Women's Views on News |
| Posted: 15 Jun 2016 12:23 PM PDT
A cross-party national campaign called Reclaim the Internet has been launched to combat online misogyny. Labour's Yvette Cooper is leading the campaign alongside former Equalities minister Maria Miller, former Lib Dem MP and gender equality campaigner Jo Swinson, and Labour MP Jess Phillips. The women started the campaign by launching a public consultation via an online forum with the aim of starting a nation-wide discussion about defeating the growing problem of online abuse. At the same time, they released research undertaken by Demos, a cross-party think-tank, which unveiled the shocking scale of misogyny on social media. The use of the words "slut" and "whore" by Twitter users in the UK were monitored for three weeks from the end of April, and the study found that 6,500 people were victim to 10,000 aggressive and misogynistic tweets over that period. The Guardian also recently commissioned research into the 70 million comments left on its website since 2006 and found that of the ten most abused writers, eight were women, and the two men were black. The ten least abused writers were all men. Cooper is asking individuals, organisations, unions and their members, victims, employers, police and tech companies to contribute to their consultation. Facebook has already declared its support for the campaign, but admitted that it doesn’t always remove misogynist comments. And its stance regarding online misogyny and abuse is not as strict as its policy on certain photos, such as those revealing female nipples, posted on the site. Contributors will be asked to comment on the following five areas: The role of the police and prosecutors; The role of organisations and employers; The responsibility of social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, as publishers; The role of individuals across society to tackle trolls and support victims; and Empowering and educating the next generation. The home page of the Reclaim the Internet website says: ‘”This is for everyone” – that’s what Tim Berners Lee said when he invented the World Wide Web almost thirty years ago’. ‘But misogyny, sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, intimidation or abuse online mean that some voices are silenced’. ‘Forty years ago the “Reclaim the Night” campaign was launched to build a movement against harassment, abuse and violence against women on the streets. Now the Internet is our new streets and everyone should be able to feel safe and speak out online’. The women behind the campaign are no strangers to online abuse – high-profile females in the public eye are often targeted on social media. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, Jess Phillips told presenter Jenni Murray: “On three different occasions since I was elected I have experienced this thing called ‘dog-piling’, where suddenly there is a burst when thousands of people, largely from America I have to say, start talking to me. “In the first instance it was about my rape – actually raping me – so there were people who talked about pouring molten metal into my vagina on one occasion. “It’s very graphic, it seeps into my email, it’s on Twitter. “More recently, after we launched the campaign, the response was to joke about how I’m not worth raping, as if raping was for better women than me.” The reaction to the launch of Reclaim the Internet on social media proved exactly why the campaign is so necessary. One Twitter user, for example, tweeted Yvette Cooper to say, ‘how long has it been since you’ve had a good shag from a proper lad. Wanna give you the long dick’. I had a similar response to the article I wrote on trolling for Women’s Views on News a couple of months ago, including from one man who told me, ‘you big baby, grow up’. Another claimed that ‘we must stop crying like sissy girls when a stranger types words from 2000 miles away’. These are exactly the kinds of attitudes that Reclaim the Internet is fighting against. Not surprisingly, it is often those who face the least abuse online who make these sorts of unhelpful and demeaning comments. There is a key difference between constructive debates, and sometimes even arguments, on social media, and horrific abuse and threats. And ‘free speech’ does not, and should not, mean that people have the right to bully others. Online abuse has a detrimental, and sometimes fatal, impact on its victims, and it is high time we treated it as the serious matter, and crime, that it is. We owe it to those who have already suffered, and to the young people who have yet to discover how scary and horrible the internet, and more specifically social media, can be.  |
| Here are some referendum resources for women Posted: 15 Jun 2016 12:19 PM PDT
Whatever the outcome of the EU referendum on 23 June 2016, it will have a significant impact on the lives of women and girls. The Women's Equality Network Wales (WEN Wales) is one of many groups concerned by reports that women's voices are being marginalised in the debates surrounding the EU referendum. As an organisation, WEN Wales does not have a position on whether or not the UK should leave the European Union, but does want to promote healthy discussion about the issues and make sure that women in Wales have the information they need to make up their own minds about how to vote. Analysis by the University of Loughborough has shown that men have received 91 per cent of EU Referendum coverage in newspapers and 84 per cent of the coverage on broadcast media. Yvette Cooper MP has called the debate "male and stale" and there is evidence that this aggressive, male-dominated approach is off-putting for women. Both the Remain and the Leave campaigns have set up groups