The event, Anyone Here Been Raped and Speaks English?, was moderated by feminist Kay Banyard with a panel including Samira Ahmed of Channel 4 News, Harriet Sherwood, international news editor of The Guardian, and Jenny Wood, the features editor at Look! Magazine. The event info promised to explore ” Why .. media stories about women’s rights tend to focus on issues relating to their sexuality such as rape, sexual slavery, trafficking, child bearing (whether old or young) or prostitution [instead of] … women’s labour rights, freedom of speech or women imprisoned for their political beliefs”

Kat Banyard set the scene for conversations on women giving the real picture of where women sit in society today: resolutely near the bottom.

The panelists took turns to enlighten us on their perspectives, Samira Ahmed spoke of three forces which lead to what the public see the people you get on TV; the editorial line and the stories chosen. The people you get, Ahmed explained, need a combination of having something to say, and being the right people to say it, it seemed to me that there was a certain degree of luck concerned in this process to date particularly when men in the newsroom refused to admit they operated with any bias.

I was shocked to hear from Jenny Wood that Look! Magazine has run an international story spot since inception, which has remained when other spots have been changed and grown. SHe created a strong defence for ‘women’s magazines’ who’s audience may not read the international news stories but still wish to connect with the issues espoused there, Look! have, Wood says, covered a range of gritty subjects including honour killings and endemic rape in Congo. It was an eye-opening viewpoint coming from a ’soft’ publication.

Harriet Sherwood cut to the chase on international reporting stating that overwhelmingly the majority of international news correspondents are men and issues from a deeper interest in the tactics of war and terror than women’s lives and lack of available access to women to hear their stories counted against a diverse report sheet. Focus, she said is put onto the presence of women in images in the paper to create an equal balance, but without women’s voices this is a hollow effort.

The session then broke into a Q&A and I fear it lost its international focus drawing more on domestic surface issues, placement of stories on news websites; portrayal of women in power as hysterical and the objectification of women.

All very important issues, but except for one question about the framing of women as mothers I felt we missed an opportunity to discuss international news reporting and the portrayal of women as victims and soft news stories. For this reason I will be attempting to follow up that thread with the panelists this week, starting with Samira Ahmed.

Three new Rape Crisis Centres will open in London this year, following the Mayor’s pledge to quadruple Rape Crisis provision in the capital.  The first will open in Ealing next month followed later in the year by new services in the north and east.

I know, you’re astonished, constant harrasment from Boris Keep Your Promise and various grassroots organisers has actually paid off. Importantly, this sets a fantastic example for the rest of the country, rape crisis centres are important.

Islington and Westminster councils have taken the lead to deliver new Rape Crisis services in north London using £370,000 of funding from the Mayor. With the full support of four other north London councils they plan to run Rape Crisis services in each borough with the work centrally co-ordinated by an existing women’s service provider. This means that women in north London will not have to travel across boroughs but can access services locally.

A similar plan is underway in east London where Redbridge is leading work to deliver a new Rape Crisis Centre for the area with £370,000 of funding from the Mayor.

The new Rape Crisis Centre for west London, run by the Women and Girl’s Network, will start operating on April 1.  With £375,000 funding from the Mayor along with resources and additional funding from Ealing Council, the centre hopes to run satellite services across West London.

Happy International Women’s Day Everyone!

The annual Million Women Rise took place on Saturday, leading a rabble rousing crowd of thousands of women in singing, chanting and noise making of all kinds down Oxford Street to Trafalgar Square. Sadly, not everyone felt welcome to join the march, in particular trans women, and it’s important to remember this, Million Women Rise is wonderfully diverse organisation so it is a huge oversight that they have yet to correct this problem.

For those that did attend the march was an electrifying event and there were lots of groups I had never heard of before, as well as some regulars, so do check out. The Butterfly Foundation, Mothers Against Violence, Object, Positively Women, Women and Girls Network, Support After Rape & Sexual Violence Leeds,

There are more pictures here, here and here.

Vanessa Engle’s three-part documentary Women, taking a look at the second wave movement, motherhood and current feminists in the form of the London Feminist Network, today launches the BBC’s month-long celebration of International Women’s Day.

In a phone interview with Engle she told us that the series spawned from her interest in motherhood today – being a mother of two young children herself, she wanted to examine how and if second wave feminism has changed the family – and explore the new generation of feminists. The three hour-long programmes are at times exciting, enlightening and engaging, and no doubt will act as conversation starters for heterosexual couples on their division of labour and young women finding feminism for the first time, but we couldn’t help but feel unsatisfied.

