Women's Views on News |
| Posted: 12 Aug 2014 07:12 AM PDT Green Yes, the Scottish Green Party‘s campaign for a Yes vote in Scotland’s independence referendum, is urging undecided women voters to seize the opportunity to create a more equal society. The latest Scottish Social Attitudes Survey reported that ten per cent fewer women than men say they are sure what independence would bring. Green MSP Alison Johnstone said that the austerity agenda of the UK is particularly harmful to women and that a fully-fledged Scottish Parliament would show women a better way forward. Green Yes points to the severe impact on women of Westminster’s current policies: Cuts to benefits and services disproportionately harm women, and within that disproportionately harm black and minority ethnic women, disabled women, migrant women and women in positions of social marginalisation; The Bedroom Tax cuts funds to families due to the lack of single-bed or smaller properties; The Trussell Trust says the number of people who used its food banks in Scotland over the past year rose to 71,428, and includes 22,000 children – a 400 per cent increase; Job losses in the public sector, where women make (made) up the majority of employees on the front line; Changes to working tax credits and cuts in benefits mean lone parents have lost out relative to other household types and 92 per cent of lone parents are female; The introduction of fees for employment tribunals has resulted in an 80 per cent drop in the number of cases. The TUC have said women have been among the biggest losers, and sex discrimination cases are down; Women earn 13 per cent less than men in full-time jobs, and almost 34 per cent less in part-time jobs. Equal pay laws are controlled by Westminster. None of the parties campaigning for a No vote is offering to devolve employment law; Office of National Statistic (ONS) figures show that women’s wages have fallen 3.2 per cent in the past year compared to 1.6 for men; The Fawcett Society has described the UK government’s jobs plan as low-wage and insecure, with 60 per cent of all jobs since 2010 going to men. In that time women’s unemployment has risen by twelve per cent to a 25-year high of over one million, while men’s unemployment has fallen by seven per cent; By contrast Green Yes has proposed ideas for a fully-fledged Scottish Parliament to adopt which include: An end to austerity; A Citizen’s Income to replace most benefits, making most households better off and benefiting those in the lowest income bracket the most; A Citizen’s Income, which would help women combine working and caring; Creating economic revival by focusing on small business growth; A single regulator for start-up and micro businesses, to encourage female entrepreneurs; Childcare that is flexible and fits with the needs of parents who work or study part-time; Raising the minimum wage to a decent living wage for all; and Investment in research, development and innovation to create new businesses and new jobs in sustainable energy, chemical and life sciences, food production, tourism and the digital sector. Alison Johnstone, who is Green MSP for Lothian and a member of Holyrood’s economy committee, said: “The opportunity we have on 18 September is to create a more equal society. "The austerity agenda of the UK, which will continue whoever’s in Downing Street, is particularly harmful to women. I strongly believe a fully-fledged Scottish Parliament would take a different approach and show a better way forward. “The male-dominated macho-style TV and newspaper coverage of this important debate has so far left many women unimpressed. “But out in our communities, in public meetings and on doorsteps, there are amazing conversations happening between women, exploring the opportunities of independence. “Of course women are right to be cautious because there are uncertainties but I feel it’s a bigger risk to leave Westminster in charge. "The one big certainty is that by taking responsibility we’d focus on what really matters, like social security, balancing work with caring, and creating new jobs instead of renewing nuclear weapons and propping up the House of Lords. “A chance like the one we have on 18 September is unlikely to come our way again, so let’s grab it and make it work.”  |
| Posted: 12 Aug 2014 01:09 AM PDT
Lego was created in the 1930s by philanthropist Ole Kirk Kristiansen, who had a vision of it contributing to creative play and healthy child development. The name Lego, translated from Danish, means 'play well', and the idea of wholesome and constructive play, allowing children to learn about the world and learn about each other, has long been associated with the brand. However, as Sue Palmer wrote in the Guardian, the world of children's toys has become just another target audience for marketing ploys by big business. 'Increasingly Lego churns out lucrative but unimaginative lines of "must-have" sets to promote new movies, games and videos,' she wrote. 'They [the new Lego sets] do not allow children to be creative and learn to think for themselves; they tell children what to think, instilling consumerist values.' As a result of this trend in toy production, she argues, research is finding that 'modern children find it harder to maintain concentration, self-regulate behaviour and develop appropriate levels of empathy'. Considering the huge and trusting market Lego has in the form of millions of children worldwide, and now that the company has overtaken Mattel to be the biggest toy company in the world, it is unsurprising that many companies have queued up to align themselves with the Lego brand. The oil company Shell, for example, has run a co-promotion with Lego in the form of Shell-branded Lego cars, despite 750,000 petition signatories and an active Greenpeace campaign calling for Lego to stop endorsing Shell and its controversial plans for extracting oil from the Arctic. Another co-promotion with tabloid The Sun saw the newspaper giving away Lego, despite the recent rise of the No More Page 3 campaign and 12,000 online petition signatories opposing that corporate union. A Lego spokeswoman said that the Sun campaign, which offered free toys to readers, was its “final promotion” with The Sun – but stressed that it was a “completely natural” end to the co-promotion, although some have claimed the ending of the partnership as a victory for the anti-Page 3 campaign. And then Lego has become the symbol of the debate about gender stereotyping through toys. In the early days of the product, Lego was purely constructive and not gendered, Becky Francis, professor of education and social justice at King’s College London, said, "But over the years, as they began to produce tie-ins with movies, they became much more marketed at boys and off-putting to girls." Since seven-year-old Charlotte Benjamin's letter to Lego calling for 'more Lego girl people [who] go on adventures and have fun' went viral earlier this year, the criticism of Lego's gendered marketing has gained pace. Campaigners such as Let Toys be Toys, have argued that gendered stereotypes are engrained early in children when shops devote their girls' section to craft, dolls and cleaning but their boys' section to construction, science and war. “Young girls are cast in caring roles and boys as go-getting protagonists. I don’t think that’s healthy,” Dr Heather Williams, a medical physicist and co-director of campaign group Science Grrl, said. The ‘Lego Friends’ range launched two years ago was considered particularly stereotypical for portraying the lives of women as being centred on socialising, salons, swimming pools and convertible cars. A campaigner at Let Toys Be Toys, Megan Perryman, pointed out that Lego did have some positive female characters, such as in the police and fire brigade, however these were not proportional to the active male figures. “There are still far more male figures in action roles,” Perryman said. “And our main concern with Lego comes down to marketing and the way that girls and boys are so rarely shown playing together with the same toy the way they do in real life.” In fact, the ratio of all-time Lego figurines is roughly four males to every female, according to a guest blogger for Scientific American. Apparently reacting to their customer's demands, Lego has recently launched 'Research Institute' sets which include a palaeontologist, a chemist and an astronomer – all female. The first round of sets sold out within a week. The company has denied that this is an attempt to appease feminist critics, pointing out that the idea was proposed and backed by public vote on a Lego crowdsourcing website. However the geoscientist who proposed the idea, Ellen Kooijman, has specifically written that she wanted to counter 'a skewed male/female minifigure ratio and a rather stereotypical representation of the available female figures'. Despite the new figurines having been altered slightly to include a more 'hourglass' shape and make-up, many see this as a victory for conscientious consumers against the toy giant. It does seem that the company is starting to listen to its customers’ demands. Speaking about Lego's association with The Sun and Page 3, Lego's vice-president and general manager in the UK and Ireland, Fiona Wright, was eager to emphasise that "we listen carefully every time a consumer shares a concern and thank you for bringing to our attention that this partnership has been something a lot of people were concerned about.” However some argue that we will not see toys like Lego return to their original unisex and innocent roots until a ban is introduced on advertising to children under the age of 12, as in Quebec, Sweden and Norway. Without that, children are still a huge and lucrative market which Lego and its partners will continue to exploit for profit.  |
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