Category: Workforce Discrimination

Lesbians: the canaries in the mine (Susan Hawthorne) – Verity La La

I would suggest that when lesbians become victims of attack, they are a signal. They are the canaries in the mine. And if the perpetrators get away with it, then other attacks will follow. So, we need to be protesting every attack on lesbians, because it is a sign of hatred in the social system. If lesbians are not protected, then people who don’t fit some other social dimension will not be safe from attack either. Keep your lesbian sister safe and watch the effect it has on society (Hawthorne 2020, pp. 171-172).

Source: Lesbians: the canaries in the mine (Susan Hawthorne) – Verity La La

Donations double for pool body sued by transgender player | MSN

Donations have doubled in a day for the legal defence of a pool federation being sued by a banned transgender player.

The amount pledged to the crowdfunding page of the English Blackball Pool Federation (EBPF) has soared from around £6,600 to more than £13,000.

The money was pledged after Telegraph Sport highlighted that the ruling body had been seeking financial support amid fears the costs involved in the case would prove beyond its means.

Harriet Haynes is suing the EBPF for discrimination after it banned players born male from competing in women’s events. She claims it led her to suffer a “loss of opportunity” and “injured feelings”.

As the case has entered its fourth day, Canterbury County Court was due to hear evidence from the transgender goalkeeper who caused a storm in women’s football after Haynes called her as an expert witness.

Blair Hamilton, who is an academic affiliated with Manchester Metropolitan University, the University of Brighton and the Tavistock NHS Gender Identity Clinic, was expected to endorse Haynes’s claims.

In August, Telegraph Sport reported how Sutton United, who appointed Lucy Clark as the first trans manager in the top five tiers of the English female game, had provoked controversy by signing Hamilton for their women’s team.

Source: Donations double for pool body sued by transgender player

Gender pay gaps getting worse in Aussie law firms – Lawyers Weekly

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s (WGEA) data for 2023–24 revealed that just under half of the 62 major law firms with comparable data to the previous reporting year had a worse gender pay gap (GPG).

Source: Gender pay gaps getting worse in Aussie law firms – Lawyers Weekly

ICC chief prosecutor seeks arrest warrants for Taliban leaders over persecution of women | Taliban | The Guardian

The international criminal court’s chief prosecutor has requested arrest warrants for the Taliban’s supreme leader and Afghanistan’s chief justice on the grounds that their persecution of women and girls in Afghanistan is a crime against humanity.

It marks the first time the prosecutor has built a case around systemic crimes against women and girls, legal experts say. It is also a rare moment of vindication for Afghan activists, who over the last three years have often felt abandoned by the international community even as Taliban oppression deepened.

Since sweeping back to power in 2021, the Taliban have issued more than 80 decrees that violate women’s basic rights. Women are barred from most work, secondary education and public spaces, and their daily life is restricted in various ways.

Recently the group banned windows in rooms frequently used by women, to ensure they could not be seen by men not related to them. New buildings should be constructed without windows in these rooms and existing windows should be covered up, the order stipulated.

Activists are campaigning for the crime of gender apartheid to be recognised under international law, to reflect the scale of Taliban restrictions.

Source: ICC chief prosecutor seeks arrest warrants for Taliban leaders over persecution of women | Taliban | The Guardian

‘I got rape threats over claims I put a feminist symbol in a video game’ | BBC

Young male gamers had taken issue with a single frame in the trailer, in which the female character could be seen holding her thumb and forefinger close together.

They thought it resembled a hand gesture used by a radical online feminist community almost a decade ago to poke fun at the size of Korean men’s penises.

Darim had become the latest victim in a series of vicious online witch hunts, in which men in South Korea attack women they suspect of having feminist views. They bombard them with abuse and try to get them sacked.

This is part of a growing backlash to feminism, in which feminists have been branded man-haters who deserve to be punished. The witch hunts are having a chilling effect on women, with many now scared to admit they are feminists.

This is forcing the movement underground, in a country where gender discrimination is still deeply entrenched. South Korea has the largest gender pay gap in the OECD, a group of the world’s rich countries.

The backlash began in the mid-2010s, following a surge of feminist activism. During this time, women took to the streets in protest at sexual violence and the widespread use of hidden cameras that secretly film women using toilets and changing rooms – around 5,000 to 6,000 cases are reported annually.

There is evidence the authorities are also capitulating to the anti-feminists’ demands. When Darim reported her abuse to the police, they refused to take her case.

They said because the finger-pinching gesture was taboo, it was “logical” that she, as a feminist, had been attacked. “I was astonished,” she said. “Why would the authorities not protect me?”

A 2024 IPSOS poll of 31 countries found only 24% of women in South Korea defined themselves as feminist, compared to an average of 45%, and down from 33% in 2019.

Source: ‘I got rape threats over claims I put a feminist symbol in a video game’

Pope Francis names Sister Simona Brambilla, first woman, to head a major Vatican office for all religious orders |SMH

Rome: Pope Francis has named the first woman to head a major Vatican office, appointing an Italian nun, Sister Simona Brambilla, to become prefect of the department responsible for all the Catholic Church’s religious orders.

The appointment on Monday marks a major step in Francis’ aim to give women more leadership roles in governing the church. While women have been named to No. 2 spots in some Vatican offices, never before has a woman been named prefect of a dicastery or congregation of the Holy See Curia, the central governing organ of the Catholic Church.

The appointment means that a woman is now responsible for the women who do much of the church’s work – the world’s 600,000 Catholic nuns – as well as the 129,000 Catholic priests who belong to religious orders.

[N]othing theologically would now prevent Francis from naming Brambilla a cardinal, since cardinals don’t technically have to be ordained priests.

