Sunday 31 May 2009

"Girls are drowning in equal opportunities at work!" says rich white man.

Women have never had it so good at work, says M&S chief

"Girls today have never had it so good, right?" said Rose. "Apart from the fact that you've got more equality than you ever can deal with, the fact of the matter is that you've got real democracy and there really are no glass ceilings, despite the fact that some of you moan about it all the time.

"Women can get to the top of any single job that they want to in the UK. You've got a woman fighter pilot who went on to join the Red Arrows ... I mean what else do you want, for God's sake? Women astronauts. Women miners. Women dentists. Women doctors. Women managing directors. What is it you haven't got?"

Rose also dismissed the idea that having children can create an uneven playing field for working mothers.

"Childbirth is a biological fact," he said. "Women have children: I can't help that. But I know lots of women who have got two or three kids - Nicola Horlick is a good example - there are many girls in here [Marks & Spencer] who have got two kids who come to work. Kate Bostock [recently appointed to oversee the company's UK merchandising operation, including clothes and homeware] has got two or three kids and she's running the full-time, biggest buying job in the UK, so it can be done."


I emphasised the bits I found disrespectful and/or unbelievable. Girls? Moaning? Dismissing major concerns because there has been ONE female fighter pilot who joined the Red Arrows? And all of this from the male head of a company that until a month ago penalised women financially for having larger breasts.

Just because it can be done doesn't mean that women can do it with the same ease or for the same rewards as men. So some well-paid women (almost certainly middle-class, university educated and very likely white, heterosexual and of a socially acceptable body weight) have children and work. THEY CAN AFFORD NANNIES, CLEANERS AND BABYSITTERS. That's not gender equality, that's class privilege

He says that women have children and he can't help that, but I beg to differ; there are many things that large companies can do regarding maternity leave, promotions, breastfeeding or childcare in an attempt to level out the playing field for working mothers. Whether or not M&S do those things is beside the point. To claim that having children is just something women do and that all the employment issues it leads to have been completely overcome is ignorant and offensive to the many, many women who struggle to raise their children and work in a society that, on the whole, does not support this aim unless the women are wealthy enough to afford childcare from the start. 

Frankly, I'd be more interested to know if these women he discuss in his article (sorry, 'girls') are paid the same amount as men at the same level of the company, because the evidence overwhelmingly suggests otherwise. 

(Countered with some good points in The Guardian a few days later: 
Would you buy knickers from this man?)

Saturday 30 May 2009

Why ladettes are scary but shouldn't be

Women beware women

Aggressive women have always provoked anxiety. We have traditionally invested a vast amount of energy into socialising women to be thoughtful of others, gentle in disposition, and dependent - or, as John Ruskin once put it, "pure womanhood" was "enduringly, incorruptibly good, instinctively, infallibly wise - wise, not for self-development, but for self-renunciation" - traits that don't come naturally to anyone. Consequently, belligerent women are regarded as far worse than their male comrades.

...

Only one-fifth of all reported violence occurs in or around pubs. Simply restricting women's drinking is not going to help, because excessive drinking is a symptom of the problem, rather than the problem itself. In a society that valorises displays of competitive assertiveness, is it any wonder that women are spurning traditional feminine mannerisms? And given that a great deal of male violence is taken for granted, even romanticised, why shouldn't young women decide that they too want "a bit of the action"?

More to the point, the disapproving attention given to ladettes ignores the fact that the main perpetrators of violence are still men. Males are responsible for well over three-quarters of all violent crimes, both on the streets and, more invidiously, inside the privacy of homes.

Friday 29 May 2009

Are 10-year-old girls tarts, lesbians or girly-girls?

Tart or lesbian? How pupils at all-girl primaries live in fear of labels that stick

Teachers regularly made the word "lady" synonymous with ideal behaviour: "Nice ladies open doors for others" or "Ladies don't talk with their mouths full".

The word was also used to refer to acceptable standards of appearance. Two girls said they were told off because they attempted to go home in their games kit.

One said: "I should not be seen to be dressed like this by people from outside of the school. I could run into builders and perverts on the way home."

Dr Allan said: "Even by doing something as supposedly simple as wearing a netball skirt to travel home from school, this girl appeared to be caught up in judgments about her moral and sexual behaviour."

