24 UK News: February 2016

Saturday, February 27, 2016

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Women's Views on News

Normalising crimes against women

Posted: 26 Feb 2016 09:00 AM PST

We are a long way off from living in a society where women feel safe and are treated with respect.

The effects of harassment, sexual assault and violence against women and girls not being taken seriously enough, and consistently being trivialised and normalised, are devastating, and sometimes fatal.

The Sun newspaper recently sparked outrage by referring to what appears to have been an attempted sexual assault as a 'romp'.

The headline itself was distasteful and disrespectful to put it mildly: ''Suicide' Army girl locked in for romp'.

According to the article, soldier Cheryl James was locked in a room by a sergeant who then chased her around the confined space, presumably trying to sexually assault and perhaps even rape her.

It isn't clear exactly what happened, but the 18 year-old soldier died shortly afterwards, and an inquest is endeavouring to find out how and why.

The Sun's article not only highlighted severe concerns with regard to the way in which female soldiers are viewed and treated in the army, but also served as an example of the problematic way in which harassment, sexual assault and violence against women are portrayed and considered.

The language used when discussing these crimes and their victims is key to how they are perceived.

There’s the word 'domestic' for example. Its official definition is 'relating to the running of a home or to family relations' – but it has for years been used to refer to an argument of some sort between a couple.

Although its use does appear to be decreasing slightly nowadays, it is not uncommon for someone to say that a couple 'had a domestic', if there has been a row, often suggesting that the conflict wasn't a big deal and in some cases that it is a regular occurrence.

The use of the word 'domestic' in this context is perhaps why domestic violence has not been taken seriously enough for so long.

While 'a domestic' can simply refer to a falling out, it is also a dangerously casual way of referring to the physical and emotional abuse of women by their male partners and as a result has contributed to its normalisation.

The effects of this can also be seen in the way in which perpetrators of domestic abuse are treated.

BBC Two's recent deeply moving documentary 'Love You to Death' highlighted how frequently women are being murdered by their ex-partners after they had left them.

The deaths often follow years of physical and emotional abuse; domestic violence has more repeat victims than any other crime.

Despite this, there appears to be a disturbing level of acceptance and even understanding of the perpetrator's actions if a partner has ended the relationship, particularly if they have children together.

The media's coverage of these crimes and the way in which people talk about them exposes the attitude that the perpetrator was justified in his behaviour because their partner had left them and taken their children too, and incredulously an element of sympathy can also sometimes be detected.

And all too often, men are not seen as responsible for these offences and the blame falls on the victims.

The harassment and sexual assault of women is treated with even less gravity than violence. The frequency with which they occur has, like domestic abuse, normalised them, and as a result they are underreported.

Sadly, even when a woman does report it, the chances of proper justice being served are slim; conviction rates for rape in the UK are among the lowest in Europe and far lower than other crimes.

Another large contributing factor to the trivialisation of harassment and assault is sexist and misogynistic 'jokes'. On a daily basis women have to put up with inappropriate behaviour and comments from men who use 'humour' and 'banter' as a justification for it.

When we don't smile or laugh, because it's not in any way funny and actually makes us feel rather uncomfortable, we are told that we are over-reacting and often attributed a number of unpleasant qualities and names – 'stuck up', for example.

From childhood, girls are taught a number of false and damaging things about these behaviours: it is normal and something that we just have to put up with, most of the time it occurs because we have provoked it in some way, and it is not a crime nor worth reporting to anyone.

Fortunately, some progress is being made.

Last year, Transport for London launched a campaign against sexual harassment on public transport called 'Report it to stop it', in a bid to clamp down on the unwanted sexual advances that women are frequently subjected to when travelling.

Recorded cases of domestic abuse rose by 31 per cent between 2013 and 2015, in part as a result of more women coming forward to report crimes, and some women have said that they feel they are being taken more seriously when reporting sexual harassment or assault, often much to their surprise.

However, these are only baby steps.

We are a long way off from living in a society where women feel safe and are treated with respect and trust instead of constantly being mocked and undermined.

More measures need to be put in place to prevent these crimes from happening in the first place, instead of it often being a case of too little, too late.

All cases should be treated with the same level of severity; women must be encouraged to report every single instance of inappropriate and criminal behaviour, and conviction rates should be close to 100 per cent.

There also needs to be a complete overhaul of the way we present and understand these offences, so that men, and women, can be in no doubt that harassing, assaulting and harming women is never acceptable under any circumstances and will not be tolerated.

EPakistanNews.com

Musharraf treason case takes a new turn

Posted: 26 Feb 2016 02:05 AM PST

Pakistan, Islamabad News : Supreme Court Friday accepted appeal filed by its former chief justice Abdul Hameed Dogar against implicating him in treason trial of former President Pervez Musharraf. A...

For More Visit http://EPakistanNews.com

PM lays foundation of Green Line bus project

Posted: 26 Feb 2016 01:50 AM PST

Pakistan, Karachi News : The Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif performed groundbreaking of Green Line Bus Rapid Transit System in Karachi on Friday. The 16 billion rupee project is first ever of the...

