100 posts
Femen: ‘come, get topless and win’
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How does one imagine a feminist movement? Traditionally feminist movements have been about campaigning for reproductive rights, equal pay, women’s suffrage, protesting to increase awareness of sexual harassment, domestic violence and many other iss...
No, we don't need to lose an other brilliant woman, open letter to Ms.Wallis
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Dear Ms.Wallis,I know, there a lot of brilliant and skillful women on this planet in general and in Europe in particular. Nevertheless something happens that we lose them by the way, without any apparent reason. Well, I am not talking about stat...
Honeyball’s New Year Round Up
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Welcome back and happy New Year to you all. Having a little break gave me some time to reflect on the news, both the headlines and those stories that get buried for one reason and another. As the Christmas hype … Continue reading →...
Women Given a Poor Deal by the Banks
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Evidence has come to light today that women are being discriminated against by banks. The report, entitled ‘Women and Banks: Are Female Customers Facing Discrimination?’, by Noreena Hertz, looks at several cases where banks have discrim...
The Daphne Programme is at risk
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I was disappointed and incredibly concerned to hear that the Daphne Programme is once again at risk of being withdrawn. Daphne is one of the key tools in preventing violence against women at the European Level. I have talked about the … Cont...
Misogynistic abuse of female bloggers
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On Blogging, Threats, and Silence Cross-posted from Tiger Beatdown Content note: This post includes excerpts of threats and abusive language. I got my first rape threat as a blogger when I was on Blogspot, so new that I still had the default theme up...
Ryanair Again
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It’s that time of year again. But it’s nice to know that the reach of Ryanair’s infamous calendar has spread far and wide. You may like this piece on the NY Daily News. BY Lindsay Goldwert NEW YORK DAILY NEWS … Continue reading →...
Honeyball’s Weekly Round Up
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It hardly surprising that women are the hardest hit following the coalition cuts. But perhaps our attention to this will be confirmed by the Fawcett Society which summed up the situation so perfectly when it said the Primeminister David Cameron ̷...
Not enacting equality legislation and no female candidates for the GLA – the shameful Tory record on women
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Interesting to see in today’s Guardian that Conservative Home Secretary Theresa May has asked firms to publish information on the gender pay gap – the discrepancy in pay between men and women – and male/female promotion rates. The T...
Low levels of women entrepreneurs in the region a concern
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The low levels of women entrepreneurs in Yorkshire & the Humber is a concern to local Euro MP, Diana Wallis. Figures obtained by the Liberal Democrat MEP for the region show for Yorkshire & the Humber the numbers of female entrepreneu...
Some stats: 26,000 Women Exposed to Violence in First Half of 2011, Protecting the environment is low priority for Turks and more…
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Significant amounts of wastewater in Turkey are discharged into the environment without being treated. Wastewater treatment plants in 15 towns will help reverse this. via 26,000 Women Exposed to Violence in First Half of 2011 from Bianet :: English A...
Honouring unsung female heroes
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A student of history would be forgiven for thinking that for the vast majority of the course of world history the earth was populated almost entirely by men. In any list of the greatest leaders, scientists, explorers, entrepreneurs, etc nearly all &...
Women take over the Berlaymont
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There will be a touch of Parisian glamour at the Commission’s stuffy Berlaymont headquarters today as LVMH, the French luxury titan, drops in to chat business and gender with justice commissioner Viviane Reding. The holding company behind Christian...
If you think that women don’t lie to get back at men, how naive can you be? And who is going to protect our sons?
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An article named Women Don't Lie can be found at the Elephant Journal (thanks to Instapundit and don't forget to check out the Stephen Baskerville post). I cannot tell you my name because what I am about to talk about is an ongoing legal matter. I w...
The DSK Affair – An Angry Rant
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I haven’t actually had time to write a full-blown article, but I can’t help but point to the disgusting media frenzy surrounding the rape accusations regarding the IMF boss and candidate for the French Socialist party Dominique Strauss-Kahn. What...
Mums and work: tell Rebecca it gets easier but only a bit
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Rebecca Asher is – depending on your point of view – either a whinger who doesn’t understand how life works, or a modern woman who has discovered she’s been sold a pup. As a journalist, she seems to have got published a femini...
The Ladies’ Darling
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by Boris De Vaere, translated by Madalina Matei Surrounded by his female colleagues, Marc Tarabella is, indeed, one of the lucky European Parliament’s elected ones. The Belgian MEP joined, in 2009, the “Commission for Women” which nowadays ha...
