Battle Of The Sexes
November 23, 2009
Having just watched this programme with the USI Equality Officer, it’s safe to say that we both have the rage. Billed by RTE as
“A groundbreaking two-part series exploring the state of the modern Irish man, the modern Irish woman and their relationship with one another. Both programmes are driven by a national survey conducted by RTE/RedC. Mná na hÉireann join Miriam O’Callaghan in the first programme to analyse their men: is the modern Irish male struggling for a role? How are they performing as parents, romantically, on the dating circuit? Is masculinity in crisis or are men still enjoying unequal power and privilege. While in the second programme, the Men of Ireland join Ray D’Arcy to have their say: asking whether women demand too much? The men speak frankly about sex and love and about whether it is time to let go the reins of power and try to create a society that is really equal
the serious featured women making some seriously derogatory remarks about both men and women, and men making equally bad remarks about women.
The first indication of the type of programme that it was going to be came from the fact that underneath all the female panellists’ names, there was their occupation, but also their relationship status. This was not the case for the men, who only had to reveal their profession.
It all went downhill from there as the programme went on. A male interviewee stated that men simply
“don’t have time to be a hormonal gymnast”.
The premise of this line of thought was the question posed in the programme, which was
“Is the role of men being diminished”.
Women were described as being
“happy to let husbands be the head of the household”
and according to a survey conducted by the programme, we are apparently better at raising children then men. The programme seems to completely overlook the fact that over the past years, the gender roles have changed. However, this in no way implies that the role of men has been diminished. The implication of the programme was that all men are threatened by strong female figures, which I think is quite the stereotype.
Most of the women on the panel seemed to, in one way or another, define themselves in relation to men. One of the female panellists even went so far as to say that
“Women have lost the run of themselves, men used to be men and women were ladylike.”
Wtf like?! Whatever happened to feminism, or female empowerment?!
Allusions were made to the fact that women used to be
“chained to the kitchen sink”,
but from what we saw from the case study that came next, not much has changed. One of the panellists was also referred to as a “former Housewife of the Year”. This for some reason brought Fr. Ted to mind. But anyway, I digress. Up until 1974, women were forced to retire from their jobs in the public sector, because obviously they were going to start immediately churning out babies instantly, yet if the example of a housewife in Co. Longford is anything to go by, gender roles and the role of the father has not changed.
She defined herself as a working mum, then went on to describe her day, which consisted of getting up at 7am, getting the kids ready for school and the husband’s breakfast, then she went to work, after which her
“real work”
began. This work involved picking up the kids from school, doing the shopping, cooking the dinner, washing the clothes, putting the kids to bed and making their lunches for the morning. It was apparent from this that her husband did little or nothing to help. She excused this fact by saying that he was a farmer, as if that should let him off being involved in family life at all. She reckoned that all this was ok, as
“women are so much better than men at multitasking”.
One funny remark was made at one point, which was that back in the day, a man’s idea of foreplay was saying
“Brace yourself Bridget!”
This was followed by one of the women saying that a man would
“Walk over 10 naked women to get to a pint”.
She seemed to think that men weren’t interested in sex anymore. Another panellist said that women use men for sex these days. It was also stated at some point that things need to change to
“accommodate women’s equality”.
Susan McKay (Director of the National Women’s Council) and Mary McAuliffe (Women’s Institute, UCD) were the only voices of reason on the panel. Susan McKay talked about the sex trade in Ireland, and about the fact that if a guy is with a load of girls, he is defined as a stud, but if a girl is with a load of guys, she is called a slag. Mary McAuliffe stated that gender roles have nearly changed and that that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and that men and women need to get over the whole issue of the battle of the sexes.
When the male panellists were brought in to give their opinions on the previous hours discussions, one guy tried to be all funny, but ended up coming across as a complete chauvinist. He said that he would have preferred to have waited for the swimsuit round, and even went so far as to say
“Listen up ladies, I’m about to speak”.
The programme is an absolute farce, and I’m almost scared to see what is going to be said next week….
As Love Would Have It
November 19, 2009
Trailer for a new documentary featuring Drs Katherine Zappone and Ann Louise Gilligan:
Civil Partnership Debate Coming Before the Dail, 1st Week in December
November 19, 2009
Just a quick note to let you all know that the debate on the Civil Partnership Bill will come before the Dail during the first week in December, so please to be on alert so we can get as many people to the NOISE flash demo as possible.
