Siren - CUSU Women`s Campaign

siren
Women denied the vote in Saudi Arabia Runaway bride
faces jail Sex with forced prostitutes to become punishable
offence in Germany Kuwaiti women win the vote Women
in the military ‘Morning after’ pill available on demand Violence
against women in Mexico The size of your brain might reveal
your IQ, or your gender, or neither On that point Is your IQ
keeping you single? Nawal el-Saadawi: encouraging debate
and pushing for reform in Egypt A place of one’s own Breastfeeding could provide jury exemption The teacher becomes
the student Nurturing the natural woman Gender in Aids
Meet Tanvir Bush Picking between evils Perspolis: The story
of a childhood Gender in the early medieval world Vera Drake
COVER2.indd 3
10/06/2005 21:46:30
1
TEAM
Editor
Harriet Boulding
News
Carrie Hanson
Interviews
Hannah Briggs
Design & Production
Hannah Fletcher
Michael Derringer
Contributors
5
Jo Read is approaching her final weeks in
Cambridge with intrepidation, biding her time
by coaxing/harassing contributors and attacking submissions with a big red pen. A longtime contributor and former news/interviews
editor Jo is now looking for a new hobby on
her departure from cambridge.
Michelle Nuttall is soon to be taking office as
women’s sabb for 2005-6 once jo finally lets go
of the poisoned chalice of queen of the womyn. a dedicated Radio 4 listener and soon-tobe ex-divinity student, Michelle has brought her
commitment to escapism through radio and
film together in her contributions for this issue.
Louise Radnofsky has been taking time to
contribute from the far shores of oxford where
she spends her time as a history mphil keeping tags on her aunt’s congressional campaign
in Texas. Louise divides her time between
writing for Oxford’s ‘The Cherwell’ and considering returning to her career as a Libdem.
Jennifer Cooper is nearly at the end of her
time as an asnac student and cusu multitalent. After serving as a JCR external, CUSU
council chair and WU LBG officer, Jennifer will
be completing her finals and taking officer as
the first woman services officer in CUSU’s history this summer.
Beth O’Connor headed off to yale law school
after studying for her mphil in philosophy here
last year. After devoting her waking hours to
watching all but the very lowest contributions
that HBO has to offer, Beth ponders her career
on the Bench and wonders how it will affect
her relationship with ‘The West Wing’.
2
32
INSIDE
in News p5-9
in Features p10-24
10
Suzy Milburn asks whether our brain’s reveal
anything about gender in ‘The Difference?‘,
Tara Mounce writes about the challenges facing
women on the UK’s competitive debating circuit
in ‘On that point’, Harriet Boulding finds out
what stopped the Princess Royal from becoming
an engineer, and looks at new research which
may suggest a correlation between IQ and
marital status, Michelle Nuttall defends her
beloved ‘Women’s Hour’ as ‘A place of one’s
own’, Jennifer Cooper documents Nawal elSaadawi’s latest agitation for democracy and
reform in Egypt and finally Louise Radnofsky
bemoans the trials of Maya Keyes and family
when ‘The teacher becomes the student’
in Interview p25-27
Hannah Briggs meets Tanvir Bush to discuss
her work promoting AIDS awareness in South
Africa
25
in Comment p28-31
Jane Elliot finds something new to hate Lawrence
Summers for in ‘Nurturing the Natural
Woman’ while Beth O’Connor argues that we
shouldn’t be so quick to take an exemption
from jury duty with ‘Picking between evils’
in Reviews p32-36
28
Becca Barr takes us through ‘Persepolis: a
childhood’, Jennifer Cooper reads ‘Gender in
the Early Medieval World’ and Michelle Nuttall
considers ‘Vera Drake’
3
Editorial
Women In Construction: Feminist Activists vs. Post-modern Princesses
It is not surprising that, amongst
students, paradigms go in and out
of fashion as regularly as clothes.
Many a Cambridge woman will
today opt for an effortlessly boho
hairstyle, a floaty skirt and a
foucauldian outlook because it
goes so well with the vibe at the
moment - not to mention their
earrings. We are the granddaughters of feminism, the first generation of young women to have
no collective memory of the battles our predecessors fought to
secure the rights we now take for
granted: the pill, abortion, equal
access to higher education - and
doesn’t it show. Despite the fact
that the starting salary of women
graduates is still on average £200
a week less than their male counterparts, this generation of women
apparently feels confident enough
to deconstruct the very notions of
oppression and ideology which,
not so long ago, helped to highlight their subordinate position.
Very few women are willing to
call themselves feminists these
days, although nearly all believe
that women should receive equal
pay and that a women’s lifestyle
choices should not be limited by
her gender. For them, the women’s
movement has done the trick, and
quite frankly overstepped the mark
a bit by quibbling over women wearing nail polish or posing for the odd
porn mag. Today’s post-feminists
are attracted by the glitter of a celebrated new analysis, however the
reality of the situation is that, far
from being de-politicized, they are
providing a diversion on behalf of
the social and political enemies of
true liberation.
The Post-feminist trend, whilst
offering an analysis that appears
to be aimed at highlighting social
4
evils, leaves little room in today’s
society for the notion that there
are any particular ideals that can,
or should be pursued. Consequently, those few who still recognize the considerable prejudice
and inequalities that women face
everyday are committing a veritable fashion faux-pas by still clinging to the idea that equality can
be achieved. A question for all
you trendy Cambridge people out
there: What crazes are currently
even hotter than men’s moisturizer and dangly earrings? Answer:
www.thefacebook.com (what the
hell is that about by the way?) and
also desconstructionism. Content
to put pictures of herself on the
internet hoping to get a date out of
it, the post-feminist then moves on
to deconstruct the very language
with which feminists defend their
cause, the last weapon they had left
in a society which has consigned
them to the trash-heap of the 70s.
In their campaign for equality,
contemporary feminists emphasize
the point that equal rights does not
mean that women and men should
be viewed as a homogenous group.
Men and women, whilst equal,
are different, and as such, should
be able to develop separate identities of equal value. The language of
gender equality has been increasingly taken up by women in their
everyday lives and has historically
been used to fight against insidious
ideologies. Not even the glamorous
post-modern princess can afford to
discard these principles in favor of
a luxury paradigm that renders the
very language of inequality invalid.
Now, as a woman, a feminist and
a student of the post-modernists,
this editor would like to believe
that in every princess, there is an
activist. In her haste to leggit onto
the bandwagon of post-modernity,
her royal highness is in danger of
neglecting the potential of her new
vogue to aid the feminist cause.
Instead of abandoning a potentially inclusive and fluid women’s
movement, she would do well to
put the tools of post-modernism
to better use than curling her eyelashes. She may discover the potential of post-modernism to reveal
the oppressive structures that are
actually reinforced by traditional
feminism. A paradigm that locates
the source of women’s oppression in
the dichotomies that arise from the
biological ‘facts’ of reproduction, no
matter how noble its intentions, is
never going to escape the idea that
a woman’s identity is defined by
her sex. Post-modernism teaches
us not to speak of ‘women’ as a
homogenous group, rather to recognize that just as men and women
are different with separate identities, so each individual woman and
man is different.
Whilst I have no wish to smell
the hum of burning bras all over
Cambridge, the incitement to support the movement for women’s
rights is as strong as ever. The
effects of inequality are still very
real, impacting on national politics
and private relationships, as well
as on institutions such as our own
university in which only 37% of
full-time research staff are women.
Thanks to the efforts of their activist ancestors, today’s women students enjoy an increased amount
of power and resources, economic
and intellectual. However, rather
than resting on the apathetic laurels of post-feminism it is within
their power to support the women’s
movement for what it is - diverse,
inclusive, and necessary.
STEPHEN SIMPSON
Managed zone for prostitutes in Liverpool
News
Liverpool is set to become
the first city in the country
to open an official tolerance zone for prostitution.
The City Council passed a
motion to set up tolerance
zones by an overwhelming
majority at a meeting in late
January; the scheme will now have
to go to the Home Office before it
can be realised. Under the plan, sex
for sale would be allowed between
8am and 2am, but no final decision
has been made about location.
Breast-feeding could provide jury exemption
In February a bill that would
release breast-feeding mothers from
jury service passed the state Senate
in Virginia after being approved by
the House of Delegates. If passed,
Virginia would be the seventh state
to exempt breast-feeding mothers
from jury duty. Thirty-four states
have laws of some kind that affirm
the right of mothers to breast-feed
and current Virginia law allows
persons with children under four
years of age who have no reasonably
available childcare to be excused or
deferred from jury duty.
(Brain) death by desertion Washington’s ‘Virtue law’
A group of scientists
from Tübingen in Germany and Charleston
in the USA studying the
brain activity of women
who had recently been
left by their long term
partners found that certain areas of the brain
showed only very limited
activity, or none at all.
Affected are parts of the
brain which direct emotions and motivation, as
well as those responsible
for the capacity of attention and concentration.
The affected parts of the
female brain are up to
ten times the volume of
those of the male brain.
A Washington law
seeking
to
protect
women’s virtue sparked
debate in April. It is
still illegal, under a 1909
state law, to question a
woman’s virtue publicly,
for instance to brand her
a hussy or a strumpet.
The so-called ‘Virtue
law’ is dividing the
state, with some arguing that the law is
entirely anachronistic
and should be taken
of the statutes, whilst
others feel the matter is
to trivial to warrant the
debate.
5
News
Women denied the vote in Saudi Arabia
For the first time, Saudis voted
for a multiplicity of candidates
for town councils in their capital,
Riyadh, and in the surrounding
province on Thursday 10th February. It was the first of a series of
local elections to be held across the
country. Despite hope from activists and campaigners that suffrage
would be extended to women, along
with early steps by the government
which left open the possibility that
women would be able to vote and
maybe even run as candidates, the
government’s final decision was that there wasn’t time to work out may not be worked out for the electhat the elections were for men the logistics. The government fur- tions scheduled in 2009.
only. The official reason given was ther commented that the logistics
Why women are clever than men
(according to the BMA)
Research on 600 85-year-olds
published in the British Medical
Association’s Journal of Neurology,
Neurosurgery and Psychiatry in
March showed the women were
much quicker and sharper than
the men (despite a generally lower
standard of education). The results
suggest the difference between the
male and the female brains is biological, not social, say the researchers. The latest study theorises that
women’s brains simply carry on
performing for longer because they
live longer and so need to be mentally active at a greater age.
Sex with forced prostitutes to become punishable
offence in Germany
Christian Democrats in Germany are planning to fight forced
prostitution with a new bill which
would punish clients who lay claim
to the service of a forced prostitute
with three to five years imprisonment. Siegfried Kauder of the
Christian Democrats proposed a
supplement within the Penal Code
to the paragraph on “sexual abuse
of victims of human traffic”. Under
this proposition men who willingly
6
take advantage of the services of
forced prostitutes would face a
term of up to five years. Clients failing to realize that they were using
forced prostitutes would be liable
to serve two years or pay a fine.
The EU Commission estimates that
around 500,000 young women are
currently being forced to work illegally in brothels, apartments and
on the streets in the countries of
the European Union.
Women in the military
News
Runaway bride faces jail
The US House Armed
Services
Committee
heard proposals which
would stop women
from serving in support teams which back
up front-line combat
troops because of worries that ‘women get too
close to the fighting’.
