6 - Saudi Arabia lifts ban on women working to boost economy after attacks
The Saudi cabinet, chaired by King Fahd, last week took a landmark decision allowing women to obtain commercial licences. Previously women could only open a business in the name of male relative, and religious and social restrictions excluded them from all but a few professions such as teaching and nursing. "This decision will certainly reduce social and economic pressures on men, who are no longer capable of meeting family needs due to a drop in personal income," said Nahed Taher, a senior economist at National Commercial Bank. She told AFP that creating employment had become a way of fighting homegrown terrorism. "It also has an important security aspect in fighting terrorists in the kingdom, as the solution to this problem is no longer of a purely security nature." Taher said 55 percent of university graduates in the oil-rich kingdom are females, but the overwhelming majority stayed at home because of the ban and a general lack of job opportunities. According to official figures, only 5.5 percent out of some 4.7 million Saudi women of working age are employed.
The cabinet also ordered government ministries and bodies to create jobs for women, and asked the Chambers of Commerce and Industry to form a committee for women to help train and find jobs for them in the private sector. It also decided that land will be allocated for the establishment of industrial projects to employ women, and said in future all positions in shops selling women's clothes and accessories would be reserved for Saudi women.
The head of the Jeddah-based Middle East Center for Strategic and Legal Studies, Anwar Eshki, said the steps highlight the role the economy can play in fighting extremism. "The cost of living has gone up and women must share the burden with their husbands. If this is not done, it will negatively affect the security situation. It will only breed further complications," Eshki said. "We cannot separate terrorism from the economy ... The security solution is essential, but it is not the decisive one. The cabinet's decision is a response to this understanding," he told AFP. (...) Women outnumber men in Saudi universities because they seldom study abroad and unlike men they normally only look for jobs after graduating from university. Taher said the government's decision will remarkably improve the income of many Saudi families, but added she feared it may remain "ink on paper."
Liberals in Saudi Arabia hope to ease a range of restrictions on women that make them dependent on male relatives. Women here have be covered from head to toe in public and cannot mix with men other than relatives. They are also not allowed to drive or travel alone. Riyadh began issuing separate civil identity cards for Saudi women in late 2001 but the documents can only be issued with the approval of a male guardians such as a husband or father. The government has in recent months been seeking to boost women's role in society but faces opposition from the powerful religious establishment. It promised that the third round of a national dialogue, launched in the kingdom a year ago to debate crucial issues, in mid-June will be entirely devoted to discussing "women's rights and duties."
AFP
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world_business/view/88757/1/.html
***
7 - Oman : Woman heads Oman's tourism ministry
MUSCAT - Oman's Sultan Qaboos created by
royal decree Wednesday a ministry of tourism and named a woman minister to
head it, appointing the country's second female cabinet member in three
months. Rajiha bint Abdul Amir bin Ali was given the new portfolio of tourism
minister, according to the decree carried by the official ONA news agency.
On March 8, Sultan Qaboos named Rawya bint Saud al-Bussaidi as the new higher education minister, making her Oman's first woman minister with portfolio. Women are members of the country's Majlis ash-Shura, or Consultative Council, which advises the government on economic and social issues but has no say in defence, internal security or foreign policy. In a rarity for the traditional Gulf Arab monarchies, some women were given the right to vote in Oman from 1996. Elections for the advisory council last October were the first to be open to all citizens of the conservative Gulf sultanate.
http://195.224.230.11/english/?id=10234
***
|
In India, the official birth sex ratio is
111-114 boys per 100 girls, but spot checks show ratios of up to 156
boys per 100 girls in some locales. For comparison, normal birth sex
ratios are 105-107 boys born per 100 girls. (...) In India, almost one
million more girls than boys die in the first five years of life. (...)
Using conservative estimates, in 2020 India will have about 28 million
more young males (aged 15 to 34) than young females.
Surplus males http://www.neww.org.pl/1/en.php/index.php?page=news&wid=1788
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***
9 - South Korea
: "Reborn as a city where equality between men and women is
realized"
Since last year the Seoul Metropolitan
Government has been actively pursuing the goal of being "reborn as a city
where equality between men and women is realized."
