Category: Inequity

Women need twice as many public washrooms as men, new report says

A new U.K. report argued there should be two female toilets to every male one, adding the lack of public toilets is a threat to women’s health and equality.

The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) report said women need more toilets because “of time-consuming factors related to clothing, menstruation and anatomical differences.”

The report’s authors pointed to “potty parity” — which is defined as equal speed of access to public restrooms — legislation that exists in certain places in the U.S. that recommends a 2:1 toilet ratio in favour of women.

Currently, in the U.K., the standard is 1:1.

Source: Women need twice as many public washrooms as men, new report says – National | Globalnews.ca

“Retired activist” Puts Case Against Amnesty International to WILPF for Human Rights Week

Australian feminist, environmental activist and whistleblower Isla MacGregor gave a compelling case against Amnesty International’s “Sex Work policy” at the Women’s International League For Peace and Freedom (WILPF)  forum in Hobart.

(ed: this is from 2015 but still relevant now)

Source: “Retired activist” Puts Case Against Amnesty International to WILPF for Human Rights Week | eachone

Female scientists start a database to showcase their work. Over 9,000 women join them

If young girls can be what they see in the world, then prepare for a new generation of female scientists. The visibility of women in science today is increasing thanks to the work of, yes, female scientists who grew tired of watching “manels” (male-only panels) at conferences and seeing only male scientists

Source: Female scientists start a database to showcase their work. Over 9,000 women join them

Child support: ‘When we interview women, they cry and cry and cry’

The Child Support Agency was established in 1988 in the wake of Bob Hawke’s declaration that “no child shall live in poverty”. Initially the Australian Tax Office collected and enforced payments, before the scheme was handed over to the Department of Social Services and the Department of Human Services – which complainants can find themselves bouncing between.

Kay Cook, associate professor in the Department of Social Sciences at Swinburne University, says: “The tax office never wanted to deal with child support. It viewed its role as collecting income, not dispersing private income. That’s sort of the problem that child support has always had, that it’s private money being transferred, rather than public money.”

Cook’s research includes analysis of child support systems in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the US. “In Australia we’re really cheeky in that single parents’ family tax benefits are typically calculated on how much child support they expect a parent to receive, not so much on how much they actually receive,” she says. “The government gets the savings of reducing family tax benefits so there is no incentive to the government to collect child support because if anything it costs them money.”

There’s also little or no will, she says, to solve the problem generally.

“It feels as though Australians are encouraged to look at me as somehow defective and deserving of suffering because I don’t have a male patron,” Amanda says. “And it’s at my former patron’s discretion as to whether or not me and his child are worthy of being supported.”

Source: Child support: ‘When we interview women, they cry and cry and cry’ | Australia news | The Guardian

Why Labor’s childcare policy is the biggest economic news of the election campaign

Labor’s childcare policy would do more for the economy than either side’s proposed tax cuts.

Source: Why Labor’s childcare policy is the biggest economic news of the election campaign

PODCAST: What is ’emotional labour’ and why are women sick of doing it all themselves?

“Emotional labour” might strike you as a strange term. We don’t necessarily want to think about emotions as “work,” or being thoughtful and considerate as “labour.” But what the concept speaks to is something real, that many women struggle with — particularly women in heterosexual relationships.

In a 2017 article for Harper’s Bazaar, Gemma Hartley wrote about the way in which women are socialized to pick up so much extra labour in terms of holding relationships together, planning trips, remembering events and birthdays, scheduling social and extracurricular activities, planning meals, etc. — generally thinking ahead, and taking care of life. And when we try to bring this up with our partners, we are accused of being nags, or of complaining. “I want a partner with equal initiative,” Gemma wrote.

Source: PODCAST: What is ’emotional labour’ and why are women sick of doing it all themselves?

Domestic violence victim forced on to ParentsNext welfare program in ‘horrifying’ case

In a case one policy expert described as “horrifying”, the woman then had her welfare payments suspended because she could not meet her “mutual obligations” while dealing with court, the police, her injuries and caring for her three children, the youngest of whom is two.

There is no requirement for a provider to inform participants they are entitled to a reprieve from their obligations while they deal with a personal crisis.

And they have little incentive to do so, critics say, because they do not receive the service fee when a participant is exempt.

Source: Domestic violence victim forced on to ParentsNext welfare program in ‘horrifying’ case | Australia news | The Guardian

Study finds female athletes cop brunt of online abuse

It has long been suspected that female athletes are subjected to more vitriol on social media than their male counterparts – now a new study has confirmed It has long been suspected that female athletes are subjected to more vitriol on social media than their male counterparts – now a new study has confirmed it.

Source: Study finds female athletes cop brunt of online abuse | The New Daily

Women undertake 72% of all unpaid work in Australia

Women doing 72% of unpaid work has egregious outcomes that are totally gendered; Australian males lives ride on the exploitation of women’s work.

“Men won’t easily give up a system in which half the world’s population works for next to nothing,” New Zealand feminist economist and former politician Professor Marilyn Waring CNZM said.

“I’m not talking about repaying this time. It’s about the redistribution of government resources. It’s a productivity and choice issue. Why should women spend all their time in unpaid work on a road to poverty. The poorer I am, the longer it takes me to do the things I need to do.

“In 2017, Price Waterhouse Cooper research concluded women undertook 72 per cent of all unpaid work in Australia. The bulk of this unpaid work is childcare. It is Australia’s largest industry – three times the financial and insurance services industry, the largest industry in the formal economy. The rest of unpaid work combined is the second largest sector in the Australian economy.

“This has egregious outcomes that are totally gendered; childcare, superannuation, equal pay and pay equity, the right to leisure – Australian males lives ride on the exploitation of women’s work,” said Waring.

Source: Women undertake 72% of all unpaid work in Australia

More women in Australia are going to prison than ever before. Here’s why

In the past 10 years, there has been a 75% increase in women’s rates of incarceration.

While men make up the majority of the Australian prison population, the number of women entering the prison system is increasing at a much faster rate.

Just over a third of female prisoners in Australia are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. This is particularly significant given Indigenous women comprise just 2 per cent of the general female population in Australia.

Source: More women in Australia are going to prison than ever before. Here’s why