100 posts
Are women better off today than their mothers were?
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Soon after I joined the Labour Party in London in the dim and distance past my Constituency Labour Party Women’s Section (yes, that was in the days when the Labour Party still had a thriving women’s organisation) held a discussion …...
Fighting violence with hope and care
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With joy and relief, today I welcomed to the European Commission Dr Denis Mukwege. Medical Director at the Panzi Hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Dr Mukwege has an immensely difficult and important job – to save, heal and return...
Advocates of change – dr. Mukwege and his support for Congolese women
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Number of Views :87I met today with Dr Denis Mukwege, a doctor from the DR Congo who founded a hospital for rape victims and is a fierce advocate for women. Few weeks back I was shocked to learn he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt. Today, hi...
Bring women on board
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On 24 October, in a spectacular display of lack of solidarity following weeks of public discord, the college of European commissioners failed to give its backing to a draft directive presented by Commissioner Viviane Reding aimed at increasing the nu...
Women are main guardians of crucial livestock diversity
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Women livestock keepers worldwide must be recognised as the major actors in efforts to arrest the decline of indigenous breeds, crucial for rural food security and animal genetics, a new FAO study argues. Yet women's contribution to indigenous livest...
Natasha Baker – Gold Medal Profile
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In her first ever Paralympics at the age of 22, Natasha Baker could not have asked for a better introduction to the equestrian events at this level. She broke Paralympic records and took home Team GB’s first equestrian gold medal … Cont...
No Holiday for ECB Gender Drama
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The Nov. 1 bank holiday means many have decided to make a long weekend of it. One thing only interrupts the peace... “It’s obviously a trick to try and do this via a written procedure on a long weekend,” MEP Syvie Goulard from the ALDE liberal...
Helena Lucas – Gold Medal Profile
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Helena Lucas holds the impressive distinction of being the first Brit ever to take a gold in the sailing events at the Paralympics. Helena suffers from a condition that affects both her hands. Despite this, she initially focused on competing …...
Abortion Laws in Europe
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For the past few weeks, another great debate has griped Ireland; the issue of abortion. The debate is not new in Ireland and in fact it has intensified for the past few years. Both camps, the "pro-choice" that supports the practice to be legalized in...
Should there be Quotas for Women in Boardrooms across Europe ?
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There is a rather surprising shortage of women in corporate boards across Europe, resulting in a serious lack of skilled human resources, when taken into consideration the high number of female graduates from university in recent years and their unde...
Parce que je suis une fille
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Les Nations Unies ont déclaré le 11 octobre 2012 la première Journée internationale des filles. Le but de cette journée mondiale est de sensibiliser les citoyens à l’impact de la scolarité des filles dans la lutte contre la pauvreté et d...
Company Boards and Thwarted Quotas: the Glacial Pace of Change
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Aileen McColgan Women hold fewer than one in seven seats on the boards of the largest listed public companies across the European Union.[1] In Norway, where a 40% quota has been in force for some time, they account for 42% … Continue reading &#...
Honeyball’s Weekly Round-Up
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It was a busy week for Commissioner Reding who is responsible for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship. For many months she has been working on draft legislation which would see a mandatory quota of 40% women who sit on Europe’s … Co...
Katherine Copeland and Sophie Hosking – Gold Medal Profiles
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Of all the four gold medals won at Dorney Lake, that of Katherine Copeland and Sophie Hosking was by far the most joyously unexpected. They had only joined forces in a boat three months earlier, boasting a solitary World Cup … Continue reading...
The fallout of waning superiority
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This morning, my husband brought an article to my attention, which deals with the increasing rape of young women in India [major TW]. He pointed out to me one paragraph in particular: “In a rapidly changing country, rape cases have … Co...
Women (and Men) Can Have It All…In Sweden
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Fall 2012 American Marshall Memorial Fellow, Mary Barr, argues that Swedes has a lot to teach Americans about family values.
The crime is not scandalous, the culture is.
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[TRIGGER WARNING] These past few months have been extremely demoralizing for me, not just as a feminist but as a woman. Whether it’s “legitimate rape” or “culture of impunity” , the current discourse around sexual violen...
The crime is not scandalous, the culture is.
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[TRIGGER WARNING] [This post has been updated since first publishing.] These past few months have been extremely demoralizing for me, not just as a feminist but as a woman in general. Whether it’s “legitimate rape” or “culture...
Quotas for women on company boards – BBC Daily Politics programme
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Yesterday I was very pleased to be invited by the BBC Daily Politics programme to talk about quotas for women on the boards of top companies. I was on with my Conservative counterpart in London, Marina Yannakoudakis MEP. This is our … Cont...
Seven Days in Europe
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Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding had to shelve plans to introduce a directive that would make it mandatory for company boards to reserve 40% of their seats for women. Despite facing opposition Reding tweeted that she will not give up, and …...
