Blog

Women in publishing: addressing the glass ceiling

January 2nd, 2018
Blog

Industry data averages- a wolf in sheep’s clothing

Publishing is often viewed as a rare example of an industry dominated by women.

A 2015 survey with 3,415 respondents across 8 review journals and 34 publishers of different sizes in the US showed that women make up 78.2% of the industry overall (Diversity Baseline Survey from Lee & Low Books). A smaller survey, with 425 respondents, published around the same time, estimated that 77% of the publishing working force in the UK is composed of women (Publishing Industry Salary Survey from Publishers Weekly).

Interestingly however, a different story emerges when breaking down the data by department. While women dominate in editorial departments with 84% representation, this trend dies out at a higher level (only 59% of women occupy executive positions). By inspecting the data further, we find only 2 women CEOs across the top 30 major publishers listed in the Publishers Weekly “The World’s 54 Largest Publishers, 2017”. This trend has been consolidated by recent management changes in large corporate publishers, where women CEOs are being replaced by men. Such statistics translate into an embarrassing pay gap for the industry where men are earning on average 15.7% more than women (2017 bookcareers.com Salary Survey for the UK). The pay gap is a reflection of the fact that men in the industry tend to occupy more senior roles than women, as salaries are roughly the same for men and women with similar roles.

It is intriguing that the pattern of women dominance at the editorial level is not replicated in positi power, even though women are the backbone of the industry. This trend has been also been highlighted by Lee & Low Books as symptomatic of a reality where ‘males still ascend to positions of power more often, even in female-dominated industries’.

The glass ceiling for women in the publishing

The reasons keeping women from reaching the top of the publishing industry are not clear-cut, however some facts do prevail. Firstly, and perhaps more obviously, women still do not have sufficient support to balance career progress and caring responsibilities. This issue not only holds off (or stops) a woman’s career, but can also generate (un)conscious bias from employers in hiring and/or promoting women. While this is a problem across several industries, it is surprising that the move towards digital tools seen in publishing has not been accompanied by a reform in the working environment, which remains very office-centred. Changes are long overdue and flexibility is absolutely vital for women to thrive in the industry.

Other arguments for explaining the disparity in gender statistics between editorial and executive departments have focused on the inner workings of the publishing industry. Specifically, with the corporatization of publishing, management roles have become increasingly finance-oriented, meaning that the skills from editorial departments are not necessarily transferrable to a management role. However, even if we ignore the pool of talented women driving the industry from below, it is hard to justify the fact that there are only 2 women CEOs across 30 key corporate publishers. Are women less capable to make executive decisions? Do women lack the confidence to pursue such roles?

This does not seem to be the case in independent publishing, which is blooming with female leaders setting up their own publishing houses. In addition, major corporate publishing houses have seen a number of women taking leading roles back in the 50s with Helen Meyer, as President of Dell Publishing, and Phyllis Grann, as President and CEO of Penguin Putnam, and then again in the 90s with Marjorie Scardino, appointed CEO of Pearson, and Jane Friedman, the first and only Global CEO of HarperCollins. Where are the women leaders in corporate publishing now? To answer this question, the publishing industry can no longer sit comfortably on its gender averages and needs to take a long, hard look at its own glass ceiling.

More data to assess the publishing industry is required

The data described above might only be the tip of the iceberg. Publishing is made of several sectors, which means that averages are not necessarily representative of the industry. For example, in scholarly publishing women are underrepresented across all stages of the publication process with only 37% as authors, 28% as editors and 26% as peer reviewers, as reported in Helmer et al. 2015 (https://elifesciences.org/articles/21718). This is symptomatic of a bigger global issue in fields such as science, in which only 28% of researchers are women (UNESCO Science Report, Towards 2030). In some sectors of book publishing, women authors have been also been shown to be underrepresented (2016 VIDA count) and have faced gender barriers, famously exemplified by Joanne Rolling who was encouraged by her editor to use the acronym J. K. to hide her gender identity. Contrastingly, women are overrepresented in sectors such as children’s books, which has attracted a number of criticisms, namely that this gender imbalance leads to a predominance of children’s books tailored for girls. This has been correlated with the lack of interest that young boys seem to have when it comes to reading (Jonathan Emmett’s blog Cool not Cute and Porter Anderson’s post here).

This glimpse of data makes it clear that the discussion of gender balance in publishing is far from over and additional statistics are required to understand where the industry needs to be reformed. Importantly, these changes will need to address diversity issues that go way beyond gender. Even though this post specifically addresses women in publishing, data has shown that the publishing industry suffers from a massive diversity problem in terms of race, sexual orientation and disability. Lee & Low reported that 80% of publishing staff are white, 88.2% heterosexual and 7.6% identify as having a disability. The implications of these statistics in terms of the books that get published calls for a major reform of the industry, and a need to chip away at a firmly-established glass ceiling.

Carolina Feijao
Research Associate

Supporting women in business: Spotlight on AmaElla

December 18th, 2017
Blog

Shining a light on women in business

At GenPol we are committed to backing female entrepreneurs, and sharing success stories of women in business. In the run up to Christmas we feel it is more important than ever to give a platform to women striving to make the business world a fairer and more ethical place, especially when we are looking to get our stockings filled, and New Year’s resolutions drawn up. To kick-start the series, we want to introduce AmaElla an ethical, environmentally sustainable lingerie brand that is close to our hearts. It’s co-run by one of our non-executive directors, Lara, and her friend and now business partner, Julie.