So where are all the EU women?
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Five inter-related thoughts on the theme of where are all the women: 1) I’ve been following an interesting debate over on Twitter. Life’s a bit complicated technologically at the moment so my joining in Tweets haven’t all got ther...
Hungarian Minister fails to inspire Women’s Rights Committee
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Hungarian Minister Miklós Réthelyi was in the European Parliament yesterday talking to FEMM Committee members. He laid out Hungary’s plans in the field of gender equality during the 6 months of its Presidency. It’s fair to say the recep...
Imagine what tomorrow would look like if today’s girls decided to become scientists
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Do you know a girl? Yes? Good. Does she have plans for Saturday? No? Great. Is she bored? Even better! Imagine learning how to launch a rocket by a real astronaut, working together with an architect to design your dream home, programming a robot to w...
European Parliament votes for 20 Weeks Maternity Leave at Full Pay
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The European Parliament has just voted for 20 weeks maternity leave at full pay. You will see from my article for the Guardian Comment is Free section yesterday that Labour MEPs did not support this. We calculated that a woman on the UK nationa...
Guardian Comment is Free article
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Yesterday I wrote a piece for the Guardian Comment is Free on the issue of maternity proposals which we will vote on later today. You can read the article here. Filed under: Labour Party Tagged: maternity leave, The Guardian...
Woman’s Hour interview on Maternity Leave
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I spoke this morning on BBC Radio 4′s Woman’s Hour about the EU’s Maternity Leave Directive which being voted on this week in Strasbourg. You can listen to it again here . The Directive makes provisions for women to have fully paid...
"It is the state and not employers who takes on the costs"
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So says Myria Vassiliadou of the European Women's Lobby (EWL) of the latest tranche of legislation on maternity leave.It is almost a perfect expression of the economically-illiterate, rent-seeking attitude of those who already receive their wages fro...
The day I learnt the gender of the EU
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It was a bright early autumn day in Paris that just invited people like me to skip a lecture or two, grab a book and enjoy a cup of overpriced coffee in one of those overcrowded cafés on the left … Continue reading →...
The Girl Effect
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You’ve got to watch this: And this: Now check the amazing Girl Effect website, and spread the word in any way you can! Please. Tweet This! Share this on Facebook Post on Google Buzz Email this to a friend? Add this to Google Bookmarks Blog thi...
Reclaim the Streets!
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I’d like to see a day when I don’t have to worry about having obscenities yelled at me or disgusting gestures made out of car windows when all I’m doing is walking to work or going about my business. I am sick and tired of being told this is al...
Honeyball’s Weekly Round Up
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I can only imagine what a tense morning it must have been for A-level students awaiting their exam results last Thursday. I still remember my own results day, more years ago than I care to think. It was great to read about all kinds of achieve...
Suffer the Little Children
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Labour’s General Election campaign should have featured more women. Labour’s record on increasing women’s representation is one to be proud of, yet it is taken for granted. It should be better and I will continue to campaign for mo...
Euroblog: Franco-German EU girl geeks - vasistas? (Twitter tag #bkaeb)
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Long before the world of online media or social media, in La Débâcle (The Downfall), the novelist Émile Zola described the ravages of war from the perspective of ordinary people, even if he hoped that a new France could be raised from the ashes.
« Ne demandons pas l'impossible aux neuf femmes de l'équipe Barroso !»
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« Ne demandons pas l'impossible aux neuf femmes de l'équipe Barroso !» Les Drôles de Dames de la Commission ont fait parler d’elles. La série d’interviews des neuf commissaires femmes du conclave Barroso II, a &eacut...
Gender and Labour’s MEPs
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I’m in Sweden at the moment, one of the most gender-conscious countries in the world, and motivated by this I’ve been thinking about the impact of election systems on gender representation, inspired in part by this from Talking about the...
The 281 MEPs who don’t support the EU’s MDG Targets
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The European Parliament has officially risen for the summer recess, and although they managed to bag themselves an extra week of holiday than usual this year (due to return 30th August) this doesn’t mean they can escape their responsibilities.In th...
Gender images on the Tube
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Ever seen this notice on the London Underground? Bet you have. You’re sure? Perhaps it’s time for a bit of a guerrilla feminist campaign in the public space in the UK. All we would need would be 2 triangles of blue sticky back p...