Existing
Pentagon
policy barring women
from fighting on the
front line does not have
the same application
A US woman who pretended she had been
kidnapped on the eve of
her wedding faces up to
six years in jail. Jennifer
Wilbanks was charged on
May 25th with making a
false statement and false
police report. Her disappearance on April 26th
sparked a massive search in
Atlanta, with local authorities spending $50,000 to
find her. She disappeared ing her husband-to-be that
to New Mexico after tell- she was going for a jog.
in Iraq as with other
conflicts, as the US is
fighting an insurgency
(hence no front-line).
The army was opposed
to the move, warning
of danger to morale and
problems with recruitment. Senior officers
said they would have to
pull 22,000 female soldiers out of their jobs to
replace them with men.
Maya Keyes’ debut
Maya Keyes, the daughter of conservative Republican Alan Keyes,
made her political debut speaking
at a rally sponsored by Equality
Maryland, the state’s gay rights
lobby. Keyes was thrown out of
her parents’ house and had her college tuition withdrawn in Febru-
ary after publicly ‘coming out’ on
a weblog. The Point Foundation, a
San Francisco-based charity that
provides scholarships to students
“who have been marginalised
because of their sexual orientation,” will now pay Keyes’ tuition
expenses at Brown University.
Submission part II
A
Ayaan
Hirsi Ali, author of the has announced that she will make
2004 documentary “Submission”, a sequel to the controversial fi lm,
despite fears for her safety. Aired
last August on Dutch television,
the fi lm shows images of the
opening lines of the Koran written
across the naked body of a Muslim
woman and Koranic verses about
female obedience scrawled on the
back of a woman beaten by her
husband.
Its release prompted widespread
outcry from Muslim groups and
the fi lm’s director, Theo van Gogh,
was brutally murdered on a street
in Amsterdam last November.
7
News
Kuwaiti women win the vote
Kuwait’s parliament gave full
political rights to women in May,
enabling them to vote and run for
office in all elections. The surprise
move came after a bill permitting women to vote in municipal
elections was introduced and an
emergency amendment making it
apply to all elections was won by
the government. The vote was first
extended to women six years ago
by a decree from the Emir’s gov- turned by the parliament. Women “abide by the laws of Islam” which
ernment but was promptly over- standing for election will have to men are not obliged to do.
Bench in sight for conservative Justice
A bipartisan Senate agreement
on judicial appointees produced
a vote to stop fi libustering Priscilla R Owen who has waited four
years for a seat on the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.
Owen’s nomination has been vigorously opposed due to her record
in Texas, where she has frequently
dissented in cases upholding protections against discrimination,
sexual harassment, and other
workplace abuses; and opposed
the right to choose in at least
thirteen cases involving the ability of pregnant minors to obtain
an abortion if a judge finds them
mature enough to make their own
decision.
A confi rmation vote is now
scheduled for 26th May, with
Republicans predicting she will
pass comfortably.
‘Morning after’ pill available on demand
New York announced that it will
become the first city in the US to
make ‘morning after’ contraceptive pills readily available
to all women who
want them.
M a y o r
Michael
Bloomberg
promised
the new programme
will
provide
$1m in public funding to promote
8
emergency
at city
contraceptive pills
hospitals. He also
promised another
$2m for family
planning
in
poor
neighbourhoods.
Bloomberg
claimed that a goal
of the programme is a cut in
the 90,000 abortions performed in
the city each year.
Elsewhere, as of June New Hamp-
shire will become the seventh state
in the U.S. where women can obtain
emergency contraception without
a prescription. The states that
currently have pharmacy access
are Maine, California, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii, New Mexico,
and now New Hampshire (Oregon
is pending). Pharmacy access is
only half the battle however, campaigners are now working to make
sure pharmacies stock EC on their
shelves.
News
Harvard commit to diversity
Harvard University announced
plans in May to spend at least $50
million over the next decade to
create a more diverse academic
community in all disciplines,
including throughout the sciences.
The announcement follows the
release of reports commissioned
from two task forces looking at
challenges faced by women faculty,
with one focusing specifically on
science and engineering. Amongst
the recommendations are calls for a
senior provost for diversity and faculty development, expected to be
announced by September, and funds
to provide partial salary support for
hiring scholars who increase diversity as well as funds for their labs.
The panel on women in science and
engineering urged the university to
set up summer research programs
for undergraduates, expand mentoring for all students, and provide
research money for faculty juggling
family and career. Lawrence Summers, the university’s president, said
the proposals would make Harvard
“more welcoming”.
Abortion case for Supreme Court
Woman president in Chile
In May, the Supreme
Court agreed to hear its
fi rst abortion case for
five years. Justices will
review a lower court
ruling that struck down
a parental notification
law in New Hampshire.
The U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals said the 2003
law was unconstitutional
because it didn’t provide
The hopes of Socialist
presidential candidate
Michelle Bachelet of
becoming Chile’s next
president were boosted
when Soledad Alvear, her
only rival for the candidacy of the ruling centreleft alliance, dropped
out. The two women
had fought closely in a
highly public battle for
an exception to protect
the minor’s health in the
event of an emergency.
The case, which will be
put on the court’s calendar for next term, may
reveal changes in the
justices’ thinking; speculation continues about
the possible retirement
of conservative Chief
Justice Rehnquist.
the nomination, which
has been described as
demonstrating a cultural
shift in Chilean society.
Ms Bachelet will face two
conservative
contenders in an election due in
December; polls indicate
that she will win the election and become Chile’s
fi rst woman president.
Violence against women in Mexico
A team has been formed by the enough to investigate; many have incompetent or crooked. The UN
Mexican government to look into criticised the investigations car- has also criticised Mexico’s hanthe murders of more than 350 ried out by Mexican authorities as dling of violence against women.
women in the city of Ciudad Juarez
since 1993. The murders, mainly
involving poor working mothers,
have been variously attributed
to serial killers, drug cartels, and
domestic violence. The move came
after Amnesty International said
that the government was not doing
9
Features
The difference?
The latest book from Cambridge
researcher Simon Baron-Cohen
asserts a fundamental difference
between the way in which male and
female brains are wired. Put simply,
S-type (male) brains are better at
understanding systems, E-type
(female) brains are more geared
towards empathy, and the rarer Btype brains are balanced between
the two. Your chromosomes don’t
dictate your brain type, they just
tip the scales in their favour. Not all
men have S-type brains, and not all
women have E-type grey matter, but
on average men are more likely than
women to have an S-type brain, and
vice-versa. Out of 10 men, six have
male brains, two have balanced
brains and two have female brains.
Out of 10 women, four have female
brains, four have the balanced brain
and two have male brains.
Several years ago, a study was done
into the early development of babies;
several infants were swaddled up and
given to carers, who in some cases
were misled about the gender of their
infant. It was found that those babies
believed to be female were more
likely to be left to cry and for longer
than boys when they wanted food.
So it was suggested that girls learnt
patience and subservience early in
life, and such experiences influenced
later behaviour, such as the female
disinclination towards self-promotion or applying for highly salaried
jobs and other silly behaviour. It also
seemed to explain why women were
more empathic with greater intuitive
understanding of other’s emotions
and feelings - waiting and listening
seemed to be programmed in by
early cultural influences, but BaronCohen’s new research suggests other-
10
The size of your
brain might reveal
your IQ, or your
gender, or neither.
Suzy Milburn
reports
wise. Tests done on babies as young
as one day old show that Jill already
shows a preference for looking at faces
and their expressions, and Jack wants
to look at the mechanical mobile.
This goes some way to explaining
why such scientific disciplines as
maths, physics and engineering continue to be male-dominated despite
the work being done to attract
women into the field. These subjects
involve detailed analysis, use and
manipulation of systems, suggesting
that more men than women will be
attracted, no matter what. You know
that old myth about girls not being
able to map-read? It turns out that
Baron-Cohen found a basis in truth
– when confronted with a map for a
short period of time, male test subjects could recall more details about
the route and repeat them more
accurately than females could. The
results suggested that autism could
be the result of an ‘extremely’ male Stype brain, with sufferers often being
obsessive collectors and organisers
of information.
So are women who want to enter
the sciences doomed to hover outside the lab? Not according to Rex
Jung and Rich Haier of the University of New Mexico. Co-authors of a
recent paper concerning the differences in structure between male and
female brains, they claim that only
50% of our intelligence is genetic,
the other 50% is affected by environmental factors, and so areas of the
brain can be improved by use, such
as study. Whilst men’s brains are 810% larger than women’s, IQ is not
thought by the pair to be strongly
related to brain size, but to the differences in amount and distribution of
white and grey matter in the brain.
The proverbial grey matter is that
responsible for thinking, and white
matter makes connections between
areas of the brain. They found that
men had 6.5 times more grey matter
than women, and that women had
about nine times more white matter
than men. Men’s brains are therefore
analogous to a supercomputer, and
women’s to many smaller processors
linked in parallel.
It shouldn’t be assumed that either
set of results can be used to justify
stereotypes. They assert simply the
differences on average between the
sexes as groups, not individuals, to
whom such characteristics may not
apply. A quick look around the natsci
lecture theatres shows that there are
certainly many able women capable
of studying science so with only 5%
of Royal Society Fellowships held by
women, it seems that we still have to
look to cultural and social influences
to explain the absence of women in
high-level science. Research is a heavily time-intensive pursuit, requiring
much focus and so taking time out
to care for a child can involve losing
ground in research and losing track
of developments in the field, leading
to professional setbacks and fewer
advances upon returning to work, a
situation still reported by many mothers on re-entering the workplace.
On
that
point
Features
Inner Temple’s Alexis Hearnden rises to offer a Point of Information
in the 2004 World Universities Debating Championship Final
Where are the women in competitive debating?
U
niversity and schools debating is often seen as just
another one of those geeky
hobbies; they speak very fast to one
another in a code no one else understands, they spend their Saturdays
travelling to Wolverhampton rather
than having a lie-in and yes, the
only recently begun to see some
permanent female figures amongst
its higher ranks. In 25 years of the
World Universities Debating Championships only one all-women team
has ever won it. At schools level it
is not much better, of the 20 speakers selected to represent England
in the last 5 years only three have
been girls. Recent results have been
looking more hopeful however. Last
year’s International Mace champion, Caian Harriet Jones-Fenleigh,
was the first woman to hold the title
for 30 years and the title was won by
another woman this year, Lincoln’s
Inn’s Fiona Dewar.
It is easy when girls and boys troop
on to neighbouring hockey pitches
to take part in separate leagues for
the aura of difference and superiority to be instilled into the minds
of boys who might run a little
faster and hit a little harder. When
standing in front of an audience
vast majority are male. Despite and judges trying to win a complex
being one of very few arenas both series of interrelated arguments
at school and university where there is no need for separate leagues
men and women are able to com- or carefully weighted ‘mixed’ teams,
pete together, UK debating has anyone should be able to start from
In 25 years
of the World
Universities
Debating
Championships
only one allwomen team
has ever won it
the same point. Women in debating at the moment are making great
inroads into negative perceptions
and stereotypes, an important step
as the networks forged through
debating are a second factor in why
we shouldn’t accept imbalances as
the norm. Many political figures
first polished their debating prowess at university with both Edward
Heath and Charles Kennedy being
notable examples. A new generation
of female debaters are also using
skills learnt in the university debating chamber to launch themselves
into politics. Examples like Jody
Dunn and Kirsty McNeill serve as
encouraging role models for girls
beginning their debating careers, as
well as highlighting to governments
the benefit of debating to education.
