Feminist Event: Rayna Fahey on Radical Fabric Craft in Hamilton on Tuesday

When: Tuesday 3rd March, 4pm - 5pm
Where: Waikato Migrant Resource Centre, Boundary Rd, Claudelands Park, Hamilton

Rayna Fahey from radicalcrossstitch.com and the Melbourne Revolutionary Craft Circle will be facilitating a presentation on historical and contemporary radical craft action. Followed by a discussion on creative actions can be used for local issues.

The award winning short film 'I Wanna Live Here' about radical craft responses to the Melbourne housing affordability crisis will also be screened.

Koha on the door to cover the cost of the room.

All welcome

Rayna seems to be working her way up the motu, however still not far enough north for me! You can RSVP on the Facebook event page if you feel so inclined, or use it to invite your friends.

Cycling through the recession?

I'm quite keen on the idea of constructing a nationwide cycling track, mooted at the Jobs Summit.

Keeping people in work is vital. Doing it in a way that offers a low-cost, environmentally sound recreation option, and which may benefit the tourist industry, sounds good to me.

But while I see no problem with the cycle track idea, I do see a limitation. The majority of jobs created by the government's various infrastructural programmes will be in the construction and engineering industries - meaning the large majority of these jobs will be filled by men.

I don't begrudge men employment opportunities for a moment; but I don't think the government has considered that, when it comes to job creation, one size does not fit all. Female and male unemployment have different dynamics, and need different solutions. It's for reasons like this that more diverse voices at the Jobs Summit would have been a very good idea.

ANTM debrief #1: Dominique the bloke?

Watching reality TV is like that other pastime - everyone's doing it, but no one wants to admit it.

In keeping with THM's tradition of tackling the issues that really matter, we bring you our new weekly feature: ANTM debrief. You may also want to comment on other shows, including Project Runway. (I'd love to join you, but I seldom manage to see it right to the end - it's past my bedtime.)

Tonight, Dominique and her irritatingly high self-confidence got sent packing. I can't say I'll miss her. But I've been intrigued by the ongoing, mocking comments made by the judges about Dominique looking like a transvestite. Most often, they've come from Mr Jay, who's not exactly known for conforming to gender conventions.

A little bit of maleness is endearing - I remember the lesbian model (Kim?) was celebrated for her boyish charm. But too much masculinity is a bad thing, apparently. Why is it shameful for a model - indeed, for any woman - to be 'masculine'? And what does it mean to be masculine anyway?

Susie Orbach on Kim Hill tomorrow!!11!!!1!

I hope I'm not the only person ridiculously excited about this:

Saturday Morning with Kim Hill: 28 February 2009

8:15 Susie Orbach: modified bodies
Psychotherapist and author; her new book, Bodies, considers the societal pressures behind body enhancement.

But wait there's more:

8:40 Jasvinder Sanghera: arranged marriages and honour crimes
Co-founder of UK community project combating domestic violence, and author of the memoir, Shame, and sequel Daughters of Shame.

Sounds like a marvellous morning to sit around listening to the radio.

Diversity deficit at the Job Summit redux

Further to this post from yesterday, I see the Greens picked up on this issue two days ago, with this release from new MP Catherine Delahunty:

"I’m sure John Key doesn’t intend to send the message to New Zealand that the National Party does not value women, but that is what he is doing. We urge the Prime Minister to check the numbers and think again about the needs of half the workforce at this critical time," said Green Women’s Issues spokesperson Catherine Delahunty.

"Only three women’s organisations have been invited to the Job Summit. This tiny number needs to be expanded to include more groups that have expertise in women’s employment issues.

"The Prime Minister should invite groups such as the National Advisory Council on the Employment of Women, The New Horizons Trust for Women, The NZ Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Association, the NZ Centre for Women and Leadership, and Rural Women New Zealand who would contribute a lot to this Summit.

"Although the Government has described the Summit as not "representational" we want to see women leaders who work in job creation sitting at this table. Women are typically the first to lose their jobs in a recession; the PM should show he means business – for all New Zealanders – and use this opportunity to harness experienced women’s groups in the job creation process."

Labour's spokesperson Sue Moroney has also voiced concern, specifically picking up on Minister of Women's Affairs, Pansy Wong, justifying the lack of women:

"...Ms Wong is using her role as Minister of Women's Affairs to defend the lack of women invited to attend the Government's Jobs Summit this week.

"Even though she knows that large numbers of women will be affected, she still thinks it is an achievement for 35 women to be involved in putting ideas forward to the forum of almost 200 participants," said Sue Moroney.

“Her statement that she will represent the women's views because she is in the cabinet hold little weight after she failed to stop National from scrapping pay equity investigations for social workers and school support staff last week and are even less credible when you consider that of the Ministers invited to the planning meeting not one was a woman.

"Where was she when Summit organisers invited CEO Bill Gallagher, but refused to accept his Corporate Service Executive, Margaret Comer in his place?"

The organisers later reversed their decision but Mrs Comer has decided that she will not attend the Summit because of the "way it is being handled."

Here's Wong's original statement, and a couple of highlights:

Thirty-five influential women and representatives from small, medium and large businesses and unions met to debate a range of solutions, ideas and initiatives on how to deal with the challenging economic situation at the Women in Business Workshop on Tuesday.

“Women are a vulnerable group in times of recession and unemployment and the National-led government feels that it is important they participate and are heard in providing solutions to the recession. Large percentages of women in the workforce are employed in areas that are likely to be affected and it is inevitable that New Zealand women will be hugely affected by the recession,” Women’s Affairs Minister Pansy Wong says.

Mrs Wong adds that another impact redundancies and unemployment will have on women is a likely increase in domestic violence.

...

The discussions from the workshop will be fed into Friday’s job summit.

“We had a number of key women who are involved in the Prime Minister’s job summit attending the workshop and they will be feeding the ideas through. Also, as a member of Cabinet I will ensure that women will have a voice in any decision made as a result of the job summit,” she says.

So let me get this straight:

• Around 200 delegates at the Job Summit
• Around 15% of these will be women
• There was a working group on women's issues before the Summit*, to feed into it, featuring 35 women.
• The Minister is aware that there will be significant detriments to many women from the recession, in particular job losses, cuts in pay or hours, and increased domestic violence
  

And the Minister thinks they're doing enough?

I'll be very very interested to see what comes out of this Summit. I hope it works, and I hope that some fantastic ideas come out of it and are adopted. But the way it's structured at the moment I don't know how they can find those ideas, and work through how to adopt them, when the Summit's participants are so far removed from what Aotearoa New Zealand really looks like.

* I heard on the radio this morning that many of the groupings involved in the Summit were doing workshops and conference calls beforehand to get the most out of the day, so I'm not sure whether this is something in addition, to overcome the exclusion of many relevant women's voices at the Summit itself, or whether it's largely the same group.

