Picture this: A small IT firm set up in Exeter employs four people and due to growing demand for its technical products is looking to employ a fifth member. This will be a skilled job and will require some training, and the interview process has narrowed down the candidates to a 28 year old man and a 28 year old woman with identical skills and potential; who does the firm pick?
Much has been done in terms of employment law in the past decade to address the inequality, both in wages and in treatment between the genders. However, much of the legislation has proved counter-productive and often harmful to prospective female workers, especially for those employed in small businesses. Consider the case of maternity leave. An employer has to pay six weeks of 90% pay and then up to another thirty three of £135.45 a week (or 90% still whichever is lower) for an employee who during that time contributes £0 to the company. That can mean thousands of pounds shelled out to an employee while in the meantime a replacement has to be found. A worker to cover the lost manpower is often very difficult to recruit as the work is only to be for a short period of time and especially for skilled jobs this is often both difficult and expensive.
Furthermore, many women lose the willingness to go back to work and want to stay with their child; while the company’s outlay on maternity pay will be decreased, the disruption of their long term plans is not healthy for business plans. For men, paternity pay can be an inconvenience, but as it only lasts two weeks, the impact on the business is minimal. For large companies employing thousands of workers, the small numbers on leave at any one time, providing they are not in important areas, will have much less effect, but for a small business, especially in harsh times, this can prove catastrophic. So, back to Exeter’s IT firm: why should they employ the woman?
Twenty-four percent of all crimes reported to Devonshire and Cornwall police are instances of domestic violence. One in three men and women will be beaten or raped during their lifetime.
These sobering truths helped to inspire the performers of Eve Ensler’s “A Memory, A Monologue, a Rant and a Prayer“, a show that was held on Valentine’s Day as part of the worldwide One Billion Rising campaign to raise awareness about the oppression of women. A series of monologues about all forms of violence against women – physical, sexual and emotional – the show was successful in highlighting that violence is an issue that affects everyone.
One Billion Rising in San Francisco. Photo by Steve Rhodes
The first monologue focused on the daily tasks that many women around the world have to fulfil and the potentially demoralising impact of this often unrecognised work. When the monologue was over, the performer sat a little apart from the others, perhaps with the implication that the nature of her role prevented her from connecting with other people affected by restrictive gender stereotyping.
The emotional impact of being worn down by a seemingly inescapable situation was also discussed with regards to domestic violence in the monologue that began “I was a woman split in two”. Many who suffer abuse and trauma disassociate themselves from it, but eventually the character told herself “you don’t deserve this” and broke away from the cycle of abuse.
One Billion Rising in Barcelona. Photo by aw.samoano on Flickr
The moment of breakthrough was also highlighted in a chillingly well-acted account of gang rape. The performer juxtaposed the characters’ helplessness when casual, jokey flirting turned sinister (leading to girls feeling they ought “not to make a big deal out of nothing” if they are touched against their will) and her empowerment having fought against this abuse.
One Billion Rising in Washington DC. Photo by cool revolution on Flickr
This performance was later contextualised by the shocking statistic that a third of young women and a quarter of young men think that violence is acceptable. The character portrayed had suffered varying forms of sexual abuse before, always telling herself it was “easier just to let it happen”, an attitude it can be easy for anyone to take if the other person involved is drunk or someone we know.
A third of young women and a quarter of young men think that violence is acceptable.
I have to admit that this was one of the stories that brought me to the brink of tears. I don’t know how many young people were reached by the One Billion Rising campaign, but it seems hugely important that we begin to reflect on these ideas. This is my one criticism of the campaign if not the performance itself: there was an air of preaching to the choir. Perhaps with better publicity far more students would have engaged with it.
One of the strongest aspects of this performance was that it didn’t fall into the trap of pigeon-holing issues of violence as something that only affects women. One monologue presented a man’s recollection of his father beating his mother with part of a cardboard wardrobe. Set in America during the Great Depression, this story suggested that poverty and marginalisation – the family presented were eastern-European immigrants – can lead to more oppression and abuse. Intersectionality is a key tenet of current gender equality movements and this was a clear and effective way of highlighting how, to some extent, tackling broader social issues could contribute towards improving equality.
One Billion Rising in Münster. Photo by Harald Berenfänger
Another positive aspect was that the performance addressed issues affecting women worldwide rather than just familiar and local examples of violence. One monologue told the absolutely chilling tale of Nun running a boarding school in Uganda in which girls and boys were taken by rebel militia to be systematically used and indoctrinated. This was entirely believable, right down to the details of how hardened children’s hands and feet become after years of walking and fighting with armed groups.
