Women's Views on News |
- Call for feedback on draft
- Mass baby grave discovered in Tuam
- A feminist policy for a caring economy
- Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict
| Posted: 10 Jun 2014 09:45 AM PDT
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has produced Draft Guidelines for the Prosecution of Domestic Violence Cases, and is currently consulting/requesting feedback. These guidelines are important because they will provide assistance to decision makers and professionals during prosecutions of domestic violence. The CPS has identified a number of questions upon which it would particularly invite comment. These are as follows: Do you agree that the CPS approach to understanding the context of domestic violence is right and well-informed? Have we identified the right potential lines of enquiry for evidence gathering and the right public interest factors to be considered when the CPS makes a charging decision? If not, how can we address this? Do you think the guidance clearly sets out the basis for how we handle cases where complainants are not willing to support a prosecution? If not, please suggest how we could approach ‘evidence-led’ prosecutions (prosecutions continued without the victim). Do you agree we have properly outlined the safety and support issues affecting victims and how those issues can be managed by the CPS? Have we demonstrated sensitivity and understanding to the issues which may be experienced by victims from different groups? If not, please suggest how this could be achieved. Do you have any other comments. The CPS has a number of guidance documents for prosecutors on the management of domestic violence prosecutions. This new document will consolidate the two key documents currently available, providing assistance to decision makers in a streamlined and better structured way. The guidance sets out a number of key issues which update the existing documents, explaining why prosecutors should take the approaches detailed. In particular, this document sets out: a detailed context of domestic violence and information decision makers will need to understand about the nature of offending, following the Government’s change in definition to include coercive and controlling behaviour; streamlined and focused operational practices for decision makers when considering the evidential and public interest stages of the Full Code Test in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors; the approach prosecutors are encouraged to consider when handling cases where the victim has indicated they are not willing to support or continue with a prosecution; and, detailed considerations in relation to specific groups of people. This document does not, however, provide an interim position for CPS decision makers – the existing policy arrangements and guidance will remain until a final policy is published following this consultation. For further information about this, in terms of how to contact the CPS, and for the form to fill in, click here.  |
| Mass baby grave discovered in Tuam Posted: 10 Jun 2014 06:44 AM PDT
The bodies of almost 800 young children have now officially been found in the disused septic tank of a former “mother and baby home” in Tuam, Ireland. Though this is only just making national news, the town’s residents have known about the mass grave for almost 40 years. In 1975 the skeletons were discovered by accident. A priest said prayers over the bodies and the makeshift grave – a sewage tank – was sealed up (again). No further investigation was made. Until historian Catherine Corless examined the death records from the home and discovered hundreds of names without corresponding graves. There are now calls for a criminal investigation to be launched into these deaths. Considering the history of the treatment of single mothers in Ireland, it should come as no great surprise that their children were also abused and treated as less than human. Ireland’s homes for single mothers, such as the now infamous Magdalene laundries (named after Mary Magdalene, seen as a ‘fallen woman’ in some circles), were known for cruelties including forced labour, physical and verbal abuse, and ostracisation from the rest of the community. Usually run by nuns, the last one only closed in 1996; a disturbingly recent date. It is not unusual within patriarchal societies – especially religious patriarchies - for women’s sexuality to be criminalised in such a way, and for single mothers and their children to be subjected to punitive measures as an example for the “good” women. But you can see these attitudes towards single mothers carry on today – they are shamed and often struggling to survive. Even JK Rowling is not immune. We need to get rid of the attitude that mothers and children who don’t have a husband or the child’s father living with them are automatically deviant. Families come in all shapes and sizes, and it is well past time that this was accepted.  |
| A feminist policy for a caring economy Posted: 10 Jun 2014 02:09 AM PDT
By Polly Trenow. The economy is recovering, or at least this is what we are told. Unemployment is falling, inflation is low and the country's debt is finally diminishing. So we can all look forward to reaping the benefits of forthcoming prosperity, right? Well not quite. Amid talk of recovery the Women's Budget Group (WBG) fears that entrenched problems affecting the employment and financial wellbeing of women remain unsolved. This could roll back decades of gender equality gains made in the workplace and the home. For more than a decade WBG has assessed each UK government's budget, Autumn Financial Statement, and other spending decisions around social security and public services. Since June 2010, austerity policies have reduced employment opportunities for women, who make up the majority of workers in the public sector where wages have been frozen and jobs lost, and make it harder to combine earning a living and taking care of families. The Treasury says that "we are all in this together" yet research published recently by the House of Commons Library showed that 80 per cent of the revenue raised through changes in the tax and benefit strategy since 2010 has come from women's pockets. For the first time in five years the gender pay gap has widened. Women's unemployment is still 50 per cent higher than its pre-crisis level (men's is 41 per cent higher) while long-term unemployment for women continues to rise overall and at a faster rate among women than men. Overall the government's austerity measures have exacerbated inequality between men and women and this does not arise from