On the 12th of November some us went to Uk Feminista's Fem 11 Conference in London. It was a very enlightening event and we all made sure we went to as many workshops and talks as possible so we could report back to you.
Fawcett Society: Don't turn back time! Protesting against cuts that will harm women's equality.
The RHWACA have found the Fawcett Society very helpful since we started, and they’ve given us lots of information on how the public sector cuts will and are harming women. Their workshop identified the effects of the cuts on women omen's equality such as more unemployment, lower incomes, childcare costs, fewer choices, pensions etc. They also wanted women every where to sign the petition calling on David Cameron to adopt the Life Raft, a report made up of recommendations to the Government that will make life better for families, low income mothers, victims of violence and older women. Overall telling the government not to Turn Back Time on Women's Equality.
Platform 51 – A Different perspective: teenage mums and feminism.
Not being a teenage mum myself but knowing many teenage mums personal I had bit an Idea of the struggles and the revelations discovered by young people when the become parents. However this workshop which was given by the women’s charity platform 51 young mums who the charity had help was really insightful. We discussed about how childcare and other benefits were making it even more difficult to get back into education especially now the care to learn funding for young carers in under threat, limiting who gets the money by age. Also the carers they are most likely to go into are under threat and we also discussed pregnancy discrimination in the workplace. If the care to learn grant is limited to carers 18 and under, higher education for those over 18 is going to be even harder to get into, this something I think we should be highlighting at RHUL and universities everywhere.
End Violence Against Women Coalition
This was a very interesting session which focused largely on the sexualisation of women and girls and to what extent it contributes to violence against women. For example, sexualisation contributes to sexual harassment against girls at school, and also to young women being accepting of rape and seeing rape as normal. EVAW then showed us a video from their new campaign, called “We are Man”, which encourages men to be “real men” by speaking out against violence against women and girls. Ending violence against women and girls is a fundamental issue that needs to be focused on more in society, so it is really important to support the EVAW Coalition and it felt very empowering to hear so many feminists contributing to a discussion around this issue.
White Ribbon Campaign
The WRC is a men’s group that campaigns against men’s violence against women. We discussed how we can get more men involved in the movement, for example, by challenging the institutionalisation of patriarchal gender norms and by being careful not to treat men as a homogenous group. Getting men involved in the feminist movement is very important, and this was an interesting session as it was good to hear men’s views on this issue; however, women still outnumbered men at this session by quite a long way!
Southall Black Sisters
Migration, cohesion and religion: A gendered perspective from SBS
The Southall Black Sisters have always believed race, gender and class to be indivisible; the session thus discussed the cumulative effects of the cuts. With 1 in 5 women’s organisations to be closed, 60% of refuges and 70% of outreach programmes having no funding from April 2012 it is important to recognise those who will be disadvantaged the most. Welfare state cuts have lead to religions organisations increasingly taking over services – such as the care of victims of human trafficking being moved from the Poppy Project to the Salvation Army. This is increasingly happening at a local level as the state fails to provide, and legal aid cuts will only exacerbate this situation, particularly for minority groups. The Sisters concluded by demanding we MUST defend out secular spaces, once our services are gone, they are GONE, these have taken decades and centuries to fight for: ‘We need to dissent, we need to make noise, we need to collaborate!’
The Centre for Women and Democracy
Party Games: can women work across party lines to create a new politics?
Identifying a democratic deficiency of feminist voices in formal politics the Centre for Women and Democracy aimed to ask whether it was possible to get women to work across party lines on ‘women’s issues’. The interactive discussion raised a range of questions (‘why isn’t there a feminist party?’ prompted rapturous cheers). It was agreed that gender representation should be proportional not for human rights and equality quotas but because as 53% of the population and the majority of primary careers for dependants, women’s opinions are pretty important and valid. The session concluded that the governing system need to allow a greater space to work across party lines and that while the numbers of women in parliament are increasing, diversity of men and women has decreased; indeed would a cabinet of female millionaires really make that much difference?
Rights of Women
Listening to ‘Rights of Women’, I learnt that the Home Office, Ministry of Justice and Crown Prosecution Service (amongst many others in the UK) had been using an internationally accepted definition for domestic violence. This definition included psychological, physical, sexual, financial and emotional abuse. However, a new Bill has passed which defines abuse as purely sexual or physical, and have minimised access to free legal aid. Not only this, but before the Bill going to your GP or a refuge could count as evidence, and now only protective injunction within the last 12 months is considered evidence beyond reasonable doubt. This is due to the government’s cuts: narrowing the definition, restricting the evidence required and minimising legal aid saves them time and money, whilst keeping up international appearances with its apparent support for physical abuse.
Refugees for Refugee Women
The following talk by ‘Refugees for Refugee Women’ described the Asylum process here in the UK. These women face the difficulties of being systematically accused of lying and many are left in a state of limbo by the Home Office for anything between 5 to 10 years, before being sent back to the place they fled or being finally granted asylum. During this limbo, the women have nowhere to stay apart from the streets or any charity with enough space, they cannot get any work although they would like to, and their lives are held in this temporary and uncertain state while they worry about their loved ones in their homeland and struggle with cultural differences and daily needs. These women didn’t become brave and strong through choice but necessity, and while the system needs to be changed, all they ask for is someone to lend an ear.
Susuana, Jasmine, Vicky, Sidonie
RHWACA
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