Equality — Page 2

Equality
The Justice Secretary’s views on “serious rape”

18th May 2011 — Filed under: Equality

Scarlet Harris

I want to say a few words about Ken Clarke’s views on rape and rape law but I’m struggling to know where to begin.

So what did he say that was wrong? In case you missed the furore today, I’ll briefly recap. Kenneth Clarke was asked about plea bargaining plans on Radio 5 Live this morning. In the course of the interview, in a discussion about sentencing and tariffs, the Justice Secretary shared his rather troubling views on rape. He said:

“[Rape] includes date rape and 17 year-olds having intercourse. Serious rape, I don’t think many judges give five years for a forcible rape, frankly, the tariff is longer for that and a serious rape where there’s violence and an unwilling woman, the tariff’s much longer than that.”

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Equality
Free Schools and Academies: A risk to LGBT equality gains?

17th May 2011 — Filed under: Equality

Maria Exall

This Government’s Free Schools and Academies programme could be putting in jeopardy some of the massive steps forward that the last decade has seen on equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people.

The equal civil rights for LGBT people that were brought in under the previous Government have been accompanied by an increased awareness of the continuing problem of homophobic bullying in schools, and the persistence of homophobic attitudes among many young people.

But the setting up of Free Schools and Academies with a licence to disregard the requirements of current good educational practice may end up creating islands of homophobia – schools where pupils, their parents and teachers are subject to ongoing discrimination and prejudice without challenge.

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Equality
Class matters more than age

20th April 2011 — Filed under: Equality, Pensions & Investment

Nigel Stanley

Across the political spectrum people want to put the baby-boomers on trial for crimes against the young.

They have mopped up pensions, housing and jobs leaving those behind them facing a bleak future, the argument goes. Perhaps the most prominent advocate has been David Willetts in his pre-election book The Pinch: How the Baby Boomers Took Their Children’s Future – And Why They Should Give it Back. Francis Beckett has a much more nuanced argument from the left, and speaking up for youth are Shiv Malik and Ed Howker.

Understandable arguments about society nearly always rest on generalisations. We talk about and measure the experience of women or of ethnic groups and undoubtedly gain a lot from such insights into the nature of inequality. But there are also dangers that such generalisations lead us to pass over differences within groups, ignore the “tyranny of the average” and muddle up correlation and causality.

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Equality
“No income growth tradeoff with inequality” – OECD

19th April 2011 — Filed under: Equality

Richard Exell

Yesterday’s Society at a Glance from the OECD provides a boost for egalitarians. This annual report always has something you didn’t know before (did you know that the UK more than doubled education spending between 2000 and 2007? Or that this was a bigger increase – by a long chalk – than any other developed country?)

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Equality
The CBI’s “small thinking” is bad news for women returning to work

18th March 2011 — Filed under: Equality, Working Life

Scarlet Harris

Today we heard from Vince Cable that a central plank to the government’s long awaited growth strategy is to scrap the planned extension of the right to request flexible working to parents of 17 year olds and to give small businesses a three-year exemption from the new additional paternity leave scheme which allows mothers and fathers to share the mother’s right to maternity leave and pay if they wish.
This is bad news for parents who need that flexibility, particularly at a time when the Government has been making cuts to many of the childcare services, benefits and tax credits that support working parents. The decision to scrap the extension of the right to request seems particularly petty, given that the proposal in question would only have served to correct an anomaly which affects a small number of parents. Parents of children aged 16 or under and carers of adults (aged 18 and over) are entitled to make a request so the proposal would have just given an extra year in which a request could be made.

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Equality
International Women’s Day

8th March 2011 — Filed under: Equality, International

Scarlet Harris

There seems to be a buzz of excitement and activity around International Women’s Day this year. From Daniel Craig in drag to a new Women of the World (WOW) festival at the Southbank, to the TUC’s own International Women’s Day event at Congress House last night, to the TUC’s International Women’s Day publication, to the many other union events happening the length and breadth of the country.

It may be just the fact that it’s a centenary celebration that has generated the extra interest in International Women’s Day this year. Or maybe it’s because this is not panning out to be a very good year for women, at home or overseas, and today seems like an opportune moment to do something about it and make our voices heard.

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Cuts Watch
Cuts Watch #390: 100% funding cut to Liverpool Rape Crisis

21st February 2011 — Filed under: Cuts Watch: Health, Cuts Watch: Social care, Equality, Public services, Working Life

Scarlet Harris

Liverpool Council has announced 100% funding cuts to Rape Crisis. Liverpool Rape Crisis helped 522 women last year with a meagre £60,000 funding from Liverpool City Council.

To put this in perspective, the public funding received by Liverpool Rape Crisis in 2010 was less than the cost to the state of just one single rape. According to the Women’s Resource Centre, the estimated cost to the state of one rape is £73,487 – £13,487 more than the annual funding for the Liverpool Rape Crisis centre.

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Equality
Cuts to women’s domestic violence and rape services – A “disaster waiting to happen”?

16th February 2011 — Filed under: Equality, Society & Welfare

Scarlet Harris

I was struck by today’s news that Denise Marshall, Chief Executive of Eaves women’s charity and campaign group, has handed back her OBE on principle. While some may well ask what the point is of an OBE in the first place – and therefore, what the significance of giving it back is – Denise Marshall has undoubtedly achieved something important with this symbolic action. She’s made cuts to women’s services front page news. That’s no mean feat.

She has successfully drawn the media’s attention to the fact that, in spite of much vaunted government pledges to invest £10m in Rape Crisis centres, the charity sector, and the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) sector is facing a very bleak future as funding – central, local, and grant based – evaporates into thin air.

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Equality
Campaign launched on women’s state pension age U-turn

8th February 2011 — Filed under: Equality

Sarah Veale

A little noticed U-turn by the Coalition Government will mean that 4.9 million people will have to wait longer to get their pension – with 500,000 women aged 56-57 having to work more than an extra year, and 33,000 working for exactly two years longer.

Last May the Coalition Agreement assured people that it would:

“hold a review to set the date at which the state pension age start to rise to 66, although it would not be sooner than 2016 for men and 2020 for women.”

But a few weeks ago you could hear the tyres screech and smell burning tar when the government published new plans to accelerate the increase in the state pension age to 2018 for women, and then increase both men and women’s state pension ages to 66 by 2020. This is particularly bad news for women aged 56 or 57, giving them very little time to prepare or amend existing plans.

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Equality
More than meets the eye to welfare cuts for blind people

4th February 2011 — Filed under: Equality, Society & Welfare

Andrew Kaye

Forthcoming reforms in welfare provision pose a substantial threat to the incomes and independence of hundreds of thousands of people living with sight loss in the UK. That is the finding of the new report I have written on behalf of RNIB and six other sight loss charities. In “More than meets the eye: why the welfare cuts will hit blind and partially sighted people particularly hard” we argue that measures affecting entitlement to Disability Living Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance represent a major assault on working age people in particular.

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