Closer to the grassroots successful university debaters, like Worlds
runner-up Alexis Hearnden, help
foster debate among the younger
generations by returning to coach
at a schools level.
Not only do these examples inspire
new generations but they also help
to alter the paradigm under which
11
Features
debating is assessed. Society places
a premium on well spoken, clean-cut
young men with booming authoritative voices and this is an ideal which
few women can live up to. While a
man is aggressive and a woman is
bitchy, when a man raises his voice
he is passionate but a woman is just
shrill. While Churchill, Kennedy or
Jeremy Paxman may be what most
people consider as role models for
effective oratory, it is not a model
that women can aspire to. While
some successful women (generally
those with deeper voices) have followed this ‘male’ pattern to succeed
tional mould of an orator but also
men who wish to debate with less
swagger and bravado, such as current World Champion Jamie Furniss.
As with every change this trend
does not go unchallenged. Many
claim that other styles of debating
step into the arena of debate have
to fight against conventions which
tell them to be quiet and thoughtful
and not to shout back, in the face of
many a pair of rowdy public schoolboys intent on battling to the death.
Whilst debaters compete in mixed
leagues, we still occupy very separate worlds and the hurdles faced
by women in debating often seem
insurmountable, even to the most
post-feminist. At this year’s World
Championships many of the highest
ranking women debaters failed to
break into the top positions on the
speaker table due to bias on the part
a man is
aggressive and
a woman is
bitchy; when
a man raises
his voice he is
passionate but
a woman is just
shrill
whilst debaters
compete
in mixed
leagues, the
hurdles faced
by women
in debating
often seem
insurmountable
others have had a more trail blazing
effect. Alexis has coined a charming and self effacing style, that when
combined with a South London
twang always her to sound particularly authentic and authoritative on
social issues. Fiona Dewar, International Mace Champion, whose
quiet measured tone hovers around
audible level, forcing the audience to
concentrate to catch everything she
says, has set another trend. Each
successful woman adds to the variety of styles that are seen as desirable. Interestingly this benefits not
only women who don’t fit the tradi-
of a senior adjudicator (who was later
removed from subsequent panels).
The call to go ‘back to basics’ with
more emphasis on tub-thumping
rhetoric must be evaluated alongside the assumptions upon which
traditional models of rhetoric are
lack the ‘charm’ or ‘skill’ of previous based. Maybe if university debatgenerations. In addition to this, we ers can learn to accept the multiple
see successes of all-male teams used ways of expressing opinions present
by some to show the enduring domi- in their community as equally valid
nance of men over women in debate, then perhaps this can have a knock
despite the fact that many of the on effect on the way parliament and
top performing UK teams over the wider society conducts its political
past few years have been mixed. At dialogue.
schools level, girls brave enough to
Tara Mounce
12
Features
‘I wanted to be a scientist but wasn’t brave enough’
Harriet Boulding reports on the engineer princess and the cross-gender brain
T
he Parliamentary Scientific Committee was
recently addressed by
the Princess Royal, who
called for greater measures to be
taken to attract women into science and engineering. The Princess, who recently became patron
of Women into Science and Engineering, revealed that at the time of
leaving school she wanted to take
up a degree in engineering at the
13
Features
local polytechnic, but ‘wasn’t brave
enough.’ Posing a question that
has become the centre of considerable debate and research, she discussed the possible ways in which
girls are influenced when it comes
to academic choices. The Princess
pointed out that occasionally such
decisions are affected by meeting
a single inspirational individual at
the right place and time, an event
that cannot be orchestrated. However, the wider issues that discourage girls from science are even
more difficult to resolve.
It may well be the case that the
alienation of girls from science
begins from the earliest stages of
social development, but there is no
evidence whatsoever that scientific
ability is genetically determined.
There is evidence that the brains of
males and females are subtly different, and investigation into these
differences has revealed interesting results. Research carried out
by Simon Baron-Cohen and his
team at Cambridge suggests that
for every 10 men, six will have a
“male brain”, two will have a “bal-
14
anced brain” and two will have a
“female brain”. In the equivalent
study of 10 females, only four will
have a female brain, four will have
a balanced brain and two a male
brain. It is thought that these differences resulted from evolutionary selection pressures on the two
sexes. The most striking lesson
to be drawn from the research is
that the nature of an individual’s
brain cannot be ascertained from
their gender. However, poignantly
Baron-Cohen’s use of the culturally
constituted categories associated
with ‘maleness’ and ‘femaleness’
to describe ‘types’ of brain demonstrates the ways in which cultural assumptions and stereotypes
operate within the very disciplines
in which women are underrepresented.
These assumptions are the same
that have lead to science being
perceived as a male domain, as
this stereotype corresponds to
the perception of science as a
dispassionate world of facts and
figures, devoid of creative influence. Cultural factors, particu-
larly the assumptions of parents
and teachers during early socialization, discourage girls from the
sciences, and also fail to place the
disciplines in their appropriate
social context. Science appears
to be a codified, linear subject
concerned with objective truth,
however in reality this perception
is as dubious as cultural perceptions of women as naturally arts
orientated. As the Princess was at
pains to stress, the result of these
processes is extremely concerning.
We cannot hope for rapid change
as the shortage of female teachers in science and mathematics is
profound, resulting in insufficient
numbers to inspire girls to enter
the sciences. However, although
the low percentage of students
in general selecting chemistry
as a higher education option is a
separate cause for concern, there
are reasons to be hopeful. At the
moment, close to 50 percent of
those who do opt for chemistry
are women, and although women
are less likely to select physics at
A’ level, those who do take it now
consistently perform as well as
men. In addition to this, there are
increasing numbers of role models
for women in science, including
Rosalind Franklin, whose research
alongside that of Watson and Crick
contributed to the development of
a functional model for DNA, which
revolutionized the fields of biology
and medicine. The princess concluded her address by saying that
encouraging more women towards
the sciences would put British
research on a firmer foundation,
however we must also learn from
the case of Rosalind Franklin,
whose name is surely not as well
known as those of the infamous
Watson and Crick, and ensure that
the work of women in the sciences
does not go unrecognized.
Features
Is your IQ keeping you single?
New research suggests that marriage prospects can be hindered by a high IQ
H
ow many of us have not
thought at one time or
another that our Cambridge degree will be beneficial in
the inevitable hunt for a career?
Yet we hear increasingly that the
Oxbridge stamp is perhaps not as
useful as it once was, and in some
cases can even act as a hindrance.
But a high IQ, now surely that’s a
positive attribute with employers
and partners alike? Apparently not,
according to a recent study by four
British universities. A high IQ hinders a women’s marriage prospects,
according to the study, which found
that the likelihood of marriage for
women declined by 40 percent for
each 16 point rise in their IQ. The
survey, carried out by the universities of Aberdeen, Bristol, Edinburgh
and Glasgow, measured the IQ of 900
men and women at the age of 10 and
then revisited them 40 years later to
find out whether they had ever married. Whilst the likelihood of marriage with men increased with their
intelligence quota, the opposite is
true of women who, according to
psychologists, are struggling to find “
interesting men” who are interested
in them.
Marriage experts believe that men
do not want women more intelligent
than themselves, arguing that they
feel more secure if their partner is
not too challenging. Indeed, Dr Paul
Brown, visiting professor of psychology at Nottingham Law School, told
The Times that women in their late
30s who have gone for careers after
the first flush of university and who
are among the brightest of
their generation, are
unable to attract
partners
who
match
them
intellectually. He adds further that
all women are ‘hard-wired’ into
wanting to be in a relationship, which
makes the position of bright young
women particularly lamentable. The
message of the researchers responsible for this study appears to be
that intelligent men prefer to marry
unchallenging women who will provide the domestic support while they
go out to work. Ask the experts “Can
I have it all, career and family?” and
the answer, apparently, is yes – but
only if you happen to be a man.
For the purposes of pitying women
who are so intelligent they can’t get
‘Mr Right’ down the aisle, we have
to accept Dr Brown’s assertion that
all women want to get married. Now,
whilst I wouldn’t expect many students in their early twenties to have
decided conclusively whether to
get hitched or not, I would expect
them to realise that the preference
for marriage results from a multitude of factors. According to Christine Northam, a senior counsellor
at Relate, the relationship guidance
organisation, for women in the past
marriage offered the most realistic
route to gaining some recognition
and power. She points out that by
contrast, women today are starting
to question the marriage institution,
as they have less to gain from it given
that they are more likely to have their
own career and income. The reality is that changes in society have
rendered the advantages of marriage somewhat diminished, leaving
behind an uncertain and complex
sphere of rights and struggles into
which many women are wary of
stepping too hastily. This
is one institution that
languishes
behind
rest of society, with
courts still singing to the tune of
‘no fault’ and the law as reluctant as
ever to legislate on behalf of married
women. It may or may not surprise
the reader to learn that rape within
marriage only became recognised
by EU law as a criminal offence in
1994. A counter interpretation of the
four universities recent study would
be that, rather than being left on the
shelf, intelligent women are making
a rational choice in choosing to stay
unmarried.
Of course with any quantitative,
sweeping social study, interpretation
could run in a multitude of different
directions, and there would probably be an element of truth in many of
them. This is one such study, made
all the more questionable by its reliance on IQ, the culturally contingent
nature of which they fail to discuss.
The element that does remain consistent is the that the voice of women
is conspicuously absent from such
studies. It is just as unacceptable to
assume that intelligent women want
to get married but are being overlooked by their ideal partners as it is
to assume that intelligent men want
to marry a woman with a lower IQ in
order to make themselves feel important. I appears to me that high IQ in
women might be hindrance for the
institution of marriage, but not for
the women herself, and to suggest
that a women might be burdened by
a her high IQ is unforgivable. I mentioned to a friend that I had found
a study which suggested that intelligent women are less likely to get
married. She nodded and muttered
something about a fish and a bicycle
– one voice among many that great
universities and society itself are
still failing to take into account.
Harriet Boulding
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Features
A place of one’s own
Why Women’s Hour’s not getting it so wrong after all
N
ow it’s time to raise
a glass to Woman’s
Hour’ …
And so begins
Radio Four’s weekday
magazine programme devoted to
women, seen by some as the best
women’s programming around and
by others as a bastion of marginalized women’s views. Based on a
similar format since 1946, the show
has been presented for the last sev-
Jenni Murray
enteen years by the ever present
Jenni Murray; regaled with the OBE
for her services to broadcasting but
regarded by many as a remnant of
1970’s college campus feminism
and a ‘has been’ as a result. I first
discovered Woman’s Hour in my
first year and I’ve probably listened
to 80% of shows ever since. Some
shirk in horror at this suggestion.
How can I consider myself a feminist when I tune in to a programme
that has devoted some of its recent
airtime to such gems as The Crochet Revival, Sheds – do women get
16
a look in? and Men and Flu – are
they just winging hypochondriacs?
Yet I’m far from alone in my status
as a Woman’s Hour fan and I’ve
started to wonder just what it is
about the programme that makes
the same young twenty-somethings who reject women’s glossies,
turn instead to its mixture of ‘old
school’ feminism and banal stereotyping?