To create a community
where everyone lives in harmony, the city government has initiated more than
40 projects in five sectors as part of the active implementation of its
policies on women's issues: promotion of gender equality and increased social
participation by women; development of women's human capital; enhancing the
welfare of women and families; upgrading child-care services; and ensuring the
safety of children.
Although the status of women in Korea has improved,
substantial disparities still exist in the opportunities available to men and
women. Seoul City is concentrating its efforts on building a society where men
and women can coexist on an equal footing.
To cultivate a cultural basis
for gender equality in both the home and the workplace, the metropolitan
government will provide education through cultural projects and training
sessions.
Lectures on feminism will be presented at more than 450
institutions, including high schools. More than 300 lectures on feminism will
be given every year to promote awareness of gender equality, for which the
city will provide $125 in support for the instructor.
Women's Week from
July 1-7 is one of various events intended to raise awareness of the need for
gender equality. The annual celebration features cultural activities such as a
writing contest for women. In addition, an Internet site will be online by
2006, with information about numerous topics of interest to women.
Seoul City will take the lead in promoting
gender equality by eliminating inequities within its own offices.
(...)
http://www.onlinewomeninpolitics.org/archives/04_0527_kr_wrights..htm
***
April 19, 2004 – (UN News) The
violence that brought about the change of Haiti’s government earlier this year
has had a severe impact on the 2,000 street children in the capital,
Port-au-Prince, and on the 120,000 girls who work as domestic servants across
the country, according to a United Nations Children’s Fund ( UNICEF )
assessment mission.
“The conflict affected every child in Haiti
because of an environment of impunity. The increase in violence meant that the
supply of food was considerably reduced, medical help was virtually
unobtainable, and schools were closed for months. The crisis is over, but its
effect on children is still of real concern to us,” UNICEF representative
Francoise Gruloos-Ackermans says.
The mission’s report says children
were recruited by armed gangs in almost a third of the 31 surveyed zones and
now live in fear of retribution for any violence in which they took part,
while in more than 15 per cent of the surveyed zones, children were reportedly
murdered in the violence. A zone is a town or city and its suburbs.
Children were shot and wounded or were beaten by armed gangs in more
than a third of the surveyed zones and the number of child rapes increased
significantly in the urban areas. A human rights organization reported that
nine girls were raped in the town of Cabaret over the course of only two days,
UNICEF says.
Schools and hospitals were often the targets of violence
and looting, it says.
Nearly half of primary-school-aged children are
not in school and 80 per cent of those eligible do not go to secondary school.
Haiti has a literacy rate under 45 per cent, the lowest in the Americas, and
the recent crisis has exacerbated the situation, UNICEF says.
From:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=10447&Cr=Haiti&Cr1=
THE ONE-BEDROOM or 'quad' situation that is home
to many Jamaicans is cited as the reason for our children's early exposure to
sexual intercourse.
Speaking at a Gleaner Editors' Forum
recently, stakeholders in the education sector pointed to a situation where
students who live in one-bedroom dwellings are being overexposed to sex. This
has further led to children engaging in early sexual activity, with many
becoming pregnant in their teenage years.
"We have a scenario where
unfortunately the quads don't seem to help very much and in the rural areas
the one-bedroom system doesn't seem to help very much," Dorrett Campbell,
director of communications at the Ministry of Education, said.
Quadraminiums or 'quads' are small studio units which are developed as
part of Government's low-cost housing solutions.
Meanwhile, Dr. Glenda
Simms, head of the Bureau of Women's Affairs, told The Sunday Gleaner
in an interview that the one-bedroom living arrangement is not healthy for
children. Like adults, she said children "need certain space and privacy for
themselves". She added that this is not an ideal situation because parents
have to wait late at nights before they can have sex and at times the children
are not sleeping.
WATCHING PARENTS MAKING LOVE
According to Miss Campbell, when these children
are supposed to be sleeping, they are actually watching their parents making
love and this becomes a learnt behaviour for them.