Unlike new Australian PM Harriet Harman fights for women
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I would recommend you read this post on the New Statesman Staggers blog about the new Australian Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard. There have, of course, been the inevitable comparisons between Julia Gillard and Harriet Harman. Both are female la...
My new vocation
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I left work to become a mum but little did I know that coming back to work not only would I start qualifying for the “working mum” description but also that of a juggler. Every space of time like air for a juggler has millimetres of opppo...
Sign the Petition for Equal Representation of Women in TV drama
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Following on from the recent event in the European Parliament on the representation of women in TV and film, the Vice-President of Equity UK, Jean Rogers, has sent me an online petition which I would urge all of you to sign. You will be in good...
Some news to cheer (loudly): Julia Gillard
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As of today, Australia has its first ever woman prime minister, Julia Gillard. Given the dismal statistics (here and here) on women in political leadership worldwide, it’s news that calls for popping the cork on a bottle of spumante, or maybe e...
Sign the Equity Petition
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Sign the Petition for Equal Representation of Women in TV drama here and let the TV companies know that we want equal representation of women on TV. Filed under: Labour Party...
The Sad Story of Women Who Abort IVF Babies
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This piece “Scandal of aborted IVF babies” appeared on the front page of the Sunday Times today. It is, in my view, a rather tragic story about women who had undergone IVF treatment, both privately and on the NHS, and subsequently decided not t...
In The Room The Women Come And Go
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Via Sunny Hundal at Pickled Politics, I’ve come across an excellent piece by Gita Sahgal, recently fired by Amnesty for speaking out against its gushing promotion of Taliban enthusiast Moazzam Begg and his fundamentalist CagePrisoners phon...
Con-Dems are disgraceful on Women’s Representation
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Congratulations to Harriet Harman for maintaining her excellent campaigning on behalf of women. We would never have expected anything less. Even as acting Labour Party Leader Harriet continues the good work. I very much agree with Harriet that ha...
European Commission is considering mandating burqa
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A Brussels law firm has issued an internal set of recruitment rules to guide their HR department in the selection of new candidates. Amidst those rules, one prohibition shocked sufficiently some employees to be leaked to the BJ: the firm clearly stat...
Kristalina Georgieva : "It takes courage from women not to shy away from important responsabilities."
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Kristalina Georgieva : "It takes courage from women not to shy away from important responsabilities." Cinquième volet de nos Drôles de dames avec Kristalina Georgieva, 56 ans, Bulgare, économiste et ancienne vice-pré...
Tories will leave Afghan girls to their fate
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In an pronouncement that will surely bring joy to the hearts of the Stop The War Coalition and other Taliban supporters, trad-right Tory Liam Fox has made it clear that the new Lib Dem-Tory government doesn’t give a toss about Afghan women a...
The Dark Side of Mother’s Day
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Mother’s Day fell this year in Belgium on 9th May. Dutch MEP Sophia in ‘t Veld, who is the President of the European Parliament working group on reproductive health, HIV/AIDS and development (EPWG), used Mother’s Day as a way of
Maria Damanaki : "In every professional environment a woman has to particularly prove herself ! "
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Maria Damanaki : "In every professional environment a woman has to particularly prove herself ! " Quatrième volet des drôles de dames avec la Grecque Maria Damanaki, 57 ans, un temps leader du parti de gauche radicale ‘Synasp...
Neelie Kroes : "Women are more interested in getting a result than in their egos."
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Neelie Kroes : "Women are more interested in getting a result than in their egos." Troisième volet de notre série “Drôles de dames” avec la Néerlandaise Neelie Kroes, 69 ans, classée parmi le...
Máire Geoghegan-Quinn : "I don't think Brussels is more "macho" than Bordeaux, Berlin, Bratislava or Birmingham ! "
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Máire Geoghegan-Quinn : "I don't think Brussels is more "macho" than Bordeaux, Berlin, Bratislava or Birmingham ! " Second volet de notre série « Drôles de dames » avec Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, 59 ans, I...
European Pro-Choice Network
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Dear Colleagues and Friends, We are very concerned by the criminalisation of abortion in some member states of the European Union, with the increasing activities of anti-choice groups and politicians within the EU, as well as the problems of access t...
New Sample Case on EU Anti-Discrimination Law
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After having used some model cases used in the PG. Programme in EU law of the London King’s College in my EU Law seminars, I finally (anew) built up “my own” case on EU anti-discrimination law that seems quite usable: A female employee was on l...