To try and answer this question I added a post to the Woman’s Hour message board, asking
what people found interesting
about the programme and why
they listened. I was particularly
interested to fi nd out if people
tuned in because they found the
programme genuinely interesting
and relevant to women or believed
that Woman’s Hour, like the Women’s Council, is a necessary evil,
until a time comes when cervical
cancer, childcare and the menopause are regularly and intelligently discussed in the wider
media. Of course I expected the
critics to argue that programmes
like Woman’s Hour simply propagate the marginalizing of women’s issues, but what I actually got
was much more problematic than
that, as the camps seem to split
into two equal factions of juxtaposed arguments. Firstly, of those
who found Woman’s Hour irrelevant and regressive with its items
on dressing tables and entire
series on household chores, and
secondly with those who thought
that Jenny and her politics were
simply too feminist to be relevant
to the modern woman. Again
and again listeners have argued
that the battle has been won,
and the continuation of women’s
media simply serves to ghettoise
women and reinforce the gender
differences that our mothers and
grandmothers fought so hard to
destroy.
As part of this argument, some
women have cited the victimisation of women by feminism as
demonstrated by Woman’s Hour.
It is true that recent items have
how can I
consider myself
a feminist when
I tune in to a
programme that
devotes airtime
to such gems
as The Crochet
Revival
included explaining sexual violence to boys, prostitution law,
rape cases and talking to teenage
boys about porn, but the idea that
Jenni constantly reaffi rms 1970’s
campus feminism when discussing the Equal Pay Act one minute
and introducing an item on curling tongues the next seems a little
absurd. I fi nd most of its features
rather apolitical, as whilst interviews with leading women like
Cherie Blair, Caroline Hawley and
Holly Hunter are very interesting,
they’re not likely to rub anyone
up the wrong way and could
Features
easily appear on non-gender specific radio shows. Indeed, some
have argued that women’s issues
are now so well covered by the
media in general that Woman’s
Hour and media programming
targeted specifically at women
is obsolete. It is true that issues
such as part time work, the problems of the child support agency
and women in business are now
being discussed outside the realm
of women’s media – but features
on breastfeeding in Scotland,
changes in cervical smear testing
and advances in the treatment
of various female cancers are
examples of items that have been
little discussed elsewhere. Many
people commented on the message board that they objected to
Woman’s Hour because it stereotyped and pigeon holed women, so
much so that many people simply
dismissed its brand of womanhood as irrelevant to the modern
woman. More than one said they
enjoyed Woman’s Hour from the
perverse position of being provoked into shouting at the radio.
One commented that it was more
a ‘Mother’s Hour’ than a ‘Woman’s Hour’, whilst others complained that it categorised men
as either rapists or incompetents
and women as either bitches or
victims. More interesting though,
was the suggestion that feminism
should have ‘grown up’ by now
and that any woman who thinks
that decent women’s media items
are still needed and desired is
somehow letting the side down.
Either that, or women who complain about the stereotyping still
prevalent in women’s media are
somehow ignorant of
the plethora of material out there to satisfy women from every
walk of life.
Yet many of the
women I know don’t
feel adequately catered
for by the spectrum of
women’s publications described
by one man as spanning from
‘Bitch’ to ‘Good Houskeeping’.
One listener pointed out that
everything was wrong with
17
Features
women’s publications, with those
aimed at my generation obsessed
with sex and makeup and those
aimed at my mother’s age group
being fi lled with vomit inducing
‘twee’ stories. I too have given up
with the search for a women’s publication that I can actually relate
to and taking a glance at the cover
stories of this month I reminded
myself why. With articles entitled
It’s Magic – Psychic solutions to
your relationship dilemmas, or, 10
love moves he can’t resist it’s easy
to see why women find it difficult to
relate to the ‘modern woman’ portrayed in magazines like Cosmopolitan, Glamour and Marie Claire.
One friend commented that as a
woman with a steady boyfriend,
who had better things to do than
sip cappuccinos and splash out
on that vital Prada handbag, such
magazines made her feel positively
ostracised. When introducing this
discussion to the message board
I commented that I often found
Woman’s Hour to be ‘a breath of
fresh air’ in comparison to such
publications. Yet many critics of
Woman’s Hour say that it similarly
pigeon holes women. In response
to this, I asked if the idea of listening to Woman’s Hour as the best of
the bad options was a depressing
thought, and many women suggested that the whole idea of women’s only media was depressing.
But is it depressing because women’s media should no longer interest the modern woman, because it
alienates the sexes or because its
content assumes what interests
the stereotypical women?
In the process of researching
this article I have been accused
of being narrow minded, ignorant
and prejudiced against the many
women who do enjoy women’s
media and can wholly relate to it.
18
I have practically been labelled as
asexual by some and regressive
by others. The messages I received
covered a vast array of standpoints,
but did broadly agree that Woman’s Hour and programmes like it
are far from perfect and often fail
to adequately reflect the many
and varied lives and experiences
of women today. Some suggest
that the whole medium should be
scrapped as a result, that women
are never going to move forwards
if publications like Siren continue
to ghettoise women and alienate
men. It does seems strange that
women feel constrained and ostracised by the very programmes
and publications that sell themselves as celebrating, liberating
and educating women. The difficultly in producing a single programme for all women might be
best demonstrated by the argument that feminism is progressive
to some and regressive to others.
Women are increasingly committed to being themselves and are
consequently rejecting any ideology that tells us what we ought
to be, because today’s women are
more concerned with choosing
what they want to be. Maybe it’s
impossible to produce a product
exclusively for women that doesn’t
stereotype them in some way, but
modern feminism has less of a
problem with celebrating women
as women, regardless of whether
that’s womanhood according to
Woman’s Own, hard line feminism or Woman’s Hour. Indeed,
until something better comes
along I’ll continue to pick what I
like from the latter and appreciate it for what it is – a magazine
programme and not a lifestyle
choice.
Michelle Nuttall
Features
Nawal el-Saadawi:
encouraging debate and pushing for reform in Egypt
C
onstitutional reform is
slowly beginning to hit
the headlines in Egypt,
largely thanks to the
efforts of one woman. The next
presidential elections are due to
be held in October, when the current President, Hosni Mubarak,
ends his fourth term. The famously
outspoken radical feminist author,
Nawal el-Saadawi, is planning
to stand in these elections. She
does not expect to win, or even be
named as a legitimate candidate;
rather her primary objective is to
encourage debate within Egypt
about a variety of issues, such as
the constitution, corruption and
the place of American influence in
Egypt.
Nawal el-Saadawi, who will be
the first ever woman to stand if
she is able, originally trained as
a psychiatrist, but has earned
President Hosni Mubarak
her reputation as Africa’s leading
radical feminist. She has written
many fiction books on women
and gender issues, a large amount
of which have been widely translated. Some of these books have
become highly influential, particularly one of her memoirs, “The
Hidden Face of Eve”. In this book
she recounts the major events
of her life, including her circumcision late at night on her bathroom floor as a young child and
her imprisonment as an adult
for challenging misogyny within
Arabic society.
Once quoted
as
saying
“writing is like
dissection”, Dr
el-Saadawi
firmly believes
in the properties of fiction as powerful tools in
establishing a
forum for furthering debate
about
and
within society. In her own writings, there is a strong emphasis on
social criticism, using one issue,
such as her own circumcision, to
explore broader socio-cultural
issues in Africa, from misogyny
and feminism to politics and globalization.
Having been born in a small
village north of Cairo in 1931, she
went on to become Egypt’s director of public health. However,
after the publication of her book
Nawal el-Saadawi
“Women and Sex” in 1972,
she was dismissed from
this post. She also ceased
to be the chief editor of
Health, a medical journal,
and the assistant general
secretary of the Egyptian
Medical Association due to
the controversy surrounding her views. In prison, Dr
el-Saadawi met a woman
who had been convicted of killing a man who had tried to force
her to let him act as her pimp.
She told her story in “Woman at
Point Zero”, again using it as a
springboard to discuss the wider
problems faced by people, and
particularly women, in a “fundamentalist” society. Throughout
her many writings she has dealt
primarily with the issues faced by
Arab and Muslim women regarding sexuality whilst living with
19
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repressive religious tradition
and authority. However, this has
meant that both secular and religious authorities have targeted
her; in 1980, after a long struggle
for women’s social and intellectual freedom, she was imprisoned
under the Sadat regime.
Shortly after her release from
prison in 1982, el-Saadawi
founded the Arab Women’s Solidarity Association. This was
a legal, independent feminist
organization devoted to promoting the participation of women in
Islamic society, the first of its kind
to be set up in Egypt. However,
once the group voiced its opposi-
Dr el-Saadawi also has strong
opinions on the attitudes of society, and women in particular,
towards class and patriarchal
oppression. She feels that Egypt
and the Arab world are subjected
to American and Western occupation and tyranny, and that there
can be no liberation for society
until these oppressors. However,
she believes that many women in
Egypt suffer from what she calls
“false awareness”, in that they may
fight against the institutionalised
discrimination against women in
their society, but ignore the effects
of corporate capitalism.
The electoral system in Egypt
el-Saadawi
recounts in her
memoirs her
circumcision late
at night on her
bathroom floor
as a young child
El-Saadawi with her husband
tion to the first Gulf War, it was
proscribed by the Egyptian Government. The slogan of the Arab
Women’s Solidarity Association
is “Unveil the Mind”, referring
particularly to their dissatisfaction with the educational system,
which they feel puts a veil on the
mind and allows politicians to
use women as a tool in their campaigns. With the elections looming, el-Saadawi hopes to challenge society’s perceptions of the
functions of education. Her own
parents broke the social norms
by sending all their children, not
just their sons, to school.
20
will nominate her. Although she
won lawsuits against the religious conservatives pressurizing
her husband to divorce her, on
the grounds that she behaved in
an un-Islamic manner, and challenging her misrepresentation in
Cairo newspapers, the fatwa was
the fundamentalists’ response to
her victory.
Dr el-Saadawi is part of a coalition of some 700 activists and
intellectuals who produced a
petition in November in favour
reform and a move to hold direct
elections in the country. They also
called for a limit to the number of
terms in office a president may
means that, in the end, Dr el-Saadawi’s campaign is unlikely to have
any legal status. However, this is
precisely the point of el-Saadawi’s
campaign; to force the Egyptian
people to see the flaws in their
governmental system. At present,
there is only one presidential candidate, who must be nominated by
parliament, currently dominated
by the ruling party. Th is nomination is then put to a national referendum. Since she was the subject
of a fatwa, an assassination order
under Islamic law which sent her
into exile for 5 years, it is highly
implausible that the parliament
serve, especially since President
Mubarak is thought to be willing to restand in the event of no
other ‘suitable’ candidates. This
group feel that the vast majority
of Egypt’s 70 million citizens feel
disenfranchised with the system,
merely acting as ‘spectators’. It is
hoped that her campaign, regardless of whether or not she is nominated by the parliament, will
raise the issue of constitutional
reform in Egypt and northern
Africa which will help to bring
equality to Egypt.
Jennifer Cooper
Features
The teacher becomes the student
Family values die hard for conservative Republican Alan Keyes and his gay daughter
T
he black lesbian gets
a rough deal – not
only is she the victim
of multiple and often
self-confl icting counts
of oppression, but she’s the butt of
every snipe at political correctness
(also known as making an effort to
not needlessly offend people). To
have parents who are Republicans
adds a whole new layer of crap to
the bargain, not to mention the
pressures inherent in being the
daughter of a candidate fighting
in a political environment which
regards the challengers’ family as
their greatest CV point.
Which is why Maya Keyes took
one of the bravest steps in recent
American politics last month. The
daughter of the Republican challenger for the Illinois Senate seat
in 2004, Alan Keyes, who recently
described homosexuality as “selfish hedonism” came out publicly at
a gay rights rally.
