Equality

Politics & The World

by Lorelien Schepers

“They grabbed our arms… pushed our clothes away, and tried to get between our legs or I don’t know where.” (Michelle)

“All of a sudden these men around us began groping us. They touched our behinds and grabbed between our legs. They touched us everywhere.” (Anonymous)

Cornered, robbed, groped and molested. This is what happened to hundreds of women in Cologne on New Year’s Eve. The same story in Hamburg, Frankfurt and Stuttgart, but also in Salzburg, Zürich and Helsinki. The attackers? An estimate of 1,000 men in Cologne, and large groups of men in the other cities. What appears to have been an organized gang effort has now led to more than 650 criminal complaints – just in Cologne – about 50 percent of which involve sexual assault. The first official police report confirmed earlier indications of the perpetrators being “almost exclusively” of North African or Arabic origins. Refugees who entered Germany in the past year were supposed to have been among the perpetrators as well. Suggestions on preventive measures can largely be categorized into two strands: a code of conduct for women versus measures to “educate” immigrants. Are any of these measures worth consideration or are both equally flawed?

The first reaction of Cologne’s Mayor, Henriette Reker, was to suggest a code of conduct for young women and girls. This code would entail women to maintain an arm’s length distance from strangers, to stick within their own group, to ask bystanders for help or to inform the police in case of an assault. Although Reker insists that her reaction has been misinterpreted by the media, politicians and others were quick to support her. Why? Well, apparently women would do well to be aware of the potential dangers of events conducive to drunkenness, and women should know how to prevent assault. This is most probably one of the worst recommendations ever to be uttered by a policymaker.

For the sake of argument, imagine for a second how one should keep an arm’s length distance when using public transport, when doing groceries, at a concert… Just practically speaking, these proposals are unfeasible unless women were to radically change their behaviour and give up their freedom. It is equally naïve to think that women aren’t aware of the potential dangers of life. We live in a society where girls at increasingly younger age are taught to be vigilant around men, not to wear “revealing” clothes to school, to avoid this or that neighbourhood… As for Reker’s reference to drunkenness: alcohol, drugs, or circumstances – genre “she was asking for it”, “she said ‘yes’ first”, “just look at her clothes” – are no excuse for sexual violence and/or assault. There are no extenuating circumstances when it comes to these crimes. Most importantly the mere suggestion of a code of conduct for women is an insult to the victims. It is a case of ‘victim blaming’: it injects the victims with a sense of guilt, suggests that they could have prevented the assault if they had done this, or had not done that. Women were not – in any way – responsible for the appalling behaviour of these men.

Overall, telling the victims to change their behaviour in order to prevent a crime from happening is telling women to ensure that they are not the one who is attacked. Such measures don’t tackle the core of the issue. There is no need for debates on how to avoid rape, but debates to change male attitudes. After all, if ‘no’ is a concept which holds true in most realms of social life, why shouldn’t it for men?

Contrary, many others have taken the stance that men “of other cultures” need education on ‘appropriate behaviour’. Reker suggested some sort of education for people from other cultural backgrounds on how to acceptably behave during street celebrations, such as the upcoming carnival. It is necessary to “prevent confusion about what constitutes happy behaviour and what is utterly separate from openness, especially in sexual behaviour”, she stated. Again, this proposal was met with support, for instance in Belgium where Minister Francken would like to introduce a sexual education course for migrants – inspired by the Norwegian “How to treat women” lessons for migrants.

But exactly how effectively would such courses be? Men who celebrate by cornering women and sexually assaulting them, are not doing so because they are from a different culture. They know this is not an appropriate way to behave, anywhere. No education can change that. It is also being said that immigrants should get acquainted with emancipation, the unquestioned principle of equality between women and men. However with the continuous problems our society still has with sexual violence, gender inequality and the like, it is hypocrite to assume that only migrants need to learn how to treat women. You can’t ‘teach’ immigrants that women are their equals in Western democracies when often Western men don’t consider women equal.

The horrifying mass assaults on New Year’s Eve need neither be a case of victim blaming nor a case against migration. It doesn’t address the original problem and is insulting to the victims, whose case is abused for other causes. If anything, let this not be a call to “keep one’s hands off our women” but to “keep one’s hands off women”.

Image by Thomas Kohler, taken from flickr

Lifestyle & InnovationPolitics & The World

Just early this year, the newly formed Women´s Equality Party emerged in the United Kingdom, founded by journalist Catherine Mayer and comedian Sandi Toksvig. It was inspired by the events at the Women of the World Festival in London this March where a consensus for the need of gender equality in society was reached. Since its official registration in June and the election of Sophie Walker as its leader, the party counts rising memberships and has already 67 branches around the country. Its main aim is as the party name states: equality.

This concept is split up into six core principles: equal representation in politics, the judiciary and businesses; equal education; equal pay; equal treatment for women in and by the media; equal parenting and an end to violence against women. These objectives are the focus for the party and are perceived as realistically achievable.

Catherine Mayer recently stated that the party does not aim to run the country or solve any complex international issues. Rather it aims to spark a mainstream political debate and to put those principles on the agenda of the country’s leading political parties. They do not provide a full range of policies on all issues instead choosing to keep a clear focus on equality for women. The Women´s Equality Party wants to increase awareness of women´s issues across the government. Prior to the formation of the Women´s Equality Party, similar strategies have been used by the Green Party and Ukip in their respective campaigns. By addressing specific issues and attracting voters from the mainstream parties, they had to take their subjects seriously.

Further, the party´s interim branch secretary for Bristol, Jessica Read, explained that women should not be seen as a special interest group and there should not be a need for a Women´s Equality Party to exist in the first place. The growing support enjoyed by the party reflects the ignorance of mainstream political parties that have failed to address gender equality seriously. On the political spectrum, the party places itself to be a neither right nor left-wing but non-partisan. It adopts a unique approach towards its members, as it encourages anyone complying with the six core principles to join – irrespective of an existing association with another party.

Their first official act was a call for quotas of a 50-50 gender balance to reach equal representation in the House of Commons by 2025. Currently, the UK parliament consists of 649 MP’s, 72% (458) are men and less than a third (191) are women. Sophie Walker says that she is well aware that quotas are a quick fix. But how effective are quotas?

Generally, quotas as a political means are disputed. Some women fear that it is a means of acquiring power based on a mandated policy and not on professional skills or experience. Nonetheless, the party claims that a system close to equal power distribution is not yet in place and quotas can speed up that process immensely.

However, the party had to endure some criticism. Particularly in terms of economic equality, it is accused of only representing middle-class white women’s interests. There are economic factors that have an effect on women´s lives other than the gender pay gap. Women of colour and transsexual women face severe difficulties in the economic sector, such as lower rates of pay and higher unemployment rates compared to white men and women.

Also social class can be a factor as a majority of the lowest social class are women. They would suffer most from the tax credit cuts in the proposed government benefit reforms. This was not sufficiently addressed by the party. Jessica Read acknowledges the importance of addressing these issues more and declares that the Women´s Equality Party can only be successful if it includes all women. She also refers to the fact that after all, the party is still in its baby steps.

In the near future, the party prepares to participate in the elections for the devolved assemblies and local councils during Spring next year. This could increase the pressure for main parties to take the Women´s Equality Party agenda more sincerely into account. In the long run, it would be ideal if there would be no reason for the party to exist. The party leaders hope to dissolve the party in 2020 as it would mean that equality for women has been installed. Only time will tell us, if the Women´s Equality Party can achieve that goal.

Image taken from Flickr, by DonkeyHotey.