BREAKING GENDER STEREOTYPES

Yesterday the Parliament hosted a conference on breaking gender stereotypes in small and medium-sized businesses. It brought together female and male entrepreneurs from across Europe to debate and share best practice on how to overcome sexist stereotypes in business.

Such discussions are vital for several reasons. They aim to make the work place fairer for all employees, encouraging people to be recognised for the skills they bring to a business rather than just for their gender. But this conference was also organised in order to help SMEs increase their productivity. It is essential that, especially during an economic downturn, the EU supports its smaller businesses. And smaller businesses can only truly maximise their resources if they allow their staff to flourish with supportive work-life measures for women and men and with equal opportunities for all.

For me, this conference is what Europe is all about: bringing together different national experiences to forge progress across the continent. Notions of ‘intercultural dialogue’ and other EU projects can sometimes seem unconnected with the everyday life of Europe’s citizens. But here is an example of exactly that dialogue in action. It will have a dramatic impact on citizens if it means that work places become fairer and more flexible for both men and women.

Of course, I can never understand why the Tories are so dogmatically eurosceptic. Perhaps if they had attended this excellent meeting they would have seen just how much Britain stands to lose if the Tories take us further away from Europe.


You can find out more about this EU programme here:
http://www.businessandgender.eu/

RYANAIR RETURNS

You might be interested in this comment piece about Ryanair's Calendar on the Daily Telegraph's blog site:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/tracy_corrigan/blog/2008/11/27/girly_calendars_dont_offend_me_but_ryanair_does

LETTER TO ASA

Yesterday I sent a letter to the Advertising Standards Authority, complaining about Ryanair's latest derogatory ad campaign. Please feel free to use this letter as a template if you would also like to write to the ASA and to register your complaint.

Advertising Standards Authority
Mid City Place
71 High Holborn
London
WC1V 6QT
24 September 2008
Dear Sir / Madam

RE: Ryanair's Charity Calendar Advertisements

I recently received a publicity email from Ryanair, which included a large advertisement for their 2009 charity calendar featuring semi-naked female cabin crew. The advert also included a link to a 'soft-porn' style video on the making of the Ryanair calendar.

This advertising appears to contravene paragraphs 2.2 (social responsibility) and 5.1 (decency) of the non-broadcast CAP code.

I have highlighted some issues below that are of particular concern:

o Have Ryanair checked that the recipients of this mass email are not minors? If not then they are ignoring their social responsibility to consumers and the wider public.

o Have all of Ryanair's staff consented to this calendar being made? This calendar clearly sexualises Ryanair's female cabin crew and may undermine them professionally. The calendar will, I hope, have been made with the consent of the staff appearing in it. But such advertising will have ramifications for the wider body of staff. It may contravene paragraph 13 of the CAP (protection of privacy). Ryanair does not recognise trade unions, making it vital that their advertising does not adversely affect a body of workers who must remain voiceless.

Ryanair's advertising has caused wide concern, as can be seen in the facebook campaign group that has been set up to raise awareness of the issue.

I ask you to take up these issues with Ryanair.

Yours faithfully

Mary Honeyball MEP

ELIMINATION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The day was established by the UN in 1999 and was chosen to be on 25th November as it was on this day in 1960 that three Dominican sisters were murdered for campaigning against the dictator Rafael Trujillo.

Women's rights have progressed in the Dominican Republic and countless other countries since 1960. This is thanks to the leadership of the UN and other international organisations, not to mention the thousands of women - and men - on the ground who selflessly devote their lives to standing up for the rights of their sisters. But there is still a long way to go.

Just last week I co-signed a letter to the Nicaraguan ambassador to Brussels, written by my colleague on the Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee, urging him to respect the human rights of women's rights activists in Nicaragua. In Nicaragua, a country where abortion is illegal in every instance, including when the life of the mother is at risk, women's rights defenders have faced physical harassment and intimidation by the government.

This is just one example of women still facing violence and harassment purely because they are women. It is clear that, on this day especially, we must ensure that we all continue to work to eliminate the horror of gender-based violence.

CONSERVATIVE CANDIDATES STILL MOST LIKELY TO BE MALE

As someone thoroughly committed to Electoral Reform, I'd like to recommend the following briefing. It's certainly worth subscribing to.

http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/downloads/wpe27.pdf

Stories in this bulletin include: Conservative Candidates still most likely to be male - no surprise there then!

