Women's Views on News |
- New consider consent campaign now running
- Women on sectarianism
- Why a strategy for equality between women and men
- Violence against women not “isolated incidents”
New consider consent campaign now running Posted: 17 Apr 2015 03:45 AM PDT A short skirt is not a yes. A red lip is not a yes. A wink is not a yes. A slow dance is not a yes. A walk home is not a yes. A drink back at mine is not a yes. A kiss on the sofa is not a yes. What I wear and how I behave are not invitations. There's a myth that surrounds women, a myth that embroils them: women who dress or behave suggestively, women who are playful or who act provocatively, women who flirt or openly discuss sex – they're 'asking for it'. It's an insidious fable, and it needs to stop. Every woman has a right to freedom of expression. No woman deserves to be raped for it. No one should be able to blame rape on a short skirt. A short skirt can't talk – a short skirt can't say 'yes'. The only yes should be an active and embodied ‘yes!’ Working to dispel the myths behind what constitutes as consent, a new campaign, thisdoesntmeanyes.com, is being brought to you by Nathalie Gordon, Lydia Pang, Karlie McCulloch and Abigail Bergstrom in conjunction with Rape Crisis South London. Photographer PEROU, who specialises in fashion and portrait photography, took to the streets of London with his camera on 11 April and photographed women in a way he never had before for Rape Crisis South London. The women, chosen at random, were photographed in a pop-up street studio and in a composition that felt authentic to them. His work for #thisdoesntmeanyes shows women dressed and behaving however they wanted, for no one but themselves. This campaign presents that 'this' – be it a short skirt, a low-cut top or red lips – is not an invitation for a man to take what he chooses. It is a woman's personal form of expression, and she has her right to express it. The only ‘yes’ should ever be a ‘yes’. Rape Crisis England & Wales is a feminist organisation that exists to promote the needs of women and girls who have experienced sexual violence, to improve services to them and to work towards the elimination of sexual violence. Whenever it happened, whatever the circumstances, we will give you the support that you need. Our Services are delivered by a multi-cultural team of trained counsellors and advocates. Rape Crisis England & Wales was set up to support the work of autonomous Rape Crisis organisations in England and Wales and to also raise awareness and understanding of sexual violence in the wider community and with local, regional and national government. We want all women and girls to be free from the fear and experience of sexual violence. To find your nearest Rape Crisis Centre click here. Join us on thisdoesnotmeanyes – post your own picture, for example. |
Posted: 17 Apr 2015 03:38 AM PDT "We know that women under report gender-based crime and sectarian incidents are no different." Glasgow Women's Library has published their anthology of women's writing gathered in the course of the Mixing The Colours project and as part of their Dragon's Pen Writing Competition. Given that sectarianism is not simply a problem of men and football and that people experience sectarianism differently, the Mixing The Colours project is addressing how intra-Christian sectarianism affects women in diverse communities and addresses their exclusion from previous research and societal dialogue. The project gathered accounts of overt acts of discrimination, the direct result of religious bigotry against Catholic and Protestant, and exposed how sectarian bigotry intersects with transphobia, homophobia, misogyny, racism and hate crime experienced by LBT and BME women. Participants in the project said that the key way in which women could address sectarianism was by participating in workshops and writing about their experiences. And the publication came out of suggestions from learners in 2012 that said their engagement would be better supported by a dedicated publication; to date 76 women have participated in 11 creative writing workshops and a writing competition. The published writers are Nicola Burkhill, Yvonne Dalziel, Jillian Joyce, Pauline Lynch, Kirsten MacQuarrie, Emma Mooney, Julie Robertson, Ethyl Smith, Morag Smith, Ellie Stewart, Leela Soma, Marie-Therese Taylor and Catriona Grigg, Deirdre MacLennan, and Liz Treacher from Brora Community Learning Centre. The anthology also features specially commissioned works by Magi Gibson, Denise Mina and Eleanor Thom. The creative writing is largely fiction based on fact. For many of the writers it has been a cathartic experience, a way to put the past to rest and to examine the present; much of the work recounts the memories of childhood and young adulthood. It conveys the words of parents, warnings about how to behave at Orange Order parades, and reflects on the feelings and challenges they experienced as children. Many of the stories share aggressive or violent incidents, forbidden friendships and love-interests. They tell of the physical restrictions placed on women as young people, places they could not or should not go, and cautions of where they wouldn't be welcome. A few of the pieces directly reject sectarian behaviour and the perpetrators, and assign responsibility to the church, football and the patriarchal structures in our society. Sharing this work with further participants during workshops has allowed people to see and feel both Catholic and Protestant 'sides' of sectarianism. It has given rise to increased understanding and encouraged women to share their fears and prejudices and, most importantly, to find solutions collectively. Speaking at the launch, the project's development worker, Rachel Thain-Gray said: "At the inception of the project we were struck by lack of literature by women or about women on the issue of sectarianism and focus groups of women said that a dedicated book and workshops would help them speak about the issue in a safe place. "So it's been a process of consultation and active participation from the start. "The project," she continued, "has enabled and captured the voice that women have not had, telling both overt and subtle stories of bigotry and violence that were not spoken or asked about previously. "Within the public spheres of their communities some women told us that they would be unlikely to challenge sectarianism on the street for fear of violence, hesitant to challenge it at home for fear of family conflict and reluctant to challenge it on social media for fear of misogynist abuse. "We know that women under report gender-based crime and sectarian incidents are no different," she said. "Where a woman told us she was called