Very swiftly kicked out of home
by her parents, with her university tuition funding withdrawn,
it could have been any number
of LGBT students. Except that
here, it got noticed (as did the
swift removal of photos of Maya
from Keyes’ campaign website). A
scholarship fund set up by “selfish
hedonists” has swiftly stepped in
to ensure that she is able to continue her education at Brown (the
experience of which, presumably,
led her down this path.)
Keyes’ unyielding refusal to
allow any exceptions to this homophobic rule for those close to the
GOP has put him in rather an
awkward position. Firstly, with his
elders-and-betters: Mary Cheney,
the daughter of Vice President
Dick Cheney, was also a “selfish
hedonist” according to Keyes; so
too, must be Candace Gringrich,
the sister of former speaker of the
house Newt Gingrich. Secondly,
what to do about a daughter who
postponed college for a year to work
The Keyes family: happy home or full of hedonists?
21
Features
Alan Keyes on homosexual
relationships, September 1, 2004:
“
The heart of marriage
is the commitment
to procreation and
childrearing. If we accept the
idea that it is possible for two
people who cannot procreate
to marry, then we have
removed procreation from the
essential meaning of marriage.
That would destroy the
underlying moral culture that
is required to sustain the
family. In order to understand
that, you then have to look at
the nature of the homosexual
relationship. And it’s
objectively the case that, in a
homosexual relationship, there
is nothing implied except the
self-fulfillment, contentment,
and satisfaction of the parties
involved in the relationship.
It is a self-centered, selffulfilling, selfish relationship
that seeks to use the organs
intended for procreation
for purposes of pleasure.
The word “pleasure” in Greek
is “hedone.” And we get the
word “hedonism” from that
word. So, if you say that
homosexuality is predicated
on selfish hedonism, you
mean, of course, that it
is the pursuit of pleasure
through the use of the organs
intended for procreation in
order to satisfy selfish and
self-centered purposes.
That, by the way, is
an objective fact.
If my own daughter were a
lesbian, I would love her, but
I would tell my her that she
was in sin. And I
would pray for her.
“
22
Maya with her girlfriend
on his campaign – despite her selfdescribed anarchist leanings, and
voted for Nader in the Presidential
election? Presumably he loves her
(we believe the adverts).
Perhaps it would be easier to love
Mary Cheney. She’s also shown her
willingness to back her father over
her obligations to the gay community. Then again, she’s shown her
willingness to sell out the gay community before, in acting as a ‘liaison’ between them and the bitterly
bigoted Coors beer company who
three years ago decided that after
fifteen years the impact of a barwide boycott was too much to sustain. Cheney has willingly sat on a
platform to allow her father to rail
against the hijacking over states
rights on the issue of same sex
marriage, and stayed quiet while
her mother insisted that her sexuality was “a private issue.” Keyes
has not. But then again, her father
has broken ranks in refusing to
accept “love the sinner, deny them
their basic political rights.” Perhaps we should have admiration
for his consistency. It’s too easy for
Cheney to back out on an interesting new twist of “some of my best
friends are gay.”
Except that Keyes has known
that Maya is gay since she gradu-
ated high school. It’s not news to
him, or his wife. We can imagine
what we told her, because we know
what he told the Illinois electorate
in the hypothetical, “I would also
tell my daughter that it’s a sin and
she needs to pray to the Lord God
to help her deal with that sin.” But
as Maya says, “As long as I was quiet
about being gay or my politics, we
got along.”
There are many families where a
woman’s sexuality is a skeleton in
the closet. Keyes has since scrambled to make clear, “My daughter is
an adult, and she is responsible for
her own actions. What she chooses
to do has nothing to do with my
work or political activities.” End of
statement. Interestingly, it was the
Republican right who made the personal so political in the first place.
What goes on in the home – at least
as far as sex, marriage and drug use
is concerned – is no longer private.
Child abuse and domestic violence
remain individual prerogatives of
the sacred family unit. The GOP
needs to work it out already, and
stick to its guns (no pun intended).
Keyes can relax. Even Republicans will relent on accusing him of
poor parenting – after all, some of
the best of them have raised drugtaking children, or themselves
slipped into infidelity. They’ll sympathise with his dilemma – the
relentless onslaught of the prohomosexual media and legislative
agenda has rendered theirs, like
everyone else’s, children vulnerable. Despite his faults, Keyes has
raised a strong, confident woman
who is capable of effectively applying her public prominence, and
corresponding responsibilities to
the gay community. Maya Keyes
has told her father clearly: her life
is political, he and his kind have
made it so.
Louise Radnofsky
Features
H
aving spoken at length
to
epidemiologists,
anthropologists, film
makers, and volunteer
workers over the past few weeks,
it strikes me that overcoming the
moral and ideological attitudes
towards HIV and AIDS is equally
as problematic as the search for an
effective vaccine. Accounting for
the social, cultural and economic
environments in which HIV and
AIDS are embedded will make a
fundamental contribution to the
deeper understanding and treatment of the disease. Unfortunately
no amount of education and medical treatment can alleviate a disease, which due to deeply engrained
cultural beliefs, people are unable
to accept. Until recently there has
been a relatively limited discourse
on issues of gender inequality and
AIDS, despite the fact that sexual
violence towards women contributes significantly to HIV transmission as well as a clandestine sphere
of shame being created around the
disease.
Research by Sidaris (2003) and
UNICEF in South Africa identified
a causal link between gender violence and the transmission of HIV.
The reality and fear of violence
makes it difficult for many women
to raise sexual issues with their
partners. Consequently women are
increasingly vulnerable to sexual
violence perpetrated by their partners - a prime cause of HIV transmission. Male rape goes largely
un-discussed as a form of gender
violence in South Africa, which is
increasingly problematic because
males are reluctant to seek advice
or treatment given the shame and
stigma associated with rape. It is
important to recognise therefore
that the psychological abuse individuals endure is as much of a barrier to dealing with HIV and AIDS
Gender
AIDS
in
The deadly link
between male
violence and
the HIV/AIDS
epidemic
23
Features
•
•
•
•
•
Inequality
at the heart of the
epidemic
Nearly 1 in 100 people
worldwide and 1 in 3 in parts
of South Africa is living with
HIV and AIDS
South Africa has the highest
number of people living with
HIV and AIDS in the world
– currently 20.1% of the
country’s population
The rate of girls and young
women aged 15 to 24
infected by HIV is almost twice
that of males the same age
24.3% of South Africans
either have incorrect
knowledge or don’t know that
HIV causes AIDS
Knowledge about transmission via breastfeeding is poor,
with 46.8% of South Africans
unaware that HIV can be
transmitted through breast-
as physical violence.
Women in South Africa generally
experience unequal access to, and
control over property, which leads
to an economic dependence on
men. This relation of dependency,
fear of abandonment and destitution means that women have difficulty in negotiating sex with their
partners. A South African man
recently told his wife “if you want
me to have sex with a condom, I
won’t give you any money for food”
(Women Against Women Abuse
WAWA South Africa representative). Furthermore, poorer women
and men are less likely to possess
the information, awareness and
skills to protect themselves from
HIV transmission. Knowledge
about breast-feeding is particularly poor, with nearly one half of
24
the population being unaware that
HIV can be transmitted via breastfeeding. However, the situation is
further complicated by stigmatisation, with many women choosing
to breastfeed their babies in order
to avoid being labelled HIV positive.
Social expectations for male
behaviour impede efforts to involve
men in projects designed to reduce
the spread of the virus. It is part
of a male’s gender socialisation to
take risks, particularly sexual ones
and sleep with a number of partners. These beliefs about masculinity make it more difficult for men
to protect themselves and their
partners from the disease. Governments and Aid agencies often focus
entirely on women, rather than the
relations between men and women.
This approach is of limited help in
preventing the male sexual violence that contributes to the spread
of the virus. Efforts to implement
policy should therefore widen to
focus on developing men’s understanding of the situation. The more
the interface between gender and
AIDS informs processes of legislation and the work of development
agencies, the greater hope there is
for a long-term reduction in gender
inequality and the brutal effects of
the pandemic.
Interview
I started out making documentaries
and music videos for Burning Youth,
the biggest name in Zambian reggae
in the late 1990’s, famous for the track
Sebenzesani Ma Condom (“Wear a
Condom”). Every time I watch that
video it’s crazy because I know there
are now only three members left.
Hannah Briggs talks to film maker, writer, producer and project
manager for the Willie Mwale Film Foundation, South Africa
The Foundation produces films
that promote AIDS Awareness,
and is dedicated to an ethical approach to film making. It provides
interaction and community participation whenever possible, as
well as training for local filmmakers.
Tanvir is also responsible for founding the independent film company
‘Ambush Productions Ltd’, set up
in Lusaka in 1999 to kick-start an
almost non-existent local industry
and to give a voice to the people
of Zambia.
to be Zambian based, so I didn’t
want to use money from outside.
However, it was really difficult
convincing local people to invest
money in Choka, a film about street
kids in Lusaka, when they didn’t
understand its power as a political medium. People would say “No,
why should we give money to a film,
we’ll rather give it straight to the
kids themselves.” The idea behind
the project being that the films
would be marketed globally, raising enough money to sponsor the
featured children with food, housQ: What is your main motivation ing
and education. I always make it
for film making?
my prime task to make people take
A: Having left Zambia at the age ownership of the films, in the hope
of ten, to be educated in England, that they will understand the posI didn’t really experience the full sible benefits for their community
impact of the HIV/ AIDS epidemic and future generations.
until I returned about twenty years
Q: How have you found
later to make my first documentary
working in Zambia as a white,
“CHOKA!” This was when I decided
female filmmaker?
to set up the Willie Mwale Film
Foundation. Ethically I wanted it A: It has been an uphill struggle,
a battle at every level. The idea of a
white woman being boss in Zambia
is difficult for people to accept. As
far as Zambians are concerned, it
you’re white, you have money and
when filming ‘Choka!’ in particular
this made me and the crew prime
targets as potential prey. Attempts
were made by the street kids to
blackmail us into giving them more
money; despite the fact all the funds
from the project would support the
kids long-term in their education
and welfare. Eventually the kids
got used to us and we built up a
reasonable relationship of trust. I
think my sex and skin colour really
counted against me when trying
to persuade the local community
to invest in the film. Why should
they trust a foreigner, let alone a
woman? On top of that I had to
deal with some rather misogynistic
crew members. However, despite
the odds, I believe if you really want
to achieve something, you’ll do it.
25
Interview
husbands go out with their mates.
Women will talk about sex as part
of their pre-marital phase, but
once married sex tends to be more
of a duty for women and an act of
enjoyment for men. Men drink, so
even though women are treated
like vagrants, they still have to look
after everything and earn money
on top of looking after those family
members who are sick. In such economic destitution one of the main
resources women have is their
bodies, so in order to feed their
families they’re often forced into
prostitution.
Q.