any economic imperative but reflects a policy choice. That choice is eliminating the deficit through an austerity programme based on 90 per cent spending cuts and 10 per cent tax rises. These two instruments, raising taxes and reducing expenditure, both have unequal gender impacts. As men tend to earn more, raising income taxes will have a greater impact on them whereas cuts in public spending have a greater negative impact on women, who are more likely to use public services, claim benefits and work in the public sector. The government has recently used tax giveaways in attempt to ease the burden of austerity, but these mostly benefit men. Men make up 57 per cent of beneficiaries of the raising of the personal tax allowance, for example, and 87 per cent of the beneficiaries of the transferable tax allowance, popularly known as the married couple's allowance. So what would a fairer, gender equal recovery look like? To ensure a balanced and sustainable economic recovery that includes women, enabling them to be financially autonomous, we need a Plan F, a set of feminist policies to create a balanced, caring economy. The role of women as carers lies at the heart of economic inequality. Women are far more likely to do unpaid or low paid care work, and do more of it, than men, which impacts their lifelong earning ability. In order for both men and women to benefit from prosperity, a shift in culture and government policy is needed to ensure that those who care are not financially penalised. Unpaid carers, 57 per cent of whom are women, save the government billions of pounds yet remain some of the poorest in our society. Childcare looks increasingly to be a hot topic around the election with each party vying for the women's vote. But thus far, addressing childcare measures has focused solely on the demand side by giving greater financial support for parents. There is a concern however about increasing demand without increasing supply. The government's measures have not addressed spiraling prices where the cost of childcare has risen way above the rate of inflation. One way to tackle this is to invest in a public childcare service, building on existing Sure Start Centres and the provision of nursery classes within primary school. A fair recovery must also address the economic disadvantage of single female pensioners. Our analysis has shown that the combined impact of all tax benefit measures introduced and implemented by the coalition government will be most detrimental to this group. Women are more likely to have caring commitments, which will restrict their employment after the age of 60, and are less likely to have accumulated pension wealth in private pensions, and therefore have less financial protection available to them if they are part-time employed or unemployed during the years leading up to their receipt of a State Pension. A balanced and equal economy can be built by investment in social infrastructure, such as education, health, and child and social care services, alongside spending on public transport, green energy, and other physical infrastructure. Social infrastructure investment generates many more jobs for women and counterbalances the predominantly male job creation opportunities of current policy. In particular, the WBG suggests that the creation and state-funded maintenance of high quality child and social care provision would have an immediate, positive impact on the economy. The high cost and low quality of current care provision is another barrier to women using their skills in the labour market, at great, and ultimately unsustainable, cost to the economy. To ensure economic recovery is broad based and benefits lower and middle income groups as well as the higher income groups, it is essential that women's labour force participation rate rises. The investment in social infrastructure can be financed through imaginative and fairer forms of taxation. This can be done by taxing wealth more effectively using policies such a mansion tax, or through the revaluation of properties to make council tax more progressive. The WBG would also like to see a financial transactions tax introduced, and rules on tax allowance revised, together with a far more effective and ambitious crackdown on tax avoidance and evasion. Equality in recovery will not be achieved unless a fairer balance of spending cuts and increased taxation is achieved. Supporting carers both paid and unpaid will ensure women's economic autonomy and a more prosperous economy in the long run. The Women's Budget Group is a collective of feminist economists, researchers, policy experts and activists working towards a vision of a gender equal society where women's financial independence gives them greater autonomy at work, home, and in civil society. This article first appeared in Lacuna and is the first in Lacuna's series of 'Perspectives on Prosperity'.  |
| Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict Posted: 10 Jun 2014 01:00 AM PDT
The UK’s Foreign Secretary William Hague, and Angelina Jolie, Special Envoy for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, are co-chairing the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict on 10-13 June 2014 at ExCel London. This is the largest gathering ever brought together on the subject, with a view to creating irreversible momentum against sexual violence in conflict and practical action that impacts those on the ground. Three days of free public events are taking place in the Summit Fringe at ExCel London from the 10-12 June. Within this public programme you can view the breadth of interesting, thought-provoking activities happening at the Global Summit Fringe, an integral part of the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict. The Global Summit Fringe is open to the public, completely free to enter and visitors do not need to register in advance. Be inspired to take action by a range of activities, from theatre and film to galleries and a market place. Witness events taking place around the world in support of the drive to end sexual violence in conflict. The Fringe is open from 9.00am with last entry at 7.15pm on 10 June, 11 June and 12 June. There are theatre performances, films and discussion panels, as well as The Gallery, the Market Place, interactive exhibitions and the Digital Hack – #EndSVCHack – a blend of digital and physical space where people with different skills from diverse backgrounds use technology to come together to transform ideas into reality. To see the programme, click here. To follow the live webcast here.  |
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