Women's Resource Centre blog

Women's organisations at Leveson - holding the media to account

2012-01-24T16:14:00.001Z

While it seems much of mainstream news has been preoccupiedwith the media big guns appearing at the Leveson inquiry into media ethics,today was the chance for women's organisations to testify about the oftensensationalised coverage of issues such as violence against women, rape,so-called 'honour killings' and stalking.

Marai Larasi from the End Violence Against Women coalition(EVAW), Jacqui Hunt from Equality Now, Anna Van Heeswijk from OBJECT and Heather Harvey from Eaves Charity all took part in today's testimony, providing excellent, compelling testimoney which was followed avidly in real time on social media by many women's organisations and individual women (and - eventually by the mainstream press, see BBC and Telegraph stories).

Those testifying pointed out how many cases involvingthe murder of women and their families by men often spoke of what ‘drove’ theman to it via the women’s behaviour – a fact that given a recent court decisionpermitting sexual infidelity to be a factor in sentencing murderers must giveus all pause. The issue of treatment of women commentators online was also addressed, with Heather Harvey observing that misogynist insults to women online effectively stamped on women's access to free speech. "People should be able to equally comment on society but online misogyny curtails and limits women's freedom of expression, she said.

The tabloids came in for a particular drubbing from those testifying, with Annafrom OBJECT noting a particularly repulsive article on a 15-year old CharlotteChurch’s breasts in one newspaper, while others on the panel noted that coverage ofrape cases was often sensationalist, using language more titillating thansobering.

Leveson himself acknowledged at one point that it could workif women’s organisationss had the right to raise such issues over coverage with relevant authority and adjudicated upon, and Marai Larasi from the End Violence Against Women coalition (EVAW) called for better training of journalists in covering violence against women issues and censure for journalists who breached guidelines.

It is encouraging to see the Leveson enquiry broaden its remit to include testimony on such vital issues as the sexualisation and objectification of women in media coverage, however as Anna from OBJECT observed, the questions directed to them should be directed at the media and politicians themselves, too. After all, they are the ones with the power to change for the better how women are seen, but too often not properly heard, in our media.

You can read a full transcript put together by our intern, Sarah Pollard below:

EVAW – Marai Larsai

Why have you come to the inquiry?

The media creates, reflects and reinforces attitudes. The media needs to be aware of this and not condone reporting that misrepresents women. Sensationalist reporting on violence against women reinforces incorrect views about women.

Submission from Marai Larsai.

The Daily Telegraph ‘Man murders wife after she changes her status to single’.

The tone of the story was that the man killed his wife because of her actions. The focus on her action and Facebook trivialises the murder of this woman and shifts the blame onto her. This is dangerous from a violence against women perspective. Responsible journalism for us would be 'this is how often a woman is killed, a woman is murdered twice a week by a partner or former partner' and the issue would need to contextualised more widely within a violence against women and girls framework. The fact that it became a Facebook murder itself is really symbolic, it was in fact a murder of a real woman by her partner.

Gang rape of young girls ‘an orgy’ Daily Mail.

This is very upsetting. Put the term orgy in something and what you immediately do is grab attention and it becomes titillating. Two young girls were raped, we are talking about unlawful sex and this whole story completely focuses on the girl’s behaviour, their attitudes, what the girls did and didn’t do, it even went so far to focus on their parents and not on the behaviour of the young men . There is an almost sympathetic approach to the young men, they talk about their 'career as footballers being ruined by the biggest mistake of their life'. Now you can report this if it was in a court situation but what happened to these young women is being trivialised. I would expect some scrutiny of the young men’s behaviour and this to be reported in a responsible way. I would also expect to hear that young women are vulnerable to sexual exploitation and this is what responsible reporting should sound like. They are putting words like 'orgy' and 'Lolita' into the public domain without thinking what impact this could have on the young women or on other young women who are in this position. Seeking out of expertise of professionals who are able to speak to the issues that are being reported is important in cases such as this.

But even if you are going to put the defence perspective is there not a further argument that what is critical is to put the perspective that you have just identified?

I'm not saying you can’t have a position where you say 'the behaviour of the young girl was scrutinised in court' but I would expect scrutiny of the young mans behaviour also. I would expect it to be reported in a more responsible way that put the violence in the context of the vulnerability of women. For example ‘The other woman was more reluctant and was raped by just one player’, that tone alone indicates that you are not focusing on that girls vulnerability and the way they say ‘just one player’, a rape is a rape, for that young woman there is likely to be a whole degree of trauma associated with that experience. There is also an importance of seeking out expertise in that field of professionals who are able to speak to the issues that are being reported for example a dialogue with rape crisis could look at the issues surrounding the case.

Honour based violence against and women and girls.

Honour based violence instances are reported in the press in gratuitous detail, language is inaccurate 'forced marriage' is called 'arranged marriage', they talk about these instances as being cultural or religious issues, not as 'violence against women'. The focus is on the culture and not on the issue of violence against women. Frequency of the news being reported as an Islamic issue which is not the case, this is happening in a number of cultures. Again, it is important to have a broad perspective of views from a number of professionals in a piece such as this.

Unpublished and unfinished MA dissertation reported in the Telegraph

The original press release said 'Promiscuous men more likely to rape' but the Telegraph twists their report and makes it about 'women who dress provocatively more likely to be raped'. There is a great concern about the editorial intent as it is misrepresenting the information, of the dissertation and presenting an unpublished piece as science.

Would a fair and responsible and comprehensive reporting about violence against women seek to bring in a number of strands of the story?

Absolutely, the other side of it is a context, men who commit violence are deemed as beasts, but they are the men around us. Men are demonised and the press take it out of the context of normal society, 1/3 women are abused so it is normal. Sensationalising the violence means that people disconnect it, and 'other' the violence, it doesn't relate to them. So people are less likely to report violence to the police as it becomes sensationalised.

Recommendations.

The first point for us is a softer recommendation about journalists receiving training about the law and the way they report violence against women including the absolute and clear rule that the identities of victims of rape should not be disclosed. But also looking at violence against women and girls and helping them understand what the genuine issues are and some mythbusting so journalists are empowered as they have some accurate information.

Something around sanctions for journalists who break the law. At the moment free press seems to grant some journalists immunity.. We want a free press but we want an accountable press.

We also want to stop victim blaming. Looking at the situation and the victim is different from a tone which is 'she only has herself to blame'.

Regulatory system that has teeth, the current system does not have an adequate framework for redress. Women who have been wronged do not feel as though they can take out complaints. Have a system where a woman would feel like she is able to do that. System where groups would allow to complain also.

Equality Now – Jacqui Hunt

Why have you come to the inquiry

International human rights standards require the elimination of stereotypes against women and the media withholds these views. This is a huge issue for the international community; it focuses on the harms of this sexist stereotyping in the media. We don't have every diverse image of women in the media, BME, older women, disabilities do not exist.

Submission from Jacqui Hunt

Women in decision making roles have negative stereotypes, 'Blair's Babes' and 'Cameron's Cuties' are often the headlines of the article and even if the article makes very important points, the headline always trivialises the point.

There is a legitimisation and normalisation of sexism in society which may legitimise violence against women, which may have a consequence when it comes to access of justice for women. Any examples we have submitted come back to these points.

Freedom of the press is important, but we have to make sure that women are not sidelined and taken out of decision making in society.

Recommendations.

Women's groups to be involved in setting the standards in a new press complaints commission because there are those headlines of discrimination and inaccurate reporting and there is also a carve out of good taste or tone and I think if you don’t understand the gender/equality arguments you might be persuaded in thinking this is about tone and not the substance of discrimination.

We don#t want just a group who is supporting an individual making a complaint but more like the CEDAW optional protocol when you are making complaints, both an individual who is directly effected by the complaint, either grave or systemic pattern of a abuse that we can then go to the media and say this is a pattern that constantly feeds into the sexualisation of women.

Anybody who can complain who has an interest, victims, groups, everyone has a legitimate right to raise a point. Sexism doesn’t start in the news room, it's in our society, we are asking our government to take a lead on campaigns to stop discrimination and promote equality.

Object - Anna Van Heeswijk

Why have you come to the inquiry

It is clear Page 3 contributes to a culture where women are perceived as existing for the sole purpose of being sex objects. This is harmful as these images are in mainstream newspapers which exist at children’s eye level.

We are proposing very simple solutions to tackle the sexualisation of women in the tabloid press.

Submission from Anna Van Heeswijk.

The Sun.

Women are displayed as a sum of sexualised body parts within the press. The common theme is the page three feature of a topless fully nude woman who is sexualised and objectified.

Women are always accompanying the 'Dear Deidre' article in their underwear, reducing them to objects and there is also widespread trivialisation and eroticisation of the reporting of violence against women. This can be seen on the front page of the Sun where the headline reads, 'Bodyguard for battered TOWIE sisters', photograph accompanying the story is a picture of one of the sisters in her underwear. Trivialises the incident so it will not be taken seriously.

These newspapers are not displayed on the top shelf, they readily available and mainstream, adverts for the porn and sex industry are alongside an advert for free toy Lego, directed at children.

Despite the fact the images within the sun would not allowed to be displayed in the workplace because of sexual harassment laws and they would not be displayed before the watershed, they are shown in this 'family newspaper'.

Parents and teachers are trying to regulate this material, teachers have told us about their difficulties with this issue, they want to encourage children to read the news and engage. Teachers encourage children to bring in a paper and they bring in the Sun. The Sun is very easy to read and is attractive for children to buy. Teachers have to confiscate these newspapers from the children and then the children point out that they are able to buy them, they are at eye level. 'Page three' girls are on every page of the Daily Star. Imagery on the front page of the star is relevant; they are displayed at child's eye level and in the mainstream.

Another point to make is the assumptions they make about the male reader which are displayed in the star accompanying this article, 'we assume you are not even reading this because you are getting a pervy eyeful of that arse', (this text accompanied a woman athlete). Even when a woman is taking part in a sport she is still sexualised and reduced to a body part.

Charlotte Church at 15, commentary with the article is that 'she is a big girl now', ‘child singing sensation showed just how much she had grown up at a Hollywood party, chest swell'. The article on the next page is an outrage about a satire to do with paedophilia; there is a massive contradiction here.

The women are completely nameless and headless just focusing on one part of their body, completely objectified and sexualised. In vulnerable position, normalising up skirt photography, voyeurism, harassment and bullying. Young girls in schools are often subjected to this bullying in school.

We have to ask ourselves, what does this say to young boys and girls when they see men in suits, sports attire, who are active participants in society and women as sexualised objects, who are naked or nearly naked every single page.

What is the difference between Penthouse and the material we have just seen?

There is not a market difference between the content, the difference is how they are regulated. It is more harmful to have these images in mainstream newspapers because of the normalising and legitimating nature they have. They are never displayed on the top shelf, they are completely mainstream and available to everyone. Makes this portrayal of women unquestionable, normal and acceptable.

The images on our submission were censored, we are in a roomful of adults but they are not in the newspapers.

Recommendations.

Images should be guided by legislation which already exists. Any messages and images which are not considered as appropriate for the workplace should not be printed or readily available in unrestricted newspapers.

Gender equality being the baseline for shaping the attitudes of children and young people about women and young girls.

We are not proposing any form of radical over haul of media regulations, just called for consistency with how other media outlets are regulated.

Eaves Housing for Women – Heather Harvey

Why have you come to the inquiry

We are grateful to contribute, we support freedom of expression but we have concerns that the press should challenge the status quo, hold people to account and we are concerned that our press reflects our society and reinforces it. If we do not keep power in check sexism will continue to exist.

Submission Heather Harvey

The riots over the summer will often be covered in a responsible way, they look at the wider patterns and the wider context, will usually involve asking commentators.

There were 4 instances of a man murdering his wife and children over Christmas, I would expect responsible journalism to look at these things, is there a common factor, is there any research, if there isn’t should there be, all these things should be asked. What we are concerned about is these cases are treated as a ‘one off’ nothing you can do to prevent it. Our position is that violence against women is linked directly to the public sphere; it is a cause and a consequence of inequality. It's a lack of contextualisation and a failure to ask the right questions. The press coverage causes us all to sit back and think that there is nothing we can do about it. A free press should and could be asking these more challenging questions about our society and the status quo.

We feel a lot of the coverage has a focus on the perpetrator in often quite a sympathetic way; it's amazing how little you know about the women who are actually the victim. We often know that the perpetrator has just lost his job, is depressed etc. These are valid reasons but ultimately he has been violent, but there is another half to this story, which is not being told. This tendency to obscure the victim or to scrutinise her very intently gives the impression that there is a validation, explanation or justification as to why this man committed this violence.

The media are not reporting all the cases that go to court, they report the most interesting, different or unusual. Only 8% of all rapes are stranger rapes, the rest are acquaintance, date or marriage and you would never know that if you read the paper. Women blame themselves and they feel like they should not come forward as they have heard in the discourse that they are responsible.

On the issue of debate in the general public, the level of abuse that women get, when they comment on issues of public policy, is very sexist and gendered abuse. There is a language 'you should be raped' 'you should have your tongue ripped out'. Focus is on your looks comments such as you're ugly and you're a lesbian (as if this should be a bad thing). The women themselves recognise that this is about resenting women’s right to comment on public matters, if she is talking about women's rights or policy there is a challenge to their own right to have an opinion. Women's voices and issues are being silenced, not covered properly, fairly and not a true representation of how women experience life. The way women are portrayed, prevents women from being involved in the conversation.

