Women's Views on News |
| Nottinghamshire police take a welcome step Posted: 19 Jul 2016 06:49 AM PDT
While a lot of misleading headlines focus on promoting this to mean that wolf-whistling is going to become a hate crime, what is really happening is that, for the first time in England and Wales, a police force is going to record harassment of women as hate crime. For as Nottinghamshire Police told the Guardian: "Misogynistic hate crime can cause significant distress to women, who have been known to face threats, and in some cases, sexual or physical abuse for turning down propositions. And added: "Claiming we are focusing on wolf-whistling and catcalling does nothing more than trivialise our intentions." The move follows many months work and consultation with local women’s groups, including Nottinghamshire Women’s Centre, who have told police how distressing this behaviour can be, and then explored with them what could be done. The new misogyny category acts as a flag or 'qualifier' on the incident log, rather than defining the incident itself. The offence itself is not changed – so for example, an incident of anti-social behaviour would become anti-social behaviour with a 'misogyny hate crime qualifier'. It is important to understand that no new crimes are created as a result of this policy change – despite what you may have read in the media. Recording these incidents will enable the police and the community in Nottinghamshire to see where this behaviour is common, who is doing it and then to look at what might deter it. And now anyone who has witnessed or been a victim of a misogynistic incident can report it to the police by calling 101. You can also report online via the True Vision website. If you don't want to report anything but you still want to speak about your experience, consider sharing your story with an online forum such as Everyday Sexism or Hollaback. In March this year Imkaan and the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW) released a powerful new short film which featured young black and minority ethnic women in the UK talking about their experiences of being sexually harassed in public places and how it is often combined with racism. The film was released alongside a new national survey by YouGov of women's experience of sexual harassment which revealed that: 85 per cent of women aged 18-24 have experienced unwanted sexual attention in public places and 45 per cent have experienced unwanted sexual touching (which can amount to sexual assault); and 64 per cent of women of all ages across the UK have experienced sexual harassment in public places, and 35 per cent of all women have experienced unwanted sexual touching. It also found that only 11 per cent of women reported that someone else intervened when they experienced unwanted sexual touching in a public place, while 81 per cent said they would have liked someone to do so. And that of the women who have received unwanted sexual attention and unwanted sexual touching, more than a quarter were aged under 16 the first time it happened, and more than three quarters were under 21 when it first happened. The 5-minute film, ‘I’d just like to be free‘, includes young women talking frankly to camera about racist stereotypes that harassers direct at them, and about receiving a barrage of racism when they object to harassment. One woman said: "My experiences are different as a black woman than they are for my white friends. I should be 'up for it' or I am 'fair game' or I shouldn't care if my body is touched in a specific way." And another said: "After me ignoring them, that's when it turns racial, so that's when it might be 'you black this' or 'you black that…how dare you ignore me'." The women also rejected the idea that sexual harassment is trivial: "It's a common misconception that those minor incidents are minor – they're not – in the minds of those who experience them." Another interviewee said it's not women's job to sort this out: "I think men need to talk to each other and say actually, dude, don't do that, that's really messed up." Speaking at the release of the film, Sarah Green, co-director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said: "Girls learn from a young age that they have to do things to avoid drawing attention to themselves. "We do work to try and make sure we're safe, and we're made to feel responsible when we're vulnerable. "This film shows the changes women are making to how they move about in public to try to avoid abuse, and the devastating impact on the freedom of women in the UK today." And Lia Latchford, policy and campaigns co-ordinator in Imkaan's Young Women's Team, said: "Our film tells a powerful story of young black women's everyday experience of racialised sexual harassment. "For us, we cannot ‘leave race out of it’ because the way we are treated is based on how our whole identities are perceived as black women. "This harassment and abuse often uses racist stereotypes and insults as an attempt to put black women in our place. "Everyone, adults and young people alike, needs to talk about it and it needs to stop." To watch the film, click here.  |
| Approach to care needs rethink Posted: 19 Jul 2016 06:41 AM PDT With more and more people providing care for friends and family, the role played by government and employers in supporting longer working lives is becoming more crucial than ever. For a joint report published last week, Age UK and Carers UK examined the challenges and barriers facing carers aged 50+ as they attempt to juggle their caring responsibilities with work, as well as some of the potential solutions. They investigated the stories of 50+ carers, looking at what works – and crucially what's needed – to improve their employment prospects. New analysis for this report finds that caring has a statistically significant impact on employment prospects from as little as five hours care provision per week, and that from 10 hours carers suffer significant detriment to their employment prospects, which can lead to significant financial and social disadvantage. According to recent research, those in receipt of Carer's Allowance have well over 90 per cent less pensions savings than the average saver. In addition, as carers tend to have a lower propensity to save for the long term, they are more likely to draw down on long-term savings to meet the immediate costs of caring, such as increased travel and household expenses. The report, 'Walking the tightrope: The challenges of combining work and care in later life', makes a series of recommendations to government and employers – recommendations