AND

Global Gender Gap 2008 showing there's plenty more work and campaigning for me to do.... have a read.

BOOZE CRUISES ON BBC1 POLITICS SHOW TODAY

I will be on the Politics Show (South West region only) today being interviewed on booze cruises. It is at 12 noon today (Sunday)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/politics_show/7735297.stm

Or watch again via the BBC iPlayer:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00fscnd/The_Politics_Show_South_West_23112008/

ABORTION PETITION

I have signed this petition on changing the abortion laws in Northern Ireland. Abortion is still illegal in most cases in Northern Ireland. This means many women are forced to travel to the mainland UK or go to illegal and dangerous backstreet clinics. It is terrible that women in Northern Ireland do not have the same access to reproductive healthcare, and therefore the same freedom over their bodies, as women in the rest of the UK.

I would urge you to sign this petition too.

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/abortionNI/

PLANE SEXIST

Just a year on from its Britney Spears style ad of a scantily clad school girl was formally reprimanded, Ryanair has again done the dirty in a desperate bid for profits and pimped out its "sexiest" airline stewards in a "bare all" calendar.

You might like to read my Guardian Comment is Free article on Ryanair's advertising, or vote in the poll on the left.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/21/ryanair-advertising

The sexy calendar features Ryanair's staff posing in skimpy bikinis wielding hoses and sprawling across aircrafts. But worse still the links I received in a promotional email took me to a YouTube soft porn-style video of Ryanair staff being stroked by greased-up men and scintillating camera close-ups. I received this depressing advert in a spam email, with no age limit, to titillate its customers to "click on the video link to bare all". Be warned!

On a serious note, these women have no access to trade union representation. Ryanair does not recognise any worker organisation and accordingly no trade union has been able to establish itself in Ryanair to defend cabin crew. Even though some of these women could be happy to take part, who do they turn to if they're not?

PROSTITUTION DEBATE CONTINUED

I have been following the debate in the media on Jacqui Smith's proposed changes to the prostitution laws and noticed this excellent article by my Labour Party colleague Fiona MacTaggart:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/19/prostitution-home-office

I posted a reply on the Guardian website which I have put below:

Fiona MacTaggart has hit the nail on the head by asking 'who chooses?' when it comes to prostitution. It was exactly this question that caused so much discomfort in recent meetings of the European Parliament's Women's Rights Committee.

This committee, which normally strives to overcome differences to promote the rights and welfare of women, could not unite behind a single position on prostitution. And it was not due to partisan differences but to fundamental disagreements over the issue of who chooses.

My German, Dutch and Austrian colleagues in the European Socialist Party refused to support a report written by a Swedish MEP about the health consequences of prostitution. The report pointed out that 'prostituted women are considerably more at risk of physical and psychological injuries related, not to extraordinary violence, but to the everyday practice of prostitution'. My colleagues' objection to the report was that it portrayed prostituted women as victims. They argued that instead prostitutes are women who have made a choice to work in the sex industry and ought to be supported in their choice. For these MEPs, the question 'who chooses' is a simple one.

But, as Fiona and my Swedish colleague note, the question is not simple. Even in countries where prostitution is legalised, such as Germany, Holland and Austria, women do not make a free or simple choice to enter prostitution. Figures showing the number of trafficked women and drug addicts who enter this trade are just one of many proofs of this.

The Swedish report on prostitution and health was rejected by the Parliament's Women's Committee. Speaking to the committee after the vote, the report's draftswoman condemned those voting against it for gagging the parliament on this important issue. By refusing to compromise on their views regarding the choice that these prostituted women make, the committee killed the report so it could not be debated by the wider Parliament. It is a great shame that we feminists, in our quest to support women and equality, cannot step aside from the emotive arguments regarding personal choice and let the facts on the violence and abuse suffered by too many prostitutes speak for themselves. Prostitution is, as my Swedish colleague said, the last great feminist taboo.

PROSECUTION FOR BUYING SEX

Men may now be prosecuted if they pay for sex with women who are trafficked or controlled, eg by a pimp or drug dealer. Ignorance that the woman was being controlled will not be a defence and men who knowingly pay for sex with trafficked women may face rape charges.

The Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has been courageous in introducing this legislation which also includes prosecution for first-time kerb crawlers. Despite criticisms from the likes of former Tory Leader Michael Howard, these measures will, I believe, help bring down the numbers of women trafficked into prostitution.

Never underestimate the numbers of women involved. The Metropolitan Police have estimated that 70 percent of the 88,000 women in prostitution in England and Wales are under the control of traffickers. Trafficking is a brutal and inhuman crime. Men who use prostitutes who have been trafficked are feeding this crime.

Since nearly three quarters of prostitutes in this country have been trafficked there is a very strong chance that those men who visit prostitutes will have sex with a trafficked woman. Studies show that use generates demand. This means that without action such as that taken by the Home Secretary the number of women trafficked into the UK will only go up.

The new legislation has come about following a six month consultation so it is well thought through and not a knee jerk reaction. Yes, I would have liked to see paying for sex outlawed all together as in Sweden, but it was clear the public in this country would not accept such a radical measure all in one go. I do, however, hope we may come back to this in the future and that the present position will not be set in stone for all time.

I think it is telling that the police support the Home Secretary's proposed new laws. The legislation is based in part on evidence from Pentameter, the police operation in London which did much to tackle trafficking in the capital. Her proposals have also been welcomed by the Association of Chief Police Officers.

TORIES ABSTAIN ON EQUAL PAY REPORT

The Tories in the European Parliament yesterday abstained from voting to reduce the gender pay gap across Europe.

The gender pay gap report was written by German centre-right MEP Edit Bauer. Calling for a review and analysis of all member states' existing legislation on the application of equal pay and establishing best practice on the issue, it was ratified by the European Parliament with a large majority.

But Tories voted against a number of amendments on the report that gave weight to the recommendations, including one to name and shame employers who are guilty of pay discrimination. They also rejected recommending that equality bodies should have legal powers to bring wage discrimination to court.

As happens so often, the Tories have said one thing in the UK but done the exact opposite in Europe.

The report also recommended the introduction of obligatory regular pay audits and the publication of their results. This own initiative report has similar leverage in the European Parliament as a House of Commons Select Committee Report.

MP LOSES ALLOWANCE BECAUSE OF "RUDE" BLOG

Paul Flynn, MP for Newport West, has recently had part of his House of Commons parliamentary allowance taken away because his blog, allegedly paid for out of the public purse, ws deemed "rude" as well as disseminating political propaganda.

You can read the full story on the link below.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7736245.stm

I think this an unnecessarily harsh punishment by the House of Commons authorities. Communicating with their electorates is one of the main jobs of MPs and other representatives including MEPs. We should not be shackled by unelected bureaucrats.

GARY TITLEY, LEADER EUROPEAN PARLIAMENTARY LABOUR PARTY

BREAKING NEWS.

Gary Titley, Labour MEP for the North West Region and current Leader of the European Labour Party (EPLP), is to stand down as EPLP Leader on 14 January next year.

This means that the EPLP will have to elect a new leader to take Labour into the European Elections in June 2009.

We could have an intersting contest on our hands. Watch this space.

WATERSTONES CAVES INTO EXTREMISM

I saw this disturbing story...

http://blog.newhumanist.org.uk/2008/11/stephen-green-makes-late-bid-for-bad.html

RYANAIR'S ADVERTISING

Last year Ryanair were reprimanded by the Advertising Standards Authority for using sexually provocative photos of women dressed up as school girls along with the headline "Hottest Back to School Fares".

Last night I received an email from Ryanair advertising their latest sale and 2009 calendar of scantily clad staff who "bare all".

Do you think this is an acceptable way to portray your female cabin crew? Why not take part in the poll I've added to this blog?

FAIR REPRESENTATION IN PARLIAMENT

Congratulations to Harriet Harman on the Speakers’ Conference on women and members of ethnic minority groups in Parliament. If Parliament is ever going to be a fully representative body for all sections of our society, women, black people and people with disabilities all have to be there.

The current situation where less than 20 percent of MPs are women is really not tenable. It’s one third in the European Parliament, which, though much better, is still not good enough. According to the “Guardian” today, it will take 400 years for the Conservatives to reach gender balance in the House of Commons. There should also be four times as many minority ethnic MPs as at present.