For More Visit http://EPakistanNews.com

Friday, February 26, 2016

Women's Views on News

New project: a year of dangerous women

Posted: 25 Feb 2016 09:30 AM PST

And what does it mean to be a 'dangerous woman'?

The idea that women are dangerous individually or collectively permeates many historical periods, cultures and areas of contemporary life – despite, and in some instances in response to, explicitly feminist movements.

We may take lightly the label attached by mainstream media outlets to women such as Shami Chakrabarti of Liberty or Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon as being 'the most dangerous woman in the UK' but behind this label lies a serious set of questions about the dynamics, conflicts, identities and power relations with which women live today.

The Dangerous Women Project will be publishing 365 responses to those questions on a specially designed website linking International Women's Day 2016 with International Women's Day 2017.

Each daily Dangerous Women Project post will explore, examine or critique the 'Dangerous Women' theme by inviting reflections from women of diverse backgrounds and identities, including poets, playwrights and other creative writers, academics, journalists, commentators, artists, performers and opinion formers, and indeed anyone with an angle on the theme.

The project is being developed at the University of Edinburgh's Institute of Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH).

The IASH supports open dialogue between the Fellows who visit the university as part of its various programmes, colleagues in academic schools and departments in Edinburgh and elsewhere, and wider civil society, and provides an international, interdisciplinary and autonomous space for discussion and debate.

You can add your voice to the Dangerous Women Project.

The project is looking for high quality reflections and creative responses to the question 'What does it mean to be a dangerous woman?'

Write about historical figures famous or forgotten, a biography or memoir, shine a spotlight on a contemporary issue or event, spin a fiction that is uncomfortably close to the truth, or cut to the chase with research or analysis as sharp as a scalpel.

The project is particularly interested in posts with the potential for provoking discussion, and we highly encourage submissions from under-represented, marginalised or otherwise silenced voices.

All submissions to the Dangerous Women Project (DWP) will be assessed for suitability and relevance by the IASH’s director and staff, with guidance from a wider Consultation Group from academic staff from The University of Edinburgh.

The Consultation Group membership comprises: Mary Bownes, Professor Emerita of Development Biology and Vice-Principal Community Development; Penny Fielding, Grierson Chair of English Literature; Suzanne Ewing, Senior Lecturer in Architectural Design and Theory; Lesley McAra, Chair of Penology and Assistant Principal Community Relations; Fiona Mackay, Professor of Politics and Dean & Head of School of Social and Political Sciences; and Mona Siddiqui, Professor of Islamic and Inter-Religious Studies and Assistant Principal Religion and Society.

Please read the submissions page for information on how to submit your contribution.

The material will be curated carefully, respectful of the different voices raised and positions articulated.

The Dangerous Women Project aims to raise some challenging questions about the nature of our societies in the past and in the future, provoke controversy and raise new questions.

You can follow the project on Twitter @DangerousWomen.

Pledge for international women’s day

Posted: 25 Feb 2016 09:00 AM PST

Are you ready to accelerate gender parity?

The International Women’s Day (IWD) campaign theme for 2016 is to #PledgeForParity.

Worldwide, women continue to contribute to social, economic, cultural and political achievement, and we have much to celebrate today.

But progress towards gender parity has slowed in many places.

The World Economic Forum predicted in 2014 that it would take until 2095 to achieve global gender parity.

Then one year later, in 2015, they estimated that a slowdown in the already glacial pace of progress meant the gender gap would not close entirely until 2133.

So how do we want to celebrate International Women’s Day 2016?

We say by Pledging For Parity!

Everyone – men and women – can pledge to take a concrete step to help achieve gender parity more quickly – whether to help women and girls achieve their ambitions, call for gender-balanced leadership, respect and value difference, develop more inclusive and flexible cultures or root out workplace bias.

Each of us can be a leader within our own spheres of influence and commit to take pragmatic action to accelerate gender parity.

Globally, with individuals pledging to move from talk to purposeful action – and with men and women joining forces – we can collectively help women advance equal to their numbers and realise the limitless potential they offer economies the world over.

We have urgent work to do. Are you ready to accelerate gender parity?

We need you to pledge to:

Help women and girls achieve their ambitions:

The most important determinant of a country’s competitiveness is its human talent via the skills and productivity of its workforce.

Organisations must illuminate the path to leadership, showing women the career and advancement opportunities that match their skills and professional objectives and provide the experiences necessary to fulfil their potential.

Individuals can commit to advocating for themselves, and when appropriate, becoming effective role models and sponsors of women to help them achieve their goals.

Challenge conscious and unconscious bias:

Studies show that gender-balanced organisations and teams deliver stronger results, and that inclusive societies are more progressive, but ingrained bias slows the progress of equality.

Organisations must build cultures where all people feel valued and included and can contribute fully according to their capabilities.

Individuals can commit to learning about their own biases, adjusting their behaviour as needed and welcoming different experiences and points of view.