Thursday 28 May 2009

Athletic achievement < boobs

34fF tennis player plans breast reduction

STUNNING Wimbledon hopeful Simona Halep has told how she's planning to get out in front - by having a boob job to reduce to size of her, ahem, mixed doubles.

Simona, 17, has been tipped as one of the tennis stars of the future after winning a host of junior titles and a place in the final of the junior French Open last year.

But the 5ft 5in sports star has told how she thinks her 34FF boobs are holding her back.


And of course, this is what makes the news. With a photo gallery.

Wednesday 27 May 2009

Teenage mothers fighting stereotypes and stigma

Teenage mothers: We can be role models

Sarah Aouamria, 17, who is due to give birth in nine weeks with her 21-year-old boyfriend at her side, is one of 64 girls attending a new course in Haringey and Enfield on how to manage adolescence and parenthood.

She said: “There is a very negative opinion of young mums, but we are not all like that. We don't all smoke, we haven't fallen pregnant to get a house and we are not all single. I am determined to do A-levels and will not fulfil the stereotype of a teenage mother.”

She backed the call for a London sex czar, adding: “The standard of sex education is so different it would help if someone tried to even it out.”

Casita Sumner, 36, a former teenage mother who runs the course for 14 to 18-year-olds, said: “The girls feel very strongly about the negative view society has. They still face prejudice. One girl was on the bus heavily pregnant and an old man started pointing his walking stick at her and shouting.”

Tuesday 26 May 2009

This is so sad...

Doctor defends Botox jabs for teenager

Jodie, who works as a model, had her first injection in May 2007 and since then has become addicted, spending £1,000 on the cosmetic treatments.

According to the magazine, she first became concerned about her appearance as a 17-year-old schoolgirl.

She grew a fringe to hide her forehead and bought expensive anti-ageing creams but still felt uncomfortable.

"My friends' faces all looked much smoother," she said. "Although when I said 'my forehead is wrinkly' they told me it was OK."

The teenager described her mother, who has been under the knife for a nose job, two breast enlargements, a tummy tuck and a mini-facelift, as her role model when it came to looks.

Jodie said: "My mum's always looked so glamorous and she uses cosmetic surgery and Botox to keep her looking young. I plan to follow in her footsteps.

"So what if I'm a teenage Botox addict? I can't think of anything worse than looking old. I'll always find a way to pay for Botox. Now I've started I can't stop."

Monday 25 May 2009

Women on the front line would probably jeopardise operational effectiveness. Because that's what women do!

Women could serve on the front line after European Union forces army review

General Sir Mike Jackson, the former Army chief, said nothing had changed since the 2002 review.

He warned if the Government changed its mind on the role of women "there would be concerns that operational effectiveness, particularly in the infantry, could be and probably would be jeopardised".

...

In current operations women have served with distinction, sharing the same dangers as men, and a number of have been decorated for their bravery.

There are female Harrier, Tornado, Apache attack helicopter pilots as well as Royal Artillery gunners and many combat medics.

However carrying 100lbs of kit in the 122F (50C) heat of Helmand could preclude all but a small number of women on physical grounds.


...So let that small number of women reach the standard and have the job. If it's a physical requirement, make it about strength, not sex. This is the very definition of gender inequality.

As for the effectiveness of women in this type of situation, a friend pointed out the BBC 2 documentary The Trouble with Working Women to me, and I caught the first episode of it on iPlayer last night (by the time this is published it probably won't be accessible anymore, I'm really sorry about that!). In one part of the programme the presenters interviewed the only female police officer in a unit of armed officers, and asked her teammates whether they trusted her any less, and if the physical difference was a problem. They each answered unequivocally and without hesitation that it did not, and that they would trust anybody who had gone through the training and reached the appropriate standard. One of them said something on the lines of, "We're a team, and she's one part of that. That's all there is to it."

Sunday 24 May 2009

No children? No promotion.

Childless is not a synonym for weird

A new book by Dr Caroline Gatrell, based on several years of research on women in employment, found some bosses consider those who choose not to have kids to be cold and odd, and refuse to promote them, since their deficiency of maternal instinct is seen as tantamount to a lack of "essential humanity".