Sadly, our legislature is not at all representative. The political class, from which more and more of our MPs are drawn, to which Hazel Blears referred over the weekend, is growing apace. It is a grouping which is almost all white and middle class. This is not good news for democracy.
The number of MPs from outside the middle class, i.e. from manual worker backgrounds, is falling rapidly. While I think this is more difficult to define than race or sex in that people born into such circumstances can become middle class through education and life experience, we still need to bear this matter in mind.

As something close to my heart, I would like the Speaker’s Conference to look at our voting system. No other country in Europe uses first past the post for elections to their parliament. In this country the narrowing political class concentrates on the 20 or so percent of marginal seats which will decide the next general election. These seats are by their nature particular and unlike the remaining 80 percent.

Any system which sees only 20 percent of the country as electorally significant will never be fully representative. As someone who is elected by a proportional system, I believe it is much fairer in that every vote counts. Electoral reform would be a real challenge for the Speaker’s Conference and one they should take on board.

EU WORKING FOR WOMEN

WOMEN IN BUSINESS

This week I was invited to give a speech on Women in Business at this year's GCC Euro Expo in London. I thought you might be interested to see what I said:



First may I thank the organisers for inviting me to speak at such an exciting and important event as this Gulf Cooperation Council European Expo. With the recent shake-ups in global financial sectors it is clear that now is a crucially important time to support businesses and to promote trade between Britain and the rest of the world.

But a key way for enterprises to grow and to prosper is by having more women working in business. The European Union is currently working towards its Lisbon policy objective of creating more growth and jobs across the continent by achieving 60% employment for women across the EU by 2010. Since Labour came into power in Britain more women are in work than ever before. But while improvements have been made all over Europe there is still not a single EU country in which the percentage of women in the labour force reaches even 50%. Moreover, studies show that of those women who are employed, business is still a minority occupation with men far more likely to be working as business managers, entrepreneurs or to be self-employed. Business remains an unpopular choice for the women of Europe.

What is holding women back from entering into business? And how can the European Union help to address the discrepancy between the genders and so ensure that businesses profit from having the best and the brightest working for them, no matter what their sex?

There are undoubtedly many issues that could be discussed here and that I hope will be discussed during this session. But I will focus on just three factors I consider to be crucial in preventing more women from working in business: education, work / life balance and the inhospitable climate in the business world.

Firstly, whist women consistently perform better than men both at school and at university, they are still underrepresented in the fields of science and mathematics. It is the study of these subjects that often leads to a career in enterprise. The EU is working to increase the overall number of graduates in science and mathematics by at least 15% by 2010 and MEPs on the women's committee have called for further measures specifically to encourage women into these subjects. Universities need to engage in more schemes that promote the study of maths and science to women and so break down some of the gender stereotypes that exist in education. And the EU needs to continue to support them in this.

Secondly, balancing the commitments of domestic life with a career has long been a factor in keeping women out of work. Motivated and educated women are more likely to be either unemployed or stuck in temporary or part-time work in their 20s and 30s than men are at the same age. This is often because they are held back as they are unable to find affordable childcare. Moreover, self-employed women, many of whom work in the business sector, have been particularly vulnerable to work / life clashes because they are not entitled to the same maternity provisions as colleagues.

But in an exciting recent move, the European Commission has announced an overhaul of existing legislation as part of a package to help working mothers. Whilst still in its infancy, this package will give self-employed women the right to paid maternity leave through their country's social security plan. It will also urge European states to live up to their commitments to provide affordable childcare. Only five EU countries, including the UK, have surpassed the childcare provision target for children under three years old despite the EU providing €500m to enable them to reach this goal. Who knows how many talented women are held back from entering and energising the business sector because they cannot find affordable healthcare? Who knows how many entrepreneurial women have been put off from starting their own businesses because of the lack of state maternity provision? Let us hope that this package will start to remove some of these barriers to women in business.

