3rd March ABORTION RIGHTS DAY OF ACTION!
This weekend lots of women will be protesting for better abortion provision, defending the right for women to choose when and if they have children.
ABORTION RIGHTS LAUNCH THE CAMPAIGN FOR A MODERN ABORTION LAW
Assemble at 12.30 Outside the QEII Conference Centre, in front of the Houses of Parliament
www.abortionrights.org.uk
MARCH FOR ABORTION RIGHTS!
6.30pm assemble ULU, Malet Street
www.fightback.org.uk
'It is encouraging that women are active and campaigning on this important issue, highlighting the links between abortion provision and the privatisation and fragmentation of the NHS. I completely support a woman’s right to choose.’
John Mcdonnell MP
Tuesday, 27 February 2007
Tuesday, 13 February 2007
Raunch Culture
Ariel Levy’s ‘Female Chauvinist Pigs’ does not actually hit on a new idea, create a new body of intellectual thought or bring back feminism; at least, not on its own.
This book depicts an America where young women fall prey to men wanting to photograph them taking their clothes off, fake lesbian encounters and where the strength of a woman is determined by how much of a man she is. Clearly none of this is particularly new, Thatcher being the archetypal man-woman, and men wanting to see women without their clothes since men were invented. However, she does make some more specific points about sex education, and the growth of abstinence-only education in America.
Now there are those among the left who once you mention American will roll their eyes and say, well what can you expect, but this is not just an American phenomenon. Rachel Bell’s article in the Guardian (http://education.guardian.co.uk/students/news/story/0,,2009472,00.html) on university feminists shows that in the middle of raunch culture attempting to fit all women into the stereotype of sex objects, there are people fighting back. There a number of people out there who see these kind of women as spoilsports, those who want to restrict the fun of others, but these are female stereotypes in themselves. Women and indeed human beings should quite clearly be campaigning to stop a nation of boys growing up thinking that women are only sexual objects and have nothing further to contribute to society. We have fought too long and too hard to let lad’s mags and raunch culture take away what feminism fought for.
Charlynne Pullen
This book depicts an America where young women fall prey to men wanting to photograph them taking their clothes off, fake lesbian encounters and where the strength of a woman is determined by how much of a man she is. Clearly none of this is particularly new, Thatcher being the archetypal man-woman, and men wanting to see women without their clothes since men were invented. However, she does make some more specific points about sex education, and the growth of abstinence-only education in America.
Now there are those among the left who once you mention American will roll their eyes and say, well what can you expect, but this is not just an American phenomenon. Rachel Bell’s article in the Guardian (http://education.guardian.co.uk/students/news/story/0,,2009472,00.html) on university feminists shows that in the middle of raunch culture attempting to fit all women into the stereotype of sex objects, there are people fighting back. There a number of people out there who see these kind of women as spoilsports, those who want to restrict the fun of others, but these are female stereotypes in themselves. Women and indeed human beings should quite clearly be campaigning to stop a nation of boys growing up thinking that women are only sexual objects and have nothing further to contribute to society. We have fought too long and too hard to let lad’s mags and raunch culture take away what feminism fought for.
Charlynne Pullen
Sunday, 11 February 2007
Rape Convictions
An interesting letter from Legal Action for Women and Women against Rape;
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2009226,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2009226,00.html
A response to recent stories in the press...
‘A woman’s work is never done’ is a truism that we’re all too familiar with and it seems frustratingly true at present. Although women have been fighting tirelessly to overcome both exploitative treatment within society and oppressive stereotypes of themselves our work is still far from done. A few stories that have been making headlines of late demonstrate this all too well.
John Hutton’s recent speech on child poverty, examining the employment rate among lone parents in the UK and praising the Swedish model in which there is ‘little distinction between lone parents and other benefit recipients in terms of the obligation to look for work’, suggests a shift in welfare provision that will coerce lone parents back into work rather than letting them make the right choice for themselves and their families. His conviction that we ‘ask very little of lone parents on benefit’ ignores the hard work they do for their families and hard choices they face in balancing their caring responsibilities with a working life. Although he’s good enough to concede that ‘lone parenthood is rarely a lifestyle choice’, Hutton doesn’t stop to consider the lifestyle that you have as a single parent or the choices that you have in real terms with regard to childcare and employment.
In both areas, New Labour policies have left a lot of work undone. While the government has invested in childcare, it has failed to invest to levels comparable with that of Sweden and other European nations. A recent Daycare Trust survey demonstrated that typical childcare costs have increased to over a third of average earnings and, while European parents pay around thirty percent of such costs, British parents still find themselves paying around seventy percent of childcare costs. Add to this the realities of working life in Britain. The phrase ‘lone parents’ should not be taken as synonymous with ‘single mothers’, but still ninety percent of lone parents are women and women’s work continues to be undervalued and concentrated in low paid areas of the employment market. Although New Labour are proud to have delivered a National Minimum Wage, they are yet to deliver a Living Wage.
