International Women’s Day 2009

The interactive network portal http://www.grassrootsfeminism.net is a new and unique feminist meeting point. This website aims to establish transnational feminist networks and to archive cultural and political activities of the grassroots feminist movement worldwide.

Grassroots Feminism: Transnational archives, resources and communities is a user-generated Web 2.0 tool, encouraging anyone with an interest in feminist culture, activism or politics to participate – by uploading their projects, viewing or adding to the digital archives, sharing interviews with feminist activists and media makers, and creating their own profiles.

The website is founded and maintained by Elke Zobl, the creator behind the popular Grrrl Zine Network web portal. She says: “Young women, queer and trasgender folks in many countries today are engaged in an exciting variety of activist, cultural and political practices which need to be documented before they are lost to history. The aim of Grassroots Feminism is to counter some of the stereotypes about the post-feminist or third-wave feminist generation being preoccupied with pleasure and personal lives. But this site is not just for young women and their allies: we hope it will also become a tool for people of all ages and backgrounds to link up their struggles and create more cultural, social, political, environmental, and economic coalitions.”

By providing an interactive network and research platform, this website aims to make the work and activism of transnational feminists more accessible, as well as to establish a “living history” archive. The website provides a democratic tool for providing and sharing information and resources on feminist practice and theory, to used by feminist activists, supporters and scholars alike.

Website adminstrator Red Chidgey, a self-confessed DIY feminist and grassroots media historian, states: “For any feminist activist or researcher interested in mapping women’s movements worldwide there is always the problem of access and fragmentation. Grassroots Feminism aims to bring together the benefits of the internet and broadcast a lively, constantly updated, feminist museum into your living room. By reclaming cyberspace for a united feminist archive and platform, we believe this site will provoke and sustain conversations and actions across countries and cultures. And because tool-kits for social change are crucially important too, there are also facilities for uploading how-to guides and teaching materials. The ethos of the site is mutual aid, empowerment, shared information, and connections.”

A 10 minute Grassroots Feminist Media Survey is also featured online. With feminist media being so diverse and ephermeral it is important to collect our histories and trace connections between countries and generations. There are also opportunities for grassroots media producers and consumers to participate in longer interviews, with material going towards a proposed book that the website team are working on from the material on the site.

Other preview highlights include graphics from a second wave poster-making collective, Ladyfest digital archives, a guide to anti-racist audits of activist spaces, and fully searchable project listings. Contributors and projects span Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia, New Zealand, and North America – all are invited to access and contribute to this growing archive to represent a truly global picture of feminism today.

About:

Grassroots Feminism: Transnational archives, resources and communities is a feminist interactive network site and “living history” archive.

The site is organized and maintained by Elke Zobl from Salzburg, Austria (http://www.grrrlzines.net), with Red Chidgey, UK (http://www.redchidgey.net), and Jenny Gunnarsson Payne, Sweden.

Work on this the website forms part of Elke Zobl’s research project “Young women as producers of new cultural spaces”. The “Grassroots Media in Europe Archive” has been established by the web site team within the research project “Feminist Media Production in Europe”. Both research projects are funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and are based at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Austria.

Website graphics are provided by intricate paper-cut artist Nikki McClure, http://www.nikkimcclure.com

Contact/Interview Requests: Elke Zobl elke@grassrootsfeminism.net

Celebrities mark International Women’s Day (8 March) with a powerful call to do more to help expectant mothers in the world’s poorest countries. With an introduction by Sarah Blakemore.

Celebrity Oxfam supporters and high-profile women, including Angelique Kidjo, Annie Lennox and Zoe Ball, and Oxfam’s Director Barbara Stocking, are sending an open letter to The Times (UK). The big occasion? International Women’s Day, a celebration of the achievements of women. At Oxfam, we’re all for celebrating women – after all, they are invariably at the very heart of communities’ efforts to get out of poverty.

But, it’s also an opportunity to raise awareness of some of the challenges they face. Like Annie, Anqelique et al, I think a good place to start is the reality that millions of women worldwide still can’t have a child without having to gamble with their lives. The letter demands action to end the scandal of maternal mortality in the developing world. And you can read it in full here:

Letter to The Times

Tomorrow, as we celebrate International Women’s Day, it is important to remember that millions of women around the world are still being denied a fundamental human right: the right to have a child without being forced to gamble unnecessarily with their lives.

