Women's Views on News |
- A feminist plan for the economy
- End victim blaming by legal professionals
- Challenging films at festival
| A feminist plan for the economy Posted: 16 Mar 2015 07:02 AM PDT
On International Women's Day the UK Women's Budget Group, in conjunction with the Scottish Women’s Budget Group, launched PLAN F – a feminist plan for a caring and sustainable economy. Because for real economic recovery that benefits the majority of people in the UK and reverses the damage caused by the cuts to public services and social security introduced since 2010, we need a different economic strategy. The policies required: Reverse cuts to public services and social security that have had particularly adverse impacts on women, such as cuts to Sure Start Children's Centres, and reduction of care for the frail elderly, and the introduction of the bedroom tax and the benefits cap. Reform plans for Universal Credit to ensure that women with employed partners gain from earning – as it stands the payments made will be reduced at a higher rate than under tax credits if they start earning. The arrangements for payment should be changed so that not all the money goes to one person in a household – something that may hinder women from leaving an abusive relationship Invest in social infrastructure – care, health, education and training services, social security and housing, complemented by investment in renewable energy and environmentally friendly public transport. This would improve both well-being and productivity, both in the short run but also in ways that persist over time, benefiting people not only today but in years to come. Improve the terms and conditions of work for the paid work force who staff the social infrastructure (among whom women are the majority), both those directly employed in the public sector and the increasing numbers employed by subcontractors in the private sector. This would lead to better quality care. Strengthen worker's rights throughout the economy: A large proportion of new jobs are part-time or zero-hours which mean people are earning so little that they cannot meet their living costs. This contributes to a rise of in-work poverty, a rise in the cost of in-work benefits, and a loss of dignity and security. All workers, regardless of type of contract should enjoy basic rights, including collective bargaining rights. The minimum wage must be raised to a level that ensures a decent living. Ensure access to affordable care, best achieved through care that is both publically funded and provided -for children, for people with illnesses and disabilities, as well as for frail elderly people: Improve support for people – currently mainly women – who provide unpaid care in families and communities. Men should also be supported to contribute more to unpaid care, for instance through well-funded care leave schemes and a reduction in full-time working hours. Create a social security system that aims at fairer sharing of caring and the costs of caring – both between women and men and between families and the wider community; and provides adequate independent income for all over the life course. Increase investment in social housing and in insulating homes: An affordable home for all is central to a caring economy. However, support for access to housing has been concentrated on subsidies to enable people to buy a house and payment of housing benefit which simply ends up in the hands of private landlords. How to pay for Plan F In part it would pay for itself – our Plan F would increase employment and average weekly earnings, and thus generate more revenue from income tax and national insurance and save money on social security. Deciding not to commission a replacement for the Trident nuclear submarine system would save £100 billion over the next 30 years. Reversing tax reductions introduced by since June 2010 would save billions. The rise in the threshold for personal income tax costs around £12 billion a year from 2016/173 onwards, and this benefits only those who pay tax, 57 per cent of whom are men. It does not benefit those with incomes below the tax threshold, 63 per cent of whom are women. Corporation tax cuts cost around £7.9 billion a year from 2015/16. Taking effective action on tax debt, avoidance and evasion is estimated to be able to bring in almost £120 billion a year. It's not that there is no money but that resources are not being mobilised for an economic strategy that values care. "Plan F offers a sustainable economic strategy that puts the well being of people first," Ruth Pearson, a member of the UK Women's Budget Group management committee explained. "Investment in social care and social infrastructure is not a drain on the country's resources – it's the bedrock of a sustainable economy for the 21st century." And so we challenge politicians to adopt Plan F to bring about equality between women and men on the basis of a caring and sustainable economy. The theme for this year's International Women's Day was MAKE IT HAPPEN – so help us to. Help us to spread the word: gender equality requires economic policies that value people. In the run-up to the general election, the message to politicians is clear – we want a caring and sustainable economy: MAKE IT HAPPEN! #PlanF #womensday #MakeItHappen @womensbudgetgrp  |
| End victim blaming by legal professionals Posted: 16 Mar 2015 06:14 AM PDT
This is an open letter to the Attorney General written by a supporter of the Everyday Victim Blaming campaign. A copy of this letter will shortly be sent to the Attorney General ‘s office. If you would like to sign your name to the letter, please write it in the comments under the post. You could also send a copy to your MP via the Write to Them website. Rt Hon Jeremy Wright MP QC Dear Mr Wright, Victim blaming by legal professionals; why the English courtroom is unfit for women and children In the wake of several high-profile cases, well-publicised in the national press, you will be aware of the deeply disturbing language and arguments employed by defence barristers, and even judges, in their treatment of female victims in cases of sexual harassment, assault and rape. For your ease of reference, we draw your attention to recent examples including: In March 2015, Michael Magarian QC suggested that the victims of the child sexual exploitation gang in Oxford had only come forward because: "It's better to be a victim than a slag…once you are a victim who has been groomed you no longer have to take any responsibility for anything that you did." In January 2015, Judge Joanna Greenberg QC issued a non-custodial sentence to a teacher who was convicted of two counts of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust. During her summation, Greenberg stated of the victim, who was her abuser's 16-year-old pupil: "If grooming is the right word to use, it was she who groomed you, [and] you gave in