After watching all three documentaries we were astonished by the lack of black and minority ethnic women interviewed, in archive footage, in the representation of feminism – from the 1970s up to the current day, in the US and the UK – 40 years of women’s liberation, 40 years of erasure.

Libbers (8 March, 9pm, BBC Four)

Engle’s first installment, ‘Libbers’, is about the second wave and profiles eight feminists from the women’s liberation movement, including Robin Morgan, Germaine Greer, Kate Millett, Shelia Rowbotham and Susan Brownmiller. We get to see archive footage of these writers and activists, as well as some fantastic footage of protests, singing and more. Engle interviews these women at length. There’s lots here to inform and enjoy, including the last interview with Marilyn French before she died.

We asked Engle about the process she went through to select the women profiled here, and what efforts she went through to show the true diversity of the women’s liberation movement at that time, but she told us she “wasn’t constantly trying to include different types of women. I was trying to make sure I had all the ideas covered.” It would be fair to say that this has been a problem of white middle class women believing they can adequately understand the nuances of all women’s issues, women with disabilities, women of colour, women of a variety of classes and cultures – it is no news flash that is not true. In a documentary about the second wave, based on the experiences of the women in the US and the UK, the civil rights movement is mentioned once and none of the talking heads are seen talking about intersectionality, racism or the ‘lavender menace’ issue. Yet Engle told us she knew that taking on such a documentary was a “huge responsibility to history”.

Although Engle stressed that her team began with a “very long list” of potential interviewees from the second wave, ultimately what we see is eight apparently white women put forward to represent and explain the women’s liberation movement. Vanessa mentioned that some of the women she reached out to had died, or were too ill to appear in the documentary, stressing that the time to talk to some of these activists is running out. But surely this makes it all the more important not to ‘whitewash’ the history of feminism, or perpetuate the impression that women of colour were absent. The Women’s Library this month is holding an exhibition about the Grunwick strike by South Asian women here in the UK and a study day about the rise of Black British feminism in this country, should you be interested in filling in some of this missing history. And we are not history buffs, but it’s surely clear to all that to talk about second wave feminism in the US, without talking about the civil rights movement, is a major omission. Not to mention the fact that feminism does not begin and end in the Anglophone world.

Mothers (15 March, 9pm, BBC Four)

The second part of the documentary, focusing on motherhood, sticks to a similarly narrow viewpoint, as Engle carried out in-depth interviews about who does the household chores and childcare in a selection of apparently middle class, mostly white, heterosexual families. It had some wonderful ‘eureka’ moments – many of the male partners professed to be ‘feminist’, but most are visibly uncomfortable when it becomes clear they have left their wives to perform childcare and housework on their own. However the documentary was let down by the implicit notion that these were the only types of families.

Though Engle’s interest was framed by her interest in women like her, women in their 40s with two children, she failed to show that most women do not have a ‘choice’ between paid work or full-time childcare and housework. She does a good job demonstrating that, while middle class women’s lives have changed, their male partners have not changed in many cases. But this is not the be all and end all, and she fails to show how or if second wave feminism has had an effect on working class women who have always had to go out to work, single-parent households, which offer their own complex work/life balance, or in same-sex households.

Engle did rightly point out that today, in a roll-back from the consciousness raising of the second wave, “women have to fight these battles in the privacy of their own homes. The politics has gone out of it for them.” For all the advances women made in the workplace, they have still struggled to shed full responsibility for children and the home, the documentary showed male partners pay lip service to their honourable work around the home only to find upon light questioning that they actually did little or nothing to help. Only one couple split their responsibilities on an equal basis. One couple had decided to separate during the completion of the documentary; others you hope have just resolved to change.

One of the highlights of this documentary was the couple who have reversed traditional roles with the wife being the breadwinner and the husband taking full care of the children and the house. Though it seemed throughout all the interviews that the men were aware of how they could be portrayed as oafish, uncaring partners working all day in the office and then expecting the world of their partner, this woman was without the veneer of inbuilt shame and went on to undermine her husband repeatedly – it unfolded like a historic play of the problems with unequal partnerships. We’re confident, as was Engle, that “there may well be some rows after these programmes go out.”

