Women's Views on News |
- No Mr Wells it is a woman’s right to choose
- Emma Watson on first UN Women trip
- Turning ‘down there’ into ‘vagina’
- F for women’s rights
| No Mr Wells it is a woman’s right to choose Posted: 18 Sep 2014 07:06 AM PDT
Please sign and share this petition to ensure that Northern Ireland retain critical and essential health services. In July 2014, Mr Jim Wells MLA of the Northern Ireland Assembly put forward a proposed amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill. This proposed amendment, Mr Wells suggests, is to ensure that private clinics, such as the Marie Stopes Centre which opened its doors in Belfast in October 2012, cannot legally carry out abortions in Northern Ireland. The actual reality of this proposed amendment, as stated by Mr Wells in his own words, is to in fact oppose the Marie Stopes Centre in Belfast remaining open and not for the purpose alluded to in his petition; an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill relating to legalisation of abortions in Northern Ireland. Marie Stopes Centres provide teams of highly skilled doctors, nurses, counsellors and health care assistants who provide reproductive and sexual health services through the NHS for over 100,000 women and men every year in a network of clinics around the UK. Mr Wells is proposing that a centre providing critical family planning services, some of which are lifesaving, should be removed from Northern Ireland. What is clear is that Mr Wells' sole intention is to prohibit legal abortion in Northern Ireland by any means necessary, which includes the removal of critical health and wellbeing services other than those related directly to abortion. Furthermore, Mr Wells sits on an All Party Pro-Life Group in the Northern Ireland Assembly. This group is composed entirely of males and is linked to the Precious Life organisation. While such a group giving a pro-life perspective is important given that this is such an emotive subject, it is disappointing no women are actually a part of this group given that women are most affected by provision of abortion services, or lack thereof. Indeed, the lack of female representation within this group has drawn much interest in Northern Ireland of late. In short, Mr Wells' proposal is reckless and the stated purpose of his petition totally misleading. Abortion is at times an unfortunate choice a woman may need to make to preserve her own life and own wellbeing, both mentally and physically. There is no escaping this unfortunate fact. With that said, it should be made clear that this is not a petition to promote or encourage abortion as a choice, but instead allow women the right to make that choice. This petition is to oppose the intent by Mr Wells to shut down the Marie Stopes Centre and his intention to remove essential reproductive and sexual health services from the province. These services in many cases save lives and in many more prevent unwanted pregnancies. It is clear that Mr Wells has no concept or idea as what services Marie Stopes Centre offers and therefore has no basis or right to demand the removal of these services from Northern Ireland. This is to also demand that the all-male membership of the All Party Pro-Life Group explore pro-life alternatives other than those that deny women in Northern Ireland the same rights as women across the United Kingdom. We would also ask the Northern Ireland Assembly to look at the make up, and indeed motive, of this group, a group where none of its members are directly affected by the denial of legally provided abortion services. Thank you for your time. Please sign and share this petition so we ensure that women in Northern Ireland are treated equally with the rest of the United Kingdom and that we retain critical and essential health services in the province.  |
| Emma Watson on first UN Women trip Posted: 18 Sep 2014 05:55 AM PDT
On her first country visit as UN Women's Goodwill Ambassador, acclaimed British actor Emma Watson highlighted the need for women's political participation and leadership at all levels. Watson's visit to Uruguay comes at an opportune moment as the country gears up for national elections, and where a one-time quota law guaranteeing 30 per cent women's political representation will be applied for the first time. At a meeting hosted by the organisation Cotidiano Mujer, a grantee of UN Women's Fund for Gender Equality, together with partner organisations CIRE (Ciudadanías en Red) y CNS Mujeres, Watson met with women's advocates from around the country, and listened to their strategies for increasing women's voice and agency on all political platforms. "Women's rights are personal to me, especially on political participation and leadership," she said. "I am delighted to be here today as a Goodwill Ambassador for UN Women and learn about the work on the ground, hear from the people at the frontlines, and to understand what is working and what is not. "I am here to support and to amplify these voices and share this work with a global audience." "Emma is a strong voice for young people worldwide," UN Women's executive director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said. "Her commitment to the issues that we work on at UN Women multiplies our ability to reach and engage more young people — who are key to advancing gender equality. "This visit calls attention to the importance of women's full and equal participation in the decisions that affect their lives." Globally, women's political participation remains low, with only one in five parliamentarians being a woman. In Uruguay, in spite of various efforts, women's representation in Parliament stands at only 13.1 per cent. This means the country is at 103rd position in the world ranking of women in Parliament by the Inter-Parliamentary Union and UN Women and below the world average of 21.8 per cent. To bring a historic change, women's groups are galvanising support by leveraging the quota