Finally, and perhaps the most difficult barrier to overcome, certainly through regulation alone, is the inhospitable climate facing women that is present in businesses around the globe. Women are still hugely underrepresented in business boardrooms. The gender pay gap in the private sector is 25% - far above the public sector figure of 15%. And women face subtle discrimination in recruitment practices around Europe. The European Union is doing what it can to tackle these problems, from supporting womens' business networks at a local level to passing legislation to outlaw gender discrimination at the international level. But ultimately, change must come from within the business community. Businesses must realise the vast amounts of talent that they are missing by remaining dominated by men. They must realise that their productivity could increase vastly if women, as well as men, were able to fulfill their potential in business.

2009 is the European Year of Creativity and Innovation. I hope that in this year we can increase our level of creativity and innovation in Europe's trade with the rest of the world. But I hope that we do this by allowing women to play their vital role in business.

TORY WHIP WITHDRAWN FROM DEN DOVER

Den Dover, a North West MEP and former Tory Chief Whip in the European Parliament, has had the Conservative Whip removed. You may remember he was accused of employing his wife and daughter via a family-owned company in explicit defiance of Parliament regulations. The official inquiry undertaken by the European Parliament has now found Den Dover guilty and he has agreed to pay back over £500,000 of "unaccountable expenditure".

The "Guardian" link below gives the full story:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/nov/13/conservatives-david-cameron

According to today's "Daily Telegraph" Den Dover, who was, incidentally, unavailable for comment yesterday, had earlier said:

"They (the wife and daughter) get market rates, but they put in two or three times the number of hours - they just never stop, and I pray tribute to their hard work. Therefore I am totally innocent of any charges."

NORWAY ON TOP

You might be interested in this article on the BBC News website about closing the gender gap. The Nordic countries come out well in terms of equality, as does New Zealand.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7722389.stm

THE WORKING TIME DIRECTIVE

The article below appeared in the "Guardian" Comment is Free section on Saturday. The Working Time Directive has proved very controversial. Despite what you may have read, agreement has not yet been reached.

Mary Honeyball

guardian.co.uk, Saturday November 8 2008 18.00 GMT

Labour MEPs voted this week to end Britain's opt-out from the working time directive – which limits the working week to 48 hours – in 2011. Ignore the sceptics: the directive would be a good piece of legislation. It seeks to improve the work-life balance that it recognises is necessary to increase women's employment. It looks at creating a more satisfactory working environment to respond better to workers' demands, particularly from those with family responsibilities. In addition, it tries to protect the health and safety of workers.
Although the European Parliament's employment and social affairs committee voted to abolish the opt-out, the decision is not yet law: the matter still needs to go before the full European parliament, scheduled for the week beginning December 15.
The European Council (the employment ministers of the member states, in this instance) took a different view: they wanted to preseve the right to opt out. Differences of view between the Parliament and the council are not that uncommon in EU land. But both must agree if the legislation is to go through. There will no doubt be lengthy and difficult negotiations right up to the crucial European parliament vote. The whole package is genuinely up for grabs, and your guess on the final outcome is as good as mine.
So it is really too soon to lambast Labour MEPs for voting against the wishes of the British government. Yes, the Labour MEPs on the employment committee did vote to end the opt-out after three years. But the full European parliamentary Labour party has yet to vote in the plenary session of the European parliament in December. I can honestly say that we have not yet decided what to do, and we are unlikely to be able to take an informed view until the negotiations between parliament and council are concluded.
I agree that the EU has a long drawn out and not very user-friendly way of creating laws. Interestingly, the UK opposition parties have not complained about the bureaucracy this time, as is their wont on many matters before the EU. Both Philip Bushill-Matthews for the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrat spokesperson Liz Lynne have instead chosen to focus on the alleged disagreement between Labour MEPs and the PM.
Many of the objections raised at the start of the directive's journey through the EU labyrinth have already been ironed out. Were it to go through, it would be exactly the kind of law thart does credit to the EU. What is more, treating workers the same across the EU is very welcome for the single market, one of the few EU agreements accepted by all the major political parties in Britain.

ROBERT EVANS MEP

My colleague and good friend Robert Evans has just announced that he will not be standing as an MEP again. Robert will therefore continue in the European Parliament until the European elections in June next year.

Robert will be missed by his many friends. He has been a hard working and conscientious MEP, serving as Chair of the European delegation to South Asia and as a member of the Transport Committee. He is also a former Vice-Chair of the Civil Liberties Committee. Robert has been an outstanding constituency MEP as his regard in London amply demonstrates.