Activists (22 March, 9pm, BBC Four)

The final part of this documentary series, ‘Activists’, is an in-depth and personal portrait of one feminist activist group. Engle followed around a core group of women from the London Feminist Network, filming the 2008 Reclaim the Night and the first Feminism in London conference. (Full disclosure: both of us know many of the women who Engle focused on in this documentary.) Engle filmed the preparations for the two events, and talked to both the activists and even some of their parents, about their motivations.

Engle’s second installment demonstrated aptly that there is more to do in redistributing who does household and childrearing labour in the family, but this issue is clearly not a major concern for the women of LFN, who campaign primarily on violence against women and objectification of women in prostitution, pornography and lap-dancing. Most affecting was hearing the stories of why the women got involved in radical feminist activism, and also a bit more context for some well-known figures in the London feminist scene.

While there are black and minority ethnic women seen in the background of the footage in this segment, except for one very brief snippet only white women are shown talking. It is particularly galling in a number of cases, where white women are shown talking on a panel, and there are clearly women of colour next to them which the documentary makers could have – but decided not to – show talking. Engle told us she never intended to comprehensively cover the contemporary feminist movement, but instead she wanted to carry out an “intimate observation” of one group – this does make sense from a documentary-maker’s perspective, from a feminist perspective the consequences are unfortunate to say the absolute least.

Filming the stewards’ training for Reclaim the Night 2008, Engle caught on camera a particularly awkward – and frankly embarrassing moment – as the group grapples with the issue of trans women’s inclusion on the march. Those who have been left unsure of whether trans women will be welcome on this important annual march against male violence will not be reassured – the stewards’ trainer does say the march is “for self-defined women”, to be fair, but the lack of comfort with this in the room is palpable.

All in all it is a great occasion to see so much about feminism and women’s lives shown on the screen, particularly the intimate way in which Engle has documented her subjects, and some time should be taken to celebrate this. Like the marches that take place annually in this country, it creates an opportunity to reflect, to band together and to act on making crucial changes in the lives of ourselves and others, but these experiences are still tarred with lack of diverse representation of women in society. These documentaries are sandwiched into one month of highlighted feminist viewing including Judith: Going Back To Congo (BBC Three, 30 March) and Nel: From Camden To Kabul (BBC Three, 23 March) which seems to promise that the diversity these films so desperately lack is being addressed in balance across the BBC, but it still doesn’t feel like enough. Celebration aside, for every woman who has turned away from feminism because they feel they are not welcome, these films will simply act as another erasure of their lives, their existence and their autonomy.

- an International Women’s Day Poster (perfect for any empty office wall space)

- a mega big piece entitled “How the ‘new feminism’ went wrong” which refers to recently published Living Dolls, The Equality Illusion.

What isn’t happening in the two weeks surrounding International Women’s Day? Not much it would seem.

Wednesday night saw the launch of Action Aid’s new tool in the organisations 6degrees campaign, the book See Me, Hear Me, Read Me. The A5 book comes in a beauty of a cardboard cover and holds perfectly formed haiku’s from women known and not in an effort to bond all women internationally. It’s only £15 with the proceeds supporting a good cause, pre-order your copy here.

The event was a glitzy affair in a dimly lit room in the ever so fancy Shoreditch House where I heard one of Action Aids amassadors tell me about the project she runs with her partner to build schools in the Congo — these were some life changing people.

Sue Bishop gave a quick speech about the amazing stories she hears in her work with Action Aid, the amazing women and girls in hundreds of locations who make Action Aid’s work possible. Action Aid has offices all over the world, and they are staffed locally by people who understand the needs of the community and the cultural sensitivity needed to push people out of poverty.

The night was also preview to a short film starring Jamelia, who was supposed to be present on the night but was whipped away by Question Time last minute. The singer has recently travelled to Uganda with Action Aid and is acting as one of the organisations celebrity supporters to raise awareness on women’s rights work – you can read a short interview with her about this here.

You can find out more about Action Aid’s work with women and their 6Degrees campaign at their website.

Feminist Webs launched officially in London this week after a year of touring women’s groups and creating group projects. Online, the group describes it’s work as creating “an intergenerational enterprise to design and produce an online ‘women and girls work space’ that will act as both an archive and a resource for practitioners, volunteers and young women involved in youth and community work with young women. Our bias is toward work which encourages participation and is from a feminist ‘rights-based’ perspective.” I know, it’s amazing.

The launch lasted 2 hours, starting with keynote speakers from Alison Ronan who came up with the original idea, Amelia Lee who runs the project and some of the young women who have been working on group projects including the Wigan group pictured above. One member of the group had written a policy brief regarding the youth group and youth work she mentioned before the group came together they had been individual women with their own problems but now they were a group of young women fighting together. Needless to say there was a lot to find your heart singing too.