Recommendations.
My colleague Larsai said most of what I wanted to say. Guidance and training for the media. Quick and affordable access to remedies.

Proactive power to undertake investigations when the media receive complaints

Would like some sort of strong sanction. Means of bringing a complaint as a member of a community as this is the only way you can bring in the less tangible but just as harmful effects of the media.

Closing comments…

Anna Van Heeswijk - It is a shame that the people who wrote these stories were not questioned about these issues. These newspapers have created a culture of fear which silences politicians and others who speak out against women being objectified. The vilification and targeting of Claire Short is an example of this, who initiated a campaign against Page 3 in the 1980s.

Claire Short's face was superimposed onto a page three model and the headline is 'fat jealous Claire brands page three porn', they likened her to a back of a bus and said making her into a page three girl would be a 'mission impossible' - the effect has been close down free speech, making people feel they cannot speak out against newspapers. This is the same point my colleague was making earlier when she spoke about bloggers. I think this sort of abuse is very alarming and something which continues. Harriet Harman has been vilified for the position she has taken on Page 3, Dr Evan Harris was named 'villan of the week' in the Sun also. Clearly a bullying tactic, because the editors themselves were not questioned on this issue it is essential politicians can speak on the experiences they have on speaking out against the Page 3 phenomenon.

Leveson - 'the start would certainly be to permit bodies such as yours to be able to take up issues of press standards with whoever would be responsible to regulate it'. The length and the breadth of what I can do with this enquiry, how much further one can go without raising all sorts of other issues is not entirely straight forward, so I’m not discouraging you but am merely asking if I understand the absolute priorities.

Anna Van Heeswijk 'We do not see this as a real drastic ask, proposal or recommendation to recommend that this generally accepted policy is applied to all broadcast media.'

Putting a value on women's services

2012-01-20T15:44:00.001Z

Show your worth.

This is a request often made by funders or by government to organisations working with people in need. For women's organisations, this leads to difficult questions – how can you put a number on the invaluable support you have provided a woman in terms of her mental health and wellbeing? On the confidence you have enabled her to find, on the fact she can now cope with aspects of life previously unfathomable?

Two years ago Women's Resource Centre, in conjunction with the new economics foundation (nef), set out to, essentially, quantify the unquantifiable, thanks to funding from Trust for London. Using pioneering social return on investment (SROI) techniques and working with five women’s organisations, WRC and nef spent months sifting through data, conducting interviews, crunching numbers and compiling data for analysis.

Our resulting report "Hidden Value, demonstrating the extraordinary impact of women's voluntary and community organisations", focuses on the outcomes created by women’s organisations across a wide range of service areas and highlights the need to support and sustainably fund essential women's services.

It found at the culmination of two years of work that for every pound invested in women's services, between £5 and £11 of worth is generated. This extraordinary figure highlights the broad range of benefits created by women’s organisations for service users, society, families and the state, from combating violence against women to improving health and educational prospects.

Evidence showed that women's organisations increase skills and support entry into employment, improve mental health and wellbeing and reduce risk of self harm and suicide. Crucially, the support given by women's organisations did not end with the woman who went to them in need - it was passed to their families.

Overall, it was demonstrated that by comprehensively addressing the causes and consequences of women’s problems, women's organisations both support individual women's well-being and reduce their need for state-funded services.

"The impact that these charities have goes much further than those women that they seek to help, but as much impacts on wider society because of the crucial role that women still play in raising the next generation even today," said Jenny Rouse, nef consulting analyst.

"Hopefully this SROI report will demonstrate to funders the value that organisations specifically focussed on women’s issues have for society."

Ultimately, the most important finding is that women's organisations' work saves lives. Analysis of violence against women organisation Women and Girls Network (WGN), who participated in the project, predicted that the service prevented at least one suicide a year through its work.

"They made me feel like I was worth something,” one client told the researcher about WGN. "I had 20 years of being told I was useless, worthless."

Now the important part is to build on the research. WRC has sent copies to government, funders, stakeholders, the media, and anyone who could - and should - have an interest in the remarkable work undertaken by women’s organisations. After all, we think we have more than shown its worth.

Note

The organisations involved were Ashiana Network, Women and Girls Network, Heba Women's Project, South Sudan Women's Skills Development, Rape Crisis South London

Human rights are for everyone!

2011-12-14T12:27:00.003Z

Yesterday I took part in the final event of the British Institute of Human Right’s epic UK tour – 16 trainings in 16 cities to celebrate making human rights happen. It was a really empowering day with participants from a wide variety of organisations and public bodies and with a great deal of expertise and knowledge in the room.

In the workshop I was in we looked at what the obligations of public bodies are under the Human Rights Act and how we can ensure that they are enacting these to make their services better, safer and more accessible to everybody. It was good to look at practical examples of how the Human Rights Act can be used - you can find more examples of how it has been used to support women’s rights here.

The event was also a good opportunity to raise awareness of the current attack in the media and by our own political leaders, on the human rights legislation which we already have in place. The European Convention on Human Rights is being presented as something that is being imposed on the UK from Europe when in fact the UK was instrumental in drafting and implementing this important piece of legislation as a response to the atrocities of the Second World War.

The focus on human rights being ‘abused’ and on certain groups being more ‘deserving’ of human rights than others also totally goes against everything in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which understands that human rights must be for everybody so that we can tackle discrimination and move towards equality for all.

It is important that people learn about human rights so that they can stand up for their own rights and support the rights of others. We already have the tools we just need to use them!

Find out more about how you can use human rights in your work here.

Use our new online toolkit on the UN Women’s Bill of Rights (CEDAW) to support the women you work with.

Find out more about the proposed British Bill of Rights.

WRC get the banner out!

2011-11-29T10:31:00.009Z

WRC have been out on the streets in force supporting various events around London in the last few weeks. Even the chilly weather has not stopped people getting out to make their voices heard about issues that are affecting women all over the UK every day.

On Nov 19th we joined a few thousand women to march past No. 10 Downing Street and tell David Cameron that his policies are turning back time on women’s rights and that women must not be cut out as part of The Fawcett Society’s march and rally.

It was a fun and vibrant march and then we heard from a raft of amazing speakers (including our own Chief Executive Vivienne Hayes) who outlined various ways that women’s equality is being rolled back – from education, to reproductive rights, to employment and cuts to women’s specialist services. A particular highlight was Josie Long talking about her introduction to feminism and the sexism in her industry – we love her!

(If you want to look at the impact of the cuts on women in your local area there is a great new toolkit that can help you do just that – if you do use it please let us know what you have found out.)

Then on Saturday 26th Nov we wrapped ourselves up and joined the Reclaim the Night march through central London to raise awareness of violence against women and reclaim our space in the city. It was an inspiring feeling of sisterhood with lots of noise, chanting and singing and it was great to see all the women joining in along the way.

We heard again from lots of inspirational speakers and networked with other organisations, such as the new East London Fawcett Group who loved our why women? resources. Events like this are always a great opportunity to talk to people and figure out how you may be able to work together in the future.

It is really important to be involved in these feminist events as it reminds us why we do what we do, sometimes you can lose the bigger picture when you are in the office all day. As individual feminists and as an organisation we are part of a wider movement working towards women’s equality and this is shown through events like these that bring women together in solidarity.

We are now looking forward to International Women’s Month in March 2012 and getting the banner out again for Million Women Rise!

'Speed dating' for women's orgs in Waltham Forest

2011-11-23T14:45:00.001Z

Last week Women’s Resource Centre, in partnership with Voluntary Action Waltham Forest, held a very successful funding seminar in the London Borough of Waltham Forest.

Co-ordinated by Voluntary Action and the WRC development team, the half-day event brought together organisations, groups, networks and projects that have woman-centred services from across Waltham Forest.

This was the 15th borough funding seminar that the WRC has planned with local CVSs across London. They are organised as part of a project which aims to help women’s organisations understand and explore their options to diversify their funding and assist them in becoming more sustainable. It is also an excellent forum for networking.

Our "speed-dating" style structured networking session got the day off to an enthusiastic start. This energy was maintained throughout the seminar with presentations from a local commissioner, women who work in the borough of Waltham Forest and members of the WRC communications, policy and development teams.

Speakers from the WRC spoke about how to start exploring partnerships, social enterprise, raising funds for individual donors as well as the important of utilising policy and human rights tools to enable women working in the community to get their voices heard. It was inspiring to hear about the experiences of Shaminder, from the Ashiana Network and Sharon, from Waltham Forest Women's Network. Both emphasised the need for community and voluntary groups to share ideas and resources, consider entering into partnerships or forming consortia to represent women's needs in the area and lobbying for effective services.

Claire Witney from Waltham Forest council spoke to the group about how to prepare for the commissioning process. She also talked about the effects of the cuts, particularly how the local boroughs are looking more at data and statistics to make funding decisions, it isn't just about a well-written proposal. This is clearly a massive issue as women may be working with a group who, as of yet, do not have any data to support their cause.

Throughout the event the message that came through most strongly for me was the need for women to come together and share their stories. It is through talking to one another about our experiences and it can give us the strength we need in an era of increasingly destructive cutbacks and competitive tendering

Time for Change for BAMER women in Leeds

2011-11-18T11:27:00.006Z

The lights of the Christmas market shone through the windows as a group of women and men met in central Leeds to discuss Black, Asian, minority ethnic and refugee (BAMER) women’s needs and how these can be met locally.

Participants represented a wide variety of organisations from local specialist women’s services such as Dosti and Women’s Health Matters to larger organisations such as Leeds Racial Equality Council and public bodies such as Leeds City Council. They had been brought together by the Leeds BME Women’s Forum supported, by the Oxfam Routes to Solidarity Project to provide a voice and advocate for BAMER women and the organisations that support them in Leeds and the surrounding area.

This was not my first visit to Leeds as part of Routes to Solidarity. WRC have been supporting this work for the last few years providing training and resources to meet the needs of the different BAMER women’s networks that have sprung up around the North of England following the support of the project. It is always great to meet the women involved and to find out about their organisations and the particular issues that they work on, and this event was no exception.

The workshops in the afternoon provided more in depth information on policy levers which can be used to lobby for specialist women’s services and to ensure that BAMER women’s issues are not ignored locally. For example information on the Single Equality Act and Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) and how this gives organisations a chance to ensure that public bodies are meeting the General Duty by organisations feeding into how public bodies decide their equality objectives for the next four years. Public bodies must publish information demonstrating their compliance with the Equality Duty by January 31st 2012 and then annually after this – therefore organisations can ask questions about how they will do this in terms of gender equality and meeting local women’s needs. Public bodies must also publish their equalities objectives by April 6th 2012 and then every four years after this but they can decide how many objectives they set and do not have to choose any relating to gender! Again this is a chance for organisations to lobby for gender to be one of the objectives they set (women are 51% of the population!) at least for the next four years and to make sure there is an understanding of how important this is.

Another workshop raised the fact that making strong contacts and building relationships with those in local public bodies helps to improve lobbying possibilities and raise issues such as the need to pay ‘due regard’ to women and ‘foster good relations’ with local women and women’s organisations as a way for public bodies to meet the General Duty. This can involve inviting local Councillors and decision-makers to your events and sending them information about your work as well as attending relevant local events and forums where you can ask questions and give information about the women you work with.

Pragna Patel from Southall Black Sisters also provided information on using public law and spoke about their experience of taking a case against Ealing Council for withdrawing their funding.

The final session was a discussion on action planning for the Leeds BME Women’s Forum – what should it’s role be? How should it work? What would members like it to do in the future? – this was a chance for participants to ask questions and provide information on the kind of support and structure that they would need locally for example creating a directory of local services.

Overall it was a great event bringing together a wide range of different people from different organisations – some of whom did not know each other existed! I am sure that the Forum will go from strength to strength and become an important advocate for local women and women’s organisations ensuring that BAMER women’s voices are not ignored!

Find more information on tools you can use to engage and influence locally here

A day of action - WRC at FEM11 conference

2011-11-14T11:58:00.001Z

Saturday 12 November saw hundreds of women converge incentral Londonfor the UK Feminista’s national conference –FEM11. The conference came at apertinent time for women in the UK.The government has admitted it has a problem with winning women voters, afterwomen’s organisations and activists noted that its cuts had disproportionatelyaffected women and families. Concerns over healthcare, education, childbenefits and legal aid have also all bubbled to the surface in recent months,and women’s activist groups and organisations have been at the forefront ofpushing for measures that do not leave 51% of the UK’s population out in the cold.

All of which makes for a positively febrile atmosphere for aconference addressing issues on women and feminism. The Quakers Meeting Housein Euston was packed with a diverse crowd of attendees, women (and men) fromall different backgrounds brought together by an overriding concern thatwomen’s issues were not being heard and that feminism is the tool to addressit. A veritable who’s who of notable feminists were attending the event, fromSandi Toksvig to Samira Ahmed and Shami Chakrabarti, while the day was cappedoff with a London mayoral election debate between all the party candidates,with the exception of Boris Johnson, whose absence did not prevent a livelydebate on issues ranging from rape crisis centres to women’s safety travellingin London.

