Women's Views on News |
| Posted: 23 Feb 2016 06:13 AM PST
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
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.”  |
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