London in Europe will not be the same without Robert. May I, along with many others I am sure, wish him all the very best for the future.

A PATRIOTIC WEEKEND

Maybe by accident rather than design, I feel as if I have had a patriotic and possible celebratory couple of days. The Lord Mayor’s Show yesterday and now Remembrance Sunday have made this a fairly untypical couple of days.

Of course we should remember those who gave their lives in both World Wars and all the other conflicts where men and women have been sent to fight. There is no question about this, and it is a tribute to our armed services, veterans’ organisations and everyone else involved both nationally and locally that we have the level and seriousness of remembrance we have experienced today.

Yet I always feel uncomfortable watching the spectacle at the Cenotaph, especially now when Britain is involved in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq and has troops stationed in other parts of the world. Our country is still sending young men all over the globe to be slaughtered in some foreign field.

Only this morning the Chief of Defence Staff, Sir Jock Stirrup, made the case for the war in Afghanistan on the Andrew Marr programme. It boiled down to this: since there is a vacuum is a dangerous part of the world, someone needs to make sure things do not get out of hand.

While I would not disagree with this, I would have thought Stirrups’s argument is grounds for full international co-operation. Even I, a Labour MEP with a history of anti-war activity, would concede that it is sometimes necessary to send troops to troubled parts of the world, especially when such action would help reduce terrorism and curtail the drugs trade. However, I do think the pain and suffering should be equally shared by all the countries who stand to gain.

Notwithstanding the fact that the City of London is not at all integrated into the rest of London government, the Lord Mayor’s Show is a great spectacle. I was fortunate to be invited to watch it by the Stationers and Papermakers Livery Company.

There has been a Lord Mayor of London since 1189, though it wasn't until 1215, when King John granted a Charter allowing the City's citizens to elect their own mayor, that the Lord Mayor's Show actually came into being. The Charter stipulated that the new Mayor must be presented to the Sovereign for approval and to swear fealty to the Crown, so each year the newly elected Mayor had to travel from the City to Westminster to pledge allegiance.

The Lord Mayor has been making that yearly journey for 784 years. The modern Lord Mayor's procession is a direct descendant of that first journey to Westminster.

On a weekend when war in Europe is on our minds it was interesting to reflect on the unbroken nature of British history and tradition. Never really having suffered invasion and revolution like most EU countries, events such as the Lord Mayor’s Show have survived more or less in their original form. The same applies to many of our organs of state and institutions of government. This can sometimes be a weakness rather than a strength.

While the current financial crisis is not the time to introduce constitutional reform, I would urge the Prime Minister to return to this sooner rather than later. While I would always wish to maintain the helpful parts of history and tradition, Gordon Brown would do us all good by dragging those elements in Britain which require it into the twentieth century.

GLENROTHES

What an amazing victory. There is no doubt now that the Labour Party and our Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, are back in the race. Even more so as both the Tories and Lib Dems lost their deposits. Although Glenrothes was always going to be a contest between Labour and the SNP, the exceptionally poor showing by the two major opposition parties may be significant for a general election.

Gordon took a brave decision to campaign in the constituency which clearly paid off. Sarah was, as ever, a tremendous asset. It’s good to see her taking a higher profile role, and the great thing about Sarah is that she invariably makes the right judgement about what her role should be.

Congratulations to Lindsay Roy, obviously a well known and popular local head teacher and community stalwart. This by-election pressed all the right buttons. I’m even more confident now that we, the Labour Party can, and will, keep it up.

WOMAN'S HOUR POLITICAL BLOGS

This blog had a honourable mention on "Woman's Hour" yesterday during a discussion on political blogs. The item featured ace blogger, Tory Iain Dale, and Professor Jean Seaton. It arose out of Hazel Blears's widely reported comments that political blogs were nasty, brutish but not very short. (The last of those descriptions is my own - I just think many blogs are too long).

At the end of the piece, both Iain and Jean were asked to name blogs they like and Jean mentioned this very one. Thank you Jean. It's great to know you, and hopefully others, like my blog.

You can listen to the Woman's Hour discussion by clicking on the picture below.

