Women’s week raises awareness

Warwick celebrated International Women’s Week last week, aiming to bring attention to women’s issues and rights through talks, charity events and self-defence classes.

A representative of Coventry Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre (CRASAC), a charity that supports and advises rape victims, spoke about her work at Coventry’s only rape crisis centre and the day-to-day discrimination that women face. Through extensive campaigning CRASAC have managed to reduce the 80 percent dropout rate of victims in rape prosecution cases to just five percent.

The Warwick STOP campaign organised a panel discussion on the human trafficking of women. The head of the UK’s trafficking unit spoke about measures to combat the problem whilst academic Dr. Tsachi Keren-Paz of Keele University discussed legal solutions.

Clare Stone, a second-year Comparative American Studies student commented: “Women’s Week is important because women’s issues are global human issues that affect both men and women.”

Preethi Sundaram, an officer for Fawcett Society, which campaigns for women’s equality, talked about the gender pay and power gap, and the action needed to redress this.

Kat Banyard, author of The Equality Illusion, gave one of the most well attended talks of the week in which she spoke about sexism and the objectification of women. She questioned the damaging impact of the sex, porn and beauty industries on women and the social repercussions for both young men and women.

A debate was also held in the atrium, titled ‘Is Feminism still relevant?’ In response to controversial self-proclaimed anti-feminist Councillor Williams who spoke, third-year PPE student Bruno Leipold said: “He contributed more to my ‘man-hate’ than any ‘radical’ feminist ever has.”

Students, with charity Coventry Haven, organised a talk on the effects of domestic violence with speakers Jackie Hodgson, a criminal law lecturer and ex-MP’s wife Jane Nellist.

Dr. Rosemary Hunter’s talk ‘Law and Women’ explored potential outcomes of law cases if there had been female judges rather than male. Reflecting on the event, second-year English and French student Megan Mansworth commented: “I see sexism everywhere – in pornography, politics, domestic violence statistics… Women are still treated as second-class citizens all over the world.”

The week’s organiser, Charli Fritzner, said: “March 8 marked the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day and served to highlight how far we’ve come in terms of equality and how far we have yet to go.”

“It’s so important to acknowledge that the fight for gender equality is far from over and not dismiss feminism as obsolete,” Mansworth continued. “I’m so glad that Warwick is holding these events. It’s refreshing to hear people talking about gender equality in a passionate and meaningful way.”