AmaElla is a social enterprise whose mission is to encourage ethical behaviour in fashion through sustainable and ethical sourcing. Their core values are of quality, sustainability, customer centricity, and honesty. As a reaction to the exploitation of factory workers, suppliers and consumers, Lara and Julie have created a brand where people and the planet are at the heart of what they do. Frustrated by how difficult it was to find attractive lingerie made from organic cotton, the pair took it upon themselves to turn cotton “from drab to fab”.

You can sleep well at night

By choosing AmaElla lingerie and nightwear the idea is that you can sleep well at night, both thanks to the purity of the fabric on the skin—free from toxic chemicals—but also in the knowledge that the items you are wearing have been responsibly sourced.

Central to AmaElla‘s mission is the knowledge that our skin is our largest organ and taking good care of it will benefit our health.Toxic chemicals on our clothes have been associated with problems in women’s hormonal health and even with increasing the likelihood of developing breast cancer. As a result, AmaElla only uses certified organic cotton and materials free from toxic chemicals. Every material has been tested for harmful substances by independent organisations such as GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard).

Moreover, as a social enterprise, AmaElla meets the social criteria based on the key norms of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and UN guiding principles, including: traceability of production, prohibition of child labour and slavery, the living wage, respecting women’s rights and ensuring all employees are treated with respect and dignity. These are values that are key to making the working world a fairer and more equal environment, and that we, at GenPol, strive to promote and uphold in our own research and consulting services.

All items are made by women who are paid a living wage and whose working conditions are closely monitored to ensure they are treated fairly and respectfully.

They don’t cost the earth

While AmaElla’s prices may be higher than many high street brands to ensure ethical integrity and quality, AmaElla pride themselves on not literally costing the earth. Fashion is, after all, the second most polluting industry in the world— second only to oil—and non-organic/conventional cotton is the dirtiest crop out there. However, despite its environmental impact, non-organic cotton is one of the most commonly used natural fibres, in nearly 40% of our clothing and using 25% of all fertilisers globally.

AmaElla’s commitment to using 100% organic cotton means that its organic farming uses traditional and new scientific knowledge to grow crops in a way that develops healthy, fertile soil, conserves biodiversity and protects natural resources, minimising the use of non-renewable and off-farm inputs.

Ultimately, by selecting the finest organic cotton, premium trims, and attractive prints, AmaElla ensures that its lingerie and nightwear line is anything but ordinary. Created with the consumer in mind it wants women to feel bold, healthy, beautiful and confident in their skin

A Fantastic Festive Offer!

In a bid to support AmaElla’s great work, we are running a special pre-Christmas offer! From the 18th to the 22nd of December AmaElla are kindly offering of a 15% discount off the whole range to any shoppers who used the code ‘GenPol17’. Simply like our Facebook page, and head over to their online shop (you will be asked to provide the code at the checkout). All of us at GenPol are proud to support and shine a spotlight on the incredible work being done by these women, and we wish them (and you) a very happy Christmas!

Emmanuela Wroth
Research Associate

Are powerful women the answer to inequality?

December 11th, 2017
Blog

Earlier this year, the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) released its 2017 Gender Equality Index. One of its more interesting findings (and there were many, as GenPol’s Antonia Sudkämper noted in her recent blog) was that in nearly all Member States, “the main driver of progress was improved balance in decision making”. In short: getting more women into power is important to improving women’s lives.

Why does having female decision-makers matter? Because women are hurt when we are not on an equal footing with men in the debating chamber, the meeting room, or the boardroom. Men are making decisions about women’s bodies, about our access to welfare, about whether we can have children, about whether we can not have children, about medical research that solely concerns us, about the media that we consume. Giving men decision making power over women feeds patriarchal structures. The extreme consequences of these structures are discrimination and violence against women: crimes of sexual violence stem from a person’s determination to exercise power over another and society currently dictates that one group (men) have more power than another (women). This unequal distribution of power needs addressing urgently.

The EIGE Index suggests that one solution is to ensure that more women are involved in all manner of decision-making processes. Approached logically, if more women occupy political posts, then legislation which adversely affects women is less likely to be passed. If more mothers are in management positions, then the companies they influence are more likely to have parental leave and childcare policies favourable to women. If more women are driving the content of our mainstream media outlets, then we are more likely to hear diverse perspectives in our news analysis. The importance of representation is well documented, and powerful women are essential to creating societies that serve the interests of women, as well as men.

EIGE reports that the gender gap in employment is most pronounced across the EU in heterosexual partnerships. This is in part because women still bear the brunt of caregiving responsibilities in society at large and thus are often the partner, in a heterosexual couple, to pull back professionally and take up the caregiving mantle. Would an increase of women in middle and senior management change this, by advocating for solutions for those women who wish to simultaneously become parents and pursue professional advancement? History tells us that it is certainly not men who will mobilise to pursue necessary workplace changes such as proper parental leave, adequate childcare, and teleworking facilities.