Quick hit: Eluana Englaro

Italy has been riven recently by debate over the life, and death, of Eluana Englaro. She had been in a vegetative state for 17 years, until she passed away earlier this month:

The news of Ms Englaro’s death came as the Upper House of parliament began debating emergency legislation rushed out by the centre-right Government of Silvio Berlusconi. It would have ordered medical staff to restore all nutrients. She had been in a vegetative state for 17 years after a car accident.

Ms Englaro’s father, Beppino Englaro, had been fighting for a decade for a dignified end to his daughter’s life in accordance with what he and her friends have testified were her own wishes. At his request doctors at a clinic in Udine stopped feeding Ms Englaro on Friday.

...

The Senate interrupted the debate and observed a minute’s silence as a mark of respect. After the silence came recriminations. “She didn’t die. She was killed,” Gaetano Quagliarello, a centre-right senator, shouted, while others screamed “murderers, murderers” towards the Opposition benches.

Mr Berlusconi’s law would make it illegal for carers of people “unable to take care of themselves” to suspend artificial feeding. Euthanasia is illegal in Italy but refusing treatment is not.

...

For the third day in succession Pope Benedict XVI referred indirectly to the case, declaring yesterday that “the sanctity of life must be safeguarded from conception to its natural end”.

...

Ms Englaro was called “Italy’s Terri Schiavo”, in reference to the American woman in a vegetative state who was allowed to die in 2005 after a long legal fight. Mr Englaro battled his way through Italy’s courts for ten years to have her feeding tube disconnected, saying that it was her wish not to be kept alive artificially.

Rome’s right-wing mayor, Gianni Alemanno, announced that the Colosseum would be lit all night in a sign of mourning for “a life that could have and should have been saved”.

Click through for more.

One of the main arguments for keeping Englaro alive was Berlusconi's claim that she was "in the condition to have babies". (Mortarboard tipped to Pharyngula for the Guardian link). I find this so appalling that I can't find the words to express it fully. Euthanasia is a tricky area, and personally I tend to change my mind on it every few years because I find it so hard. But to argue that someone who has been in a coma for 17 years should be kept alive because she is biologically capable of conceiving a child (and how precisely does she consent to that from a vegetative state?) astounds me. Talk about reducing a woman to just a reproductive machine.

Big thanks to reader Giovanni for bringing this to our attention via our Facebook group.

Friday Feminist - Andrea Dworkin (5)

Cross posted

Feminists know that if women are paid equal wages for equal work, women will gain sexual as well as economic independence. But feminists have refused to face the fact that in a woman-hating social system, women will never be paid equal wages. Men in all their institutions of power are sustained by the sex labour and sexual subordination of women. The sex labour of women must be maintained; and systematic low wages for sex-neutral work effectively forces women to sell sex to survive. The economic system that pays women lower wages than it pays men actually punishes women for working outside marriage or prostitution, since women work hard for low wages and still must sell sex. The economic system that punishes women for working outside the bedroom by paying low wages contributes significantly to women's perception that the sexual serving of men is a necessary part of any women's life: or how else could she live? Feminists appear to think that equal pay for equal work is a simple reform, whereas it is no reform at all; it is revolution. Feminists have refused to face the fact that equal pay for equal work is impossible as long as men rule women, and right-wing women have refused to forget it. Devaluation of women's labour outside the home pushes women back into the home and encourages women to support a system in which, as she sees it, he is paid for both of them - her share of his wage being more than she could earn herself.

Andrea Dworkin, Right Wing Women, 1983

Le Sigh, yet another high-profile sports player acting like an asshole

Jake Paringatai is the latest high-profile sports player caught assualting a woman. He pleaded guilty and was fined by the judge. However what makes my teeth grind is the reporting of the crime, just a clumsy drunken grope that only lasted a few secods. Jesus christ, you stick your fingers up a woman's vagina without her say so, that's what called rape. I don't care if you are up there for a few seconds or a few hours, if she don't want it up there it's rape pure and simple.

I'm thinking of keeping score of how many of these stories we see this year.

Warning: some readers may find the contents of this comment thread triggering. J

DUFC coming up

It's almost the end of February, and that means the deadline for the next Down Under Feminists Carnival is nearly here. It's being hosted by the fabulous Queen of Thorns, whose work I admire enormously, at Ideologically Impure. So it's time to go through your posts for February, and posts on other blogs you read, and pick some out and submit them to the carnival. It's fine to submit your own work, and submitting someone else's post is a great way of paying them a compliment - when they read the carnival, and see their work mentioned there, they will know that someone, somewhere, likes what they do. Submissions can be made on the DUFC submission page, and you have until Saturday 28 February to make them.

The fabulous Queen of Thorns

Quick hit: Diversity deficit at the Jobs Summit

From yesterday's Herald:

Community groups and some small business sectors are upset that they have been left off the invitation list for Prime Minister John Key's Jobs Summit in Manukau on Friday.

The guest list, released on Monday night, includes only three people from the community sector: Auckland City Missioner Diane Robertson, Salvation Army social services director Campbell Roberts and a policy adviser for the disability group DPA, Wendi Wicks.

Instead, 118 of the 194 invited are from the business sector - mostly from big businesses (62) and finance (22), but including 30 from smaller businesses and sector groups and four from state-owned enterprises.

The rest are from central and local government, education and training organisations, unions, iwi groups and a handful of academics and researchers.

The list includes 165 men and just 30 women. At least 20 are Maori, but only two are known to be of part-Pacific Island heritage: Rick Fala of the tap maker Methven and NZ Super Fund chief executive Adrian Orr.

Fletcher Building chief executive Jonathan Ling will be the sole flagbearer for the Asian community.

Click through for the full article.

Thirty women out of nearly 200 attendees? That's around 15% (even less than the National caucus). Sheesh! I guess at least they are low on all types of people outside Pakeha men, so the deficit itself is somewhat even handed?

Bowler hat tipped in the direction of Tumeke.

Contractors are people too

On the campaign trail John Key clearly stated "we would love to see wages drop" and the National-led government certainly aren't wasting any time in fulfilling that promise.

First we had the 90-day Fire at Will Bill rammed through under urgency and without public scrutiny. National and friends amended the Employment Relations Act to allow sackings within 90 days for pretty much any reason without risk of personal grievance. Which really encourages workers to seek a pay rise, doesn't it?

Then we had all that dithering by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Labour about the new minimum wage rate, and the eventual decision to put it up to $12.50. This rate was probably at the top end of what the National caucus would hold their noses and agree to, and certainly well above what Act would have wanted. But it's still only a 9c an hour pay increase in real terms.

Most recently we've had the Minister for State Services axe the roll-out of pay equity programmes across the state sector, because equal pay for work of equal value is unaffordable in the current recession. One law for all (special conditions apply).

Next week National have a chance to put the boot in yet again. Or they could choose to make a real difference for thousands of NZ workers and their families and vote for Darien Fenton's Member's Bill on contractors' pay comes up for its third and final reading.