Keep an eye on the LGBT NOISE website (www.lgbtnoise.ie)
Join their mailing list, by sending an email with join in the subject line to mailinglist-subscribe@lgbtnoise.ie
Join the Facebook page too:
and follow them on Twitter:
Hope to see you all there!
Lobby, Lobby, Lobby
November 18, 2009
USI Officerboard at the Annual Lobby of the Oireachtas
So on the 11th November, USI took to Buswells for the day and set about convincing TDs and Senators to cap the reg fee, enact the student support bill, create a better Quality Assurance mechanism and to life the recruitment ban in some areas – such as student support services. I was there bright and early at half 7 in the morning and didn’t leave til 8. What a day! But well worth it. I won’t bore you with lists of names of who came in and who spoke to who and what they said back to us. But there are a few key observations I will blog.
All politics is local
Linda in Action!
An issue that came up throughout the day was the creation of a centralised grants system under the Student Support Bill. I was really quite surprised (even though in hindsight I’m not sure why) by the negative attitude of politicians to such a suggestion. I was repeatedly told such a process would be “awful trouble and wouldn’t work at all” because the local TD wouldn’t be able to ring up anyone in such a system and solve the individual problem of whatever constituent had called to their office. The idea of preventing problems and solving financial difficulties for thousands of students and parents around the country was utterly rejected by these TDs in order to ensure they didn’t lose face at local level. If only we had something, like, say the CAO, which was an example of an effective, fair centralised system…..
€1500 for what exactly……
The Student Services Charge/Registration Fee currently stands at €1500. An increase of €600 from last year alone.It is
Ciaran Fitzpatrick (USI); Senator Dominic Hannigan & Linda Kelly (USI)
more than a 600% increase on the original charge. This money was and is intended to fund student support services, like student health centres, mature student offices, disability support services, student counselling etc etc So, it would naturally follow on then that after receiving an extra €600 per student these services would be striving. Wrong! They have all faced cuts to staff, been forced to operate under the recruitment ban, cut support services to students and much much more. This mismatch between funding being intended for one area but used in another was of great interest to a number of TD’s and it was great for me to be able to use my experience as Equality Officer to convince them to frame the debate around the questions – what is the reg fee actually being spent on? Why are vital support services being cut? Why are students paying more for services that are deteriorating? Senator Dominic Hannigan was one of many politicians who responded positively with interest to this topic.
Women in politics – Is there really an issue?
Laura Finlay (USI), Senator Ivana Bacik, Jen Jordan & Tracey Flinter (both DITSU)
The lobby took place during a week which saw the letters page of the Irish Times taken over by a debate on gender quotas in politics. That is not something I wish to delve into during this post too much. One thing I do want to comment on is the blatant and unashamed chauvinism I was exposed too throughout the day of the lobby. I was referred to as ‘the lovely girl’ (*imagine a Father Ted accent) about a dozen times with one TD thinking I was a waitress and using the phrase ‘thank you dear’ to thank me for bringing him tea. Two moments really stand out though and are awarded top marks.1) I was at one point during the day reminding everyone as they left to get a photograph for the record books and for the media outlets etc. As I said this to one TD leaving he countered “only if you make an old man happy and stand in for the photo with him” while smiling down at my breasts. Charming. The second comment of the day goes to a senator who will remain nameless. Cathy Pembroke (President of WITSU) and I were discussing the issues outlined in the Lobby document to this particular Senator. After patting us both on the knee, and telling us how right he was, he finished up by saying (and this is a direct quote) “aren’t ye great – ye make eye contact and everything”. Needless to say we weren’t impressed! And people wonder why women don’t work in this environment!
With Public Representatives from the Cavan Monaghan Area
Linda Kelly (USI) with Senator Joe O Toole
All in all it was a good day (despite the above comments). We had a huge influx of TD’s and Senators (over 100) most of whom had very positive contributions to make – particularly on the issue of the registration fee and the student support bill. Here’s hoping we see some positive movement on both over the coming months!
USI Officers with Michael D. Higgins, TD
Our Lobby document is available on www.usi.ie for anyone interested.
- Cathy Pembroke, WITSU & Linda Kelly, USI with a member of the Seanad
PS – thanks to Jono for showing me how to upload photos!