Call for gender-balanced leadership:

Companies with women board members outperform in return on equity, net income growth and price-to-book value as well as a host of non-financial measures.

Organisations must ensure women are exposed to strategic operations and functions to gain the experience needed for senior positions and set measurable targets for appointing women to leadership.

Individuals can show potential or current employers that they value and expect gender-balanced leadership. They should seek out leadership, sponsorship and mentoring programs, exposure to strategic and financial roles and integrated networks designed to help women advance.

Value women and men’s contributions equally:

Raising the female labour force participation rate to match that of men will have a positive impact on GDP in both developed and developing economies.

Organisations must ensure all their talent processes are equitable, fair and that they further their gender parity and diversity objectives.

Individuals can seek out perspectives different from their own, prioritise building diverse teams and engage in mixed networks that build trusted relationships.

Create inclusive, flexible cultures:

After competitive pay and benefits, workers in eight countries rank working flexibly and still being on track for promotion as what they value most in a potential job.

Organisations should recognise that lines between career and personal lives are becoming more fluid. They should create progressive policies like flexible working that allow everyone – regardless of age, gender, rank or geography – to manage their personal and professional lives and realise their ambitions.

Individuals can create trusting, team-oriented work environments by encouraging flexible working supporting choice about the times, places and ways work gets done.

International Women’s Day – March 8 – is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.

International Women’s Day has been observed since in the early 1900s – a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialised world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies.

Now is a time of change too. Join us. Join in.

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Women's Views on News

New programme takes on perpetrators

Posted: 24 Feb 2016 09:30 AM PST

Drive: a new initiative to challenge the perpetrators of domestic violence.

To reduce the number of domestic abuse victims, perpetrators must be challenged to change their behaviour, say specialist charities and three leading Police and Crime Commissioners.

Two women die a week as a result of domestic homicide, and 100,000 people are at high risk of being murdered or seriously harmed every year, but less than 1 per cent of the perpetrators receive any specialist intervention to ensure they change their behaviour.

There has been and is a failure to respond to perpetrators coherently – or in many respond cases at all.

The response to domestic abuse in the UK has always focused on expecting the victim to leave and start a new life in a new community, an action which causes major disruption and takes them away from their support network of family and friends.

Often the perpetrator is left to continue their life as normal and then frequently repeats the same behaviour with new partners, creating more victims.

Providing an extensive system of support for victims and their children is essential, but on its own it will not stop domestic abuse.

But if long-term change in the prevalence and patterns of domestic abuse is to be achieved, perpetrators must be challenged to stop.

So on the grounds that we need to develop effective interventions for perpetrators that minimise repeat and serial patterns of abuse and complement support for victims and children, leading social sector organisations, Respect, SafeLives and Social Finance, are now working with Police and Crime Commissioners and local authorities in Sussex, Essex and South Wales and the Lloyds Bank Foundation – and launched the Drive project.

Drive aims to develop and evaluate a new approach to hold the perpetrators of domestic abuse to account in order to keep the victims and children safe.

Starting in April 2016 a pilot project will test an innovative approach to challenge the behaviour of perpetrators, and co-ordinate the response they receive across all agencies.

For the first time in England and Wales, Drive's case managers in the three areas will work with some of the most dangerous perpetrators, on a one-to-one basis, to reduce their abusive behaviour.

Drive is funded by Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales, the Tudor Trust and the Police and Crime Commissioners in Sussex, Essex and South Wales. The project has also benefited from local authority support.

Commenting on the initiative, Diana Barran, chief executive of SafeLives, said: "SafeLives is committed to reducing the number of victims of domestic abuse – this is not possible without reducing the number of perpetrators.

"The victims we work with have asked us why they are always the ones expected to change – and why too often the perpetrator is left free to continue their abuse of them and others.

"We want to help victims today and reduce the number of victims of tomorrow.

"We are evidence-led and will therefore be testing this intervention in three areas, with the aim of proving it could work and be rolled out nationally."

Jo Todd, CEO of Respect, said: "Keeping families safe from domestic violence requires a focus on the perpetrator, a sustained focus on both reducing further harm and changing behaviour.

"When we fail to do this effectively, it allows perpetrators to continue to abuse from one relationship to the next."

And as Emily Bolton, director of Social Finance's Impact Incubator, pointed out: "We work hard to tackle many of the most serious social issues we face in the UK.

"But we cannot break the cycles of vulnerability and harm if we do not properly address the causes of domestic abuse.

"To really improve the life chances of the children and victims, we must develop a national and coordinated response to deliver long-term change in perpetrators' behaviour."

Nick Alston, Police and Crime Commissioner for Essex, said: "All too often, when an individual has been subject to domestic abuse, the question is asked 'why didn't they try to leave their situation'.

"However it is the behaviour of the perpetrators of domestic abuse that must be questioned and challenged as they are at the root of this crime."

But, as Sandra Horley, chief executive of Refuge, told the Guardian: "Domestic violence is not about the actions of individual men, it is a social problem.

