October editorial

In October's issue we are asking, is child labour wrong? Girls in Bolivia's new child union don't think so (see Women/Work) and are demanding respect from society for their labour (and give us your view in our poll at the foot of the page). In Politics, Denmark has a new woman prime minister and you can read a statement on increasing women's political participation from UN women leaders and research on peace and gender. In Family and society, there's a list of the best and worst countries for women and an article on the pros and cons of pirate husbands in Somalia. In Arts there's a comment on the furore over pop-star Rihanna's in-your-face raunch. And in Science and technology we celebrate Thai and Kenyan women's scientific achievements. In Health, there's a warning about injectable contraceptives and HIV infection, and a rise in breast cancer in UK Asian women. In Law, a US lawyer is protesting at the treatment of jailed women in childbirth. In the Mind, body and spirit post you can engage in debate over the Pill - or the lack of it - and its transformative effects on society. And, for a giggle, look at the men in pin-up poses in the And another thing section of this blog.

Our special feature this month will be a collection of links on Women and the Arab Spring. Look out for it coming soon!

Special Feature: Women and the Arab Spring

to follow

Women/Politics: Denmark's PM, African politicians, peace, UN women

Denmark's new PM
Denmark elects its first woman prime minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt: http://universitypost.dk/article/thorning-new-prime-minister  . UK comment from the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/16/helle-thorning-schmidt-denmark-leader?INTCMP=SRCH and  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/15/danes-female-prime-minister-helle-thorning-schmidt?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487. The win was subseqently hailed as a victory for women. Not only is Thorning-Shcmidt, leader of the Social Democrats, now PM at the head of a left wing coalition, but two other (of nine) Folketing (parliamentary) parties are also led by women: the Danish Social-Liberal party led by Margarethe Vestager and the right-wing anti-immigration Danish People's Party, led by Pia Kjaersgaard. http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/tough-task-for-denmarks-first-woman-pm-20110916-1kcj6.html. 

UN women's voices
Dilma Vana Rousseff, Brazil's first female president, also became the first woman to open an annual meeting of the UN General Assembly last month. Brazil's president has historically been given the honour of making the opening speech. Ms Rousseff took the opportunity to address the UN on human rights. Her speech, however, was criticised by some in Brazil:  http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/10/03/brazil-dilma-speech-un/. 
UN Women leaders
At the UN meeting of women leaders in September there were calls for greater participation of women in political decisionmaking. The leaders signed a joint statement setting out ways to increase women's participation in politics: http://www.unwomen.org/2011/09/world-leaders-draw-attention-to-central-role-of-womens-political-participation-in-democracy/#jointstatement . In the UK, the Fawcett Society commented: http://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/index.asp?PageID=1207.

Women in African politics

Kenya
Kenya's new constitution, passed in August 2010, looks set to create up to 80 new Kenyan women MPs. The constitution provides for an additional 80 seats in parliament which the government has now decided will be allocated via a nomination list to women until Kenya's parliament fulfils its new constitutional requirement of one-third of its members being women: http://allafrica.com/stories/201109211232.html. 

Uganda
However, in other African states, women's representation is facing obstacles. In Uganda, women politicians and leaders complain they face continuing discrimination by being expected to fulfil traditional gender roles in addition to their political duties. This report contains personal statements from some leading women politicians on their own experience of campaigning for election: http://allafrica.com/stories/201110031115.html. 
Zimbabwe
In Zimbabwe, women remain disempowered and economically disadvantaged. The women's movement is calling for a 50%  quota system for elections. The government has announced various new measures to improve women's status, according to this report. But, the journalist wonders, "whether these gestures are improving the welfare of women or they are away of politely excluding women from the mainstream economy...when will women's empowerment become a top priority... in Zimbabwe's policies?"    http://allafrica.com/stories/201110030368.html. 
Nigeria

In Nigeria, newly appointed women ministers are being urged to work extra hard to show themselves worthy of key government positions that include finance, petroleum, aviation, water and environment: http://allafrica.com/stories/201109200819.html.

Peace and gender 
Peace and peace negotiations have become a critical issue for feminist intervention and action. This month sees the 11th anniversary of the UN Security Council's resolution 1325 providing for a range of measures to increase the inclusion of women in the prevention and resolution of violent conflict and address the role of women in peace negotiations. Research by Christine Bell and Catherine O'Rourke discusses the success or otherwise of the resolution's implementation in Asia. Issues such as the inclusion of sexual violence in peace deals are crucial to women, as is the inclusion of women in peace-building strategies and laying the foundations for future political structures. The research found that only 16 per cent of peace agreements contained references to women, but that this represented an increase since the passing of SCR 1325. Read UN Security Council 1325 and Peace Negotiations and Agreements and other documents on peace and gender from the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue here: http://www.hdcentre.org/publications?filter0=677. 