PR gaffe as Tory MEP welcomes thing that didn't happen
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It looks like it took Tory MEP Marina Yannakoudakis around 17 minutes to realise she'd sent out the wrong statement. The European Parliament this week held up the appointment over a new European Central Bank board member because he lacked the appare...
EU-USA women will work together to develop innovation and leadership
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I was delighted to meet a delegation from the Global Women’s Innovation Network (GlobalWIN) in Strasbourg today. GlobalWIN is a not for profit organisation based in the United States which provides a dynamic forum for women executives and opini...
Honeyball’s Weekly Round-Up
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The website Netmums (not to be confused with Mumsnet) asked their users what their attitudes towards feminism are and the majority felt that it was an old-fashioned word with little relevance to their lives. This has led to articles in the Observ...
Interview in Evening Standard on my work for women
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I am interviewed in today’s Evening Standard by Political Editor Joe Murphy on my work in Europe on women, and especially on the need for more women on company boards. You can read the interview here. Here is the interview: … Continue rea...
Compulsory Quotas for women: What the EU should do next
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Later this morning I will be speaking at Europe House, Smith Square, London on the need for compulsory quotas on company boards. My thanks to the European Parliament Information Office in the UK and the National Alliance of Womens Organisations ̷...
GETTING WOMEN ON BOARD
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Number of View: 169 Gender equality has been a key principle of the EU ever since the Treaty of Rome introduced the principle of equal pay for men and women in 1957. 55 years later, with 13 directives on gender equality since the 1970s, we still need...
Ada Lovelace Day: Celebrating Women's Genius
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Ada Lovelace Day, celebrated every October 16, honors international women in the fields of science, technology, engineering and maths -women's whose skills are urgently needed for the future of the world. Here we highlight some of these extraordinary...
My article for the New Statesman on support for mandatory quotas for women on boards
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Last week I wrote a piece for the New Statesman explaining why planned legislation to introduce mandatory quotas for women on company boards is so importnat. You can read the article and comments from their readers by clicking on this link, R...
Get well soon, Malala
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. From Hope not Hate: . Malala Yousafzai is on her way to the UK for emergency medical attention. This brave 14-year-old from Pakistan is fighting for her life after being shot in the head by the Taliban for daring to campaign for girls to be educate...
Female British Gold Medalists – Heather Stanning
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Following on from yesterdays profile on Helen Glover, today’s will be on her team mate, Heather Stanning. For most Olympians, taking part in this summer’s Games is by far the most daunting challenge they are likely to face all year. ̷...
Honeyball’s Weekly Round-Up
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Two interviews struck me in the papers last week. The first came in the form of an interview with Caroline Thomson who left the BBC after she failed to get the ‘top job’. She was interviewed by the former channel … Continue reading →...
Launch of my new ebook: Women Parliamentarians
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I’m delighted to be publishing a set of eBook’s on Women Parliamentarians. They are available in three volumes: House of Lords women House of Commons women European Parliament women These books are taken from my successful Women in Power...
Female British Gold Medalists – Sarah Storey
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After my e-book before the summer with profiles of British female athletes competing in London, I thought it would be a good idea to celebrate those women who achieved gold medals. Of course it wasn’t just about medals this summer; … Co...
It’s not the crisis, it’s patriarchy
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Feminists demonstrated in Spain Friday against plans to turn the clock back on abortion laws. The protests were part of Global Day of Action for Access to Safe and Legal Abortion. Beginning in Latin America in the 1990s, the day gained special import...
Paris vs. London in fight over women on boards
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French finance minister Pierre Moscovici signed the letter to Viviane Reding from Paris. Battlelines are being drawn between countries on a controversial European Commission draft legislation that would force public companies across the EU to reserve...
PUTTING A ‘SPIN’ ON REALITY OF UPPER CLASS WOMEN’S LIVES DURING REIGN OF CHARLES II
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My thanks to South London Fawcett Society activist Jennifer Drew for this guest blog I recently visited Hampton Court Palace’s temporary exhibition ‘The Wild, The Beautiful and The Damned.’ Publicity material for this exhib...
Honeyball’s Weekly Round-Up
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Part time work and self-employment is replacing full time employment for women. Well that’s according to the TUC which found the number of women in full-time employee jobs has fallen by 170,000, nearly 200,000 more women now describe themselves as...
EU female quota opposition grows
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Another day, another country opposing a nascent European Commission plan to impose a 40 per cent quota on women serving on corporate boards. Last week, a UK-led letter to the proposal’s author, EU justice commissioner Viviane Reding, and her boss,...
A Vagina of One’s Own by Vagina Wolf
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I like this title so much I have to write a post to go with it. Naomi Wolf’s Vagina: A New Biography has been panned by Zoe Heller, Laurie Penny, Katie Roiphe, Suzanne Moore and Neuroskeptic (a neuro-scientist who questions Wolf’s scien...
ECB: “Exclusive Club for Boys”
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Every great soap opera has a special episode where the cast take the drama to an exotic location to spice things up. The smooth glass-and-steel curves of the European Parliament’s riverside Strasbourg seat and crisply-chilled subsidized champagne a...
