Lucy Bannerman of The Times writes:
A transgender lecturer orchestrated a smear campaign against academics across the UK in which universities were described as dangerous and accused of “hate crime” if they refused to accept activists’ views that biological males can be women, it can be revealed.
Natacha Kennedy, a researcher at Goldsmiths University of London who is also understood to work there under the name Mark Hellen, faces accusations of a “ludicrous” assault on academic freedom after she invited thousands of members of a closed Facebook group to draw up and circulate a list shaming academics who disagreed with campaigners’ theories on gender.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/eb941d92-b2ec-11e8-8fb1-ac438dd6af00
Author: fem4admin39
John Steinbeck was a sadistic womaniser, says wife in memoir
Sian Cain of The Guardian writes:
John Steinbeck’s wife Gwyn Conger Steinbeck describes the author as “a sadistic man” and a serial womaniser, in a newly unearthed memoir found in Wales, which is set to be published for the first time this week.
“Like so many writers, he had several lives, and in each he was spoilt, and in each he felt he was king,” she wrote. “From the time John awoke to the time he went to bed, I had to be his slave.”
By her account, Steinbeck rarely showed affection to her or their two sons, Thomas and John Jr, and had never wanted any children. When she was experiencing problems during her pregnancy with John Jr, Steinbeck told her that she had “complicated” his life during a busy period of writing. When John Jr arrived prematurely in 1946, she recalls Steinbeck telling her: “I wish to Christ he’d die, he’s taking up too much of your fucking time.” She identifies the conversation as “the moment when love died”.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/sep/07/john-steinbeck-a-sadistic-womaniser-says-wife-in-memoir
Argentinians formally leave Catholic church over stance on abortion
Uki Goni for The Guardian writes:
Thousands of Argentinians – most of them women – have started formal proceedings to abandon the Catholic church, in protest of the church’s campaign against efforts to legalise abortion in the country.
In the month since the country’s senate voted to maintain a ban on almost all abortions, more than 3,700 people have submitted apostasy applications to the Argentinian synod, according to César Rosenstein, a lawyer and founding member of the Argentinian Coalition for a Lay State.
The church strongly opposed the attempted reform. According to the Clarín newspaper, Pope Francis personally called on anti-abortion legislators to lobby their colleagues to reject the legislation; many senators invoked their Catholic faith during the 15-hour debate.
But the vote has also galvanised women’s rights campaigners, and provoked a new discussion around the Catholic church’s role in the country. Hundreds of people had signed apostasy forms at Cael’s street corner stalls around the country, Rosenstein said.
“Keep your rosaries out of my ovaries,” read an improvised sign at a Cael desk set up in downtown Buenos Aires.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/09/argentina-catholic-church-legalize-abortion-apostacy
#Me Too – Domestic Violence – Great new website!
This is a safe online site for telling your story when you feel you have no one to tell it to.The campaign – ME TOO- DOMESTIC VIOLENCE wants women and children to be safe when any form of violence or even death is a real and present threat.
Me Too-Domestic Violence is part of a campaign to demand that politicians once again restore the network of specialist, domestic violence, women’s and children’s refuges run by women for women which must be adequately funded on a recurrent basis.
As women we and our children have a right to live freely -free from injury, abuse, trauma and death at the hands of violent men. We have a right to live in emotional and physical safety in our homes with men who claim to love us.
http://metoo-domesticviolence.org/
‘Unusual’ legal industry structure heightens sexual harassment risk
Grace Ormsby for Lawyers Weekly writes:
Shine Lawyers Christie Toy said the majority of sexual harassment claims involve a power imbalance, and this is prevalent within traditional law firms due to the “hierarchy of seniority – based on experience and financial involvement in the firm.”
She cited recent research from Shine Lawyers that demonstrated “almost half (49.9 per cent) of those who had been harassed had been harassed by a boss, superior or supervisor,” and while this study was not specific to law firms, Ms Toy said “this to too frequent an occurrence across the legal industry.”
The power balance creates challenges for young lawyers, she said, as well as for the firms that are dealing with sexual harassment allegations.
“This feature was quite clear in the #MeToo movement, where the majority of women coming forward had been sexually harassed by a someone who was their senior, or had the ability to make our break their career.”
“It is a significant factor in almost all the cases we see.”
https://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/biglaw/24008-unusual-legal-industry-structure-heightens-sexual-harassment-risk?
Queensland women considered or tried to perform abortions on themselves, data shows
Ben Smee for The Guardian writes:
More than 100 women in Queensland considered or attempted to conduct abortions on themselves in the past five years, according to data from a pro-choice counselling service that will be reviewed by a state parliamentary committee inquiry on Monday.
Queensland has proposed new laws to decriminalise abortion but it remains an offence for both doctors and women, under laws passed in 1899 and largely unchanged since.
Abortion is practised in Queensland but women’s groups say the criminal laws act to restrict access for many women, particularly in regional areas, and increase cost. Guardian Australia reported that in the first half of 2018 more than 60 women from Cairns had flown interstate for procedures that are not performed in Queensland public hospitals.
