Women@Work E-bulletin December 2009

Welcome to this month’s Women@Work e-bulletin! It contains information about the W@W programme, together with links to newsletters, press articles and other information which may be of interest to W@W members. As usual, if you have information or links to share, please get in touch with Susan on s.kruse@weascotland.org.uk.

Women@Work information

·        ‘Women’s Work in the Highlands: Looking Back with Pride’. This one day conference on 17^th December will focus on working women in the Highlands, with talks in the morning and workshops in the afternoon. Keynote speaker is Dr Margaret Bennett, noted musician, writer, storyteller and folklorist. Other papers will focus on working women in the past, including Dorothy Kidd from the Scottish Life Archive on evidence of women’s work in the Highlands from the archive, Anne Coombs from Historic Scotland on the Herring girls, Anne Oliver, W@W co-ordinator for Moray, on the Women in Moray project, and Morag Smith from the Glasgow Women’s Library, soon to become the Women’s Library of Scotland. In the afternoon there will be workshops showing how to find out more, including sessions by Highland Council on their archives, creating a map of women’s occupations for 1911 by Susan Kruse, W@W Project, and two workshops from the Glasgow Women’s Library (soon to be the Women’s Library of Scotland), on recording living heroines and creating women’s heritage walks. The conference will take place at the new Highland Archives & Registration Centre on Bucht Road, near the Aquadome and Floral Hall, between 9:30 and 3:30. The conference is free and includes lunch; it is also no coincidence that the event will take place on a Thursday, late night shopping in Inverness! Book early to reserve a place.

·        W@W is delighted to announce three new local co-ordinators! Donna Booth will coordinate activities in Caithness, Christine Ross in Sutherland and Rosemary Grant in Badenoch & Strathspey. The website will be updated soon to reflect these changes, but in the meantime e-mail the office if you wish to contact the new coordinators.

·        Do you want to hear about events in more than one network? You can do this by looking at the Diary section of the website (which also lists events from a number of organisations). Or if you wish, we can add you to the distribution list of other networks – just let us know which ones you’d like to hear about. (You will also receive multiple copies of e-bulletins and other information sent network wide).

·        The W@W team wish everyone a good holiday! We will only be in the office intermittently between Christmas and New Year, so please e-mail us if you have any pressing concerns during this time.

·        Women@Work network members who wish to promote their own business or services across the network can have a page on the W@W website – for details see member's page on the W@W website or contact us by email on womenatwork@weascotland.org.uk

New on the W@W website

·        Topic of the Month for December:  Scottish Rural Equalities Network

·        Check it out entries for last month: GINA (The Gender Issues Network on Alcohol); Womensphere

What’s in the news and newsletters …

·        3^rd November: House of Lords votes in favour of Clause 14 (formerly 13) of the Policing & Crime Bill[i], putting the rights of exploited women over those of pimps and punters.

·        3^rd November: Dept for Business, Enterprise & Skills publishes The Government’s Response to the Women’s Enterprise Task Force report, Greater Return on Women’s Enterprise. It contains a number of recommendations. (NB: this file is 1.64 MB).

·        4^th November: Department for Work and Pensions publishes Automatic Saving: Changing Workplace Pensions, detailing proposed pension reforms.

·        6^th November: New research by the Centre for Women & Democracy (CFWD) has found that just 15% of Conservative candidates known to have been selected through open primaries in seats where the sitting Conservative MP is retiring are female, compared to 39% of candidates selected for ‘safe’ seats through traditional methods. 

·        9^th November: World Health Organisation (WHO) publishes Women and health: today's evidence tomorrow's agenda, arguing that societies continue to fail to meet the health care needs of women at key moments of their lives, particularly in their adolescent years and in older age.

·        10^th November: Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) publishes report on Human Rights Strategy.

·        13^th October, revised 11^th November: Women doctors: making a difference - report of the Chair of the National Working Group on Women in Medicine.

·        17^th November: Scottish Rural Equality Network Online Discussion Forum is now officially live.

·        17^th November: Department of Business, Innovation & Skills publishes guide on  preventing workplace harassment and violence

·        19^th November: 4 new commissioners join the board of the Women’s National Commission (WNC) and 3 new commissioners appointed to the and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)

·        19^th November: Increasing Diversity on Public and Private Sector Boards- Research Findings. The Government Equalities Office commissioned research from Cranfield School of Management on diversity on boards of directors in the public and private sector. The project sought to address two main questions: Why are there so few women and other under-represented groups on public and private sector boards? What is being done in order to increase diversity on boards?