International Women’s Day Event on Violence against Women
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This year International Women’s Day was celebrated a week later than usual in the European Parliament, with most of the major events taking place on 16th March rather than the 8th. On Tuesday morning, members of the Women’s Rights and Ge...
Politics: What Women Want?
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There are a lot of things not to like about Mel Gibson, but “What Women Want“, his 2000 movie also starring Helen Hunt and Marisa Tomei was actually quite funny. ...
Flawed Roadmap for Gender Equality criticised by European Women’s Lobby
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The success of the Roadmap for gender equality has been marred by a lack of comparable data across the EU, a lack of targeted financial resources, and difficulties of coordination at national and EU level with gender mainstreaming. This is the hard-...
Violence against women doesn't exempt MEPs
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See also yesterday's European Parliament Facebook chat on gender equality with Eva-Britt Svensson. (via the European Parliament web editors on their blog and on Twitter)...
If I go home he will kill me
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“If I go home he will kill me.” This was the thought of Swedish MEP Eva Britt-Svensson before she left her abusive husband. Being a public figure didn’t make her immune to domestic violence and she wants all victims of domestic viol...
Companies see the light on e-skills for women
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I think International Women’s Day and a post about e-skills for women is the perfect way to kick-start this new blog. It is my pleasure to announce that there are now 50 companies signed up to the European Commission’s Code of Best Prac...
20 women who run the EU (blogosphere) - updated
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In the German blogosphere, we have recently seen a controversial debate (started by annalist) about the question why only men were among the so-called "alpha bloggers" in a video series about important bloggers, a debate that has led to the inclusion...
International women’s day: not for you?
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Oh no, it is that time of the year again. International women’s day will come up in two weeks. What will we write about? Should we write anything at all? We already did this thing during election campaign. What else is there to say? I mean, is...
Women in Power – European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) (EPP)
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This week sees the launch of the largest group in the European Parliament, the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) (EPP), previously known as the European People’s Party-European Democrats. It is a group which, like the others, is m...
Quote of the Week: Madeleine Albright
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“There is a special place in hell for women who do not help other women.” Madeleine Albright, Former US Secretary of State...
Women in Power: Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE)
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My Women in Power project continues this week with the launch of the female members of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) in the European Parliament. This group, as with the previous groups I have launched, includes a number of...
Women in Power: Greens/European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA)
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To follow up my launch of the female members of the Socialists and Democrats and European United Left – Nordic Green Left groups in the European Parliament as part of my Women in Power project, I am presenting today a set of profiles from the...
Women in Power: The European United Left – Nordic Green Left
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For those of you who visit my website regularly, you will have noticed a recent addition to the site: Women in Power. This is a collection of profiles of women members of the European Parliament, and it follows many months of hard work by me and my...
A question from the X-chromosome challenged.
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Why is it that people think that not having a Y chromosome (i.e. being female)...
Don’t betray Afghan women in the name of “peace”!
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Peace is – generally – good, and war is – always – bad. There can be little doubt that to achieve something that can be called “peace” in Afghanistan some distasteful deals will have to be done. Just as in order to...
Between civil rights and denied rights: to be women in Turkey
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(Photo by: onceiwasmyself/Flickr) On 14th October 14 2009 has been presented in Brussels the 2009 Report prepared by the European Commission for the Enlargement Strategy: although the document is moderately positive about the improvements needed to m...
Appearance on Women’s Hour plus Video showing the Reality of Human Trafficking
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I was on Woman’s Hour this morning talking about the decision by the Metropolitan Police to reorganise the Human Trafficking Unit. Instead of closing the Unit altogether and moving its functions into the Clubs and Vice section as we first fe...
Tackling violence against women
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Domestic violence is at last moving up up the agenda of the EU. As the Swedes come to the end of their presidency of the European Council and the Spanish take over, violence against women looks set to be given a higher priority. It is an area...
Women Leading Europe
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Women in Leadership in the Information Society (WiL) is an influential and fast-growing organisation which campaigns for, amongst other things, the use of quotas for women to encourage greater numbers of them into the business sector. Quotas have ...
Corbyn: “disagreements about the social attitudes” of Taliban…
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Jeremy Corbyn is generally one of the more principled and left-wing members of the current Parliamentary Labour Party – not that that’s saying much . But I’ve had cause previously to wonder about his exact attitude to the Taliban.
Women of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Whose Justice?
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Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is today a flourishing European state, which looks set to secure its place as a member of the European Union in the next few years. Its current image stands in stark contrast to that of the 1992 to 1995 period, which wi...
