Week 13- Feminism and Gender Issues.

1. Week 13-Feminism and Gender Issues.

2. Prostitution What is the current law on prostitution? The laws around prostitution in England and Wales are far from straight-forward. The act of prostitution is not in itself illegal - but a string of laws criminalises activities around it. Under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, it is an offence to cause or incite prostitution or control it for personal gain. The 1956 Sexual Offences Act bans running a brothel and it's against the law to loiter or solicit sex on the street. Kerb-crawling is also banned, providing it can be shown the individual was causing a persistent annoyance. Adverts placed in phone boxes have been banned since 2001. Human trafficking, a component of modern prostitution, is also covered by the law. There are also general laws on public nuisance and decency which can be used to target the sex trade. The law in Scotland is broadly similar but was recently toughened up around kerb crawling and seeking the services of a prostitute.

3. What does the law mean by a brothel? If more than one person (the law is gender neutral) is available in a premises for paid sex, then that is a brothel. However, if one woman works alone, she is not keeping a brothel. Are there critics? The English Collective of Prostitutes, which campaigns on the law, opposes the moves, saying it will drive the trade further underground rather than making women safer. It says it sees no reason why consenting sex between adults should be criminalised just because one party pays. It argues that women who want to work together in the sex business should be allowed to do so in safety - and the men who buy their services should not be turned into criminals. Does any other country ban paying for sex? The idea of criminalising paying for sex gained currency because of the experience of Sweden. It banned paying for sex in any circumstances which supporters say made it harder for customers to openly seek out prostitutes. But critics say that this approach takes up a lot of police investigatory time - and the reality is that Sweden has far smaller prostitution problem than the UK.

4. Prostitution Customers • Section 53A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 creates the offence of "paying for sexual services of a prostitute subjected to force etc", which is a strict liability offence (clients can be prosecuted even if they didn’t know the prostitute was forced).This section was inserted on 1 April 2010by section 14 of the Policing and Crime Act 2009. (1) A person (A) commits an offence if— (a) A makes or promises payment for the sexual services of a prostitute (B), (b) a third person (C) has engaged in exploitative conduct of a kind likely to induce or encourage B to provide the sexual services for which A has made or promised payment, and (c) C engaged in that conduct for or in the expectation of gain for C or another person (apart from A or B). (3) C engages in exploitative conduct if— (a) C uses force, threats (whether or not relating to violence) or any other form of coercion, or (b) C practices any form of deception. Paying for sexual services of a child (s.47). For this purpose, a "child" is a person under 18.

5. Prostitution Prostitutes It is an offence for a person persistently to loiter or solicit in a street or public place for the purpose of prostitution (which in this case means loitering or soliciting for the purpose of offering their services as a prostitute): This offence is created by section 1(1) of the Street Offences Act 1959 as amended by section 16 of the Policing and Crime Act 2009. It prohibits street prostitution. The term "prostitute" is defined for the purposes of sections 48 to 50 and 52 and 53of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, and for the purposes of section 33A of the Sexual Offences Act 1956, by section 51(2) of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, as a someone who has offered or provided sexual services to another person in return for any financial arrangement on at least one occasion. Working as a prostitute in private is not an offence, and neither is working as an outcall escort.

6. The total number of prostitutes is not known and is difficult to assess, but authorities and NGOs estimate that approximately 100,000 persons in the country are engaged in prostitution. The personal circumstances of prostitutes are not clear and are, as elsewhere, the subject of political controversy. The sex trade takes different forms, such as prostitution practiced in massage parlors, saunas, private flats, street prostitution and escort prostitution. The enforcement of the anti-prostitution laws is very lax. In the late 2000s, a study compiled by the Poppy Project found brothels in all 33 London local authority areas. Westminster had the highest number with 71, compared with 8 in Southwark. For this study the researchers had posed as potential customers and had telephoned 921 brothels that had advertised in local newspapers. The researchers estimated that the brothels generated between £50m and £130m a year. Many brothels operated through legitimate businesses - licensed as saunas or massage parlours - though the vast majority were in private flats in residential areas. The report found 77 different ethnicities among the prostitutes, many from areas such as Eastern Europe and South-East Asia. The study has been called "the most comprehensive study ever conducted into UK brothels" but its methodology has been criticized, and it has been rejected by sex workers' activists and academic studies. According to a 2009 study by TAMPEP, of all prostitutes in the UK, 41% were foreigners - however in London this percentage was 80%. The total number of migrant prostitutes was significantly lower than in other Western countries (such as Spain and Italy where the percentage of all migrant prostitutes was 90%). The migrant prostitutes came from: Central Europe 43%, Baltic 10%, Eastern Europe 7%, Balkan 4%, other EU countries 16%, Latin America 10%, Asia, 7%, Africa 2%, North America 1%. 35 different countries of origin were identified.