SOMALIAN WOMAN STONED TO DEATH

A copy of this important and shocking letter addressed to Frank Dobson, MP for Holborn and St Pancras, was copied to me. The writer lives in Frank's consituency and, as you can see, speaks very much from the heart.

Some years ago I took up the case of a Nigerian woman, Amina Lawal, who was convicted of adultery by a sharia court and sentenced to death by stoning. Thanks to pressure from around the world, including Amnesty International, she was repreieved, unlike this poor woman.

I would ask everyone who reads this to do whatever they can to stop this kind of behaviour which really should not be happening anywhere in the world in the 21st century.

"I was shocked and incredibly moved when I heard of the 13 year old Somalian rape victim, Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow, who was convicted of adultery and then stoned to death by 50 men, with over a thousand spectators. This is absolutely horrific and barbaric and I, personally, cannot help but feel distressed at the prospect of what she and her family must have gone through. Not only did the authorities fail to protect her and bring about justice concerning the gang-rape, but they again failed her when they did not prevent this unspeakable act of violence and cruelty from happening. I implore you to investigate this further and do everything in your power to prevent such brutality from occurring again, as well as fighting to bring these people to justice. If the matter is outof your hands, I ask for you to please forward this on to the relevant parties."

OBAMA'S LANDMARK VICTORY

The excitement surrounding Obama's victory reminds me of Tony Blair's landslide in 1997. I was there on 2 May when Whitehall was besieged by exuberant well-wishers. The mood stayed that way for some years and Tony Blair never lost an election. His government invested in the National Health Service, raised educational standards to the extent that upward social mobility is now improving and virtually eradicated unemployment.

Blair's landslide was, of course, due in large part to his belief in a better future and his personal charisma. It was also caused by the country being sick of Thatcher and Major and Tory sleaze. People desperately wanted a new dawn.

The same is very true of the Obama victory. The big themes of the Republican Party - tax cutting, outlawing abortion and supporting marriage - are no longer what Americans want. The Republicans were forced to select John McCain, a maverick with unorthodox views, because there was no electable mainstream candidate. McCain then chose Sarah Palin to appease the Republican base, and look where that got him.

America is also becoming less white. US Census Bureau figures indicate that by 2042 white Americans will be in a minority. Some cannier Republicans, notably Karl Rove, understood the electoral implications of this demographic change, which is why President G W Bush supported a liberal policy on immigration, almost certainly much against his instincts.

Even more significant is that not only is segregation dead, but an African-American had succeeded to the highest office in the land. I'm not sure whether this has really yet sunk in. It will transform politics not only in America, but across the world.

Barack Obama is an amazing individual. Bill Clinton was often referred to as an extraordinary American. Mr Obama is ahead even of Mr Clinton. I have a new feeling of optimism which has been lacking for some long time.

THE NEXT AMERICAN PRESIDENT

So Obama has won. Indeed we have won. I think we’ve known for some time what the result would be and it’s now confirmed.

Americans have at last faced up to the racism in their past and voted to draw that terrible era to a close.

Americans have also demonstrated just how fed up they were with the stupid white men who governed them for the past eight years.

I have just one word to say to Barack Obama: women. Hillary gained a great deal of support from working class women. If he is to be a true bringer of change, Obama needs to work for the female half of the population and for women across the world.

Barack – we will be watching you.

THE MISOGYNY OF ROSS AND BRAND

I am going to make one last comment on the Ross/Brand saga and then leave it behind which is where the whole messy tale deserves to be.

The following extract from an article by India Knight in the Sunday Times at the week-end (2 November) puts it very well. Congratulations to India for exposing the attitudes of both Ross and Brand to women.

"......what lies at the centre of this sorry saga is misogyny. None of it would have happened if Ross and Brand displayed - or were asked to display - even an iota of respect for women. Instead, both men have made part of their living out of treating women - wives and mothers excluded - as though they were pieces of meat. This can be very funny but it sticks in the craw.
Ross has an Achilles’ heel: he is a marvellous interviewer of men, but reduces every single female interviewee to meat status. Basically, his whole shtick boils down to “I’d do you”. Unless the woman in question is ancient or deformed, Ross crushes any spark of opinion until said woman can be squashed back into the box labelled “totty”.