It is expected that MPs from all parties will be allowed a conscience vote on the legislation, which should be put to the parliament before the end of the year.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/10/queensland-women-considered-or-tried-to-perform-abortions-on-themselves-data-shows
Why Serena Williams was completely right
Tom Heenan at The New Daily writes:
Serena Williams was right.
She was far better behaved than many of her male counterparts in Sunday’s (AEST) US Open final against Naomi Osaka, yet paid a far greater price for challenging umpire Carlos Ramos.
And in doing so, Williams showed that women get a rougher deal than men on the tennis court.
The 23-time grand slam singles winner is no on-court angel, but she is no John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors or Ilie Nastase. She’s not even an Andy Murray or a Nick Kyrgios. And she’s certainly not a cheat.
Her ‘run-in’ with Ramos was the perfect example of the double standards between men’s and women’s tennis.
USTA president Katrina Adams told ESPN: “We have to have consistency, because when you look at what the women, in this case Serena, is feeling, we watch the guys do this all the time.
“They are badgering the chair umpires on the changeover. Nothing happens.”
The Women’s Tennis Association [WTA] has also declared its commitment to ensuring that “all players were treated the same”, regardless of gender. This was not the case in the women’s final, the WTA added.
Sure, Williams was angry and the incident did not look good.
But the double standards in tennis are staring us all in the face. And on that, Williams was completely right.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/sport/tennis/2018/09/10/serena-williams-completely-right/?
Dorothy Hill: Pioneer and Professor ·
Professor Dorothy Hill was an Australian geologist and palaeontologist, the first female professor at an Australian university, and the first female president of the Australian Academy of Science.
Dorothy Hill was a well-known figure at the University of Queensland from the time she was 18 years old and beginning her degree until she retired, aged in her seventies. By then she had become a world-renowned professor.
Throughout her career, she led by example and inspired women to pursue science and a university education. Through her numerous achievements, she helped to advance the place of women in academia.
https://uqlibraryonlineexhibitions.omeka.net/exhibits/show/dorothy-hill-online-exhibition https://trove.nla.gov.au/people/754082?
https://www.science.org.au/learning/general-audience/history/interviews-australian-scientists/emeritus-professor-dorothy-hill
Concern for clients as domestic violence court services put out for tender
Domestic Violence NSW chief executive Moo Baulch said the state government’s decision to proceed with a three-week tender process for the provision of women’s court support services has caused considerable angst in the sector.
“The timeframe means really small organisations will be pitted against larger organisations, which are better equipped to prepare a tender within three weeks,” Ms Baulch said.
“It means you lose the expertise of staff on the ground who, in some cases, have been doing this for years and years.”
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/concern-for-clients-as-domestic-violence-court-services-put-out-for-tender-20180904-p501mq.html
How a Runaway Nun Helped an Outlaw Monk Change the World
Andrew Curry for National Geographic writes in October 2017:
October 31 marks 500 years since Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of a Wittenberg church, an act that secured his place in history. But historians say his later career—and the Reformation movement he led —might have looked very different if not for his marriage to von Bora.
Luther’s bride was no ordinary woman, particularly for the 16th century. In 1504, at the age of five, von Bora—born to impoverished German nobility—was shipped off to a convent.
At the time, Luther’s marriage was a scandal on many levels: He was a monk who had broken his vows, married to a nun who had broken hers. As Luther continued his career as a theologian and preacher, his marriage flouted centuries of Catholic teaching about celibacy and the priesthood—and established married clergy as a precedent for Reformation churches.
“As soon as this former monk married a former nun, people took interest,” says Gabriele Jancke, a historian at Freie University in Berlin.
As Luther’s intellectual fame grew, some of his allies, uncomfortable with his wife’s outsize presence, referred to her as “Doctorissa” in their letters – intended as a mean-spirited dig at both Katharina and her husband. Others tried to needle Luther by suggesting that some of his ideas were actually Katharina’s. [ed: and maybe
they were. . . ]
“Women at the time were supposed to be seen and not heard,” says Martin Treu, a historian at the Luther Society in Wittenberg and author of a von Bora biography. “Von Bora was seen as self-confident, strong-willed, and independent, which were all negative attributes for women at the time.”
Luther sometimes referred to his wife as Wittenberg’s “morning star,” up earlier than anyone else in town to manage a staff of nearly a dozen servants, look after their six children, and manage the equivalent of a mid-sized company. (He also called her “Lord Katie” in some of the 21 surviving letters he wrote to her.)
As the Reformation movement spread across Europe, the house that Katharina ran became its epicenter. After dinner, Luther, Katharina, and select guests discussed theology and politics in Latin, hammering out the intellectual framework of the Reformation.
Remarkably, Luther’s last will made Katharina his sole inheritor, and named her guardian of their children. (Treu says the move was unheard of at the time, and ultimately ruled illegal by incredulous judges after his death in 1546.)
Kramer says von Bora’s story is a reminder that the Reformation wasn’t a one-man project.
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/10/martin-luther-wife-protestant-reformation-500/
http://go-newfocus.co.uk/articles/app/category/biography/article/katharina-luther-the-morning-star-of-wittenberg