"Helping a handful of perpetrators – it is expected that 900 offenders will be asked to take part in the Drive programme over the next three years – will do nothing to address the root causes of domestic violence.

"Domestic violence is all about power and control. It is not about managing the perpetrator's anger or his drinking problems – it is about addressing his need to control 'his woman'."

"The perpetrator is the problem," domestic abuse victim Rachel Williams said, "Why is it that the victim is the one who has to move and seek refuge, when the perpetrator carries on as normal?

"If we don’t deal with them – then they just move on to the next victim," she continued, "We have to at least try and change their mindsets."

Trust women on abortion

Posted: 24 Feb 2016 09:00 AM PST

Five reasons to join the campaign to decriminalise abortion in the UK

In the UK today, a woman who ends her own pregnancy can be sent to prison for life under laws created before women could even vote.

Current laws do not prevent the vast majority of women ultimately accessing abortion care in the UK – with the exception of Northern Ireland – but they do compromise that care at many levels.

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (bpas) launched the We Trust Women campaign recently to get abortion taken out of criminal law throughout the UK.

Campaigners are calling for the current Victorian-era legislation, which threatens women with prison for ending their pregnancies, to be scrapped.

They want instead a framework that puts women centre-stage, and trusts women to make their own decisions about their own pregnancies.

Here are 5 reasons why we should take abortion out of criminal law and regulate it just like other clinical procedures: criminalising abortion denies women fundamental rights; women can be imprisoned for causing their own miscarriage; criminalising abortion deters doctors and compromises women's care; it is at odds with fundamental legal principles; and public opinion supports women's choice.

Criminalising abortion denies women fundamental rights.

In 2016, a woman cannot choose for herself to have an abortion.

Our abortion laws are still underpinned by the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act (OAPA), which made it a crime punishable by like imprisonment for any woman to deliberately cause her own miscarriage.

The 1967 Abortion Act did not get rid of the OAPA; it allows an abortion only when two doctors agree and certify that the woman wanting one meets certain criteria.

And this 1967 Act has never been extended to include Northern Ireland.

This campaign feels that women in every country in the UK should be trusted to make their own decisions about their own pregnancies.

To compel a woman to endure pregnancy and childbirth unless doctors give her legal authorisation to have an abortion is to deny her the right to control her own body, plan her own family and determine her own life course.

Women can be imprisoned for causing their own miscarriage.

A woman who uses at home the abortion medication now widely available online can be sent to prison for life.

The UK has one of the harshest penalties for self-induced abortion of any other country in Europe – with the exception of Ireland.

Our neighbours in countries such as France and Sweden do not imprison women for causing their own abortions – and even in Poland, where abortion is highly restricted women cannot be prosecuted.

Criminalising abortion deters doctors and compromises women's care.

A doctor who provides safe abortion care to a woman who has requested it without the approval of a second doctor, or fails to provide Government officials with a certificate to show that the abortion was carried out on legal grounds, can be sent to prison.

This threat of prosecution, unique to abortion, deters doctors from entering this field of women's healthcare.

On occasion therefore women are unable to find a doctor willing or able to help them.

Treatment can be delayed because doctors must comply with unnecessary laws that have no clinical benefit, and are open to perverse interpretation.

Nurses and midwives who can provide highly skilled, complex care in other fields are excluded from offering straightforward abortion care to women who need it because the law permits only doctors to practice it.

It is at odds with fundamental legal principles.

The fact that abortion remains within criminal law sits at odds with other well-established legal principles that a person's body is their own.

No-one can be compelled to undergo medical intervention against their will – including pregnant women whose foetus may die as a result.

Life-saving organs cannot be taken from the dead body of someone who made clear they did not wish to donate, yet a living woman can be compelled to sustain a foetus against her will from the moment a fertilised egg implants in her womb.

Public opinion supports women's choice.

Public opinion on abortion is now more liberal than the law, with two-thirds of people believing that abortion should be allowed according to a woman's choice, compared to just over a third (37 per cent) 30 years ago.

There are around 200,000 abortions a year in the UK and one in three women will have an abortion in her lifetime.

Sexual health policy supports the provision of abortion as a back-up to contraceptive failure, and 98 per cent of abortions are funded by the NHS.

Taking abortion out of criminal law will not change the numbers of women having abortions, but regulating it in the same way as any other healthcare procedure would be far more suited to the beliefs and values of our society today.

It would be a statement that we trust women.

It would recognise just how far we have come since 1861.

Women should decide if, when and with whom they have children.

We should trust women to make those choices.

The campaign is supported by a range of women's rights groups, reproductive rights campaigners and professional bodies including the Royal College of Midwives, Women's Aid, Fawcett Society, Maternity Action, the British Society of Abortion Care Providers, Birthrights, Lawyers for Choice, End Violence Against Women, Equality Now, IPPF European Network, Voice for Choice, Southall Black Sisters, Alliance for Choice NI and Doctors for a Woman's Choice on Abortion.