which Age UK and Carers UK believe will go some way to redressing the difficulties raised, and help improve carers' ability to remain in work. Improving access to flexible working: Carers need access to a range of flexible working options. Age UK and Carers UK have already called on the Government to make all jobs 'flexible by default' to support longer working lives. For carers this is vital. Employers should: Make flexible working options available to staff from 'day one', and ensure flexibility is explicitly referenced in recruitment literature; Take proactive steps to promote flexible working options available to staff, and to encourage staff and managers to discuss working patterns with all staff. Potential mechanisms could include: – Creating a 'menu' of potential flexible working patterns available to staff. – Making consideration of what flexibilities could be offered a requirement for approval of headcount changes; Consider what flexibilities could be offered to applicants for each arising vacancy. Central Government should: Create a requirement for all jobs to be 'flexible by default'; Work with industry to develop a kitemark for flexible working, including a requirement to allow new staff to request flexible working arrangements at the point of recruitment. Measures of quality could include carer retention. Working on attitudes and awareness – particularly among managers: While formal arrangements are important, action is needed to build awareness of caring issues in the workplace, and to shift attitudes, particularly among managers, to the needs of those caring in later life. Employers should: Provide training to managers on the issues affecting carers and the mechanisms in place to support them; Create visible signals of their 'carer friendly' status, which could include: – A named contact for carers in the workplace. – Carers forums and support groups for staff. – Carers champion(s) within the workplace, especially at senior levels; Consider introducing 'carer passports' to support carers in managing discussions around their needs. Central Government should: Work with Employers for Carers and other relevant parties to consider the development of a 'carer friendly/positive about carers' accreditation for workplaces along the lines of the two ticks disability scheme; and Work with employers across sectors to encourage wider understanding of the growing number of older carers in the workforce and of the business case for supporting carers to remain in work. Supporting carers through times of transition and in emergencies: While longer term flexible working arrangements can enable carers to balance day to day caring with work, emergencies, and periods of transition will arise, and carers need to support to manage these. Central Government should: Introduce a statutory entitlement to at least five days paid leave and look at a longer period of unpaid leave; and Designate a single body to coordinate transitional support between employees, employers and the care and support system to ensure that carers do not prematurely withdraw from the labour market. Improving access to care services: It is clear that the inadequacy of care services is a key factor in forcing more older carers to withdraw from the labour market. We need to improve access to flexible care and support – both day to day and particularly at times of transition – to support older workers to remain in the workplace. Employers should: Signpost carers to external sources of practical support. Employers that provide Employee Assistance packages should consider including specific services such as care search, back-up care and eldercare services as part of these. Central Government should: Explore how best to encourage closer joint working between carers, the care and support system and employers to support carers through times of transition, including exploring the potential for Jobcentre Plus to play a role; Consider the case for transitional support packages, for carers whose employment is at risk. Local authority commissioners should: Consider the needs of working carers in shaping the local market; and Consider how time banking and other voluntary schemes might offer support to those carers not eligible for statutory support. Improving work support for carers: It is vitally important that the unemployment support system is responsive to the needs of carers. Central Government should: Ensure that claimant commitments for carers are realistic and reflect the real life circumstances of carers; Provide training for all Jobcentre Plus staff relating to the barriers faced by carers and the over 50s; Ensure that harder-to-help carers, e.g. those aged 50+ and with their own health problems, have access to more intensive brokerage service as part of the Jobcentre Plus service; and Develop specific programmes to support former carers to return to work. These programmes should be open to carers over state pension age. Improving financial support for carers: It is clear that the benefits system does not currently work effectively to support carers to continue working. Government should: Review Carer's Allowance, and wider benefits available to carers, to ensure that working carers are getting the financial support they need, and to reduce disincentives to work; Consider how the contribution of carers who are not in receipt of Carer's Allowance either due to their earnings or their receipt of a state pension can be recognised; Align a rise in the earnings threshold for Carer's Allowance and any rise in the National Living Wage to ensure that carers can always work a minimum of 16 hours at National Living Wage and receive Carer's Allowance. Because it is clear that the benefits system does not currently work effectively to support carers to continue working. Heléna Herklots, chief executive of Carers UK, remarked in the report's foreward: 'For most people caring responsibilities come when they are in their late 40s and early 50s, a time when they have skills and experience built up over many years of working. 'The challenges of combining work and care mean that many people are leaving their jobs or reducing hours to provide care and finding themselves depleting savings and ending up in financial hardship ill prepared for their own retirement and care costs. 'Despite being something that more and more of us are doing, caring still isn't talked about at work in the way that looking after children is. We need to encourage a much more open culture where we all recognise that caring is a normal part of life.  |
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