Category: Gender Equality

Brianna Wu, Kim Weaver Talk About Harassment on Campaign Trail

~ mcequality

While we celebrate that a record number of women are running for office, it’s worth considering the shit they put up with just to be heard. A group of current and former candidates talked to the New York Times about the harassment they’ve dealt with while campaigning. Their stories are depressing and sometimes frightening, the harassment predictable.

From Mya Whitaker, a Democrat running for City Council in Oakland, California:

“Being a black woman and existing, in some cases, is enough to piss people off.”
And Kim Weaver, an Iowa Democrat who dropped out of a race against white supremacist Rep. Steve King in 2017 in part because of the threats against her and her family:

via Brianna Wu, Kim Weaver Talk About Harassment on Campaign Trail

Forbes highest-paid actor: The Rock nearly doubles 2017 earnings – BBC News

~ mcequality

Scarlett Johannson was revealed as the highest paid actress last week, earning $40.5m (£31.9m).
That would have placed the Black Widow star as seventh in the male rankings.
This is a departure from last year’s Forbes list, which saw highest paid actress Emma Stone fail to score in the top 10 male earnings.

via Forbes highest-paid actor: The Rock nearly doubles 2017 earnings – BBC News

The online platform that empowers survivors of campus sexual assaults |

~ mcequality

Outraged at the incidence of sex crimes at colleges, activist Jess Ladd got mad — and then she got to building. Here’s how she developed a secure and sensitive reporting system that’s in use on 13 campuses.

The statistics on campus sex crimes in the US are sad and sobering. On average, it’s estimated that one in five women is assaulted during her college years, as well as 7 percent of men and 24 percent of transgender and gender non-conforming students.

And what occurs after an attack is also disturbing. Most assaults go unreported, and when people do go to the authorities, too often they’re subjected to a series of traumatic experiences: insensitive questioning, skepticism or outright disbelief about their experience, and an opaque investigatory process that places a greater emphasis on preserving the college’s public image than on prosecuting crimes.

via The online platform that empowers survivors of campus sexual assaults |

‘Sexist’ Tui Airways crew gave different badges to girls and boys | World news | The Guardian

~ mcequality

Tui Airways is at the centre of a sexism row after flight attendants were accused of handing out stickers to children that encouraged girls to be cabin crew and boys to be pilots.

A passenger on board a flight from Cyprus to Bristol said stickers were handed to boys that read “future pilot” while girls were given ones that read “future cabin crew”.

via ‘Sexist’ Tui Airways crew gave different badges to girls and boys | World news | The Guardian

The Empowering Internet Safety Guide for Women | vpnMentor

~ mcequality

Have you ever been harassed in the street? Received a crass message on a dating app? Had a coworker make a comment about your appearance that just didn’t sit right?

You’re not alone.

With the #MeToo movement, it’s easy to log onto Twitter or Facebook and see just how many women are victims of sexual harassment. Whether in person or online, women everywhere have experienced it in one way or another. And with all the new ways the internet has opened avenues of communication, online harassment is more prevalent than ever.

According to a study by the Pew Research Center, most online abuse takes place on social media. Although men are also subject to online harassment – which includes name calling, derision, and physical threats – the study found that online, women are more than twice as likely as men to experience sexual harassment.

via The Empowering Internet Safety Guide for Women | vpnMentor

School Closes After Parents Obscenely Threaten Transgender 12-Year-Old Via Facebook

~ mcequality

Yesterday morning, parents responded to the threats against the seventh grader—who is pseudonymously identified as “Maddie”—by staging a small silent rally in support of the girl outside of the school. In response, law enforcement officials reportedly asked the school to shut down for the day out of fear of a counter protest.

Outstream Video

00:00
00:00

Maddie has publicly identified as a girl for the past two years. Previously, she used a staff bathroom “to avoid being harassed,” as Think Progress reports. After the school was recently renovated, though, she had a difficult time finding the staff bathroom. On one single occasion, according to Maddie’s mother, she used the girls’ restroom.

via School Closes After Parents Obscenely Threaten Transgender 12-Year-Old Via Facebook

State Dept. Retroactively Revokes Transgender Women’s Passports

~ mcequality

In what may turn out to be yet another front of the Trump administration’s war on transgender rights, some transgender U.S. passport holders are claiming that the State Department has denied renewal requests even after the applicants already listed their gender as female on previously approved passports.

Two cases of this happening recently were reported by Them’s Mary Emily O’Hara.

In late June, Danni Askini, executive director of the Seattle-based advocacy group Gender Justice League, tweeted that she had been denied a U.S. passport renewal and was being asked to “prove” her U.S. citizenship, along with providing proof of gender transition. This was despite the fact that for 20 years, she had a passport that said she’s female, O’Hara reported. Askini transitioned in 1998 at the age of 16.

via State Dept. Retroactively Revokes Transgender Women’s Passports

What Life Was Like for Women Before Roe v. Wade

~ mcequality

Nearly a decade after her death, a photograph of Santoro’s lifeless body—naked, crumpled, and covered with her own blood—was published in Ms. Magazine, accompanying a 1973 story on the Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe. The words “Never Again,” in big bold letters framed the black and white crime scene photograph. The photograph, Broadly reports, became an icon of the feminist movement; Santoro’s death was transformed into an image of the desperate brutality and senseless deaths that reproductive restrictions had wrought on women for centuries. When Ms. Magazine celebrated the legalization of abortion in the first trimester, the photograph of Santoro was a promise that there would be no more dead women on hotel rooms floors—a promise that abortion, as the mantra goes, would be safe and legal.

