Women's Newsletter - February & March 2006
Contents of this newsletter:
- Women's group idea of the month!..."I'm pro-choice and proud of it because..."
- NUS Pro-choice Key Rings
- NUS Equal Pay Badges
- NUS and EOC working in partnership to provides resources on sex discrimination and equal pay legislation
- NUS and Terrence Higgins Trust Sexual Health Lobby of Parliament, 19 April 2006
- Call for Women’s Officers to speak in debate with frontbench MPs and Government Policymakers
- News from NUS Women's Conference 2006
- Women and Work Commission's Report
1. Women's group idea of the month!... "I'm pro-choice and proud of it because..."
Pro-choice and proud of it! is a priority campaign for NUS Women's campaign this academic 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 aims to encourage women students to be well-informed and self-confident in choosing and using contraception, and in practicing safer sex.
At NUS Women's Conference this year we asked women to fill in pro-choice comments cards and stick them to a display board, writing a sentence or two on why they are pro-choice and proud it. Thank you to everyone who participated - your comments were great. We are also using the comments to produce a "I'm pro-choice and proud of it because..." web page on www.nusonline.co.uk to show the many reasons why we're proud to be pro-choice and the importance of the pro-choice campaign.
Now we'd like you to ask the women in your women's group to let us know why they are pro-choice and proud of it, so we can include their opinions on this web page. Ask women to fill in a pro-choice comments card and send their comments back to us at women@nus.org.uk (including an indication that they are happy for it to go on our web site, and whether they wish their comments to be anonymous or not). Don't forget to send in your own pro-choice statement too!
For more ideas on how to be pro-choice and proud of it in your union, see the campaign toolkit
2. NUS Pro-choice keyrings
As part of our Pro-choice and proud of it! campaign, we have produced pro-choice key rings with the slogan:
MY BODY, MY CHOICE
NUS Women's Campaign is pro-choice and proud of it!
Carrying this key ring acts as your personal pledge to the pro-choice campaign - the campaign that champions the belief that women should be the key decision-makers over their own bodies.
Order badges for women in your union! They are available in English and Welsh/English and will be on the Women's Campaign Stall at NUS Annual Conference this week.
Or email women@nus.org.uk with the number of key rings you require, your name, union position, union's name, and address. (Maximum order: 50 key rings per union)
You can also order pro-choice posters, postcards and stickers using the order form
3. NUS Equal Pay Badges
We launched our equal pay badges at the Just the Job? event we held in partnership with the TUC on February 16, and lots of you also picked them up from our stall at NUS Women's Conference. These badges depict a coin with an 18% chunk missing (representing the current gender pay gap) and asks if this is really "equal pay for equal work?" The badges are available in English and in Welsh. You can pick up some badges for yourself and for your women's group at the Women's Campaign stall at NUS Annual Conference this week or email women@nus.org.uk with the number of badges you require, your name, union position, union's name, and address.
There are not many badges left! So, the maximum order is 30 badges per union.
4. NUS and EOC working in partnership to provides resources on sex discrimination and equal pay legislation
The Equal Opportunities Commission has been working in partnership with your NUS Women’s Campaign (as part of our Just the Job? campaign) to provide resources for young people on sex discrimination and equal pay rights. An order form for these materials (return address: EOC) has been posted to all unions, along with a ‘YOUNG PEOPLE - KNOW YOUR RIGHTS!’ card for you to carry around as your own personal reference to your rights under sex discrimination and equal pay legislation. Remember to ask your President to pass on the order form and card to you. These resources are specifically designed for young people, but will be relevant to students of all ages at your institution.
These new resources are:-
- a brochure for advisers of young people - ideal for staff at your students’ union advice centre/team
- a pocket sized card for young people entitled ‘YOUNG PEOPLE - KNOW YOUR RIGHTS!’ [also available in Welsh for colleges based in Wales]
- a ‘YOUNG PEOPLE - KNOW YOUR RIGHTS!’ poster
- a dedicated website: www.eoc.org.uk/youth
5. NUS and Terrence Higgins Trust Sexual Health Lobby of Parliament, 19 April 2006
WHEN? Wednesday 19 April 2006, 2:00pm - 4:00pm
WHERE? Attlee Suite, Portcullis House, House of Commons, London
WHY?
National Union of Students and Terrence Higgins Trust have joined forces to tackle rising rates of sexually transmitted infections amongst young people, and will be lobbying Parliament to ensure adequate sexual health provision. NUS Women's Campaign is supporting this lobby as part of our Pro-choice and Proud of it! campaign. We want students from all over the country to come to the House of Commons to meet with their local MPs, and attend the debate with the party spokespeople on sexual health to ensure that they hear first hand about the problems faced by students.
The lobby will focus on three specific demands:
- That the Government take urgent action to ensure that Primary Care Trusts meet the target that everyone should be able to get an appointment with a GUM clinic within 48 hours.
- That all Primary Care Trusts should be encouraged to supply free sexual health provision to Students' Unions, thereby ending the postcode lottery that currently characterizes this scheme.
- That MPs support the amendment to the Education Bill to make Personal Social and Health Education (PSHE) a compulsory part of the curriculum for 14-19 year olds.
Guest speakers:
- Nick Partridge, Chief Executive of Terrence Higgins Trust
- Baroness Gould, Chair of the Independent Advisory Group for Sexual Health and HIV and Chair of the APPG Pro-choice and Sexual Health
- Caroline Flint MP, Minister for Public Health (tbc)
- Dr Andrew Murrison MP, Conservative Party Spokesperson for Sexual Health
- Sandra Gidley MP, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Sexual Health
This is your chance to tell the decision-makers about the problems you and your students face on the ground. Please attend the lobby and encourage your women's group and other students at your college to attend.
For more information:
A Lobby Pack has been posted to all Students’ Unions and is also available online at www.nusonline.co.uk or www.officeronline.co.uk
We hope to see you in London on 19 April!
6. Call for Women’s Officers to speak in debate with frontbench MPs and Government Policymakers
NUS and Terrence Higgins Trust have joined forces to tackle the rising rates of sexually transmitted diseases amongst young people. On April 19, students will be coming to the House of Commons to lobby their MPs (see item 5 in this newsletter above for more information).
As part of this lobby, we have arranged a debate with a representative from the Government and the sexual health spokespeople from the opposition parties. We want this debate to centre on Student Officers presenting the problems that they experience in their area. This way, the policymakers can see what problems students are facing in accessing sexual health provision, and hopefully this will spur them on to do something about this. If you are able to come to the lobby, and if you have case studies you want to present, please e-mail karen.williams@nus.org.uk with what you want to raise and we will attempt to fit you on to the agenda. Even if you don’t want to speak in the debate, we hope to see you at the lobby on April 19. Lobby packs have been posted out to unions and are online.
7. News from NUS Women's Conference 2006
NUS Women's Conference took place from 13-15 March in Coventry and was attended by around 100 voting delegates and observers from students' unions from around the UK. Policy passed will shortly be available to view on www.officeronline.co.uk
Conference delegates elected Kat Stark as the NUS National Women's Officer for 2006/7. Kat will take up office on 1 July 2006.
8. Women and Work Commission's Report
The Women and Work Commission Report (entitled Shaping a Fairer Future) on tackling the gender pay gap in the UK was presented to the Prime Minister by Baroness Prosser on 27 February 2006.
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