Women's Newsletter - October & November 2005
Contents of this newsletter:
- Women's group idea of the month!...white ribbon production team!
- Jo Salmon, NUS National Women's Officer - speaker at Abortion Rights Event and FEM 05
- Jo Salmon, NUS National Women's Officer to speak at London Reclaim the Night, 25 November 2005
- Liberation 2005 and Liberation, Equality and Diversity in Action - successful NUS events
- Victory for NUS LGBT Campaign on legal equality
- SHAG Week, 28 November - 2 December
- Government Consultation on Public Sector Gender Duty
- Women and Poverty
- Women still face unequal pay on 30th Anniversary of Equal Pay Act
- EOC research reveals that ethnic minority women face employment barriers
- Rosa Parks, Civil Rights Campaigner, has died
- News from external organisations and events for you to publicise to your members
- World AIDS Day and the National AIDS Trust
- Petition to stop sales of Playboy stationery
- Feminist Film Season at the Women's Library
- Message from Smart Justice for Women
- Listening to Muslim Women Roadshow
1. Women's group idea of the month!...white ribbon production team!
25 November is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, also known as White Ribbon Day as it is the day when white ribbons are worn to symbolise opposition to violence against women. Wearing a white ribbon signals that you will not commit, condone, or remain silent about violence against women.
Why not organise a white ribbon production session with your women's group? You could then ask for donations for white ribbons from students at your institution to raise money for charity (for your local rape crisis centre or local women's refuge perhaps).* You can buy white ribbon and small safety pins from your local haberdashery shop or from a haberdashery market stall. Organise a white ribbon production line with your women's group and ask for volunteers to go around your college asking for donations and explaining the significance of White Ribbon Day, or to staff a 'stop violence against women stall'. You could start the white ribbon production session with a speaker from a local women's refuge or rape crisis centre to get participants focused on the issues and motivated to work on making the ribbons.
For more information, go to www.officeronline.co.uk/svaw (this is currently being updated, and a 2005 version will appear soon). You can also download stop violence against women posters from this web page.
To find out the contact details of your local women's refuge:
www.womensaid.org.uk
www.welshwomensaid.org
http://scottishwomensaid.co.uk
www.niwaf.org
To find the contact details of your local rape crisis centre:
www.rapecrisis.org.uk/members.htm - England and Wales
www.rapecrisisscotland.org.uk/local_centres.htm - Scotland
Rape Crisis & Sexual Abuse Centre (NI) 29 Donegal Street Belfast BT1 2FG
Helpline:04890 329002 Phone: 04890 329001/2 Fax: 04890 329001
Email eileencalder@hotmail.com
* Please remember that you cannot give money from your block grant to other charities. What you can do is give private donations, such as donations for white ribbons, or money collected from individuals in a collecting tin. If you are unsure about how the law affects the fundraising work you can do, please contact your NUS Regional Officer (contact details in the NUS Directory) who will be able to talk with you about this.
2. Jo Salmon, NUS National Women's Officer - speaker at Abortion Rights Event and FEM 05
Jo Salmon has been guest speaker recently at two significant feminist events: Abortion Rights' Defend the time limit public meeting at Westminster and the FEM 05 Conference in Sheffield. The Abortion Rights web site gives the following review of the Defend the time limit public meeting:
‘Defend the time limit’ public meeting a massive success
Abortion Rights was overwhelmed on Wednesday night by the numbers of people who flocked to Westminster for the first meeting in the campaign to defend the time limit for abortion. 200 people crammed into the biggest room we could book and we apologise to all the others who were turned away by the police outside.
The meeting brought together an electric alliance of leading trade unionists, students, medical and sexual health workers, many MPs, journalists, women’s groups and a leading representative from the pro-choice struggle in the US. The room was full of Women who remember the days of the back street abortion, experienced campaigners for women’s reproductive rights and a new generation of young enthusiastic activists. A full report of the meeting is being prepared and will be available on the website shortly.
From www.abortionrights.org.uk
3. Jo Salmon, NUS National Women's Officer to speak at London Reclaim the Night, 25 November 2005
Jo Salmon will be a guest speaker at the rally at the end of the Reclaim the Night March organised by the London Feminist Network and supported by NUS Women's Campaign.