Fenton's Bill aims to end the abuse of labour laws by contracting out work, specifically breaches of the minimum wage. Our labour laws around minimum wage, sick leave, annual leave, and many other entitlements only apply if you are classed as an "employee". Yes there are definitely times when someone is genuinely a contractor, but there are also cases of abuse, such as some of those Fenton gave in her second reading speech:

For example, a pizza deliveryman told me he was employed as a "contract driver," not an employee, then his franchise boss assigned him to work 10 hours straight on well below minimum wage.

A home-care worker, on 24-hour shifts looking after a man with Alzheimer's disease, signed a contract with an agency saying she is "self-employed" and therefore not entitled to the minimum wage.

A waitress was told she was not an employee; she was an independent contractor with a waitressing business.

A hotel housekeeper was contracted on a room by room cleaning basis.

A workers’ brief experience as a "subcontractor" hired to mop floors and dust offices later discovered that other workers had also signed an independent contract with the licensee of a commercial cleaning company. She was told where and when to clean and told to buy hundreds of dollars in supplies.

Ten months after signing her contract, after working for what amounted to less than $6 an hour, she has no cleaning business. And the company is still recruiting workers in employment ads to "Be Your Own Boss."

Even in cases of genuine contracting the minimum wage should be honoured. My observation is that often contracting is a family affair; one partner does the contracting work, while the other takes the calls, books the jobs, does the finances, all behind the scenes. The division of this work is often gendered, no surprises there. So paying the minimum wage is really the least that could be done to recognise this work fairly.

How National decides to divide on Fenton's bill is yet to be seen. If they vote it down that'll be further proof that their abiding love of dropping wages overcomes their fickle affection for closing the pay gap with Australia.

In the interests of transparency, this post came about because Darien Fenton commented on a post at The Standard asking for some support around this bill when it came up for its third reading and she and I had a subsequent email conversation. Fenton didn't write this or even suggest it, and she hasn't seen it before you have, although I did ask her advice about the best timing for it to be topical.

Thursdays in Black: Roots of Empathy - Puna Atawhai

I've heard about Roots of Empathy - Puna Atawhai on and off for the last few years. My father gave me a brochure on it while I was pregnant with Wriggly, thinking it might be something I'd like to do with my baby if circumstances allowed, but I lost it in the midst of that brain fog that seemed to descend every night at about 7.30pm for some months. When I started doing these regular Thursdays in Black posts, about local initiatives aiming to prevent rape and other forms of violence, I had a little memory of this programme calling at me for attention, but it's taken a few weeks for me to hear it properly.

Roots of Empathy - Puna Atawhai is an international programme, which is run in New Zealand through The Peace Foundation. It started in Toronto, Canada, and The Peace Foundation started investigating piloting it here in 2001. With the support of various organisations, including Plunket and the Children's Commisioner, a three year pilot started in 2007. By the end of 2009 they hope to have delivered Roots of Empathy - Puna Atawhai to 100 classes, which is about 3000 students.

So what is it? I'll borrow from their website to explain:

Roots of Empathy (ROE) is an award winning programme that has shown dramatic effects in reducing levels of aggression and violence among school children while raising social/emotional competence and increasing empathy. It also provides these children with a clear understanding of the needs of a baby and what it is to be a good parent, thus offering the potential to break intergenerational cycles of family abuse....

At the heart of the programme is a neighbourhood infant and parent who visit the classroom every three weeks over the school year. A trained ROE Instructor coaches students to observe the baby’s development and to label the baby’s feelings. In this experiential learning, the baby is the “Teacher” and a lever, which the instructor uses to help children identify and reflect on their own feelings and the feelings of others. This Emotional literacy taught in the programme lays the foundation for more safe and caring classrooms, where children are the “Changers”. They are more competent in understanding their own feelings and the feelings of others (empathy) and are therefore less likely to physically, psychologically and emotionally hurt each other through bullying and other behaviours. In the ROE programme children learn how to challenge cruelty and injustice. Messages of social inclusion and activities that are consensus building contribute to a culture of caring that changes the tone of the classroom...

Empathy is a key ingredient to responsible citizenship and responsive parenting. Information on infant safety and development helps children to be more aware of issues of infant vulnerability such as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), Shaken Baby Syndrome, Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) and second hand smoke. Observations of a loving parent-child relationship give children a model of responsible parenting.

Awww, doesn't that sound awesome?!

You can find out more by contacting the Peace Foundation, checking out the Roots of Empathy - Puna Atawhai information on their site, or looking up the Canadian programme's website.

Automating checkout chicks

When I went to the supermarket today, I saw for the first time a completely automated checkout system (completely automated, that is, except for the employee who explained to dolts like me how to use it).

It's a bit sinister seeing (largely female) jobs automated during a recession, when unemployment is climbing. I've heard the argument that we all need more education - that there should be no place for low-skilled jobs in our modern economy. I'm ambivalent about this. When this argument is made in relation to manufacturing, it simply means that we can get foreigners to do the work cheaper and under poor conditions. Yay. And you can't just lay off low skilled workers and expect the economy to absorb them straight away - skill shortages in IT or scientific research labs don't do much good for people who may not have finished high school.

I guess automated checkouts are cheaper than workers, and that the savings automation generates will be passed on to customers. I'd like a lower grocery bill - but I'd sooner pay a little more to keep these supermarket workers in their jobs.

Feminist Event: Pre-loved fashion sale for New Horizons for Women Trust

It's stuff like this that makes me wish I lived in Wellington. Sigh.

With a holiday weekend ahead of us, [oops, my bad, behind us now, J] you may be intending to have a clean out of the wardrobe. Think of us when you do so as we need your clothes – to give women a second chance at education.

Donations are coming in and with less than 7 weeks [now one month!, J] before the sale we are out there collecting donated clothes.

The New Horizons for Women Trust is holding its fourth annual Pre-Loved Fashion Sale on 21 March, and we need your help to make it a success.

Don’t leave your unworn outfits languishing in your wardrobe – your unwanted clothing can help us provide awards to assist women with no qualifications to embark on tertiary education for the first time, and to fund research into issues of interest to women.

Last year, the Wellington region’s great annual wardrobe clearance raised more than $10,000. This year, we’re hoping to raise $15,000 by improving the quality of the clothing we sell. If you have good-quality, contemporary items of clothing that you can spare – including bags, scarves and even coat hangers – let us know and we’ll come and pick them up.

Email prelovedfashion@paradise.net.nz with your address and phone number, and we’ll contact you. Our sale will be held from 9am to noon on Saturday, 21 March at St Andrew’s on the Terrace church hall in Wellington. Put the date in your diaries now, and you’ll be able to pick up 10 outfits for the price you’d usually pay for one.

Feathery bonnett tipped to the marvellous Pretty Pretty Pretty.

Quick hit: 2008 Report on the Global Gender Gap

The full report, compiled by the World Economic Forum, can be found here. New Zealand comes in at #5 behind Norway, Finland, Sweden and Iceland. The study focuses on data related to economic participation and opportunity (7th), educational attainment (1st equal), political power (6th) and health and survival (69th).

Quick hit: Can't read a map? What are ya? A girl?