Q:
Do you feel that gender
layers. When I was in Zambia in
inequality has significantly
the early 1990’s and I’d just done
impacted on the epidemic?
some shorts about HIV, I came
A: We have to remember that HIV across a witchcraft disease called
is a virus. It happened and we don’t ‘kali wondi wondi’. It looked like
know where it came from. But yes, HIV; you became thin, run down,
generally women are certainly developed sores, diarrhoea and
given a much harder time, which died, but only males were victims.
hasn’t helped. HIV has certainly Fear and accusation of witchcraft
become a much bigger problem for soon became endemic, with many
women who are catching the virus men believing women were pollutearlier and transferring the virus to ing; particularly those who hadn’t
their babies. However, I would say been cleansed after losing their
that the real problem for women is husbands to AIDS. However, since
stigma, which in itself leads to all I’ve been back to Zambia in the last
kinds of inequalities such as access few years, no-one is talking about
to information and medical treat- the witchcraft associated with the
ment. You have a choice, you know disease, which is to do with the
that you probably have HIV given prime minister at the time, who
three members of your family have opened up Zambia to become a
died of it and your husband is sick. Christian nation. People now have
Yes you can have a test, but why are to be seen to be evangelical Chrisyou going to have a test if you can’t tian, so all the fear and accusation
afford medicine, let alone food?
is pushed underground.
Q: Given the rise and rise of Q: How is women’s sexuality
Do women have any
influence domestic/ village
politics?
A: Older women tend to gain more
respect within local communities,
as the greatest burden of care falls
upon them. The few women out there
involved in Zambian government
tend to be educated and middle
class. Everything comes down to
money. There is free access to education for women yes, but you still have
to buy the books, the uniforms and
the classes are overcrowded. Furthermore, most of the teachers are
often very sick. However, if you have
money, you are assured access to a
good education, which gives more
scope for roles in politics. There is
still a dramatic rural/ urban divide.
In a population where ninety percent live in absolute penury, politicised women constitute a minority
group, particularly those from more
rural communities.
Q: What are your views about
the Catholic Church’s role in
the pandemic, how do you perceived?
Zambia, particularly in light
explain people’s denial of HIV/
of statements made by the
A: Generally it is the case, par- Vatican
AIDS?
that condoms don’t
ticularly within urban culture, for
necessarily protect individuals
A: It’s difficult. There’s still a lot of men to have a wife, a mistress and from
contracting HIV?
denial, which I think is a lot to do to sleep around. It’s expected. The
with stigma, which takes on many women stay at home while their A: It’s really ironic because the
26
Interview
Catholic Church is the only organisation doing anything. They are
running the hospice in Zambia and
constantly working on the ground
with the community in looking after
the sick. ‘On the Frontline’ focused
on Sister Leone, who founded first
hospice in Zambia with an outreach
of 98,000 people. She was caught on
a BBC documentary saying that
despite condoms being disallowed
by the Catholic Church, she didn’t
believe in death, so would prefer
people to use them rather than die.
Consequently her order in Poland
gagged her and she was forbidden
from giving further interviews. By
the time I came along with my
camera crew, she was on the verge
of a mental breakdown, absolutely
exhausted and went on sabbatical.
She has since been emancipated
from the control of the Catholic
Church having left her order and
continues to work as a missionary in
Zambia. It has to be said that many
of the evangelists are no better than
witch hunters, blaming victims for
being un-clean which only exacerbates levels of stigma.
Furthermore, drug companies
are not being put to trial for crimes
against humanity. For twenty years
they’ve known about anti-retrial
viral drugs and have done nothing. It’s only in the last three or four
years that they’ve started to drop
the price. I remember two years ago
the cost being about two hundred
dollars per month, which someone
on a good salary in England would
struggle even to afford. Currently
the price has dropped to around
thirteen dollars a month, but on
top of that there’s cost of blood tests
and other forms of treatment. It’s
inexcusable how much money drug
companies have made out of Africa.
Q: Do you hold out any hope
for Zambia’s future?
A:
Where there’s life there’s
always hope. We have lost an entire
generation and a huge amount of
knowledge. We lose libraries every
time someone dies: teachers, doctors and nurses. For self-sufficiency
to be a realistic target, we have to
find some way to support people in
their training.
27
Comment
Nurturing the
W
hat Lawrence Summers
meant to accomplish when
he made his now infamous remarks
about the under representation of
women in science we may never
know, but the long-awaited release
of his remarks to the NBER Conference in January did more than just
stoke the flames of the debate concerning women in science. These
remarks reveal the disturbing
basis on which his views regarding
women, men, science and Harvard
are founded, an underlying set
of assumptions probably shared
by many others. Dr Summers, it
appears, believes that historically
men have been more prepared
to make a higher commitment
to their work than have women.
Women, being the fairer sex, want
to commit to their children and
Dr Lawrence Summers
28
various other familial responsibilities. Not only is agency assumed
here, the historical observation of
women in the home or other lowpowered work place taken as the
product of a choice made by the
women concerned, but the choice
made goes unquestioned.
The thesis of a natural leaning
in women away from high-powered careers in favour of family
life doesn’t even necessarily seem
based on assumptions that women
naturally want to be carers – I’m
sure many proponents of these
views are quite willing to accept
that women are often frustrated by
their choice of family over career,
or at best, family/career. Nevertheless, it is still just natural that
woman would accept her lot in life
and as a result, be unwilling to make the required commitment
to her work. As a woman, she is
necessarily selfless, overcoming
adversities such as ambition, lack
of maternal instinct, or being a shit
cook; she is simply better than her
male counterpart and prioritises
her family, because no-one else
will.
Jo March said that women should
not be given the vote because we
are good, but because we are reasonable beings. Jo was responding
to a point raised by a gentleman
who claimed that women were
good and civilised creatures, and
thus their enfranchisement could
contribute to a more virtuous
politics. It worries me that these
assumptions about women and our
‘natural virtue’ are retained today
and underlie the arguments of
those purportedly seeking a solu-
As a woman,
she is
necessarily
selfless,
overcoming
adversities such
as ambition,
lack of maternal
instinct, or being
a shit cook
Comment
natural woman
tion to gender inequalities. Whatever else he may be, Dr Summers
is an educated and accomplished
individual, and still he thinks that
the differentiation between men
and women at the highest levels
in academia is due to men being
more prepared to make a commitment. I wonder what would
happen were he to be introduced
to the concept of women’s subjugation and the false illusion of choice
concerning women’s position in
the private sphere? Sadly I’m not
confident that Dr Summers would
even then understand the point
that is painfully obvious to those
of us aware of our own oppression,
and our male comrades who join
with and support us: there is nothing to say that women naturally
choose families over careers.
Not to say that choosing a family
is unnatural, quite the opposite,
my supposition is that neither
family nor career is the ‘natural’
choice, simply the available options.
Whilst social attitudes to working women don’t currently support both options equally, women
choosing a career or family/career
are judged and criticised and most
probably pitied, this doesn’t mean
that the historically observed
child-rearing bent is natural for
us. We continue to see a majority
of women choosing a family, albeit
later in life than in times gone by,
but it would be foolish to assume
that these choices are made free
from the pressures of socialisation.
Expectation, along with learnt
norms of ‘what a woman really
wants’, has not shed any of its influ-
ence over women and the work/
life balance dilemma. Rather is
has changed some of the more
superfluous conditions it imposes,
whilst retaining the same fundamental obligations. If Dr Summers
wants to get to the truth of diversity problems in science and engineering, I would suggest he begin
by re-examining the views upon
which his ideas are based.
Jane Elliot
29
Comment
Picking between evils
Why can’t nursing mothers be excused from jury duty? And should
we want them to?
F
or many observing the current debacle in Virginia the
controversy over exemptions for breast-feeding mothers
from jury-duty seems nonsensical.
Why is the lobby to pass such legislation nationwide still in its nascent stages? Where is the public
outcry at the humiliation faced by
women forced to race out during
trial breaks to pump breast milk in
public toilets, like the recent case
of Alison Greene in Virginia? To
understand why if Virginia were
to officially exempt breast-feeding
women from jury-duty it would
be only the seventh state to do so,
one has to remember that for many
of those who would otherwise be
amongst the most sympathetic,
Ms Greene’s plight is actually proof
of a victory of sorts.
Juries are both the symbolic and
functional heart of the American
justice system to an extent that
is perhaps unique to my country;
indeed, it is estimated that 80% of
jury trials worldwide take place
within the United States. Thus, it
should come as no surprise that
the jury selection process has featured prominently in centuries of
national debates on issues from
due process to the meaning of
citizenship. Ms Greene, then, is a
reminder that after centuries of legislation and litigation, the jury has
finally begun to creep towards rep-
resentativeness - not only in terms
of gender and race, but social status
and profession as well. Recent decisions such as Booker and Fan-Fan
have yet again confirmed the role
of the jury as the unique arbiter of
not only guilt and innocence, but
also of sentence. Together with
this rather unimpressive history
that the jury has as an embodiment
of prevailing national and regional
-isms of countless varieties, it is no
wonder that even the most enlightened Americans are quite reluctant to start issuing “get out of jail
free” passes to venire members. Of
course, I do recognize that many of
the people actually voting and lobbying against the proposed exemp-
After the 19th Amendment was passied and women appeared on the rolls of registered
voters, women were recalled for jury service. This all-female jury was empanelled in 1920 in
Newark, New Jersey.
30
Comment
tion in Virginia and elsewhere are
driven by an -ism or two of their
own, but my uneasiness with
the principle of granting statusdependent exemptions remains.
We think of juries as being generally representative of the population as a whole; however, in reality, the right to a representative
jury is a relatively recent phenomenon. The United States inherited
its practice of outright excluding
women from juries (on account of,
as famed legal scholar Blackstone
wrote during the 18th century, a
defect of sex) from the United
it was not until
1994 that it
was deemed
unconstitutional
to peremptorily
strike a woman
from a jury
simply by virtue
of the fact that
she was a
woman
Kingdom. It was not until 1898
that the first woman was permitted to serve on an American jury,
in Utah. It was not until the passage of the 19th Amendment in
1920 that women’s participation on
juries was anything but sporadic.
As recently as 1966, women were
still categorically prohibited from
juries in three states. Most disturbingly, it was not until 1994 that it
was deemed unconstitutional to
peremptorily strike a woman from
a jury simply by virtue of the fact
that she was a woman.
Even after 1972, however, when
women became eligible to serve on
all federal and state juries throughout the United States, statistical
studies indicate that they were
severely underrepresented. This
statistical discrepancy may be partially explained by deeply ingrained
stereotypes about how women
behaved on juries (their tendency
to be ‘over emotional’, for example) that caused lawyers to seek all
male juries. It may also be partially
explained by the practice of affirmative registration that persisted in
many states until 1975, whereby all
men were automatically added to
jury rolls, but women had to take it
upon themselves to register. However, there is no doubt that it was
also partially due to then-existing
legislation which allowed women to
exempt themselves from jury service simply on account of their gender
on the grounds that such service
would interfere with their family
and childcare responsibilities.
This last practice, which many
studies name as the primary cause
of the systematic under representation of women on juries until its
court-ordered cessation in 1975,
did not exclude women from juries,
it simply allowed them (and social
convention) to exclude themselves.
Evidence that suggested that this
under representation of women
actually resulted in different verdicts for defendants was likely
among the strongest factors which
influenced the Court’s decision. In
my mind, however, the even more
insidious effect of this legislation
was that it reinforced the common
perception that the jury was a fundamentally male domain. This is
the context in which I view the current proposal and this is the reason
that the current proposal troubles
me.
Now, I realize that there is a substantial difference between the old
legislation, which presumed that
because a woman was a woman
jury service would interfere with
her childcare responsibilities, and
this legislation, which recognizes
that in some cases jury service may
interfere with a woman’s childcare responsibilities. And, I am as
uncomfortable with the notion of
a woman being forced to subjugate her child’s welfare to her civic
responsibility as the next person.
