Women's Views on News |
| Report shows support for women in Europe Posted: 20 Mar 2015 07:58 AM PDT According to new Eurobarometer statistics published by the European Commission recently, a large majority of the European Union’s citizens (76 per cent) believe that tackling inequality between women and men should be a priority for the European Union (EU). Key findings from the Eurobarometer include: Around nine in ten Europeans (91 per cent) agree that tackling inequality between men and women is necessary to establish a fairer society. A similar proportion (89 per cent) agree that equality between men and women will help women become more economically independent. Violence against women (especially sexual violence), and the gender pay gap are the two areas that the EU should address most urgently, according to 59 per cent and 53 per cent of Europeans respectively. And according to the latest Eurostat data, the gender pay gap remains stagnant for another year running – per hour women earn 16.4 per cent less than men. But the European Commission’s annual ‘Report on equality between women and men‘, also published recently, showed that despite some progress gender equality remains an unfinished business. The 2014 ‘Report on equality between women and men’ showed that although gaps between men and women have narrowed in recent decades, inequalities within and between Member States have grown overall and challenges remain in critical areas. For every hour worked women earn on average 16.4 per cent less than men. This figure is above 20 per cent in the Czech Republic, Austria, Estonia and Germany. Closing the gender pay and pension gap has been frustratingly slow. The latter has reached 39 per cent. Working women still tend to be concentrated in less well-paid sectors. The prevalence of gender-based violence is still alarmingly high. A third of women in the EU report having experienced physical and sexual violence. More figures are available in the EU-wide survey on violence against women published by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights. Gender gaps in employment and decision-making have narrowed in recent years, but women still account for less than a quarter of company board members, despite representing almost half of the employed workforce (46 per cent). Also, the extent of gender equality varies substantially across Member States and has not reached all groups. Deficiencies in work-life balance policies hamper women's employment and therefore the potential for economic growth. Women are more likely to have a higher education degree (over 60 per cent of new graduates are female), but are significantly under-represented in STEM studies and careers, in research and in senior posts at all levels of education, including higher education. But the European Union is acting to advance gender equality. The EU has issued country-specific recommendations and used co-funding opportunities with the European Structural and Investment Funds to promote female employment, investment in early childhood education and care facilities, accessible long-term care and the reduction of tax-benefit disincentives for women to work. The EU has also supported specific actions, such as national governments' campaigns against gender-based violence and grass-root projects led by non‑governmental organisations. All the male members of the European Commission have given their support to the UN campaign #HeforShe aiming to make gender equality an issue for both men and women. This reflects the Commission’s strong support for women’s rights and women’s empowerment. The #HeforShe campaign run by UN Women calls for the more active engagement of men in the fight against such discrimination, since they play a pivotal role in changing the social norms that affect women. The Commission is also celebrating outstanding women entrepreneurs who have brought their innovative ideas to the market. On 9 March, Carlos Moedas, the Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, launched the third edition of the EU Prize for Women Innovators to give public recognition to three remarkable women and inspire others to follow in their footsteps. And the Commission will continue its work with Member States, NGOs and stakeholders to drive forward gender equality at all levels, strengthening and consolidating the gains made in the past and meet the new challenges in the period ahead. The focus will be on “finishing the unfinished business” to close the gaps in pay, employment, pensions and decision-making, and to eradicate gender-based violence. The current Latvian Presidency will table Council conclusions on the gender pension gap that will contribute to shaping a policy response to this issue. Legislative proposals such as the Women on Boards Directive or the Maternity Leave Directive must now be agreed in the Council by Ministers from the Member States as well as by the European Parliament in order to become law. Member States will also notify measures taken to improve pay transparency. This follows the Commission’s Recommendation on Equal Pay Transparency giving Member States, for the first time, a toolbox of measures to tackle this issue.  |
| Food rights, poverty and charity in the UK Posted: 20 Mar 2015 06:40 AM PDT
A paper published recently by Sheffield University’s Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI) has presented findings from a study into the rise of charitable emergency food provision in the UK and its implications for food rights. Since the mid-2000s there has been a proliferation of charitable projects providing help to people in need who would otherwise not be able to access food and the research sought to examine what this meant for the progressive realisation of the right to food for all in the UK. The research for this paper – Addressing Food Poverty in the UK: Charity, Rights and Welfare – found that emergency food charities were valued sites of care and social solidarity, doing important work in local communities. However, with a particular focus on the social acceptability and sustainability of food access through these systems, the research also found that emergency food charity did not live up to 'right to food' standards. These findings highlight how charitable emergency food providers are in practice assuming the responsibility of alleviating acute food crises in the absence of the adequate state response that the notion of a 'right to food' requires. This paper argues that the human right to food provides a progressive solution to rising levels of food need in the UK and that policy makers alongside other stakeholders should work together to develop a right to food strategy as a matter of urgency Dr Hannah Lambie-Mumford, author of the paper, is a Research Fellow at the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI) of the University of Sheffield. Its executive summary points out that since 2000 there has been a proliferation of charitable emergency food provision in the United Kingdom, which has expanded particularly fast in the last five years. And while the provision of food to people in need by charitable organisations has a long history in the UK, the formalisation of this provision and its facilitation and co-ordination at a national level is unprecedented in this country. This research looked at the rise of emergency food provision in the UK and at the implications of this phenomenon for the realisation of the human right to food. It focussed particularly on exploring two aspects outlined by the notion of the right to food: the adequacy of emergency food provision explored in relation to questions of acceptability and sustainability; and what the rise of food charity means in terms of the state's duty to respect, protect and fulfil the right to food. The research involved the collection of extensive qualitative interview data from two of the UK's biggest national emergency food charities. Key findings: 1. The research found that emergency food initiatives were important spaces of caring and social solidarity in local communities. They embody moral imperatives to feed the hungry and overcome social injustice. They also provide care to those in need in various ways – beyond food – including providing personal support, a safe space, and other advice or signposting. However, by right to food standards these projects are problematic. 2. These systems are ultimately not adequate or sustainable by right to food standards which emphasise the importance of the social acceptability of food acquisition, on the one hand, and the sustainability of food access into the future, on the other. Emergency food provision forms an identifiably and experientially 'other' system to the socially accepted mode of food acquisition in the UK today – the commercial food market through shopping. And providers are not necessarily able to make food available through these systems, with their ability to do so shaped in important ways by the structure of the food industry in which they operate; in addition, people do not always have the ability to access emergency food projects and the food available from them whenever they wish, for as long as they may feel they need. 3. The research indicates that the state is, if anything, retreating from its duty to respect, protect and fulfil the human right to food and emergency food provision is assuming the responsibility to fulfil this right, where it can and in its own way. There is a close relationship between welfare reform and the rise of food charity, with recent reforms to social security driving the need for and influencing the shape of emergency food provision. Whilst the rise of emergency food projects could well represent the increasing responsibility held by civil society-based social protection, the right to food approach sets out clearly that the state is the duty-bearer. Shifts from entitlement to charity (which is not a right and accessible to all) is a particularly problematic aspect of the contemporary shift in food-based social protection from a right to food perspective. To download this paper, click here.  |
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