Even when women are present in the workforce, we need to consider where those women are. In the UK, women make up over 40% of those who work in the media, according to EIGE. These women, however, are mainly concentrated in lower grade positions, with lower pay and little influence (we saw this year just how stark that inequality is with the BBC pay scandal). Indeed, across Europe 67% of journalism graduates are women, yet just 14% of media CEOs are women. This means that crucial national conversations about politics, business, technology, and culture are shaped by men (the consequences of which are here clearly outlined).

Rank dynamics shine a further spotlight on the influence of men and their opinions in our lives. Men are higher up in the patriarchal rank: theirs are the voices of authority and responsibility, and it is the norm to prioritise their voices and to trust their expertise and testimony above women’s. This perception can only change if women’s voices are heard across public life, which can be achieved through elevating women to decision-making and influential roles.

All of the above, however, require powerful women to work in the interests of other women. Having women CEOs, politicians, and leading civil society actors will not make the world a better place for women if access to opportunity does not trickle down the hierarchy. Poland and Germany, for example, are both countries led by women and yet they rank below the average score for EU Member States in the EIGE Index. Indeed, in all six categories used to assess equality (Work, Money, Power, Time, Knowledge, and Health) Poland ranks below the EU average, as does Germany in three of those categories. Evidently one woman in a prominent political position cannot fix a country’s gender inequality problems, but women in power have the opportunity (and, I would argue, the responsibility) to empower other women and to set the direction for feminist policy reform across many areas of society. The Ivanka Trumps of this world tilt the gender balance scales simply by being women in power, but their presence alone does not help women as a social category, particularly those who are not white and upper-middle class. Given the stark inequalities women still face as an oppressed class of people today, and the intersecting oppressions faced by women of colour, lower-class women, and homo- or bisexual women, those with access to positions of power need to use their privilege to improve the lot of all women if patriarchal power structures are ever to be dismantled.

Women from diverse backgrounds need access to power en masse in order to move towards equality. As Věra Jourová, European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, notes, this is not about making women more like men, but “about creating an environment where both sexes can have equal choices and fully participate in social, work and family life.”

When women are not in power we cannot shape our own lives or the national narratives which govern us. The EIGE Index and its findings are pertinent, but we must also work to ensure that women who want to help women are given access to opportunity, and that all women can gain decision-making power so that all women benefit from the resulting progress

Nathalie Greenfield
Research Associate

Three words, Two acronyms, One goal: Introducing PIÙ SANE and PREVENT

November 16th, 2017
Blog

(Picture Credits: Elyssa Rider)

Hot on the heels of our recent collaboration with German NGO Serlo to create an online course on consent GenPol is extending its successful practices and research to Italy—one of the few European countries where sexual education is still not compulsory—with two exciting sister projects: PREVENT and PIÙ SANE.

PREVENT is an acronym for ‘PREventing Violence by Educating through New Technologies’ and ‘PIÙ SANE’, which means ‘healthier’ in Italian, stands for ‘Promoting, Teaching, Uniting, Health and Affectivity in Education’ (although its quality as an acronym is lost in translation). Both projects are united by the same aim: fighting sexual violence through education. More specifically, the feminine gendering of ‘PIÙ SANE’ points to both projects’ primary focus: tackling sexual violence against adolescent girls, “whose impact is particularly harmful since it may lead to impaired mental health, social functioning, and neurodevelopment.”

However, while our work aims to empower and educate women and girls as a means to tackling sexual and gender based violence, it will not be gender segregated and similarly aims to tackle toxic masculinity and open up conversations about the ways in which gender is socially constructed.

PREVENT and PIÙ SANE’s aims are to pursue specific forms of sex and relationship education, meant to promote women’s mental health and prevent social anxiety and other issues stemming from low self-esteem, as well as the difficulty to express one’s needs. The focus is primarily on the notion of consent, teaching how to express it, recognise it and always seek it in every single moment of a romantic or sexual relationship. The projects look to empower all, and especially young women, to set boundaries, speak out, respect and cherish not only others but first of all themselves.

Targeted specifically at the 12–25 age bracket, the idea is to make these educational materials as user-friendly, engaging and accessible as possible to our young, digitally-advanced audience. PREVENT and PIÙ SANE will thus be composed of multi-faceted digital educational modules, differentiated according to age group, including written materials, illustrations, videos, podcasts, interactive games and exercises. The materials will be freely accessible online through a brand-new website with its own mobile app. These materials will be promoted nationwide, across Italy, through a social media campaign (from Facebook and Instagram to Snapchat and Youtube), ensuring maximal visibility amongst our target young age group. Guidelines and web-training will be created, additionally, to allow different categories of educators and teachers to use the materials in their own activities. As well as their online presence, the materials will be used and tested offline through a number of pilot projects across various Italian regions (Piedmont, Emilia Romagna, Lazio and Campania).

GenPol will play a central role in the creation and distribution of digital modules, web-platforms and off-line pilot projects. We hope to launch the projects in June 2018, with a view to running them for 18 months. All the while GenPol will monitor and evaluate its results and measure their impact and reach, with a view to developing future follow up projects, expansions and collaborations.

Having successfully collaborated with organisations such as the aforementioned Serlo in Germany (an NGO working in the educational sector), and with Falling Book in Italy (a cultural association that uses gender education to tackle violence against women), GenPol is extending its work both within Italy and across Europe. The aim is to extend and build upon the work of PREVENT and PIÙ SANE, as well as GenPol’s work with Serlo, to create a multilingual, pan-European web-platform for consent education. In addition to the pilot projects across Italy, we are also setting up off-line projects across Europe, with the purpose of training and supporting local staff from countries as diverse as the UK, Romania, Poland, Malta, Germany and Ireland in the use of our platform in their own activities.