a 'Fenian bitch' in the street during a parade, how likely was she to report it? How would it be recorded if she did? Is it a sectarian crime or a normalised act of misogyny? How likely is it that this would be pursued as a crime either way? "Sectarianism is experienced within a context of women's safety in general in public spaces and how they experience public life. "Women told us that they modify their behaviour on match and parade days to avoid unsafe situations and places. "Women are stopping their children from going out to play, shopping for food prior to matches, choosing their own and their children's clothes to avoid negative attention. They are staying home. "So what is women's position on sectarianism? Until now women were publicly the victims and in the undercurrent the maternal perpetrators. "Where women are identified as perpetrators we must explore the context in which it occurs. "Women may appropriate the dominant male story in their family, church or society as a way to align themselves with the patriarchal construct, a way to experience some form of power where none exists in their own lives. "Where women practice forms of exclusion or ostracisation in a family on the basis of religion they may be taking an instrumental role to ensure their own inclusion and ultimately safety, since they have so much to lose by not being a part of it," she said. And, she continued: "I think it's important that the question in the survey is not interpreted to appropriate blame or place unreasonable responsibility on women and particularly mother's shoulders. "We must understand sectarianism as a patriarchal construct that must be acknowledged as part of the dominant fiction of masculinity and challenged by men and fathers in their families." The Mixing The Colours Publication is a tangible object of women's collective action. The look and feel is something special; the beautiful result of the project and the women who participated that gives weight and importance to their words and experiences. And it is a starting point for the future, a seminal anthology of the legacy of sectarianism. To download a – free – pdf copy of the Mixing The Colours Publication click here; for a – free – large print copy, click here. |
Why a strategy for equality between women and men Posted: 17 Apr 2015 03:24 AM PDT The EU and its Member States have the responsibility to promote equality between women and men. Women's organisations are demanding a concrete and ambitious new strategy for equality between women and men. Ahead of the EC Forum on the Future of Gender Equality, on 20 April 2015, the European Women's Lobby (EWL) is calling on the European Commission and the EU Member States to deliver a concrete and ambitious EU new Strategy for Equality between women and men. This year, the EWL points out, is a turning point for women's and girls' human rights, in Europe and globally. The international community celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action, a founding human rights instrument for women and girls adopted by all United Nations (UN) Member States in 1995. At international level, a new global post-2015 framework for development will be adopted, which should put women's rights and equality between women and men at its centre. More importantly, in 2015, the European Union (EU) will adopt a new Strategy for action on equality between women and men for the coming 5 years. Women's organisations call on the European Commission and the EU Member States to adopt such strategy as a stand-alone goal for the EU, with dedicated resources and goals, and concrete indicators for monitoring progress. Women and girls in Europe expect the EU to be a strong model of action and change and "walk the talk" on women's rights and equality between women and men. Why an EU Strategy for Equality between women and men? Because equality between women and men is a fundamental value of the EU. The EU and its Member States have the responsibility to promote equality between women and men, according to the Treaties and the Charter of Fundamental Rights. With the new European Commission, we now have a Commissioner dedicated to gender equality, Ms Jourova; she now needs the means to deliver on her portfolio. And the adoption of an EU Strategy on equality between women and men is a matter of credibility and accountability for the European Union. Not least because there should be consistency between EU internal and external policies on equality between women and men. In March, the UN Member States adopted the political declaration of the Commission on the Status of Women (59th session), which reaffirms their commitment to the Beijing Platform for Action. In New York, the EU and its Member States have been instrumental in ensuring that women's human rights are at the core of the commitments of the international community. The Beijing Platform for Action stresses the need for separate and strong institutional mechanisms for women's rights. Such mechanism exists for EU external policies, through the EU Gender Action Plan for External Action 2016-2020. The EU should therefore follow this requirement and have a dedicated instrument for equality between women and men, in the form of the EU Strategy for Equality between women and men, accompanied by goals and indicators. And also because the Council has already committed to the realisation of the human rights of women and girls. Last December, the Council delivered conclusions on a transformative post-2015 agenda, saying: "We reiterate that the empowerment and human rights of women and girls, and ending both discrimination in all its forms and violence against women and girls, must be at the core of the post-2015 agenda. "Goals, targets and indicators across the framework should address legal, social and economic barriers to gender equality. "We recognise the importance of involving men and boys in advancing gender equality. "We remain committed to the promotion, protection and fulfilment of all human rights and to the full and effective implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the outcomes of their review conferences and in this context sexual and reproductive health and rights." It is time to transform words to action! What should the EU Strategy for Equality between women and men look like? The EU Strategy should be the instrument of the EU commitment to Equality between women and men as a stand-alone goal for the European Union. The Strategy should give the vision of a Europe realising equality between women and men and promoting women's and girls' human rights. Such vision should build on the values of the EU and on universal and un-negotiable principles that the Member States share through their endorsement of international