December 2009
DECEMBER 2009 NEWSLETTER
Gender Mainstreaming: the Scottish experience so far…
A major focus of Engenders work this year has been around Gender Mainstreaming – that is, ensuring that a gender analysis is at the heart of all policy discussion. The current assumption is that policy making is gender neutral but this neutrality itself comes from a position of accepted norms and values that are often informed by a male perspective which in fact is gender blind. All policies should be based on a recognition of the role gender plays in how services and practice is experienced by those it seeks to serve. When our policymakers accept that women, men, girls and boys may have differing needs from the same service the resulting policy is more likely to meet those needs and hey presto – we have efficient policy making which should turn out to be cost effective too.
Gender Budgeting plays a vital role in making sure that gender becomes mainstreamed into all decision making. With The Scottish Women’s Budget Group we urge the Scottish Government to make all budgets subject to a gender analysis. Among the Government’s national outcomes are the aims to ‘tackle the significant inequalities in Scottish life’ and to ensure ‘Our public services are high quality, continually improving, efficient and responsive to peoples needs.’ Policy aimed at meeting these outcomes should be supported by budgets which ensure that resources are targeted.
Acknowledging gender in budgets helps allocate the money in a way that supports and promotes equality.
Gender Mainstreaming means that gender is embedded into policy making and not seen as an add-on that someone, somewhere sometimes remembers to cater for. And of course, this presents a challenge and a change of culture not only to policy makers but to those who decide who to consult and to the statisticians who evidence the need for action. Having gendered statistics would let us see who needs what but we also need data sets that can help us assess the nature and quality of the experience of each gender. Following on from this is the consultation process. Who decides who is consulted, which voices have more sway and who is denied influence? If there is no gender balance on decision making bodies are we back to having ‘gender neutral’ decisions made for us?
Both the Concordat between the Scottish Government and Local Authorities and the Gender Equality Duties on Public Bodies offer great opportunities for voices that have traditionally been overlooked to finally be heard. The Concordat is based on each Local Authority agreeing a Single Outcome Agreement (SOA) with the Government. The SOAs will outline the progress that each authority is making towards the governments national outcomes, which include the aims to reduce inequality and provide public services that are ‘responsive to public needs’.
The intention of the Concordat is to enable ‘local authorities and their partners to meet the varying local needs and circumstances across Scotland.” If local authorities are to meet local needs and circumstances they have first to determine what they are and that means listening to and involving Community Planning Partnerships (CPP) communities and the private and third sectors.
We see a role developing for Engender to train and support groups of women in the skills they need to campaign for the services or practices that would help them.
Likewise, bodies which carry out public functions such health, education, police, fire etc must all now have gender equality schemes which demonstrate that the services they provide are not discriminatory and promote equality. Again Engender have been offering women training which highlights the responsibilities of the public bodies and how to make sure they are meeting them.
We’re currently delivering Gender Budgeting training to women’s groups and councils which is being funded by Oxfam’s GenderWorks programme. Our presentation, Understanding Gender Budgeting is aimed at public sector policy makers and promotes gender budgeting as a tool that will help them fulfil their Gender Equality Duty responsibilities. A training workshop, Advocating for Gender Budgeting is for women’s organisations to raise awareness of how to use the Gender Equality Duty to advocate for equality in planning services. These training sessions will be delivered by xmas but we’re sure there will be further opportunities to promote Gender Budgeting throughout the coming year.