via What Life Was Like for Women Before Roe v. Wade

BBC apologises to Carrie Gracie over pay – BBC News

~ mcequality

Image Copyright @BBCCarrie@BBCCARRIE
Report
The corporation said it had “reached an agreement to resolve their differences”.
Timeline: How the BBC gender pay story has unfolded

‘Today I can say I am equal’ – Carrie Gracie’s statement:
“This is a huge day for me. I love the BBC. It’s been my work family for more than 30 years and I want it to be the best. Sometimes families feel the need to shout at each other, but it’s always a relief when you can stop shouting.
“I’m grateful to the director general for helping me resolve this. I do feel he has led from the front today.
“In acknowledging the value of my work as China editor, the BBC has awarded me several years of backdated pay. But for me this was always about the principle and not about the money, so I’m giving all of that money away to help women who need it more than I do.
“After all, today at the BBC I can say I am equal.
“I would like women in workplaces up and down this country to be able to say the same. This has been an enormously long, hard road to get here. It has involved so much work by so many people, and I am proud of it.
“Cultural change takes time to help people think things through. It is an enormously difficult issue, not just for the BBC but for employers all over the country and all over the world. This is a win for me and a win for the BBC. I’m proud of all of us.”

Fellow broadcaster Clare Balding tweeted her appreciation for Gracie, saying: “To donate all of the agreed backpay confirms what we already knew – she is not fighting the fight for herself but for ALL.”
At her request, Gracie will now take up to six months of unpaid leave and will take on writing and speaking engagements about both China and gender equality.
Director general Tony Hall said: “I am pleased that we’ve been able to move past our differences and work through things together; we can now look to the future.”

Image caption
Tony Hall wants the BBC to “lead the way” for women in the workplace
Lord Hall added he was “glad” that she is contributing to a BBC project “to make the BBC a great place for women to work”.
“That really matters to me, and I want us to lead the way.”
When she resigned as China editor, Gracie said she had been dismayed to find the BBC’s two male international editors earned “at least 50% more” than their two female counterparts.
The BBC has now acknowledged she was told she would be paid in line with the North America editor when she took the role, and she accepted the role on that understanding.

Image caption
The BBC has said “fairness in pay” is “vital”
The corporation said it “has now put this right”.
Gracie: ‘I could not collude’ in pay discrimination’
Gracie quit because the two editors earned more than her £135,000-a-year salary. She said she had refused a £45,000 pay rise because it still left a “big gap” between her and her male counterparts, when all she wanted was to be “made equal”.
She went back to a job in the newsroom. The BBC said at the time that “fairness in pay” was “vital” to the corporation.
On 26 January, six of the BBC’s leading male presenters agreed to take pay cuts following the revelations about equal salaries.
The BBC said Huw Edwards, Nicky Campbell, John Humphrys, Jon Sopel, Nick Robinson and Jeremy Vine had all accepted reduced wages.
The Fawcett Society said it would use the donated money to give women legal support to negotiate equal pay, and it will contribute to strategic legal cases and interventions aimed at strengthening the law.

Analysis – BBC media editor Amol Rajan
Carrie Gracie finished her tweet on today’s news with the words “I’m home”. This has been a long and difficult process for one of the BBC’s most distinguished journalists.
At base, today marks a moral and practical victory for an effective campaigner, and her donation of back pay to the Fawcett Society proves she meant it when she said this was about a principle rather than cash.
The narrow question is – what this means for the BBC. The corporation would like it to draw the matter to a close, and pointedly refers in its statement to the “specific circumstances” of her case.
While today might bring a close to this individual case, it is of course unclear what impact it will have on others at the BBC who are pursuing grievances.
The same applies beyond the BBC. As a significant victory for a high-profile campaigner, who came to have totemic status, today will give encouragement to others who have been denied equal pay for equal work.

Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.
Related Topics
GenderBBCBBC payGender pay gapWomen
Share this story About sharing
Email
Facebook
Messenger
Twitter
Pinterest
LinkedIn
More on this story

Carrie Gracie tells MPs of BBC pay ‘insult’
31 January 2018
Carrie Gracie row: Equality watchdog EHRC to write to BBC
9 January 2018
BBC’s Carrie Gracie ‘could not collude’ in pay discrimination
8 January 2018
Video ‘Scale of support moved me’
8 January 2018
Entertainment & Arts

Arctics and Jorja Smith on Mercury list
26 July 2018
From the section Entertainment & Arts 56 comments
Full article Arctics and Jorja Smith on Mercury list

Sir Paul McCartney rolls back the years in Cavern Club comeback
26 July 2018
From the section Entertainment & Arts
Full article Sir Paul McCartney rolls back the years in Cavern Club comeback

Josh O’Connor to play Crown’s Prince Charles
26 July 2018
From the section Entertainment & Arts
Full article Josh O’Connor to play Crown’s Prince Charles
Top Stories
Medical cannabis products to be legalised
It follows high-profile cases involving children with severe epilepsy being denied access to cannabis oil.
3 hours ago
Barnier rules out UK’s customs proposal
1 hour ago
UK halts co-operation with US over ‘Beatles’ duo
3 minutes ago
Features

via BBC apologises to Carrie Gracie over pay – BBC News