Women's Views on News |
| Safer cities for women: the big plan Posted: 26 Oct 2016 02:53 PM PDT
In the early 1990s, just over 42 per cent of people were living in urban areas. Today, more than 54 per cent of the global population are urban dwellers. And by 2030, that percentage is expected to have risen to 60 per cent. Clearly, sustainable development must ensure there is a roadmap for ensuring that the cities are sustainable. And women and girls are safe in them. It was against this backdrop that Habitat III, the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development took place in Quito, Ecuador, from 17 to 20 October 2016. The last time there was a conference of this nature was in 1996 when the second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements was held in Istanbul. Governments, civil society, private sector and UN representatives and experts from around the world convened at Habitat III to gather renewed political commitment for sustainable urban development, assess accomplishments and emerging challenges and adopted the New Urban Agenda This is a robust, action-oriented outcome document which has set global standards in sustainable urban development, rethinking the way we build, manage, and live in cities. While the movement to cities plays a critical role in accelerating development, particularly in generating economic growth, it has had less success in other areas, including advancing gender equality and the majority of women in urban settlements continue to face multiple challenges. Women and girls often fear and experience sexual violence and other forms of violence, which affects their everyday lives and restricts their freedom and use of the city and its public spaces. In London, for example, a 2012 study revealed that 43 per cent of young women experienced some form of street harassment in 2011, and in Port Moresby, a scoping study by UN Women indicated that over 90 per cent of women and girls have experienced some form of sexual violence when accessing public transportation. And often slums lack infrastructure and public services, including sexual and reproductive health infrastructure and facilities. A recent analysis of Demographic and Health Survey data from 30 low and middle-income countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America on access to maternal and newborn services for groups with different levels of poverty, for example, found that in some cases, maternal, newborn and child mortality rates in poor and marginalized urban sub-groups can be as high as, or even higher than among the rural poor. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes the link between gender equality and urban sustainable development. The vision of Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11), which calls for making cities and urban settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, is intrinsically linked to SDG 5 on Gender Equality, and cannot be accomplished without addressing safe, inclusive and affordable housing, transportation, public spaces and public services for women and girls. At Habitat III and the processes leading up to it, UN Women strongly advocated and supported the development of the New Urban Agenda by placing women's rights at its heart, encouraging all stakeholders to seize the opportunity to shape sustainable, gender-responsive and inclusive cities, and support the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in its true spirit of inclusion and equality. The New Urban Agenda calls for cities to be secure, positive, respectful and safe places for all people to live and work without fear of violence or intimidation. In line with this call, UN Women's Global Flagship Initiative, "Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces," which builds upon the "Safe Cities Free of Violence against Women and Girls" programme launched in 2010, is the first-ever global programme that develops, implements and evaluates tools, policies and comprehensive approaches on the prevention of and response to sexual harassment and other forms of sexual violence against women and girls across different settings. The New Urban Agenda also commits to increasing economic productivity, employment and decent work for all, with special attention to the needs and potential of women. It recognizes the contribution of women in the informal economy, their unpaid and domestic work, and the work of migrant women. And UN Women is working with partners to promote women's economic empowerment, their ability to secure decent jobs, accumulate assets, and influence institutions and public policies determining growth and development. Also in line with the New Urban Agenda, as cities develop, UN Women has been working to ensure that women's voices and needs are heard, that women participate equally in decision-making and development policies and efforts include a gender perspective. UN Women works to support women as key decision-making actors at all levels of life. As outlined in the New Urban Agenda, safe, inclusive and resilient cities need public services that are adequately distributed and that address the specific needs of traditionally marginalized constituencies, such as women and young people. And the quality of public spaces shapes the character of a city: they can influence the patterns of crime and violence against women or enable women to exercise their human rights fully. The New Urban Agenda commits to including women in sustainable development by ensuring that the physical and social infrastructure of cities, including water and sanitation, housing, energy, education, healthcare and communication technologies are responsive to the needs, rights and safety of urban women and girls. The outcome document of Habitat III meeting, the New Urban Agenda, also outlines the challenges and opportunities that the new agenda provides while ensuring that gender equality thrives through sustainable, gender-inclusive and gender-responsive cities. "We have before us an unmissable opportunity," UN Women's Deputy Executive Director Lakshmi Puri said of the potential of the #NewUrbanAgenda when it comes to gender equality. "Our challenge now is strategizing on how to ensure the ink on paper translates promptly into effective implementation on the ground." To read the outcome document, click here.  |