Join the We Trust Women campaign to decriminalise abortion today.

Please write to your MP, MSP or MLA asking them to show they trust women by pushing for this Victorian-era law to be overturned.

Specifically, you can ask them to call for a parliamentary inquiry into abortion law.

Click here to find your MP, MSP or MLA and to see a template letter to send them.

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Women's Views on News

Exhibition: Unmasked 2

Posted: 23 Feb 2016 06:13 AM PST

Challenging the demand for prostitution in Scotland.

As part of the Audacious Women Festival, the End Prostitution Now campaign (EPN) is presenting "Unmasked 2".

This is a thought-provoking exhibition open on 29 February, outlining the realities of prostitution, giving women involved in prostitution a platform to describe their experiences in their own words.

One aim is to raise awareness of the impact of prostitution on the lives of vulnerable women by presenting the real-life views and attitudes of men who use prostitutes.

It also aims to challenge the assumption that prostitution is harmless.

Unmasked 2 contains two key exhibits:

Memoirs: A collection of 3 books which are filled with pages of prose using resource material from 'Punternet', a Trip-Advisor style website.

Memoirs follows the 'careers' of 3 men who bought and continue to use women in prostitution.

The books contain prose which detail the men's views and their attitudes towards the women they meet.

Inside the Sex Industry: an audio installation introducing you to 'Cassie', a woman who speaks out about her experiences of selling sex in Edinburgh.

Cassie tells us what it was like for her as a woman in the sex industry in Edinburgh, from starting working in saunas when she was 17, to working in brothels and escorting.

Cassie's testimony allows you to learn first-hand about the lack of control, lack of power and the lack of choice facing many women.

Together the two parts of the exhibition present a stark juxtaposition between men who buy sex and women in prostitution and invites the listener to think about who has choices, where any power rests and challenges the notion that prostitution is a job just like any other.

It is a free event but places need to be booked.

Labour MSP Rhoda Grant, Scottish Labour's Equalities Spokesperson, said that a series of podcasts made by the Women's Support Project and Zero Tolerance, about the harm the sex industry causes women, give a long overdue voice to those working in prostitution.

Grant, Labour MSP for the Highlands and Islands, told the Herald: "It's very difficult for people to speak out about negative experiences because we have a powerful lobby for the sex trade which gains financially from ensuring that people think of prostitution as a normal job. People who have experienced it often feel that they are not being heard.

"Those that do speak out are very brave and it’s very important that their voices are listened to."

Linda Thompson, of the Women's Support Project, who interviewed Cassie about her work in saunas and private flats and the brutal reality of the sex industry for the podcasts, agreed it was difficult for women who exit the industry to speak out.

"Many are fearful of reprisals from the sex industry, and concerned about the possible impact on themselves and their families," she told the Herald. "We know of women who have been targeted in both online and offline settings.

"We support the Scottish Government's approach which sees commercial sexual exploitation as a form of violence against women and are keen to see how all partners will work on local and national levels to prevent and eradicate it.

"This type of violence has no place in a fairer and equal Scotland."

Looking at the gender pay gap for women over 40

Posted: 23 Feb 2016 06:12 AM PST

Entrenchment requires mandatory action.

The Women and Equalities Select Committee is holding an inquiry the aim of which is to inform government strategy on reducing the gender pay gap, and focusing on policies aimed at reducing the pay gap for women aged over 40.

This inquiry aims to fill that gap by considering these areas:

How adequate are the Government's proposals for tackling the pay gap faced by women over 40? What additional measures would be most effective in reducing the pay differentials faced by this group?

What actions would be most effective in improving recruitment, retention and re-training for women aged over 40?

Is there any evidence that women aged over 40 face particular barriers to promotion? If so, what could be done to address this problem?

Are there particular difficulties in narrowing the gender pay gap for women working in predominantly female sectors and non-professional roles? Are there any evidence-based measures which could effectively address these issues?

Should the regulations on gender pay reporting be extended to organisations with fewer than 250 employees?

Would voluntary measures regarding what employers do with gender pay gap information be sufficient to create change within organisations? What could be done to ensure that information about an organisation's pay gap is translated into action?

And which mechanisms would most effectively ensure that policies designed to narrow the gender pay gap are fully complied with? Is there evidence from other countries or policy areas of what might work best?

The Committee's chair, Maria Miller MP, said: “The Prime Minister's commitment to eliminating the gender pay gap in a generation is clear but the Committee is concerned that the policies to bring about this change are not clear and may not be adequate.

"We want to find out what new policies the Government might be considering and why they think gender pay gap reporting can address the structural issues many women face in accessing employment.

"In particular we want to investigate how Ministers plan to reduce the pay gap where it hits hardest – amongst women over the age of 40.”

Draft regulations on gender pay reporting are due to be published shortly.

The TUC has already argued that gender pay gap reporting “must require employers to do more than publish numbers”.

It thinks organisations should be required to publish an evidence-based analysis of the main causes of the gender pay gap (GPG) in their organisation, along with the action they intend to take to narrow it, and then report on progress against that.