Today, one woman will die every minute in pregnancy or childbirth; that’s more than half a million each year. In the developing world, this remains the leading cause of death amongst women of reproductive age. But a vast majority of these lives could be saved if only mothers in poor communities had access to the basic healthcare that we take for granted: hospitals, medicines, doctors and midwives.

As women we believe that this situation is deplorable. Many of us, through our work with Oxfam, have had the opportunity to visit developing countries and to witness at first hand the incredible challenges that pregnant women face. And yet, where even a comparatively small investment is made in free, accessible public healthcare systems, the numbers of women dying in pregnancy and childbirth can be dramatically reduced. Just one extra midwife will save the lives of more than 200 mothers.

As the global economic crisis deepens, the need for action becomes ever more urgent. Faced with slowing economies and the prospect of receiving less aid from richer countries, many poor governments may be forced to cut back their public spending on vital projects and programmes such as healthcare, education, and social protection: the very programmes that people living in poverty need most in times of crisis. Without them, millions of people won’t be able to meet their basic needs, and women and children will suffer most as they take over responsibility for providing the resources and services that their governments cannot.

In this time, it is more important than ever that we maintain pressure on rich governments such as our own to keep the promises they have made to the developing world; promises to increase aid and to give more to help poor country governments provide the basic public services their people dearly need.

Women across the world deserve nothing less.

Sincerely,

Barbara Stocking, Chief Executive, Oxfam
Zoe Ball – TV and Radio Presenter
Angelique Kidjo – Singer and Oxfam Campaigner
Joanna Lumley – Actress
Emily Eavis – Festival organiser
Oumou Sangare – Singer
Mariella Frostrup-Journalist and broadcaster
Beverley Knight – Singer
Melanie Hall – Lawyer
Annie Lennox – Singer
Vanessa Branson-Hotelier
Ruby Wax-Comedien
Sandra Kamen-Theatre Owner

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/applications/blogs/pressoffice/?p=3876&newsblog

Irish candidates for this summer’s European elections are backing a campaign to end female genital mutilation in Europe, launched to mark International Women’s Day.

Amnesty International’s campaign calls for the adoption of a definitive strategy to end the practice and to provide protection to women and girls who flee their countries for fear of being mutilated.

FGM is practised in 28 African countries and in some parts of Asia and the Middle East. The European Parliamentary Committee on Women’s Rights claims that around 500,000 women in Europe have been subjected to it. ‘‘Over 2,500 women living in Ireland have survived genital mutilation,” said Amnesty Ireland programmes director Noeleen Hartigan.

The campaign is being endorsed by all of the outgoing Dublin MEPs – Eoin Ryan (Fianna Fáil), Gay Mitchell (Fine Gael), Proinsias De Rossa (Labour) and Mary Lou McDonald (Sinn Féin) and by Green Party European election candidate Senator Deirdre de Burca.

Médecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said International Women’s Day offered an opportunity to remember the women who experienced sexual violence.

The aid organisation released a report showing it provided healthcare to almost 13,000 victims of sexual violence in countries such as DR Congo, Burundi, Colombia, South Africa and Sudan. Its report, entitled Shattered Lives, emphasised the effectiveness of assault victims receiving emergency medical treatment within the first 72 hours after a sexual assault.

MSF said the emergency care needed for victims of rape was either very rare or absent in the countries where it operated.

http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=IRELAND-qqqm=news-qqqid=40131-qqqx=1.asp

To mark International Women’s Day, Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal is publishing an excerpt from Resistance Books’ Comrades in arms: Women in the Russian Revolution, by Kathy Fairfax, and making available the entire pamphlet to download in PDF format (see below).

The popular image of the Russian Revolution is of a revolution made by men. Ask the person in the street to name a figure from the Russian Revolution and most could come up with Lenin, Stalin, maybe Trotsky. A few might have heard of Zinoviev, Kamenev or Bukharin. But how many would name Kollontai, Armand or Krupskaya? How many know of the women who helped make revolution in Russia? How many know about the thousands of female Bolsheviks who marched through the streets of Petrograd in 1917 or shouted revolutionary speeches to cheering crowds or wrote and distributed pamphlets calling for revolution? In fact, women revolutionaries inspired the working class the world over and inaugurated a new era in world history.