But in an indication of the novelty of the appointment and that perhaps Francis was not ready to go that far, the pope simultaneously named as a co-leader, or “pro-prefect”, a cardinal: Angel Fernandez Artime, a Salesian.

The appointment, announced in the Vatican daily bulletin, lists Brambilla first as “prefect” and Fernandez second as her co-leader. Theologically, it appears Francis believed the second appointment was necessary since the head of the office must be able to celebrate Mass and perform other sacramental functions that currently can only be done by men.

Catholic women have long complained of second-class status in an institution that reserves the priesthood for men.

Francis has upheld the ban on female priests and tamped down hopes that women could be ordained as deacons.

[Ed: Far too little, too late. The Catholic Church should be stripped of its assets to compensate the many harmed by the pedophile priests nurtured and protected by this global crime syndicate.]

Source: Pope Francis names Sister Simona Brambilla, first woman, to head a major Vatican office for all religious orders

How having a baby makes it more likely Australian couples rely on the man’s income | The Conversation

Australian women are better educated than men but still face poorer job prospects and lower incomes.

We see this in Australia’s stubbornly persistent gender pay gap – estimated at nearly 22%.

Our research shows how having children plays a significant part establishing and maintaining these inequalities.

[H]ouseholds where men earn the most still dominate. In 2019, they accounted for 54% of Australian households – compared to 29% of those where earnings were equal and 17% where women were the biggest contributors.

Our research found the transition to parenthood is a key cause of this gender imbalance. Having a child increased the likelihood couples relied on the male partners’ income and reduced the chance of equal-earnings arrangements.

Importantly, we found little evidence of a return to pre-parenthood arrangements a decade after couples had their first child.

Fairer paternity leave schemes, tax incentives for two income households and tougher legislation protecting working mothers against discrimination would help ensure women’s job prospects do not worsen upon motherhood.

[Ed: How about just paying women a fair wage for the job of having and raising children rather than pressuring them to return to the workforce in priority to focusing on parenting?]

Source: How having a baby makes it more likely Australian couples rely on the man’s income

Brad Battin ousts John Pesutto as Victorian Liberal leader as Moira Deeming returns to fold | Victorian politics | The Guardian

John Pesutto has been ousted as the Victorian Liberal party leader after a successful challenge by Brad Battin during a meeting of MPs on Friday.

A snap vote to re-admit Moira Deeming to the party room on Friday morning morphed into a referendum on Pesutto’s future.

Emerging from the meeting as leader, Battin said he was now focused on cost-of-living issues and crime – along with roads, reducing taxes and the state of Victoria’s finances.

Asked about the lack of women in the leadership team, Battin referenced his support for Deeming but declined to say whether he agreed with her views.

“I fought to bring a woman back into the party room,” he said.

Deeming said Pesutto had shaken her hand and said sorry to her in today’s party room meeting.

“He has apologised to me today, and that’s the end of it,” she said.

Pesutto’s job had been on shaky ground ever since he lost a defamation case brought against him by Deeming. He walked into parliament alone ahead of Friday’s party room meeting.

Source: Brad Battin ousts John Pesutto as Victorian Liberal leader as Moira Deeming returns to fold | Victorian politics | The Guardian

NSW cop sacked over topless waitress party, domestic violence case failures | SMH

A NSW police officer who hosted a team Christmas party featuring a topless waitress and failed to adequately investigate domestic violence allegations has failed in a bid to overturn his dismissal.

The NSW Industrial Relations Commission last week upheld an order by Police Commissioner Karen Webb to sack Andrew Herring, a senior constable with 13 years’ service, based on concerns about his integrity and performance.

By 2022, the Lake Illawarra Local Area Command officer had received several warnings for not using body-worn video and failing to adequately respond to domestic violence complaints.

In September that year, he met with a woman who alleged her ex-partner had posted intimate images of her online, including advertisements that made her look like a sex worker.

Herring did not provide an email address when the woman asked if she could send the video to police, did not perform a risk assessment and failed to mention the intimate images when he later typed up her complaint.

The next month, Herring visited a woman who complained her ex-partner had breached an apprehended domestic violence order with a flurry of 35 phone calls and 11 intimidating voice messages.

“Until it reaches a criminal element, there’s nothing the police can do,” Herring told her. He took no notes and failed to record the incident in the police database for two weeks.

Toward the end of 2022, Herring hosted a “Yellow Team Christmas Party” at an apartment, which he described as “a fairly loose affair”.

The police commissioner’s lawyers argued that allowing the waitress to remain at the party amounted to sexual harassment.

Source: 12ft

Former Lib Dem candidate banned from standing as MP after wearing gender critical t-shirt sues party for £90k | UK | MSN

A former Lib Dem candidate who was barred from standing as an MP after she wore a gender-critical shirt is suing for £90,000 pounds in compensation.

Natalie Bird has complained about being unfairly targeted for her beliefs after she donned a top with the slogan “Woman: Adult Human Female” to a party meeting.

Bird, who is a domestic abuse survivor, has said she is passionate about safe spaces for vulnerable women.

She was called an “illiberal TERF,” suspended from the Lib Dems and banned from standing as an MP for a decade.

Earlier this year, Bird sued for discrimination, and representatives of the Lib Dem membership “conceded the claim.”

The case is now in court again to determine how much she should be compensated, with Bird asking Judge Karen Walden-Smith to award her £90,000 for “injury to feelings” for breach of her membership contract and rights under the Equality Act.

Source: Former Lib Dem candidate banned from standing as MP after wearing gender critical t-shirt sues party for £90k