Quite right too, according to one female columnist, who argued that non-mothers in the workplace are selfish, hungover, predatory bitches vying for the attention of male executives. Women who did not choose their childless state don't fare much better - these unfortunates are dismissed as "the unwilling barren". Tricky, then, to choose between professional personae: pitiable, wrung-out victim or materialistic, unnatural hag.

Saturday 23 May 2009

Just a speech on the after-dinner circuit - with tasteful pole dancing.

Arsenal legend to talk at strip club's event

The former PFA Young Player of the Year, who is famous for recovering from addictions to drink, drugs and gambling, will appear at Urban Tiger in Wellingborough Road before, during and after the Manchester United versus Barcelona final, which is being shown live at the club.

Club manager, Les Harrison, said: "It's set to be a top night; Paul Merson is doing the after dinner circuit at the moment and he's got some great football stories."


...

Doors open on Wednesday at 6pm, Mr Merson will start his talk at 7pm and the match kicks off at 7.45pm with tasteful pole dances during the event.

Tickets for entry to Urban Tiger are £10 each which includes a free curry and rice. Call Northampton 824766 for tickets and information.

Mr Harrison said: "As the advert goes, Carlsberg don't put on football nights but if they did it'd probably be something like this one."


Great news for female football fans! Oh, that's right - they don't exist.

Friday 22 May 2009

No women's uniform for 35 years. No plans to change this.

Policewoman say uniform trousers make them look like Simon Cowell

"Female police officers have been welcome in the force since 1974 but have never had trousers that fit properly. They don’t come in women’s sizes and the people in charge of uniform would have no idea what we meant if we said size 12."

Although “unisex” trousers are available they are little different to standard. Ms Owsley said: “The unisex ones are supposed to be women’s trousers but most women have found that they can’t get into them and the men’s are more comfortable. They say they are unisex, but in in practice that means men’s in smaller sizes.”


When I first read the headline my spirits dropped a little. I understand wanting to wear flattering clothes at work in a society that attaches a woman's confidence so tightly to her appearance, but really, I thought, jobs and dodgy uniforms are common to many jobs, it's something you just have to deal with.

Then I actually read the article and realised that a female version of the male uniform has never been made. Yes, there's a so-called 'unisex' version, but in practise it sounds like most women can't wear it, while most men won't wear it because they have a male uniform that fits perfectly well, so why should they? Women are apparently a valued segment of the force, but not even worth a uniform of their own. If the situation were reversed, and men were asked to do their jobs in, say, a fitted bootcut - technically wearable but hardly comfortable, physically or socially - I sincerely doubt they'd be told to just deal with it, especially as someone who has to work with the public and in potentially confrontational situations!

I am also completely unimpressed that the newspaper decided to go for a headline that makes this sound like the frivolous whimsy of fashion-conscious women, rather than the very simple fact that women have been denied a well-fitting uniform for 35 years of service in the police force.

Thursday 21 May 2009

In which an article is unfortunately misrepresented by its headline

National Shooting Week: shooting dames

The instructor is a man, but his three pupils are women. And the reason they’re here is that they have come on one of the school’s special one-day ladies courses aimed at giving women the basic skills of shotgun-wielding.

“The days of ladies turning up at a shoot and being met with polite frowns are long gone,” insists the school’s general manager Jonathan Irby. “We are certainly very keen to get more women shooting; apart from anything else, they represent 50 per cent of the total market.”


This article is about a business recognising the invisible social barriers that prevent woman from using their service and taking measures to make it more attractive and accessible to them. The photographs used are relevant and real, the quotes included represent the women as reasonable adults with some reservations, and the language is mostly neutral. Overall, it's an article that is respectful to women.

So why the HELL does it have a headline like "shooting dames"?!

Wednesday 20 May 2009

Gentlemen's clubs as a model for UK government... No, no problems there!

MPs' expenses: If only Westminster were a gentlemen's club

The House of Commons has been called "the best club in London", but only by people who aren't members of any others. For it lacks the key ingredient that makes up a really good club: the blackball. Absolutely anybody can become a Member of Parliament who has the qualifications of a thrusting temperament, opinionated nature, desire to boss us about, need to show off and, very often, a gnawing inferiority complex and mother fixation. Who would want to belong to a club full of people like that? And that was before we discovered they also had their fingers in the till.