However, when I hear about legislation that allows an exemption
from jury service based on genderspecific characteristic, in light of
history, I worry.
One possible solution is to modify
the exemption slightly, to make the
ability to exempt oneself contingent on the potential juror’s status
as the family’s childcare provider
(perhaps with an upper age limit
for that child), rather than on their
status as a breast-feeder. I realize that this modification would
make more potential jurors eligible to claim the exemption. That
the modification would no doubt
make it easier for people to use the
exemption merely as an excuse
for laziness or disinterest, when in
reality they could easily serve. And,
there is no doubt that the image of
the unemployed father of a three
year-old forced to serve on a jury
doesn’t have the same political clout
or emotional pull as the one of a
woman forced to pump breast milk
in a dirty public bathroom during
a trial recess that everyone in the
courtroom is aware was called for
her benefit. However, even in the
face of a trend to minimize exemptions across the board, in light of
history, I think it’s worth it.
Beth O’Connor
31
Review
Persepolis:
The story of a childhood
G
raphic novels are somewhat of a male preserve.
Despite their recent
respectability, they are
often associated with their underdeveloped sibling, the comic book.
The dominance of fantasy, of the
hyper-masculine hero with his
classically split self (think The Hulk
or Superman), and ultra-physi-
Marjane weeps
at the loss of
a future:
“I wanted to be
like Marie Curie.
I wanted to be
an educated,
liberated
woman. Misery!
I’ll probably have
ten children”
32
cal expression in face of confl ict
has led critics to accuse the both
genres of a nostalgia neurosis: an
“undermining of self-actualization
by compelling us to retreat into a
private dream–world.” But since
the 1970s the graphic novel, and
the adult comic, have claimed a
greater stake in the cultural world
than ever before. The 1960s saw
underground U.S. illustrators, artists, and writers proclaiming an
alternative to the inoffensive “funnies” of the daily newspapers and
the kids’ comics. Following from
Robert Crumb’s fetishized female,
the American comic scene came
of age in a blitz of obscenity – its
subject matter ranging from polymorphous sexuality to racism.
It wasn’t until Art Spiegelman’s
Pulitzer-prize winning graphic
novel, Maus, that the genre was
fi nally brought into the mainstream intellectual scene. Dealing
with the traumatic generational
inheritance of the Holocaust,
Maus seemed to legitimize the
art-form. Spiegelman’s sombre
black and white frames, innovative visual and narrative styles
signalled a complexity of response
to the horrors of the camps that
was both mature and groundbreaking. The graphic novel, as it
became known, was recognised
as a political form. From their role
in counter-culture movements,
graphic novels became part of
the consumable corpus of literature. Today the graphic novel is
yet more marketable, and main-
stream: with many works making
the best-seller lists.
However, a question arises when
looking at the mainstream graphic
novels: where are the women writers and illustrators? Yet there is a
wealth of female work in comics
and graphic novels – most of it
explicitly political in content.
Aline Crumb’s Love That Bunch
(1990) with it’s thoughts on physicality, and female sexuality, Diane
Massa’s Hothead Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist, Roberta
Gregory’s A
Bitch is Born
(1994). There
is a strong
female tradition
of
comic-book
m a k i n g
and graphic
novels.
In
these works
the
autobiographical
mode – often
associated
with women’s
writing – is used
to critique
and argue
against constrictive
norms, to
challenge
ideals
of
femininity and to explore diverse
forms of sexuality often inscribed
in gendered terms. They are politi-
Review
cally and historically engaged.
Why, then, are “serious” graphic
novels predominantly by men?
It is Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis
that looks set to establish female
graphic artists in the mainstream.
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood follows Marjane’s early life
in Tehran. The daughter of liberal
parents, she witnesses the beginning of the Islamic Revolution in
Iran, the impact of the war with
Iraq on her family and friends,
and the state’s increased repressiveness. Illustrated in stark,
monochromatic frames, Persepolis culminates in the teenage Marjane leaving Iran, and her parents,
behind. Satrapi does not replicate
the naive idea that Iran is necessarily an “evil” or “terrorist” state,
simply by virtue of its Islamic
government,
but explores
the
personal repercussions of
the state’s
gender ideology. The
personal
narrative
is
complicated with
references
to political
texts, and
prefaced
with a historical introduction to
Iran which
serves
to
remind the
reader of the
West’s insistent intervention in the Middle East, as well as
of Iran’s classical heritage. Satrapi reminds us that Britain and
America are implicated in much of
the turbulent history of Iran, and
states “this old and great civilization has been discussed mostly in
connection with fundamentalism,
fanaticism, and terrorism...this
image is far from the truth.”
Persepolis counteracts the
news-reel image of women in Iran,
but also decries what the destruction of civil liberties in Iran. The
women in her books are vibrant,
good-humoured, passionate and
argumentative. Satrapi’s mother
is an educated woman who not
only refuses to be defi ned by
her gender but encourages her
daughter to “defend her rights as
a woman”. Persepolis is not solely
about the impact of the regime
on women, but its fi rst-person
female narration means that
gender identity is a key component in its political critique. When
universities are closed, Marjane
weeps at the loss of a future; “I
wanted to be like Marie Curie. I
wanted to be an educated, liberated woman. Misery! At the age
that Marie Curie went to study,
I’ll probably have ten children...”
The adolescent drama may be
humorous, but the import is serious: the limitations on education
and particularly women’s education and employment infringe on
both their real, and possible, lives.
Satrapi’s novel is important on
several levels: for it’s infi ltration
of a genre dominated by men, that
commands both populist and
political power, and for her talent
in uniting visual, intellectual, and
emotional ideas that demand our
reassessment of women’s position
in Iran. Persepolis reminds us, in
a new and important way, that all
women’s personal history is inextricable from political history.
Rebecca Barr
33
Review
Gender
in the
early
medieval
world:
review by
Jennifer
Cooper
34
D
ealing with concepts of
gender and gender roles in
pre-literate societies will
always be problematic, as
there is very little evidence to use, of
which the vast majority is complicated and difficult to interpret. This
book attempts to use a wide variety of
techniques and sources to overcome
some of the difficulties in the field.
Composed of a collection of articles
written by some esteemed academics
from different backgrounds, it tries to
compare and contrast societies from
both Eastern and Western Europe in
the early medieval period.
This book does not focus primarily
on the part played by women, but
on the role of gender in the formation of society. The 600 years covered were the years in which Europe
went from being in the throes of the
Roman Empire to emerging as a multiplicity of newly-converted peoples
with emerging power structures and
struggles. The book emphasises the
true meaning of the word ‘gender’ as
being the roles of the people in society,
rather than a physical idea of sex. Thus
it attempts to identify the roles and
responsibilities of men and women in
this uneasy period of change through
their expression, whether in dress,
religion, politics or other media.
Analysis of gender in any community is important as it is intertwined
with society, culture, ethnicity, class
and religion. This book tries to cover
as many of these aspects as it feels it
reasonably can and has some success
in this. For this reason a number of
the essays focus on the interpretation
of dress and on other areas of archaeology, such as the discussion of cemeteries and sexed graves. However,
much is also made of the historical
and textual evidence which can be
applied to the topic in other articles,
ranging from late Antique discussions to early medieval liturgy.
For historians, whether political or
socio-economic, it can be instructive
to see how gender roles are formed and
developed over a time of social construction. The essays seem to come to
the conclusion that gender was very
important in the assertion of power,
with a masculine hegemony controlling the royal and local-political power.
However, challenging these assertions
of power were other factions, not often
seen in history, which nevertheless had
an impact on the order of society. This
book endeavours to uncover and identify these roles and the people playing
them by using methods not traditionally employed by historians.
However, by choosing to juxtapose
so many different disciplines and
aspects of the period, each of which
could easily fill a book in its own right,
the reader is, although cautioned,
inevitably led to believe that early
medieval Europe was a homogenous
whole, onto which different sorts of
evidence can be legitimately grafted,
a philosophy which has led to setbacks in researching the field.
In some ways this book tries to
hard to be all things to all people, in
attempting to cover 600 years and
two quite different geographical and
cultural areas. However, given the historical context of the aftermath of the
Roman Empire, it would be difficult to
understand the origin and importance
of the power struggles which were
taking place across the continent and
to appreciate the effect they had on
gender roles at the time without this
approach. This was a time when East
and West were gradually separating
away from a broken whole, with the
influences of different religions and
social templates having far-reaching
effects on many levels of society. It is
a fascinating exploration of the many
ways in which gender can influence the
structure and formation of societies,
seen through a variety of disciplines
and techniques, but each of these
should be seen as context-specific.
Review
VERA DRAKE
I
first went to see Vera Drake
on its opening night, when the
cinema was half empty and
people thought me a little weird
for devoting my Friday night to a
film about back-street abortion in
the 1950s. Well six weeks, 4 BAFTA
awards and 3 Oscar nominations
later I trotted off to see Vera Drake
again, to sit back and enjoy for a
second time, and consider some of
the issues raised so poignantly by
Mike Leigh.
When Vera Drake opens we seem
to be entering another world, a society now etched in the pages of history books, when door keys were
kept under doormats and washing
machines were all the rage. Some
might accuse Leigh of sentimentality, but by setting Vera Drake in 1950,
instead of 1930 or 1920, he makes
back-street abortion a remnant of a
very recent history. Now that one in
three British women choose to have
safe and legal abortions, it’s easy to
forget that my own grandmother
was forty-seven and loaded down
with five children by the time the
1967 Abortion Act was passed, and
my father was born in 1950 itself,
into a world where more women
had back street abortions than had
washing machines.
Indeed, it’s the normality of abortion as portrayed by Mike Leigh that
gives the film its edge. Here we are
with an average post-war family,
squeezed into a cramped but cosy
tenement flat, with Vera as the image
of perfect mother and wife; a ‘godsend’ to neighbours and family alike,
who pops round to fluff the pillows
of a disabled neighbour one minute
and goes out to perform an abortion
the next. As a character she breezes
in and she breezes out of these women’s lives, never nosey or judgemental
but almost cruel in her informality. If
I had one criticism of Vera it would be
in her naivety, not simply in her ignorance of Lilly’s profiteering but in her
lack of advice about the procedure
itself and about the risks involved.
We’re led to believe that Vera had
been ‘helping girls out’ every Friday
for over twenty years and in that time,
the idea of filling a womb with disinfectant has become second nature to
her. Each woman is scared and alone
before the procedure and in exactly
the same position afterwards, simply
told to await the sharp pains and
blood of the following day.
Yet Leigh’s film is brutally realistic
in its portrayal of women who pray
for miscarriage but fear much more,
for although the motives and cir-
cumstances surrounding abortion
are different in each of the abortions
we see in Vera Drake, all except one
woman is scared for her life. Leigh
makes the point that women who
opted for back-street abortions were
all too aware of the risks involved.
Each one of them asks if they’ll
die, even though each of them has
broken the law and sought out
someone who can provide an abortion. All choose to wrestle with possible death and prosecution instead
of continuing their pregnancies.
When Vera is charged, her family are
When
Vera Drake
opens we
seems to be
entering another
world, a society
now etched in
the pages of
history books
35
Review
appalled that she should be involved
with something so ‘dirty’ and ‘wrong’
and Leigh portrays Vera as an abortionist utterly unaware of the dangers involved in her trade. She knows
its illegal, but as a woman whose
‘heart of gold’ is alluded to throughout the film we are faced here with
a woman who thought her methods
were foolproof and this seems to be
the crux of Leigh’s film, for in Vera
Drake we are see the human face of
back-street abortion.
