Women Thinking Equality

Funded by the EHRC, Engender and Bemis have brought together a diverse group of women to talk about the equality strands and to try to provide an insight into how they intersect.
The group have been meeting since July 08 and have discussed Sexism and Patriarchal Hegemonies, Racism, Feminist Economics, Sexual Orientation, Transgender, Ages of Equality, Religion or Belief and and Disability Politics.  The presentations and summaries from these sessions can be seen on our website under ‘Partnership Work’
The outcomes from Women Thinking Equality will be collated and published in April.  Please contact the office if you would like a copy.
One of the most interesting WTE sessions was the February meeting focussing on Religion and Belief as the governments inclusion of Religion as an equalities strand has been controversial in itself.  We were delighted to have Pragna Patel from Women Against Fundamentalism and Southall Black Sisters present at this meeting and lead our discussio on ‘Religion, Belief and Social Cohesion: Does it work for Women’.   
Pragna explained the context within which Ealing Council attempted to cut funding to Southall Black Sisters and warned that other councils and funders will use a flawed interpretation of the Single Equality Duty as the grounds to withdraw funding for specialist services.