WRC was there on the day to host a workshop on examining thelandscape for women’s organisations in the UK and what attendees could do tosupport women’s organisations in their area. We provided an overview of thepolitical, economic and social landscape for women and the organisations theysupport, and then discussed how the change in government, the economic crisisand shifting attitudes had impacted on the work undertaken by women’sorganisations. Many women were keen to know more about the localism bill, aboutfunding problems for women’s organisations and, encouragingly, what they coulddo to help.

The workshop discussed what could be done, fromvolunteering, to using social media, to mapping where organisations were (orweren’t) in different regions, to petitioning local government to provide more support.A lively 10 minute exercise on how to develop a campaign for women’sorganisations produced some great ideas on how to help – from contacting localbusiness networks to using universities to link in with women’s organisations.The atmosphere was enthusiastic and focused – and it was encouraging to see somany young women from schools and universities so keen to support their localwomen’s organisations.

Afterwards, a stroll around the different stalls andgathered groups revealed dozens of enthusiastic conversations about feminism,women, government, politics, social justice and, most crucially of all, the bestmethods of change. It is almost a cliché nowadays to write of these ‘days ofausterity’, but the fact remains that our current situation is a challengingone. All the more important, therefore, that events such as FEM11 take place,and remain so popular. Feminism is the lever by which we can change thesituation for women – and women’s organisations – in this country for thebetter. It was great to be part of a day where this is recognised andapplauded.

If you'd like to know more about women's organisations and how you can help check out our website for a list of our members, advice on how to help and jobs and volunteering options within the women's sector.

Raising money to keep services open - the Heba example

2011-05-31T11:47:00.002+01:00

In June 2010, more than 30 women walked 10km along the Thames, from WRC member Heba in the East End to Buckingham Palace, and raised over £4000 to help keep Heba’s classes open while they looked for funding to replace what was lost in the recession.

Everyone had a great day and year later Heba is still here! After the success of last year’s walk they have decided to make it an annual thing. This year their aim is to double the efforts and raise £8000 towards a volunteering project.

Heba Women’s Project is well known and loved in the community as a hub where immigrant women can come to learn, meet new people and increase their confidence. Heba offers accredited classes in English, sewing and computing and finds different ways to help depending on the needs of each woman.

One woman describes the 2010 walk:

“I remember Heba women's walk . We raised the Heba flag made by our own hands.

I remember the streets from East London to Buckingham Palace. Crossing Tower Bridge, we saw the Tower of London and I remembered all the stories I had learnt at Heba about the people who built it and were imprisoned there. I remembered Queen Elisabeth when I saw the Tower's gates and again when we passed Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. I remembered the entire nation who worked very hard to get that civilisation and that freedom that we are blessed with.

I do believe that we can work like them and can make a change and leave our finger print. I found that at Heba. Heba is like jewellery on my hands that I don’t want to lose. Heba helps lots of women find their missing jewels.

Other women today are in need of someone to take their hand. They are suffering in silence. Their lives can change if we don't forget them.”

Another woman explains why she is going to walk 10km for Heba in 2011:

“I came to the UK because of my husband. I had been a teacher in my country and I wanted to restart my teaching career here. I just wanted to be useful in this country and not let my skills go to waste but first I needed to learn English. I looked for English classes everywhere but there are so many restrictions on who can have free classes and I didn’t have any money. Finally, I enrolled in a beginner class. It was much too easy, but I was desperate to do something with my time.

Luckily, a woman in the class told me about Heba, that there was a wider range of classes there, for everyone. I went along and was put in a class at my level and given help with my computer skills too. But it didn’t stop there. Through my teachers, I found out about so many other courses that I had access to and was able to start three volunteer placements in the local area. This gave me valuable experience, motivation, and the feeling that I was finally able to give something to the community. Best of all, one of the placements was as a teaching assistant in a primary school. Through this placement, I gained my Level 2 childcare NVQ and was taken on in an official capacity. I am now working as a full time teaching assistant and I love the job.

If it hadn’t been for Heba, there is no way I would be in this position today.”

If you want to join the Heba Women's Project's 10km River Walk on Sunday 19th June 2011 at 2pm contact Anne on 07960 124 262 or anne@heba.org.uk or Anne or Afia on 0207 377 0400.

If you want to find out more about how Heba organised the walk and about other ways that you can fundraise to support your organisation and services see the sustainable fundraising pages on the WRC website.

Strengthening Women's Voices in Government

2011-05-16T14:32:00.005+01:00

By Rebecca Veazey, policy officer

The Government Equalities Office (GEO) is currently consulting around women's engagement with government and the new gender architecture that will replace the Women's National Commission, seeking appropriate ways for the government and Ministers to engage with individual women and women's organisations and strengthen their voices in government.

In recognition of the importance of the GEO's consultation; the WRC hosted an event with its members on Friday 13th May, bringing together a diverse range of women’s organisations to discuss the GEO's plans and the key issues impacting on the women’s sector.

As part of the event; attendees discussed the key challenges affecting women's organisations and how we can address them together, along with strategies for engagement with the GEO and ways in which women's organisations could work collaboratively in the future.

In the morning session, organisations discussed the GEO strategy in detail and then compiled a set of questions to ask representatives from Government. In the afternoon Helene Reardon-Bond, Director of Gender Equality Policy and Inclusion at the GEO, kindly attended and took questions from WRC members for more than an hour and discussed their key concerns.

Members reported that the event was a real success as it allowed them to express their views to government officials and to come together as a sector. Participants commented that they hoped to engage with one another more regularly and support strong channels of communication with Government.

To that end WRC strongly encourages all members to respond to the GEO consultation, as it provides a vital opportunity for women's organisations to have their say about government engagement and key policies impacting on women.

The consultation is open until 10 June 2011 and can be responded to through an online survey or alternatively organisations can submit a more detailed response by emailing:
womensengagement@geo.gsi.gov.uk

The WRC is supporting consultation events in other regions in order to give a more detailed picture of the opinions of the women's sector in the UK. If you would like to feed into WRC’s response please complete our online survey or email charlotte@wrc.org.uk, the deadline for responses to the survey is Monday 23rd May

To support organisations to respond the WRC will be producing a template consultation response which will be available on our website from Thursday 26th May. To read our briefing on this topic please go here.

Also here are the links for further information on the GEO consultation and to view the consultation document in full.

WRC and our trade union sisters!

2011-03-17T15:33:00.002Z

Women’s Resource Centre has been out and about around the country meeting and talking to trade union women about the why women? campaign and encouraging them to take information back to their regions, branches and trade union sisters.

We were at UNISON Women’s Conference in Harrogate in February where we had a stall and as delegates were also able to speak in favour of a motion on funding to violence against women services. It was great to see so many of the motions highlighting the impact of the cuts on women’s organisations and we urged everyone to find out about and support their local services through the campaign.

Next we had a stall and also ran a fringe event at TUC Women’s Conference in Eastbourne just after International Women’s Day. Over 50 women attended the fringe event which looked at how women and women’s organisations are already the real Big Society and had speakers from various trade unions, UNISON, GMB, PCS, and TUC, as well as Maternity Action and WRC. The speakers provided strong evidence on how the cuts disproportionately affect women and also spoke about the vital work that women’s services do, particularly during tough times. Ros Bragg from Maternity Action provided a perspective from a women’s organisation and spoke about the issue of maternity rights which are also at risk. The focus of the conference was ‘women against the cuts’ and again it was great to see motions addressing the cuts to services that women use and in support of organisations such as Abortion Rights and Rape Crisis (England and Wales).

Our last stop was at NUS Women’s Conference in Oxford where we ran a workshop on the affect of the cuts on women and how the why women? campaign can be used locally to support women and the services they use. It was great to see a new generation of feminist activists really engaged with the issues and ready to take the information back to their universities. Many were already involved in action around cuts in their areas and wanted information on how to ensure there was a gender perspective and facts and statistics on the specific impact on women.

At all the events we were able to give out our new trade union leaflet as well as various campaigning materials and had people signing up to stay in touch with the campaign. For more information on our work with trade unions see www.wrc.org.uk/whywomen/tradeunion and for campaign materials and other information for students see www.wrc.org.uk/students

Thanks to all those that we met and your support – hope to see you next year!

Using CEDAW in the UK

2011-03-07T13:12:00.006Z

CEDAW is the UN Women’s Bill of Rights. CEDAW stands for ‘the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women’ and 186 countries have ratified it worldwide.

During February the Women’s Resource Centre worked with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and Rights of Women to present four events exploring ways CEDAW can be used in the UK. We held events in Cardiff, Birmingham, Manchester and Newcastle and women came from across the UK.

Workshops were run by Rights of Women and the British Institute of Human Rights as well as by WRC and members of the CEDAW Working Group. The workshops included an introduction to using CEDAW and other human rights standards in work on violence against women, information on other international women’s rights instruments and international mechanisms in general, and how CEDAW and other tools can be used to lobby and make change locally.

The EHRC also talked about the Optional Protocol – a legal way an individual woman can bring her case directly to the UN if she has been discriminated against.

Every four years the UK Government have to submit a report about the steps they have taken to achieve real, substantive equality for women. Their next report to the UN CEDAW Committee will be published this summer.

Women's and human rights organisations and campaign-groups can submit shadow reports to have their voices heard by the UN. These events were a valuable opportunity to consult with regional women’s groups and offer them support to feedback into the next shadow report.

The women who attended offered important insights into the challenges facing the women’s sector and the women they support and they provided powerful case studies from their work. It was wonderful to meet so many women and we really enjoyed the training, but don’t just take it from us, see what the women who attended said about the events!

Facing Our Future - WRC conference a success!

2010-12-09T10:03:00.014Z

After months of planning, WRC's annual conference for 2010 kicked off on 7th December at Cass Business School in central London - and a great day it was!

The aim of the day was to provide attendees with both valuable information on the current political and economic situation of the women's sector and to provide concrete advice on how women's organisations can best position themselves in the current environment.

To that end, we kicked the day off with some speed networking, to allow the 100 or so women present to meet others from within the sector, before moving to our first panel of the day on the future of the women's sector, where panellists from Navca, the Ashiana network, North East Women's Network and the EHRC spelled out what the next year has in store for the sector and what women working in the sector must do to ensure sustainability.

Following an excellent presentation by Belinda Pratten of NCVO on the Big Society, and what it means for the women's sector, attendees broke into groups for the first session of 'surgeries', on social media, social enterprise and partnerships, with experts from each topic available. The surgeries were a great success, as people got to grips with the big questions behind the topics, and we can't thank enough those who took the time to come and take part in them despite a hectic pre-Christmas schedule!

After lunch and another round of surgeries, WRC's National Equality Partnership (NEP) took to the stage for a one hour panel discussion on equalities and how women's organisations can best diversify. The audience were particularly interested to hear from Camilla Thrush, equality and inclusion manager for the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) on how the Olympics had tackled the challenge of ensuring diversity on all levels of work on the games , although she joked that the role didn't mean she could get any Olympics tickets!

It quickly became apparent throughout the day that direct action was where women's organisations want to be. Tired of funding concerns, lack of support and continued gender disparity, throughout the day panellists, speakers and attendees spoke of the need to make the message clear to all - the women's sector must be supported in order for it to continue its invaluable work in helping women across the UK.

Our keynote speaker, journalist and author Bea Campbell, put it best at the end in her inspiring speech to the audience, where she told women present it was not enough for them to be angry about the situation of women in this country.

"You have to be dangerous!" she said, sparking applause from those present.

At the close of the conference and after a successful AGM in which two of our organisation's new trustees were successfully sworn in and we bid a fond farewell to both our chair, Helen Rice, and our treasurer, Lakshmi Raja-Rayan, the attendees spilled out into the main milling area of Cass Business school for drinks, canapes and a rousing performance by all female drumming troupe Foroyaa.

WRC would like to thank everyone who took the time to attend the event or to take part for their support on the day. The event was a great success, and while at times there were sobering reminders of the economic, political and social challenges ahead for the sector, we hope here at WRC that the day gave all those present some grounding in how best to help their organisation face the the future.

After all, that is what WRC is here for!

London Irish Women's Health Day

2010-11-16T09:56:00.004Z

Stoke Newington’s Church Street has been the home of the London Irish Women’s Centre for almost 30 years and last week, I (Skye Sandhu) went along there to see what was happening for their health day.

London Irish Women's Network provides advice & information on a wide range of issues, including housing, benefits, domestic violence.

Catching up with Caroline from the centre, she described that the primary reason for the awareness, information and advice day was much needed because studies published have shown that joint with Bangladeshi men, Irish (men, women and children) are the ethnicity with the worst health records in the UK. The target audience for the event: mainly elderly women and mothers with young children.

It was great to see they had everything covered from free goodie bags, massages, advisors, health checks and crèche on board, so that women could really engage on their health.

It was a quiet start because of the wet weather conditions but gradually picked up to everyone’s delight! While there, I caught up with Barry from the Stroke Association and Sophia from Hackney Stop Falls Network who were some of the stall holders present and got to hear about the advocacy and support they provide in the Hackney community for elderly women.

Personally for me it was good to go and visit one of our members face to face to see and feed back on the great work they do for the community, so if you have an event or open day- let us know so that we can come to you!

Marching for Million Women Rise in Manchester

2010-11-04T15:38:00.003Z

By Skye Sandhu

An empowered and energised bunch of women all met up at Stratford, London early one October Sunday morning to travel up to Manchester for the first Manchester Million Women Rise march.