These women worked alongside men in all the campaigns that ultimately brought state power. For twenty years before the revolution in 1917 they sustained the underground Bolshevik party organisation and agitated for revolution by writing and distributing leaflets and newspapers. After the fall of the tsar they became stump speakers, agitators and party recruiters. During the civil war they fought alongside men to defend their revolution and after the war was over they worked with men to build the institutions of the new society. This, at a time when women in the rest of Europe were still asking for the vote.

Who were these women? Like the male Bolsheviks, they were mostly Russian, from the cities and in early adulthood. Unlike the men though, most women Bolsheviks came from the middle and upper classes. It is not hard to work out why this should be so. Working-class and peasant women had a daily struggle to survive that left time for little else, while more-affluent women had the leisure to read and think and discuss ideas. As well, Russian society discouraged all women from participating in the male business of politics, and this prohibition was enforced particularly strongly within the working class and the peasantry.

Nevertheless in the first decades of this century so many thousands of women made the dangerous decision to become revolutionaries that Russia ended up with more radical women than any other country. Not all joined the Bolsheviks; some joined the Socialist Revolutionaries, others joined the Mensheviks. There were anarchist women as well. But a majority of women activists chose to join the Bolsheviks. For many of these women the decision to join the revolutionary movement before 1917 came about because of the political situation in Russia and because the revolutionary movement had always welcomed women into its ranks. For decades the oppression of women had been considered by social critics to be one of Russia’s great injustices. Upper- and middle-class women had access to very limited education and employment while most peasant girls never went to school. Women could not separate from their husbands, change their residence, leave the country, take a job or execute a bill of exchange without the permission of a male guardian. Divorce was practically impossible and women had significantly less property and inheritance rights than men.

Underlying these legal restrictions was a patriarchal value system that granted all men power over the women in their families. Whatever her class a woman was expected to marry a man of her parents’ choice and live her life as the dutiful wife of an authoritarian, if sometimes benevolent, husband. She owed her husband complete obedience and was compelled by the state to live with him, take his name and assume his social status. Social reformers and novelists such as Chernyshevsky and Turgenev deplored the situation and the small revolutionary organisations of the 1870s welcomed so many women into their ranks that by some estimates one third of their membership was female.

The position of women in Russia was complicated by the political situation. Although reformers from many different quarters were calling for fundamental change in many areas, among them the position of women, the recalcitrant tsarist government refused all possibilities of change. Not for them a constitutional monarchy with an independent parliament as in Western Europe. The tsar maintained a strong autocratic government whose liberal opposition was weak. And if the liberal opposition was weak, the feminists in the liberal intelligentsia were equally weak.

Here we must make a distinction between what we think of as feminism today and how it was viewed at the turn of the century. Feminism is one of the main tenets of our party. I consider myself a feminist. Probably most of you do as well. But early this century there was a real dividing line between feminism and socialism. In Russia, liberal feminists called for the government to reform the laws relating to women on the Western European model, so that women would have a few more rights within marriage, could own property and perhaps vote. They had no wish to challenge the capitalist system and the reforms they worked for benefited middle-class and aristocratic women, who were concerned with inheritance and property rights, far more than working-class or peasant women. Like their Western European counterparts, the women’s organisations they built urged the opposition liberal parties to include these reforms in their platforms.

The women who joined the Bolsheviks did so because they rejected liberal feminism, condemning it as a bourgeois ideology that overrated the significance of legal gender inequality and ignored the fundamental roots of the oppression of women that sprang from the private ownership of the means of production. For women Bolsheviks, liberation could not be given by governments: it had to be seized by women and men acting together to create a new society of equals.

As Lenin put it in a 1920 discussion with Clara Zetkin:

The theses [on communist work among women] must emphasise strongly that true emancipation of women is not possible except through communism. You must lay stress on the unbreakable connection between woman’s human and social position and the private ownership of the means of production. This will draw a strong, ineradicable line against the bourgeois movement for the “emancipation of women”. This will also give us a basis for examining the woman question as a part of the social, working-class question, and to bind it firmly with the proletarian class struggle and the revolution. Although discontent with the government was widespread, very few people, and far fewer women than men, chose a perilous life on the run in pursuit of a popular upheaval that might never come. Those who were willing to live that way were, by definition, exceptional.