Engender International - Kath Davies on International issues
Engender brings feminist analysis to European and international (including United Nations) issues. We have regular contact with MSPs, MPs, MEPs, the European and Equality Committees of the Scottish Parliament and European Commission representatives in Scotland. We aim to focus on Engender’s priority areas – poverty, violence against women and access to decision making; strengthen links between European/international issues and Engender’s work, including past and current transnational work, and keep in touch with other organisations working on our priority areas. If you’re interested in joining the Engender International group, please contact us via Engender office info@engender.org.uk
Europe
Engender Convener Marsha Scott is the Scottish representative on the UK Joint Committee on Women (UKJCW), which is made up of the four UK nations and is part of the European Women's Lobby (EWL) based in Brussels. EWL lobbies the European Parliament, keeping gender on the European agenda. Liz Law from Northern Ireland Women’s European Platform (NIWEP, the NI member of UKJCW) is currently the UK board member at EWL, and we work closely with NIWEP on a number of projects. Marsha spoke on violence against women in the European context at NIWEP’s recent roundtable on VAW as part of ‘Women in Northern Ireland – Connecting to Europe’. The UK government (via the Women’s National Commission [WNC]) is making more effort to publicise the UN consultation programme on women and equality and to encourage more women to have their say. Engender is a WNC partner organisation and spoke at the WNC’s meetings in Glasgow in spring and autumn, taking along the TimeLine we produced illustrating women’s groups’ activity in Scotland during the past 35 years. And earlier this year we compiled a Shadow report on UK progress to the UN ECOSOC Committee. This international committee monitors governmental progress under the UN Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. For the first time, two Engender Board members were able to attend the ECOSOC hearings in Geneva in May and have a direct input into the Committee’s work. This is possible because Engender now has UN consultative status. Being there clearly makes a huge difference, especially to our understanding of how the UN committee system works. We are currently monitoring the UK’s response to ECOSOC’s recommendations so that government agencies don’t regard these as ‘advisory’ (i.e. ignore them), when they are legally binding. Next year is the 15th anniversary of the UN Beijing World Conference on Women (1995) and the Global Platform for Action (PfA). There will be a 15-year review of implementation of the PfA at the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) meetings in March 2010, and at the moment, women all over the world are considering ‘where next?’ Our consultative status entitles Engender to send comments on progress (the good and the gaps) to the CSW review meeting, and to attend. We held a Beijing + 15 review lunch at the Scottish Parliament on 9 December, which was very well attended and included MSPs/MEPs and their representatives. We outlined our areas of particular interest and looked back at more than three decades of involvement of women in Scotland with the UN process. We will be working with all those who expressed interest in our report to CSW. There will be a huge gathering of NGOs alongside the governmental meetings at CSW in March. We will have our say and we hope to be there too! Engender's Beijing+15 meeting, L to R: Kath Davies outlines the history of women in Scotland reporting to the UN, Comments from round the table, Recording our thoughts An on-line discussion is under way on progress in the twelve critical areas of the PfA on the UN’s WomenWatch website. To join in, go to http://www.un.org/womenwatch/beijing15/ or Engender Members can contribute to our own online discussion in the members area of our website.
New agency for women The UN has already made a good start to the Beijing + 15 review process by placing the work of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in its human rights office. This underlines the fact that women’s rights are human rights. In September the UN adopted a crucial resolution on gender equality and women's rights. It gives the go-ahead for the creation of a new United Nations agency that will be promoting women’s rights all over the world. Moving all its women’s agencies into a single agency should simplify access and make the entire consultative process simpler and more effective. Check the Gear website for progress. Climate change - Gender view missing at Copenhagen Women are known to be innovators when it comes to responding to climate change, but the question is, how to ensure that gender equality and the role of women are reflected in climate change agreements? Women in poor countries will be the most affected by climate change effects, according to the 2009 State of the World Population report, released last month by the UN Population Fund. This is because women comprise the majority of the world’s farmers, have access to fewer income-earning opportunities, and have limited or no access to technology. Cathy Ashton, EU Foreign Minister We’ve had regular Inspiring Women meetings throughout the year and they have brought together a great group of women to discuss current issues. Recent meetings have been around prostitution legislation, women and trade unions and the sexualisation of women and girls. All Engender members are welcome to come to these nights – they are usually monthly on a Wednesday, 5.30 – 7pm in the Engender office. Let us know if you want to be added to the IW distribution list or log into the members section of our website to see the dates of the