Neither, since the abolition of the hereditary element of the House of Lords, is that as attractive a club as it once was. The long years of New Labour creating vast numbers of peers has inevitably taken its toll on the quality of the people there, and, unlike clubs, no one is forced to resign through bankruptcy or imprisonment. The recent cash-for-questions scandals have debased what was once the most noble institution in the land, after the monarchy.


Misplaced nostalgia much? This on its own is so outrageous that it's actually laughable, but it gets worse, as always, in the comments, which I was only willing to dive into in the hopes that I might read something, anything that explicitly discusses women's place in this grand model for our government:

Commenter 1: "What about any bars to membership? Women? Muslim? Black? Gay??"

Commenter 2: "I doubt very much that being black, muslim or gay would be a bar to membership of any of the clubs mentioned."

Well, that's all right then!

Tuesday 19 May 2009

Who is really being protected by this?

Jacqui Smith has watered down prostitution legislation

In its original form, the bill would have created an offence of buying or attempting to buy sex from anyone "controlled for gain by a third party", challenging the widely held view that prostitution is always a victimless transaction.

The proposal caused outrage, but it also exposed a paradox at the heart of the argument that prostitution should be legalised. Central to the legalisation claim is the idea that most women enter prostitution voluntarily, that they make a good living from it – better than stacking shelves in Tesco's is the patronising example that's usually trotted out – and encounter violence only rarely.

This is the "fairtrade" position, championed by the English Collective of Prostitutes, and it gets almost reverential attention from some columnists and commentators. What they don't explain is this: if this benign view of prostitution in the UK is accurate, why should punters be worried about a law that would have applied only to a tiny minority of women who have been trafficked or are under the control of pimps?

If the vast majority of women who sell sex are self-employed businesswomen, who see only the men they choose, are able to insist on safe sex at all times, have no drug or alcohol problems and have never met a pimp, most men who pay for sex had nothing to fear from Smith's original proposal.


...

It's a lost opportunity, and one that may not come around again for quite some time if a Conservative administration replaces Labour at the next general election. Politicians on the right are inclined to listen to commentators who claim that buying sex is a human right. As Labour ministers tacitly acknowledged before they took fright, what that can amount to is insisting on a right to abuse.

Monday 18 May 2009

Breastfeeding's essentially the same as eating a sandwich, right?

Council to change breast-feeding guidelines

Leisure centre staff will be given new guidelines after a mother complained she was asked to leave a pool while breast-feeding her son.

The Post reported how Laura Whotton, 26, from Carrington, was told she could not feed the boy at the poolside in the John Carroll Leisure Centre in Radford because it was a public area.

A city council spokeswoman later told the Post that breast-feeding breached its strict rule of no food and drink by the poolside.

But now David Trimble, the council's portfolio holder for leisure, culture and customers, has said: "I think we need to change this.

"We shouldn't be treating mothers the same as someone who's eating and drinking."


You think? Good that they're changing the guidelines, sad that this wasn't BLINDINGLY OBVIOUS to begin with.

I also find it interesting that the reason given at the time was "it's a public area" which was later changed to "actually, we have this strict rule about drinking stuff by the pool..." I suspect that's their attempt to soften the pool employee's actual reason for approaching this woman: breasts at a swimming pool are great to look at if they're slightly concealed by a bikini, icky if they're serving their natural purpose. 

Sunday 17 May 2009

Professor Severino Antinori: 'Mother-to-be too old at 66'

“I am shocked by the idea of a 66-year-old woman giving birth,” he said. “I respect the choice medically but I think anything over 63 is risky because you cannot guarantee the child will have a loving mother or family.

“It is possible to give a child to the mother up to the age of 83 but it is medically criminal to do this because the likelihood is that after a year or two the child will lose his mum and suffer from psychological problems.”


However you feel about a pregnancy this late in life, and putting aside for a moment the fact that no baby is ever guaranteed a loving family, for either parent to live until the child has grown up, or freedom from psychological problems as a result of their circumstances, I just want to draw attention to the fact that this judgement is not applied to older fathers, for whom having children (often with significantly younger women) is viewed as a sign of virility.