Despite only having one toilet break on the way up there, we were all surprisingly still eager and at full steam to get moving with sisters in the North. We got there in fantastic time (thanks to our driver) to hand out all the banners to the hundreds of women and children gathered in the Castlefield Arena, in the city centre.

Weather was on our side, without a cloud in sight, off we all marched. It was great to see women joining in with us as we passed the streets and the applause from the public watching us as our procession passed.

The day was enriched with warm speeches, singing, chanting, applause, laughter and a strong feeling of uprising and empowerment (not forgetting good food provided by volunteers).

En route back to London if you heard singing amidst the service station loos by Wolverhampton that would have been us - bringing the energy up and down the country all in the aid to end all forms of male violence!

Overcoming barriers for Deaf women

2010-11-03T12:51:00.005Z

By Skye Sandhu

Recently I was invited on behalf of Deaf Ethnic Women’s Association to attend their AGM as a speaker to talk about the WRC and what it is we do as an umbrella organisation to support the women's sector.

Following on from my presentation, Deaf Advocacy and Justice for Deaf People spoke about the communication barriers for Deaf women and the difficulties this has imposed on Deaf women having access to services, which is a significant issue for these women.

The session really made me stop and think how marginalised Deaf women are (those with various types of hearing impairment). These women still suffer violence and are oppressed by this further because they cannot access the services you and I can. Sadly, services catering for Deaf people are not so easily accessible.

I was delighted, enriched and really made to feel welcome by DEWA. If you are interested in finding out more, DeafSafe + Domestic, Sexual Violence are running a full day Deaf-led conference on the 25th November at the Learning Resource Centre, for further details please email deafadvocacy.justic@gmail.com

We CAN make a difference! - The Abolish No Recourse to Public Funds Campaign.

2010-10-15T17:05:00.004+01:00

The Abolish No Recourse to Public Funds Campaign has had a significant impact on women who are covered by this rule and the organisations that support them. The campaign has gone from strength to strength, involving more and more organisations and activists and getting its voice heard within Government. This is a brief look at the birth of the campaign, its achievements and the current situation in the UK:

• In September 2003 no recourse to public funds was raised at the first WRC Policy Forum meeting as an ongoing issue for women.
• This led, in June 2004, to training on women with no recourse to public funds and a strategy meeting around this issue held jointly with Southall Black Sisters.
• In 2006 How Can I Support Her?, a resource pack to help women's organisations supporting women with no recourse, was published by Southall Black Sisters and WRC.
• And in November 2007 the Abolish No Recourse to Public Funds Campaign was launched.
• On 14 January 2008, EDM 693 on Black, Asian, minority ethnic and refugee women and domestic violence was tabled by Linda Riordan MP and signed by 113 MPs.
• In March 2008 the No Recourse, No Safety report was published by Southall Black Sisters and Amnesty International UK, detailing for the first time the situation for women trapped by the rule. Parliamentary questions were also asked for the first time about no recourse.
• On April 23 2008 the first mass day of action on no recourse was held. This emerged out of the idea of having a strike as immigration laws and policies were preventing women’s refuges from doing the job they were set up to do, they have to use their reserves, making them unsustainable and they have to turn women away. To reflect this, campaign organisations closed for the day and informed the press and public why. Letters were also sent to MPs and there were actions in Leicester and Belfast. Over 200 people attended a public meeting and silent demonstration outside Portcullis House with women travelling from Sheffield, Rochdale and around London.
• And following this in April 2008 the Home Office made their first proposal on backdating payments for women accessing support.
• In July 2008 no recourse was raised in the examination of the UK Government by the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and was a final recommendation to the Government.
• In November 2008 campaign members met with the Home Office to discuss their proposals and began a dialogue around this.
• In January 2009 Southall Black Sisters launched a fund for women with no recourse in London funded by Oxfam and London Councils.
• In May 2009 campaign supporters sent letters and over 10,000 supporter postcards were sent to Alan Campbell MP by Amnesty.
• On 4 November 2009 Amnesty led a mass lobby of Parliament on no recourse. Approximately 200 activists visited 75 MPs with various different responses and follow-up actions.
• On 24 November 2009 Jo Swinson MP tabled EDM 214 on no recourse which currently has 107 signatures.
• On 25 November 2009 the Government’s National Violence Against Women Strategy was launched, which included women with no recourse, and a pilot project to support these women was announced.
• On 30 November 2009 the three month Sojourner Project pilot was launched providing accommodation and subsistence support while applications for indefinite leave to remain are submitted and processed.
• After the campaign group met with the Home Office the pilot was extended until the end of March 2010 and then further extended until the end of August 2010, mid September 2010 and finally the end of March 2011!
• The Coalition Government have continued to express their commitment to find a permanent solution so watch this space!

The Abolish No Recourse to Public Funds Campaign is a good example of how a successful campaign can build from the grassroots needs of women and women’s organisations. The extension of the Sojourner Project is a huge success as this means that more women can be protected and supported to leave abusive situations and receive safety in the UK. But it is still not enough. Many women still fall through the gaps and cannot access this support. Ultimately the campaign is still fighting for the no recourse requirement to be abolished for abused women who have insecure immigration status.

The campaign is also calling on the Government to:
• Provide a permanent and long term solution, enabling all women to have living expenses and access to refuges and local authority accommodation pending a final decision on applications to remain in the UK.
• Reform the Domestic Violence Rule so that all types of evidence of domestic violence are accepted.
• Extend the Domestic Violence Rule to all abused women with an insecure immigration status and introduce similar protection for trafficked women subjected to sexual and economic abuse and to overseas domestic workers experiencing violence from employers.
• Provide adequate levels of legal aid so that there is access to good quality legal advice and assistance.

Please support the campaign by asking your MP to sign EDM 214, signing your organisation up to the campaign statement or joining the facebook group and inviting others to join. And pass on the good news – campaigning can lead to important changes and we can all play our part!

Women and the Conservatives- a conference report

2010-10-13T16:32:00.004+01:00

WRC's Policy Officer Rebecca Veazey reports from the Conservative Party Conference!

After 13 years in opposition the Conservative Party celebrated their first recent annual conference with a Conservative prime minister.

Thousands of Conservative supporters gathered in Birmingham 'in the national interest' to discuss the key policies the Conservative Party plans to take forward over the upcoming year.

As part of the fringe events associated with the conference the Conservative Women's Organisation hosted an exciting event regarding 'Women and the Criminal Justice System'.

The event panel included Mary Mcleod MP, the Private Secretary to the Minister of State for Police Reform and Justice, Carlene Firmin, the lead on ROTA's Female Voice in Violence project and Sarah Payne the CEO of YWCA.

Amongst panel members there was unanimous agreement on the importance of women-only services and a holistic approach to female offending. All speakers also discussed the importance of addressing the causes and consequences of female offending and its importance in reducing reoffending rates.

The discussion raised by the panel highlighted the specific needs and experiences of women and girls and their problems in navigating a prison system designed for men. Mary Mcleod, MP, in particular drew attention to the problems of women with mental health issues and the damaging impact prison has on families.

Audience members questioned Ms Mcleod's ability to make a women-centred approach to offending issues a ministerial priority and expressed concerns that this approach was at risk during a period of public spending cuts.

Ms Mcleod responded that she did not know what the outcome would be of the comprehensive spending review but pledged to feedback their comments to the heart of government. In addition, she commented that the effective policy solutions "tend to come from people on the ground who do day to day work rather than politicians" and that said that she was committed to applying and implementing best practice across the country.

"The best solutions tend to come from people on the ground who do day to day work rather than politicians," she said.

Women and Labour - a Labour conference report

2010-10-06T10:44:00.005+01:00

Miliband: “the battle for gender equality... in our country is not yet won”

WRC's Policy Officer Rebecca Veazey reports from the Labour Party Conference!

On the opening day of the Labour Party Conference 700 women gathered from across the UK for the Labour Women’s Summit. The first of its kind, the summit brought together female MPs, councillors and party members to think afresh about their party’s policies and listen to women’s concerns.

The annual party conferences are an important event where the political parties review their successes and state their objectives for the year ahead. In light of the recession it is particularly important for our sector to remain informed about political developments and policies that may impact on women’s organisations, our members and future funding.

Proudly proclaimed by Harriet Harman as a 'women-only space' the summit provided a forum for women to discuss gender related issues and share their experiences of British politics. From national policies to local problems attendees expressed similar concerns such as the failure of public authorities to recognise the importance of gender equality and conduct Equality Impact Assessments.

Shadow Pensions Secretary Yvette Cooper was a particularly vocal critic of the coalition government’s budget cuts that, according to research by the House of Commons Library, will disproportionately and negatively impact upon women. Ms Cooper pledged that the Labour Party would rally against government cuts of benefits and public services that support women and challenge the Coalition’s plans to introduce anonymity for defendants in rape cases.

Ms Cooper also criticised the government's decision to abandon rape case reform and commented that the Labour Party needed to connect with women in the UK and that female labour MPs could provide them with a vital voice.

The focus of the summit’s debate centred upon the issue of female representation and the importance of integrating women’s views into party politics. Dianne Abbott, the first black female MP in the UK and the first woman to enter the Labour leadership contest, gave a rousing speech on the barriers to female participation in politics and the importance that women stand for political office.

Following speeches from several prominent female politicians, the audience gave a standing ovation to the newly appointed Labour Party Leader - Ed Miliband. In the opening remarks of his speech, Mr Miliband commented that gender equality in Britain had not yet been achieved and that the Labour Party had to be at the forefront of social change.

"I know that the battle for gender equality in our party and in our country is not yet won and I know that is a battle we have got to win," he said.

Mr Miliband also discussed how the Labour Party needed to heal the wounds of electoral loss and identify ways to support and represent women. He commented that he strongly supported positive action to address gender inequality and "absolutely" advocated the use of all-women shortlists to select suitable political candidates. Mr Miliband said that he would relentlessly campaign for gender parity in the Houses of Parliament and promised that his shadow cabinet would reflect the society he seeks to represent.

Following on from Ed Miliband’s speech Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Harriet Harman, pledged that at least eight of the 21 members of the Labour shadow cabinet will be women.

WRC will also be attending the Conservative Party Conference in October to provide you with further information on the key political parties' policies relating to the women’s sector.

Routes to Solidarity for BME women

2010-08-11T16:37:00.007+01:00

Charlotte (Policy officer) and I (Skye Sandhu) went up to Leeds a few weeks back to attend Oxfam’s Yorkshire and Humber Routes to Solidarity training session. We gave a presentation on how women’s organisations can make an impact locally using the Gender Duty and other tools, and also discussed WRC’s Power and Prejudice report which was launched on the day of our visit - mirroring what we were working on with our sisters in the North.

The session was well attended by women’s groups from Sheffield, Bradford, Keighley, Leeds and other surrounding areas. The room was buzzing with energy and had there was a clear sense amongst the women of a need for action. Speakers included empowering women such as Alison Lowe, CEO of Touchstone and a local councillor for more than 20 years representing the ward of Armley in Leeds.

It was good to hear Leeds Council talk about their inclusive and comprehensive Equality and Diversity scheme, demonstrating the good practices they have in place, which I think other local councils up and down the country could learn from and in turn improve their equality schemes by benchmarking against it.

During the course of the day, women fed back on their next steps and began forming networks with one another - promoting solidarity in an ever increasing competitive world is a key concern for us at WRC. The women-led sessions I have attended have been transparent and have provided a valuable space for all ideas, questions and issues to be discussed

On the whole, I have every confidence that these sessions, which sadly will draw to an end after the last round in Sheffield in October, are in fact making a positive impact for women across the regions, not only by giving them the tools and knowledge to engage on a local level but also in allowing women to enhance their leadership skills and helping them to build partnerships with other women’s groups.

2010-07-07T12:48:00.003+01:00

NEP Assistant Heather Rogers reports from a recent event:

The 12th June inaugural UNA Forum was a rare opportunity to listen to a range of leading world leaders and thinkers on peace, development and human rights. It was refreshing to see a packed audience of different ages and backgrounds come together to ask questions about the strengths and the weaknesses of the UN and engage in workshops.

Mary Robinson’s impressive speech about the connection between climate change and human rights, gave accounts of the individuals she had met whose livelihoods had been destroyed by climate change. She stressed the importance of not buying into the climate sceptic’s agenda or general climate apathy, and her organisation, Realising Rights, runs a Climate Wise Women Project.

Dr Hans Blix gave an eloquent and thought provoking speech, reminding the audience that the UNA’s aim was ‘not to take us to heaven, but to prevent us from going to hell’. Other speakers included Helen Clark, Henry Bellingham MP, the FCO Minister (with responsibility for the enduring relevance of the UN and UK foreign policy) and Baroness Williams of Crosby.

Our own Policy Officer, Charlotte Gage, also spoke on a panel on Peace, Development and Human Rights - Pressing UN issues for women, about the UN CEDAW Convention and how this is relevant and can be used by women's organisations in the UK. You can see all the presentations here.

The forum was enjoyable, enlightening and enabled members to find out how they could become involved in UNA -UK at a local and national level. I very much hope that the forum will become a fixed item on the UNA’s annual calendar.

Making an impact locally - WRC in Accrington

2010-05-25T09:52:00.016+01:00

Last Thursday both Charlotte (Policy officer) and I made our way down to Accrington for a WRC 'Why women?' presentation as part of Oxfam’s Routes to Solidarity project.