Pink Training Pictures
November 18, 2009
Pink Training 2009
November 18, 2009
Hey Everyone,
Just a quick post to say how much I enjoyed Pink Training. It was great to get so much positive feedback from delegates on the weekend. Glad you liked the changes we made! Here are some photos from the weekend!
Reports – More to follow.
November 12, 2009
Report of Equality Officer to Equality Working Group
Pink Training
Have been organising PT with Laura. This has taken up a considerable amount of time.
Class Rep Trainings
Attended WIT, IT Tralee, IT Carlow, IT Tallaght – Laura went to UCC. DKIT next Wednesday.
Newsletter
October newsletter went out to over 500 students/organisations. Got a lot of positive feedback on this issue. A lot of time was spent creating email lists after each class rep training.
Facebook/Blog/Twitter
Update the Facebook every day – it takes about an hour/hour an half out of my day. Twitter is linked to Facebook so very little work is needed on this. The blog needs articles at least every week if people are going to read it and I’m currently the only one putting up articles. The blog is now linked to Facebook so all blog posts come up on the Facebook page.
Regional Seminars
Speakers have been confirmed for all seminars with the exception of the Gender Equality Seminar. I’m currently in touch with someone about the GE seminar. Information has been sent to COs and circulated on the blog etc. Rooms have been booked and I’m looking into refreshments at the moment. Posters now have to be designed.
IFPA, AHEAD
I have officially become a member of the IFPA Board. I will be nominated and ratified to the AHEAD Board on Tuesday
Submission
Wrote the USI Submission on the proposed immigration changes for non EEA students. Thanks to Mariya for her help on this. Still lobbying with ICOS for a student seat on the high level group on international education.
Other work
Campaign 101, Website, 50th, National Strategy Group – student focus group, responding to enquiries, ‘Know your Rights’ Poster, Uganda follow up.
Mature Students’ Officer Report
Hi Everyone
Student2Student
Just to keep you up to date on what is going on for mature students. I have been in contact with the TCD Student2Student programme and hope to set up a mentoring programme specific to mature students. There are a couple of models that S2S use, but the mentoring one seems the most suitable and is also the quickest to set up. Training needs to be organized and carried out. There are already some mature student mentors in S2S and the coordinator and I chatted about using the currently trained mentors while training new ones. This looks really positive and should be ready to roll by February. I just need confirmation that all is with the director of the programme from the coordinator. If this gets up and running, then we can use it as an example for other colleges and build from there.
TAP / Mature Student Officers
I have also made contact with the Trinity Access Programme (TAP). Irena Boydell and I discussed possible support for TAP students from the Mature Student Officer in particular. I have given her information and we will be in regular contact. She has invited me to the NIMSO meeting, which I think is being held in February, which means that I will be able to give feedback to Mature Student Officers from several colleges at a national level.
Other than that, I have been attending Pink Training, which was great craic, and campaign committee meetings.
Simone x
Report of Disability Rights Officer (October)
Working with students:
I was able to follow-up on some issues that students had come to me with.
Other activities:
Promoted the USI newsletter to the hilt.
Posted articles to the USI facebook page.
Contibuted to the USI newsletter.
Finally started to blog
Why, oh why….. ah now I remember!
November 3, 2009
Any student union officer will tell you that there are days when you wonder why you ever ran for election in the first place. The bureaucracy of colleges, the apathy of students, the stupid fecking economy! They can all combine to make you feel sometimes that you have the worst job in the world. And then there are days like today…….where you remember what you stood for in the very beginning and why you thought you could change things. Today was one of those days for me.
I spent this morning in the Clarence Hotel (did not realise it was owned by Bono until afterwards!) at the Launch of a Charter for Inclusive Teaching and Learning. This Charter was put together by AHEAD. The room was mostly filled with disability and access officers from the different colleges along with a few other of the usual suspects (board members, national access office etc). While listening to the speakers (Ann Simpson, University of Strathclyde; Michelle Garvey, TCD & Vivian Rath, UCD) talk about how to create an education system which is accessible by design, which forsees problems that students with disabilities have (instead of fixing them after the event), which involves students in the consultation process from beginning to end and which aims to provide the best possible learning environment for all students I was inspired again in the way I was when I first went for election.
I ran for election because of potential. The potential to change what everyone told me I couldn’t. The potential to help students others never thought about. The potential to make a difference to the education system. I took on a campaign and an issue that students didn’t care about and students union cared even less about and managed to turn it around (or at least that is the aim of the game).