·        19^th November: The 2009 Female FTSE report from Cranfield School of Management shows that  the number of directorships held by women on the FTSE 100 corporate boards has remained at the same level as in 2008, at 12%.  

·        20^th November: Impact Assessment: European Commission proposal for a directive to implement the revised framework agreement on parental leave. Document published by Dept for Business, Innovation and Skills, assessing the impact of the various policy options for implementing a European Commission proposal that aims to achieve more gender equality in labour market participation rates and allow women and men to achieve a better reconciliation of their professional, private and family lives.

·        20^th November: Family Structure and work satisfaction: Can work-life balance policies foster happiness in the workplace? Report by Dept for Business, Innovation and Skills which examines how the overall job satisfaction of workers in different family circumstances is affected by the availability of work-life balance policies at the workplace.

·        20^th November: Fathers’ Working Hours. Report by Dept for Business, Innovation and Skills which examines work patterns of fathers in terms of working hours and use of flexible working guided by the theoretical concepts of ‘father as breadwinner’ and ‘father as carer’.

·        20^th November: The New Right to Request Time to Train. Document  published by Dept. for Business, Innovation and Skills which explains how the new right to train will work and how it can benefit businesses.

·        25^th November: Report from Women’s National Commission’s focus group on women’s views on their experiences of violence, what would make women and girls feel and be safer, and on suggested proposals to prevent violence against women and girls. This report summarises the findings of the 24 focus groups of 300 women that were held, and is designed around the themes used in the consultation and VAWG strategy of prevention, provision and protection.

·        25^th November: Home Office publishes report Together We Can End Violence against women and Girls: a strategy, sets out a coordinated approach to ending violence against women and girls. It includes a range of actions for the police, councils, the NHS and government departments across three areas: prevention, provision and protection. It was informed by your views, gathered in a public consultation, which ran over three months between March and May 2009.

·        26^th November: Centre for Women & Democracy introduces Candidate Watch, a section on their website updated weekly, keeping tab of women candidates in the forthcoming elections.

·        30^th November: National Childbirth Trust releases report showing that women returning after maternity leave and not receiving the support they need.

·        November 2009. Prowess publishes free booklet Supporting Women in Business: Top Tips for Business Advisers, designed for business support providers and advisers who want to improve their services for women. Contact admin@prowess.org.ukto request a copy.

·        November 2009. The Scottish Women’s Convention has redesigned their website.

EVENTS  (see also W@W Diary on the website)

4 Dec 09 Take your Seat on the Board, Inverness College, Longman Road, Inverness, 12:30-3pm. A free seminar provided by the Office for the Commissioner for Public Appointments in Scotland, OCPAS, in partnership with the Scottish Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology. Aimed at: Women working in science, engineering, technology and built environment sectors who might consider becoming a board member of a public body.

25^th November – 11^th Dec: The Highland Programme for the 16 Days of Action for Violence against Women includes films, art exhibitions, theatre, and a one day Activism and Campaigning Workshop on Commercial Exploitation. See the W@W website for details.

3^rd December: Who’s holding the purse strings?’ Engender are offering a free interactive workshop to generate understanding amongst workers (paid and unpaid) in local women’s organisations about the potential of gender budgeting. Engender office, 1A Haddington Place, Edinburgh, EH7 4AE, 10am – 4pm.

9^th December: 'Beijing+15: Women's Rights - How far have we come? Where are we going' Consultation meeting at Scottish Parliament 9^th December, 1:30-3:30 sponsored by Engender. RSVP info@engender.org.uk

17^th December: Women’s Work in the Highlands: Looking Back with Pride (see above)

Ongoing:   Highlands & Islands Equality Forum training and awareness raising throughout Highlands and Islandsfor further details contact HIEF.

Scottish Rural Equality Network seminars and workshops

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The WEA Women@Work project sends this bulletin to those who are listed on our database to enable you to be informed about topical issues relating to women. While we try to ensure that the information in this bulletin is accurate and appropriate, we cannot accept responsibility for the accuracy, content or information provided in the hypertext links. Please send any comments or feedback to womenatwork@weascotland.org.uk

 

If you wish to comment in any way - please contact Susan Kruse at womenatwork@weascotland.org.uk

Women@Work Project
WEA
David Whyte House
57 Church Street
InvernessIV1 1DR
Tel: 01463 710577
Fax: 01463 713671
E-Mail womenatwork@weascotland.org.uk
Website www.weawomenatwork.org.uk