The project, headed by project officers Dr Archana Choksi and Sandhya Sharma, aims to support small BME grass roots women's agencies in the north of England to develop and strengthen their policy voice and encourage and enable lobbying activities.

We were invited to present to our sisters up north and engage on the topic of women in LSPs and to draw on our campaigns over recent years. Charlotte was fabulous, as always, with her comprehensive referencing to all the latest statistics and answering questions around how to influence LSPs.

For me, I relished this platform as a great opportunity to come out of London to meet and share resources with other women working in the women’s sector, who lo and behold have the same issues we do down in London (and with the classic, 'don’t want to bite the hand that feeds you' fear factor). Many of our sisters there hadn’t heard of us and so this was a good place to connect with them.

The day was definitely empowering, bouncing ideas around the room with potential solutions to various issues and also over the course of the day seeing them gaining valuable insight and support, in order to hold LSPs to account.

I hadn't expected to meet so many strong women all in one room, with so much potential to make change. It was an aspiring, gratifying and without doubt an eventful day.

The next session will be in Leeds for the York and Humber Region in July.

For more information, contact Archana on achoksi@oxfam.org.uk

Routes to Solidarity Newsletter Autumn 2009 Spring 2010

Fawcett Society election debate - what about women?

2010-04-28T12:23:00.003+01:00

The Fawcett Society held its pre-election debate last night in London, as part of its 'What about Women' campaign ahead of this year's May 6 vote.

The auditorium at the London School of Economics, whose Gender Studies Institute jointly hosted the debate, was packed to the gills with women activists, students and the general public, and many of us from the Women's Resource Centre!

With the prospect of a hung parliament looming, women’s votes count more than ever, and those attending was keen to hear which party would deliver the goods so often promised.

Right from the start the women on the panel, chaired by Fawcett’s chief executive Ceri Goddard, were keen to get their message across that their party was the one for women.

Harriet Harman from the Labour party, Theresa May from the Conservatives and Lynne Featherstone from the Liberal Democrats all gave three minute briefings on their parties' agendas for women, and then the real debate began. (Incidentally, Fawcett is planning to put up a podcast later which we will link to on our @whywomen Twitter account).

By far the most contentious issue of the evening was the Conservatives plans for marriage tax breaks. May defended the proposals as a “recognition of commitment”, but both Harman and Featherstone dismissed the plans as “Victorian values” and “offensive” respectively.

On the issue of improving representation of women in politics, Theresa May said the Conservatives had worked to improve candidate selection processes, while Featherstone said the era of “gladiatorial” style politics had to end. Harman, meanwhile, said that all-women shortlists by Labour had changed the face of parliament.

One of the few questions where there appeared to be cross party consensus was the issue of violence against women. All stressed the importance of working in a non-partisan manner and the importance of education at a young age to prevent attitudes becoming entrenched.

May said women-only services and spaces remained crucial, while Harman said the issue of using DNA to improve conviction rates was important. Featherstone also reiterated the Liberal Democrat pledge to fund more rape crisis centres.

Questions on the Pope's proposed visit to the UK, concerns over the sexualisation of women, support for women's health, equal pay and other issues were also raised throughout the 90-minute session.

Perhaps most importantly, after the event, as attendees spilled out of the auditorium chatting excitedly, many noted now immensely gratifying it was to have such questions top of the agenda and to have key questions on jobs and the economy filtered through a women’s lens instead of being tacked on as afterthoughts.

The high level of interest on Twitter alone (and thanks to all of those who followed our tweets on the night!) showed that many women out there were extremely keen to know what was being set out for women by the parties.

Far too often in the current election campaign, despite all the talk of the "Mumsnet" election, women’s issues have been shunted aside. So it was gratifying to see a robust debate on core electoral issues both by us, for us, and about us.

Developing and nurturing that inspiration is so important not just for us but for future generations of women who want to enter public life. Let’s hope we in the women’s sector will see more of such events to keep the pressure on those who represent us. A big thanks to Fawcett for kickstarting that process.

Success! London local election hustings draws a crowd

2010-03-25T14:43:00.006Z

Wednesday afternoon saw the Women's Resource Centre, HEAR and Voluntary Sector Forum’s hustings event for London’s Local Elections. The 60-strong audience was made up of representatives of the length and breadth of London’s voluntary and community sector, with an emphasis on the equalities and women’s sectors.

There were four councillors on the panel - Cllr Nilgun Canver, Labour, Cllr Lynn Hillan, Conservative, Cllr Stephen Knight, Liberal Democrat and Cllr Ute Michel, Green Party, and the event was chaired by Emma Scott, director of Rights of Women.

So, once everyone had arrived and found a seat, the questioning began…

“What future do you see for the London Councils grants budget and London Councils’ commitment to pan-London and cross-borough service provision?”

This opening question drew out the commitment from the whole panel to funding the work of the voluntary and community sector (VCS), with a cautionary note around the impact of inevitable spending cuts.

However, there was also recognition that some services are more suitable for being funded on a pan-London basis, whereas some which address more local problems need to be addressed on a borough level.

A question on the VCS’ right to campaign on behalf of beneficiaries and be funded for this work threw up the first major difference between the panellists. While the Liberal Democrat and Green councillors were keen to have this work funded by public money, and the Labour councillor emphasised that this work is not political, but a form of advocacy and so should be funded, the Conservative councillor was in support of lobbyists, but was uneasy about their work being funded through public money.

The equalities questions focussed on issues such as the Human Rights Act and how it can be implemented at a local level, how to balance the need for making services available to the whole community and maintaining specialist skills, and the role of equalities organisations in policy work.

The final section of the hustings focussed on the women’s sector, where we heard from the panel on their commitment to London Councils’ spending of 12% of its budget on the violence against women sector. You can read the full responses of the panel to key issues for the women’s sector in our Q&A sheet

There were further questions on women with no recourse to public funds (from the Women Together against Abuse partnership), licensing of lap dancing clubs (from OBJECT) and on addressing the needs of women ex-offenders (from Women in Prison), all of which elicited thoughtful responses from panel members. You can see photos from the event and some of their responses on video here and we will be putting up fuller notes later on.

All in all, it was great to have a space where London’s VCS could come face to face with councillors and there was a real sense of democratic accountability, as those affected by councillors’ decisions were able to question them directly. We’d like to thank the councillors for taking the time to take part in the hustings and all those who took time out of their working day to come along!

We strongly encourage women’s organisations across the country to organise similar events for future elections. After all, councillors represent you - and you need to both get your voice heard and get your sector’s issues on their agenda!

A WISH for International Women’s Day

2010-03-16T17:34:00.009Z

Last Wednesday evening I travelled to Harrow to celebrate International Women’s Day with The WISH Centre. WISH provides support and opportunities for women, youth and children who are survivors of abuse, violence and neglect and also works with young self harmers.

It was a very swish affair with tasty Indian food and even party bags to take home! We saw some brilliant examples of the work that WISH do, including hearing a spoken word performance by one of the young men from the B.A.S.H. boys self harm group, and watching a video about self image, and how this is influenced by the media, created by the girls group. We also met some of the young people themselves who spoke confidently and articulately about why they come to WISH. Young women like Steph who was interviewed by BBC Sport Relief in 2008:

A lot of the work with young people involves using multi-media and video and the girls self harm group Girls Xpress have even made their own music video!

You can see more of the photos and examples of how WISH use multi-media on their website.

WISH are also very good at getting in the media with interviews on television and celebrity visits. In fact they are on Sport Relief this Thursday March 18th in the Million Pound Bike Ride documentary on BBC 1, 9-10pm. Comic Miranda Hart visited WISH and Girls Xpress and the documentary features one of the young women, who is now a WISH Trustee, talking about her self harm journey and the support she has received from WISH.

WISH are a great example of using innovative ways to work with young and marginalised people and to raise awareness about the issues that they face with a wider audience through new and exciting media.

WRC ‘wish’ them all the best in the future with their work!

Million Women Rise 2010

2010-03-08T12:39:00.002Z

Say it once, say it again No excuse for violent men! Say it once, say it loud We are women, we are proud!

A gloriously sunny (but pretty chilly) Saturday lunchtime saw thousands of women assemble at Marble Arch to join the Million Women Rise (MWR) march, which celebrates and honours “women’s activism, courage and achievements and continued struggle against global male violence in all its forms”. Women had come from as far afield as Cornwall, Scotland and Uganda to take part and all ages were well represented, from babies in prams to women in their nineties. It truly felt like the diversity of the women at the march reflected a wide spectrum of women’s experiences. As we marched down Oxford Street, to chants, songs and whistles, we drew support from the watching crowds of Saturday shoppers, with some smiling, others waving and some even joining the march itself.

Now in its third year, the march always has a fantastic atmosphere, as it’s a rare opportunity for women and women’s organisations to take over the streets and to have their voices heard. It’s always great to see so many of our member organisations continuing the fight for women’s equality and freedom from violence. In the two hours or so that it took us to reach the rally at Trafalgar Square, I’d pretty much chanted myself hoarse, but it was well worth it!

At the rally itself, there was a great range of inspirational women speakers, including Sabrina Qureshi (Founder of MWR), Vivienne Hayes (WRC CEO), Cath Elliott (union activist and journalist) and many other representatives from the women’s sector, both in the UK and internationally. While they all spoke on different topics, there was one overriding message – only through working together, through being sisters, can we hope to start winning the fight to end male violence against women in all its forms. Can’t wait until next year!

HEAR network event: Personalisation - an equalities perspective

2010-02-25T15:13:00.006Z

As I’m now sitting at my desk back at the lovely Women’s Resource Centre, the accountable body of HEAR, I realise that I can begin to exhale and breathe again. It has been quite hectic these past weeks to prepare for HEAR’s event on “Personalisation- an equalities perspective”. The entire personalisation agenda is still developing and is very new to a lot of the HEAR members and to the organisations who attended.

What is the entire personalisation agenda about then? Well, in short I would say that it is about choice - users have access to information and advice irrespective of whether they are ‘self’ funded or publicly funded.

It gives people choice and control over their lives, which are important principles that HEAR believes in.

Personalisation is also about finding new collaborative ways of working and developing local partnerships, which produce a range of services for people to choose from and opportunities for social inclusion.

The event went really well - we had a great turnout of people (more than double of the numbers expected), keen on learning more from each other and building on their experiences. I also received a lot of positive and encouraging feedback, which has made me think about what the next step for HEAR could be. It is very important that HEAR continues to stay involved and engages with our members and our stakeholders about how we can best contribute to their existing work.

I'd like to thank the chair, speakers and all the delegates for participating in the event, as well as a big thank you to all of those who assisted in organising this event, particularly Nick, Kate and Devrowe.

By Sarah Johansson, HEAR co-ordinator

WRC at UNISON Women's Conference 2010

2010-02-25T13:54:00.006Z

Last week, Newcastle hosted around 600 women from all over the country, from Portsmouth to Orkney, for this year’s UNISON women’s conference. I went along with Kimcha, WRC’s Membership and Events Officer, to find out what conference is all about and to let women know about our why women? campaign.

UNISON is the biggest union for the public sector, as well as one of the unions for the voluntary and community sector. This meant that the women were all UNISON members, many were branch women’s officers and most work in either the NHS or in Local Government. The Women's Resource Centre itself is unionised and myself and WRC Policy Officer Charlotte are shop stewards, as well as being elected as joint women’s officers for UNISON’S Voluntary Organisations Branch. We were keen to find out how the union works and how we might be able to use it to take our campaign forward, for example by getting UNISON branches across the country to pledge their support for the campaign and to work to support their local women’s organisations.

The conference itself involves proposing motions on union and women-related issues, with opportunities for delegates to speak for and against the motions, which are then voted on by the delegates. Motions passed by women’s conference then have the possibility of being taken forward to the UNISON National Delegate Conference where they will be voted on by delegates representing the whole of UNISON’s 1.3 million members. The topics of the motions are varied, with the below an example of just a few that were supported by conference:

Increased involvement of trade unions in equality impact assessments
Lowering the age and increasing the frequency of smear tests
Encouraging women to get cycling
Free sanitary products for women on low pay.

On Saturday, conference voted in support of the decriminalisation of prostitutes and criminalisation of the buyers of sex, as Cath Elliott reports in her blog. This was the result of the Demand Change! campaign led by Object and Eaves and supported by UNISON Eastern Region. Another interesting motion, put forward by Davena Rankin from the National Women’s Committee, was around the fight against the BNP and the importance of presenting it as not just an anti-racist campaign, but as a pro-feminist one. A selection of the comments made by the BNP about women illustrate the importance of this motion.

Overall, it was a great experience to be at an event with so many women who ‘get’ what WRC and the why women? campaign is about. Having distributed 100 why women? DVDs, we hope that the invaluable work of the women’s sector and the threats it currently faces will be recognised and taken up within the union movement. In solidarity, sisters!

Take part in our survey - and win money!

2010-02-11T15:58:00.010Z

Fancy winning some money, and in the process helping the women's sector?

With the economic downturn, rising, looming further cuts in funding and a general election due, the women's sector needs more than ever to show the impact it has on women's lives.

This is why here at the Women's Resource Centre we're putting together a report to demonstrate to the UK government the value of our sector and why it needs continued support.

But we cannot do this without you, after all it is the work you do that makes the women's sector such an indispensable asset.

