Women's Views on News |
| Cricket: new Women’s Super League announced Posted: 30 Jun 2015 05:22 AM PDT
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has announced it is to create a new Women's Super League. The League, comprising six teams, will initially compete in the T20 form of the game and will begin in the summer of 2016. And £3million funding committed over four years – an investment which will be used for improving facilities and coaching and promoting the competition. It will also mean that there will be prize money for the first time ever in domestic English women's cricket. The league is the latest in a whole raft of recent developments in women's cricket in England and Wales. Last year saw the introduction of central contracts for England's top 18 women players plus a lucrative sponsorship deal signed with Kia Motors. Details of the proposed T20 tournament are still sketchy. The ECB seems to be suggesting that it will coordinate how the teams are organised, down to who will be playing for whom. It is hard not to use the word "franchise", but it is something the ECB is always takes great pains to do, to avoid any comparison with the IPL or CPL. Thus, in its press release the ECB says: ‘The next step is for "potential team hosts to make an 'expression of interest'’ and ‘Any cricket-minded organisations’ should submit a proposal. With only six teams competing, geographical areas will be hard to represent. We could end up with the 'Sainsbury's Tigers' versus the 'Adidas Jets', for example. In my opinion, one of the first to put a proposal forward could be Loughborough University, who have the England cricket teams training on their doorstep and have the coaching and facilities already in place. Who the others may be we can only imagine. Some cynics have suggested that the women are to be guinea pigs, with the six-team franchise format paving the way for a similar restructure of the men's game if the women's version is a success; the men's T20 Blast has certainly seen a general decline in both attendance and interest over the last couple of years. However, the ECB has also suggested that the T20 league is only the start, with a 50-over format league to follow, so perhaps the cynics may be on the wrong track. It is also piggybacking on the developments made by Cricket Australia, whose Women's Big Bash League starts later this year. The announcement shows the ECB's continuing commitment to the women's game, both at grassroots and elite level, and there is no doubt that the sport is enjoying a big increase in popularity amongst women and girls as a result. Clare Connor, director of England's Women's Cricket at the ECB, said: "The Women's Cricket Super League is the next stage in the evolution of women's cricket in this country…. "Competition for places will be strong with the best up against the best, creating opportunities for high potential players, who aspire to play for England, to perform and impress. "We also have the chance to invite the world's finest players into the Women's Cricket Super League to drive ever higher standards. "Our vision is for an exciting, dynamic game which will inspire new participants, new fans and increased interest from commercial partners and the media." With a potentially thrilling Ashes summer just around the corner, it is good to hear plans for domestic cricket are still at the forefront of the governing body's future thinking.  |
| A women’s party and intersectionality Posted: 30 Jun 2015 05:03 AM PDT
The inaugural meeting of the Women's Equality Party Camden took place on 28 June. As one of over 40 new branches of the Women's Equality Party (WEP_UK on Twitter) set up in less than four months, and led by Sandi Toksvig and Catherine Mayer, this Camden group is part of what has been called a 'political revolution'. The turnout in Camden was not as big as the Brighton group which had, reports say, 150 attendees at the inaugural meeting, nor apparently as diverse as the Cardiff branch. However the introductions around the table were fascinating and telling. All the women and men in attendance had experienced the effects of inequality in one form or another, either through study and research or through personal experience in their professions and within their families. These multitudes of experiences contributed to vibrant discussions on each of the six policy areas identified by the party: The discussions covered everything from having more women in the history curriculum and more women role models in business to how to get more girls on debating teams and more representation of women in sport, with key themes running throughout, such as the need for age-appropriate personal, social and health education and the need to change attitudes. Overwhelmingly there was a sense of optimism and positivity, without any underestimating of the magnitude of the task ahead. And goodness knows Camden needs a force for change, with £30 million council budget cuts already and another £70 million to be cut by 2018. The cuts have and will continue to have a profound impact on women, affecting all areas from from a £6 million funding cut to support for volunteer organisations and a 2 per cent increase in council tax for residents to the promised closing of all – yes, all – subsidised early education and childcare places for children under two years old promised next year. However these issues don't just affect women. The non-partisan party's status as a single-issue party reflects the fact that, as Katy Guest wrote in the Independent, 'equality is a hell of an issue… with at least half the electorate potentially very interested in achieving parity'. "Women have waited too long to sit on our boards, play a part in our politics and stride our streets," Toksvig said at the first WEP fundraiser earlier this month. These statements are true, of course, and the sheer volume of support WEP has already acquired, with over 30,000 facebook likes at last count and 40 plus branches, is testament to how many people agree with these sentiments. Mayer has explicitly likened WEP's approach to that of the UK Independent Party (UKIP): creating change fast by becoming a political force and compelling the main political parties to adopt more of their agenda. "If you appear to be an electoral threat then the other parties will want to look more like you," she explained. However if anything does limit the party's success, it will be its single-issue focus. Inequality for women is inextricably wrapped up in socio-economic, racial, sexuality and class inequalities. In most of the discussions at the Camden branch meeting, this issue of intersectionality came up, with the question posed: how can you address one area of inequality without the others? The main topic for discussion at the next Camden meeting will be how to increase the party's diversity, and this is the issue which the party will have to grapple with most fiercely. This is indeed a movement whose time has come, as Guest wrote, however the question of how to remain a single-issue party with a targeted purpose without alienating many who feel that gender inequality is only part of a much wider structural problem, is still to be answered. It might be that the party will need to walk a fine line by sticking to its aim but lending its fast-increasing support to ally organisations in the fight against all inequalities. In the meantime: join in and follow them on WEP_UK on Twitter, or on facebook.  |
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