Apparently research tells us that women can't read maps. And men can. But men can't see small irrelevant objects around them, like socks on the floor, whereas women can:

The cliches that women can't read maps and men can't see things right under their noses seem to have been explained by science.

Researchers believe the reason the sexes differ is because of their specific roles in evolution.

Men had to hunt and stalk their prey, so became skilled at navigation, while women foraged for food and became good at spotting fruit and nuts close by.

The theory emerged from a study which looked at the different way in which men and women appreciate art.

Click through for the rest of the story.

This clearly explains why when I was in Berlin with a man of my acquaintance and we got hideously lost due to his poor map-reading skills it was because he's a woman in disguise and neither of us have realised it yet. Conversely I must secretly be a man in denial, due to my superior navigation skills.

Am I the only one who is confused about why this is still the subject of so much research and media reportage, and whole entire books?

Pay Equity Faxathon - March 6th!

We've been talking rather a lot here about pay equity in the last week or so, since the new Government axed the roll-out of pay equity investigations across the state sector. And talk is good. Hopefully we all feel like we've had a good rant.

But as all activists know, anger needs to be turned into action. We can talk about how annoyed we are in our own circles until the stars fall from the sky, but really we need to communicate our ire to the politician who can reverse this decision.

So here's one modest opportunity for you to do something for the good of all woman- (and man-)kind, around the issue of pay equity. I promise you'll feel better once you've done it.

The idea is this:

On Friday March 6th send a fax to the Minister of State Services, Tony Ryall, who cancelled the pay equity investigations, expressing your dissatisfaction. His office fax number is 04 817 6504.

You could even have a little morning tea* at your work about it (seeing as how it is International Working Women's Day on Sunday March 8th) and get your workmates to sign the fax too.

And lo and behold we just happen to have a Pay Equity Faxathon PDF you can use to facilitate this outcome (pictured to the right in this post, click through for the full size version. If you cannot get it to work please feel free to email me via my profile and I will email it back to you.) Thanks so much to Anita of Kiwipolitico who not only transformed it into a PDF for us, she also arranged the hosting at her place. Gotta love a bit of that inter-blog solidarity!

For those who don't have access to a fax machine, here are some alternative ideas:

1. Email - you could email Mr Ryall and let him know your opinion on the matter, or send him a photo of your signed fax:

tony.ryall@parliament.govt.nz

2. Post - you can freepost (don't bother with a stamp) your fax to him, or send him a letter:

Tony Ryall
Minister for State Services
Parliament Buildings
WELLINGTON

If you do take a photo of your fax, maybe with your workmates who signed it, or around the fax machine as you send it off, do feel free to send email it to us too (you can find my email in by clicking through from my profile on the sidebar).

I have heinously stolen this idea from a union member of my acquaintance who is planning to do it within her own organisation. I figured it couldn't hurt to get it out there more widely - the more faxes going to Mr Ryall saying women are worth it the better!

If you hear of any other activity happening around this issue please let us know so we can promote it too.

More on recent pay equity stuff here - Because we're worth it: Pay Equity Hub

Update: More recent news on the Faxathon can be found here. And much gratitude to the wonderful readers who set up a Facebook event for the Faxathon off their own bat.

* Or afternoon tea, or lunch, or elevenses, or second breakfast. I advise against doing this over Friday drinkies however. I understand faxes with gin splashes can clog up the machine.

Feminist Event: Gardasil information evening in Akl

What: Gardasil, it's your choice - information seminar run by Women's Health Action Trust
When: Monday 16th March 2009, 7.00 pm - 8.30 pm
Where: 4 Warnock Street, Grey Lynn, Auckland

This workshop will include information on:
· Your rights to make an informed choice as a health consumer
· Latest research evidence on the vaccine, what is does, it’s effectiveness, and safety
· An overview of the HPV immunisation programme

Run by Women’s Health Action together with The Auckland Women’s Centre , this workshop will give parents and their daughters an opportunity to gain the knowledge to help make an informed choice about this vaccination.

Please note that people need to register (and it is $15) with Women’s Health Action to attend. I could not find the registration form on their website but I do have a PDF of it so please feel free to email me, via my profile, and I'll email it back to you.

WHA have been quite sceptical about immunisation in the past, and Gardasil in particular, so this is unlikely to be a Rah Rah Vaccinate The World seminar. I'm sure though that it will be chock full of information to help people make the best choice for them.

Pay equity letters to the editor

A letter in yesterday's NZ Herald:

I was amazed to read that State Services Minister Tony Ryall is cancelling pay investigations aimed at assessing the situation of grossly underpaid workers. This is like closing down the Waitangi Tribunal with the declaration that we no longer want to know about historic wrongs against Moari because we cannot afford to pay redress.
As with Treaty breaches, there is no prospect that those in female-dominated professions will ever receive adequate compensation for past exploitation. But the mana of those involved requires that their situations are properly examined and policies and practices changed.
As for the restraint in demands for future fairness in pay, I am sure social workers at Child, Youth and Family and school support staff have some understanding of the global economic realities. There is room for state negotiation on limiting redress if there is a genuine commitment to solving the problem. Such a commitment is not demonstrated by cancelling the pay investigations for social workers and school suport staff.
Despite the Government's trying to portray itself as trying to deal even-handedly with different groups, Mr Ryall's statement signals continued harmful treatment of these largely female groups.
Ian de Stigter, Mt Albert

And this was in today's:

I trust the Government will now act to reduce the salaries of all women MPs and Parliamentary workers to 9.5 percent less than that of their male colleagues "in fairness to the taxpayer."
That women social workers at Child, Youth and Family are paid 9.5 per cent less than their male colleagues beggars belief in the 21st century.
As a former social worker in Britain and a hospital soicla worker in NZ, I know my female colleagues worked as hard as and faced equally daunting situation as males, dealing with distressed, angry, abusive and, at times, aggressive people under a great deal of stress.
And this is not just child protection work, where the burntout rate is higher, but in all types of social work.
The axing of pay equity inquiries is not only an indictment of this Government but also previous Governments that allowed such an inequitable situation to continue.
Dick Ward, Taumarunui

To send a letter to the editor, you need to email letters@nzherald.co.nz and follow these rules:

• Put your letter in the body of the email, not as an attachment
• Keep it under 200 words
• Include your name, residential address and phone number (so they can check you are who you say you are, although in my experience they don't generally bother)

More on recent pay equity stuff here - Because we're worth it: Pay Equity Hub

The Odds and Ends Drawer

Again I've been remiss. Again I apologise. Again I present to you a whole pile of linky love to engage you, enrage you, and generally be a useful procrastination tool.

• Martha gives the world the birth story of her lovely new daughter.
• Maia has been a busy bee providing much Joss Whedon-related writing, particularly about his new series The Dollhouse.
• The Zen Peacekeeper receives a letter from Afghanistan and muses on gratitude.
  
• Paul Litterick has some interesting links, and commentary, about various matters of child crime and justice.
• Make Tea Not War has reviewed recipe book Ladies, a Plate (and made ice cream!)
• Anarkaytie was at the Tamil protest that the media snubbed.
  