This is why we need you to tell us all about the amazing work you do so that we can present an infallible case for support. Therefore, we have developed a quick questionnaire for you to fill in via the Survey Monkey website, which you can fill our online here

The main themes were are looking at are these:

• the impact of the recession on your work
• bidding for public service contracts
• the work you do to make change in your local area
• the support you get from us at the WRC

It should only take around 15 minutes of your time and would be a huge help. And now the money bit! All completed questionnaires, where full contact details are provided, will be entered into our prize draw. There will be two £100 prizes for your organisation or another not-for-profit or social enterprise of your choice!

Furthermore, the WRC aims to be accessible and inclusive, so if you would prefer, this questionnaire can be completed over the phone. To arrange this, please contact Sue Christoforou (see below for contact details).

Please also send on to friends and colleagues working in the women's sector for them to fill in as well, the more people take part, the firmer the case we can present to the UK government for further support to our sector.

The survey closes 28 February 2010. If you would like to respond to the survey but think you may have problems meeting the deadline, please contact Sue on her details below:

Sue Christoforou, Researcher, Women's Resource Centre
Email: suechristoforou@wrc.org.uk, Ph: 020 7324 3030, www.wrc.org.uk

Putting CEDAW into action: Global South/North exchange

2009-11-13T14:17:00.004Z

Yesterday, around 60 people turned out for our WRC/ WOMANKIND Worldwide event on putting the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) into action.

The main attendees were from women’s organisations around England, including: Rise, Women @ the Well, Brighton Women’s Centre, Women’s Networking Hub, Sparkhill Asian Women’s Association, Her Centre, SERICC, FORWARD, The Fawcett Society, the Daphne Project, Sandwell Rape and Sexual Violence Support Service, WILPF, Women's National Commission and more.

Other attendees included human rights groups: British Institute of Human Rights, UNA-UK, Oxfam, UNIFEM UK… and even a delegate from the Metropolitan Police!

Speakers were women from front line (Rape Crisis, South Africa) and second tier (Institute for the Defense of Women’s Rights, Peru) women’s orgs from Nepal, Ghana, Peru, South Africa and Zimbabwe. These women have been using CEDAW to mobilise women locally and lobby their own governments for changes in women’s lives around sexual and reproductive rights, violence against women, sexuality, social and economic rights, political representation, and much more.

The participants extracted learning from these experiences for application in the UK – with a focus on making CEDAW relevant to women and actually being able to use it here. We looked at opportunities and challenges, and ideas for individual organisations, WRC, other partners and the government to take forward.

Key messages include:

There is a hunger to learn more about CEDAW
CEDAW is the framework within which all our work sits, in that it is soley concerned with women and has as its core equality, non-discrimination and obligation for state parties to eliminate discrimination against women
Women’s organisations and government officials need training and information on CEDAW, especially in the regions (i.e. outside London)
We need to think about some test cases, especially for future use of the Optional Protocol
This needs to be properly funded work, both at an individual organisation level (e.g. orgs to include a budget line in each funding application for lobbying) and at a second tier level (i.e. coordination of shadow reports)
The process of writing shadow reports needs to be truly democratised to allow for the widest range of input from diverse women and their orgs
It is so important to mobilise, work and lobby together
It is good that we have started NOW in preparation for 2012.

It was a very inspiring and humbling event – there is a LOT that we can learn from our sisters in the Global South. Maria Ysabel from Peru closed her speech by saying “we are here because your fight is my fight, and my fight is yours”.

Can celebrities help women's organisations to tackle violence against women?

2009-11-06T14:26:00.002Z

Celebrities have a huge presence in our everyday lives, but should they be doing more to highlight the issue of violence against women? Do we, as women’s organisations, need their support?

Some of the biggest news stories of the past few months have been violence against women cases that involve celebrities, either as the victim or perpetrator. In the US, the conviction of singer Chris Brown for the assault of Rihanna has highlighted the issue of domestic violence with a younger audience. Roman Polanski’s arrest in Switzerland and pending extradition to the US for outstanding sexual assault charges has sparked debate internationally. Back in Britain, Katie Price’s claims that she had previously been raped by a fellow star have been widely reported.

Despite all these cases, and others, only a few celebs have explicitly spoken out against violence against women. Many, like Keira Knightley, have supported violence against women organisations by taking part in their advertising campaigns. It’s undeniable that having ‘celebrity endorsement’ of your work is really useful for raising awareness and encouraging donations.

However, there is a shortage of high profile women who are willing and able to talk about the underlying gender equality issues that are vital to understanding and tackling violence against women. Sometimes, when celebrities do talk to the media about violence against women they do more harm than good (Helen Mirren, anyone?!).

The only star I can think of who seems to really talk about violence against women as a human rights violation is Nicole Kidman (UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassador), who acknowledged the links between the film industry’s portrayal of women as sex objects and violence against women during an address to US Congress last month.

So, do we need a ‘Goodwill Ambassador’ for violence against women organisations in the UK? Who would be your first choice?

WRC lobby MPs about women with no recourse to public funds

2009-11-05T17:32:00.003Z

Ange Jones, Networks and Policy Officer at the National Equality Partnership, tells us about meeting her MP:

I met with Diane Abbott, my MP for Hackney and Stoke Newington, as a part of a mass lobby organised by Amnesty for its No Recourse to Public Funds campaign (in partnership with other women’s organisations, such as Southall Black Sisters and WRC).

I’d never taken part in a mass lobby before. I have to say, I think it is a very effective model for, in the very least, getting a quick and direct response from MPs on whether they are willing to support a particular issue.

Seeing other activists having tea or sitting on benches with their MPs, added to my drive to get a good result. Diane, as many had told me, was supportive of the issues and she agreed to two key asks of three, one of which was to speak with Harriet Harman about the proposal that government are reshaping on a solution for women with no recourse.

Amnesty supplied us with lots of good information and I got to meet another woman passionate about women’s equality who lives in my area during the process – so all in all a successful visit to Westminster!

The Women's Cafe: An online network for the women's sector

2009-10-22T14:50:00.010+01:00

Exciting news people! After months in the cooking, we launched the Women's Cafe at our AGM last night.

The Women's Cafe is an online network for women working in the women's voluntary and community sector. So if you're working in a women's project (staff, volunteer or trustee) come and join us!

Women are using the network to:

Find other women interested in similar issues
Provide each other with information, advice and support on campaigning, research and other topics
Co-ordinate campaigns and working groups with other women across the country
Share their experiences, expertise and best practice examples

Want to find out more? I've put together a Step by Step guide to the Women's Cafe (PDF). Or just go to the Women's Cafe and sign up!*

(*to make sure the network stays relevant and safe, all members will need to be approved by us before joining. Shouldn't take too long though!)

WRC at Feminism in London

2009-10-15T10:13:00.002+01:00

P1100282, originally uploaded by ctrouper.

WRC were at the Feminism in London conference last weekend. It was a vibrant and exciting day with a diverse range of workshops and discussions and some practical sessions such as self defence. The day opened with Susie Orbach asking important questions about contemporary women’s bodies and how they are shaped by the beauty industry, and included panel discussions on racism and sexism, and prostitution, which were powerful and raised many important issues for women and the sector.

We made lots of new contacts and were mainly promoting the lobby of parliament on November 4th for women with no recourse to public funds, and the Rape Crisis campaign. It was great to see so many feminist and women’s organisations packed into the busy hall. We were sharing a table with Pink Stinks and you could buy back issues of Spare Rib from the Feminist Library, as well as find out about the next Million Women Rise March.

Women had come from across the country including some all the way from LGBT Youth Scotland, and there was a real sense of working together and building a movement. Exciting times!

How social media meets our strategic aims

2009-09-25T12:32:00.003+01:00

Leah from women's resource centre gives a talk, originally uploaded by hellobeautifulworld.

I've done a couple of presentations to charities about our use of social media. Last night I went to the NFPTweetup (a meeting of people in charities who use Twitter) and someone took a picture of my slide. Sometimes charities who are new to social media find it difficult to justify (to their colleagues or managers), so I thought it might be useful to see our reasons.

The NFPTweetup is a great, friendly event. It was fantastic to see a couple of other women's organisations there, including Mina from Rights of Women and Ann-Sophie from Rosa. They're held about 4 times a year, so look out for the next one!

A gendered perspective on climate change

2009-09-23T16:06:00.002+01:00

We have all been hearing a lot about climate change recently – for some this may mean reducing our carbon footprint by pledging to recycle more or not fly, for others this is such a huge issue that we may feel powerless or be waiting for the government to make changes first. This is seen as an issue that affects us all but does it affect some of us more than others?

Globally, women are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to our different social roles and status. In the UK and other developed countries, increasing costs for energy, transport, healthcare and nutrition are likely to affect women more than men. In developing countries, women are already suffering disproportionately more as a consequence of climate change.

Unfortunately many campaigns around climate change do not take this into account and ignore the fact that their campaign actions may also disproportionately affect women. For example asking us to recycle more, turn down our thermostat, buy organic produce and wash at 30 degrees are all actions which women, the majority of the time, will be responsible for.

There is a rich history of women being involved in environmental activism and luckily there are various women’s organisations that are still raising these issues and working on climate change. From the Women’s Environmental Network and the Women’s Institute’s work with their members, to Wise Women, to the Climate Rush, who recreate great Suffragette actions with a new agenda; as well as all the women’s organisations that have environmental policies and are working sustainably as part of their work with and for women.

There is also a new campaign which aims to have cut UK emissions by 10% in 2010. The 10:10 campaign is just beginning but there is a chance for women’s organisations to get involved and profile their environmental work. Contact harriet@1010uk.org for more information.

Climate change is an issue that will effect us all but we must make sure that gender is not an afterthought to this movement and that women are not shouldering the burden of responsibility – Take action now, this is only the beginning!

Visiting the Bronze Woman

2009-07-31T13:44:00.002+01:00

The Bronze Woman, originally uploaded by Women's Resource Centre.

On a WRC away day, we made a little 'pilgrimage' to the Bronze Woman monument in Stockwell, London.

The Bronze Woman is many things – she is the first public monument of a black woman in England, a symbol of the contribution of Caribbean, and indeed all, women to society and proof that people who have the courage to pursue their dreams can inspire others to great achievements.

It's a truly beautiful sculpture and the result of a lot of hard work by a group of very committed people. Visit it!

http://www.bronzewoman.org.uk

Government ignores UN targets on tackling discrimination against women

2009-07-31T12:50:00.011+01:00

Last July, the UK Government was assessed by the UN's CEDAW Committee on their track record on gender equality, and was found wanting. As a result, the government is required to report to the Committee this month - twelve months on rather than the standard four year reporting cycle.

However, on the last day of July, we have seen no signs of such a report. Meanwhile, there are still women in this country who are unable to access a place of safety when escaping a violent relationship. These women have no choice but to return to violent partners or become destitute.

In the one year on report, the government is required to include information on how it has ‘incorporated all provisions of the Convention’ into the Single Equality Bill, announced by Harriet Harman in June 2008. However, to date no measures have been taken by the government to incorporate the Convention into domestic law.

The CEDAW committee also expressed concern over funding to the women’s voluntary sector in the

and have requested that the government report on this.

So... where is the report? Read more here.

Celebrating women with roses and grants

2009-06-10T11:43:00.004+01:00

Last night, the WRC team was out in force to celebrate Rosa's first birthday. Undaunted by the tube strike, people turned out to hear which projects had been given funding in Rosa's first round of grants.

Rosa is the UK fund for women and girls, and their first grants will go to the Powerhouse, Mimbre, and Feminist Webs for their work on body image. The guest speaker, Susie Orbach, spoke powerfully about the impact of the beauty industry and cultural pressures on women, girls and increasingly men, calling it a "real public health emergency". Fourteen year old Omena Osivwemu from the Feminist Webs project spoke movingly about her hopes for the project and the importance of feminism to her and other young women.

The atmosphere was celebratory and this carried through to the amazing "Celebrate Her" embroidery, where people could dedicate a rose to a woman they wanted to celebrate (by making a small donation, naturally). The roses looked beautiful and they'll also be transferred to Rosa's online rose garden, so everyone can see!

Women's organisations get tweeting!

2009-04-28T11:54:00.003+01:00

Well, I've been away for a few weeks and have only just caught up with all our various communications. I've been particularly pleased to see more women's organisations embracing Twitter, Facebook and blogs. You can really see the difference in the way they can reach out to their supporters and new audiences - spreading campaign messages as well as interacting and responding to people's comments, concerns and input.

In the last week, Newham Action Against Domestic Violence (@NAADV) has tweeted about their new service for young people (would have been even better with a weblink for people to follow). Women's Aid got namechecked in a tweet from Sarah Brown (@SarahBrown10). If they'd retweeted it (twitter-speak for forwarding a post), their supporters would have known about this high-profile fan too. And I've been chatting on Twitter to @Bell_Bajao, an Indian organisation with an incredibly interactive website, campaigning to end domestic violence.

Do you know any other women's organisations using these or other online tools really well? Post in comments below or send me a tweet (@whywomen)!

A busy week at WRC

2009-03-31T16:29:00.007+01:00

Phew! Last week was a busy one for WRC, with the evening launch of our new research followed by a full-day conference.