| How women be councillors studied Posted: 26 Oct 2016 02:21 PM PDT
In 2015 Milton Keynes members of the Fawcett Society undertook an observational study of Milton Keynes Council meetings in order to explore whether there were gender differences and/or inequalities in the way council business was seen to be carried out in public forums. In their ensuing report they analysed the data collected and concluded that it shows significant gender differences in the participation of male and female councillors at Milton Keynes Council meetings. They therefore recommend that there should be more engagement by all political groups in Milton Keynes to encourage more women to enter local politics as councillors; all political groups need to offer support for women councillors once they are elected to ensure they are able to engage fully with all aspects of Council work; and that there is a need for changes in meeting behaviour so that there is a better representation of all voices present. The news media and most campaigning groups – see for example the 50:50 Parliament campaign and the Women's Equality Party – have focused on the lack of women at a national level. The Fawcett Society nationally is concerned about the lack of engagement of women in politics. But Fawcett is also concerned about women's representation at the local level and has encouraged members to explore the situation in their local areas and support women as voters, activists and elected representatives of all parties to engage more. Engagement in local politics is seen as important both in its own right and because it can serve as the entry stage for individuals who later go into national politics. At the time of the study roughly one third of Milton Keynes councillors were women. In two main areas of council business Milton Keynes' Fawcett members observed major gender differences in distribution of roles and activities and participation in meetings. However, they were not evenly distributed over all Council committees. Women councillors were over-represented in committees in traditionally 'female' areas: corporate parenting, health and adult social care, health and well-being. They were under-represented in traditionally 'male' areas: audit and budget scrutiny. It has been argued that experience of finance and planning does women rise to the most senior roles in local government. At a variety of meetings they observed a consistent under-participation of women councillors both as speakers (in proportion to their numbers present i.e. using Fawcett's parity measure) and in the number of interventions they made compared with male speakers (using the parity measure) Of the three Full Council meetings observed, for example, women councillors made up 33 per cent of those councillors present in the meeting but women councillors made only 19 per cent of all interventions made by councillors. They also noted when officers or members of the public spoke: women made only 20 per cent of all the formal interventions in the chamber. And male councillors were much more likely to make more than one intervention. Male councillors often engaged in friendly, cross-party 'banter' – something observed across in all three Full Council meetings. This gives a strong sense of 'ownership' of the debate and shared history. It was never observed among women. Male councillors often read prepared 'speeches' that contained party political statements and did not always seem to contribute directly to the debate. Women were not seen doing this. Women seemed sometimes more hesitant or diffident in their interventions, prefacing an intervention with statements such as: 'I apologise if I've not read the papers correctly'; 'I don't understand – maybe I'm missing something'; 'I'm just learning' for example. With women so thinly spread in the committees, their absence from a meeting could mean there was no female voice at all, and even when women were in the majority in the meeting men dominated the debate. Recommendations: 1 – Local political parties should examine who is given roles on council committees and groups and look for ways to give positions of responsibility to more women. 2 – Local political parties should offer additional support to women who are new members of committees and groups, to improve their confidence and ability to carry out their roles. 3 – Some male councillors should review their behaviour in public meetings in order to ensure that they are making space for less experienced and less confident colleagues: men as well as women. 4 – Female councillors should make greater efforts to make interventions in discussion in public meetings; their constituents would not expect them to engage less on their behalf than a male councillor. 5 – Female councillors should take the training opportunities offered by their political parties to build their confidence and develop their skills. 6 – Local political groups should consider strategies to encourage more women to stand for election as Councillors. The objective of the study was not simply to describe what was observed but to use these observations to help members of the Council and others understand the nature of any gender differences in observed behaviours and use this to help inform plans to support women to engage in local politics – in particular as Milton Keynes councillors. However, the Fawcett members reported, they feel that council meetings that are open to the public are also a forum where members of the public observe the behaviour of councillors; what is observed can then encourage or deter people from deciding if they want to put themselves forward for elected positions. This is a very welcome report. To read the whole paper, click here. WVoN thoroughly backs Fawcett’s suggestion that other women throughout the country carry out such observations as well as ascertaining from either their own observation or surveys or other people's research what actually is stopping women from standing. Childcare of course is probably still one example.  |
| 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 | |