law, and by strengthening alliances between the women’s social movement and political parties, across the country's 19 departments. During her stay, Watson will meet with top ministers and government officials and participate in a youth dialogue with young women politicians and activists. She will also be part of an event with parliamentarians, where women's rights activists will submit signatures calling for an extension of the national quota law and gender parity in the electoral lists of political parties. The event is the culmination of a high-profile "Do your bit for the quota" campaign, which was launched in July. "Women must have a say in matters that affect their countries, communities and families," Watson said. "After all, they are half of the population, so women's equal participation in decision-making is a question of justice and democracy." "I have learned that it is also a question of priorities, as women are more likely to focus on issues such as education, health, unpaid care economy and the environment. "These are important issues that affect all of us."  |
| Turning ‘down there’ into ‘vagina’ Posted: 18 Sep 2014 03:45 AM PDT
It could save their lives. A new charity survey has revealed potentially dangerous knowledge gaps among UK women. Young women in the UK are, it seems, less educated than their elder counterparts about the symptoms and issues around gynaecological cancers; and worryingly, more embarrassed to discuss them than older women. This is according to a new survey released today by women's cancer research charity, The Eve Appeal. One in five women aged 16-25 years surveyed couldn't name a single correct symptom of any of the five gynaecological cancers, and less than a quarter said they felt confident that they were well informed about gynaecological health issues, compared to over 42 per cent of women aged 66-75. Perhaps more shockingly, it is the language of gynaecological health that is proving an additional barrier to young women opening up about concerns around gynaecological cancers. 65 per cent said they have a problem using the words vagina or vulva, and nearly 40 per cent of 16-25 year olds resort to using names such as 'lady parts' or 'women's bits' to discuss gynaecological health. Try it: ask the females around you what they once called their – you know, "bits". Lack of basic anatomical knowledge is also an issue. Women in the younger age groups struggle to correctly identify the five areas that can be affected by gynaecological cancer (womb, cervix, ovaries, vagina and vulva) on a simple diagram – just half of women aged 26-35 were able to label the vagina accurately. In contrast older women aged 66-75 were much better educated about their bodies, with eight in ten able to correctly label ovaries and nearly nine in ten the womb. Try that, too. Find a pad and pencil and get your female friends and passing acquaintances to draw their – you know, ‘inside bits’ – and label them. Then compare and contrast the results. It's not just a knowledge gap between the different generations that was revealed by the survey however. The data also showed a distinct difference in attitudes towards talking about gynaecological health issues. More than one in ten of 16-35 year olds said they found it very hard to talk to their GPs about gynaecological health concerns, and nearly a third admitted that they had avoided going to the doctor altogether with gynaecological issues because they are too embarrassed. These figures dramatically decrease among women in the older age groups. These findings are in direct contrast to the popular misconception that society is more open these days, making it much easier for women of younger generations to talk about gynaecological health. Nearly three quarters of all women surveyed across every age group agreed with this statement, and over 60 per cent said they thought that young women knew more about gynaecological health than older women. Helena Morrissey, chair of The Eve Appeal, said: "At the Eve Appeal we know how important it is to promote straight talking about the signs and symptoms of gynaecological cancers to women of all ages, and this survey has highlighted just how far we still have to go to make this happen. "These cancers have some of the worst outcomes for women, with a 40 per cent mortality rate. "Understanding the symptoms will save lives, which is why we are urging women this Gynaecological Cancer Awareness Month to talk more openly about these life-saving issues." Because it is not just about knowing what the ‘bits’ are called, or where they are or what they do. The Eve Appeal is hoping that a whole Gynaecological Cancer Awareness Month can be a catalyst to get more people talking openly about symptoms, screening programmes and treatments. Join them on Facebook or by sharing your views and experiences on Twitter using the hashtag #VaginaDialogues.  |
| Posted: 18 Sep 2014 01:31 AM PDT
We need transparency and safety online. That's why we at Take Back the Tech! are targeting the big three: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. We want them to take a clear stand on violence against women (VAW) in their terms of service and to engage with civil society in order to create safer platforms. Through mapping activities and research, many cases from all over the world have been collected that show a continuum between offline and online violence against women. Yet the companies behind the big three social media platform have failed to address VAW in an informed, consistent and serious way. Research developed by the the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) Women's Rights Programme on internet intermediaries mapped the corporate policies of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to analyse each platform's mechanism for identifying, reporting and rectifying incidents of harassment or VAW. In addition to providing a detailed summary of the user policies relevant to this issue, the