Saturday 16 May 2009

You are partly responsible for being attacked.

Experience: I can't remember getting raped

That morning, after an internal examination by police, Mum drove me to the house to collect my things. I'd been told not to talk to Paul until he'd given a statement, but all I wanted was for him to take me in his arms and comfort me. I remember letting myself in and seeing him sitting watching TV as though it were a normal afternoon. He barely looked up. I knew straight away he somehow blamed me for what had happened.

The weeks after the attack were harrowing. I had to take the morning-after pill and have STI and HIV tests, both thankfully clear. The police still hadn't told me I'd been raped - they didn't want to influence my statement should my memory return. But I guessed what had happened from the way I felt: it was such a brutal attack, I was left with internal injuries that would take months to heal.

As for Paul, I convinced myself he'd call as soon as he'd made his statement. Instead, he sent an email I've never been able to forget: "I know you didn't deliberately set out to get raped, but you are partly responsible for what happened."


Rape's coming up a lot on this blog, but the frequency with which it occurs coupled with the fact that it is still socially acceptable to dismiss it in this way makes rape to my mind one of the most significant signs of the enduring and pervasive nature of gender inequality.

Friday 15 May 2009

Apparently, sexual harassment allegations should not be considered when employing university professors

Context:

Nobel prize winner Derek Walcott has withdrawn from the race to become Oxford's professor of poetry following an anonymous letter campaign.

The campaign saw up to 100 Oxford academics sent photocopied pages from a book detailing a sexual harassment claim made against Walcott by a Harvard student in 1982. The student alleged that Walcott asked her to, "Imagine me making love to you. What would I do? ... Would you make love with me if I asked you?", and claimed that after she turned him down, she was given a C grade in his class.


Shortly after, he withdrew his candidacy, citing disgust at the "low tactics" and the "low and degrading attempts at character assassination." Today we have this comment in the Guardian:

Derek Walcott should still be in the race

Let's be honest. Poets tend not to be demure milquetoasts. Au contraire, they tend to be people of sublime passion, and often vice. They save the virtue for the written page.

Catullus, Villon, Byron, Baudelaire, first-rate poets , all led salacious and intemperate lives marred by tragic flaws. In fact, a craving for temporary opiates or a lubricious disposition are almost a
sine qua non of the role. As Willy Loman once said, it comes with the territory. Be it the absinthe bottle, syphilitic prostitutes or even murder, poets have not just long frequented, but actively bathed in the demi-monde, and are accustomed to the moral twilight.

[...]

So why should it have been any different with Walcott? If he were to have won, he would have been appointed to a professorship of poetry, not virtue.


But the emphasis should be on "professorship" not "poetry". We're not talking about his quality as a poet, that's already been acknowledged by the fact that he's being considered for the post. We're talking about whether or not he is fit for a teaching position at a university. Considering the harassment allegations suggest that this particular poet abused his power at a university with consequences for a young, female student, I fail to see how this is anything less that highly relevant to the potential position at Oxford, especially when the letters of the campaign in question were sent by Oxford academics.

I wasn't going to use this story because the claim remains controversial and contested, but to see it defended as merely a quirk of the artist is upsetting to say the least. How much are women worth, really? Assuming the worst case scenario, is this writer actually insisting that it would be acceptable to install a man who harasses his female students and punishes them if they don't comply into a position of power in an educational institution, under the understanding that it comes from a place of "sublime passion" and "moral twilight"? Excuse me?

The lofty peaks of Mount Parnassus are seldom scaled by the prudish, the boring or the virtuous, but by the passionate. Long may it thus continue.

Apparently not harassing your female students is 'prudish' and 'boring.' There's the writer's answer - that is what women are worth. Heaven forbid a pesky wish to be treated on an equal footing with male peers get in the way of a man's career.

Thursday 14 May 2009

Newsflash! Rape survivors might have some opinions on how police could handle their cases better!

Rape audit to find out why so few win justice

The project to ask victims about their own experiences will be conducted next year and is part of a nationwide audit of police forces and Crown Prosecution Service performance. It is a significant departure for HMIC, which has focused previously on policing procedures and performance. In another joint initiative by the Home Office and Association of Chief Police Officers, a group known as the rape support programme will begin touring the country this month advising police forces on how to implement the latest guidance on rape investigations.