Why did they join the Bolsheviks? What was it about this section of the international socialist movement that attracted so many women? To understand what the Bolsheviks offered women activists we have to look at the history of the Marxist movement and its attitudes to women.

Marxism and women’s liberation

The first Marxist work to consider the subject of women and the family was Engels’ The Condition of the Working Class of England written in 1844. The book dealt at length with the effects of capitalism on the family as women and children were increasingly substituted for male workers at a fraction of men’s wages. Capitalism, Engels noted at length, was destroying the traditional division of family labour, where woman was homemaker and man was breadwinner.

Within a year Marx and Engels had made a great advance in their thinking on women and the division of labour in The German Ideology. They suggested that the family was not a set of natural or biological relations but a social institution that corresponded to the mode of production. Further, they argued that a communal domestic economy was a necessary prerequisite for women’s liberation and that this would lead to the abolition or “supercession” of the family itself. This was an enormous advance on the prevailing attitude that the family was a natural entity and that women’s inferior position was biologically determined. In The German Ideology Marx and Engels also contrasted the loveless matches of the bourgeoisie with the affectionate matches of the proletariat and decided that property was the main obstacle to relations based on love, equality and mutual respect.

In Engels’ catechism of late 1847, “The Principles of Communism”, he asks “What influence will the communistic order of society have upon the family?”:

It will make the relations between the sexes a purely private affair which concerns only the persons involved, and calls for no interference by society. It is able to do this because it abolishes private property and educates children communally, destroying thereby the two foundation stones of hitherto existing marriage — the dependence of the wife upon her husband and of the children upon the parents conditioned by private property.

This commitment to the liberation of women and children and to the personal and sexual freedom of the individual was a strong current in late 19th century socialism and was part of the deeply felt heritage of the Bolsheviks as well. Thus, by 1850, Marx and Engels had formulated many of the ideas that would shape the Bolshevik vision. Unlike earlier utopian social theorists — such as Henri Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier and Robert Owen — their vision of the future was based on their understanding of past modes of production and reproduction and their evolution. Recognising the family as a social and not a natural construct, they began to challenge the gender division of labour.

In Volume I of Capital, Marx spends a lot of time discussing the factory system, the extensive employment of women and children and the effect this was having on the family system. But even in the hellish crucible of capitalist industry he saw the germ of something better:

However terrible and disgusting the dissolution of the old family ties within the capitalist system may appear, large-scale industry, by assigning an important part in socially organised processes of production, outside the sphere of the domestic economy, to women, young persons and children of both sexes, does nevertheless create a new economic foundation for a higher form of the family and of relations between the sexes … It is also obvious that the fact that the collective working group is composed of individuals of both sexes and all ages must under the appropriate conditions turn into a source of humane development, although in its spontaneously developed, brutal capitalist form, the system works in the opposite direction …

The reality of massive female employment in industry meant that it was imperative that women be incorporated as active participants in political work. Furthermore, as Marx wrote to his friend Ludwig Kugelmann in late 1868: “Everyone who knows anything of history, knows that great social revolutions are impossible without the feminine ferment.”

In 1871, Marx was instrumental in having the International — the International Working Men’s Association or First International — adopt a new rule recommending the establishment of female branches, without excluding the possibility of branches composed of both sexes. The prospects for such a commitment were poor and in any case the International was nearing the end of its life, but Marx’s recommendation did leave an important legacy by establishing in principle the legitimacy of autonomous women’s organisations within the mass movement.

However this did not mean that the socialist workers’ movement in Europe accepted either female labour or equality of women and many early unions excluded women on the grounds that their presence lowered male wages and worsened the material condition of the working class as a whole. Unions demanded a family wage that would enable women to return to their “proper” places in the home.

August Bebel’s famous work Women and Socialism, first published in 1879, began the move away from “proletarian anti-feminism” and towards a more unifying strategy within the workers’ movement. The book, which by 1910 had gone through 50 editions in Germany as well as numerous translations abroad, became the basis for subsequent social-democratic organising efforts among women. Bebel’s thesis that only through the destruction of bourgeois society would all women be emancipated struck a chord with many women, as did his argument that women’s entry into industry and organisation into unions was a necessary step in the historical process which would terminate in socialism.

For decades Bebel’s work was the official line on the role of the socialist movement in women’s emancipation. Later criticism of the book revealed its limitations but the central thesis remained valid: “There can be no emancipation of humanity without the social independence and equality of the sexes” (emphasis in original).