Brand, whose issues with sex addiction are well documented, has a similar problem. I interviewed him last summer. He was, shall we say, attentive, rather distractingly so as I sat trying to take notes and keep the conversation on track. My interview appeared in due course.
Three weeks ago I got an e-mail from a friend suggesting that I listen to that week’s radio show podcast. Now, I didn’t go to Brand’s house batting my eyelashes or bandying killer chat-up lines (“My grandpa was Coco the Clown”, maybe); I went to do my job. I was therefore taken aback to find myself named on air as a prelude to Brand discussing my bosoms with, surreally, Noel Gallagher from Oasis, who insistently asked: “Did you sleep with her?”, a question that caused Brand to speculate in some detail about what sleeping with me might have been like. None of this was mean or cruel, but it was out of order and reductive: woman, ergo piece of meat, fair game, punchline, nonperson.

In Ross’s and Brand’s world, it is assumed that all women are gagging for a bit of the old trouser goodness. I don’t necessarily blame them for this: many male celebrities do indeed find it to be so and this assumption happens to be shared by most men - it's just that most men are more discreet about airing their misogyny, because they have normal lives and engage with normal women in normal places, such as offices. Ross, Brand and others operate from ivory towers, no matter how populist their appeal.

The BBC’s failure was in not identifying the alarming propensity of its two presenters for galloping, off-the-scale sexism and in making no attempt to rein it in".

KILLER HEELS AGAIN

I am returning to this subject as I read a very good piece in the Guardian G2 today by Hadley Freeman, the generally sensible fashion editor. Come to think of it a Guardian fashion editor who was anything other than sensible would be a contradiction in terms.

Hadley likens five inch heels to Victorian corsets, the kind which shrank women's waists to half the circumference of their hips and broke ribs into the bargain. Thankfully such barbarity died out after the First World War when a wave of women's emancipation flooded across Europe. The corset faded away, though vestiges of the idea reappeared in the 1950s when constricting underwear made a fairly brief appearance. Nowadays, while some underwear claims to improve the silhouette, it's very rare for it to hurt or cause harm.

So why the killer heels, which actually do hurt and cause damage to the feet and back? Why are these terrible things being promoted and why are serious newspapers, with the honourable exception of the Guardian, running articles taking the view that women should actually indulge in this form of self-torture?

Hadley thinks women in killer heels look like "small children make believing at being grown up". I think it's more to do with incapacitating women. "Sexy" is all too often construed as pliant, malleable and ultimately weak. After all there is not much power in being skinny, ie underfed, and dressed in such a way that it's impossible to move freely. In this sense five and six inch heels are the modern corset. I also believe the pressure to diet and be thin can be seen in the same way.

The 64,000 dollar question is, of course, why do so many women go along with what others, society if you prefer that terminology, want for them even when it is manifestly not in their own interests? Women obviously feel pressured to conform to a certain image and behave in certain ways. Some of this image and some of these behaviours are positively detrimental. It would, I believe, be better for all of us if women, and men as well, felt less need to look and act in certain ways and felt freer to pursue their own destinies, as long as they did not harm others in the process.

SCANDAL OF MOTHERS HELD IN PRISON

I had the following letter printed in the Independent on Saturday 1 November.
The letter deals with a very important topic. I therefore thank the Independent for being bold enough to publish it, including my direct criticism of Tory MEPs.

Scandal of mothers held in prison

Your report on the devastatingly high numbers of mothers imprisoned in the UK for non-violent offences (front page, 27 October) raises an important issue for those of us in front-line politics. In Brussels this year, my colleagues and I made recommendations to EU governments stating that pregnant women and mothers of young children should be jailed only as a last resort.
The report's recommendations, to alleviate the mental and physical dangers posed to mothers and children by a prison environment, were voted through by most MEPs across all countries and parties. But, embarrassingly for the UK, our Conservative MEPs abstained from voting. The Tory MEP Chris Heaton-Harris said the findings of the report "are more coherent with somebody who watched too much Prisoner: Cell Block H as a child than the actual situation of women in prisons".
I hope that your reporting of the realities of numbers of mothers in prison will wake politicians who deny what life is like for a mother raising her child behind bars and spur immediate action to redress this rising birth rate in jails.

Mary Honeyball MEP
Labour Spokesperson in the European Parliament, Women's Rights Committee, London W9