Dave Gee, the former detective chief superintendent who heads the programme, said that Britain’s low conviction rates were partly due to poor evidence gathering and “indifferent attitudes” towards rape by police. “Too often, because of the negative mind at the outset, the case is undermined rather than built up,” he said.

Two rape cases this year highlighted dismissive attitudes among police officers. John Worboys, a London taxi driver, was left free to attack hundreds of women because police officers did not believe victims’ reports of being assaulted. One woman was told that black cab drivers “don’t do that sort of thing”. Only weeks after Worboys was jailed, Kirk Reid was convicted of 26 attacks, including two rapes. Reid had come to the police’s attention 12 times before he was arrested and charged and is thought to have attacked more than 70 women.

Wednesday 13 May 2009

Indecent assault on girl in park

A 15-year-old girl was dragged into undergrowth and indecently assaulted as she walked home from school in East Kilbride, police said.

She was approached by a man as she took a shortcut across grass football pitches at Ballerup Recreation Centre at about 1630 BST on Monday.

A passer-by came to the girl's aid and took her home. She suffered minor injuries.

Police appealed for information and described the assault as "terrifying".

Det Insp Garry Church said the weather had been fine and there were games being played on the pitches at the time of the attack.

Tuesday 12 May 2009

Infertility might not necessarily be the woman's fault!

Truth about male fertility

IVF clinics are heaving with couples in their late 30s and early 40s who are all hoping for a medical miracle. Meanwhile thousands of other couples are facing the heartbreaking realisation that their chances of parenthood might well have passed them by.

In all this the key focus is on the age of the mother and a woman’s 35th birthday – the age after which her fertility begins to decline – is a cause for alarm. However there is one important factor that has largely been absent from the fertility debate until now and that is the role of fathers. After all men contribute 50 per cent of the genetic material required for successful reproduction but their role in any age-related fertility crisis has so far gone largely unexplored.


But... why? The article gives a couple of reasons, neither of them particularly convincing. Is there really a scientific reason why infertility with age has been assumed to be an entirely female problem?

Monday 11 May 2009

Yes, the patriarchy does hurt men too

Men 'suffering recession blues'

Men responding to the survey seemed to be more reluctant to talk about when they were feeling stressed or low than women.

Only 29% of men would talk to friends about their problems compared with 53% of women and they were also less likely to talk to their family.

Men were also less likely to seek out professional help and a third would feel embarrassed about it.

And 5% of men said they had experienced suicidal thoughts compared with 2% of women.


...

Paul Farmer, chief executive at Mind, said: "The recession is clearly having a detrimental impact on the nation's mental health, but men in particular are struggling with the emotional impact.

"Being a breadwinner is something that is still crucial to the male psyche so if a man loses his job he loses a large part of his identity putting his mental wellbeing in jeopardy.

"The problem is that too many men wrongly believe that admitting mental distress makes them weak and this kind of self stigma can cost lives."


I'm not sure 'psyche' is the right word here, but essentially, social understandings of masculinity are damaging men's health. This overlaps directly with the understanding of masculinity that is at the root of such problems as domestic violence and sexual assault (obviously, individuals are responsible for their own actions, but this is the construct that has made such actions more easily dismissed as a 'private' matter, or overlooked as harmless, because he's 'only a man, he can't help it'). Creating a society in which masculinity is less rigidly defined, in which more channels of communication are open and more men feel comfortable using them, makes things better for everybody.

Sunday 10 May 2009

Woman punched in the face then sexually assaulted

Man sought over street sex attack

A man who sexually assaulted a woman is being sought by police on Tyneside.

The 20-year-old victim was attacked as she walked past Robinson Library in Newcastle towards the underpass leading to West Jesmond in the early hours.

She was pushed her to the ground and punched in the face before being sexually assaulted.


One thing that frustrates me is that she will no doubt be told that she "should have known better" than to walk home alone late on a Saturday night, as if doing so gives all men free reign to attack her. That could have been me, or any of my friends; we're not well off enough to afford taxis home all the time, and will insist on walking home alone to avoid putting our friends out of their way. The thought that I could be blamed for an attack under these circumstances is sickening, but she'll almost certainly be subjected to it by somebody at some point.