The Discrimination Law Association points out that “voluntary measures… have not managed to eradicate the GPG after over 40 years of legislation, and the position is unlikely to change from further voluntary measures. "Such entrenchment requires mandatory action.”

Most of the evidence to the inquiry has called for a lowering of the reporting threshold, which currently stands at 250 employees.

This 250 figure excludes SMEs, which account for 99.9 per cent of private sector companies, and the majority of third sector organisations – 68 per cent of whose employees are women.

Sixty per cent of all private sector employment in the UK is in SMEs.

The Committee has also heard evidence that:

Smaller employers are less likely to have good equalities practice in place because they are less likely to have a separate HR function.

The additional burden of calculating the gender pay gap could be managed by some employers if they have a modest pay-roll system to generate the data with minimal additional time and cost.

ONS data shows that the highest gender pay gap for all employees in 2015 was in organisations with 20-99 staff.

However, business organisations have argued that extending gender pay gap regulations to organisations with fewer than 250 employees would be a significant administrative burden for SMEs.

The Committee has heard evidence that overall gender pay gap figures may be of limited use.

Women over 40 and those working part time suffer the greatest gap, and to solve this problem, data needs to be broken down by age and full-time/part-time status.

As Michael Newman from the Discrimination Law Association told the Committee: “If the requirement is going to be effective, it needs to have detail in terms of the categories that are being recorded.

"We know there is a difference in terms of the gender pay gap between part time and full time workers. We know there is a difference in terms of age categories. The only way that can be measured is by feeding that into the pay reporting requirements.”

The Committee questioned Nicky Morgan and Nick Boles about the Government's plans to close the gap for women over 40, with a particular focus on the potential economic gains, on better provision for women returners, flexible working, and better provision for carers.

Evidence from Business in the Community to this inquiry has highlighted the specific loss of older women's skills: “Older workers represent a valuable untapped resource – BITC's Missing Million research found that if the employment rate of the 50-64 age group matched that of the 35-49 age group, this would boost UK GDP by £88 billion.”

Underemployment or unemployment because of family and caring responsibilities is a common problem among women over 40.

2.4 million women who are not in work want to work and over 1.3 million women want to increase the hours they work.

Nearly a quarter of women aged 50 – 64 have an informal caring responsibility for a sick, disabled or elderly person.

Committee chair Maria Miller said: “Evidence to the Committee indicates that the loss of older women in the workforce – and their skills – is damaging for individual women and bad for the economy, particularly productivity.

"We are particularly keen to find out what plans the Government has to support carers to work, and whether these are part of its gender pay gap strategy.”

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Women's Views on News

Support Caroline Lucas’s NHS Bill

Posted: 22 Feb 2016 01:03 PM PST

There is an alternative to private companies making profits from public ill-health.

A petition has been set up asking Jeremy Corbyn to publicly support the second reading of the NHS Bill 2016, which will be presented to parliament by Green MP Caroline Lucas as a private members bill on 11 March.

The bill, named ‘the NHS reinstatement bill’, received cross-party support when it was first introduced to parliament in July, as the Guardian reported, and was signed by Jeremy Corbyn, now the Labour leader, and the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, when they were backbenchers.

The petition backs Caroline Lucas’s calls for Labour to support the Bill now.

It calls on Jeremy Corbyn to arrange for every Labour MP to attend this debate, forcing government MPs back to parliament on a Friday and affording the anti-privatisation NHS Bill the respect and attention it deserves from all sides of the House of Commons and the UK media alike.

It also calls on Jeremy Corbyn to take this opportunity to articulate to the nation that there is an alternative to private companies making profits from cancer care while poor people are forced to pay for hearing aids, and for example that there is an alternative to local hospital services being closed in order to pay off Private Finance Initiative debts.

To read a brief summary of the NHS Reinstatement Bill, click here.

In short, Caroline Lucas’s Bill proposes to fully restore the NHS as an accountable public service by reversing 25 years of marketisation in the NHS, by abolishing the purchaser-provider split, ending contracting and re-establishing public bodies and public services accountable to local communities.

This is necessary to stop the dismantling of the NHS under the Health and Social Care Act 2012 and it is driven by the needs of local communities.

Scotland and Wales have already reversed marketisation and restored their NHS without massive upheaval. England can too.

The Bill gives flexibility in how it would be implemented, led by local authorities and current bodies.

It would:

Reinstate the government's duty to provide the key NHS services throughout England, including hospitals, medical and nursing services, primary care, mental health and community services;

Integrate health and social care services;

Declare the NHS to be a "non-economic service of general interest" and "a service supplied in the exercise of governmental authority" so asserting the full competence of Parliament and the devolved bodies to legislate for the NHS without being trumped by EU competition law and the World Trade Organization's General Agreement on Trade in Services;

Abolish the NHS Commissioning Board (NHS England) and re-establish it as a Special Health Authority with regional committees;

Plan and provide services without contracts through Health Boards, which could cover more than one local authority area if there was local support;

Allow local authorities to lead a 'bottom up' process with the assistance of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), NHS trusts, NHS foundation trusts and NHS England to transfer functions to Health Boards;

Abolish NHS trusts, NHS foundation trusts and CCGs after the transfer by 1st January 2018;

Abolish Monitor – the regulator of NHS foundation trusts, commercial companies and voluntary organisations – and repeal the competition and core marketisation provisions of the 2012 Act;

Integrate public health services, and the duty to reduce inequalities, into the NHS;

Re-establish Community Health Councils to represent the interest of the public in the NHS;

Stop licence conditions taking effect which have been imposed by Monitor on NHS foundation trusts and that will have the effect of reducing by April 2016 the number of services that they currently have to provide;

Require national terms and conditions under the NHS Staff Council and Agenda for Change system for relevant NHS staff;

Centralise NHS debts under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) in the Treasury, require publication of PFI contracts and also require the Treasury to report to Parliament on reducing NHS PFI debts;

Abolish the legal provisions passed in 2014 requiring certain immigrants to pay for NHS services;

Declare the UK's agreement to the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TIPP) and other international treaties affecting the NHS to require the prior approval of Parliament and the devolved legislatures; and

Require the government to report annually to Parliament on the effect of treaties on the NHS.

To visit the NHS Reinstatement Bill website click here.

To read about the Bill in full, click here.

Please sign and share this petition.

And please contact your MP, ask them to sign this petition, and ask them to support Caroline Lucas and reinstate the NHS.

Bearing in mind that our lives depend on it.

Thanks.

Sex education: a necessity, not an option

Posted: 22 Feb 2016 12:59 PM PST

Why, in 2016, is sex education still not a mandatory part of the curriculum?

Earlier this month, the government rejected calls from MPs and four House of Commons committees to make sex and relationship education compulsory in schools.

Most state schools include sex education as part of Personal, Social, and Health Education (PSHE) classes, but free schools and academies are not obliged to teach it.

The government's decision was met with widespread disappointment, frustration and anger, and it has been reported that Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, who announced the decision, was in favour of extending the sex education requirement to all schools but was overruled.

There have also been suggestions of a gender divide in Parliament over the issue.

Many male MPs have joined the campaign to make sex education compulsory, including former Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, but it isn't surprising that women are its biggest advocates.

A lack of sex and relationship education negatively affects women significantly more so than men.

For the most part women are responsible for contraception and have no choice but to deal with the consequences if they fall pregnant. The UK still has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in Western Europe.

Women are also far more likely to be abused in a relationship; Metropolitan Police statistics show that male violence against women makes up 85 per cent of reported domestic violence incidents.

Teaching children about sex and relationships has always been vital, but the rise of the internet and social media has made it more crucial than ever.

From a young age, children have access to all kinds of images, videos, websites and TV shows, and are exposed to harmful pressures and influences online and from their peers.

The impressions of sex and relationships that children and teenagers get from this vast array of mediums are often misconstrued, and the importance of giving them the right help, support and information at the right age cannot be stressed enough.

Worrying statistics show that abusive relationships and behaviours are not confined to adults.

In a 2009 NSPCC survey, a quarter of girls aged 13 – 17 reported experiencing intimate partner violence and almost three quarters said they had experienced emotional abuse.

In September 2015 an investigation conducted by Radio 5 Live revealed that over the last three years, more than 5500 alleged sex offences were reported to police by schools throughout the UK, including 4000 sexual assaults and 600 rapes.

Clearly, schools are not as safe as we think. So why, despite statistics like these and pressure from various people and groups, is the government still refusing to change the rules?

It cannot be denied that the Conservative Party endorses traditional values, and frank, open discussions about sex and relationships would certainly contradict these values.

There are still a lot of taboo subjects that adults are reluctant to talk about and address, which does nothing to help young people and their understanding of sex and relationships.

It seems that David Cameron and many of his fellow MPs still hold the out-dated and unhelpful view that the solution is to 'protect' children from having any knowledge of sex for as long as possible, a view which dictates their legislation around sex education.

This is no clearer than in the government's preoccupation with pornography.

In December 2014 amendments were made to the 2003 Communications Act, banning certain sexual acts such as strangulation and spanking beyond a gentle level being performed in paid-for-video-on-demand online porn and DVD pornography.

Just last week, the Tories launched a consultation on proposals that would ban any porn site that doesn't have an Age Verification System in place. While this is by no means a bad thing, the government are extremely naïve if they think that this will stop all children under the age of 18 from viewing porn.

The content in and accessibility of porn is certainly a big problem and its influence on young people should not be underestimated, but it is one of many issues which need to be addressed.

Sex education needs to be a lot broader and more thorough than it generally is at the moment; from what I can remember, the sex education I received in secondary school didn't go much further than a lesson on how to put a condom on and being told 'if in doubt, keep it out'.

Equally, it shouldn't focus solely on sex; the need to teach children about all aspects of sex and relationships, including consent, sexuality, and emotional and physical abuse, is regularly raised by charities and high profile figures, including the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, Laura Bates.

