Women's Views on News |
- Make sure you are registered to vote
- Tackling the gender pay gap in Europe
- Trafalgar Square rally: support Apna Haq
| Make sure you are registered to vote Posted: 17 Nov 2015 02:26 PM PST
An estimated 1.9 million people are set to drop off the electoral register because of the government's introduction of ‘individual electoral registration’. In the past, one person could register on everyone's behalf. The government’s changes mean that each individual needs to register themselves. Many won't. Already another 8 million people are missing from the register. That's almost 1 in 5 adults without the vote. Who is this new model most likely to affect? Young people (only 25 per cent of 17-year-olds are on the register); Students; People in temporary or shared housing; and People who are new to the country. Why it matters: This is important not only because we have hugely important elections coming up in May 2016 in Scotland, London, Wales, and many English councils, but also because it will have a significant effect on the 2020 general election by reducing the representation of poorer areas. Before the next general election, the Boundary Commission will redraw constituency boundaries. The Commission will do this based on who is on the electoral register on 1 December this year. Areas where more people fail to register will get fewer seats. Labour, for example, will lose seats and the Tories will gain – which is probably why they are doing it. Democracy SOS is a Momentum campaign, supported by the TSSA union, to re-register those disenfranchised by individual electoral registration as well as registering new voters. Momentum believes it is vital to register voters to revitalise democracy and build a more progressive politics – these are the same goals which inspired Jeremy Corbyn's election as Labour Party leader. Democracy SOS was launched with a national day of action for voter registration on 24 October and runs for one month. Momentum has been – and still is – calling on people to organise events, rallies and stalls to encourage people to register to vote. Momentum is working alongside local Labour Party activists and others – if you are organising a local voter registration drive feel free to add it to Momentum’s events map. Together we can build a society where everyone is represented. Have to really. To register to vote, cick here.  |
| Tackling the gender pay gap in Europe Posted: 17 Nov 2015 10:45 AM PST
By Mary Honeyball MEP. It could not be more apparent (or obvious) that there is a gender pay gap in existence. A recent calculation carried out by the Fawcett Society found that from the start of this week until the end of the year women will effectively work for free. It was a contentious revelation with some denouncing the very idea as preposterous. But the Fawcett Society calculation does illustrate the issue of the gender pay gap which at the end of 2015, shockingly, remains unresolved. As a Labour representative in Europe and Labour's spokesperson in Europe for gender and equality I have worked for a long time to address the issue of gender and pay. Equality between men and women is a fundamental value which lays the foundations of the European Union. The principle of gender equality is enshrined in the EU treaties, and the European Parliament takes the issue of a gender pay gap increasingly seriously. However, the reality is that we are a long way from achieving any form of parity. The average hourly wage for women in Europe is 16.3 per cent lower than it is for men. This equates to women working for free for 59 days each year. One of the most notable moves by the European Union was to introduce for the first time a dedicated Commissioner for women, at the start of the current mandate last year. Commissioner Vera Jourova the Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality is also taking the issue seriously. She stated in a speech earlier this month that urgent action was needed to tackle pay inequalities. Meanwhile a consultation undertaken by the European Commission, the results of which were published in November, found that equality between men and women and the gender pay gap was the most urgent inequality that the European Union must address. Commissioner Jourova is clearly concerned and in response to this said: "At the current pace, the gender pay gap is declining so slowly that we will need to wait another 70 years to achieve equal pay – that's not one generation, but two". There is support across the Commission for the issue, and Frans Timmermans, the first vice president of the European Commission declared in a speech delivered in New York in September: "I am a feminist." He said to the audience: "We tend to think of gender progress as a straight line. Some countries are lagging behind, but everyone's moving in the right direction. In the end we'll all get there. It's a natural evolution – it's happening by itself." Well, it's not. Not only is a gender pay gap unjustified and unacceptable but the consequences are life long. The cumulative effect of the pay gap means women's pensions are affected, with calculations suggesting that women's pensions are 39 per cent less than men's. Women need to have equal access to the workplace for as long as men in order to close the pension pay gap. This can be achieved by