Rape and sexual abuse of women in North Korea 'open, unaddressed and widely tolerated'

ABC News reports:

A Human Rights Watch report based on interviews with 106 North Koreans who have left the country found the country’s extremely patriarchal society means many women feel powerless to demand accountability over sexual violence, many are also ashamed of being abused, and some choose to keep silent because of flimsy law enforcement and support systems.
The report details sexual abuse by men in official positions of power, such as prison guards, police officers, prosecutors, soldiers and market supervisors.
“Interviewees told us that when a guard or police officer ‘picks’ a woman, she has no choice but to comply with any demands he makes, whether for sex, money, or other favours,” the report said.
“Women in custody have little choice should they attempt to refuse or complain afterward, and risk sexual violence, longer periods in detention, beatings, forced labour, or increased scrutiny while conducting market activities.”
A pervasive social stigma keeps victims silent, the report said, adding that all of the interviewees described “widespread impunity for perpetrators of sexual violence and lack of justice for survivors.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-01/north-korea-rape-and-sexual-abuse-widely-tolerated-says-report/10457794?

IBA: 43% of lawyers bullied and 25% sexually harassed

Grace Ormsby for Lawyers Weekly writes:
Preliminary results from the International Bar Association’s research into bullying and sexual harassment in the legal profession have indicated a global phenomenon of bullying and harassment among lawyers.
Over 5,000 lawyers from 120 jurisdictions have responded to the survey so far, showing that approximately one in two females and one in three males have been bullied (43 percent of respondents).
43 percent of victims said they had experienced bullying in the last year.
Of the same respondents, 25 percent of lawyers say they have been sexually harassed, with figures highlighting this has affected approximately one in three female lawyers and one in 15 males.
Sydney Law School’s challis chair of international law, Professor Ben Saul, said he is not surprised by the IBA’s preliminary findings.
He said “in many countries, the culture of the legal profession tends to bring out the worst in some people – adversarialism, competitiveness, ambition, “alpha” type personalities, long working hours and over tiredness, financial pressures and business risks, lack of work/life balance, and sub-optimal inter-personal skills.”
https://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/biglaw/24234-iba-43-of-lawyers-bullied-and-25-sexually-harassed?

'Third of girls' harassed in school uniform

BBC News reports:
The figures come from a report by children’s charity Plan International UK, which said many girls feel street harassment is “all part of growing up”.
It found:

  • 66% of girls in the UK said they had experienced unwanted sexual attention or sexual or physical contact in a public place
  • 35% of girls reported receiving unwanted sexual contact such as being touched, groped or grabbed
  • Girls as young as eight years old described witnessing or experiencing harassment
  • More than one in three girls received unwanted sexual attention such as being groped, stared at, catcalled and wolf-whistled while wearing school uniform
  • One-quarter of girls said they had been filmed or photographed by a stranger without permission

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-45777787

Sexual assault, harassment linked to health problems in women: study

Kim Painter for USA TODAY writes:
A history of sexual assault or workplace sexual harassment can have a major effect on the mental and physical health of a middle-aged woman, a new study suggests.
Victims of sexual assault suffer high rates of depression, anxiety and sleeplessness; victims of harassment have elevated rates of high blood pressure and sleep loss, according to the study published Wednesday in JAMA Internal Medicine.
The study is not the first or largest to link sexual assault and harassment with mental and physical health problems. But it may carry extra weight because the women in the study were directly examined by researchers and underwent formal mental health assessments. Some previous studies were based on surveys.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/10/03/sexual-assault-harassment-linked-health-problems-women-study/1503690002/

China’s Women-Only Subway Cars, Where Men Rush In

Sui-Lee Wee and Giulia Marchi for The New York Times report:

In one of China’s biggest cities, the women-only subway cars are full of men.
Based on a proposal from a member of a key political advisory body to the ruling Communist Party, the effort was launched to push the concept of “caring for women and respecting women.” Ye Zichuan, the head of Guangzhou Metro’s publicity department, stressed that the cars were labeled for women but not “only for women.” He said that there was no legal basis to segregate passengers by force.
Female commuters in China have long complained that some men take advantage of the packed trains to cop a quick feel. More than half of women surveyed by the state-run China Youth Daily newspaper in 2015 said they had experienced “inappropriate touching” on public transportation in China.
“On the surface, it looks like the women-only subway cars are meant to protect women,” she said, “but the effect is that women are told that they have to stay in one place in order to avoid getting sexually harassed.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/04/business/china-women-only-subway-cars.html