meetings and to read the summaries of past discussions. As if the chance to hear reasoned debate and sometimes a good old rant isn’t enough to tempt you out, wine and nibbles are also provided! Engender worked with the Oxfam GenderWorks programme this autumn to produce an inspiring DVD around the issues of gender, poverty and social exclusion. ‘Real Women, Real Power’ features five groups of campaigning women and lets them tell their stories in their own way. Scottish contribution comes from classroom assistants in Dumfries who were fighting redundancies and there are also pieces from Object and Southall Black Sisters. We are delighted to announce that we have been successful in securing funding from the Equality and Human Rights Commission for our ‘Equality Counting’ project. The Commission has awarded almost £10 million to 61 organisations across Britain and Engender are among only 6 chosen from Scotland. The Equality Counting project meets the EHRC funding priority to ‘Provide guidance, advice and advocacy services: infrastructure development and capacity building’ as it will bring together women to develop and implement strategies to advocate and action change. We will be working with groups of women with a specific public service provision need (i.e women returning to work, mothers affected by substance misuse) and we will support them using participatory action research to develop strategies to hold service providers to account. The aim of the project is to support different groups of women from all over Scotland to campaign for the services they need. Our 16th AGM was certainly one we won’t forget in a hurry. The theme of the night was Cocktails and Comedy and there was lots of both. There was also the last minute problem, sorry, ‘challenge’ of our venue changing ownership the day before our event meaning that nothing was guaranteed. However, cliché as it sounds, the night really was a great success. We were in a basement nightclub with comfy sofas, space age chairs and low level lighting and it worked a treat! A selection of beautifully coloured cocktails were on the bar and everyone was sipping away very relaxed when our Convener, Marsha Scott, opened the AGM with a report on the past years work. Marsha acknowledged that it has been a difficult year for us financially, as for all in the sector, but that we had come through it and were looking forward to the coming year with renewed vigour as funding for new projects begins to come in. After the treasurers report was accepted, Marsha introduced a new one-off (or not?) award for ‘Phantom Feminist 2009’. This was a lovely masquerade mask and certificate presented to Hollie Smith who climbed onto the statue of the common man on the day of the Gude Cause march and turned him into the common woman by putting a skirt on him. Hollie accepted the award and spoke of the press coverage of her feat – in particular the comments sections of the Edinburgh Evening News - demonstrating again a sense of humour bypass by their reporters and readers. Our AGM, from Clockwise: Convener Marsha Scott and Treasurer Lesley Sutherland, Phantom Feminist Hollie Smith recieves her award, Cocktails and chat, Susan Morrison in action. Just a reminder that you can see lots of photographs from the Gude Cause march on Flickr, www.flickr.com (search for ‘Gude Cause’). Engenders photos from the day are also on Flickr and you can see them as part of Gude Cause or on their own by searching ‘engender’. It's all an illusion The Guardian journalist Nick Davies wrote a startling piece more or less saying that the fact that there had been so few prosecutions in the UK for trafficking meant that it actually wasn’t happening. While he may raise valid questions about how estimates of the number of women trafficked into prostitution are arrived at, the tone of the article and certainly the comments posted are from the ‘if I can’t see it, it doesn’t exist’ school of thought. What isn’t a feminist issue? Reproductive rights for all women are a long held feminist demand. Is there any harm in selling the idea as a measure to stop climate change or should the argument stay focused on human rights? Glasgow City Council have launched a campaign to raise awareness of the harm caused through prostitution. The End Prostitution Now campaign will focus on the buyers of sex who create the demand as the Council believe that tackling this demand and changing attitudes towards buying sex will reduce the supply of vulnerable women into the trade. Speakers Conference issues interim report The Speaker's Conference into the underrepresentation of women, BME and disabled people as members of the UK parliament has issued it’s second interim report. Naming political parties the ‘agents of change’, the report, which came out on 25th November calls for political parties to be required to make public the number of women, BME and disabled people who present themselves for selection as parliamentary candidates. The Conference would like to see political parties reporting every six months on the diversity of their candidate selections and will table a new clause to the Equality Bill proposing that each party publish this information on-line. The Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group works according to a human rights approach to protect the well-being and best interests of trafficked persons. They are offering the opportunity for those involved (directly or indirectly) with trafficked persons within the UK to contribute to an unprecedented monitoring of the implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings in the UK. Deadline is January and you can respond at: www.antislavery.org/anti-trafficking_monitoring_group/ or contact project staff to find out more via: antitrafficking@antislavery.org or 0207 501 8944.