Speaking with The
Sunday Gleaner in a later interview, Miss Campbell stated that there are
no statistics to confirm her claims but this is the reality especially in the
St. Catherine (Greater Portmore) housing situation and "this is not the kind
of morality that we want students to be exposed to."
She believes that the
focus therefore should be on preventive methods through the school's
curriculum and through the Guidance and Counselling Programme. The revised
primary curriculum begins from the early childhood system and "we have also
inculcated in that curriculum notions of a value system, family life, a sense
of belonging, a positive self- concept, those are the factors, those are the
values that we think will prevent them from making the wrong choices and will
prevent them from peer pressure," she said.
According to The Jamaica
Survey of Living Conditions, 3.2 per cent of the population has more than four
persons per habitable room. This means that 83,200 homes have more than four
persons living in one bedroom. (...)
Petrina Francis, Education Reporter - June 6, 2004 - http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20040606/news/news3.html
The U.S. lawmakers' concern over the possibility that the bill, which already made it through the Chamber of Deputies, would be approved by the Senate was reported Tuesday by the Montevideo daily La República. (...) The bill was defeated in the Senate by a vote of 17 to 13 in the early hours of Wednesday morning. (...)
The statements of Roman Catholic Archbishop of Montevideo Nicolás Cotugno, for example, ''set such a high ceiling for the pressure, when he accused us (the sponsors of the bill) of being terrorists,'' that it would be difficult to equal. ''What difference is there between an 18-year-old youngster who flies through the air, shot out of a train in Madrid by a dynamite explosion, and a human being at just two months of gestation that is in the mother's uterus when they insert forceps and smash its head and then pull it out in pieces and throw it in a garbage can?'' asked Cotugno, alluding to the Mar. 11 terrorist attacks on commuter trains in Spain. (...)
In 2001, the total number of maternal deaths in Uruguay was 19, up from nine in 2000. In 2002, five women died of complications arising from unsafe abortions. The maternal mortality rate climbed from 17.1 per 100,000 live births in 2000 to 36.6 per 100,000 in 2001 (the latest figure from the National Statistics Institute). (...)
Plusieurs femmes, dont des exciseuses, ont pris part à la fête pour dire halte à l’excision ! Dans la lutte contre les mutilations génitales féminines, notre pays a fait un grand pas à travers l’immense travail de sensibilisation que la CPTAFE mène depuis 20 ans sur toute l’étendue du territoire. Mais nous sommes encore loin de la victoire sur ce fléau même si les responsables de cette ONG nous appellent à l’optimisme et à la persévérance.
En effet, en dépit de tous les acquis dont la loi votée en l’an 2000 et qui reste toujours inappliquée, force est de constater que les mutilations génitales féminines (excision) continuent encore en Guinée et nous devrions tous nous lever afin d’appuyer CPTAFE en vue de protéger la santé et les droits de nos filles.
Un phénomène dangereux vient compliquer la tâche de cette ONG : la fronde des intégristes islamistes. L’on se souvient qu’il y a trois ans, la Ligue islamique nationale avait fait une déclaration officielle à la radio et à la télévision, appuyée par une lettre circulaire dans laquelle elle fustigeait l’action de CPTAFE et demandait à tous les imams du pays de combattre les activités de cette organisation jugée anti-islamique.
Depuis, l’on croyait que tout était rentré dans l’ordre après les dépôts de couteaux par les exciseuses de plusieurs préfectures. Mais les images impressionnantes du 6 février 2004 à Kissidougou, montrant une foule immense et des exciseuses qui déposent leurs couteaux, ont réveillé les vieux démons
***
Two years ago, however, she got "converted". According to Shiruye, who is now middle-aged, an Islamic scholar convinced her that mutilating a woman's genitals was not sanctioned by her religion. That was when she turned into an anti-FGM [female genital mutilation] activist and started sending away women who come to her to have their daughters circumcised. "I was opposed to those campaigning against FGM. I sent them away four times," Shuriye told a news conference at the end of a two-day meeting of former circumcisers from various African countries in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Monday.