to temptation." In October 2013, during a public debate on the issue at the LSE, barrister Barbara Hewson suggested that some victims of rape have a "moral responsibility" for their attack. She went on to criticise the "ideology of sexual victimisation". In August 2013, the CPS was forced to suspend lawyer, Robert Colover, from sex offences cases after he told the court during the trial of a 41 year old accused of sexually abusing a 13 year old girl: "The girl is predatory in all her actions and she is sexually experienced." The convicted abuser received an 8 month suspended sentence. These cases represent a fraction of the occurrences of the denigration and blaming of victims of sexual assault and rape. In the worst cases, children, legally incapable of consenting to sex, are branded predatory, manipulative and highly sexualised. In others, women who have suffered unspeakable mental and physical damage, are forced to explain their behaviour leading up to, and beyond the point that a man chose to rape them. We demand to know why. Why do members of the legal profession, including those employed by the state, seek to shame, humiliate and degrade women and children by stating that in the eyes of the law, they should take a share of the blame for the decision taken by a man to abuse them? Why do we not see members of the legal profession seek to shame a man for being drunk when he is the victim of a robbery? Why are women and children violated once more by cross-examination that seeks to tell them, their abusers and the public that they have done something to deserve sexual violence? Why, in the 21st Century do we have a two-tier courtroom culture that values women and children so poorly in comparison to men? It would be unthinkable, and rightly so, to place any blame on any other group of people for the abuse they endure; whether based on race, sexuality or disability. And yet, in courtrooms throughout the UK, women and children are forced to become de facto defendants when they have committed no crime. We demand to know why. Any barrister who is forced to fall back on the cheap, lazy and unworthy argument that the victims of sexual abuse must somehow be to blame; if that is how they defend the indefensible, then they have no business as guardians of the law. Women's confidence in the integrity of the legal system is crushed. We have been taught by our parents, teachers, magazines, newspapers and television dramas that we bring on our own demise when we have the temerity to behave as freely as men do. The English courtrooms have enshrined this inequality into law. We demand better. We demand that the CPS dismiss any legal professional that seeks to blame the victim of sexual assault and rape for her attack. 1. Mandatory, specialist training for all judges and prosecutors who work on trials involving sexual violence. We would like to see juries receive similar training, as evidenced by the JURIES campaign. 2. A ban on the use of rape myths and inappropriate and misleading language by defence attorneys (i.e. referring to victims as slags). 3. A move to an inquisitorial system rather than an adversarial system when dealing with crimes of sexual violence. For those living with the damage done, firstly by the assault itself, and then by their humiliation in court, they face a tireless battle to rebuild their dignity, self-belief and trust. You have the power to ensure that no victim of sexual assault faces a second violation by the court. The only thing that causes rape is a rapist. Yours sincerely,  |
| Posted: 16 Mar 2015 02:00 AM PDT
This year it features a thought-provoking programme of 16 award-winning documentary and feature films from around the world. In the face of oppressive laws, censorship and restrictive social taboos, brave defiance lies at the heart of social change; this festival means you can watch inspiring films about the women who fight for better lives for women and girls, and take part in Q+As with directors and stars. In A Quiet Inquisition, at a public hospital in Nicaragua, obgyn Dr Carla Cerrato must choose between following a law that bans all abortions and endangers her patients or taking a risk and providing the care that she knows can save a woman’s life. This is a UK premiere, presented in association with Marie Stopes International, on 25 March at 19.15 at the Barbican, and on 26 March at 18.30 at the Ritzy Brixton. No Land’s Song has its UK premiere on 20 March at 21.00 at the Curzon Soho, and on 22 March at 17.30, at the Ritzy Brixton. The Islamic revolution of 1979 banned female singers from appearing in public in Iran. Sara Najafi, Iranian composer, finds “The female voice is fading away.” Recordings of former female icons can only be bought on the black market. But Sara Najafi is determined to revive the female voices in the present as she courageously plans an evening of Iranian and French female soloists to rebuild shattered cultural bridges – a concert that is not allowed to take place. What Tomorrow Brings has an exclusive preview in association with AfghanAid and Womankind Worldwide, on 20 March at 18.15 at the Ritzy Brixton, and is also showing on 21 March at 18.30 at the Curzon Soho. What Tomorrow Brings follows one year in the life of the first all-girls school in a remote, conservative Afghan village. While the girls learn to read and write, their education goes far beyond the classroom to become lessons about tradition and time. They discover their school is the one place they can turn to understand the differences between the lives they were born into and the lives they dream of leading. Burden of Peace has its international premiere when it is presented in association with Peace Brigades International on 25 March at 18.30 at the Ritzy Brixton and is then on 26 March at 18.30 at the Curzon Soho. Burden of Peace follows Guatemala's first female attorney general, Claudia Paz y Paz. After taking office, Paz y Paz obtains spectacular results, including the arrest of a former head of state charged with committing genocide. But her determined efforts encounter strong resistance from powerful elites that have typically felt above the law. And Beats of the Antonov makes its UK premiere presented in association with Aegis Trust, Film Africa and Waging Peace on 21 March at 18.45 at the Ritzy Brixton, and with a second showing on 22 March at 18.30 at the Barbican. For the past two years, Sudanese civilians of the Blue Nile and Nuba Mountain regions have assembled in mountain hideouts to shelter themselves from air raids waged by the Sudanese government, which bombs civilians using Russian-made Antonov cargo planes. After a raid, it is not unusual to hear the sound of music signalling that a strike is over. For venue, Q&A and ticket info, click here.  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Women's Views on News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |