International Women's Day Protest
March 08, 2011 17:00
Published:
March 05, 2011 17:37
by Watcher |
Old Market Square, Notingham
Places: market_square nottingham
On the 100th International Women’s Day on Tues 8 March 2011, protesters will gather with balloons and a giant ballot box in Nottingham Market Square to protest against Government and Council cuts which will decimate local services for women and cause hundreds of thousands of women to lose their jobs.
Instead of celebrations, the 100th International Women’s Day on Tues 8 March at 5pm will be marked by protests in Nottingham Market Square. 100 balloons will be released in memory of the women who are killed every year as a result of domestic violence, to draw attention to the drastic cuts in domestic violence services in the County and the City in 2011. A giant ballot box will enable the public to “cast a vote for women” to stem rising women’s unemployment.
Campaigners say that women are bearing the brunt of Government policies to reduce public spending - from April 2011 the City Council is planning 84% cuts to the domestic violence budget, leaving only 6 refuge beds in the city and in the County there will be cuts of 30% to women’s refuge services. National figures show that 70% of cuts in last year’s budget will come out of women’s pockets. Women’s unemployment reached a 20 year high in September 2010 and it is estimated that 350,000 women employees will lose their jobs over the next 3 years in the public sector.
Catherine Scrivens, Equality Officer at Nottinghamshire Trades Union Council says, "On International Women’s day, it is important that we highlight the disproportionate impact that the spending cuts will have on women, both as workers and service users, as well as celebrating women’s role in the struggle for justice in the past and the present".
Notes
International Women's Day was marked for the first time on March 8th 1911 in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. More than one million women and men attended rallies, demanding women’s rights to work, an end to discrimination at work and the right to vote and to hold public office. http://www.un.org/womenwatch
Cuts to Domestic violence services
There will be cuts of 30% to women’s refuge services in the County from 1 April 2011, and cuts of 50% to outreach and floating support to women suffering domestic violence (Notts County Council).
The City Council’s domestic violence budget is at risk of being cut from £800,000 to £127,000 a cut of 84%, leaving only 6 refuge beds in the city, and an additional 20% drop in outreach workers supporting children who have been exposed to domestic violence (Nottingham City Council).
Unequal impact of cuts to services on women
A report by the Women’s Budget Group concludes that lone parents, the majority of whom are women, and single female pensioners are hardest hit by public sector cuts, losing services equivalent to 18.5% and 12% of their respective incomes. Overall, single women lose 60% more than single men, it adds. "Viewed as a whole, together with the measures announced in the June 2010 emergency budget, the cuts represent an immense reduction in the standard of living and financial independence of millions of women”. (Observer 5.12.10)
Women’s Unemployment
Figures showed that 1.02 million women were unemployed by September 2010, the highest level since 1988. Unemployment among men fell by 40,000 during the quarter-year to September, to reach 1.43 million; at the same time, the number of women out of work rose by 31,000. (Daily Telegraph 17.11.10/ONS – Office for National Statistics).
The number of men claiming unemployment benefit fell by 5,400 between December 2010 and January this year, but the number of women claimants rose by 7,800. (Guardian 16.2.11)
An analysis for The Independent suggests about 350,000 women will leave the public sector over the next four years, compared with 150,000 men. According to ONS figures, women make up 65 per cent of the six million public sector workers (nearly one third of all women in employment).
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