in the news

Fawcett challenge govt budget and the debate begins

Following the The Fawcett Society's legal challenge to the governments budget on the gounds that it failed to carry out a proper gender impact assessment there's been a slew of articles and online comment about how the public sector cuts will impact women more than men.  Not seen much coverage of the issue on TV, though.  The High Court was due to decide if the government had a case to answer by the end of August, but govenment lawyers have asked for more time to present their case.   

See Fawcett's case and a selection of comment and debate:

Generations of gains are at risk under the coalition government's plans - Yvette Cooper

Budget cuts could break equality laws Teresa May warns Chancellor - Vikram Dodd

Factoring in gender equalities can prevent costly errors - Shiela Kumar

Thousands of women fear bleak future as they bear the brunt of public sector cuts -  Anushka Asthana 

But we do blame it on the bikini...

Dani Garavelli's piece in Scotland on Sunday last week goes a curious route via Mumsnet and moral panic but gets to the point in the last few paragraphs - what the sexualisation of increasingly younger girls will do to their self image and aspirations. Read the article here 

Natasha Walters new book Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism was published on 4th Feb and it recieved a lot of publicity from the mainstream media.  

The book has generated such interest in part because in her last book, The New Feminism, Natasha had stated that if feminism foucssed on the big policy issues such as the gender pay gap, political participation and representation  etc.. the objectification of women would lessen in everyday culture.  In this new book she says she was wrong.

Read Kira Cochranes Guardian interview with Natasha here

and the Times Online extract here