study also compares the impact and effectiveness of those policies against the framework of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The research findings are an excellent critical tool for advocates and activists to use when engaging with internet intermediaries on better avenues for redressing technology-related violence. Internet intermediaries have taken some positive steps in recent years to improve their approach and reaction to issues of VAW online. These include engagement with stakeholder groups, simplified and easily accessible reporting mechanisms, and some proactive steps to eradicate VAW. But research findings also stress that while approaches to VAW differ between Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, there are a number of overarching themes and trends, such as: 1. Reluctance to engage directly with technology-related violence against women, until it becomes a public relations issue In the case of both Twitter and Facebook, no concrete or genuine steps were taken to promote women's rights and specifically address violence against women until public scandals and resulting high-profile campaigns emerged in respect of the intermediary. YouTube has yet to take any public stance engaging with these issues directly. These failings suggest a lack of appreciation of the seriousness of violence against women online, and a lack of recognition of the responsibility of the intermediary to take measures to mitigate the frequency and seriousness of instances of violence and to provide redress. 2. Lack of transparency around reporting and redress processes The primary challenge encountered by the researchers when conducting this study was the lack of available information about the reporting and redress processes available to victims/survivors of technology-related violence. Facebook provides the most information online about its reporting processes, but there remain serious gaps in information about the way complaints are dealt with and the tests/thresholds applied. Twitter provides very little information about reporting processes but significant information about the circumstances under which it will cooperate with law enforcement; this should be contrasted with YouTube, which provides no information about law enforcement cooperation. However, YouTube was the most willing to publicly engage with the research, being the only company out of the three to agree to an interview with the researchers. 3. Failure to engage with the perspectives of non-North American/European women Across the three companies, there is a general concern that processes relating to reporting of violence against women do not necessarily take into account the experiences of non-North American/European women. Broad definitions of "hate speech", "offensive behaviour", "vulnerable individual" and "harassment" are employed in user policies without any attempt to further elucidate their meaning in certain social or cultural contexts. 4. No public commitment to human rights standards None of the companies makes a public commitment to human rights standards or to the promotion of rights, other than the encouragement of free speech. None of the available policies explicitly address gender-related violence or harassment nor take a strong stance on respect for diversity or for women's rights. At a workshop on platform responsibility for content management at the recently finished Internet Governance Forum in Turkey, Jan Moolman, APC's "End violence: Women's rights and safety online" project coordinator, stated, "It's unlikely companies will take any helpful action on behalf of women or any vulnerable group being targeted. "While most companies do have mechanisms in place to respond to these violations, there's very little public information about how they work. "We also don't know what kind of training staff receive and what kinds of values are informing the decisions that are being made. And lastly, there's a tendency to shift the burden of dealing with this kind of harassment to the state or national governments. "And I think we really are missing out on an important opportunity to really begin to shift things." In order to demand changes, Take Back the Tech! calls all users to take action by participating in the following ways: Ask: "What are you doing about violence against women?" Demand more information from these companies under #WhatAreYouDoingAboutVAW. Rate: Rate social media on various aspects related to violence against women. The simple evaluation form allows you to rate Facebook, Twitter YouTube and the platform of your choice using a grade from A to F, according to the following indicators: Transparency on procedures for reporting abuse (including what happens to reports once submitted); Ease of reporting abuse; Responsiveness to needs of non-US/European women; Overall approach to violence against women; and Commitment to human rights, including women's rights. Share: Tweet, film, post and blog stories and add them anonymously to our map of tech-related violence against women. Demand: Tell these companies what you want from them and share your ideas for solutions. "The report cards were a big hit at IGF and helped people see that we're not dealing solely with political speech on government action but a much broader range of speech. "After seeing the grades, Ranking Digital Rights committed to including the findings from our research in their chapter on gender and Google wanted to learn more. "We even invited Google and Facebook to rate themselves!" said Sara Baker, Take Back the Tech! campaign coordinator. The results of the ratings submitted by individual users and organisations will be shared publicly after they are compiled. Stay in touch to find out how Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were rated by users. Use #WhatAreYouDoingAboutVAW and follow @takebackthetech for the continuing conversation.  |
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