The Reclaim the Night marches are peaceful protests against sexual violence towards women, and positive public statements in favour of women’s basic human right to live free from the fear of violence. Accounts of the Reclaim the Night movement disagree on the exact details of its history (or ‘herstory’). Most agree that it all started in Rome in 1976 when around 10,000 women and children marched through the city centre in reaction to the huge number of reported rape cases that year (16, 000). Similar marches were organised by feminists in West Germany in 1977, and news of these marches inspired women in the UK to also ‘reclaim the night’ that same year. These marches were particularly pertinent in Leeds, where many women were angry at the ‘curfew mentality’ that had developed while the Yorkshire Ripper was still at large and attacking women in the area. Large Reclaim the Night marches again took place in Leeds after Jacqueline Hill (a Leeds University student) was killed by the Yorkshire Ripper in November 1980 - women marched through the streets carrying torches, singing protest songs and chanting affirmations of their right to safety on the streets. Since the 1970s these marches have taken place all over the world including in Italy, USA, Ireland, India, Australia, Canada, Germany and Holland.
The London Reclaim the Night March 2005 is taking place on 25 November (the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women - White Ribbon Day). For more details see below - please promote this event to students at your institutions:
RECLAIM THE NIGHT 2005
A London Feminist Network Event, supported by NUS Women's Campaign
25 November, United Nations International Day To End Violence Against Women
This year's march is being held in honour of Andrea Dworkin and her contribution to end violence against women
- her inspiration lives on
Women only march:
Assemble 6pm Soho Square, Soho, Central London, nearest tube Tottenham Court Road.
The march will end in Montague Street, WC1 at approx 7.30 - 8pm for a short closing rally at which men are welcome. Nearest tube: Russell Square
Speakers include:
Jo Salmon, NUS Women's Officer
Finn Mackay, Chair: London Feminist Network
Isabel Eden, The Lilith Project
Fiona Broadfoot, founder of Exit will read a Reclaim The Night speech by Andrea Dworkin
Other speakers to be confirmed....
Calling all women and girls to march together in protest at the rising number of reported rapes in the UK compared to the falling conviction rate and the fact that women still cannot live their lives without the fear of male violence.
Last year there were over 40,000 reported rapes, yet currently our conviction rate is at its lowest ever, just 5.6%.
We know that 1 in 3 women will be sexually assaulted and that 1 in 4 women are living with domestic violence.
Every week 2 women are killed by a violent male partner in this country. All too many of us are affected by male violence, and all of us live with the fear of male violence every day - take this night to shout a loud NO, for ourselves, for all those women who weren't heard and call for an end to male violence against women.
This is not an NUS event, so for more information please contact the organisers directly (the London Feminist Network) via their web site: www.ldnfeministnetwork.ik.com
4. Liberation 2005 and Liberation, Equality and Diversity in Action - successful NUS events
Many thanks to everyone who participated in the successful NUS Liberation Training events in October. This was a pioneering new course that united all four Liberation campaigns: Black Students' Campaign; Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Trans Campaign; Students with Disabilities Campaign; Women's Campaign.
For more information on all four Liberation Campaigns, go to www.officeronline.co.uk/campaignsupport/
5. Just the Job? and Pro-choice and proud of it!
NUS Women’s Campaign has two priority campaigns this year: Just the Job? and Pro-choice and Proud of it!
Just the Job?
NUS Women’s Campaign recognises that women face discrimination in the work place, in terms of unequal pay and sexual harassment. In the Just the Job? Campaign, NUS Women’s Campaign will inform women students who work part-time about their legal rights at work, empower them to stand up for these rights in the workplace and encourage them to join a trade union.
NUS Women’s Campaign believes it is scandalous that 30 years after the Equal Pay Act came into effect, the gender pay gap persists across all work sectors. We believe that this has particular pertinence for women students who carry the burden of debt into the labour market. We will respond to the Women and Work Commission’s findings from a student perspective. We will also raise awareness among students of the injustice of the gender pay gap and inform students how they can add their voice in the campaign against it.
Pro-choice and Proud of it!
We are running the successful Pro-choice and proud of it! Campaign for another year. NUS Women’s Campaign believes that women should be the key decision-makers over their own bodies and seeks to inform and empower women students to feel happy, healthy and in control in their sexual relationships. The Pro-choice and Proud of it! Campaign will encourage women students to be well-informed and self-confident in choosing and using contraception, and in practicing safer sex. The Pro-choice and Proud of it! Campaign will also be a significant voice in the call for the funding and further development of microbicides (substances that can substantially reduce the transmission of sexually transmitted infections when applied either in the vagina or rectum).
For more information, keep a look out on www.officeronline.co.uk/women over the academic year. We will also keep you updated through these e-newsletters.