• Deborah discusses some pertinent questions about parenting, including at what age you'd let your child play in your yard unaccompanied.
• Meganwegan shares 31 things she has learnt in her 31 years of existence.
• Emma Hart has been writing some great stuff in her (relatively) new spot at Public Address; I give you her post about women's cricket (much more interesting than I'm making it sound) and romance novels (ditto).
• barvasfiend explains about bushfires, from her vantage point of being a Kiwi living in Oz.
  
• Anjum writes about the plight of our community law centres, which are facing possible extinction as their funding has been cut.
• Lew looks at the practicalities of a four-day working week, and whether National has really thought this one through.
  
• Sophie considers clothes and modesty and practicality.
• sas has some amazing hand pictures.
• Luddite Journo examines the NZ section of a UN report on human trafficking.
  
• Harvest Bird is keeping track of the evolution of her wedding.
• Paradoxical Cat reports on the wonderings of Tabby, re: SIS file's and the contents therein.
  

Phew, I feel like I need a cup of tea and a lie down now!

Is there ever a 'right' time to have a kid?

Almost a year ago the papers were bitching women out for waiting around too long for Mr Right and thus were having babies far too late for their liking. Now they are angsting that women are having babies too early.

Which leads me to ask an important question, is there ever a 'right' time to have a kid? Ideally a couple should be a position where they are financially and more importantly emotionally able to support their family. However that it is where my judgement stops. I don't care if a woman is 16 or 45, it is her decision when she feels she is ready to have children.

More importantly where the hell is the analysis of the fathers age in all of this? Oh that's right, I forgot babies are made by magic pixies so we don't bother to collect stats on that.

Quick hit: Only 40 schools may decline HPV vaccine

One News last night reported that 98% of schools are offering the HPV shot that prevents most cervical cancer:

The Mt Maunganui College principal, Terry Collett, supports the decision for girls to be informed about Gardisal and cervical cancer."School's the ideal place to capture the students, to give them the opportunity to look after their future lives," says Collett.

Schools have until the end of this week to either opt in or out of the vaccine programme.

Figures obtained from the ministry show most, like Mt Maunganui, are welcoming it, 98% in fact.

Only 40 schools have said no or are yet to reply. One of those is Tauranga's Bethlehem College.

Phillip Nash, Principal of Bethlehem College, says religion is playing a factor in their decision.

"We obviously take a stand as a Christian school on chastity before marriage and faithfulness in marriage and we don't want to compromise that message," says Nash.

The college says it's a parental decision, made alongside a girl's GP, not one for schools.

Nash says the school is not shutting young girls from getting the vaccine.

"We're just putting the responsibility back where we think it belongs," he says.

Apparently the Canterbury area has a very high uptake of GP-based immunisation programmes, so they're going to do it that way rather than at schools.

Does anyone know how/if we can find out which school have opted out? If it's either of my old high schools (one Catholic, one Anglican) I'd quite like to write them a letter expressing my disappointment. And if any state schools decline the vaccine on religious grounds then that rather undermines our commitment to secular education does it not?

slumdog millionaire

you must have heard by now that slumdog millionaire (SM) has cleaned up at the oscars. i've not watched the film yet, but hope to do so some time soon.

if you've been following the publicity around the film, you'll know that there has been a lot of controversy in india about it. there has been much protest and anger. some of this relates to the perceived exploitation of the young children from the slums that acted in the film, and of poverty in general. some of it relates to the negative portrayal of bombay (and hence of india), considered to be in bad taste after the recent attacks.

amitabh bachchan, one of india's most famous and well known actors and the first host of india's version of "who wants to be a millionaire", came out with a scathing attack on the film:

if SM projects India as [a] third-world, dirty, underbelly developing nation and causes pain and disgust among nationalists and patriots, let it be known that a murky underbelly exists and thrives even in the most developed nations.

this and other comments by him (later denied) could easily be written off as professional jealousy. bachchan is a much, much better actor than anil kapoor (who plays the host of the TV show in SM) and his films have had much greater commercial success, yet has never received recognition in the west to the extent of being able to walk the red carpet at the oscars.

it's easy to dismiss the defensiveness of many indians about the negativity of the film. in the context of the film water, it made me angry that there were attempts to stop filming mostly on the basis of national pride. i'd be the first to say that issues like this need to be aired. simon morris, in reviewing the film, writes off the criticisms by saying (and i paraphrase) that the film is as much a portrayal of all of bombay as "oliver twist" was a portrayal of the whole of london.

however, there is a difference between "oliver twist" and SM, and that difference is context. the context is that the majority of portrayals in the west of india (and indeed most asian, african & middle eastern countries) are overwhelmingly negative. with a history of colonisation and contempt of coloured people, these negative portrayals are often used to point a finger of accusation, to support a feeling of smug superiority in those living in the west. it's as if there's a jeering undertone of "look at how those savages live; aren't we so much better than them". of course, england being one of the colonising countries never had to face that kind of environment. so in that sense, oliver twist is not really an adequate comparison.

i have to say that i have some sympathy with this view. i too get heartily sick of the moral superiority, and the lack of recognition that much of the poverty has been a result of colonial powers syphoning off the wealth of the country back to the homeland, with little thought of how the natives would survive and prosper. i get sick of the glossing over of unfair trade practices and the continuing apetite of the west to consume products that they know full well were produced using less than adequate (and sometimes horrific) labour practices. it's as if the problems in developing countries exist in isolation, with westerners taking no responsibility for their own actions and institutions which seek to perpetuate injustice and poverty.

in that context, many indians will look at SM as yet another in a long line of western spotlights that ignore the beauty, the rich history, the diverse cultures and languages of india. another negative spotlight in a long line of negative spotlights. whether this view is nationalism and patriotism at its worst or a reasonable backlash against centuries of racism is hard to say. or what i mean is that i can identify with both points of view, and will have to wait til i see the film before i can decide between them!

Homework sux

Until I read this article, I thought the anti-homework movement had only one member: me.

I hate homework. I didn't like it much as a kid, and now as a parent responsible for supervising my daughter's homework, I like it even less. (I have to admit, though, that my daughter loves it. She's been known to refuse to eat tea until allowed to complete her homework. Sheesh.)

I had two main reasons for deploring homework. The first was that it makes parents responsible for teaching their kids. This always seemed to me a way of perpetuating privilege: those kids with educated parents would do best, while those whose parents didn't have the education, time or inclination to help them would be disadvantaged. Or so I thought - according to the Stuff article, there's little evidence that homework offers much benefit for anyone.

My second reason was that the six hours kids spend at school each day seems quite long enough to me. Adults only work eight hours (in theory, at least), so to make a kid do six plus homework seems harsh.

Until I read the homework article, it hadn't really occurred to me that other families might find homework a stressful business. When I grew up, the job of supervising homework feel to my mum, because my father was at work - probably a fairly common arrangement. There were five kids in my family. That's a whole lot of times tables and spelling lists - poor mum.