providing opportunities for women to enjoy their careers for the same length of time as men. We should be able to reach a situation where, if women choose, they are not forced to leave the labour market for lengthy periods in order to be the primary carers. This means encouraging men to take on their share of familial responsibilities, among other measures. The Commission is seeking to address this very issue. In August it introduced a road map, known as ‘New Start to Address the Challenges of Work-life Balance Faced by Working Families’; it hopes to identify ways to combat the low participation of women in the labour market. As well as looking at low participation of women in the labour market, the 'new start' initiative seeks to find ways to help parents or those with dependent relatives to find a better balance between their caring and professional responsibilities. The programme will also seek to tackle the issue of affordable childcare and rigid working arrangements as well as the absence of incentives for men to take on more childcare responsibilities. It's not just a cultural shift required, legislatively there is also work which needs to be done. While legislation does exist which is meant to protect women in areas of un-equal pay there are problems with it being outdated and also concerns that its poor implementation and lack of thorough enforcement by member state governments has rendered it obsolete. Earlier this year the European Parliament voted to adopt a report which examined the implementation of the EU Directive on equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and women in employment. The report found that the existing legislation had 'reached its limits' and stressed the urgent need for it to be updated. The report also searched ways to overcome the problem of unequal pay and identified wage transparency as one effective tool to combat this. Mandatory wage transparency would also arm existing employees with knowledge concerning their own pay and benefits package but also provide the basis of evidence for victims who are seeking to initiate discrimination cases. The report also recommended that there could be a complete overhaul of the existing directive. Such a move could include the introduction of things such as wage transparency and wage audits. It could also include other specific measures such as changing the burden of proof principle in cases where there are claims of alleged sex discrimination. It is shocking that despite more than 40 years of legislation that the existence of a gender pay gap is so prominent and so obvious. Mary Honeyball is MEP for London, and Labour's spokesperson in Europe for gender and equality. A version of this article appeared in LabourList on 11 November 2015.  |
| Trafalgar Square rally: support Apna Haq Posted: 17 Nov 2015 10:44 AM PST
At the end of July this year Apna Haq received a devastating letter from Rotherham council informing them that their £145,000 contract for providing domestic violence support was to be ended and that a mainstream service with no specialism in the needs of minority ethnic women would do the work instead – for a slightly lower price. As Rotherham's only ethnic minority women's violence against women support group, Apna Haq is a life-saving service, and it is run the best way a women's service can be – by and for women who understand their community's needs. The women who run Apna Haq have deep personal understanding of the particular patterns of abuse, the excuses that are made for it, and the barriers to escaping abuse in their community. Apna Haq – which means ‘My Rights’ – was set up as a domestic violence support service group by local ethnic minority women in 1994. More than 2,000 women and children have been helped by Apna Haq and have escaped and overcome domestic and sexual abuse, so-called 'honour-related' abuse and forced marriage, and sexual exploitation. Apna Haq has also been working with voluntary and statutory agencies to raise awareness of issues facing Asian women so these agencies can take these specific issues into consideration, respond appropriately and gain an understanding and awareness of specific issues facing Asian women suffering from violence. And Apna Haq has also been working within the Asian community to educate on domestic violence and raise awareness of the effects of domestic violence on both women and children in the community and the community itself. Many women have been so inspired by their experience at Apna Haq that they have gone on to become volunteers and workers there too, sharing their knowledge and experience to help new service users. We cannot allow Apna Haq to close. We cannot try to put right horrific abuse of girls from the different communities in Rotherham and simultaneously create new barriers to women and children who need help. Please help. Sign the petition, and call on the Lead Commissioner in Rotherham, Sir Derek Myers, who now runs Rotherham borough council, to stand by Apna Haq to ensure the organisation's future is secure. And join Apna Haq at a rally at 12.30 in Trafalgar Square in London on 21 November. The petition will be then be delivered to 10 Downing Street at 1.15. Everyone can then move on to listen to the speakers who will be at Parliament Square.  |
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