New websites to watch To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), an anniversary website will be launched on December 18th. The site, www.unifem.org/cedaw30 will contain examples of the difference CEDAW has made to women and girls around the world. You will also be able to access CEDAW publications and resources and find out about the background to the convention itself. Women on Parliament The Cannongate wall of the Scottish Parliament has an impressive array of quotes carved into it – 24 to be exact, including some anonymous ones, but none of them from a woman (although, I did hear that “Anonymous is usually a woman” so perhaps there’s already some words of wisdom from women up there!) The Glasgow Herald report that this month the first (known) quote from a woman will be added to the wall after a competition was held to find a new quote to celebrate 10 years of Devolution. The words to be added are from Mary Brooksbank (1897-1980), who worked in the jute mills of Dundee and was also a communist and songwriter. Mary started work in the mills when she was 14. She wrote many songs and poems but was not published until 1966. The words from her song ‘Oh Dear Me (The Jute Mill Song) read “Oh dear me, the world’s ill-divided/Them that work the hardest, are wi the least provided/But I maun bide contented, dark days or fine/But there’s no much pleasure livin affen ten & nine”. Find out what’s on in December and beyond from the Events and Training page on our website:
In addition, Scotland’s championing of gender budgeting at the EWL through Engender’s participation in the Scottish Women’s Budget Group has continued to ‘grow’ gender budgeting in sister countries in the EWL. Engender is also active in the European Observatory initiatives on violence against women and, with other groups including SCVO, is looking at how to strengthen the voluntary sector voice in European policy.
Info on EWL: www.womenlobby.org
United Nations
Beijing+15 review
On-line discussions
Info on new UN agency for women: www.un-gear.eu/index.php
The news agency IPS/TerraViva is currently reporting from Copenhagen on the lack of gender perspective on climate change. IPS spoke with Lorena Aguilar Revelo, global senior gender advisor to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a part of the Global Gender and Climate Alliance launched at the UN climate change conference in Bali in December 2007.
IPS: Women are major agents of change, but role is still not recognised, according to the Gender and Climate Alliance.
LAR: Women have been playing a major role in the management of natural resources for centuries, dealing with the agricultural sector. In countries of Africa (e.g. Congo) they produce 73% and in Africa as a whole 50% of the food consumed on the continent. Unfortunately, women only own 1% of the land worldwide … when you look at the money from financing mechanisms associated with climate change, you don’t find women as major beneficiaries. The reason is that the whole climate change convention is gender blind. Of the three major conventions related to climate change – desertification, biodiversity and climate change – the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is the only agreement with no mention of gender.
There are innumerable global mandates calling for integrating a gender perspective into environmental and poverty reduction efforts that also apply to climate change. Nevertheless, there is no gender plan of action and even no mention of gender or women’s issues. And if you analyse all the numbers that have been developed by the least developed countries, only four of them mention gender issues – in a very simplistic way. Bangladesh is the only country that has made an effort to move along these lines.
IPS: What steps are being taken to include gender perspectives into mitigation and adaptation efforts?
LAR: Three years ago we established this [Gender and Climate Change] alliance, and we are making sure in the new texts that any regime that comes after Copenhagen – and now probably Mexico – must have gender in it. So far, the parties have submitted 39 references to gender and climate change, after a tremendous amount of advocacy work. But we need to make sure that there are specific resources for women … they have a tremendous amount of knowledge on mitigation and adaptation but they are not part of anybody’s agenda.
IPS: Could you mention some examples?
LAR: Right now we are discussing a new regime that is called REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation). … So far the discussions over REDD again have been gender blind. Women are using the forests in a different way than men. In some countries, India for example, the role of women in protecting the forests to avoid deforestation has been major; and the same is true for Brazil or Guatemala. When it comes to forests and mitigation – one of the major areas being discussed – it is fundamental that in those countries that have forests, where women are users of the forests, they are involved in defining how the forests are going to be used, but also in receiving the benefits that will derive from the REDD regime.
IPS: How can women’s participation in decision-making on climate change be increased?
LAR: It is fundamental that in the discussion on REDD, women are invited as stakeholders, that they’re trained to understand what REDD is about, because no one understands that very well. When it comes to adaptation it’s the same thing. We are talking about reducing the impact of disasters for example; it means making sure that women are fully participating in disaster risk reduction processes.
IPS: Will delegates to Copenhagen will give due attention to your concerns?
LAR: We have been updating and training COP delegates for two years now. Delegates from various countries have been extremely open to including the topic of gender, like those from EU, Liberia, Ghana, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and the US. In the high-level declaration that will probably come out of Copenhagen, we know there is going to be one mention of gender. If we get that at the end of Copenhagen it is a massive win.