Being part of my kids' learning is hugely important to me, but it takes the form of a whole range of activities. We read books, go to the museum, watch interesting stuff on TV or simply talk about stuff the kids enjoy. As a working mum, I'd much rather do this than squander my precious time with the kids by making them fill in homework sheets.

Announcing The Hand Mixer - Auckland, Thurs 19th March

The Hand Mixer
Thursday March 19th, 7pm

Supper Room, Trades Hall
147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn

An opportunity to get together with other left wing ladies, and even take in one of Maia's Top Ten Most Feminist Episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (screening from about 7.45pm).

Light refreshments provided by the Working Women's Resource Centre, with proceeds going to their good works.

Complimentary cupcakes lovingly baked by local Hand Mirrovians.

All welcome (including feminist-friendly men). Modest donations accepted to cover costs, please look out for the basket on the night.

If you are a Facebook type-person (like me) then you can even RSVP. Mega-thanks to Anita of Kiwipolitico for PDF-erising the poster for me; email me if you want a copy to put up around the show.

Mamma Mia: the musical movie extravABBAnza

This post is almost but not really a movie review. I'm not very good at reviewing things, I'm better at talking about them in discussion. So please do share your thoughts in the comment thread and let's see what happens next.

Here be Spoilers!

I watched this with my Mum over a month ago, yet I still have Abba songs stuck in my head. How can that be?

Pluses:

• The mother character, Donna (played by Meryl Streep), is not branded a slut for not knowing which of the three men could be the father of her daughter, or for the fact that she had sex out of wed-lock and all that goes with that. Yay for not judging!
• Pierce Brosnan's inability to sing. Call me odd, but I found it endearing.
• The fact that the wedding between the two young people doesn't actually happen in the end.
• The fantastic setting. I want to go there, and live there (as long as it has excellent broadband and all my friends and family move too).
• The dancing, the singing, and the fact that it wasn't all perfect, which gives me confidence in my own abilities, in a strange way.
• The scene on the beach where Tanya (Christine Baranski) sings an anthem for the mature lady lover, turning Does Your Mother Know That You're Out on it's head.
  
• The Greek chorus, which made me feel those Classical Studies and Ancient History papers weren't entirely a waste of time.
• It looked like it was an incredibly fun film to make, particularly if the music video over the credits is anything to go by.
  

Minuses:

• Trotting out the old myth about women wanting to capture men and men trying to escape, in the storyline between Rosie (Julie Walters) and Bill (Stellan Skarsgard). Lone wolves indeed.
• The implication that Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) couldn't truly know who she was until she met her father, that she wasn't complete without his input.

Improvements:

• There was a definite high level of predictability, but I don't know that I'd actually change that. It was predictable like an old treasured blanket has the same comforting smell for years and years.
• Not enough Colin Firth. And maybe they could have made it more explicit that Harry was gay; I felt like they sort of glossed over it to avoid upsetting anyone.

Alright, your turn - what say you?

Monday Funday: with silly purity merchandise

I have to make fun of this because otherwise I'm going to cry.

Perhaps you can help me choose which is worse - the t-shirt above or the one I can't get a shot of which said "No trespassing. I'm waiting for my husband." Or is there no lesser evil in this case?

Quick Hit: Best Supporting Laydeez

Found at Alas, the Washington Whispers column at US News.com, a poll on which of teh laydeez would run the best daycare centre, illustrated with this lovely graphic:

*bangs head against desk*

Can men not run daycare centres? In my personal experience, Yes They Can.

How was it for you?

And we are back up, post Internet Blackout. Was that fun or dull?

More importantly - will it have got the message across about how much we all hatez s92A of the new copyright legislation?

Internet Blackout against s92A - normal service resumes 12noon Monday

www.creativefreedom.org.nz

Because we're worth it: Pay Equity Hub

I'm going to try to keep track of a variety of stuff about the pay equity programme cuts that the National-led Government has made. This will be where I attempt to do that. Please do feel free to email me, or post in comments, about things I've missed.

Collective action:
Do get in touch if you're aware of something I haven't added. Thanks in advance for your help!

*Pay equity petition - initiated by Labour's Women's Affairs spokesperson, Sue Moroney. *Media statement launching it, *Phil Goff's statement in support, *Support from the New Zealand Educational Institute, *Hand Mirror post on the petition. I'll put up a link to it online when it's available, in the meantime if you email me I'll send it back to you as a PDF.

Past collective activity:
Pay Equity Faxathon on March 6th - organised by The Hand Mirrovistas (thanks to Kiwipolitico, No Right Turn, The Standard, Ideologically Impure, Kiwipolitico again and Just Left, NRT again for promoting it) and there's an update on spreading the word too. * It looks as though some organisations are doing the faxathon today (Monday 9th), ah well, the most important thing is that the message gets through, not which day the faxes arrive :-)

Protests in Hamilton on March 6th - organised by Trade Unions Waikato


Bloggers in favour of continuing pay equity work:
Quick hit: Pay equity for women is just too expensive - Julie at The Hand Mirror
Women come last under National - Idiot/Savant at No Right Turn
Actions speak louder than words - all_your_base at The Standard (pointing out the dissonance between National's courtship of the women's vote and the cuts they are making)
Sorry, girlfolk, your equality is getting in the way of my ideology - Queen of Thorns of Ideologically Impure (with delightful raging against the manchine)
Why the National Party killed the pay-equity inquiries - frog at Frogblog (who could do with a hand in the comments, if anyone has a log-in there)
Women are paying for bankers excesses - Anita at Kiwipolitico (with particularly interesting comment thread, imho)
Friday Feminist - Laurie Shrage - Deborah of In A Strange Land (and here)
Equal Rates - the eponymous MacDoctor (who picks up the common refrain, what did Labour do in 9 years of power? Well for a start they put in place these pay equity programmes that National just cut, silly!)
Only if Convenient - Lucy at Too Hip to Be Nats adds her 10c in support.
Mediocrity Watch - Russell Brown of Hard News focuses on the impact on special education (and while there is a lot of discussion of bees in the comment thread, it's worth wading through that for the further thoughts of PA readers.)
Let the Nats know women matter too - Steve at The Standard promotes the faxathon, the comment thread sadly descends into a discussion of country music because it's too hard to talk about pay equity.
Action! Pay Equity Faxathon at The Hand Mirror - Queen of Thorns at Ideologically Impure is mad as hell and ready for faxtion!
Pay Equity Faxathon - three sleeps to go! - Julie shares a poster sent in by a reader.
Nurses and police officers - Anita at Kiwipolitico considers these two professions and the comment thread explodes
A wee pay equity anecdote - Anna of our own fine blog has a real world example.
Pay Equity Faxathon - Michael at Just Left describes National's actions as akin to "peeing on the lamp-post". Ewwww.
progressing pay equity - Anjum writes here about what Labour did through it's 9 years, with lots of great links.
Pay Equity - Phoebe Fletcher of Tumeke brings together some of the research and also makes a plea to National and its supporters about why pay equity should matter to them too.
Faxathon for pay equality organised - Byron Clark writes on Instablogs about the faxathon and the broader issue of pay equity in Aotearoa.
*Same problems everywhere - Idiot/Savant of No Right Turn looks at recession-based reasoning behind axing pay equity steps in the UK too.

Bloggers supporting the end of the pay equity programmes:
I've not found a thing. I have however noticed that almost none of the right-wing blogs have mentioned the cut to the pay-equity programmes, despite it being front-page news (in the Herald anyway).

Yes I am really posting about pay equity - Psycho Milt at No Minister explains why right wingers don't see it as an issue, and puts his case for why some of those arguing for pay equity are ticking him off.

*NZ-centred research
(This is a new area that I am hoping to grow in coming weeks)
*Comparison of Wages and Costs of Education and Training - Ministry of Women's Affairs, 2006

Media articles:
Government kills pay-equity inquiries - NZ Herald, Friday Feb 20th.
Ryall issues warning over pay rises - TVNZ, Friday Feb 20th.
Ryall warns public service to keep pay rises within budgets - TV3, Friday Feb 20th.

Media statements:
No pay and no say for women workers - Green Party
Working women deserve better from Government - Council of Trade Unions
Pay Equity is a social justice issue - NZ Association of Social Workers
School cleaners ask "are we next to face the axe?" - Service & Food Workers Union
Government turns the clock back on women's rights - NZ Educational Institute
Huge gender imbalance in CYF - Family First (who rather manage to miss the point)
Govt making it harder to recruit for state sector - Public Service Association
Wong fails to stand up for equal pay for women - Labour Party
Government scraps pay equity investigations - Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (kind of a news article, rather than a media statement?)
Media statement from Working Women's Resource Centre
*Govt should honour pay equity on international working women's day [PDF] - NZ Educational Institute
*Moroney: launches petition for pay equity - Labour
*Goff and Moroney push for pay equity - Labour

The Tertiary Education Union also has a great page with links to all sorts of resources on pay equity. And they've picked up the faxathon and ran it on their front page on Friday the 6th March.

Letters to the editor:
NZ Herald on Mon 23rd and Tues 24th February



Last updated Mon 16th March (* next to newer additions)

Anna gets Herald on Sunday's blog of the week!

Our very own Anna was apparently featured in last Sunday's HOS for this post about dna testing. Wohooo!

I have yet to see a copy myself, but I understand it was rather heavily edited to favour National? Readers may wish to confirm or deny, and anyone who is able to send me a copy will earn my eternal gratitude.

Great going Anna, for getting The Hand Mirror out there in the broader world, even if they do mangle your fine work. We luvz ya :-)

Quick hit: Who could be the new co-leader of the Greens?

Update: I blogged this in good faith this morning based on an article on Stuff. However it appears that the reporter was way off the mark and Fitzsimons is not about to announce her retirement. See katy's comment in the thread below for the email from the Greens, and listen out for Jeanette's media conference at 11am tomorrow (Monday).

Further update: Ok, Fitzsimons is going to stand down from the co-leadership (but not as an MP) in June.

Jeanette Fitzsimons is expected to announce her retirement from the female co-leader position sometime soon, which inevitably leads to speculation about who could step into her sandals:

The main candidates for her job, which under Green Party rules must be held by a woman, are MPs Sue Bradford and Metiria Turei. The new leader is likely to be announced at the party annual conference in June.

Fitzsimons, who had earlier indicated she would probably retire at the next election, refused to comment yesterday. Co-leader Russel Norman also refused to discuss her future.

Fitzsimons' departure will leave a difficult problem for the party. She is a widely liked and admired politician, with appeal across the political spectrum.

Neither Bradford nor Turei has similar appeal. Bradford, once a fiery Marxist radical, has softened her image, but her sponsorship of the anti-smacking bill drew much flak.

Turei has the progressive appeal of being a Maori woman, but she may be seen as too radical to have wide appeal.

It is not known if Catherine Delahunty, elected to parliament at last year's general election, will be a candidate for the co-leadership. Her lack of parliamentary experience could count against her.

It is understood that veteran Green MP Sue Kedgley is not seeking the post.

Imho this points to a mistake that the Greens made in selecting their list at the last election. They didn't seek much in the way of new, younger, blood, and although they got their best result ever they haven't brought in any new exciting MPs that could step in when Fitzsimons goes.

I'd love to see Bradford or Turei in the role, but I wonder if the party will see them as too unpalatable to the general public (which I think is unfair, but true). Actually the Green co-leader doesn't have to appeal to the entire electorate (although Fitzsimons did have very wide appeal), surely? Unless they have suddenly changed strategy and expect to get 20% plus of the party vote next time? Act don't expect Rodney Hide to have broad support and appeal.

So will the Greens go outside their MPs, as they did when Russel Norman stepped up from the broader membership after Rod Donald died?

Reminder: Internet Blackout tomorrow morning

The Hand Mirror will be blacked out tomorrow (Monday) morning, as per my post about the matter earlier in the week.

Supreme thanks to Idiot/Savant for helping me work out the technicalities of this. At this stage it's likely that we'll only be able to blackout the front page, and turn off comments too, as to do more means we would lose all the side-bar content like the blogrolls.

We'll be up again from about noon Monday; enjoy the brief taste of an NZ blogogsphere under s92A!

Unofficial Official Blog of the Waikowhai Wanderers Women's Softball Team (Fictitious Division)

What on earth could possibly be the point of this, beyond illustrating the ridiculousness of the capitalist system wherein everything is for sale?


(For those a little lacking in brain juice this fine morning, I refer of course to the sticker proclaiming San Remo's large spirals as the Official Pasta of the Australian Netball Team.)

You can't just sponsor someone anymore without some kind of petty public relations quid pro quo can you? There has to be some benefit to the bottom line. Corporate citizenship my arse.

Quick hit: Breastfeeding and dehydration

Here's a snippet from a lengthier article on Stuff today:

The World Health Organisation recommends exclusive breastfeeding until about six months of age and continuing breastfeeding with other foods to at least two years.

In England, it was reported that the push to exclusively breastfeed in the early months could increase the number of dehydrated babies because people were hesitant about criticising the practice.

Dr Sam Richmond, a consultant neonatologist at Sunderland Royal Hospital, said there had become something of a "religious affiliation" to breastfeeding,

Otago University Associate Professor of Human Nutrition Winsome Parnell said past research had suggested topping up with water in hot climates.

"New Zealand is temperate, so it's not the usual route. If a mother doesn't have enough breastmilk then formula must be given because giving water does not solve the energy problem."

I seem to recall being advised by several health professionals that it was ok to give Wriggly some teaspoons of cooled boiled water when it was really really hot, not long after he was born. He was breastfeeding and taking everything I had, and then still hungry, so until my milk supply came up enough we would top him up with some formula when he needed it. I felt pretty awful that I didn't have enough milk, but I got over it when it became apparent he was thriving anyway. I would have thought dehydration was pretty uncommon in breast fed babies, because they are pretty assertive about wanting more!