One Billion Rising in Guyana. Photo by Amanda Richards
Another story told of a journalist’s regret at not saving two young girls from a brothel in Cambodia because “journalists don’t get involved”. Given that One Billion Rising aims for action on these issues rather than passive comment, this was an effective way of highlighting that suffering affects everyone and is therefore for everyone to fight against.
Suffering affects everyone and is therefore for everyone to fight against.
The final monologue brought these issues back to a more familiar setting with the story of a young woman accused of “spoiling the party” for talking about the abuse suffered every day by women and other marginalised groups across the world.
Exeter has recently been commented on in the national press as a university where the party has got a bit out of hand. We will only be able to shake off this reputation if we note the messages of campaigns like One Billion Rising and take the opportunities available to us, as a group of intelligent, energetic individuals with a good education, to achieve something positive.
Craig Browne tried to discover what makes Jack Straw MP tick when he visited Exeter to give a lecture on Human Rights.
It is with some trepidation that you wait, and you will be made to wait, for one of the most senior figures in British politics over the past 15 years. You sit, fidgeting with your sheets of questions, wondering how you will steal that memorable quote from under his nose. Will he let his guard down? 33 years as part of the Westminster furniture would suggest not.
Questionable tie and stilted small talk at hand, he arrived but it was not long before my cynicism was disarmed. We quickly found our common ground, my Arabic degree and his Middle East experience as Foreign Secretary, and could move away from the awkward-chatting-over-canapés scene.
Photo credits to Joshua Irwandi
I was quickly able to see just how fondly Jack Straw recalls his radical days as the socialist president of Leeds’ Student Union and later of the National Union of Students. He recollects with glee “keeping the grants system going and beating back Margaret Thatcher when she was Education Secretary.”
While acknowledging the importance of student politics to his own career, he appreciates this is not for all and sundry. Cue another fascinating snippet: “Tony Blair and I used to sit and talk about this. He was out of student politics doing Rock ‘n’ Roll but for me it [student politics] was very important.”
What with his ‘Nay’ vote in the House of Commons in 2010, when the raising of tuition fees up to £9000 was debated, it is hardly surprising that he labels the rise as an “ill thought through policy.” His frustration with the current government extends to the “unnecessary and vulgar” visa controls on overseas students and with these complaints came tacit approval of the student demonstration that took place in London on the 21st November, “provided it speaks for all students.”
Even in such a relaxed setting it was at times difficult to see through Straw’s heavily guarded answers, “One thing less likely to produce a result than a public demo is no demo” being one such fence-sitting answer. His support for the ‘Save Our Streetlights’ campaign was, however, unequivocal as, “if this [turning off streetlights] leads to a greater level of crime it will be a false economy. Certainly I’d be worried about that.”
Straw, who studied and practiced law before becoming an MP, was in Exeter to give a lecture on ‘The Human Rights Act and Europe’ as part of the Hamlyn Lecture Series, whose speakers have included such luminaries as former Lord Chief Justice Bingham. The lecture conveyed Straw’s dismay at the “extravagant extension” of authority from the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg past its “agreed narrow remit about basic human rights” and into areas such as “night flights at Heathrow.” In spite of his annoyance at this overreaching from Europe, Straw was keen to clarify the difference between the Council of Europe, from which the ECHR is derived, and the European Union, the legal jurisdiction for which “everyone signed up for.”
Photo credits to Joshua Irwandi
When it came to the extremely relevant topics of Abu Hamza and Abu Qatada, the MP was tight-lipped and back into his well-rehearsed political mode, simply suggesting that “we’ve got to create speedier processes for deportation.” He was similarly well-drilled in his Iraq-themed answer: “If we had known then what we later discovered, would there have been a case for military action? Well the answer is no because the threat that we assessed was not there.” He is, however, keen to add that there was no way the government could have known that the intelligence they were given was incorrect, a comment that many people may find hard to believe.
If we skip forward a decade, and to the crumbling regime of Bashar Al-Assad in Syria, Straw appeared less than keen on intervention as “unfortunately, just because there is a problem, there is not necessarily a solution.” Perhaps this answer would seem less than satisfactory to some but there is no doubt that it reflects the uncertainty shown by governments the world over.
We concluded on the much lighter topic of his beloved Blackburn Rovers, and the smile returned while he spoke of the importance of football clubs to local community spirit. There’s no doubt that Jack Straw cares deeply about his constituents, or to use his word, his employers, and, while his policies may be highly debatable, his desire to do what he thinks is right is anything but that. If there were more politicians like him, while the country may not be in better shape, there would be no question about the morality of those who run the nation.
exeposedev 