100 posts
Honeyball’s Weekly Round-Up
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Last week, a female professor of employment and labour law in Canada said in a lecture to UK students in Kent that equality laws hamper women’s progress at work. Professor Fudge believes employment legislation such as the introduction of flexible &...
Getting more women on company boards is 'vital'
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Self-regulation has not worked. Companies are simply not making the necessary changes fast enough – claims Arlene McCarthy MEP...
Veiled racism: a challenge to feminist assumptions about Muslim women
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There is a widespread acceptance that the Muslim woman is a victim of her patriarchal culture. One of the most curious manifestations of this belief is the attitude of Europeans towards Muslim women who choose to wear the hijab. Many Europeans accept...
"Gender Equality and the EU’s Transformational Power in Turkey" by Kader Sevinc
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Gender equality is the main pillar of a democratic society and economic stability. Today’s politicians, legislators, judiciary authorities, bureaucrats, teachers, academics, business executives and civil society leaders in Turkey should focus more...
"What is Pre-distribution?" by Kitty Ussher
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Pre-distribution may be a new word but it is a route into exploring some far older ideas that lie at the heart of progressive debate. Jacob Hacker, the US academic credited with inventing the concept of pre-distribution, says it is “to focus on ma...
Malala Yousafzai: Trotskyist hero(ine)
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Malala Yousafzai: Trotskyist hero(ine) In Shiraz Socialist’s coverage of the cowardly shooting by Taliban fascists of this 14 year-old hero(ine), we have not so far mentioned the fact that she is a Trotskyist sympathiser. Here is a statemen...
“The price of inequality”
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Recently Prof. Joseph Stiglitz, one of the world's most famous and popular economists presented his latest bestseller "The Price of Inequality" at an event of the German Council on Foreign Affairs. EST's Stylia Kampani was around and presents a summa...
European Parliament tries to block appointment of ECB board member
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This week the European Parliament has voted against the appointment of Yves Mersch to the board of the European Central Bank by 325 to 300 votes. The reason is that Mersch is a man. The national governments of the eurozone have been repeatedly appoin...
The kiss
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Christiane Taubira, French minister of Justice, recently introduced a law allowing marriage and children adoption for same-sex couples. This measure, promised by François Hollande, during the last presidential campaign, should be voted by the Parlia...
"Happiness Is Equality" by Robert Skidelsky
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The king of Bhutan wants to make us all happier. Governments, he says, should aim to maximize their people’s Gross National Happiness rather than their Gross National Product. Does this new emphasis on happiness represent a shift or just a passin...
The EU declares war on blind pirates
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A friend has suggested that at the next negotiating round on the Treaty of the Visually Impaired at the World Intellectual Property Organization the members of the European Blind Union should present themselves with black pirate flags and one pirate...
Gender politics meets monetary policy
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Yves Mersch’s long, slow assent to a place on the six-member executive board of the European Central Bank has just hit another potentially serious roadblock. The governor of the Bank of Luxembourg is male, like all his central bank peers in the eur...
Book Review: Segregation: A Global History of Divided Cities
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When we think of segregation, what often comes to mind is apartheid South Africa, or the American South in the age of Jim Crow – two societies fundamentally premised on the concept of the separation of the races. But as … Continue reading...
Bordering on Slavery: The system treats fathers as no more than ATM machines, incapable of making financial decisions for their children
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This system treats fathers as no more than ATM machines, incapable of making financial decisions for their children writes Erin Johnson, Member of the Massachusetts Executive Committee, Fathers and Families (thanks to Instapundit).My ex-husband...
"Income Inequality in the Eurozone: What are the effects on Growth?" by Carlo Milani
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In his last book Stiglitz (2012) remarks that the increase in income inequality is one of the most important reasons of the US economic and financial troubles in the last twenty years. In 2007, the top 0.1 percent of American income earners had an in...
Men drive car insurance prices up
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Last month we mentioned that the new interpretation of the Gender Directive of 2004 forces the insurers to abandon their current rules on calculating insurance premiums on the basis of gender. (Is living longer still worth it?) While women could and...