7. Pro legalisation Like many other countries, the UK has sex workers' rights groups, which argue that the best solution for the problems associated with prostitution is decriminalization. These groups have criticized the provisions from the Policing and Crime Act 2009. The English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) founded in 1975, campaigns for the decriminalization of prostitution, sex workers’ right to recognition and safety, and financial alternatives so that no one is forced into prostitution by poverty; in addition the ECP provides information, help and support to individual prostitutes and others concerned with sex workers’ rights. One member, Nikki Adams, said that the government was overstating the extent of the trafficking problem, and that most prostitution was consensual. The UK based International Union of Sex Workers (IUSW), part of GMB Trade Union, campaigns for the labour rights of those who work in the sex industry. Against legalisation Legalized prostitution is opposed by radical feminists (such as Julie Bindel) who argue that prostitution is inherently exploitative, and by many in the Government and the police. Apart from ethical issues, the main argument brought against the legalization of prostitution is that such a move would only result in an increase in human trafficking and crime. The common example offered by anti-prostitution activists is that of Netherlands, which currently has severe problems with human trafficking and crime, the mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen having said about legal prostitution in his city: "We’ve realized this is no longer about small-scale entrepreneurs, but that big crime organizations are involved here in trafficking women, drugs, killings and other criminal activities" and "We realize that this [legal prostitution] hasn’t worked, that trafficking in women continues. Women are now moved around more, making police work more difficult.”Three British ministers, Vernon Coaker, Barbara Follett and Vera Baird, had visited the Netherlands to study their approach to the sex trade, and had come to the conclusion that their policy of legal prostitution was not effective, and had therefore ruled out the legalization of prostitution in the UK.

8. Pornography United Kingdom The sale or distribution of hardcore pornography through any channel was prohibited until the rules were relaxed in 2002, however the rules are still quite strict. The possession of pornographic images for private use has never been an offence in the UK. This means that UK citizens have always been able to access content on sites overseas without breaking any laws, except for child pornography. Adult pornography that falls under the Government's classification of "extreme pornography" is illegal to possess as of January 26, 2009, carrying a three year prison sentence. This was proposed by the Government after the murder of Jane Longhurst, claiming that such material was viewed by murderer Graham Coutts. Critics of the law point out that the law will criminalise images of legal acts between consenting adults and have criticised the lack of evidence of a link between viewing such material, and violent crime. Internet service providers started the Internet Watch Foundation in 1996 to watch for pornographic content that is in violation of British law and report it to the police. The web filter Cleanfeed is used by the largest ISP BT Group to block sites on the IWF's list which includes sites that are "criminally obscene" as well as child pornography. The government ordered all ISPs to have a cleanfeed system by the end of 2007

9. Pornography Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 is a piece of legislation in the United Kingdom that criminalises possession of what it refers to as "extreme pornographic images". The law was enacted from 26 January 2009.It refers to pornography, defined as an image "of such a nature that it must reasonably be assumed to have been produced solely or principally for the purpose of sexual arousal", which is "grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise of an obscene character", and portrays "in an explicit and realistic way" any of the following: (a) an act which threatens a person’s life, (b) an act which results, or is likely to result, in serious injury to a person’s anus, breasts or genitals, (c) an act which involves or appears to involve sexual interference with a human corpse, (d) a person performing or appearing to perform an act of intercourse or oral sex with an animal (whether dead or alive), and a reasonable person looking at the image would think that any such person or animal was real.

10. Third Wave Feminism Third-Wave feminism is a term identified with several diverse strains of feminist activity and study whose exact boundaries in the historiography of feminism are a subject of debate, but often marked as beginning in the 1980s and continuing to the present. The movement arose as a response to the perceived failures of and backlash against initiatives and movements created by Second-Wave feminism but also a response to the achievements of the Second Wave. In the 1960s to 1980s, the realization that women can use the stereotypes given to them and create a sense of empowerment and "the Third-Wave redefined women and girls as assertive, powerful, and in control of their own sexuality“.The Third Wave embraces diversity and change.In this wave, as in previous ones, there is no all-encompassing single feminist idea.

11. Second Wave Feminism The Feminist Movement, or the Women's Liberation Movement, is a period of feminist activity in the United States which began during the early 1960s and lasted through the late 1990s. Whereas first-wave feminism focused mainly on overturning legal obstacles to equality (i.e. voting rights, property rights), second-wave feminism addressed a wide range of issues: de facto inequalities, official legal inequalities, sexuality, family, the workplace, and reproductive rights. It also tried and failed to add the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution. Many feminists view the second-wave feminist era as ending with the intra-feminism disputes of the Feminist Sex Wars over issues such as sexuality and pornography, which ushered in the era of third-wave feminism.