6. Victory for NUS LGBT Campaign on legal equality
On 9 November, the House of Lords accepted an amendment to the Equality Bill currently going through Parliament. This amendment will introduce legal protections against discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation in the provision of goods and services. This move comes after months of campaigning by NUS LGBT Campaign and by other gay rights organisations/activists.
For more information on the NUS LGBT Campaign for legal equality, go to:
For information on the House of Lords acceptance of this amendment to the Equality Bill, go to:
http://politics.guardian.co.uk
7. SHAG Week, 28 November - 2
The NUS Welfare Campaign has declared the week of 28 November - 2 December 2005 National Student SHAG (Sexual Health Awareness & Guidance) Week.
NUS and Interact Worldwide have teamed up to present the Sexual Health & Rights Campaign Pack 2005. This pack can be used not only for planning your campaign around National Student SHAG (Sexual Health Awareness & Guidance) Week & World AIDS Day, but should also act as a spring board for your year round campaigning on everything from the infringement of sexual and reproductive rights our counterparts globally face, to giving your students locally the practical information they need about looking after their own sexual health. The pack will be available from www.interactworldwide.org
For more information, see www.officeronline.co.uk/campaignsupport/welfare/271496.aspx
8. Government Consultation on Public Sector Gender Duty
On 4 October the Government launched a consultation document, ‘Advancing Equality for Men and Women’, on its proposals to introduce a public sector duty to promote gender equality.
For more information, go to www.womenandequalityunit.gov.uk
9. Women and Poverty
The United Nations Population Fund has published a new report that carries the powerful message that "Gender equality reduces poverty and saves and improves lives."
The UN Millennium Project, a panel of more than 250 experts from all over the world, identifies gender inequality as one of the primary drivers of poverty and social exclusion. This is because discrimination effectively squanders human capital by denying one half of humanity the right to realize their full potential. More than 1.7 billion women worldwide are in their reproductive and productive years, between the ages of 15 and 49. Targeted investments in their education, reproductive health, economic opportunity and political rights can spur growth and sustainable development for generations to come. From www.unpfa.org
For more information: www.unpfa.org/gender/
10. Women still face unequal pay on 30th Anniversary of Equal Pay Act
30 years after the introduction of legislation on equal pay, a gender pay gap persists. A report from the Fawcett Society to mark this 30th Anniversary of the Equal Pay Act reveals that the full-time gender pay gap currently stands at 18.4% (compared to 29% in 1975), this means that women working full-time are currently paid, on (mean) average, 81.6% of men’s hourly pay. The part-time gender pay gap is 40% now (compared to 42% in 1975), this means that women working full-time are paid, on (mean) average, 60% of men's hourly pay. The Report also reveals that the gender pay gap is even bigger for Black and Minority Ethnic Women.
For more information: www.fawcettsociety.org.uk
No hiding place for the firms that pay women less Scotsman line 8/11/05
Including a comment from Jenny Duncan, NUS Scotland Women's Officer:
A spokesman for Universities Scotland, the umbrella body for higher education institutions, said that no one doubted the importance of getting female undergraduates to opt for engineering and science courses.
But he said the proposals to create women-only classes would probably be unworkable due to cost and limited slots for laboratory and other technical facilities in universities. He added: "The point where we should 'get to' female students is at school. If a woman has done Highers or Advanced Highers in maths and physics, that's the point where they would be most likely to get over the hump.
"By the time they get to university, people are more likely to be able to cope." Jenny Duncan, of the National Union of Students Scotland, said any measure which could bring a better male-female ratio in some disciplines should be considered seriously. She said:
"All-women classes might not be the only way, but it might well be worth considering."
11. EOC research reveals that ethnic minority women face employment barriers
Research by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) has revealed that Pakistani and Bangladeshi women aged under 35 are between three and four times more likely to be unemployed than their white counterparts, while black Caribbean women are twice as likely to be out of work. Young Pakistani and Bangladeshi women who are university graduates were five times more likely to still be looking for a job than white women with degrees, and black Caribbean women three times more likely to be unemployed. The EOC are now launching an investigation into the barriers facing ethnic minority women in the labour market and are looking for case studies.