Today was an example of just how believing in the potential of something can lead to change on a larger scale. Ann Simpson talked about creating courses which are accessible by design ie before a student comes in the door the staff have looked at what barriers might be there for them as a result of their teaching methods. Then they change the teaching methods to remove this barrier before the student even walks in the door. The goal being that lecturers take on responsibility for their teaching methods and the learning environment which they create instead of blaming a student for not being able to access information (as a result of their disability ‘not fitting in’ with how the lecturer likes to do things). This initiative started in 1999 in one University and has now spread across most of the Higher Education Institutes in Scotland. A great example of how something small can lead to something big.
In a time when budgets are being cut, students are losing their supports and equality is being sidelined it was nice to be reminded of what made me want to be Equality Officer in the first place.
Thank you to all at AHEAD for organising such an inspiring seminar and for continuing to believe in the potential for change.
Blogged by Linda.
Finally here! DRO Intro
October 31, 2009
Ok, so I finally screwed up my courage to start blogging. These tend to be one of those addictive things that once you start you never stop. But since its for a good cause, I suppose I’ll risk it.
Right, since this is technically my intro, I should probably introduce myself right? My name is Emily and I am this years Disability Rights Officer. Im also a final year student in the DIT studying chemistry. Im at the stage where I am convinced that my course is out to get me. But thats a whole other story which i won’t get into now.
I ran for this position because I faced a lot of issues in first year of college as a student with a disability many of which were avoidable. I also firmly believe I would not have progressed as far as I have without the support of several organisations including my disabilities support service in DIT. Unfortunately many students do not know what they are entitled to and do not do as well as they should in college. Worst case scenario, they drop out. With all the supports available out there this really shouldn’t happen. So this year I am looking to try and change that.
So there are a few ideas in the pipeline which I will tell you all about in the future. But. intro over, time to sign out.
See ya round.
Em
Cork here we come!
October 29, 2009
The USI Equality Campaign will be heading to Cork on the 16th November to begin meeting with students through a series of dedicated lectures and workshops. The aim of these workshops is to find out first hand from students what issues are affecting them and how the campaign can help with these issues.
On the 16th of November at 6pm there will be a seminar for International Students.
This event, which is organised in conjunction with ICOS, will discuss the new immigration proposals for non EEA Students. Colin Tannam from ICOS will provide students with an update of the current immigration changes. Following on from this, there will be a workshop for international students. This will be an opportunity for students to provide ICOS and USI with information on their college experience – what they like and what they would like to change. The information provided by students will then be used by ICOS and USI over the next few months in their efforts to lobby on behalf of international students.
On the 17th November at 6pm there will be a workshop for students with disabilities.
This event, which is organised in conjunction with AHEAD, will focus on how students can continue to get the supports they need in the current recession. It will provide students with the opportunity to offer proactive, practical solutions to the current funding crisis for student support services. Niamh Hayes from AHEAD will discuss with students her own college experience and the importance of advocating for ones self.
On the 18th of November there will be a workshop organised for LGBT Students.
There will be a meeting of the UCC LGBT Society, at which MarriagEquality will discuss the current status of the Civil Partnership Bill and the progress of the Civil Marriage Campaign. After this society members will have an opportunity to feed into the USI LGBT Campaign and provide ideas on what the campaign can do on this issue. This event will be followed by a fundraiser for MarriagEquality.
On the 23rd of November there will be a coffee morning for Mature Students.
This coffee morning is, first and foremost, an opportunity for mature students to meet other mature students. It will also be a chance for students to discuss with the Mature Students Officer of UCC & USI what issues they have encountered over the past two months. Students will also be invited to advise the national mature student’s campaign on its programme of work.
On the 24th of November there will be a lecture on the practices of rogue crisis pregnancy agencies.
“The sole purpose of Rogue Crisis Pregnancy Agencies is to prevent women from having abortions. In many instances, they misinform and intimidate women to achieve their aim. Women describe being harassed, bullied, and given blatantly false information. In the main, Rogue Crisis Pregnancy Agencies are not medical or counselling facilities, and most rogue agency volunteers who work directly with women are not counsellors or care professionals.”
Information taken from the Irish Family Planning Association
This lecture is aimed at raising awareness among the college population of the existence of such agencies. After the lecture, there will be an opportunity for the audience to discuss the following question: ‘Gender Equality – is still relevant in Ireland in 2009?’