For now, if you would like a taster of what is to come, check-out our web-platform if you have not done so already. Please also get in touch if you are engaged in any form of SRE or consent education, and might be interested in sharing good practices or future collaborations. Lastly—but certainly not least—stay tuned for the launch of PREVENT and PIÙ SANE in the new year.

Emmanuela Wroth
Research Associate

Progress, but slow: reflections on the 2017 Gender Equality Index

November 4th, 2017
Blog

This year, I was fortunate to attend the Gender Equality Index 2017 conference. The Gender Equality Index is a tool to measure the progress of gender equality in the EU, developed by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE). The Index has six core domains – work, money, knowledge, time, power and health – and two satellite domains: violence against women and intersecting inequalities. It gives more visibility to areas that need improvement and ultimately supports policy makers to design more effective gender equality measures. The results are updated and revealed every two years at an international conference.

Since the last index, the score has improved by 4 points and now lies at 66.2 points out of 100. The top performing country is Sweden with a score of 82.6, while Greece dropped to the bottom with 50 points. Italy recorded the biggest improvement. Overall, although the majority of Member States improved their overall scores from 2005 to now, nearly two thirds of them fall below the EU-28 average score.

A few things struck me as particularly noteworthy. Firstly, progress is way too slow. We cannot afford to miss out on women’s skills in the workplace for the next decades, and cannot afford men to suffer from the health consequences of toxic masculinity, either. We need to do better as soon as possible. Secondly, we often assume that we are continuously moving forward, but cannot take this for granted. We will only make progress if we constantly push for the cause. I was struck by low scores in some of the economically strong member states who are often praised for their well-functioning politics. Specifically, my own country Germany scored disappointingly low on many dimensions. As Ghandi put it, “The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.” Let us raise all countries to higher standards, and let us no longer accept that a society functions well only for half of the population.

In light of this, GenPol’s work (both past and forthcoming) feels all the more urgent, professionally and personally. Serlo, for instance, is a grassroots organization for education on sexuality and gender equality that originates in Germany but is gradually being expanded to other countries and languages. The platform’s aim is to enable personalized learning and to provide high quality educational resources free of charge. Similarly, the Italian organizations PREVENT and PIÙ SANE both aim to promote consent-aware sex and relationship education in Italy, as well as women’s self-esteem, empowerment and overall mental health. Considering the gender equality index dimension “violence against women” the Italian organisation Non Una di Meno might play a pivotal role in fostering increased scores. This network of feminist activists came together ahead of the planned ‘women’s strike’ for the 2017 International Women’s Day with a specific focus on the national problem of violence against women.

We must not underestimate the impact that these small organisations scattered across Europe might have on gender equality. By fuelling ideas and continuously pushing for change they might make fundamental contributions to an increase in the gender equality index scores. Non Una di Meno, for instance, vehemently pushes for cultural change to key areas such as education, legislation, media, and social support. Moreover, they make hands-on suggestion as to how to achieve this change (one of their latest projects concentrates on the revision of school books to remove gender stereotypes, for example).

Gatherings like the gender equality index conference certainly present a valuable meeting point for policy makers and activists with an interest in gender equality, and might function as an incubator for future initiatives across Europe. Indeed, the wealth of feminists from all over Europe was truly inspiring. We listened to Åsa Regnér, Swedish Minister for Children, the Elderly and Gender Equality, who stated that we owe little girls that they will have the same chances as boys, and to Tiina Astola, Director-General, Directorate-General for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality at the European Commission, who pointed out that gender equality is not necessarily a linear process. And finally, Frans Timmermans, First Vice President at the European Commission, who closed the conference with a fantastic speech full of determination and encouragement to create a better future – an excellent example of a male ally. With an audience just as knowledgeable as the speakers, interesting discussions unfolded throughout the day. The speakers and the audience agreed that gender equality will be achieved through political decisions, allocation of resources, and a constant fight in public debates.

I am convinced that grass-root organizations, and think tanks such as GenPol will have an important role to play in these, and ultimately in improving the statistics for the Gender Equality Index 2019.

Antonia Sudkämper
Research Associate

A shorter version of this piece originally appeared on: https://www.antoniasudkaemper.com/2017/10/13/progress-but-slow-gender-equality-index/

SRE provision in Europe: inconsistent, incomplete, but indispensable

October 20th, 2017
Blog

What do sex education and The Great British Bake Off have in common? They can both make us cringe, they can both teach us new concepts, but, most importantly, they can both be axed in a moment by the powers that be, leaving us with something vital to our livelihoods missing.

Unlike the Bake Off, leaving young people without sex and relationships education (SRE) can have serious societal implications. To quote the International Planned Parenthood Federation, “comprehensive sexuality education seeks to equip young people with the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values they need to determine and enjoy their sexuality – physically and emotionally, individually and in relationships.” Comprehensive SRE, thus, recognises young people as sexual beings, gives them the opportunity to acquire essential life skills, and helps them to develop positive attitudes and values. Without classroom-based provision of such education, young people’s access to information on healthy relationships, pleasure, and sexuality can be warped or completely absent.

Reflecting its importance, SRE in some form is currently mandatory by law in 20 of the 28 EU Member States. Only Belgium, Cyprus, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and the UK do not count sex education among compulsory curriculum subjects (though the UK is in the process of making SRE a mandatory part of the national curriculum). However, mandatory inclusion of SRE in the curriculum is no guarantee of its quality, and the methods and actors involved account for a wide variation in sex education provision across the continent.

One of the most noticeable variations between Member States concerns the focus of SRE lessons. Most countries see sex education as an appropriate means of teaching young people about the biological elements of sex, and as a preventative measure to combat unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. This preventative focus (sometimes called ‘negative’ sex education due to its concentration on the risks of sexual activity) forms the baseline for much SRE content. In most of the countries in which SRE is taught, the subject is time-tabled into biology lessons and taught by a biology teacher, which indicates that its primary aim is to cover physical and reproductive bases.

Some European countries have built on this biological focus to teach the relational and social aspects of sexuality. The Nordic and Benelux countries, in particular, promote this more comprehensive approach to SRE, going beyond a mechanistic coverage of biological facts to deal with the psychosocial aspects of sexuality. Where this is the case, as in Sweden for example, SRE tends to be taught as a separate curriculum subject and can involve the input of actors external to the education system (such as NGOs) in subject delivery. The involvement of NGOs in SRE provision often signals a more interactive approach to sex education and can include activities such as sexual health seminars (Sweden), sexual health campaigns (the UK) and counselling (Germany). Research has shown that whilst formal, teacher-led learning remains common, young people have a preference for a more interactive approach, and sex education has been proven to be more effective and more comprehensive when it establishes links with local sexual health services.

So why does the legal status, content, and delivery of SRE vary between different Member States? Firstly, the realities of sex education in financial, legal and pedagogical terms are shaped by the social and political views of individual countries, which diverge greatly. SRE provision can change as political actors and their priorities change, and the funds needed for training teachers, involving external actors, and investing in resources can fluctuate depending on the political leadership of individual Ministries of Education, as can the pedagogical aims of sex education. The government department in which SRE is housed often reflects a country’s approach to the topic: in the Czech Republic, SRE is coordinated by the Ministries of Education and of Youth and Sports, demonstrating an emphasis on youth development, and in Finland, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health is involved, bringing the aforementioned psychosocial and components to the fore, along with emotional health.

Attitudes to sex and to young people’s sexuality are another important factor influencing SRE provision. Socially and religiously conservative countries, such as Hungary or Slovakia, tend to adopt a risk-emphasising negative approach, without providing much space in young people’s education for discussions surrounding sexual orientation, pleasure, or healthy intimacy. Indeed, SRE in Catholic Slovakia adopts a religious approach: the focus is on marriage and parenthood, and it can be taught by religious leaders as part of religious education. Comparing the terminology used to refer to SRE in different Member States interestingly betrays their difference in ideological focus and social attitude. For example, the recent campaigns in the UK to make ‘Sex and Relationships Education’ a mandatory part of the curriculum demonstrate a desire to go beyond biology and include relational components in the teaching of this subject, whereas the labelling of sex education as ‘Family Life Education’ in some post-Soviet countries, including Poland, reflects a focus on reproduction and social structure, and does not address sexual rights or pleasure.

Further, irrespective of whether or not SRE is mandatory, the quality and content of SRE in any given Member State is nationally inconsistent. Factors such as the location and type of school (urban or rural area; state or private sector), the teacher (experience and personal views), the local health services involved, and the support of parents and local actors, all have an impact on what children and young adults are taught about sex and relationships.

What is the effect of such disparity in SRE provision across the EU, then? Though difficult to quantify, there are clear links to be made between societal attitudes to gender discrimination, and non-comprehensive or non-existent SRE. The patriarchal power structures on which European societies are built are challenged by education which encourages young women to see themselves as equals to men in sex and in relationships, and which encourage young men and women to engage with emotional and relational issues. Attitudes to violence against women are a case in point: marital rape, for example, is not criminalised in either Hungary or Slovakia which have, as mentioned above, biological, risk-focussed SRE. If young people are not educated (in or out of the classroom) on what egalitarian, healthy relationships look like, then inequality, harassment and even violence become less easily recognisable as wrong.

Outsde of the classroom, young people turn to the mainstream media and the internet (where porn is easily accessible) to learn about sex and relationships. Given the patriarchal norms and harmful gender roles broadly perpetuated by these institutions, comprehensive SRE can be very helpful in providing a counter balance to their influences. Sex education programmes should be made mandatory in all countries, and should be broadened beyond a purely public health function, to be holistic in scope; the opportunities provided by relational and psychosocial SRE provision to tackle gender inequality on many levels are too great to ignore. Like the Bake Off, our access to comprehensive SRE might be out of our hands, but unlike GBBO it is far too important to social progression for us to try and live without.

Nathalie Greenfield
Research Associate

Social innovation, anti-mafia and intersectionality made in (Southern) Italy

October 10th, 2017
Blog, Policy Papers & Guidelines, Reports & Case Studies

Students of social innovation know only too well the power of symbols and story-telling. Those who look for innovative solutions to complex, wicked social problems face, first, the challenge of conceptualising and clearly explaining to others the very social evils they are trying to address. This is usually no trivial matter: the way we consider approaching, say, violence against women and girls will very much depend on how, and through which lenses, we understand this phenomenon. Secondly, social innovators who are lucky enough to have identified viable solutions often struggle to illustrate this to donors, investors or policy-makers, and more generally to anyone who’s not as familiar with the subject as they are (or, indeed, as passionate).

There is, however, a third way in which the ability to forge narratives, and use sets of languages and symbols, is key to social innovation work. In fact, tackling some of the most entrenched social problems generally requires not only long-term, sustainable actions, but also a change in people’s habits and way of mind. This is where so-called cultural entrepreneurship, namely the processes and skills that allow innovators to (re)craft identities and symbolic practices to gain legitimacy and open up access to new resources and opportunities, often come into play.

Southern Italy, and especially my native Naples and Campania region, offer plenty of intriguing examples. Born in a land rich in traditions, rituals and unspoken rules, no Neapolitan would ever deny how much symbols and stories matter. It is no wonder that local social innovators pay close, conscious attention.

Take the case of Radio Siani, an anti-mafia social cooperative based in the small town of Ercolano (Naples), long-dominated by mafia interests, and once a central hub for extortion and drug trafficking. Radio Siani’s headquarters are in a flat that once belonged to a mafia boss. He used to watch the murders he had commissioned from the balcony .where young activists now enjoy their cigarettes. The flat currently hosts an anti-mafia web-radio (its origins lie in the fact that criminals in and out of prison exchanged messages through their own local radio). The organisation also runs educational activities for the local young people, and workshops for students who come to visit from all over the region. All visitors are asked to leave a message on the wall of what once was the boss’s kitchen.

Over the years, radio broadcasting has become increasingly intersectional, including a sex ed radio programme, regular coverage of LGBT+ issues, and awareness-raising emissions on the theme of disability. When interviewed, Radio Siani activists argued that mafia is fought not only talking crime and spreading ‘legality culture’, but also working towards an equal, democratic and non-violent world, where everyone’s rights, particularly those of the traditionally oppressed, are defended. It is definitely not by chance that the organisation was involved in the setting up of Lilith, the very first gender-based violence emergency point ever opened in Ercolano (now sadly shut down due to lack of funding).

This intersectional ethos is evident in Radio Siani’s effort to reclaim the mafia’s own words and symbols, and propose positive language, rituals and role models to those who were born in a mafia-dominated area. In fact, the radio and the social cooperative are both named after Giancarlo Siani, a Neapolitan journalist killed by the mafia in 1985, aged 26. The flat is packed with pictures and images of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, Sicilian judges also murdered by organised crime, and of Miriam Makeba, one of the most audible voices of the anti-Apartheid and civil rights movements.

The cooperative’s members have recently started to engage in agricultural work, producing a special breed of tomatoes in a field which was, too, once confiscated from a criminal family. The tomatoes, small and pointy, have been nick-named pizzini, slang word for sharp-edged objects but also for the messages whereby the Sicilian mafia used to communicate. Agricultural projects also serve the purpose of offering work opportunities to kids just come out of juvenile prisons in the area, many of whom share a migrant background or a history of mental health issues. Radio Siani’s staff makes a point to provide them with professional and personal mentorship, as well as examples of healthy, non-violent masculine bonds.

Other actors in the Ercolano’s anti-mafia network are equally cultural entrepreneurship-conscious. The Associazione Anti-Racket, the charity which unites shop-owners and entrepreneurs who rebelled to mafia’s extortions and reported offences to the police, organises a yearly ‘anti-extortion’ walk, where the civil society is invited to take the streets and reclaim the right to own their town. Enlightened local school principals adopted an open-door policy, arguing that schools should be open well beyond class-time to offer kids a stimulating alternative to life on the street. The carabinieri (Italian military force with police duties), very much involved in anti-mafia work and central to the eradication of the extortion practice in Ercolano, are about to move to a new head-quarter, in the very centre of the town once controlled by criminal families.

Tomatoes and public walks, radio broad-casting and messages on the wall, then, all fulfil a similar purpose. They are the tools whereby activists and innovators reclaim bits and pieces of an oppressive system (that of organised crime, or, say, that stemming from the intersection of the discrimination directed against women, the LGBT+ community , migrants and disabled people), re-forging them for new purposes. They are meant to empower people and local communities in innovative ways, with the long-term purpose of making social change possible.

Stories worth telling? I’d say a couple of very poignant lessons to be learned.

(This blog is a revised version of a longer articles published on the Cambridge Judge Business School’s website).

Lilia Giugni
GenPol CEO

Making love from the Mesolithic Age to the Greeks: learning about sex and relationships at the British Museum

September 22nd, 2017
Blog

In June 2017, the newly formed think tank GenPol brought together activists, academics and educators in a one day conference, to discuss how education can be used to tackle gendered violence. Among the many engaging topics and sessions, participants explored creative strategies for teaching sex and relationships education (SRE) to young people. We also heard from Alix Fox, a writer and sex educator who uses a range of media from podcasts to Youtube to reach out to her audiences, many of whom are young teenagers.