It had an enormous effect on many of the future women leaders of the international socialist movement. As Clara Zetkin, a leader of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) noted:

The book must not be judged according to its positive aspects or its shortcomings. Rather, it must be judged within the context of the times in which it was written. It was more than a book, it was an event – a great deed. The book pointed out for the first time the connection between the woman’s question and historical development. For the first time, there sounded from this book the appeal: We will only conquer the future if we persuade the women to become our co-fighters.

If the work of Bebel was crucial in combating proletarian anti-feminism in the workers’ movement, so were the practical efforts to implement those ideas by women socialists such as Clara Zetkin. She was a tireless proponent of the rights of working women and her organisational work, speeches, writing, and lifelong commitment to women workers helped to chart a new direction within the European socialist movement. Zetkin repeatedly clashed with the more conservative members of the labour movement who wanted women out of the workforce. If employers insisted on female labour because it was cheaper, her answer was to fight for equal pay for equal work. In a speech to the founding congress of the Second International in 1889 she argued, according to a report, that:

… it is not women’s work per se which in competition with men’s work lowers wages, but rather the exploitation of female labour by the capitalists who appropriate it.

Zetkin not only defended women’s right to work, but said that women’s participation in the workforce was a prerequisite for women’s independence. “The slave of the husband became the slave of the employer” but women still gained from this transformation.

While Marx and Engels made no distinction between the oppression suffered by women of different classes, Zetkin was the first social theorist to place women’s oppression within the different classes of society. In essence she proposed a different “woman question” for every class in capitalist society. Upper-class women wanted freedom to manage and inherit money and property; middle-class women wanted education and job opportunities while proletarian women, compelled to work in the least paid jobs to supplement their families’ income, wanted better working conditions for all.

Zetkin’s efforts on behalf of women workers received international recognition in 1907 at the first International Conference of Socialist Women where she was elected secretary of the International Women’s Bureau. It was at this conference that Zetkin, together with Rosa Luxemburg, proposed to the international socialist movement that March 8 be celebrated annually in all countries as International Working Women’s Day.

Attending the Socialist Women’s Conference were many Russian women, among them Alexandra Kollontai, who left convinced of the need to begin organising women at home.

In the same year the congress of the Second International endorsed the principle of women’s right to work, the creation of special women’s organisations within all socialist parties and a position on active organising for women’s suffrage. An active strategy for women’s full enfranchisement — political, social and economic — was finally in place.

[Kathy Fairfax is a longtime feminist and a member of the Democratic Socialist Perspective. This is an excerpt from the pamphlet, Comrades in arms: Women in the Russian Revolution, which is based on a talk given at the 18th Congress of the DSP in January 1999. You can read the entire pamphlet, or download it in PDF format, below. You can purchase the hard copy edition of the pamphlet from Resistance Books.]

http://links.org.au/node/934

Download `Comrades in Arms: Women in the Russian Revolution’ from http://www.scribd.com/doc/13047091/Comrades-in-Arms

Isn’t International Women’s Day a dreadful feel-good gesture for right-on feminists always looking for an excuse to promote wimmins’ ishoos?

Er, actually, no. To this male-feminist blogger’s way of seeing things, women’s day is still important and it’s not just “about” or “for” women” either.

Okay, having a “day” to recognise anything – World Water Day, World Aids Day, Victims Of Torture Day – initially smacks of tokenism. If we did nothing about these issues except a bit of promotion once a year they would, quite obviously, be a shallow bit of nonsense.

As it is, days are only semi-official milestones in the calendar, prompting a moment for reflection and assessment. They’re not an excuse for doing nothing the rest of the year. Setting aside a Remembrance Sunday in November to mark the sacrifices of soldiers in world wars is likewise important, but we shouldn’t stop dealing with the task of looking after our servicemen and women meanwhile.

So, why a day for women? Well, we don’t have to look further than a few key statistics. A lot of it – especially from my perspective at Amnesty – is about combating violence against women. In the UK a staggering one woman in every 10 suffers rape or other gender-based violence every year. Domestic violence, for example, is a huge, behind-closed-doors menace – there’s a call to the emergency services every 60 seconds from a woman being attacked or threatened by a present or estranged partner. And meanwhile, there’s stalking, sexual harassment, “honour” killings, a tawdry array of sexual assaults …

The services, though, are just not there. Recent research has revealed that three-quarters of local authorities in Britain simply don’t have any specialised sexual violence services.