Inter Press Service News Agency (IPS) focuses on events and global processes affecting the economic, social and political development of peoples and nations. Funding includes the Dutch Government's MDG3 Fund: Investing in Equality. For more, see http://www.ipsnews.netOther European News
Last month, Cathy Ashton, Leader of the House of Lords, was appointed as the new EU foreign minister in Brussels. She will represent the foreign policy of half a billion EU citizens, and will rank just behind Hillary Clinton and Angela Merkel as one of the world's most powerful women immersed in some of its most intractable problems. Her main areas will be the crisis over Iran's nuclear programme, the Middle East and Europe's fractious relations with Russia. Afghanistan will loom ever larger as the EU face greater US pressure to step up their commitments.
The Guardian, Friday 20 November 2009
Obit – Helvi Sipilä
Helvi Sipilä, the first woman to hold the rank of Assistant Secretary-General at the United Nations, has died aged 94. She was an inspirational leader with a life-long commitment to gender equality. At the UN she advocated strongly and effectively for gender equality and the empowerment of women. A barrister, she represented Finland on CSW in the 1960s and early 1970s, serving as Vice-Chair and Chair. She was Secretary-General at the first UN World Conference on Women (Mexico, 1975) and helped found UNIFEM, the UN fund for the advancement of women. In 1972, she was appointed Assistant Secretary-General, a remarkable achievement at a time when 97% of UN senior management was male. She headed the Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs until 1980.
Euractiv.com
European Commission – women on board
With Denmark appointing Climate and Energy Minister Connie Hedegaard as the country's next commissioner and the Dutch government confirming outgoing Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes for another five-year term, the number of women in the next EU executive increases to nine.
Alongside nationality, geography (North-South, East-West), the size of the country and political affiliation, gender can also be seen as a criterion when European leaders horse-trade over top EU jobs. According to the European Commission's roadmap for equality between women and men, ‘women continue to be under–represented in political and economic decision-making’.
Historically, this has been reflected in the positions of power in the European institutions. The Commission has never had a female president, while just two of 13 European Parliament presidents have been female since direct elections were introduced in 1979. These were both Frenchwomen, Simone Veil (1979-82) and Nicole Fontaine (1999-02). Currently, only two of the 27 EU heads of state and government are women: Angela Merkel in Germany and Dalia Grybauskaite in Lithuania.
Women currently represent 35% of all MEPs in the European Parliament, higher than the European average (24%) but lower than the trio of Sweden, the Netherlands and Finland - the only EU countries with more than 40% women in parliament.
www.Euractiv.com
EU's first innovation commissioner
Ireland's Máire Geoghegan Quinn has been given the new innovation portfolio at the EU executive. The job is an expanded version of the old science & research post, and comes just months before the first European Innovation Act is due to be published. The new post has been well flagged - EC President José Manuel Barroso has repeatedly pledged to streamline innovation policy
Ann Mettler, executive director of the Lisbon Council, a Brussels-based think-tank, said the new role would be a cross-cutting portfolio that works across several departments. She commented, "It's important that the new commissioner embodies innovation within the Commission and challenges the conventional wisdom".
www.Euroactiv.com Inspiring Women
Real Women, Real Power
The 20 minute DVD also contains the GenderWorks Toolkit which can be downloaded. The toolkit is designed as two-part practical guide for women’s groups campaigning on poverty and also an aid for public bodies to meet their obligations to tackle poverty among women. Find out more about the GenderWorks toolkit, watch a trailer of the dvd and order your free copy at www.Oxfam.org.uk/genderworks
We are very excited about this new work and will be advertising for women to take part in the coming months. An AGM with a Difference!
No such shortage for our audience when comedienne Susan Morrison took the floor. She had us all in fits with tales of auditioning for X factor and her imitation of Glaswegian youth. And all the time cocktails freely flowing – AGM 2010 has a lot to live up to! .jpg)
Remembering Gude Cause
There are short snippets of the procession on YouTube and a google of ‘Gude Cause brings up loads of pages of reports and blogs of the day.
Gude Cause are now collecting photographs to ensure the event is well recorded and safely archived for further generations to access. So if you have any photos and haven’t already done so please add them to the Gude Cause group on Flickr. Or email them to us at Engender and we’ll put them on for you.
Gude Cause are putting together a film of the event which will be a great souvenir of the day and it will also feature interviews with women activists past and present who have campaigned for equality throughout the years. Did You See?