For more information see: www.eoc.org.uk
www.guardian.co.uk
12. Rosa Parks, Civil Rights Campaigner, has died
Rosa Parks, American Civil Rights Campaigner, died at the age of 92 on 24 October 2005. The story Rosa Parks is most famous for, is that of her actions on a Montgomery bus in 1951 when she refused to give up her seat to a white man, and was arrested and found guilty of violating the segregation law. Her arrest prompted a series of protest actions against the Montgomery buses, including a boycott, that eventually led to the end of segregation on the Montgomery buses in 1956. Rosa Parks continued to be active in the civil rights movement and worked as special assistant to Democratic Congressman John Conyers.
To read an obituary, go to:
www.guardian.co.uk
13. News from external organisations and events for you to publicise to your members
Please note that whilst NUS Women's Campaign has been careful to check the suitability of these organisations as contact points for student officers, it cannot be held responsible for the work or advice of any external organisation.
(a) World AIDS Day and the National AIDS Trust
Message from the National AIDS Trust:
The National AIDS Trust coordinates the World AIDS Day website - www.worldaidsday.org - as a resource for anyone wanting to get involved in World AIDS Day. Through the website we encourage people to attend events, get Red Ribbons and campaign on key issues. Last year the World AIDS Day website received 2 million visitors over six weeks so it is really important you help us keep the events listing up-to-date by submitting your event.
(b) Petition to stop sales of Playboy stationery
Message from Coloma Convent Girls' School:
The students of Coloma Convent School recently picketed their local WHSmith (story here). They have now set up an online petition to end sales of Playboy merchandise by 2008.
THE PETITION
Playboy should not be marketed at children. Pink glittery folders and pencil cases are designed to appeal to teenage girls, who are being exploited in their naïve enthusiasm for the bunny logo. If they do know what it stands for, then the porn star image is being glamorised for them. WHSmith should show a social conscience and stop stocking these items.
DESIRED OUTCOME
WHSmith should stop stocking Playboy stationery marketed at teenage girls.
WHO TO CONTACT
Eleanor Kirwan
Coloma Convent Girls' School
campaign@coloma.croydon.sch.uk
(c) Feminist Film Season at the Women's Library
Thursday 17 November/6.30pm
A Question of Silence (1982)
A rare screening of this landmark feminist film, in which a woman
psychiatrist is appointed by the Court to investigate the sanity of
three women who have beaten to death a male boutique owner. The film
caused huge controversy on release, and journalist Julie Bindel will
introduce it and lead a discussion afterwards.
Tickets: £6/£4 concs
Thursday 24 November/6.30pm
A Place of Rage (1991)
Pratibha Pamar introduces her exuberant celebration of African American
women and their role as campaigners. The film features interviews with
Angela Davis, June Jordan and Alice Walker. Within the context of the
civil rights, Black power and feminist movements, the trio reassess how
women such as Rosa Parks and Fannie Lou Hamer revolutionized American
society. A stirring chapter in African American history, highlighted by
music from Prince, Janet Jackson, the Neville Brothers and the Staple
Singers.
Tickets: £6/£4 concs
THE WOMEN'S LIBRARY
London Metropolitan University
Old Castle Street
London E1 7NT
020 7320 2222
www.thewomenslibrary.ac.uk
moreinfo@thewomenslibrary.ac.uk
(d) Message from Smart Justice for Women
TAKE ACTION NOW. Nine out of ten women are in prison for non violent crimes such as shoplifting costing over £37,000 a year yet 2 out of 3 are reconvicted within two years of release. Two thirds of these women have mental health and drug problems, half have been victims of domestic violence and a third have been abused as children. Prison is not the place for them. Each signature we collect represents one woman who could be better helped in the community, for example by drug treatment programmes and tackling the causes of their offending behaviour.
sign our on-line petition to the Home Secretary Charles Clarke click here
For more information: www.smartjustice.org
www.coloma.croydon.sch.uk/whsmith.htm
(e) Listening to Muslim Women Roadshow
The Women’s National Commission is pleased to announce that the Muslim Women's Network (MWN) has been recently awarded funding to carry out a nationwide listening exercise with Muslim women aged 16 - 40. This follows on from a proposal that was submitted to the Home Office in April. This will be the Government's first wide-ranging national engagement with Muslim women with the women themselves setting the agenda and telling Government what they want and to be listened to. Events will take place in major cities across England resulting in a report, which will be presented, to the Home Office and Ministers. The MWN will then aim to take forward the recommendations made by women.
Upcoming Listening to Muslim Women events:
Manchester: 10 November 2005
London: 08 December 2005
Leicester: to be confirmed
Birmingham: to be confirmed
Bradford/ Leeds: to be confirmed
For further information or to take part in an event near you contact the WNC on 020 7215 6933.
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