Unfortunately, it appears to be falling on deaf ears – at least as far as the government is concerned.

The National Curriculum exists for a reason, and schools are already legally required to teach a number of subjects like English, Science, and Maths. There is no reason why something as key as sex education shouldn't be added to the list of compulsory subjects – quite frankly, it is bewildering that it hasn’t already.

A lack of proper sex and relationships education is having a damaging effect on the health and wellbeing of young people, so it is vital that we continue to campaign to make it a mandatory part of children’s schooling.

It is high time the government faced the facts and caught up with the times, instead of trying to wrap children in cotton wool and thinking along the lines of ‘out of sight, out of mind’.

Friday, February 19, 2016

Women's Views on News

Help expose sexist hate speech

Posted: 18 Feb 2016 01:57 PM PST

Join the No Hate Speech Movement’s European Action Day countering Sexist Hate Speech.

Crimes motivated by hatred and prejudice happen in every country of Europe.

A report from the Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union shows that minority groups are still the most vulnerable targets, the most targeted being the Roma, LGBT and immigrant communities.

A survey of victims of hate crime showed that many hate crimes go unreported, as the police force is seen as incapable of acting, either because of fear of intimidation by the perpetrators, or because these crimes seem to fit the norms of the given community.

Hate speech provides the context for hate crime to take place, as it dehumanises its targets and provides justification for physical abuse, violence and heinous crimes such as genocide and ethnic cleansing.

States are responsible for investigating and unmasking the motivation behind hate crimes under Article 14 of the European Convention of Human Rights, as hate crimes affect our entire society.

Victims of hate crime are not just statistics; they are people whose dignity and human rights have been violated.

And then there is the internet.

The internet offers us the chance to create, publish, distribute and consume media content, fostering therefore a space of full participation, engagement and self-expression.

With the development of social networks we all can participate in cyberspace in a variety of ways ranging from keeping in touch with our friends and developing new contacts to sharing content and exploring our self-expression.

Online space gives us new opportunities: engaging with others for causes that we care for.

But we may equally be victim and agent of abuse and human rights violations, among them, hate speech in various forms and cyberbullying.

Hate speech, as defined by the Council of Europe, covers all forms of expression which spread, incite, promote or justify racial hatred, xenophobia, anti-Semitism or other forms of hatred based on intolerance, including: intolerance expressed by aggressive nationalism and ethnocentrism, discrimination and hostility against minorities, migrants and people of immigrant origin.

Hate speech as such is not a new issue on the internet, nor in the human rights debate.

But its online dimension and the potential damage it can do to democratic processes gives us all new reasons to act.

The No Hate Speech Movement, which started in 2013 and will be running until 2017, aims to protect and promote human rights online and encourage youth participation and 'netcitizenship'.

Ultimately, its goal is to mobilise young people to help create a culture of human rights and democracy.

The No Hate Speech Movement is organising a European Action Day countering Sexist Hate Speech.

It is to be on 8 March 2016, International Women's Day.

The idea is to publish different stories and articles connected to the issue of sexist hate speech you have found or been faced with on the internet, on social media, in online journalism, in online games and in online marketing.

If you have a personal story to share, or if you have been researching in this field, or if you have an opinion on this matter, please do write it up and send it to the Movement to be published on the No Hate Blog between 6 March and 10 March and on the Facebook Page of Movement and shared on #nohatespeech.

Discrimination, multiple discrimination and hate speech against women is a serious issue still in today's Europe, but this is the first time the No Hate Speech Movement will address sexism and gender equality.

It is very important to explain that sexism is also a form of human rights violation and that hate speech against women increases violence against women.

Sexist hate speech aims to humiliate and objectify women, to destroy their reputation and to make them vulnerable and fearful.

It is a form of social shaming, and it is spreading the message that the women are lesser human beings.

Gender-motivated hate speech creates, reinforces and perpetuates gender hierarchy in public places and destroys equality, solidarity and inclusion in all communities.

The No Hate Speech Movement aims to raise awareness about sexist hate speech online and its risks for democracy and its tragic consequences for individual young people and invites its followers to take part in different actions that will be designed with the following objectives:

To raise awareness about the extent of the problem of online sexist hate speech in Europe through statistics, figures and personal stories;

To speak up for gender equality and Human Rights of women in all fields of life by giving positive examples of counter narratives;

To reach out to men inviting them to speak up for equal rights and express solidarity and support to women; and

To share good practices of educational tools for working with sexism, sexist hate speech and discrimination toward women.

'Sexist hate speech' as a legal term does not yet exist but legal documents support its inclusion.

Sexist hate speech targeting women has been referred to in several terms such as "sexualised hate speech", "sexist hate speech", "cyber gender harassment", or "cybersexism".

Sexist hate speech prevents women from enjoying their right to freedom of expression and their participation in the online space.

It needs to stop.

Join the No Hate Speech Movement here, on the #nohatespeech hashtag and on facebook.