Saturday 9 May 2009

The pay gap still exists, even for women in government - and it's getting worse.

Gender pay gap rises in Whitehall's top ranks

The figures are revealed in a comparison of men's and women's salary levels across Whitehall in September 2007 and March 2008 by the ONS.

They show that in most Whitehall departments men are paid more than women, and a surprising disclosure is that in some departments the situation got worse between 2007 and 2008.


...

The main explanation being offered in Whitehall is that women take more career breaks than men and therefore miss out on promotion and often end up at a lower pay grade when they return to work.

Opinion will be divided on whether or it is fair to make no allowances for childbirth in a woman's career, but one thing is for certain: having to make a choice between promotion or a family almost certainly contributes to the under-representation of women in government.

Why I don't like rape jokes.

A sidenote before I get to Saturday's story. These were all put up after I posted yesterday:

Women raped after accepting lift

Boy charged with raping girl, 12

Teen is jailed for raping tourist

Rapists jailed for horrific attack

Teenagers jailed over gang rape

Nicholas Corsellis, prosecuting, said: "She was ordered to calm down and stop being a child, to which she replied, 'But I am - I'm 14'."

The court heard that the girl realised the danger she was in and pleaded with the gang saying, "Imagine if I was your sister or mother".

Mr Corsellis added: "And in a sickening example of life on some estates in London there were clearly other men who were prepared to join in, waiting their turn rather than trying to stop the child being raped."


To put this into context:



And the conviction rate hasn't improved at all. Also in March 2009: "The government estimates that as many as 95% of rapes are never reported to the police at all. Of the rapes that were reported from 2007 to 2008, only 6.5% resulted in a conviction, compared with 34% of criminal cases in general. The majority of convictions for rape resulted from an admission of guilt by the defendant, whereas less than one quarter of all those charged with rape were convicted following a successful trial."

With that in mind, there are a few things I want to point out about the above news stories. 

1) All these stories appeared over several hours in one day, and are, obviously, only about rapes that have been reported. How many unreported rapes happened in the same time?

2) These stories all conform to the 'socially acceptable' understanding of rape as assault by a stranger who is then convicted - even though far more women are raped by someone they know (usually a husband or partner), and women who struggle through the 'culture of scepticism' and outright disbelief and disapproval in order to bring their cases to court are extremely unlikely to see it result in a conviction.

3) These perpetrators are young. Women have achieved equality? Feminism is unnecessary? Not while this cycle continues. 

I have no idea how many people around me have been affected by rape, but the official statistic is 1 in 4, not considering people who have been affected by the rapes of their friends, sisters, partners or mothers. You make a joke about rape in a public place, and chances are that someone around you is going to be upset by it - but not be able to say a thing, because of the deeply personal nature of the crime, the moral prejudices still attached to it ("How much had you drunk? Had you been flirting with him?"), and not wanting to bring down the good mood of everyone around them. I can say from experience that if you tell people that their rape jokes are not funny, you will be told to lighten up and stop taking things so seriously, because it's only a joke, and hey, that girl found it funny so it's just because you're just a humourless feminist that you don't! 

The fact that I could be raped, blamed for it and see no justice served through the legal system crosses my mind every single time I go out wearing a short skirt or low top, drink a lot, walk home by myself, and so on. The people who make rape jokes seem to feel that if they joke about other issues in a politically incorrect way then that makes it okay (equal opportunities irreverence or something) but rape is a part of my everyday life, and always will be, whether I'm physically affected by it or not. To hear it spoken about so lightly is upsetting to me, so I can't imagine how it must be for someone who has actually been raped, or directly affected by it. 

And that's why I don't like rape jokes. 

ETA: The cycle continues.

Friday 8 May 2009

Man enters private property, assaults the owner, is given... a little extra work?

Man hit ex-girlfriend over cup of tea

Robert Allen, prosecuting, said: "She told him to get out of the property and he called her a 'fat bitch'.

''He then went to the kitchen and told her to make him a cup of tea.

"When she refused, he said 'you bitch' and raised his right hand and hit her in the face.

"She called the police, who found Mr Farrell walking away from the property. He accepted he assaulted her in the way she described."


...