Nick Clegg’s Equal Marriage Celebration
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The right-wing media and a few Tory rent-a-gobs such as Peter Bone, MP, have got themselves into quite a lather over the past 24 hours because of Nick Clegg’s alleged description of opponents to Equal Marriage as ‘bigots’. The fact...
"The Gender Dimension of Austerity Policy in Poland" by Maria Skora
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In 2009, Poland was announced a survivor, untouched by the global financial crisis. Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Minister of Finance Jan Vincent-Rostowski proclaimed it to be a “green island” in the sea of crisis on the basis of slight GDP grow...
Macedonia: Crowdsourcing Against Gender-Based Violence
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Ushahidi blog's current “Deployment of the Week” selection [en, mk] is React! Be Safe! (”Реагираj!”), an online platform against gender-based violence in public spaces [en, mk, sq], launched by the think-tank Reacto...
Call for Papers: National Minorities between protection and empowerment
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ECMI is looking for papers for the workshop on National Minorities between protection and empowerment: Contemporary minority politics in Europe. The workshop is one of ECPR Joint Sessions of workshops taking place on 11-16 March 2013 in Mainz, German...
The race for full marriage
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As incredible as it may seem, Ireland may be about to adopt full gay marriage – before the United Kingdom has it.Both countries already have civil unions, which confer all the rights of heterosexual marriage in everything but name. But the Conserva...
Gender equality and religious freedom in politics; Dutch SGP case declared inadmissible
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The ECtHR has brought a turbulent Dutch legal saga to a close. In the highly interesting Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij v. the Netherlands, the Court has declared the complaint by the Dutch political party ‘SGP’ inadmissible. The SGP is, in the...
Nehmerländer!
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That’s one unhappy Minister-President of Bavaria venting on Tuesday.Aber was ist der Länderfinanzausgleich, you might well ask.It’s a system of fiscal transfers...
Growing Consensus on Gay Marriage?
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Coat of arms of Cork (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Cork City Council last night unanimously passed a motion in support of Gay Marriage. Cork City Council became the first local authority in the Republic to pass a motion in support of Gay Marriage. They f...
How do we close Europe’s gender pay gap?
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Equality between women and men is one of the European Union’s founding values. In 1957, the principle of equality was enshrined as a key right in Article 119 of the Treaty of Rome, which declared: Men and women should receive …...
Does Opportunity Justify Economic Inequality?
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From 1993 to 2010, the incomes of the richest 1 percent of Americans grew 58 percent while the rest had a 6.4 percent increase. In 2010, the first year of an economic recovery, the top 1 percent of Americans captured 93% of the income gains. Be...
International Roma Day
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Probably the most persecuted people in the world today: . The Romani flag proposed by the 1971 World Romani Congress A Call for Unity! International Roma Day, 8th April! . Roma around the world celebrate this day in tribute of the first World Roma...
8TH MARCH: EQUALITY IN THE TIME OF CRISIS
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The contraction of welfare state, due to the economic crisis and recession that we are experiencing in the European Union, add new and complex dimensions to the issue of equality between women and men. The tools of the past may reveal themselves insu...
UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet Calls for Women’s Equal Participation in All Spheres of Life as Fundamental to Democracy and Justice
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UN Women Press ReleaseFor immediate releaseMs. Bachelet will commemorate International Women’s Day in Morocco, in solidarity with women striving for equality.Calling for women’s increased political participation and economic empowerment, with a...
International Women's Day 2012
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The proposed reforms in social protection are going to deepen the gender gap in old age income, say AGE and EWL[Brussels, 07 March 2012] On the eve of International Women’s Day and on the occasion of the EP Interparliamentary Committee meeting on...
In His Very Own Saintly Words, Part II
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"The Negro is indolent and lazy, and spends his money on frivolities, whereas the European is forward-looking, organized and intelligent."- Ernesto "Che" Guevara,erudite toleration promoter...
Menderes Yılmaz, the racist of the month
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Mr. Yılmaz is the head of the judges in the KCK trial. When one of the defendants began to speak Kurdish, Mr. Yılmaz stopped him and stated that the defendant spoke an “unknown language”, so-called Kurdish. The judge thus became the emb...
An ever closer (civil) Union
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With a reticent Commission afraid of upsetting member states, it is up to European citizens to fight to have same-sex unions recognised in all countries. No related posts.
