Women's Views on News |
| Posted: 05 Jul 2016 12:45 AM PDT
On 23 June 2016 the National Union of Teachers (NUT) announced that members in England had voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action to protect pay and working conditions. Over 76 per cent of NUT members are women. In the NUT's ballot, 91.7 per cent voted in favour of strike action – and the NUT called the first day of strike action for 5 July 2016. The strike demands are for an increase in funding to schools and education, guaranteed terms and conditions in all types of schools, and for negotiations to be resumed on teacher contracts to allow workload issues to be addressed. The Union is particularly opposed to the White Paper proposal for forced academisation of all schools. In terms of its impact on education, the Union said that: 1. It's the wrong priority. The Government should be dealing with the real issues facing schools and parents – the growing teacher shortage, the lack of pupil places, the curriculum chaos and the funding crisis. 2. It's ineffective. The Government hasn't produced evidence that becoming an academy improves standards of education. Professor Stephen Machin said: "I don't think we have any evidence on that so far. We certainly have no evidence at all for primary schools." Meanwhile, Ofsted says that many academy chains are performing very badly. 3. It's undemocratic. This proposal wasn't in the Conservatives' manifesto last year. Over 80 per cent of local authority schools are good or outstanding and have chosen to stay with their local authority. The Government still wants them to become academies. Parents will lose the right to elect parent governors and will be denied any say over who runs their child's school. 4. It's expensive. Estimates are as high as £1.3billion for the process of academisation – mainly spent on lawyers, not on education – while schools are facing huge funding cuts. Academy chains pay their chief executives very high salaries – some more than the Prime Minister – and there are many cases of financial irregularity. Kevin Courtney, Acting General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, the largest teachers' union, said: "The NUT is not taking action lightly. "In light of the huge funding cuts to schools, worsening terms and conditions, and unmanageable and exhausting workloads, teachers cannot be expected to go on without significant change. "The effects on children's education are also real and damaging. "As a result of school funding cuts, class sizes in primary and secondary schools are increasing, subject choices are being cut, and children are getting less individual attention as teachers and support staff are made redundant or not replaced when they leave. "There is worse to come, with the Institute of Fiscal Studies predicting that the biggest real terms cuts to per pupil funding in a generation are on the way. "There is already a teacher recruitment and retention crisis in our schools. Without significant change to the pay and working condition of teachers, this will simply deepen. We know that many parents share our concerns. "At the absolute minimum, schools urgently need extra funding to meet the additional costs Government has put on them through increased National Insurance and pension payments. "This amounts to a 5 per cent charge on the teachers' pay bill for schools. "George Osborne is freezing the cash per pupil he gives to schools, whilst increasing what he takes from them. "For every 20 teachers employed, a school has to find an extra teacher salary to give to the Treasury. "The commitment from Government to ensure all schools become academies will result in decisions on pay and working conditions, including maternity/paternity rights and sick pay, being made at school level. "There is absolutely no evidence that this sort of deregulation will lead to higher standards. "There needs to be a guarantee of good standards for teachers' terms and conditions across the board, in all schools. "School leaders' attention should be on educating children, not squandering huge amounts of time on negotiating individual staff members' contracts. "[Education Secretary] Nicky Morgan needs to engage properly with teachers to address the real problems that are occurring in our schools. "The Education Secretary should negotiate with teacher unions on protections for school teachers from a workload crisis which is now completely out of hand. "These problems are of the Government's own making and it is time they addressed them before the education system in England falls apart at the seams."  |
| Body-shaming advertisements ban Posted: 04 Jul 2016 03:00 PM PDT
Earlier this month, the newly appointed Mayor of London Sadiq Khan declared a victory for commuters by announcing a ban on body-shaming advertisements from the underground and bus networks in the capital. Speaking of his decision, Khan said: “As the father of two teenage girls, I am extremely concerned about this kind of advertising which can demean people, particularly women, and make them ashamed of their bodies. It is high time it came to an end. “Nobody should feel pressurised, while they travel on the tube or bus, into unrealistic expectations surrounding their bodies and I want to send a clear message to the advertising industry about this”. The ban comes after a Protein World advertisement for its weight-loss products, which featured a slim bikini-clad woman and the question ‘Are you beach body ready?’, sparked outrage last summer and was widely protested against, with more than 70,000 people signing a petition asking for the posters to be removed. The impact of such advertisements shouldn’t be underestimated. We live in a culture in which a huge emphasis is placed on physical appearance and it has become something of an obsession and can be very harmful, making us judgemental of ourselves or others. Body image and self-confidence issues, which can lead to disordered eating and exercise habits and have a negative impact on people’s mental health, are a very real and dangerous problem, and today’s advertising industry and