12. First Wave Feminism First-wave feminism refers to a period of feminist activity during the 19th and early twentieth century in the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands and the United States. It focused on de jure (officially mandated) inequalities, primarily on gaining women's suffrage (the right to vote). The term first-wave was coined retroactively in the 1970s. The women's movement then, focusing as much on fighting de facto (unofficial) inequalities as de jure ones, acknowledged its predecessors by calling itself second-wave feminism. "Suffragette" is a term coined by the Daily Mail newspaper as a derogatory label for members of the late 19th and early 20th century movement for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, in particular members of the Women's Social and Political Union. However, after former and then active members of the movement began to reclaim the word, the term became a label without negative connotations. It derives from the term "suffragist," which proponents of women's "suffrage," or right to vote, originally adopted.  Universal suffrage for all adults over 21 years of age was not achieved until 1928

13. Slut Walks The SlutWalk protest marches began on April 3, 2011,in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and became a movement of rallies across the world. Participants protest against explaining or excusing rape by referring to any aspect of a woman's appearance. The rallies began when Constable Michael Sanguinetti, a Toronto Police officer, suggested that to remain safe, "women should avoid dressing like sluts.“The protest takes the form of a march, mainly by young women, where some dress in ordinary clothing and others dress provocatively, like "sluts." There are also speaker meetings and workshops. There have been a number of responses to the SlutWalk phenomenon, not all of them positive. Australian commentator Andrew Bolt observed that guidance on how to dress in any given context is simply risk management, and such advice need not exclude opposition to victim-blaming.Rod Liddle agrees, saying "...I have a perfect right to leave my windows open when I nip to the shops for some fags, without being burgled. It doesn’t lessen the guilt of the burglar that I’ve left my window open, or even remotely suggest that I was deserving of being burgled. Just that it was more likely to happen.“But Jessica Valenti says: "The idea that women’s clothing has some bearing on whether they will be raped is a dangerous myth feminists have tried to debunk for decades."

14. Slut Walks Feminists Gail Dines and Wendy J Murphy have suggested that the word slut is inherently indivisible from the madonna/whore binary opposition and thus "beyond redemption." They say: "Women need to find ways to create their own authentic sexuality, outside of male-defined terms like slut.“ Some popular responses have also questioned the wisdom of using the word "slut," even suggesting that "far from empowering women, attempting to reclaim the word has the opposite effect, simply serving as evidence that women are accepting this label given to them by misogynistic men," concluding "Women should not protest for the right to be called slut.“ Others have noted that the use of the word "slut" raises the hackles of those anxious about the "“pornification” of everything and the pressure on young girls to look like Barbie dolls.” Melinda Tankard Reist, notable for her stance against sexualisation of children in modern pop culture, said: “I believe the name will marginalise women and girls who want to be active in violence prevention campaigns but who don’t feel comfortable with personally owning the word slut.“ British Conservative MP Louise Bagshawe has objected to SlutWalk "on the grounds that it "lionises promiscuity", which she says is harmful.“She also added "promiscuity is not equality." Guy Randle has contrasted SlutWalk with Reclaim the Night protests, saying they "resisted the deep cultural pull to make women into objects rather than subjects, to be constituted by the male gaze... there was no way to watch Reclaim The Night and feel like, or be, a voyeur."At worst, it has been said that "SlutWalkers have internalised their abuse"[and SlutWalk is "the pornification of protest."

15. Gender Inequality The Equality Act 2010 The primary purpose of the Act is to consolidate the complicated and numerous array of Acts and Regulations, which formed the basis of anti-discrimination law in Great Britain. This was, primarily, the Equal Pay Act 1970, the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, the Race Relations Act 1976, the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and three major statutory instruments protecting discrimination in employment on grounds of religion or belief, sexual orientation and age. This legislation has the same goals as the four major EU Equal Treatment Directives, whose provisions it mirrors and implements.It requires equal treatment in access to employment as well as private and public services, regardless of the protected characteristics of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. In the case of gender, there are special protections for pregnant women. However the Act allows transsexual people to be barred from gender-specific services if that is "a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim" In the case of disability, employers and service providers are under a duty to make reasonable adjustments to their workplaces to overcome barriers experienced by disabled people. In this regard, the Equality Act 2010 did not change the law. Under s.217, with limited exceptions the Act does not apply to Northern Ireland.

16. Gender Inequality UK slips further down global gender equality league • Equal-pay ranking is 81st out of 130 countries• Overall position two places lower than last year • The UK has fallen lower down the world league table on gender equality for the third year running, and is now ranked 13th out of 130 countries in terms of women's pay and work opportunities, political power, health and education. • Countries scoring higher include Sri Lanka and the Philippines. • Top 3: Norway, Finland ad Sweden. Forty years after the Equal Pay Act was passed, the study shows that the gender pay gap remains stubborn and that male and female managers will not be paid the same until 2067. Women have also been harder hit by the recession, with more female workers than men being made redundant in the past 12 months, the research by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) shows. The findings will intensify calls from campaigners for the new government to do more to ensure equal pay in the UK, which has one of the biggest gender salary gaps in Europe.

17. Gender Inequality The average UK salary for a male manager currently £10,031 more than that of a female manager, women face a 57-year wait before their take-home pay is equal to that of their male colleagues, says the report, compiled with researchers XpertHR. Its findings, from more than 43,000 employees in 197 organisations, showed male pay still outstrips female pay by as much as 24% at senior level. At junior level the gap also persists, with male junior executives receiving £1,065 more than female executives. Despite four decades of equal pay legislation, Britain has one of the worst gender gaps in Europe. Women in the UK are paid 79% of male rates, while across the 27 countries of the European Union the figure is 82%, according to a report earlier this year from Eurobarometer.