26 February 2018
IWD: Safeguarding Sex Workers – Protecting the Vulnerable
Sex work. Prostitution. We all have an idea of what these terms mean. For some women (95% of sex workers are said to be women) entering sex work is a choice, a consensual transaction. Some enter for financial gain. Others are more vulnerable, exploited in their circumstances by virtue of drug addiction, homelessness or groomed by pimps. Whatever the reason for entering into sex work, workers are much more likely to be criminalised for their behaviour than sex buyers.
26 February 2018
IWD: Women without property
When I interned at a charity campaigning to end violence against women over ten years ago the statistics were that one in four women experiences domestic abuse during her lifetime and two women every week are killed by their current partner or ex-partner in England and Wales. Sadly those statistics remain the same today.
23 February 2018
IWD: Young women entering the profession – this is the most important thing you need to know
In mid-November I read an article by Caitlin Moran in the Saturday Times magazine. She is of course fabulous and pretty much right about everything but this really struck a chord. She wrote about why older women do not tell younger woman the most important thing they need to know when setting out in life. This is not what child birth is really like (although I can tell you it is very painful) but rather she said...
23 February 2018
IWD: The experience of women in custody
A woman has her period and is locked in a cell without access to sanitary protection or the use of a private toilet. She isn’t in Nepal or Uganda, she is in one of many police stations across England and Wales which were found by the ICVA in 2017 to be failing to meet these very basic needs of women and girls.
22 February 2018
IWD: The role of global businesses in advancing women’s rights
It can be difficult to appreciate the reality of the situation faced by millions of women every day in seemingly distant corners of the World but International Women’s Day is an opportunity to educate ourselves on some of those conditions and take action to push for change. The enormous scale on which women are facing extreme suppression, sexual violence and financial inequality simply because of their gender should be addressed, even when this occurs across the globe. Those of us living in wealthier and more equal societies should not excuse ourselves from this responsibility on account of our ignorance or physical distance from the environments in question.