FGM PREVALENCE IN KENYA
FGM prevalence in Kenya is highest in the northeastern areas, according to NGOs involved in fighting it. Here, an estimated 98 percent of girls between five and nine undergo the worst form of FGM, known as infibulation. It is mostly widespread among the Cushitic Borana and Somali communities. Many communities in Kenya circumcise girls to mark the passage from childhood to womanhood, but those from northeastern Kenya do it in the belief that it is a requirement of their Islamic faith, an argument rejected by many Muslim scholars, Habil Oloo, a programme officer at the Kenya National Focal Point for FGM, told IRIN recently. Other tribes like the Kisii in the south also practise it. NGO workers, however, say among the Kisii, there has been a shift from "traditional" to "sanitised" methods, whereby parents were now paying large sums of money to medical professionals to perform the rite on their daughters.
"Now they go to hospitals to do it," Anne Nzomo, a programme officer with the women's umbrella group Maendeleo ya Wanawake (Kiswahili for development for women), told IRIN recently. "But whether practised using medical methods or not, the fact is that this is an illegal practice," she said. Nzomo added that among the Samburu of western Kenya, the community still insisted on drawing blood by piercing the girls' genitals as a symbolic alternative to the actual cutting.
FGM is outlawed in Kenya under the Children's Act, which was enacted in 2002. But the provisions of the Act are unclear as to the kind of punishment that could be meted out to offenders, leaving the sentencing at the discretion of magistrates, who have tended to issue only light sentences, according to Nzomo.
The Nairobi meeting was convened by Equality Now, an international NGO campaigning for the rights of women and girls. Shuriye attended along with nine other ex-circumcisers from Djibouti, Gambia, Guinea-Conakry, Mali and Tanzania.
Mariam Bagayoko, a Malian mother of three girls and three boys, also quit her trade as a circumciser several years ago after an NGO known as Malienne pour le suivi et l'orientation des pratiques traditionnelles convinced her that FGM resulted in harmful effects. "It is a trade that I had learned from my aunt at the age of 25. I have laid down the knife and have now been converted into a merchant, selling fabrics and soap," said Bagayoko. "I will no longer perform FGM. I now will encourage others to do the same." She added that her "conversion" had come too late for two of her two daughters, who had undergone FGM before she learnt of its harmful physical and psychological consequences; the third daughter was spared the ordeal. "I congratulate my brave sisters, the ex-circumcisers, who have written their names in history with the edge of their knives in the sand and not in the flesh of young girls," said Dr Morissanda Kouyate, an anti-FGM campaigner from Guinea Conakry's Cellule de coordination sur les pratiques traditionelles affectant le sante et des enfants.
Efua Dorkenoo from Ghana, another anti-FGM crusader, cautioned that as the campaign to encourage traditional circumcisers to abandon the practice gathered pace, there was a danger that some modern health professionals would start performing excisions, noting that this was already happening in some countries.
NEED FOR LEGISLATION
Equality Now Executive Director Taina Bien-Aime urged African states that had not already done so, to legislate against FGM. She called on those that had enacted laws against it to enforce those laws, noting that lack of political will on the part of governments was obstructing efforts to eradicate the problem. (...) The UN World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that between 100 million and 140 million girls and women have undergone FGM, most of them in 28 African countries, although some live in Asia and the Middle East. A further two million girls are at risk of being subjected to FGM every year. (...) Some African countries have FGM prevalence rates of more than 90 percent, according to National Demographic and Health Surveys quoted by WHO. A survey in Guinea in 1999 showed that the country had an FGM prevalence rate of 99 percent, while a study in Eritrea in 1995 gave an FGM prevalence rate of 95 percent. Another one in Egypt showed that the rate was 97 percent. (...)