To me this is just not acceptable. And it shouldn’t be left to women to bang on about this. After all, as a man it’s my mother, my sister, my aunt, my workmates and friends that could be on the receiving end of a beating from that bloke I never really liked that time I met him in the pub.

What’s interesting is how incredibly unfashionable it is for men to talk about these issues. The 1950s “hard man” culture is definitely still with is, albeit now toned down and given a dose of Noughties-era irony about anything “worthy” like feminism or “women’s issues”. (In fact, it’s now almost a social taboo in some circles – male and female – to mention the F-word: feminism. The past-all-that attitude of “oh, I don’t like to call myself a feminist, it sounds so angry” has gained an awful lot of traction.)

But as men we don’t have to do anything as clichéd as getting in touch with our feminine side. Standing up for women (with women) when it comes to demanding basic services and challenging idiotic hard-man attitudes is simply a matter of intelligence and equality. A few years ago in Bangladesh, 5,000 men marched against acid attacks (typically attacks on young women who’ve rejected sexual advances or marriage proposals), and men have recently joined the excellent Campaign For Equality in Ahmadinejad’s repressive, anti-women Iran.

So let’s cut back on the cynicism and support International Women’s Day. And let’s support equal rights and a safer world for women. After all, are we not men?

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/neil_durkin/blog/2009/03/08/are_we_not_men_why_male_feminism_rocks

Dear friends,

Individual women, and women’s organisations, have been celebrating and remembering International Women’s Day, Sunday 8 March 2009, in the streets of cities and villages across the globe:

These women have come out in honour of women like themselves, who through their fearless actions and words have forced governments and institutions to recognise their social, political and economic rights.

These same women have also come out to voice specific demands for justice that are still unmet; in many countries women are better represented in structures of power, and yet the silence on gender issues – sexual violence, early and forced marriages, polygamy, FGM, adultery laws, dress prohibitions, restricted mobility, and unequal access to clean water, security, education and health services – has become intolerable.

This year we remember women caught in conflicts, who suffer social and political insecurities and violations on a daily basis, carrying the burdens of war and military assault by state and non state actors.

On behalf of WLUML, the International Coordination Office would like to wish you all a peaceful as well as a defiant year ahead!

In solidarity,
Women Living Under Muslim Laws

http://www.wluml.org/english/newsfulltxt.shtml?cmd[157]=x-157-563888

International Women’s Day was celebrated on Sunday, March 8. To mark the event, reporter Debbie Clarke looked at the work of a Kirkcaldy group which supports women and children fleeing domestic abuse.

Sharon (not her real name) has described Kirkcaldy Women’s Aid as a lifeline.

Without it, she would still be suffering emotional and physical abuse from her ex-partner.

The 29-year-old told The Press: “He became physically abusive when I fell pregnant. He was very controlling and violent. He would hit me and smash the place up and then afterwards he would be full of apologies and excuses. The police also got involved a few times.

“I was with him for two years but it soon got to the stage where I didn’t want my child growing up in a hostile environment. So I sought refuge.

“I had just had a young baby and had to leave the support of my family and friends. I saw adverts on television, contacted the support lines and was put in touch with Women’s Aid.

“I am in refuge just now and have been since the start of December last year. I can’t go back to the verbal and mental abuse – I had scars on my face and was beaten until I was black and blue.”

Sharon said she couldn’t have managed without Kirkcaldy Women’s Aid.
“It has been a fantastic support,” she explained. “The workers have provided a safe environment for me and my baby as well as peace of mind.

“But it’s not only that – they have given me someone to speak to, offering good advice and they listen without judgement when I speak.

They also help you to arrange things like doctors appointments and to get in touch with a lawyer.

“If it hadn’t been for them, I would still be living in a state of fear and alarm. Kirkcaldy Women’s Aid has been a lifeline for me.”

Sharon advises anyone who may be suffering domestic abuse to seek help: “It is a difficult step to take but you have to break the cycle of violence, especially if you have kids. Do it for them.

“I grew up in a hostile environment and didn’t want that for my baby. Women’s Aid helps you to get your confidence and your independence back without someone scrutinising your every move. There is no looking back for me now.”