A recent report on the failure of the criminal justice system to convict rapists further demonstrated that we have a lot of work to do, in this case to secure women their most basic right to live without the threat of sexual violence. While somewhere between seventy and ninety percent of rapes remain unreported and only five percent of recorded cases lead to a conviction, Labour’s Lord Campbell-Savours is busy calling for the DNA of all victims of crime to be kept on record so that the police can identify women who make false claims. Although this call was firmly rejected by the attorney general, it demonstrates the sexist and prejudiced views that circulate in our society, too often unchallenged. The most recent research shows that false rape allegations are no higher than in any other crime, and stand at around 3%. However, police officers questioned in the same report assumed 23% were false. Still women must fight against the assumptions that if you were drunk you were asking for it or you can only really be raped by a perverted stranger waiting for you behind the bushes. They are stereotypes that women have shown time and time again to be only stereotypes but they still lurk in the minds of many within our society, the minds of people who will be police officers, jurors, prosecutors, judges, politicians even. That’s why our work isn’t yet done.
Claire Chalmers
John Hutton’s recent speech on child poverty, examining the employment rate among lone parents in the UK and praising the Swedish model in which there is ‘little distinction between lone parents and other benefit recipients in terms of the obligation to look for work’, suggests a shift in welfare provision that will coerce lone parents back into work rather than letting them make the right choice for themselves and their families. His conviction that we ‘ask very little of lone parents on benefit’ ignores the hard work they do for their families and hard choices they face in balancing their caring responsibilities with a working life. Although he’s good enough to concede that ‘lone parenthood is rarely a lifestyle choice’, Hutton doesn’t stop to consider the lifestyle that you have as a single parent or the choices that you have in real terms with regard to childcare and employment.
In both areas, New Labour policies have left a lot of work undone. While the government has invested in childcare, it has failed to invest to levels comparable with that of Sweden and other European nations. A recent Daycare Trust survey demonstrated that typical childcare costs have increased to over a third of average earnings and, while European parents pay around thirty percent of such costs, British parents still find themselves paying around seventy percent of childcare costs. Add to this the realities of working life in Britain. The phrase ‘lone parents’ should not be taken as synonymous with ‘single mothers’, but still ninety percent of lone parents are women and women’s work continues to be undervalued and concentrated in low paid areas of the employment market. Although New Labour are proud to have delivered a National Minimum Wage, they are yet to deliver a Living Wage.
A recent report on the failure of the criminal justice system to convict rapists further demonstrated that we have a lot of work to do, in this case to secure women their most basic right to live without the threat of sexual violence. While somewhere between seventy and ninety percent of rapes remain unreported and only five percent of recorded cases lead to a conviction, Labour’s Lord Campbell-Savours is busy calling for the DNA of all victims of crime to be kept on record so that the police can identify women who make false claims. Although this call was firmly rejected by the attorney general, it demonstrates the sexist and prejudiced views that circulate in our society, too often unchallenged. The most recent research shows that false rape allegations are no higher than in any other crime, and stand at around 3%. However, police officers questioned in the same report assumed 23% were false. Still women must fight against the assumptions that if you were drunk you were asking for it or you can only really be raped by a perverted stranger waiting for you behind the bushes. They are stereotypes that women have shown time and time again to be only stereotypes but they still lurk in the minds of many within our society, the minds of people who will be police officers, jurors, prosecutors, judges, politicians even. That’s why our work isn’t yet done.
Claire Chalmers
Monday, 5 February 2007
FEMINISTS4JOHN
Another World is Possible
www.john4leader.org.uk
Dear Friend,
From the very beginning when John McDonnell MP first announced his bid for the Labour Leadership, we made it clear that this campaign is about encouraging political participation and providing a voice to sections of our society who have felt alienated and excluded from politics. We have been absolutely overwhelmed with support since the launch of the campaign, as it inclusive and far-reaching.
We are all aware that women, although making up over fifty percent of our society, are severely under-represented in political activism and decision making. Far too often feminism slips off the agenda. It is now important to fully establish the feminist program within the John4Leader campaign, making sure that anti-sexism and issues that particularly affect women are at the forefront of political debate, encouraging more female activists to get involved.
John’s campaign is about reclaiming the Labour Party as a democratic voice for working people including the millions of women who are struggling in low paid jobs; the women who have been let down by insufficient welfare provision; the female trade unionists who have stood up for their rights; women who want a good education; women who have suffered unacceptable violence; women experiencing racism; women who believe in their right to control their own bodies. Most of all FEMINISTS4JOHN is about hearing the voices all of these women and showing that another world is really possible.
If you are fed up with being under-represented, are tired of being ignored, believe that feminism is essential to the labour movement then please get involved.
Another World is Possible
www.john4leader.org.uk
Dear Friend,
From the very beginning when John McDonnell MP first announced his bid for the Labour Leadership, we made it clear that this campaign is about encouraging political participation and providing a voice to sections of our society who have felt alienated and excluded from politics. We have been absolutely overwhelmed with support since the launch of the campaign, as it inclusive and far-reaching.
We are all aware that women, although making up over fifty percent of our society, are severely under-represented in political activism and decision making. Far too often feminism slips off the agenda. It is now important to fully establish the feminist program within the John4Leader campaign, making sure that anti-sexism and issues that particularly affect women are at the forefront of political debate, encouraging more female activists to get involved.
John’s campaign is about reclaiming the Labour Party as a democratic voice for working people including the millions of women who are struggling in low paid jobs; the women who have been let down by insufficient welfare provision; the female trade unionists who have stood up for their rights; women who want a good education; women who have suffered unacceptable violence; women experiencing racism; women who believe in their right to control their own bodies. Most of all FEMINISTS4JOHN is about hearing the voices all of these women and showing that another world is really possible.
If you are fed up with being under-represented, are tired of being ignored, believe that feminism is essential to the labour movement then please get involved.
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