NAIROBI, 11 Jun 2004 (IRIN) http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41616&SelectRegion=Africa&SelectCountry=AFRICA
16 - Afrique : Les filles soldates
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Où sont passées les filles enrôlées dans les forces armées, rebelles ou gouvernementales, des pays africains ? Pas dans les camps de désarmement et de réinsertion de l’ONU, en tout cas, ou ont les comptes sur les doigts de la main. Parce que nombre d’entre elles, le conflit terminé où l’évasion réussie, choisissent de rentrer en catimini dans leur communauté d’origine. Mais surtout parce que « des biais sexistes ont faussé la conception et la mise en œuvre des programmes de Désarmement, démobilisation et réhabilitation (DDR). Ce qui a fait que les filles ont été, à peu de choses près, exclues des programmes et des allocations de DDR ». C’est l’une des conclusions des chercheuses Susan McKay et Dyan Mazurana, révélée à l’issue de trois ans et demi de recherches sur les conflits récents ou en cours au Mozambique, en Angola et en Sierra Leone. Trois ans et demi durant lesquels elles ont interrogé de jeunes ex-combattantes, ainsi que des fonctionnaires de l’ONU, des gouvernements locaux et des ONG locales et internationales qui œuvrent sur le terrain. Leur but : faire évoluer les mentalités de ces mêmes acteurs, qui font passer au second plan la réinsertion des filles soldates. Leurs conclusions, réunies dans un livre intitulé « Où sont les filles », ont été présentées le 3 mars dernier devant la Commission du statut de la femme des Nations Unies. L’organisme international a depuis inséré un CD Rom pédagogique, qui reprend les résultats de cette recherche, dans le pack de ses futurs fonctionnaires. Démonter un AK pour rentrer (...) Dans leurs recommandations, Mc Kay et Mazurana incitent les Nations Unies, les gouvernements et les ONG internationales à « reconnaître que le fait d’exiger la possession d’une arme et la connaissance de son maniement, comme billet d’entrée au programme de DDR, en bloque l’accès à de nombreuses filles ». En effet, si ils en sont en théorie dispensé, les témoignages des enfants prouvent qu’ils doivent le plus souvent remettre une arme et effectuer le test du démontage-remontage d’un AK 47 pour accéder aux programmes, comme c’est le cas des adultes. « Le but principal des autorités », avoue Ariane Brunet, « est de retirer les armes des combattants. Et ce test ne fait que conforter les acteurs locaux et internationaux dans leur idée que les filles, dans ces conflits, ne sont que des « civiles associées aux troupes ». Une notion simpliste dans laquelle « militaires, représentants gouvernementaux et fonctionnaires de l’aide » plaçaient « les femmes, les filles et leurs enfants pour ne pas avoir à s’en occuper », estiment les auteurs. « Outre le fait que le nombre de femmes enrôlées dans les groupes armés est sous-estimé, leur fonction est trop souvent réduite à celle d’« esclaves sexuelles » ou d’« épouses captives », explique Ariane Brunet. « Alors qu’elles étaient chargées de l’espionnage, de la formation des enfants kidnappés, des pillages, notamment de produits médicaux... » Un retour difficile Autant d’expériences, qui, paradoxalement, font prendre confiance en elles à ces jeunes filles, cantonnées à des rôles moindres dans leurs sociétés traditionnelles. (...) Le fait est que le temps de captivité moyen des ex-combattantes est de 4 à 12 ans. Un temps assez long pour leur permettre, contre leur gré, de procréer. Et le retour dans le village d’origine avec un enfant est encore plus difficile. En plus de la honte d’avoir été violées, les jeunes mères condamnent leur enfant à être éternellement stigmatisé comme le fils d’un rebelle. Elles se condamnent également presque automatiquement à ne pas retrouver de mari. C’est pourquoi certaines « épouses captives », devant l’absence de perspective, préfèrent devenir l’épouse officielle d’un rebelle. Seule solution, pour elles, se former. Elles « considèrent la formation professionnelle et l’accès à l’éducation comme la clé de leur réinsertion sociale », expliquent Mc Kay et Mazurana. Il ne faut pas perdre de vue que nombre d’entre elles ont été arrachées aux bancs de l’école primaire. Reste aux acteurs « fonctionnaires de l’aide » à leur donner les moyens de reprendre leur vie en main. Où sont les
filles ? de Susan McKay et Dyan Mazurana Avec le partenariat de
« Droits et Démocratie ». |
Allemagne / Germany
Conférence
Internationale des Femmes : "Sexe et
Démocratie"
11 au 13 Septembre 2004 - Ministère des Affaires étrangères
Dear women,
(...) please find the invitation for the international
women's conference
"Gender and Democracy" in Berlin from
11th to 13th September 2004
in English and French.