media contribute hugely to encouraging it. And, although it affects both men and women, women tend to be targeted and thus affected by it more. A report commissioned by the eating disorders charity Beat in February 2015 estimated that more than 725,000 people in the UK were affected by an eating disorder, and the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) estimated that around 89 per cent of those affected by an eating disorder are female. Perhaps most concerning of all is the steady increase in the numbers suffering from eating disorders over the last ten years. Beat’s report found that since 2005, the number of inpatient hospital admissions for eating disorders has risen by 34 per cent – approximately 7 per cent each year. Obviously, there is no direct link between advertisements such as the now infamous Protein World one and eating disorders, but the harmful effects cannot be ignored or denied. Women were already bombarded with the pressure to conform to conventional beauty standards from every angle on a daily basis, before the rise of social media made it worse. Speaking as a young woman myself, I know how suffocating and distressing this pressure can be, and the last thing people need is huge advertisements making them feel bad about themselves on the way to and from work. As Graeme Craig, the Commercial Development Director of Transport for London (TfL) , said, advertising on transport is “unlike TV, online and print media”. “Our customers cannot simply switch off or turn a page if an advertisement upsets or offends them and we have a duty to ensure the copy we carry reflects that unique environment”. Khan’s decision has sent a powerful message to the media and the advertising industry and has been met with widespread support. It is reassuring to see a male figure of authority listening to women and recognising these advertisements as a problem with potentially harmful effects. It is also great to see a policy like this being implemented less than two months after he was elected and with the support of Transport for London. While it by no means marks the end of the body shaming culture we currently live in, it can only be described as a bold and positive step in the right direction.  |
| Gender identity protection expert voted in Posted: 04 Jul 2016 02:49 PM PDT
In a defining vote, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has adopted a resolution on "Protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation, and gender identity", to mandate the appointment of an Independent Expert on the subject. It is a historic victory for the human rights of all persons who are at risk of discrimination and violence because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, 28 human rights groups said. This resolution builds upon two previous resolutions, adopted by the Council in 2011 and 2014. The Core Group of seven Latin American countries – Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Uruguay – and 41 additional countries jointly presented the text. The resolution was adopted on 30 June 2016 by a vote of 23 in favour, 18 against and 6 abstentions. "This is truly momentous," said Micah Grzywnowicz from the Swedish Federation for LGBTQ Rights, RFSL. "This is our opportunity to bring international attention to specific violations and challenges faced by transgender and gender non-conforming persons in all regions. "It's time for international community to take responsibility to ensure that persons at risk of violence and discrimination because of gender identity are not left behind." "It's a historic resolution," added Josefina Valencia from International LGBTI Association for Latin America and the Caribbean, ILGA LAC. "Latin America has played a very important role to build a common course for the advancement of our human rights. "We are proud of the international solidarity and the commitment shown by States for equality." The positive vote is a response to a joint campaign of a record 628 non-governmental organisations from 151 countries calling on the Council to adopt the resolution and create the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) Independent Expert. "It is important to note that around 70 per cent of the organisations are from the global south," said Yahia Zaidi of MantiQitna Network. "This is a powerful cross regional message of strength to the United Nations to protect the rights of LGBTI persons. "The Independent Expert will be a focal point for all violations based on SOGI and hence help grassroots organisations to better utilize the otherwise complex labyrinth of the UN system." The Expert will be tasked with assessing the implementation of existing international human rights law, identifying best practices and gaps, raising awareness of violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, engaging in dialogue and consultation with States and other stakeholders, and facilitating the provision of advisory services, technical assistance, capacity-building and cooperation to help address violence and discrimination on these grounds. "To have an Independent Expert can be a 'game-changer' in counter-acting violence which fuels the HIV epidemic in key populations and more specifically in LGBT communities," said Alain Kra of Espace Confiance. "It will ease the work of all human rights defenders and it is essential for our governments and people to have the knowledge on how to protect LGBT communities from any violence and discrimination they face," added Joleen Mataele of the Tonga Leiti's Association. Although a number of hostile amendments seeking to introduce notions of cultural relativism were adopted into the text by vote, the core of the resolution affirming the universal nature of international human rights law stood firm. The hope is that this resolution will mark a turning point in the struggle to create a world free from violence and discrimination for all people regardless of their sexual orientation and gender identity.  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Women's Views on News. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |