FREE TRAINING DAY
Friday 14th March
South Tyneside
Public law and the gender equality duty
provided by the Public Law Project and
the Women’s Resource Centre
This training is aimed at women who work directly with service users or those working in policy, training, development etc and are based in women’s organisations or projects for women in generic organisations.
This training is appropriate if your organisation is planning to enter into contracts/service level agreements with a public authority.
The session will be run by Louise Whitfield trainer from the Public Law Project and covers:
• The principles of public law
• How to identify when a public authority has not acted lawfully
• How to understand the actions which are available to voluntary organisations to hold public bodies to account or to challenge them on bad decisions
Time: 9.30 – 4.00
Lunch will be provided
Venue: Womens Health In South Tyneside,
Salus House, 33 Mile End Rd South Shields NE33 1TA
Poster and booking details are here>>>
Fawcett Society Wish for Equality Appeal
What is your wish for equality?
Our wish is that all women live free of violence, able to make their own choices, develop their talents and take the decisions that affect their lives. For more information about the cmpaign and about the Fawcett Society, follow the link When you wish upon a star...
Support our Wish Appeal: email us your wishes for equality, and become an Equality Star.
Women's No Pay Day
Women's No Pay Day took place on October 30th, to bring attention to the gender pay gap in the UK, which is the equivalent to men being paid all year and women working for free from 30th October.
Please sign this petition http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/paygap/ to ask the government to do more to ensure equal pay for equal work.
More details...
Women working full-time earn on average 17% less an hour than men working full time. On the average salary of £23,600, that means around £4,000 less a year.
Women working part-time earn on average 36% less an hour than men working full-time.
At the current rate of change it will be at least 80 years before the full-time pay gap close and 140 years for the part-time gap.
Out of the 27 European Union countries, the UK has the biggest pay gap. We’re losing the race to close it.
If you'd like to do more than just sign a petition have a look at http://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/ for ideas.
ReGender Programme
Oxfam is currently running its well-respected ReGender programme in the North East and NNWN staff Julia and Hala are taking part, and will share their learning in a special event later in the year....
Aim of the course
Participants will see the benefits of gender analysis both for meeting the needs of men and women and for delivering effective targeted regeneration and will feel inspired and able to work within their organisations to deliver more gender aware and equitable regeneration programming.
Objectives
Understand what gender means as a concept
Understand what gender stereotypes mean for women and men living in poorer areas
Understand why gender is important to social and physical regeneration programming through case study examples and practical activities
Public Sector Gender Duty – what it will mean for statutory and voluntary sector practitioners
Build commitment to making your work more gender aware
Feel aware of and comfortable with different ways to do this and the resources and toolkits available
Feel confident with a number of good practice case studies and the lessons from these for wider regeneration work
Develop a supportive group of gender practitioners to share learning around what works.
Gender Equality and NNWN
NNWN sets out to promote equality between women and men. That doesn't mean that women need to be like men, but that both genders can get their voices heard on an equal basis.
For more information about women and equality visit the Fawcett Society website here.
Some facts about gender in Northumberland:
Workplace / employment issues
In the North East as a whole,
•Twice as many men as women in full-time employment
•Five times as many women as men in part-time employment
•More women are entering the labour market but in low paid part time work
•Pay gap – women paid 77% of male average (in full-time work)
Average gross weekly earnings Northumberland April 2000
Average male earnings £376.1 per week
Average female earnings £294.6 per week
•Low numbers of women in senior jobs
•Gender stereotyping in career choices leading to lower status, and very low numbers of women in construction, engineering, sport and ICT
(TUC North – ‘Gender Inequality in the Workplace’)
Women in Enterprise
In the report ‘Rural Micro businesses in the NE of England: Survey results’ Centre for Rural Economy, July 2000, ’ rural micro - enterprise was described as mostly made up of Hospitality, Land-based activities and Recreation / Culture. These firms are notable for:
• 56% of female ownership (68% in hospitality)
• High levels of family involvement
• Most commonly sought source of support is from the private sector
• Substantial journeys are needed to access services
• Only half have access to the Internet.
Those businesses generating less than £20,000 are 87% female-owned, mainly B&B and self-catering, with 74% sourcing their inputs locally within 30 miles.
•4.7% women are self-employed in the North East. Characteristics include:
•More likely to use informal sources of capital and to be under-capitalised
•Women-owned businesses are smaller and less growth orientated
•Orientation towards local / regional markets
•Chosen as a route to independence and flexibility in lifestyle
Women’s role in North Northumberland’s rural economy is not yet fully mapped or understood, but there is evidence that:
• women are playing a crucial role in farming diversification (e.g. of the 13 members of the ‘Stay on a Farm’ network, 12 are women) (‘Sustaining Living Uplands’ CRE 2000)
• Women’s role is culturally limited to land-based activity in the areas of the declining fishing industry where diversification opportunities are less obvious.
• Women predominate in crafts enterprises where cluster support has been developed (e.g. through the Aurora project). This approach could be developed further.
• Women frequently develop ‘portfolio’ careers, supplementing low paid work with small-scale self-employment.
Social factors
• Changes in household structures are resulting in more lone parents 95% of whom (in the Berwick Sure Start area) are women.
• Women’s pension record is often inadequate, yet there are nearly twice as many women as men in the over 80 age group.
• Most carers of older people are women
• Women live longer but in older age are frailer
• Less access to own transport in rural areas
• Mixed Messages, with policy initiatives encouraging women into work while cultural attitudes and pressures are continuing to result in women leaving training courses (Glendale Community Appraisal, 2001)