One of the more unlikely institutions developing its own creative approaches to SRE is the British Museum. Steeped in history, the museum is more strongly associated with Egyptian mummies than discussions around gender and sexuality. But while we may focus more on how the internet and smartphones are changing the way young people today experience sex and relationships, many of the questions and concerns we harbour have historical precedents. It was with this in mind that a team of committed educators at the museum took it upon themselves to incorporate SRE into the programme for secondary school visits. Last month, I sat down with Melany Rose, an education manager at the museum, and the brains behind the SRE workshops, to find out more.

The starting point for the project is a strong belief that museums ought to support schools in areas where the curriculum was found to be lacking. My main question to Melany centered primarily around that lack. What was absent, notably in countries in which SRE is still not compulsory?

Melany explained that the workshops – which are now a permanent offer at the museum – were developed in partnership with her friend Chloe Cooper, an artist educator. The first workshop, which was piloted during LGBT history month earlier this year, focused on issues such as same-sex relationships and queer identities. Following the success of the pilot, other thematic workshops exploring topics such as pornography and body image emerged.

The hands-on nature of the workshops, which not only involve handling historical objects from the museum’s collection, but also creating personal pieces of art in response, closely mirrors the format of the existing art and design workshops that Melany oversees. The content of the workshops was instead drawn from a book by a former British Museum curator, Richard B. Parkinson, titled A Little Gay History: Desire and Diversity across the world (2013). In his book, Parkinson pulls out a number of objects from the collection to discuss how they portray things like same-sex desire and gender fluidity. The book has also provided inspiration for a current exhibit at the British Museum on Desire, Love, Identity: Exploring LGBTQ Histories (ends October 15), marking fifty years since homosexuality was partially decriminalised in England and Wales with the Sexual Offences Act.

Like many of the GenPol conference participants, Melany described her own experiences of sex education at school as being “laughable at best.” At worst, for many young people in the UK, sex education is an uncomfortable hour or two, delivered by a reluctant and often unqualified teacher, if it is delivered at all. Melany suggested that taking sex education out of the classroom and into a different kind of formal learning environment, such as the museum, brings clear benefits not only to students but to teachers as well; both are reported to be more open to discussing and sharing personal experiences within the workshop setting, detached from the classroom environment.

What makes the workshops a success? “The objects and discussions are what lead the session”, Melany told me, “but it’s about good facilitation”. In order to prepare the artists delivering the workshops, Melany also worked closely with Brook, a sexual health charity who provide specialist training to teachers and educators. Having a team of trained professionals has been key to being able to deliver the programme in a way that is engaging while still being sensitive and age-appropriate.

One of the key themes of the GenPol conference was inter-disciplinary cooperation, and the importance of incorporating SRE into more areas of the curriculum than just biology. By addressing issues of gender and sexuality through history, culture and the arts, the workshops would appear to be doing a far better job of getting through to young people on these topics, by making them both accessible and relevant. The combination of teaching methods from the arts and humanities felt particularly refreshing, and no doubt more stimulating than a simply academic or ‘facts-based’ approach.

In addition to teaching young people about the meaning of gender, or the history of homosexuality, the workshops are also aimed at helping young people develop the critical thinking skills which are increasingly needed to navigate a media-saturated world.

Although it may have earned her some dubious press coverage, Melany described a sense of achievement in establishing the programme, despite the initial difficulties of getting schools interested. Once past the initial stumbling blocks, however, it attracted almost 300 students in its first year, and over 250 students have already been booked in for the autumn 2017 term alone.

Melany stressed that the workshops are designed to supplement an existing SRE programme, rather than provide it. It is more a “window into a topic” which teachers are encouraged to follow up on once back in the classroom. Looking ahead to 2019, when SRE is due to become compulsory in the UK, there is perhaps hope that teachers will find they are already being supported to deliver impactful SRE by other educational institutions.

While learning about sex surrounded by objects from another millennium might feel a bit like getting tips on how to ‘do it’ from your grandmother, there’s a surprising amount to be learned about sex, sexuality and gender from these historical objects – not least that our societies are far, far less open and accepting than we might have thought possible.

Giulia Nicolini
Guest Writer and Researcher

An invisible problem: the data vacuum on gender-based violence in Europe

September 11th, 2017
Blog

cn: sexual assault, intimate partner violence, harassment, violence against women.

Over 61 million European women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetimes. Violence against women (VAW) presents a serious violation of human rights that is horribly widespread across the EU. Article 3a of the Istanbul Convention defines VAW as “all acts of gender-based violence that result in or are likely to result in, physical, sexual, psychological or economic harm or suffering to women.” VAW takes many overlapping forms; sexual assault, female genital mutilation (FGM), forced marriage, intimate partner violence, and sexual harassment just some examples, and such forms of violence are primarily (re)inflicted on women by men in order to (re)establish male social, economic, and political power.

Recognising that VAW is a widespread and direct violation of the EU Charter of fundamental rights with respect to dignity and equality, the EU is starting to pursue more substantial research in this field. Understanding the nature and scope of VAW in Europe is essential to tackling it, and to reinforcing and supporting the life-changing work that women’s organisations have been undertaking for many years through governmental work. The true extent of male violence against women across Europe, however, remains foggy.

Current data paints a picture of extensive abuse in Europe: over a third of adult women experience some form of sexual and/or physical violence at least once in their lifetimes. Over one in five experience violence at the hands of their intimate partner, over one in twenty is raped at least once, and over one in ten girls experience sexual violence before the age of 15. Very sadly, however, these numbers remain conservative estimates; the reality of the scale of VAW in Europe is likely to be much broader than current data suggests. A recent study conducted by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) found that only “one in three victims of partner violence and one in four victims of non-partner violence report their most serious incident to the police or some other service.” Data collection problems prohibit detailed comprehension of VAW in the EU.

