The Women's Council Blog
Women's place in politics
Posted on August 10, 2010
Madam, - Ivana Bacik (Opinion, August 5th) clearly outlines the case for increasing the numbers of women entering politics.
What is not so clear, then, is why so many female TDs were against the idea when asked. Could it be they fear an erosion of their vote in their constituencies if another woman is on the ballot paper? We can only speculate.
However, one thing is clear. If gender quotas are to be introduced, then they should not help further the strong dynastic tradition of the Irish electoral system.
Selecting the daughter of a former TD instead of (or possibly, even in addition to) the son to run for the Dáil will make no difference in bringing about any real change in Irish politics. - Yours, etc,
Women need not apply
Posted on July 29, 2010
Women need not apply By Madeline Hawke
While the Catholic Church could never be described as a symbol of gender equality, the recent Vatican document, Normae de Gravioribus Delictis is one of the most disparaging of women yet. In this document the Church, whether intentionally or otherwise, aligns the ordination of women as of equal concern to sexual abuse of children by priests. The most shocking element is the penalty imposed for each action. While the toughest penalty for sexual abuse of children is dismissal from the priesthood, for those involved in the ordination of women the penalty is automatic excommunication from the Church.
'Feminism is not finished'
Posted on July 24, 2010
After years of derision, feminism is finding its voice again, from grassroots protests to a flurry of books, websites and even a summer school. But will it lead to real change?
Kira Cochrane, The Guardian, Saturday 24 July 2010
Supporters of the Million Women Rise march and rally opposing violence against women make their way along Oxford Street, London, in May. If you want to gauge the energy in the current British feminist movement, you have to speak to the young campaigners. Alex Corwin has defined herself as a feminist since she started reading avidly about women's issues a few years ago, aged 19. It made her "SO ANGRY", she had to become an activist. Corwin joined a local grassroots group - Sheffield Fems- and since then she has taken part in campaigns that run the gamut: local, international, political, cultural. She could recently be found in a high-street newsagent, armed with Post-it notes to stick on the half-clad women in men's magazines, inscribed with the words "What if she was your daughter?" Once a month she and the group set up a stall in their local shopping centre, campaigning on issues including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights, and how climate change affects women worldwide. Last year the group helped organise a well-attended conference; in 2008, they ran a campaign to stop a branch of US restaurant chain Hooters (where lightly clothed women serve up the burgers) opening in Sheffield. They're also working on a Feminist Survival Guide, to answer questions including "Do you burn your bra?" and "What can I do about lads' mags?" If she could achieve one lasting change, what would it be? "A total overhaul of the way society sees women," she says.
Susan McKay Speech at the Dublin Writers Festival on 5 June 2010
Posted on June 11, 2010
My daughter was telling me about a Justin Timberlake song in which, she said, he compares the girl with a takeaway. I looked up the lyrics "Take my order cause your body's like a carry out..." Ads flashed across the screen, 'Hot ladies in Dublin on the prowl for fun...meet them today.' "Gorgeous Asian women looking for love..."
The Shell to Sea Campaign
Posted on May 11, 2010
How WIME (Women In Media & Entertainment) got involved in The Shell to Sea Campaign. We were approached by Maura Harrington, headmistress of a small primary school in Erris, County Mayo. She was alerting people all over the country to the perils of the Corrib Gas Project and its potential damage to the environment; she was inviting groups to a summer camp at Rossport where five men and one woman had been served an injunction to stop their opposition to the entry of Shell's agents on to their land.
Why are we locking female asylum seekers into limbo? Your Opinion...
Posted on March 25, 2010
By Susan McKay, Director, National Womens Council of Ireland.
OPINION: 3,000 women and girls who have fled horror are stuck in hostels and caravans full of new fear
AKIDWA MEANS sisterhood, and today the African women's group of that name will publish a report that will call upon the Irish people to extend our solidarity to some of the most impoverished and traumatised women in the world, living here in Ireland.
They are asylum seekers, many of them waiting for years in conditions not meant to last more than a few months.
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Access to Abortion in Ireland—A Key Human Rights Issue
Posted on February 04, 2010
Access to Abortion in Ireland -- A Key Human Rights Issue
Last week, Human Rights Watch launched our most recent report on women's rights -- "A State of Isolation: Access to Abortion for Women in Ireland". The report was based on interviews and research we conducted in Dublin, Cork, London, Birmingham, and Washington DC in mid 2008. And though the word "abortion" features prominently in the title, the report is about much more than abortion.
It is about the thousands of women who face crisis pregnancies every year in Ireland. And above all, it is about a government that actively sabotages their health.
NWCI Members respond to invitation from Israeli Embassy to Lecture on Migrant Women
Posted on December 17, 2009
The National Women's Council last week circulated to its members the invitation below to an event organized by the Israeli embassy. Several members responded to say that they believed we should not have done so. The following correspondence ensued. Please give us your views:
INVITATION
The Embassy of Israel, Dublin
Invite you to:
"Migrant Women: Sharing the Israeli experience in Migrant absorption"
Lecture by:
- Ms. Joanna Tuffy T.D.
Labour Spokesperson on Environment and Heritage
- Ms. Sylvia Katete Gavigan
Honorary Consul, Republic of Uganda
- Ms. Salome Mbugua
AkiDwA Director
Date: Friday 18th December 2009
Venue: D4 Berkeley Hotel
Donnelly Suite 1, 2nd Floor
Ballsbridge
Dublin 4
Time: 13:00-14:30
Tea & coffee will be served
Please RSVP by Friday 11th December 2009,
by email to: dcmsec@dublin.mfa.gov.il
Susan McKay, New Campaign Against Prostitution
Posted on November 23, 2009
The newly formed Sex Workers Alliance urges us to accept that prostitution is a freely chosen occupation, as viable a way of paying your bills as any other. The Alliance claims it can promote the health, safety and empowerment of those it calls sex workers in what it calls the sex industry. These are not victims, it insists. This view sees the man who uses prostitutes as a person buying a service from a person selling it.
'The choice not to be cared for' - guest blog post from Maman Poulet
Posted on October 19, 2009
Suzy Byrne blogs as Maman Poulet at http://www.mamanpoulet.com/.
The launch of the new NWCI website occurs at the same time as the launch of a new policy document on Who Cares. The invitation to make the inaugural blog post on the new website gives me the opportunity to raise a question on the choice not to be cared for.
As a disabled woman working with other people with disabilities on issues concerning independent living, I have observed how care and the way in which it is spoken about is something which has not been at the centre of the debate towards supporting people with disabilities in achieving choice, empowermet and control of our bodies and our lives.