Farrell, who has a daughter with Ms Cult, was handed a 14-week jail sentence suspended for one year.

He was also ordered to undertake 80 hours of unpaid work.


If my understanding is correct, that means that he doesn't go to prison for this offence, but that if he commits another crime within a year then this sentence can be added to whatever he's given for the other crime. And, in the meantime, he does some work and doesn't get money for it.

Anyone else feel that this might not be the most effective to get this 23-year-old man to change his ways? And that this very possibly is not the safest solution for his ex-girlfriend, considering he let himself into her house on the day of this incident? 

Thursday 7 May 2009

70-year-old man feels he has a right to sex with teenage girls

Jail term for indecency pensioner

A 70-year-old man has been jailed for four years after admitting indecent behaviour towards three girls in Moray.

Raymond Grant told one of the young girls he "needed to take a girl's virginity again before he died", the High Court in Edinburgh heard.

The girl, aged between 12 and 16, refused and ran away.


This is what happens when you have a social construct like virginity and attach the concept of saving it or losing it from the women's side and taking it from the men's: sexual abuse. This is only labelled indecency because he didn't succeed in his intentions. 

Shahid Latif, defending, said his client was "genuinely remorseful for these actions".

"This conviction will hang round his neck for the rest of his life," he said.

"At the age of 70 he is likely to spend the rest of his days ostracised by his family."


Translation: my client is genuinely remorseful for the fact that he got caught. Let's not question how his actions will affect the three girls for the rest of their lives, although we're told that the girl who ran away has begun to self-harm, take antidepressants and suffer from an eating disorder, problems that take a lot of time and effort to overcome, if she ever does. But hey, you've got to feel bad for a guy whose family won't talk to him anymore because he attempted to sexually abuse teenaged girls...

Oh, wait. No you don't.

Wednesday 6 May 2009

Scary drunken women are taking over the country!

Binge drinking Britain: surge in women consuming harmful amounts of alcohol

Binge drinking among women has almost doubled since 1998, in a rapid narrowing of an alcohol gender gap that persisted for generations, research today from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation shows.

It found that the proportion of women who binge drink rose from 8% in 1998 to 15% in 2006. Over the same period, binge drinking among men increased only slightly, from 22% to 23%.


But almost a quarter of men drinking unhealthily is less of a concern than 15% of women? On top of this, the article puts the increase partly down to "women's increased independence and financial security." So more women are drinking more because they can afford to and there are less people telling them no. How terrible.

There are some other details in there that put this in perspective, such as the fact that the largest increase is in women over 65 and that young adults of both ages are drinking less, but my favourite is:

The JRF report said the narrowing of the alcohol gender gap could be partly explained by a tendency among many women to prefer wine to beer. The method adopted by the government for calculating a unit of alcohol changed in 2006, in effect doubling the number of units in a glass of wine.

Not exactly a "surge in women consuming harmful amounts of alcohol," is it?

What's this blog about?

THE CHALLENGE: To find something in the UK news every day from May 6th to July 6th that highlights gender inequality. 

THE REASON: Most people - including me, for the first 22 years of my life - believe that feminism is irrelevant, unnecessary, worlds away from their everyday lives. I understand how obviously feminist issues like the pay gap or domestic violence can seem far removed for a lot of people, especially if you're middle-class, able-bodied, cis-gendered, heterosexual, white, or some combination of the above. If I can find something local and relevant every single day that makes me think, "THAT'S why I'm a feminist!" then at least some of it should strike home for at least some of the people who read this blog. 

Being a feminist isn't just about marches and protests, as important as those things are. Just recognising and calling out the banal, overlooked, socially acceptable sexism around us is crucial. Realising this was how I came to identify as a feminist. 

THE FORMAT: Sometimes the news article will speak for itself, and sometimes I'll put in some explanation of why I feel this is a feminist issue. There will be no option to comment on the posts. If you disagree with my reasoning, or feel there's more to discuss, that's great - write about it in your own blog and link back here. If I have to moderate and/or reply to comments, this challenge will turn into a chore. Maybe later the format will change, but for now I just want to focus on getting the articles up on a daily basis. 

THE PERSON: Hairy, man-hating and humourless, naturally. You're not allowed to be a feminist if you're not.