On Monday evening, the WRC team travelled to Westminster, where we welcomed guests from across the women’s sector, the wider voluntary sector, MPs and representatives from the UN. The purpose of the event was to launch our new research, Not just bread, but roses, too, which maps the women’s sector across England, with an emphasis on funding to the sector (or lack of it). We heard from Dubravka Siminovic (former chair of CEDAW) and Dr Nicola Brewer (chief executive EHRC), who drove home the importance of funding to the sector, especially with regard to the obligations set out by CEDAW.

As if all that excitement wasn’t enough, on Tuesday, we welcomed over 100 delegates (in partnership with EHRC) to the Human Rights Action Centre, where we enjoyed a day packed full of opportunities to hear from experts on CEDAW, participate in workshops and to make a start on women’s sector strategy for CEDAW 2011. There’s a full report of the conference on our website, along with links to some the organisations that attended and information on further action. The sheer numbers and enthusiasm at the conference made it a truly inspiring (if exhausting) experience!

If you missed out on these events, we got pretty snap happy, so why not take a look at our photos?

Together we’re seizing the opportunities of CEDAW!

WRC joins the Million Women Rise march

2009-03-09T15:48:00.006Z

The drums, the whistles, the chanting, the sea of red banners... Women marching down the centre of Oxford Street on a busy Saturday afternoon to mark International Women's Day... Bemused (and sometimes supportive) shoppers and workers looking on - including a standing ovation from the Toni & Guy hairdressers... Women's organisations coming together in solidarity from across the country... Together we can end male violence against women...

The sun shone on this year's Million Women Rise march and the atmosphere reflected that - friendly, together, positive - despite the serious messages and placards. There was a real sense of reclaiming space from the shoppers, mannequins and advertising slogans as we marched through Oxford Street and Regent Street.

The atmosphere became more sombre at the rally following the march, where people gathered to listen to inspiring and moving speakers. Some told incredibly moving tales of survival and recovery, others read messages of solidarity from across the world, still others recounted the horrific violations of women taking place in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sri Lanka.

Anna from Object spoke about their actions to combat the increasing objectification of women, a speaker from the Women's Institute spoke about domestic violence and the fact that rural women often bear the brunt of the postcode lottery in violence services, and Ruth Bashall spoke about the abuses perpetrated against disabled women worldwide and the solidarity and strength they provide to each other. All the speeches were translated by the indefatigable sign language interpreter.

For a great sense of the march, see this fantastic video by warriorgrrl. See our pictures here and some other fantastic pictures by Jess McCabe here.

One woman. One body. One song. One love.

Happy International Women's Day (or Weekend)!

2009-03-06T14:06:00.008Z

It's that time of year again, when (some) of the world's attention turns to women. There are loads of actions, events and celebrations going on. Here are just a few things you can do:

* MARCH! Million Women Rise - thousands of women will march through central London tomorrow in an act of solidarity and protest against male violence against women.

* CELEBRATE! Take some time to think about the women who have inspired and encouraged you in your life. When you've done that, why not let them know? Give them a call, bake them a cake, write it on your blog or Facebook page, shout it from the rooftops - whatever will make them feel valued. You could even make a donation in her honour to your favourite women's organisation - Rosa (the UK women's fund) lets you dedicate a donation to a special woman in your life by giving her a special rose in Rosa's online garden.

* CAMPAIGN! Lobby your local council for better provision for women who have experienced violence. Go to www.mapofgaps.org and use the template email there.

At 1.10pm today, hundreds of people changed their Facebook statuses and twittered messages about violence against women in Britain, after AmnestyUK sent out a call to action. You can see the Twitter messages here.

A brief guide to Twitter for women's organisations

2009-02-10T14:56:00.004Z

There’s been a lot of noise in the media about Twitter recently and you could get the impression that it’s just for self-promoting celebrities. But what is less reported is how useful it can be for charities and campaigns. WRC has been using Twitter since October 2008 and we (well, I) love it and think it could be a great tool for other women’s organisations.

From a very personal perspective, I like Twitter because people only get your updates if they’re actually interested in hearing from you. If they don’t find you interesting, they won’t follow you (or not for long). You can send out quick notices, let people know about interesting news, events or comments – all without cluttering up people’s inboxes. And you make contact with (and build relationships with) people you didn’t even know existed. It breaks down institutional barriers and opens up your organisation to supporters, potential supporters, peers and even policymakers.

What else can you do?

ask your network for help
if you’re lucky, they’ll ask their networks to help you too
promote campaign actions or other work
get a dog a new home (or whatever your core activity is)
get instant feedback
engage with MPs, councillors etc
learn from your peers
add quick updates to your website or blog (you should see our twitter updates on this blog)
even 'silly' Twitter actions can have a big impact - see Amnesty's snowmen for human rights!

How to get started
Have a look at this ‘Twitter in plain English’ video (although it mostly explains Twitter’s benefits to individuals rather than organisations) and then this presentation. Then sign up to Twitter and find some people to follow (i.e. receive their updates). One way is to follow me, then see who I follow and if you’re interested in them, follow them too. There’s a list of charities on Twitter here, or try some US women’s organisations to see what they’re doing.

One last thing... I asked my 'followers' if they had any tips for women's organisations new to Twitter and here are some I received...

There’s so much more to say, but I hope this gives you a taste. As Christine Burns pointed out to me, Twitter encourages brevity, but if you want to know more, tweet me!

Seizing the opportunities of CEDAW!

2009-02-05T16:50:00.007Z

In July 2008, the UK Government was disgraced when re-examined by the CEDAW Committee and were found to be wanting in their commitment to women’s rights. The UN said the UK Government has not kept up with their part of the bargain after signing up to the CEDAW Convention in 1981.

The Committee made 84 recommendations to the UK Government, including providing increased and sustainable funding to women’s organisations, raising public awareness about the Convention and upholding the Gender Equality Duty in terms of women only services. This was great news for the women’s voluntary and community sector and these recommendations can, and should, be used by women’s organisations to support arguments about the value of their services. CEDAW is a crucial tool that women’s organisations can use to lobby for funding, cooperation and new legislation to further the cause of women’s equality.

The next time the UK will be officially examined will be in Geneva in 2011 and we hope that there will be a full contingent of women’s organisations present and involved in the process to make sure that their voices and needs are listened to and acted on by the Committee and the UK government.

In order to prepare for 2011 we want to get the message out to women’s organisations across the UK – women need to be aware of, and be able to use, CEDAW in their core work and to strengthen their organisations, especially at a time when the women’s sector is so under threat.

2009 is the 30th anniversary of CEDAW so WRC have organised an event – Seizing the opportunities of CEDAW – on 24 March and are encouraging women’s organisations to come to learn more about the international instruments that are there to help them and to be able to hold the government to account. We also hope to create a sector-wide strategy for 2011 and to involve as many women as possible in this.

If you would like to find out more or get involved please contact us kara@wrc.org.uk and join our e-news, Facebook group or Twitter to keep updated.

Hackney funding seminar

2009-01-29T16:18:00.009Z

Earlier today, the development team (and one policy team member!) found themselves in Hackney for the second in a series of local funding seminars which form part of WRC’s Building Futures project. The audience consisted of women from a number of organisations, from Hackney and the surrounding boroughs, who were keen to find out about the various options for sustainable funding.

The first speaker was Eve Oldham, commissioner for Older People’s Services in Hackney, who explained how the commissioning process can work for the voluntary sector and gave a step-by-step guide to the process, from invitation to tender through the to the awarding of the contract. Next was Pippa Judd, Counselling Services Manager at the Threshold project in Brighton. Pippa gave an insight into the challenges of partnership working, from her experience of having to merge with a larger, generic organisation due to loss of funding.

After a quick tea break, we heard from Em Ekong, director of Urban Inclusion, who talked about social enterprise and how it can work for the women’s sector. Em emphasised the importance of thinking creatively when it comes to thinking of possible income generation ideas and that while commercialisation is not appropriate for all organisations, it certainly is something which is worth considering. Finally, WRC’s Supriya Horn gave a short introduction to the world of fundraising from individuals and emphasised that this is a source of funding which is currently underused by the women’s sector. The formal presentations were followed by informal roundtable sessions with the speakers, where the women attending got to ask their own questions and network with one another.

All in all it was a very successful and inspiring morning, which one delegate described as “brilliant and loaded with info!”. Look out for details of our next funding seminar in Tower Hamlets on Friday 13th March!

Stronger Together in the South West

2008-12-11T14:40:00.006Z

This week WRC Policy Team members travelled south to hold an event near Taunton with the South West Foundation looking at how women’s organisations in this area can better influence their local agenda and get their voices heard. It was a really great opportunity for women from lots of different kinds of organisations to meet and talk about the issues that they face locally and discuss what they can do about it! The event was part of WRC’s Stronger Together project and highlighted the need for women’s groups to work together and support each other when faced with gender discrimination at a local level. Networks like Equality South West’s gender network are already starting to do this.

Women’s Action Network Dorset spoke about their work supporting isolated women through social events and projects, and SEEDS Devon were keen to know about how they could challenge funding decisions and get more involved in local government.

The one thing that really struck me was the huge geographical areas that services have to cover in rural areas like the South West. The differences between the extent of services in the towns and countryside were obvious, however, the experiences of lack of recognition were the same.

We had fun creating our ideal visions of the future which were very colourful and optimistic – let’s hope we can get closer to this through solidarity and challenging decisions that reflect negatively on women!

A forum for change?

2008-12-05T14:58:00.005Z

As part on WRC’s ongoing interest in the potential of social media (this very blog being a perfect example), I went to the IT Innovation in the Community event, organised by Ealing CVS and DC10. Case studies were used to show how people could make use of technology to engage with local communities. Digital inclusion is vitally important, with ICT being identified as the third skill for life, along with literacy and numeracy. But 75% of socially excluded adults do not use the internet, so we have to be very careful about balancing the opportunities on offer with the danger of excluding the most vulnerable groups.

One workshop showcased Ealing Community Network (ECN), which is piloting online consultation forums to access marginalised groups, by enabling strategic partners to consult with groups on service delivery. There are two forums: one for disabled people and one for Muslim women. The forum for disabled people to consult with Ealing Police has 12 members and is very successful. The Muslim women’s forum (for Ealing Hospital Trust to ask questions about service in both the accident and emergency department and the maternity unit) has 8 members, but it was clear from the outset that the level of support needed to access the forum was high, mainly due to the varying levels of English and IT skills amongst the women. This meant that activity levels were relatively low.

This was a small, but valuable, pilot project and ECN will be following up with a second round of discussions in the new year. It does, though, pose questions about how to reach marginalised groups. It can be a success, as shown by the disabled people’s forum, but the varying levels ‘life skills’ in the Muslim women’s community meant that not as many potential beneficiaries were reached. Nor were their voices heard.

Should the VCS be shifting focus to these kind of initiatives before making sure that basic IT skills are available in the communities we are trying to benefit? This a good question, but not one which should hold us back. This kind of project means that women are being reached who would otherwise not have had their voice heard. While this is not the only way to consult groups, it seems that any responses gathered are valuable. This kind of tool should be used as a way of complementing other methods for consultation and information sharing. The potential in these tools is an opportunity too good to miss!

Is it enough to get more women in power?

2008-11-27T14:07:00.003Z

Despite losing the election, Sarah Palin's nomination for vice presidential candidate was hailed in some quarters as a victory for women - and even for feminism. But many women (including myself) felt extremely uncomfortable celebrating her nomination - even purely as a victory for women's representation in 'high politics' - given her stance on issues like reproductive rights, gay rights, environmental issues, access to healthcare and support for rape survivors. As Sarah Seltzer at the Huffington Post noted: "Just because Sarah Palin is a woman, doesn't mean she's good for women." (See also Jezebel)

So we got to thinking (if you'll excuse the Carrie Bradshaw moment)... is it enough to get more women represented at all levels of politics (from grassroots to government) or do they need to be the 'right' women? That is, women who will fight for women's rights and encourage other women to join them? Women who also represent marginalised groups in society and will fight for equality in all areas? And if that's the case, doesn't that mean we all have a responsibility to make sure we step up to the plate ourselves? Would a website like www.sheshouldrun.org for the UK help?

And it's not just me who's been pondering this issue:

Vivienne Hayes (WRC CEO) argues that women's organisations are a vital part of the struggle to get a diverse range of women into positions of influence
Nan Sloane (Centre for Women & Democracy) requests a little more understanding for women brave enough to enter the lion's den of politics
Councillor Anjana Patel, Joella Hazel (Fawcett Society), Lee Chalmers (The Downing Street Project) and Ros Taylor (Comment is Free) have their say...

Reclaiming the Night

2008-11-26T16:29:00.009Z

We braved the cold on Saturday evening to carry the WRC banner through the streets of central London to raise awareness about violence against women and demand safety for women on the streets at night. It was a really positive and uplifting march with lots of chanting (my favourite is the call and response: “hay, ho, sexual violence has got to go!” as you can really get a good rhythm going!) and colourful handmade banners and placards representing the huge range of women who were involved.

We got the usual lads near Leicester Square being loud and obnoxious but they soon disappeared in embarrassment when they realised we were shouting about rape and domestic abuse! Along Charing Cross Road some people leaned out of their window to bang saucepan lids in support (I remember them from last year!) and of course the usual landmarks along the way – the Soho Bookshop, Harmony and Spearmint Rhino – were the focus for some particular attention.