Family support worker Janette Bellesini has been with Kirkcaldy Women’s Aid for the past 16 years. She said they help women of all social classes from the age of 16 to 80.

“We provide advice and assistance, refuge and outreach services for women and children fleeing domestic abuse. We have seen a lot more women coming forward in the current economic climate because it is a stressful time. The last few weeks have been manic.”

Janette said the women usually come into refuge for a short period of time, approximately a year and a half, although this depends on individual circumstances.

The women are interviewed and then referred to Fife Council for inclusion on the list for homeless accommodation.

She said: “It is very hard for them because they are leaving everything familiar – their family, their home. The men promise the abuse will stop, that everything will get better. But the reality of the situation is that it’s not going to get better.

“You just have to look at the statistics to see how many women are affected. While we realise we can’t eradicate domestic abuse, we endeavour to provide the best service for women and children in our care.”

Janette said they don’t tell abused women to leave their partners – that decision has to be made by the women themselves.

She said: “When they come to us, their self esteem has gone. They feel worthless and have no confidence. The women say this can be harder to deal with than physical abuse because bruises can heal quickly, but it takes longer for emotional scars.

“We don’t take over their lives – we just help them to make decisions or arrange appointments. They have to learn to be independent.”

She also thanked the public for providing donations of money, food and clothes as this goes straight to women in refuge.

Anyone wanting to provide a donation should contact Kirkcaldy Women’s Aid at 15 Nicol Street, by e-mail at kdywa@tiscali.co.uk or call (01592) 261008.

Kirkcaldy Women’s Aid started in the early 70s. A woman whose daughter had been abused got together with a group of like-minded women and Kirkcaldy Women’s Aid was born. These women campaigned relentlessly for recognition and for safe houses to house women and their children when fleeing abuse.

The very first refuge was opened up in Hunter Street and shortly after, another one was launched in East Wemyss and another in Glenrothes.

By 1989 there was enough money for one full time and one part time worker. The big changes started in 1991 with money from Children In Need followed by money from other agencies.

The organisation continued to grow providing 16 places for mothers and children until in 2003 they were given a custom built refuge providing seven individual spaces for families. Kirkcaldy Women’s Aid only has one shared house, a family house and scattered refuge flats throughout the central belt.

In 2007-08, 107 women and 56 children were supported in refuge while 604 women and 708 children requested the support of Kirkcaldy Women’s Aid.

http://www.fifetoday.co.uk/news/Women39s-Aid-provides-lifeline-of.5062770.jp

The day is marked around the world on 8 March and this year it is focusing on violence against women.

Ms Sturgeon said Scottish ministers had committed £44m to tackle the problem.

Scots Tory leader Annabel Goldie said family should be “on the top of the agenda”. Labour’s deputy leader Harriet Harman attacked the gender pay gap.

The comments came as politicians marked the day, which is observed by the United Nations, at a series of events.

Ms Sturgeon said: “Sadly, violence is part of too many women’s lives across the world.

“On this day and throughout the year the Scottish Government is determined to tackle the scourge of violence against women and children.”

Ms Goldie drew on the case of Brandon Muir, the Dundee toddler who was killed by his mother’s boyfriend.

“I want today to call on my fellow political leaders in Scotland – let’s put family back at the top of the agenda, let’s have the debate about how we put family back at the heart of society and how we support the family,” she said.

Ms Harman told delegates at Scottish Labour’s annual conference in Dundee that bank bosses topped the list of treating female employees unfairly.

She said: “The gender pay gap in financial services is worse than in most other sectors.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7930526.stm

Speaking ahead of International Women’s Day at his second People’s Question Time in Tower Hamlets, he also praised the awesome contribution of women to the ongoing success of the capital and vowed to improve life for women in London by ensuring their needs are factored into every policy and decision of his administration.

Boris Johnson said:

“With International Women’s Day fast approaching I’m delighted to seize this opportunity to thank the women of London for their incredible contribution to the success of this great city and to announce a special ‘Women in London’ debate on July 22nd in Croydon.

“Over the last year I’ve been hugely fortunate to have some highly talented women come on board and work for me – Rosie Boycott as Chair of London Foods, Isabel Dedring, as Director of Environmental Policy, Kate Hoey as Sports Commissioner and Munira Mirza as Director of Culture. These remarkable women, and the thousands like them across London, are setting a fantastic example and their work is crucial to taking us through this recession and raising the quality of life for everyone in the capital.