You can read Nick’s article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/20/government-trafficking-enquiry-fails
And a response from Rahila Gupta here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/20/sex-trafficking-inquiry-nick-davies
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2009/oct/27/climate-change-contraception-women-feminism
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2009/nov/02/climate-change-feminist-issue
Belle De Jour revealed (from Paula Alexander, Engender Volunteer)
The debate over prostitution is an ongoing one, not only in Engender but internationally. With the prospect of new regulations coming into Scotland to make demand illegal, the revelation of the mysterious blogger/author has caused a storm in every newspaper and has been the topic of conversation in every cafe and bar.
But what of the enigmatic Belle de Jour? As a recently qualified PhD student, the now revealed Dr Brooke Magnanti claims that it was her financial circumstances that drove her to prostitution, which is the case for many women. What many people seem to be forgetting is that Brooke Magnanti’s story is that of an extremely small minority, she was lucky, but many hundreds of women are not. Both the Guardian and Daily Mail, naming only but a few, have commented that this revelation has done more harm than good to the public’s awareness of prostitution and potentially masks the devastating realities of many prostitutes today in the UK. However, on channel four news the day Dr Magnanti’s name was revealed, Zoe Margolis, an author of ‘Girl with one track mind’, praised Belle de Jour for claiming her sexuality and ‘enjoying herself.’ Further, Catherine Stevens, a current sex worker, Jour’s story had cut through the stereotype of prostitutes and had opened up the debate.
These articles and comments give a taste of the debate – take a deep breath before you start on the Guardian comments…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/17/belle-de-jour-tanya-gold
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1228426/BEL-MOONEY-How-clever-woman-stupidly-naive-sleazy-world.html
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/arts_entertainment/media/belle+de+jour+blogger+reveals+herself/3425602 News
Stop Demand - End Prostitution Now
MSP Trish Godman is to propose amendments to the Scottish Government in the coming weeks which would criminalise the purchasers of sex and you sign up in support of the campaign at their website www.endprostitutionnow.org The site also contains information on the legal situation in other countries and you can download the fantastic 8 myths about prostitution factsheet and the campaign material.
Party leaders, Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg have all appeared before the Committee of MPs who make up the Conference and given evidence about their parties selection procedures. They all agreed that their selection lists did not reflect the diversity of the UK and that they wanted this to change.
In support of the proposal to have selection lists made public the Vice-Chair of the Conference Anne Begg MP said; "Unless the performance of the different parties can be compared with each other, or with the performance of parties throughout the world, there is likely to be insufficient pressure for the political parties to pursue the cultural change which is needed from them before we can have a House of Commons "fit for the 21st century”
You can read the full report at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/spconf/63/6302.htm
Anti-Trafficking Group call for evidence
The Group is keen to ensure that all relevant stakeholders are given the opportunity to identify the strengths, weaknesses and omissions of the present system to form a strong body of evidence which will be published in a report in June 2010. This will contribute to increasing understanding of the level of protection and assistance available to all trafficked persons in the UK. All contributors will be acknowledged, unless they wish to remain anonymous. The report will be also sent to all contributors and used to share examples of good practice and to influence mechanisms and policies currently in place across the UK.
Closer to home the Women’s Support Project, which is based in Glasgow have a new website - see http://www.womenssupportproject.co.uk/. The site is a great source of information on the work of the WSP and has details of resources that can be borrowed.
Finally, Say NO - UNiTE, is a new UNIFEM Violence Against Women campaign which launched on Nov 6th. The campaign is a global call for action to end violence against women and girls. See http://www.saynotoviolence.org/ to sign up to the campaign and to find out about actions happening around the world.
Can’t find anything from the Government about when the quote will be unveiled but hope there will be some media coverage when it happens.
Have you seen a statue of a woman lately?
Glasgow Women’s Library have been looking for anything in Scotland’s civic landscape that commemorates the role of a woman and have come up pretty empty handed. Do you know of any statues of women or even streets named after a woman? With funding from the Scottish Arts Council, the Library are to research the possibility of a new public artwork which acknowledges a woman or women’s achievements. The Making Spaces project will see Co-ordinator, Fiona Dean, working with artists, GWL staff, volunteers, library users. The GWL will be moving back to a refurbished Mitchell Library within the next 18 months and as a result of this project it’s hoped that a new female centred public artwork will be moving in with them.
What’s on
http://www.engender.org.uk/pages/11/eventsandtraining/
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