The group from Stockport brought a zine they made, fe-mail, featuring the top 10 issues facing young women being: Alcohol and drugs; domestic abuse; eating disorders; judging; kissing; mental health; travel; underwear; virginity and women. It was a wonder to see them already involved in diy publishing, hope holds out for the future!

There was also a screening of an animation about body image to raise money for the Maasai Girls Education Fund, the launch of the Post-Feminist book of postcards featuring young women’s thoughts and the Feminist Webs zine. There’s also an archive in the work including oral histories of intergenerational women and talk of enjoyable sexual health, peer pressure and body image.

It was a lot to cram into two hours and I could have happily spent another hour in the company of these young women finding their feet and comfort amongst the tidal wave of photoshopped images.

Find out more and view the archive online at the Feminist Webs website

Trained in partnership with POPPY Project – understand the criminal & immigration laws that apply to women who have been trafficked into the UK for sexual exploitation. Learn to navigate & assess the National Referral Mechanism and other measures to protect victims of trafficking. Identify & support women who have been trafficked into the UK.

Contact:  Training Officer 0207 251 6575

Mothers March & Speak Out
Date: Saturday 13 March 2010
Time: 2pm
Location: Trafalgar Square then Parliament Sq, London SW1

EVERY MOTHER IS A WORKING MOTHER
The survival of the human race depends on the caring work of mothers. But we get no recognition or support. Only blame when things go wrong. And we’re even expected to do more work to feed the family, often on the lowest pay.

THIS MARCH IS FOR MOTHERS who are raising children in cities, towns or villages l Who are separated from their children or have lost children l Who are surviving war and environmental disaster l Who are seeking asylum l and grandmothers, non-biological mothers and other women doing caring work l Who have disabilities or have a child with disabilities l Who are fighting for justice for loved ones l Who have been raped l Who are sex workers supporting families l Who have been criminalised by poverty l Who want to have children but haven’t been able to l For mothers of every race, age, passport, income, sexuality and occupation l For all of us who are overworked and underpaid. The March will be joined by fathers & other male carers who support mothers.

Called by All African Women’s Group Mothers’ Campaign (MoCa), Global Women’s Strike (GWS), and Single Mothers’ Self-Defence

Endorsed by: Kay Adshead (playwright & poet), Black Women’s Rape Action Project, English Collective of Prostitutes, Oliver James (child psychologist, author of Affluenza & Guardian columnist), Sheila Kitzinger, (breastfeeding and natural childbirth campaigner & author), Payday men’s network, The Peace Strike at Parliament Square, Wages Due Lesbians, WinVisible (women with visible and invisible disabilities, Women Against Rape, Women of Colour in the GWS

Judges are Sarah Brown, Tana Ramsey, Reese Witherspoon, Trish Halpin, Anna Segatti and Nicola Harwin CBE. There are three categories of nomination and you have until Apirl 30th to nominate yourself or somebody else.

Categories:

Woman Survivor of the Year
Awarded to a survivor of domestic violence who has inspired others. The winner will be a woman who has previously been in an abusive relationship, and who has since gone on to achieve success and inspire others. This could be through furthering her career, expanding her education, setting up a business, improving opportunities for her family, helping other women experiencing abuse, or carrying out voluntary work.

Marie Claire Campaigner Against Domestic Violence
Awarded to a woman who is committed to campaigning against domestic violence and is working to make a difference for the future. The winner will be someone who is passionate about bringing an end to domestic violence by speaking out about the issue and calling for change to improve the support available to those experiencing domestic abuse. This Award is open to both those who campaign against domestic violence in either a professional or non-professional capacity.

Grass Roots Hero
Awarded to a volunteer who goes beyond the call of duty to help survivors of domestic violence in need of support. The winner will be a woman who works in a voluntary capacity to support people who have been affected by domestic violence. This could be through providing direct support to women and children using refuge or domestic violence services, raising awareness about the issue of domestic violence in her local community, raising money to support domestic violence services, or helping women and children to cope with the effects of domestic abuse through counseling/therapy. The winner of the Grass Roots Hero Award will be able to nominate a charitable project, of their choice, that makes a difference to those who have suffered or are suffering from the affects of domestic violence, to receive a £10,000 donation. The nominated project must demonstrate how the cash injection donation will be utilised.

Here is the nomination form.