Words fail me

This awful article showcases just about everything that's wrong with the world. It describes a Police ban on officers accompanying immigration officials when they visit possibly illegal brothels. The ban follows the death of a brothel client during a 2007 raid.

The raid was being filmed for a reality TV show, and the client jumped to his death from a window to avoid being caught. I hate reality TV of this sort. At best, it's an exploitative freak show that mocks other people for our voyeuristic viewing pleasure. The fact that the Police allowed themselves to be involved in something so unethical reflects some pretty bad professional judgment. The legality of the raid is now being questioned.

Whatever we might feel about clients of prostitutes, most would surely agree that these men shouldn't be hounded to their deaths. And there's a very pragmatic reason why preserving privacy at brothels is important: if men fear being caught in the act at a brothel, they may go to street workers instead. As the deaths of Mellory Manning and others show, sex workers on the street are vulnerable to violence. We've got a societal responsibility to make sure sex workers' work conditions are safe - and encouraging the sex industry onto anonymous, unsupervised streets doesn't achieve that.

But the crowning 'glory' of this article would have to be the comment of former immigration minister Tuariki Delamere, who said that although he supported any action to remove people not allowed to be in the country, the Police had to follow the law. The sex workers which immigration officials were investigating during this disastrous raid were suspected human trafficking victims. It takes a stunning bit of pig-headedness to see flouted immigration laws, not the racialised degradation and enslavement of women, as the key injustice in this situation.

First woman to be Attorney General for England, Wales & N.Ireland on Nine to Noon tomorrow

Kim Hill will be interviewing the Baroness Scotland of Asthal, Patricia Janet Scotland, at the rather early hour of 8.15am tomorrow morning. Scotland is the first woman, and the first "ethnic minority person" to hold the rather lengthy job I already typed out for the title of this post, the AG4EW&NI, which she's been doing since 2007.

More about what is on Nine to Noon tomorrow morning on their webpage.

You can listen in virtually anywhere in Aotearoa from somewhere around 101 FM, and for streaming options check out the RNZ National website.

Friday Feminist - Laurie Shrage

Cross posted

Because of this: Government kills pay-equity inquiries, which is discussed at The Hand Mirror: Pay equity for women is just too expensive and Kiwipolitico: Women are paying for bankers excesses and No Right Turn: Women come last under National.

Numerous studies indicate that jobs performed predominantly by persons of color and white women pay significantly less than those primarily occupied by white men, even when the jobs compare favorably in terms of the level of skill, responsibility, experiences, effort, and formal training they demand. Such a pervasive pattern of salary differentials that correlate closely with the race and gender of the traditional job holders reflects the existence of cultural ideologies and principles that devalue the skills and abilities of women and men of color. The adoption of comparable worth standards of pay by employers will serve to reduce the wage inequities that have evolved due to historical and ongoing race and gender prejudice. Instead of setting salaries internally in accordance with the social status of the worker, employers would devise procedures for setting salaries in accordance with some agreed-upon criteria of job worth. Without such procedures, women and men of color are likely to find that their efforts do not really "pay" which serves as a disincentive to compete for desirable positions.

Laurie Shrage, "Equal Opportunity", in A Companion to Feminist Philosophy, Alison M. Jaggar and Iris Marion Young (eds), 1999

Knickers!

When I enroled my daughter at a Catholic school, I signed up for the gendered uniform system, so I don't have much right to complain.

I was still a bit nonplussed, though, when my daughter passed on what she'd been told at school: girls are to wear stockings or school-issued red shorts under their pinafores, so no one can see their knickers when they're playing.

When I was about my daughter's age, I too liked to hang upside down on the monkey bars, and I developed a philosophy on knicker-showing. I couldn't see that showing my knickers was much different to being seen in togs, and I figured that anyone who didn't want to cop an eyeful of my nylon jocks could simply turn away. So I showed my knickers with abandon. (I'm a bit more circumspect now that I'm a grown up, you'll be relieved to know.)

Leaving aside my slight annoyance at having to buy ugly red shorts (and the obvious fact that, if girls had the option of wearing shorts or trousers, knicker-showing wouldn't be an issue), I don't know why seeing kids' underpants is such a problem. Is there some sexual connotation attached, some decency to be preserved? Are we reading adult sexual stuff into kids' behaviour? I truly don't get it!

Whatever the case, I think girls should be allowed to hang upside down, free from adult hang-ups.

Quick hit: Pay equity for women is just too expensive

I fumed when I spotted this on the front page of this morning's Herald:

The Government has axed two investigations aimed at improving the pay of women as it tries to save money by controlling public sector salaries.

The inquiries were aimed at female social workers at Child, Youth and Family, who are paid 9.5 per cent less than their male colleagues, and at inequities in the pay of mainly female school support workers.

But State Services Minister Tony Ryall said the investigations would "generate an additional form of remuneration pressure that is unaffordable in the current economic and fiscal environment".

I think the article in print may actually be longer than the version on-line? I'll check when I'm back at the screen face late today.

These investigations were not just two in isolation; they are actually part of a roll-out of pay equity measures right across the state sector, which had yet to get to the big groups of public employees. Labour's plans (someone correct me if I have this wrong) were to do the public sector first as a way of putting pressure on the private sector to address pay equity too.

But paying women workers a fair wage is just too costly. Clearly, ladies, we are not worth it.

Aucklanders, kindly put a ring around 19th March

Because it is now 99% confirmed that there will be a Hand Mirror-related event on that fine Thursday evening...

More information by Monday!

Thursdays in Black: HMA

Anti-violence programmes and the like have been in the gun a bit in the last week, because of the low levels of completion amongst those ordered to attend by the court. It seems to me that some of that criticism is being aimed at the wrong place...

But back to the subject at hand - local initiatives aiming to address violence.

HMA (Hall McMaster & Associates Limited) focuses on creating and supporting programmes such as probation officer training, domestic violence courses, and restorative justice initiatives. They have a range of self-help resources available on their website for free as well.

HMA was originally based in Christchurch and now offers support in many of New Zealand's main centres. Here's a bit more about them from their own website:

Our mission statement is 'Working with Passion and Integrity to bring out the best in people'; a statement that is at the core of our philosophy to life. For many years we have all involved ourselves in social justice issues and are passionate about making our communities a safer and more respectful place.
Their web

We are committed to social change through the following means:

• encouraging responsibility for behaviour that impacts negatively on others
• being accountable to others for our behaviour
• making the most out of each opportunity
• our belief that learning is a life long task and continuing our own growth and development
• working to privilege the stories of those who have been silenced
• working hard and with dedication to bring about change in the lives of people
• keeping connected with practice
• integrity in working within our realm of expertise

Each of our partners and associates is actively involved in a range of organisations and initiatives designed to bring out the best in people. While most of our work is about training workers in the human services to work more effectively, we bring that same dedication to individual clients whom we work with.

Their website is well worth a general browse as it is chock-full of information and useful resources.