Egyptian woman jailed after posting video complaining about sexual harassment

Eric Tlozek for ABC News reports:

Actor and activist Amal Fathy has been sentenced to two years in prison in Egypt after speaking out against sexual harassment in a video she posted on Facebook.
She is the second woman in a year to be jailed for publicly criticising the treatment of women in the country.
On top of being fined for making “public insults”, Fathy was sentenced to two years in jail for “spreading false news” and “possessing indecent material” after she posted a video on Facebook detailing how she was sexually harassed while going to the bank.
Mr Baoumi said Fathy was one of many people being targeted as part of a general crackdown on dissent in Egypt.
Fathy’s husband is a human rights lawyer and the director of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, a human rights organisation.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-01/egypt-jails-woman-for-speaking-up-about-sexual-harassment/10324512?

McDonald’s Workers Strike to Demand Response to Sexual Harassment Charges

Kalena Thomhave of The American Prospect writes:
McDonald’s workers in ten cities went on strike during the lunch hour to protest sexual harassment, as well as inadequate responses or retaliation they’d received from management. For its part, McDonald’s says that no workers walked off the job.
McDonald’s restaurants in Chicago; Durham, North Carolina; Kansas City, Missouri; Los Angeles; Miami; Milwaukee; New Orleans; Orlando; San Francisco; and St. Louis all saw strikes as workers demanded that the McDonald’s Corporation respond to their complaints. A similar strike over the sexual harassment of women workers has not happened in over 100 years, when, in 1912, corset workers in Kalamazoo, Michigan, walked off the job in protest of sexual abuse.
A 2016 surveyby Hart Research Associates found that 40 percent of women fast food workers, disproportionately women of color, reported experiencing sexual harassment on the job. Nearly half of those women reported health problems, like stress and depression, stemming from the abuse. One in five experienced retaliation from management.
Fighting sexual harassment in a low-wage job without the protections of a union can not only be difficult, but risky. Women earning the minimum wage or just above it may not be able to afford to speak up and risk their jobs. Such workers are also more vulnerable to retaliation—for instance, having their hours reduced.
http://prospect.org/article/mcdonald%E2%80%99s-workers-strike-demand-response-sexual-harassment-charges

‘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?

Liberal MP Julia Banks to quit parliament, citing 'bullying and intimidation'

Liberal MP Julia Banks has announced she will not recontest her marginal seat of Chisholm in an incendiary statement blasting the “cultural and gender bias, bullying and intimidation” of women in politics.
She described bullying and intimidation as a “scourge” in politics, the media and business, and warned those who would accuse her of “playing the gender card” that she will continue to fight for gender equality because women have been “silent for too long”.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/aug/29/liberal-mp-julia-banks-to-quit-parliament-next-election-citing-bullying-and-intimidation?

Mexico City bans use of models at city events

MEXICO CITY (AP) — They’ve long been an unmissable part of public events in Mexico, from soccer matches to trade fairs: attractive women hired to be greeters or simply as eye candy, sometimes scantily clad in short skirts and high heels or crop-tops and hot pants emblazoned with corporate logos.
Now Mexico City has prohibited the use of models known in local parlance as “edecanes” at events sponsored by the local government, breaking new ground for a country where deeply entrenched gender stereotypes often continue to relegate women to supporting roles in the workforce.
Indra Rubio, who coordinates the gender justice program for Oxfam in Mexico, called the capital’s model ban a “small but very important step” for a country that’s “still macho.”
“We need to question as a society: Why is a woman’s body seen as an object?” Rubio said. “This places the woman always at a disadvantage, if her participation in the workforce is subject to her physical appearance.”
[A]s recently as last week, the Mexican Health Ministry organized a discussion on breastfeeding that was widely mocked for its all-male panel. And an initiative called “Not Without Women Mx” that urges men to boycott forums that omit female experts from panels was launched without a single woman sitting at the lead table.
https://apnews.com/f72718f5a1c344d8ad48c1659bf208df