Looking forward to seeing you in
Berlin!
Sincerely,
Anne Stauffer
From : a.stauffer@frauenrat.de
The 2ND REGIONAL HRE TRAINING FOR SE EUROPE that will take place from 25th to 29th October 2004 in Maribor, Slovenia.
Please find below the information on the seminar for possibilities to get Council of Europe grant (all information are available on http://www.coe.int/T/E/Cultural%5FCo%2Doperation/education/Teacher%5Ftraining/Courses%5Fand%5Fseminars/ ), the draft programme of the seminar and application form for those, who are not eligible to apply through CoE grant schema.
All information about the seminar are also available on http://www.eip-ass.si under "TRAININGS".
National CRC Project "My Rights" http://www.eip-ass.si/mojepravice
International Symposium : Gender
Perspectives Increasing Diversity for Information Society
Technology
Date: 24-26 June
2004
Venue: Bremen, Germany
Web: http://www.e-gist.net
Course : Peace-building, Reconstruction and Good
Governance
Date: July 5-23, 2004
Venue:
Norwich, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Web:
http://www.remedios.com.ph/
Date: 24-26 June 2004
Venue: Parañaque City, Metro Manila, The Philippines
Web: http://www.capwip.org/training/mggr.htm
***
* Belgique : Nouvelles questions féministes
La première version de l'article complet (soumise ensuite à
évaluation) vous sera demandée pour septembre 2005.
Merci de consulter les
consignes aux auteur·e·s sur le site : http://www.unil.ch/liege/nqf/pageconsignes.pdf
* France : C'est pour un garçon ou pour une fille ? La Dictature du genre
Voilà ce que cet ouvrage s'efforce de démontrer. S'appuyant sur la recherche féministe anglo-saxonne ce livre féroce s’en prend, avec un sérieux non dénué d’humour, à la « dictature du genre » dans tous les domaines. Les illustrations de la rigidité des rôles attribués aux femmes et aux hommes ou, au contraire, les exemples de transgression sont puisés dans la vie quotidienne, la littérature et la culture populaire. Fervent adepte des théories « constructionnistes », Georges-Claude Guilbert défie équitablement les phallocrates comme les féministes « essentialistes » qui ne jurent que par la Féminité et rejoignent en cela leurs « adversaires » machistes.
Georges-Claude Guilbert - Éditions Autrement
* Germany : About
lacking Human Rights Education
In its 3rd Report on Germany (adopted on December
05, 2003 and released on June 08, 2004) ECRI raises again concerns about
lacking Human Rights Education in Germany. ECRI's country-specific reports are
available in English, French and in the national language of the country
concerned at www.coe.int/ecri
25. In its second report, ECRI underlined the importance of including human rights education in school curricula. It also stressed the need to ensure that materials in use in schools contain information on the diversity of German society, presented in a manner that encourages appreciation of this diversity.
26. ECRI welcomes the fact that one of the main tasks of the Institute for Human Rights, established by the German authorities in March 2001, is to work to promote human rights education in Germany. As concerns human rights education in schools, however, ECRI notes that, although a recommendation of the Federal authorities exists aimed at introducing human rights education in the school curricula of all Länder, only a small number of Länder have so far followed this recommendation in practice. As a result, in schools in most Länder human rights are only taught in the form of specific projects, some of which do, however, focus more specifically on issues of racism and racial discrimination.
