A protest occurred last Saturday in response to the UK government cuts that will directly effect women's equality. The Fawcett Society, an organization that campaigns women's rights encouraged women to dress in 1950's attire for the protest. The organization and other protestors marched down where the Prime Minister David Cameron's office is with the slogan of not letting austerity “turn back time” for women's rights. The Fawcett Society active chief executive Anna Bird believes that the progress was being made for women's rights, but now there is potential for those rights to be non existent. With specific cuts being made to programs such as Surestart and other benefits, it is expected that women will be most effected. Women are predicted to lose their jobs disproportionately to males, saying that "350,000 of the 500,000 people who will lose their jobs as a result of public sector cuts will be women". Many women who participated were affected by the budget cuts and lost their jobs. Bird says that now is the time to make this issue a priority to resolve for the sake of women's equality.
It is important to bring this issue into government because of the drastic number of women it will affect. The cuts are infringing on women's right because it s not allowing women the fair opportunity for economic stability. Women are already dealing with glass ceiling and the pay gap, and these cuts would increase the struggle for women to attain equality and independence. Dave Prentice, the general secretary of unison said, "This is a tripple whammy for women who are being hit hard by unemployment, the rising cost of living as well as cuts to benefits and services to young people. The concern is that these cuts that are directed towards women will cease the progression and set women back to earlier times when there were more restraints on what was socially acceptable for women. Like the movement in the 60s, there are many women and others who believe that there needs to be more opportunities for women in society, and many are willing to stand up for the justice that is deserved.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/nov/18/fawcett-march-womens-rights-amid-cuts
10 comments:
This post really caught my attention because it is a shame how these women are going to lose most of their rights. It is terrible that after all this time they are really going to go back to that. Women have had their rights for so long and now are going to lose them. I hope they do everything in their power to stop this from happening.
We spent a great deal of time fighting for women rights. Now to think that they are losing their rights is not fair. I think that it to prevent the same thing that was done back then will have to be done now in moderation.
Why is it that the battle for rights is making a full circle? Women are loosing rights, blacks, Hispanics, everyone who ever fought to become equal is recently falling back behind, almost to where they were in the beginning.
This post stood out to me seeing how I am a strong minded woman myself and I am a strong supporter of fighting for women's rights. We deserve the same equal rights as men so we should continue to fight for them!
It is unfair that women in the work field are still being treated unequally. I agree that this is a major issue that should be priority. The amount of budget cuts that will affect women employees are high. Not only are the budget cut going to have influence on the economy but it just shows how much of the difference the pay gap will be. Do you think this will last long?
I think it is great that these women are protesting for what they believe and what is right. 350,000 out of 500,00 women are losing their jobs is a huge percentage. I dont believe it is fair that these women are losing their jobs and are treated unequally. Women deserve rights just as much as men do, we are both humans.
This article sadly shows the many struggles that women are still facing in the working world. It is definitely something that needs to change, especially after all of the work that has been done to fight for womens rights it would be a shame to go back to square one. This is an issue that needs to be seriously looked at in order to create sustainable change.
This is when we, as a people, need to be looking at candidate's platforms on such topics. For example, in 2008, President Obama supported the Lily Ledbetter act, which moved for equal rights and equal pay, while McCain opposed it. Being informed about this will help move us to make the right decisions on who makes decisions on our behalf.
Women's rights is something that is very near to my heart, not only because I am a woman but because I feel discrimination and unfair treatment is ignorant. I believe everyone should be allotted the same rights, only if this were a perfect world.
This article makes me sad. To think that these women's rights are being taken from them is terrible. It's even more shocking when you think that this is happening in the UK. I mean, if this is going on there, it could very easily happen here.
Post a Comment