for women, but an ICM poll conducted for the Fawcett Society found that the campaigns are failing to engage women. And a BMG poll conducted for the Electoral Reform Society found that men are twice as likely to feel well-informed about the EU referendum than women; 21 per cent of men compared to 10 per cent of women. In an article in Open Democracy John Mortimer, from the Electoral Reform Society, said that this "suggests the campaigns – and the media coverage of those campaigns – aren't reaching out of the Westminster bubble or targeting groups outside of middle-aged to elderly men". This is concerning because the more well-informed a person perceives themselves to be, the more likely they are to vote. And as the Fawcett Society said in its post The EU Referendum: "Both sides in the EU referendum debate need to address issues of concern to women and proactively engage them. "So far the debate has been male dominated. "The polls suggest that women are largely undecided, so there is all to play for. We need a process and an outcome that includes women and represents their views." In response to these concerns, WEN Wales has produced this list of resources which present the key issues in a way that is relevant to women. WEN Wales hopes that individual women will find the resources helpful and that women's organisations will use the information to stimulate discussion within their groups and networks. For an excellent general briefing on the EU referendum which has been written for women, please see The Scottish Women's Convention's Guide to the EU Referendum. For information about the Remain and Leave campaigns: Women In campaign: 'Women IN' is a network of women working in Britain campaigning for the UK to remain a member of the EU. It is part of the larger 'Britain Stronger in Europe' campaign. Women for Britain facebook page: Women for Britain is the group representing women, their families and their futures in the campaign for a leave vote in the EU referendum. It is part of the larger Vote Leave campaign. For links about women debating the EU referendum, here are resources which present both sides of the debate, with a specific focus on women's issues: The Fawcett Society: EU referendum debate BBC Women's Hour: Harriet Harmen and Gisela Stuart on the EU referendum BBC Reality Check: Does the EU guarantee women's rights? Democratic Audit Campaign: What did ITV's EU referendum debate say about the role of women in the campaign? National Association of Women's Organisations (NAWO): Information for female voters Scottish Women's Convention: EU Referendum Debate Report Scottish Women's Convention: video of EU Referendum Conference And looking at whether women are better off in or out of the EU, these resources make the case for women staying or leaving the EU: Arguments that women should vote to leave the EU. Dreda Say Mitchell's blog piece on why it is better for women to vote Leave BBC Reality Check: Suffragettes efforts undermined by the EU The Telegraph: Women who campaign for a Brexit are like Suffragettes, Priti Patel says Huffington Post: Why women are just not into the EU Huffington Post: BBC Question Time EU referendum debate sees young woman make passionate case for Brexit Arguments that women should vote to stay in the EU: Monica Threlfall's blog piece on why it is better for women to vote Remain The Telegraph: Forget House Prices: the EU Referendum matters for women's lives TUC: 'Brexit would turn clock back on women's rights by decades' TUC: Women's Rights: The risks of Brexit The Mutton Club: Why UK women should vote to Remain The Pool: Women and Brexit, what's gender got to do with it Left Foot Forward blog: What has the EU ever done for women's rights? Quite a lot actually The debates are very passionate on both sides, and this can be confusing. Here are some general resources that aim to provide people with the facts and clarity in relation to the EU referendum. A Better Referendum: A free on-line tool designed to encourage more informed and enjoyable EU referendum debates BBC NEWs: The UK's EU Referendum: All You Need to Know BBC Reality Check: Live fact checking and impartial analysis ahead of the EU Referendum. Fact Check: Channel 4 seeks to find the truth and separate political fact from fiction. Full Fact: Full Fact is fact-checking the EU Referendum. Whichever Side you end up on Get the Facts ITV: Remain or Leave And these news sites provide well-researched articles on the referendum: The Conversation and Open Democracy. The situation in Wales is different to the rest of the UK. One of the key issues is funding, because Wales is a beneficiary of EU funds designed to help poorer areas. Here are some resources that consider the implications of the referendum specifically for Wales: Wales Online: 10 of the best reads on whether or not we should quit the EU BBC News: What does the EU referendum mean for Wales? BBC News: Wales benefits £79 per person from being in the EU, study says BBC News: Welsh EU cash 'maintained' after Brexit say Vote Leave WEN Wales is made up of over 700 organisations and individuals committed to making Wales a safer and fairer place for women and girls. Funded by the Welsh government to unite and build the women's sector in Wales, WEN Wales aims to provide clarity and a united voice on the serious issues facing women in Wales. A small, dedicated team of staff and trustees provide consultations, events and research, and represent women in Wales at national and international levels. The work at WEN Wales is underpinned by the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Visit WEN's CEDAW page to find out more about CEDAW. To join WEN Wales, click here.  |
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