27. Another recommendation of the Federal authorities aims at introducing intercultural education in the school systems of all Länder, not as a separate subject, but as a crosscutting approach to all subjects. Generally, it has been reported to ECRI that work has been carried out in all Länder to introduce this approach as a crosscutting theme for different subjects. However, it has also been brought to ECRI's attention that materials currently in use in German schools do not always reflect the diversity of German society. In addition, work aimed at developing the intercultural competence of teachers, educators and, more generally, of the school communities, has reportedly been limited.
Recommendations
28. ECRI recommends to the German authorities that they ensure that human rights education is introduced as a compulsory subject in all levels of schools throughout Germany. It also recommends that the German authorities monitor the extent to which intercultural education is concretely integrated into everyday practice in German schools, including by ensuring that materials in use in German schools reflect the diversity of German society. ECRI also calls for further measures to improve the intercultural competence of teachers, educators and the school communities.
* Ireland : Looking at the economy through women's eyes
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WIDE's Irish National Platform
Banúlacht, a feminist development education organisation that works with
locally based women's organisations in Ireland, recently released
'Looking at the economy through women's eyes - A facilitator's guide for
economic literacy'. This facilitator's guide has been published with the aim of enabling facilitators, tutors, adult workers and development educators to carry out economic literacy training from a feminist perspective. The training methodology and workshop resources in the facilitator's guide are based on Banúlacht's experience of developing and delivering economic literacy training. The production of this facilitator's guide began in 1997 when Banúlacht began to develop training based on WIDE's economic literacy manual 'Women in the market'. Since 1999, Banúlacht has organised 35 workshops on economic literacy with 21 different women's organisations. Through the training, participants have come to recognise their own knowledge of the economy. They have recognised their right to critique government policy based on their lived experience of the economy. Crucially, they have explored frameworks with which to analyse and critique economic policy. The facilitator's guide is a compilation of resources and activities that have been tried and developed through interaction with these women. The guide is intended for trainers or facilitators who already have experience and skills in planning training sessions and in group facilitation and presentation. The material is suitable for groups who want to develop basic awareness on the issue. The facilitator's guide is divided into two parts: Part 1 gives an overview of economic literacy from two different sections (Methodology and concepts & analyses). Part 2 is organised around five concept areas, each focussing on a different theme:
Each section contains a conceptual
overview designed to give facilitators a broad understanding of key
concepts and terminology and includes references for resources and
further reading.
To order a copy of the facilitator's guide, please contact the author of the book, Maeve Taylor, at banulach@iol.ie | |
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source: WIDE News May http://www.neww.org.pl/2/en.php/index.php?page=news&wid=1780 | |
* USA : The W Effect - Bush's War on Women
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In this unique and essential
collection, Katha Pollit, Patricia Williams, Barbara Ehrenreich, Jill
Nelson, Vandana Shiva, and a host of other frontline thinkers,
journalists, and activists employ wit, outrage, and cold, hard facts to
expose the comprehensive incursion into women’s rights.
Taking stock of Bush-era policies at home
and abroad, the writers in this book measure the gap between the
women-friendly rhetoric and the deadly realities happening as a result
of Bush era policies—what editor Laura Flanders calls “The W Effect.”
Both a harsh reality check and a hopeful starting point for new action,
The W Effect brings together today’s premier feminist voices to provide
cutting-edge reports; fresh, empowering analyses; and engaging,
provocative ideas for the future. As their work demonstrates, women around
the globe have come under increasing attack in the new millennium, both
literally, in the case of war, incarceration, and punitive repression,
and more subtly, in the case of eroded rights and lost economic ground.
In the political year 2004, The W Effect puts together the pieces: tax
cuts and a marriage initiative for welfare recipients, civilian
casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq and a militarized United States,
Title IX under siege and macho political posturing for the media, and
yes, Roe v. Wade threatened and the return of the international gag
rule. A necessary book for anyone interested in
current politics, for feminists of all ages and genders, for the
activist community, for general readers, and for students, The W Effect
provides the real information women need—and can’t find in the
mainstream media—about their rights and their future. | |
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***