One of the most serious obstacles to the gathering of accurate data is systematic under-reporting of male violence. Fear of reporting, often compounded by a lack of trust in the police and judicial systems, contributes to this. The FRA recently found that one in four victims of sexual assault does not contact the police or any other organisation because of feelings of shame, embarrassment, or self-blame, and complementary to these findings, a recent report by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) linked low confidence in the police to low levels of reporting of gender-based violence. As an example, studies in Finland indicate a higher than average trust in the police (94% of the population trust the police in Finland compared to 70% across the EU), and higher than average reporting of sexual harassment (71% of women have reported experiencing sexual harassment, compared to 55% across the EU). Evidently, a large proportion of women who experience VAW do not speak of their experiences, and do not come into contact with national justice systems or social services; the crimes committed against them go unrecorded and ignored.

Perhaps most importantly though, recognising physical or sexual violence as violence remains a barrier to reporting. Legal definitions of violence contribute to what is societally categorised as violence, as is the case with marital rape, which is not criminalised in all EU Member States(1), or sexual harassment, which is not always legislated on. Consequently, instances of such violence often go unreported and overlooked. Even where violence is legislatively understood as such, though, cultural, religious, and societal norms can still prevent it from being recognised as criminal, and therefore in need of reporting. Patriarchal ideas in the individual and societal consciousness about the place of men and women, and their respective rights and freedoms, can influence what is considered normal behaviour, particularly in domestic relationships; these attitudes can have a vital impact on recognising, and thus reporting, violence.

Socio-cultural factors can also influence whether reporting violence is considered appropriate, or even possible. Cultural taboos can prohibit speaking about experiences of violence with authority figures, or even friends and family, especially in the case of intimate-partner violence. For a variety of reasons, women may not feel comfortable or safe disclosing violence. As noted by the non-profit network Women Against Violence Europe (WAVE), “the unequal power relationship between men and women, which is the root cause of violence, is also a barrier for reporting.”

So what are the implications of these obstacles to the collection of data on VAW? The above-mentioned interlinked factors that contribute to systematic under-reporting lead many studies into VAW to fall short of capturing the true extent of the problem. A nuanced top-down approach is needed to complement and reinforce the ground work that is being done by organisations and individuals across the EU, and policy is informed by data. Knowing the scope of violence against women therefore appears an obvious, though complex, element in tackling such violence; if we do not understand the nature of women’s realities then how can national and international organisations work for long-lasting and significant change?

NGOs working to provide services for victims of VAW offer hope for more accurate and comprehensive data collection, but their scope is often regional in focus and the information they provide varies as a result. Filling the informational void on the extent of VAW is an urgent task, and is a necessary part of a wider push in Europe to combat gender inequality at all echelons of society. Continuing efforts to address the range of economic, political and social power inequities felt by women (including rendering national systems fit for purpose) through both top-down and bottom-up approaches, are thus vital in encouraging women’s voices to be heard on their experiences of violence. Only then can we truly understand and address violence against women in Europe.

Nathalie Greenfield

Research Associate

(1) Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia are all yet to criminalise marital rape.

‘Can education stop abuse?’ Conference Programme

June 15th, 2017
Blog

GenPol and the Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation are excited to share the final programme of the forthcoming conference ‘Can education stop abuse?’

Conference Programme

Saturday 24^th June from 9:00

Location: Judge Business School. Please follow signage to the lecture room.

9:30 – 9:00 Registration
9:00 – 9:15 Welcome and introduction: Dr Lilia Giugni (GenPol & Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation) and Dr Neil Stott (Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation).
9:15 – 10:15 Group presentations “Sex and relationship education and gender-based violence: the state of the field”, chaired by Prof. Paul Tracey (Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation).
10:15 – 11:15 Group presentations “Sex and relationship education across institutions: good practices and innovative tools”, chaired by Mark Goodson (Cambridge Social Ventures).
11:15 – 11:45 Tea/coffee break
11:45 – 12:45 Key note panel: Norah Al-Ani (Cambridge Crisis Rape Centre), Dr Kerrie Thornhill (University of Oxford), Dolly Ogunrinde (Into University).

12:45 – 13:45 A complimentary sandwich lunch is served on site.

13:45 – 14:45 Group presentations “An intersectional approach to the study of SRE and gender-based violence”, chaired by Kate MacLeod (Estelle Levin Ltd).
14:45 – 15:45 Group presentations “Preventing violence: insights from the study of masculinities and online abuse”, chaired by Stefan Theil (University of Cambridge)
15:45 – 16:15 Presentations’ wrap up
16:15 – 17:15 Round table: Ky Hoyle (Sh! Women Erotic Emporium), Alix Fox (Guardian), Pavan Amara (My Body Back Project), moderated by Dr Lilia Giugni.

17:15 – 17:30 Concluding remarks: Dr Lilia Giugni, Dr Neil Stott & GenPol team.

Conference Dinner

After the conference, from 6:30pm, participants are invited to join us for dinner at Westcott College, one of central Cambridge’s hidden gems.