convenor of the Scottish Greens. Chapman said: “I passionately believe that the movement of people between countries is good for our society and economy. "As Scotland's Green MEP I would stand up for a Scotland which welcomes people, and challenge those who peddle damaging anti-immigrant rhetoric. “Scotland also needs a voice in Europe to say no to the Cold War relic that is NATO, and no to illegal wars and military aggression. "And a campaigner who comes with a track record of fighting to keep public services in public hands.” Patrick Harvie MSP, co-convener of the Scottish Greens, added: "People in Scotland already know who they can trust on climate change, on facing down the fracking industry and in making sure local people get a say over local decisions. "But it has always been fundamental to the green message that the challenges facing Scotland come from a broken economic system. “We are one of the richest countries on earth, yet so many people feel discarded. "As a new Scottish Green MEP, Maggie would challenge deeply-damaging public budget cuts and put economic justice at the heart of policy. "With a proportional system in play, around one in ten votes will see a Green MEP elected. So we’re confident of building on our 2009 result. "Our hard work in the Scottish Parliament since 1999, the work of 45 Green MEP colleagues elsewhere in Europe, and our positive contributions to the independence debate show we have big ideas and a forward-looking vision for Scotland.” The Green Party’s manifesto sets out a vision for a revitalised Scotland in a reformed and reforming European Union, as a summary shows: A Europe where Scotland leads by example in rejecting weapons of mass destruction and outdated military alliances in favour of leadership in peace-keeping and peace-making; A welcoming Scotland where the free movement of people is celebrated as an asset to our economy and enriching for our culture; A nuclear-free Europe which harnesses the complementary renewable energies of the continent: the wind and tides of the north and the sun in the south; A Europe where public investment is seen as a force for good, both in our own communities and globally; where the priority is to tackle corporate tax avoidance and evasion, not punishing the poor for a crisis they did not create; A Scotland where core public services – from the post we receive to the railways on which we travel – lie in public hands; A co-operative Europe where shared protection for land, seas and animals leads to higher standards and improved conditions; and where there's action, not words, on climate change; An exemplar Europe which exercises its diplomatic and trade muscle, not on behalf of corporations, but in support of human rights, indigenous people, impoverished nations and expanding the reach of equalities protections; A Europe where protection of workers' rights and pensions is seen as the mainstay of a thriving economy; and a more democratic Europe, driven by elected institutions and reasserting the principle of handing power to the most local level. It builds on a strong track record of Green MEPs in Europe, stretching back to the early 1980s and, in the UK, to the first election of Green MEPs in 1999. These MEPs have pioneered limits on bankers' bonuses, championed action on climate change, stood up for rights of minority groups – and acted as a force for progress. Chapman spearheaded the community participatory democracy project, Leith Decides, and wants to see local people given more power over the decisions that affect their lives. She is also an active anti-cuts campaigner and peace activist, and was the first politician in Scotland to support the living wage. Speaking to the Scotsman recently, Chapman compared the different approaches of the Greens and UKIP at the Greens' official European Parliament election launch in Edinburgh. "Who wins the European election will send a message about the kind of Scotland that we want, the kind of priorities that Scots have for our country," she said. "A vote for the Greens, a vote for us, signals a vote for the politics of hope. "We choose a just economy, a welcoming country, a nation of peace – not the opposite, the notions that UKIP stands for, the politics of fear which marginalise people, which divide people. That is not the kind of Scotland in Europe that we want."  |
| Questions to ask would-be local politicians Posted: 13 May 2014 01:09 AM PDT
Although over a century of campaigning has made a huge difference to many women's lives, we are still a very long way from true equality. Too many of our most powerful decision makers have yet to move from principles to practice, or fear and resist change. And some of them have no idea what problems women face, or what issues affect us. So for those of us who can't always narrow down what we want to say into a a one-liner or a soundbite for a busy would-be politician just exactly when we want to, the Fawcett Society has put together some questions for you the voter to ask – face to face or by post or email. And a hashtag – #vote4equality – for the technologically inclined. The questions: If elected, will you do an equality impact assessment of all local budget cuts on women? If elected, will you defend specialist, women-only services e.g. rape crisis centres and refuges from cuts? If elected, how will you improve representation of women on your council? If elected, what will you do re-open Sure Start Centres that have closed and defend the ones that already exist? If elected, how will you ensure women benefit from local strategic/economic/enterprise partnership funding? If elected how will you ensure the council and businesses in your local area become living wage employers? If elected, will you undertake a gender pay audit in your council? If elected, how will you improve council engagement with local women and women's organisations? If elected, what will you do to tackle sexism and sex discrimination in your council? You can click here to open these as Tweets. To find out who your current local councilors are, click here. Find out if your current councillors are on Twitter here. To email them, or write to them, click here. Click here to find your local authority website and see who is standing for local election. When you know which ward you live in, go to your local council website which will have a list of all the people standing in your area – and their addresses. They should live near enough to you for you to be able to pop a letter through their door. Women's representation at a local level is stagnating, with virtually no change in the level of female councillors in the last ten years, and the number of female council leaders has dropped by 5 per cent. Yet local government wields wield a lot of power: local government spending make up a quarter of all public spending – over a £100 billion. Ongoing cuts to local government spending are having hugely disproportionate impact on women, undermining access to key services such as childcare, social care and special services for victims of violence against women. A lack of female voices around local decision-making tables will only exacerbate this situation. Women make up only 32 per cent of local councillors in England and 24 per cent in Northern Ireland; 12.3 per cent of local authority leaders in England are women, compared to 16.6 per cent in 2004 ; and only 13 per cent of elected mayors are women. So we need to vote for equality.  |
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