Ryanair is still Plane Sexist
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Thanks to Ryanair I seem to have achieved some notoriety. I appear in a report in today’s Telegraph which appears to congratulate Ryanair on producing its fourth charity calendar. The Telegraph headline “Ryanair cabin crew strip off for...
“The special social role of women”: the Strasbourg Court does not buy it (Konstantin Markin v. Russia)
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Last week, the Court delivered what might well turn out to be a landmark judgment on the issue of sex discrimination; Konstantin Markin v. Russia. The facts seem simple enough: a military serviceman was not entitled to the same parental leave as a mi...
"Europe’s Hidden Inequality" by Michael Dauderstaedt
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The European Union, in its founding treaties, set itself the aim of economic, social and territorial cohesion.[i] This aim is generally interpreted to mean that the EU will strive to reduce income inequality within its area of integration. Reducing i...
Is the demand for Gay Marriage down?
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This is a question no one is asking after LGBT Noise’s March For Marriage on Sunday. In 2009 Over 3,000 people took part in that Year’s March For Marriage. This year the number is down to 2000 (Figure from Irish Times). That is compared...
Melek Çetin begins to comment on Constitutional changes: Equality before the Law
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Erkan’s Field Diary is really proud to present a new regular “guest author”: Melek Çetin. She will prepare a series of posts that discuss the proposed changes… Equality before the Law What do two sentences bring to women, chi...
Now Sweden considers restrictions on the Burka
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The education minister was talking to public radio and said,“Teaching is communication. It’s about being able to look at each other in the eyes and communicate with each other,” Jan Bjoerklund told Swedish public radio.“In that way, I mean it...
Europe: Speak up on Rights and Citizenship!
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It's been disturbing over the last week or so to read about the state of politics in Europe when it comes to the Roma community and immigration. There's a great post over at 1848 that picks up on a Guardian story of the treatment of the Roma across t...
Michael McDowell supports gravity shock!
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It’s pretty much par for the course now that when Michael McDowell’s possible reentry into politics is discussed, some on the left dig up what is deemed his now “infamous” remarks about inequality. What he said was that a libe...
Well, we’re all good at something
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Chris says he doesn’t like hierarchies: For as long as I can remember, I’ve hated hierarchies. I didn’t like school, for example, until I entered the less hierarchical sixth-form. One reason I wouldn’t want to be an academic or a civil se...
Female actresses face up hill struggle against male executives
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The film industry was blasted last week by veteran actresses Juliet Stevenson and Bridget Jones’ diary star Gemma Jones who said male executives only cast ‘nubile and beautiful young women’. Actors of their age are only offered ‘mother roles
European sub-culture & gender clichés
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Just amazing. A European film about sub-culture that might also destroy some gender clichés. Girl Power! Can't wait for 2011!
Anti-...WHAT?
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You want to hear a good joke? Yes?! Here it comes: "Progress Report"! The first time that I wrote about this proposal for a new anti-discrimination directive was in August 2008; the proposal itself is from 2 July 2008, the second day of this blog. I...
Majority of Conservative MEPs oppose greater Gender Equality
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Every year, at the request of the European Council, a report is produced on the progress towards the achievement of gender equality in the EU. It also presents challenges and priorities for the future. This year my fellow Socialist and Democrat (S...
Portugal legalises gay marriage
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I welcome the fact that Portugal's parliament has approved plans to legalise gay marriage, paving the way for the country to become the sixth in Europe to allow gays and lesbians to get married. As the Socialist Portuguese Prime Minister Jose S...
"What Is Living and What Is Dead in Social Democracy?"
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"What Is Living and What Is Dead in Social Democracy?" is a speech by Tony Judt I came across via Concurring Opinions. While it's addressed to America, and is concerned with the lack of political space to properly discuss ideas outside the conservati...
So, how large is the global plutocratic class?
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The Financial Times' US editor Chrystia Freeland has an article today which can be interpreted...
Gender equality in Belgium
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In the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Index 2009, Belgium ranks well in education levels between men and women. But when we get to economic and political decision-making, Belgium drops to the 60s..."The lack of equality in economic life is...