When I saw Vera Drake for the
first time I was expecting fishhooks
and knitting needles. Leigh could
have shown that grim extreme of
the back-street butcher and yet the
film is all the more powerful because
he chooses not to. Vera keeps the
tools of her trade in a biscuit tin
and although we avoid the blood of
the knitting needles, what we get
seems almost brutal in its simplicity. If I ever needed an abortion, the
last person I would want would be
Vera Drake; a middle aged woman
with no knowledge of female biology, brandishing something that
looks like a hose pipe filled with a
mixture of toilet cleaner and carbolic soap, who insists on talking
about the weather and leaving me
feeling more scared and alone than
36
I did before she arrived. The stern
and intimidating doctor has none
of Vera’s niceties and carries a bill of
a hundred guineas rather than two,
but he is ultimately professional
and she who can afford it is granted
a safe and legal abortion. We could
interpret this sub-plot as characteristic of Leigh’s standard commentary on class, but all of the women
in Vera Drake are ultimately united
by their fear and lack of choice, in a
society where rich and poor alike
had little access to reliable contraception or safe, legal abortion.
Leigh never tells us why Vera performed abortions, but we are told
that many of them probably went
wrong. When Vera’s latest patient
very nearly dies we’re shown a very
different side to back-street abortion, where casualty wards are filled
with the victims of botched jobs
every weekend and the audience
is left to wonder just how many of
these women had been ‘put right’
over the years by Vera. Yet we don’t
suddenly see Vera in a new light, as
the devil masquerading behind a
mask of righteousness. Vera’s husband Stan tells the police that ‘she’s
never done a dishonest thing in her
life’ and even though we realise that
her homemade abortions have prob-
ably killed women, it seems that any
moral debate raised against Vera’s
integrity is quashed by the necessity of her work. The judge attacks
her for taking advantage of ‘vulnerable young women’ and yet it’s the
judge in his haughty ignorance that
we condemn and not Vera, for she
and her family become victims of
the anti-abortion laws in just the
same way as the many women who
died in its hands.
Leigh leaves us with the image of
an imprisoned Vera, who only realises what she has done when talking
to other abortionists whose patients
died at their hands. They discuss
their methods, and its when celebrating the safety of the syringe that
the penny finally drops and we realise that this was the very best that
back-street abortion had to offer.
The greatest hope for an unwilling
pregnant woman in 1950’s Britain
was that she could pay someone to
fill her uterus with diluted disinfectant and induce a painful miscarriage. Vera’s fellow inmate comments ‘we just do our best’ and this
is the predominant message that
Vera Drake leaves us with; that for
the thousands of women who died
through back-street abortion, the
best was simply not good enough.
I’m
Michelle
Nuttall
WU
The newly elected Women’s
Officer for 2005-2006
also been elected as WU Secretary recently, so I’ll be getting
For the last three years I’ve been involved with council and exec
studying theology at King’s, but meetings over the next term.
my poor brain in ready to move Life as a student here has been
from the abstract to the practical chaotic – for all the right reaand I’m really looking forward sons! A lot of my time here has
to getting my teeth into life with been spent as President of the
the Women’s Union. We’ve seen King’s College Fairtrade Society,
some great changes over the last but I’ve also raised substantial
two years with Jo at the helm amounts of money as University
and I’m hoping to build on her Representative for SKCV Chilwork, to nurture a strong, rele- dren’s Trust, which works with
vant and vibrant union that will street kids out in India. These
continue to do fabulous work for posts have given me great expethe women of our university.
rience in organising events and
It was no secret that none of campaigns, but by far my bigthe four candidates for Wom- gest challenge to date was the
en’s Sabb had extensive experi- year I spent living and teaching
ence of the Women’s Union, but I in China. I decided then that if
have written for Gender Agenda I could teach 1200 students in
over the last two years and classes of sixty – I could do just
sub-edited in Michaelmas. I’ve about anything!
What do I want to do with
the Women’s Union?
I want to help the Women’s Union
thrive – and to be vibrant, creative and intelligent, just as the
women of Cambridge are vibrant,
creative and intelligent.
I want to defend the autonomous status of the WU and
defend women’s representation
at college, faculty and university
level. I want to continue the WU’s
project to research the status of
women’s officer in each college
and to work towards the presence of elected women’s officers
with full speaking and voting
rights. We need to work hard to
build an even stronger union – as
our union will not be challenged
when it’s at its strongest.
Increasing participation...
I want to look at the way we
market and publicise the WU.
We need to use the slogans and
a marketing strategy that tells
women in the university who we
are and what we do. We need a
marketing policy that does not
make us a-political, but helps to
make the WU appeal and seem
attractive to the broadest variety
of students.
There are still too many women
in the university who don’t know
who we are or what we do - and
I want to work to rectify that.
When women do find out who we
are and to feel that they can get
involved with the WU in some
way and at some level.
37
WU
I want to organise events with
the WU and to work in conjunction with other groups who are
interested in the women’s campaign. I particularly want to work
with the massive arts community
in Cambridge. Theatrical productions, women’s photography and
art’s exhibitions, film forums,
debates and lecture series are all
possibilities that I want to look
into.
I also intend to work closely
with the editorial team of Siren, as
the magazine is a great voice for
the women of our university and
still has lots of untapped potential
in terms of image, content and
readership. This year we’ll have
an entire production team, which
has the potential to do great
things and I have every intention
to support that.
I want to encourage women
to support and learn from one
another on a college level. I want
to encourage women’s officers
to form college women’s groups
in some capacity; a fortnightly
meeting over lunch; a monthly
book club, an evening of yoga,
chat and relaxation once a fortnight; an excuse to watch crap
films and eat crisps twice a term.
Whatever it might be, I want to
encourage women’s officers to
form such groups, as relaxation
and communication are vital to
our happiness and mental happiness.
Increasing diversity...
I want to work at a grassroots level
to increase diversity and inclusion
in our union. I want to go out and
personally meet with the members of different ethnic and religious communities within Cambridge – to ask how a women’s
union could support them, whilst
38
celebrating and highlighting
the presence of minority groups
within the university. We need to
inform a broader range of people
that the WU is relevant and open
to them.
As part of that, I believe that
women should know that they
don’t have to agree with all WU
policies to be part of their union.
We will never create a WU that
can reflect and represent the lives,
backgrounds, beliefs, politics and
aspirations of every woman in our
university – but we can work to
encourage mutual understanding
and respect amongst women, and
this is what I hope to do.
Politics and campaigning...
I want to encourage women to
take an interest in politics. Our
degrees and careers are important
but we cannot forget as a union
that life exists beyond Cambridge
and we still live in a country and
in a world where women suffer
because they are women. I want
to encourage women to take an
active interest in issues that affect
all of us; unequal pay, top up
fees, threatened abortion rights,
domestic violence and the rise of
fascism. I want the WU to actively
encourage women to vote in their
college, university, local and general elections –because politics is
a women’s issue.
It’s important that we continue
to support and celebrate events
within the Women’s Calendar. I’d
like to reaffirm our allegiance to
Amnesty International and the
Stop Violence Against Women
campaign and continue the work
done for International Women’s Week, whilst also looking
at the possibilities of holding a
V-Day celebration at some point
between the 14th Feb and 8th
March and attending this year’s
Fem ’05 -a national conference
on Women’s Rights to be held in
Sheffield on the 5th and 6th of
November. There’s a lot out there
that we can get involved with as
a union!
The WU has raised funds for
external organisations in the
past and I’d like the members of
the WU to nominate and elect
a small number of charities as
recipients of any funds raised
over the next year.
Work with other CUSU officers...
In addition, I want to work with
Vicki Mann (CUSU Welfare and
Grads) and Juliet Mullen (Mental
Health Officer) to encourage a
better discussion, greater awareness and much improved provision for the vast number of
women in Cambridge who suffer
from mental health problems.
We also need to work with Welfare to encourage the practice of
safer sex. Too many otherwise
intelligent women in Cambridge
are clueless about contraception
and sexual health and I want to
work closely with the Welfare and
HIV/Sexual Health officers to rectify this.
Jo has already planned a Women’s Open Day and this is one
way I want to get involved with
the access team. I also hope to
work with the Academic Affairs
Officer to look at the possibilities
of extending supervision feedback across the faculties, so that
women can provide their supervisors with constructive points of
criticism.
By working within CUSU, the
colleges, faculties and university I
want to ensure that women’s representation remains a top priority
and that the university continues
its progress in the right direction!
Women’s
Council
Michaelmas
term:
18th October
1st
November
15th November
29th November
the Night marches in 2001-02, and
all the National Women’s Conferences, Women’s Marches, demo’s,
lobbies, International Women’s
Weeks, workshops, forums and
women’s councils. I found out early
on that by putting something in to
the Women’s Union you get more
than a couple of CV points out – you
find a place where people can come
together and find their strength.
The key victories in 2003 and 2004
saving St Hilda’s College in Oxford
particularly showed us that when
we come together there’s very little
that can stop us.
There’s a huge number of people
to thank and say goodbye to, not
least the fantastic women’s exec’s
I’ve been lucky enough to work with
over the past 2 years, my 10 predecessors who’ve been a constant
source of information and support, and all three sabb teams I’ve
worked with as women’s officer. As
ever, the college women’s officers
form the base that the WU revolves
around, without their work so
many of our achievements simply
wouldn’t be possible. Your women’s
officer deserves an awful lot for her
work, and I would like to see them
all appreciated and admired for the
hard work that they contribute in
often thankless situations; at the
very least though, she deserves your
respect for the work she does and
the courage that she shows in doing it. Thanks to the many women’s
officers I’ve worked with over the
years, many of which I am happy to
call my friends. Thanks to all these
people, and thanks in particular to
Becca, for helping me through shitty times; Tom, for being my everpresent supporting party; Robin, for
not letting me give up on students;
Lenna, for giving me somewhere to
escape to; and Alice, for
everything.
“
The
last
word
Jo
Read
“
Hi everyone, welcome to
the all-new Siren, the magazine of the (very proud)
CUSU Women’s Union. A new look
has been on the cards for the magazine for over a decade and thanks
to the vision of Harriet and the new
editorial team we’ve got the publication that many a women’s sabb
has been working towards since the
magazine was founded in 1997.
I hope the year’s treated you well
and that whatever you’ve been doing you’ve managed to keep in
touch with what’s going on at the
WU. We’ve had a really positive
year with a raft of policies going
through both CUSU and University
committees enshrining equality of
opportunity and a commitment to
freedom from discrimination in the
work of both the union and the university.
I’m very happy to pass you over
to the capable hands of Michelle
who ran a fantastic campaign in
the elections for Women’s Sabb and
who I’m confident will keep up the
energy and vigour of the work of the
WU next year. I’d like to say thank
you to everyone who’s supported
the work of the WU during my time
here, both during my time as Women’s Sabb and back in my early days
as a college women’s officer and
campaigns officer on the women’s
exec. I’ve had a hugely challenging
five years in the Women’s Union
that have given me some wonderful memories of Cambridge and the
student women’s movement to take
with me.
I hope that you’ve got something
out of the Women’s Union during
your time here, or if you haven’t got
involved yet, that you’ll have a look
in next year. The WU has been my
backbone during my time in Cambridge, from the Miss World protests back in the heady days of my
first year, the Take Back/Reclaim
WU
39
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