Tory councillor attacks women as “hags” at public council meeting
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After marching down a high street screaming at shopkeepers who had put up posters opposing his re-election to the London Assembly, Scrapbook thought that there was nothing Brian Coleman could do to surprise us. But it seems we underestimated him ye...
only for male feminists, #12
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Every time that I think in feminism, I think in a process of empowerment and emancipation. It might very well be that I am too brain washed by my leftish ideas, but those words sounds to me akin to struggle for freedom, to breaking chains of oppress...
United Kingdom: Helen Grant, the First Black Female Cabinet Minister
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Afro Europe wrote a post on the appointment of a black female in Cameron's new cabinet and gave the list of black female Cabinet members in Europe: “Helen Grant MP has been made a Minister in David Cameron’s Ministerial reshuffle this S...
France, Yemen: Vanishing Women
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Eloïse Lagrenée [fr] has posted on her Facebook page a picture by Yemeni photographer Bushra Almutawakel, illustrating how women could vanish into darkness and invisibility, step by step, under fundamentalist pressure and the full niqab. It has bee...
Mujeres Mundi, Interviews with Extraordinary Women
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Peruvian blogger Xaviera Medina de Albrand is the brains and energy behind the blog Mujeres Mundi, a space where she publishes her interviews with women from around the world. Xaviera talks to us about her life and her blog in this first part of a tw...
Subsidiarity: Women Quotas
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Now, I think we can all agree that having a quota for women on corporate boards is a monumentally bad idea. It is nobody's business but the shareholders' (and, in Germany, the workers') who sits on the board of a purely private company. Even if we we...
Women Quotas
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Now, I think we can all agree that having a quota for women on corporate boards is a monumentally bad idea. It is nobody’s business but the shareholders’ (and, in Germany, the workers’) who sits on the board of a purely private comp...
Mexico: Learning from Macedonian Experiences
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Mexican blogger Pepe Flores considers [es] the Macedonian platform for disclosing violence against women in public spaces React! “a fantastic idea,” applicable to Latin America. Written by Filip Stojanovski · comments (0) Share: Dona...
'Real' women v 'skinny' models: German magazine says no contest | Sali Hughes
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It's not surprising Brigitte looks set to ditch its no models policy. If readers want larger models they must vote with their walletsBrigitte, a German fashion and lifestyle magazine, is looking at abandoning the "no models" policy it adopted nearly...
Reding kick-starts equality debate
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David Gow Wednesday, 05 September 2012 There's been a predictable series of knee-jerk protests at the leaked plans of Viviane Reding, EU justice commissioner, for a 40% quota of women in Europe's boardrooms. Th...
The End of Men (as we know them)
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This month, journalist and editor Hanna Rosin is releasing her already infamous book “The End of Men: And the Rise of Women” (Riverhead Hardcover). It has been eagerly anticipated ever since the 2010 publishing of her article for The Atla...
A woman is like a teabag -you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water
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Exactly a year ago today, I arrived in Brussels, apprehensive, hesitant but most of all excited about beginning an internship for one of the world’s largest communications agencies. It is true to say that in the early days I had officially landed i...
Les Jeux Paralympiques : cherchez les femmes ?
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Les femmes en situation de handicap sont le plus souvent victimes d’une « sur –discrimination » par rapport aux hommes dans la même situation. Les sportives handicapées ne font pas exception à la règle. Quelques c...
France: Stories of Everyday Sexism
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After being harassed and insulted by men in the streets of Brussels, Belgian student Sofie Peeters made a hidden-camera film to denounce the male chauvinism experienced every day by unaccompanied women in the streets. Under the hashtag #harcelementde...
When Cultures Aggress
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Femmes de la Rue is the title of film student Sophie Peeters documentary about the men who hassle women on the streets of Brussels. These are mainly men of North African origin who do much more than booty-pinching Italian men of old (which is more o...
The (Female) Artist is Present – Marina Abramovic vs. Maeve Binchy
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I am not very familiar with Abramovic’s art. I came across her work a few times at art exhibitions and, most recently, in a news article which stated that she does not identify as a feminist, because she never felt … Continue reading U...
A new era? Saudi woman makes Olympic history
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Hopefully this is the beginning of a new era, said Wojdan Shahrkhani. She became the first Saudi Arabian woman to compete at the Olympic Games. This is probably not the new era, but it is significant. The short interview on Saudi women participation...
Guest Post: Jean Lambert MEP
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Today we are extremely happy to present our first in, hopefully, a series of Guest Posts. It's been our idea for quite some now to gradually move away from being a purely informative blog, and becoming a more analytical and innovative site for...
Sorry, but most Irish people are not against abortion.
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On the 25th November 1992 over a million Irish voters, 62% of those who voted, voted Yes to the 13th amendment to the Irish constitution. This was to give the right to travel to Irish citizens, which in the context of the day was primarily a right...