“I have no doubt there are challenges ahead for women, as there will be for all of us. However as Mayor of London I am determined to do whatever I can to make life better for women in the capital and I am committed to factoring their needs into every single policy and decision of my administration from the economy to safety to transport.“

The Mayor also launched the annual Women in London Report, which takes a statistically look at the position of women in the capital, at the event. The report shows that more women than ever before are joining the Met Police – 40 per cent of all new recruits in 2007/2008 were female compared to 27 per cent the year before – and women in the capital continue to be healthier and better educated than their male counterparts. It also reveals that while the gender pay gap persists in the city there are more women at senior positions in London than elsewhere in the UK.
Ends.

http://www.london.gov.uk/view_press_release.jsp?releaseid=21242

Leading female MPs are failing to inspire a “lost generation” of young women to become interested in politics, a damning report has revealed. Girls and young women feel disenchanted with and disengaged from politics, the major study found.

More than 90 years after women won the right to vote, the survey of young females aged up to 25 concludes they are “outside politics”, with many feeling detached from local and national policies and decision-making.

The report, which has been highlighted to mark International Women’s Day by Girlguiding UK, the largest women-only organisation in the country, casts doubt on the ability of high-ranking female politicians to act as credible role models for girls.

Ruth Kelly, who resigned from the Cabinet last year to spend more time with her family, has left the impression that women cannot have both a high-flying career and children, one Guide leader said yesterday.

The study places the blame on a lack of information about how to take part in local and national politics, and the small proportion of female MPs – 19 per cent – in Westminster.

The report, Political Outsiders: We Care, But Will We Vote?, is published in partnership with the Fawcett Society and the British Youth Council. Its findings are all the more worrying because it is based on the views of Guides, traditionally more active in volunteering than others in their age group, suggesting disillusionment in the wider public is even greater.

Denise King, the chief executive of Girlguiding UK, said: “This report shows that greater efforts are needed to inspire the next generation of female policy-makers, empowering them to have a real say on issues affecting their daily lives and the communities they live in.”

More than a quarter of girls are put off by a lack of information about how they should take part, while 17 per cent believe it cannot make a difference.

Nearly half of young women say they would like to be more involved in volunteering, but when this comes to local or national politics, the figure drops to 28 per cent. Domestic violence, gangs and knife crime, bullying and equality at work emerged as the most important issues for young women.

The report calls for a new Youth Green Paper, including a demand for one person under 25 to be on every parliamentary shortlist, and the ability to vote by text message or through social networking sites such as Facebook.

Katherine Rake, the director of the Fawcett Society, said: “The gap between Westminster and the daily lives of today’s young women is rapidly widening into a chasm as young women struggle to see the relevance of national politics.”

Jess Alcroft, 21, a student at Leeds University and a Guide leader, said: “Ruth Kelly is my MP in Bolton West, and when she resigned to spend more time with her family it put across the perception that women cannot have a high-profile political career if they want a family as well.

“Deep down I really want to be in politics… But I get the impression that the majority of male MPs are sitting around just filling in their expenses forms.”

Asked whether she believed Harriet Harman was a good role model, Miss Alcroft said: “Any woman in a high-profile position is a good role model, but there is a sense that you have to hide your femininity to achieve things in politics, and be a person rather than a woman. I would dispute that, because there are benefits to having a feminine side.”

Theresa May, the most senior female member ofthe shadow cabinet, said: “Without sustained efforts by politicians from all parties these young women… will become a lost generation politically, disengaged from the decisions that affect them.”

The Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson, the youngest member of the House of Commons, said: “When I was growing up I too felt that there was a lack of female role models in politics and a lack of young MPs who would champion the issues important to young people and inspire us to be active citizens.”

Harriet Harman

The frontrunner to succeed Gordon Brown, according to bookmakers, is criticised for not being ‘feminine’ enough and does not cut through to ordinary young women.

Hazel Blears

The Communities Secretary admits ‘we still have a long way to go’ to encourage more women to become involved in politics. Guides say Blears is recognisable only inside Westminster.

Ruth Kelly

By resigning from the Cabinet to spend more time with her family, she ‘left the impression’ that women cannot have both children and a high-flying political career.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/a-whole-generation-of-women-is-lost-to-politics-1639762.html