At Friends Meeting House we had a stall outside the main auditorium and could hear the rousing speeches, it was a full house with loud cheering and even standing ovations! There was lots of interest in the action sheet for the Rape Crisis campaign and people signing up to the why women? campaign as well, and nearly all our materials were taken by interested women which meant I had a lot less to carry home!

Reclaim the Night marches happen all over the country and at different times of year (it would be nice to have one when it was a bit warmer!) so look out for one near you or join the London march in 2009!

See pictures of the night on Flickr

WRC blog is back!

2008-11-25T15:18:00.005Z

As you can see, we've not been blogging at WRC for a while (due to technical issues), but we're back now! I'm not sure what's happened to the photos and fonts in the interim - I can only apologise!

In the meantime, we've got a new website, some new staff and some new projects.

We've also been looking into how we can best use social media and online tools to connect women's organisations across the country. So far, we have a Facebook group for our why women? campaign and our Communications Officer (that's me) has been dipping into Twitter. We're also interested in the social networks that have been set up for people in the charity sector (http://thecharityplace.ning.com/) and for policy workers in the sector (http://ncvopolicyforum.ning.com/).

Today is also the start of the 16 days of activism for the elimination of violence against women. See a round-up of related events on womensgrid.

New fund to help women's sector blossom

2008-06-12T16:09:00.005+01:00

Tuesday night saw the launch of a new UK-wide fund devoted exclusively to championing and investing in charities working with women and girls. The fund is called Rosa, and we've been following its pre-launch progress quite closely (not least because we've been sharing an office with their staff for a few months).

Rosa's mission is to tackle the problems facing women and girls in the UK today by raising funds, investing in change, promoting women's organisations and raising awareness of the challenges facing women and their organisations. We're all really excited - so much hard work has already gone in behind the scenes to get Rosa to this stage (£750,000 had already been donated before the launch) - and it's going to be such a positive force for the women's sector.

They also have a lovely new logo and some very, very pretty business cards (if you're the kind of the person who gets excited by such things, as I am, you should check them out) and even the reasoning behind the name Rosa is inspiring. It was chosen because it is a recognisable name in many languages, and it's also the first name of three outstanding historical female activists: Rosa Luxemburg, the German socialist leader; Rosa May Billingshurst, the British suffragette; and Rosa Parks, the African-American civil rights activist.

They're kicking off their fundraising efforts with a "Celebrate her" campaign, suggesting people celebrate a special woman in their life (mum, friends, daughters etc) by making a gift and sending a virtual rose. Check it out!

www.rosauk.org

How to deliver unpopular messages (and how not to)

2008-05-08T18:38:00.005+01:00

Perhaps surprisingly for a communications officer, I don't get out much, so I always look forward to events that allow me to meet other charity communications people, swap stories and learn from people with more experience and - frankly - bigger teams and bigger budgets. And today I went to one of those events, Charity Communications 08.

There were lots of inspiring speakers there, although disappointingly fewer examples of successful comms "on a shoestring" than last year, but perhaps the most striking thing I came away with was the contrast between two of the speakers, Camila Batmanghelidjh (director of Kids Company) and Kelvin MacKenzie (former editor of the Sun).

Both very strong, determined personalities. Both fearless, outspoken, unafraid of personal criticism and prepared to deliver unpopular messages. But where Camila Batmangelidjh is prepared to speak out in defence of the young people she works with, often vilified in the media, however much that opens her to attack (she talked about speaking out at the time of the murder of Damilola Taylor, making the point that we as adults had failed not only Damilola Taylor but also the children who killed him), Kelvin MacKenzie really didn't seem interested in anyone but himself. MacKenzie perhaps didn't endear himself to the audience by characterising charity workers as overpaid, dishonest, crooks, at best "not bad people, but misguided", by showing a total lack of interest in the work of charities, and also by refusing to engage in any discussion he wasn't controlling (he refused point blank to discuss with a woman from the Lucy Faithfull Foundation why it might be necessary for a charity to work with paedophiles). But enough about him...

Batmangelidjh made a few really key points. Asked how she has managed to use the media for such positive effect, she says she speaks the truth and is not afraid to be attacked for it. When she speaks out, "it may not be in the best interest of me, it is not always in the best interest of Kids Company, but it is always in the best interest of the kids". She noted that a lot of charity chief executives feel vulnerable about speaking out, and that the voluntary sector has "disempowered itself in the search for money". Her message: "Get brave and refuse that equation". But she was realistic about how you get yourself in a strong enough position to do that:

(1) run an effective project
(2) get your work independently assessed to prove its efficacy, and
(3) stay true to your values

"Don't underestimate the power of the truth. Find the truth in what you're doing". Only then should you (in her words) open your big mouth.

It was certainly clear to me why her clear-headed and uncompromising stance has paid dividends in the media coverage she and her project have attracted over the years.

WRC supports day of action for women with no recourse to public funds

2008-04-23T18:12:00.003+01:00

Today WRC staff joined a 200-strong protest against the 'no recourse to public funds' rule, which leaves women trapped between violence and destitution.

Here's a brief report from Kate, WRC's Membership Officer:

By 11am people had started to gather outside Portcullis House in the spitting rain. Stewards drank steaming cups of tea, and handed out white masks to the new arrivals, who started to form a un-orderly line along the pavement.

People had come from all over the capital and the country, with the 52-seater coach from Roshni in Sheffield pulling up just before midday to great applause after long rain induced delays on the motorway. Over 200 people stood holding the banners: “Violence or Destitution, which would you choose? Abolish No Recourse to Public Funds", their rows of hidden faces eerie behind the white masks.

After an hour, people started to make their way in to the public meeting. Security on the door to Portcullis House was tight as expected, but the heavies soon mellowed, even allowing Heather, one of the Amnesty organisers, to hand them her seeping bag of rubbish!

The public meeting was buzzing, with MPs from each of the political parties, representatives of Islington No Recourse to Public Funds, Kalayaan, Amnesty, The Poppy Project, Southall Black Sisters and two women from the Metropolitan Police, who agreed completely with Southall Black Sisters that violence against women is not an immigration issue: "you don’t want to have to ask a woman at a point of crisis: “What’s your immigration status?”’ . The meeting closed with all united in the determination to continue the lobbying and campaigning and build on the day’s energy. The sun even came out to celebrate.

A great day, despite the rain. Big thanks to everyone who came!
A full report of the day and speakers will be on the WRC website soon.

£1million emergency funding for Rape Crisis - but what next?

2008-03-20T17:03:00.002Z

On Tuesday evening, WRC and Rape Crisis (England & Wales) launched a new research report on the state of the Rape Crisis sector. Focusing on the appalling funding situation, the report also looks at staffing, services provided and public awareness of the sector.

The launch event was a beautiful candle-lit evening at the Directory of Social Change in London. The speakers (Tania Pouwhare from WRC, Jane Gregory from Rape Crisis (England & Wales) and a woman who had received life-saving support from Rape Crisis centres) gave hard hitting but inspiring speeches. The event closed with a touching poetry reading by my colleague, Skye.

Almost immediately, Harriet Harman announced that the government was pulling together £1million emergency funding to prevent any further closures of Rape Crisis centres this year. Now, obviously that's not enough and once again fails to address the real issue which is long-term, sustainable funding for these vital services, but it's difficult to be too curmudgeonly - I mean, it's not often you get £1million! And perhaps this really will be the first step in a concerted effort to sort out a plan to ensure that current centres don't have to close and that new centres can be opened in the very many places where there currently aren't any.

On the same day, Vivienne Hayes (WRC Chief Executive) went on the Jeni Barnett show on LBC radio to talk about this issue. Also on the programme was WRC's "gold star man of the week" (see below for last week's recipient of this prestigious award), Ben Davies of newstatesman.com. Not only has he been incredibly supportive of the campaign for better funding of Rape Crisis centres, he was also very articulate and passionate about it on the radio. He talked specifically about visiting a centre and meeting the staff and volunteers. Cheers Ben!

So a day for warm fuzzies, but definitely not the time to take our eye off the ball. As the report says:

Support for women and girls to rebuild their lives after rape must be a right, not a privilege determined by a postcode lottery.

Knight in shining armour?

2008-03-12T14:35:00.004Z

Third Sector magazine isn't usually greeted with whoops of joy at WRC HQ, but today was an exception. This week's edition sees not one, not two, but three articles on women's organisations. There's a case study of women's counselling service Threshold, which merged with a larger charity to ensure the survival of its vital services, and a back page comment by Mathew Little on Ealing Council's decision to withdraw funding from Southall Black Sisters (see last week's blog), asking whether it is government policy to curb funding to ethnic groups. Little's piece was entitled: "No cash for ethnic group - is it because they is black?"...

The article that really gladdened our hearts, though, was the opinion piece by John Knight, who is head of policy and campaigns at Leonard Cheshire Disability. Headlined "In praise of women's organisations", the article displayed a real understanding of the women's voluntary and community sector which is as rare as it is refreshing.

"Where public services stop for women, voluntary services start. The importance of refuges and rape crisis centres cannot be overestimated. The plight of women asylum seekers fleeing violence and rape abroad is far too often unseen - by both the public and the state. The work of organisations to raise the profile of these issues and help women establish safe havens here is often done against incredible odds."

We really couldn't have put it better ourselves. Knight mentions not just the services provided by women's organisations, but also the advocacy and campaigning work which is so often overlooked. He writes about the wide range of issues addressed by women's organisations, the importance of International Women's Day, and the wide-ranging impact of the sector's work: "They support, advise and protect many thousands of women every day." He even references WRC and suggests that the lack of funding for women's organisations is a form of discrimination.

How refreshing to read an article by someone outside the women's sector with such a good understanding of the work we do. Three gold stars for Mr Knight.

Gearing up for International Women's Day

2008-03-04T23:23:00.003Z

As usual the women's sector is abuzz with activities for International Women's Day (8 March). WRC is going to be present at two major events in London on the day itself: the annual capitalwoman conference and the all new Million Women Rise march.

Both events look set to attract thousands of women and both will highlight important issues for women. In the absence of a time machine or teleportation skills, WRC staff will be engaging in some nifty tag-team action to ensure we're able to support both of these events and make the most of these opportunities to raise the profile of women's organisations. If you're coming to capitalwoman, come up and see us in the Pickwick Lounge - we'll be the table tucked away in the corner, if the floorplan is to be believed (must bake cookies for the events planner next year) - we'll have all our latest reports and publications for you to take away with you, and might even stretch to a purple sparkly WRC pen if you ask nicely.

In less cheerful news, Ealing Council has decided to 'celebrate' International Women's Day by jeopardising the future of one of the most respected women's organisations in the country, maybe even the world: Southall Black Sisters. For decades, Southall Black Sisters has been a pioneering and pre-eminent campaigning and advocacy group for black & minority ethnic women experiencing domestic violence. Ealing Council has been giving SBS a regular grant to carry out this vital work. Now the Council only wants to fund an organisation that will provide services to all women in the borough (with no more money for this extra work). WRC has written to Ealing Council, urging them to recognise the value of the specialist service SBS provides to some of the most marginalised women, and also wrote to the Guardian newspaper:

Many black and minority ethnic women's organisations are in peril. I can only hope that the government is listening as it develops its proposals for funding guidance on cohesion. Advising funders to give preference to projects that bring groups together will not improve cohesion. Far from promoting cohesion, it will further exclude people already on the margins of society.

The government is out of touch with those working at the coalface. We need good guidance for funders that genuinely promotes equality and cohesion and ensures that invaluable organisations like Southall Black Sisters do not become victims of a 'one-size-fits-all' funding culture.
(Society Guardian, 20 February 2008)

News of the threat to SBS has spread quickly and support has come from far and wide - from physical protests at council meetings and letters to Ealing Council, to messages of support in myriad blogs and even an active and growing Facebook group. See http://www.southallblacksisters.org.uk/savesbs.htm for more.

Welcome, welcome, come on in. Would you like a cup of tea?

2008-02-28T22:09:00.003Z

This is my first post on the Women's Resource Centre blog. We've been kicking around the idea of a blog for a while, but for various reasons have put it on the backburner. But today - inspired by a podcast (http://www.theinternationale.net/content/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/keeping_it_fresh.mp3) I thought it was time to take the plunge.

"But why?" I hear you cry. "Is this really what we pay you for?". Well, yes and no. Yes- because WRC does get some funding to be the 'voice of the women's voluntary and community sector' and this blog is one more way to get the issues that matter to the sector a wider airing. For example, we're doing a lot of work on issues like the appalling lack of funding to women's organisations providing support to survivors of sexual assault and the difficulties faced by Black and minority ethnic women's organisations as a result of the government's current stance on 'integration and cohesion', and frankly we want to tell the world about it

We also want more people to know about women's organisations and the work they do. We started telling people through our why women? campaign (www.whywomen.org.uk), and it's a really important part of what we do.

And finally, we'd like to kick some ideas around with you in a less formal set-up.

But no, blogging is never going to be our core work or only way of communicating. As WRC's Information & Events Officer (or, as I prefer to be known, Empress of Communications), I'm just going to be sewing a new 'blogging' badge on to the already crowded sleeve of my Girl Guide uniform, and instead of hovering in the kitchen ready to rant at my unsuspecting colleagues as they try to make themselves a cup of tea, I might just put it down in words instead. So all it'll cost is my time, and since my time is precious but (thanks to voluntary sector salaries) essentially cheap, that seems like quite good value to me.

I'll kick off the blog proper soon. but until then, feel free to leave us a comment!