A report from the Cape Town Centre for Conflict Resolution on women and peacebuilding in Africa can be found here: http://www.ccr.org.za/images/stories/pdfs/Vol_9-WPA_Report_Final_Web-small.pdf. Author Joyce Laker's view is that women's participation in peace mediation and negotiations in African conflicts is unsystematic and ad hoc, and conditional on pressure from women's and other social movements.

Women/Economy and finance: US pay gap

US pay gap narrows

The narrowing of the pay gap between men and women in the USA may seem like good news until you look more closely. In fact, wages for both men and women fell between 2007 and 2010. The reason the pay gap has narrowed is that men's wages fell by 6% during that period, while women's fell by only 0.9%:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/01/us/recession-struck-inadvertent-blow-for-womens-equality.html?partner=rss&emc=rss.

Women/Family and society: Iceland best for women, pirate husbands, domestic violence, child marriage

The best and worst countries for women

Iceland has been named as the world's best country for women by Newsweek. Yemen, Afghanistan and Chad were the worst: http://www.thedailybeast.com/content/dailybeast/articles/2011/09/20/best-and-worst-countries-for-women-the-full-list.html. The Fawcett Society comments here: http://www.facebook.com/fawcettsociety/posts/124094124359883. “We know that gender equality is one of the best indicators for the overall quality of societies", said Iceland's Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir. The full report is available here: http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-2011/.

Pirate husbands required

In a country named as one of the world's worst for women's rights, perhaps it's no surprise that Somali women pursue pirate husbands:   http://thinkafricapress.com/somalia/somali-piracy-what-about-women .  The report on conditions for women is here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/14/worst-places-in-the-world-for-women-somalia, and here the Somali minister for women comments: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/17/women-somalia-hell-worst-world. 

Domestic violence 

Ethiopian women are some of the most abused by violent partners according to the UN in a report entitled Ending violence against women: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6040180.stm. Some 60% of Ethiopian women suffer abuse at the hands of husbands and partners. Across 71 nations, around one in three women will suffer domestic abuse at some time in their lives.  Meanwhile in Angola, a long-awaited new law has been passed against domestic violence: http://allafrica.com/stories/201110040614.html, which aims to educate citizens about appropriate family behaviour as well as punish wrong-doers. Over 100 countries worldwide have no domestic violence laws.

Afghan women's survey 

ActionAid surveyed over 1,000 Afghan women on their feelings about living through war as part of a campaign to mark the 10th anniversary of western intervention/invasion of their country: http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/2011/10/women_in_afghan. 72% believed their lives were better now than ten years ago.  

Men and child marriage
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2011/sep/20/desmond-tutu-men-child-marriage Archbishop Desmond Tutu is calling on men to take responsibility over child marriage. About time, we say.

Women/Work: child labour, boardroom quotas

Is child labour wrong?

Bolivia has 1 million child workers – half of them girls. Now they have formed a union to demand respect from a society that doesn't recognise child labour as right or legal. One of the requirements of union membership is that the child workers continue in education. Domestic worker Ana Guadalupe Perez Rosas, 14, and president of the La Paz chapter of the national child labour union UNATSBO, says: "We are an organization of boy and girl child and adolescent workers—shoe shiners, street sellers, domestic workers, construction workers, many different sectors. Above all, we ask the government for protection as workers and that we be treated respectfully by society. Because, the majority of the time we are oppressed. They think that it’s not right for us to work, that our childhood should be for playing and learning. But they don’t want to recognize the reality in Bolivia. The majority of us kids work because our family needs something from us, like helping to put food on the table or to support younger siblings."  http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/09/21/bolivia-child-workers-unionize/. The original article appears here: http://www.wbez.org/episode-segments/2011-09-16/‘ground-shifters’-‘girls-gauntlets’-–-children-unionizing-bolivia-92051.


Belgium's boardroom quotas

In August, Belgium adopted a law to require public enterprises and companies listed on the stock exchange to give women 30 per cent of seats on management boards. The law is likely to come into force next year, when every board member that leaves is to be replaced by a woman until the quota is reached. http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2011/06/articles/be1106021i.htm.

Women/Arts and culture: Rihanna, India photos, book award

Women changing India

http://events.magnumphotos.com/exhibition/women-changing-india-1. A Magnum exhibition in London on the diverse and changing roles of women in Indian society.

The Rihanna debate
Sex or sexism? After Rihanna was banished from a Northern Irish field by a farmer for a too-raunchy video shoot, this opinion piece asks if sexual puritanism should be mistaken for feminist concern: http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/laurie-penny/2011/09/taking-stand-rihanna-sex-women

Nominate the best feminist book

Here's your chance to vote for the best feminist academic book of 2011: http://fwsa.org.uk/2011/10/14/2012-annual-fwsa-book-prize/.