women's human rights instruments. It should be consistent with the EU external action on equality between women and men. The vision should ensure that the EU and its Member States COMMIT to the realisation of women and girls' human rights, ACCELERATE the implementation of existing legislation and the adoption of new instruments, and INVEST in women's rights and women's organisations. Based on its vision, the Strategy should propose clear objectives, and indicators and targets to bring positive change to women and girls in Europe. These objectives and goals should be based on the 12 critical areas identified by the Beijing Platform for Action, in order to encompass all challenges and opportunities for the realisation of girls' and women's human rights and equality between women and men in Europe. Such objectives and goals must be defined in accordance with: The work and analysis of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE); The calls of the European Parliament (especially through its annual report on equality between women and men in the European Union); and The demands of the women's organisations working at local, national and European levels. The Manifesto of the European Women's Lobby for the 2014 European Elections outlines the key areas of action identified by our 2000 member organisations throughout Europe. To realise its vision, the Strategy should provide a strong architecture for women's human rights and mechanisms for the systematic implementation of gender mainstreaming. Such architecture should include and promote the establishment of mechanisms to ensure accountability, monitoring, evaluation, and coordination between the different actors involved at national and European level. Here are proposals for such mechanisms: A clear leadership role to the EU Commissioner in charge of gender equality; Regular meetings of all EU Commissioners on equality between women and men; Inter-service coordination and meetings within the European Commission and the different DGs (with focal points in each DG, including EEAS); Each DG should have a transparent and measurable plan to realise its commitment to gender mainstreaming; Inter-institutional meetings between the EC, the EP and the Council on equality between women and men, to ensure consistency, strengthen actions and resources; A strengthened EC unit dedicated to equality between women and men, with human and financial resources to support the work of the Commissioner, implement the Strategy and work with the member states; Focal points in each member states and regular meetings of national focal points; Strong well-funded programmes to support women's organisations at European and national level; and Annual reports from the European Commission and the Member States on the progress on equality between women and men, feeding into annual reviews of action. The EU Strategy for Equality between women and men should also be elaborated based on the EU core principles of democracy and transparency. That includes foreseeing the inclusion of women and women's organisations in the elaboration, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the strategy at European and national level, and support to women's organisations through programmes and sustainable and adequate funding. |
Violence against women not “isolated incidents” Posted: 17 Apr 2015 03:06 AM PDT Even in a week full of media noise, there is an undercurrent of violence against women. In one single week, three men made the headlines for using their positions of power to commit acts of violence against women and girls. But when are we going to stop treating these as isolated incidents and treat violence against women as the systemic brutality that it is? In this country, we all like to think that if we report a crime, we can trust the police to keep us safe. The case of PC Darren Heath served to shatter our illusions. On 30 March, Heath was jailed for three years and nine months, over five counts of misconduct in public office. He admitted to using his position to target vulnerable women for sex, some of whom had already been victims of crime. The court heard how, having got one of his victims pregnant with twins, he coerced her into having an abortion. Perhaps the most disturbing element of this case is that the alarm bells had been ringing for years before anything was done; he had received a warning in 1996 after a complaint was made against him by a female student. The offences concerned in this case took place between 2002 and 2012; that is ten years of targeting vulnerable women with impunity – almost three times as long as the time he will serve in prison. It was made painfully clear during the investigation into the crimes of Jimmy Savile that the NHS, our most sacred public institution, is capable of spectacular failures when it comes to sexual abuse. The same week saw another shocking reminder, as Andrew Hutchinson, a former senior nurse, pleaded guilty to 27 counts including rape, sexual assault and voyeurism committed against patients, some of whom were unconscious. His victims were all female, and aged between 10 and 35. Even student politics, which should be at the cutting edge of inclusivity and equality, fails to hold powerful men accountable for their actions against women. A petition was set up calling for the recently-elected president of Loughborough Student's Union, Edward Reckless, to stand down, after it emerged that he had been banned from the union for slapping a woman in the face. The incident took place before the election, and the fact that he was allowed to stand despite facing a ban for violence against a woman outraged students. Reckless did resign his post, issuing an “apology” that many found unsatisfactory; he claimed that the incident was “out of character” that he was subjected to “harassment and emotional stress” and has called for clear eligibility rules. As a society, we choose to look at these incidents individually. This allows us to gasp, shake our heads and talk about "sick individuals" who have nothing to do with the rest of us. And that same week, as Counting Dead Women records, Sarah Pollock, 41, was strangled and stabbed, and Colin Dymond, described as 'known to the victim' was charged with her murder; Jill Goldsmith, 49, died of head injuries – her husband Otis Goldsmith, 49, was charged with her murder; and American transwoman Vanessa Santillan, 33, was found dead with head and neck injuries in London. We can't end violence against women until we see these crimes for what they are: an indication of the deeply ingrained misogyny that permeates our society, including the public institutions we hold dear. Not isolated incidents. |
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