Free Resources For International Women's Day

Friday, 8th March was International Women's Day and to celebrate it a number of free resources were made available online.

These include:

• International Women's Day page on the UN website. Has a history of the event, records of past days, news and basic facts and figures about women.
• ILO puts the spotlight on sexual harassment. See their statement
• Council of Europe International women's Day files
• International Women's Day Resources. Has videos & posters
• UK Government map showing UK government action to empower women across the globe..

Women Hold Fewer Than 1/3 Of Top Jobs - BBC Research

Figures compiled by BBC News show that fewer than 1/3 of the UK's most inflential jobs are currently held by women.

Women occupy on average 30.9% of the most senior positions across 11 key sectors analysed by the BBC, including business, politics and policing.The armed forces and judiciary have the fewest women in top posts - 1.3% and 13.2% respectively - while secondary education has the most (36.7%).

Campaign group the Fawcett Society said progress was still too slow.

"Men outnumber women by four to one in Parliament and only a third of local councillors are women," the group's Preethi Sundaram said.

"When we look at the top quarters of power in the political world there are only five women there out of 22… It's quite an appalling fact really."

The European Commission is considering new laws to get more women into the top management jobs. Currently, just one in seven board members at Europe's top firms are women.

You can read more on this story as well as statistics on women in top jobs here: Women hold fewer than one third of top jobs.

Girl's Attitudes & Role Models Explored

A new report by Girlguiding UK highlights a role model deficit among girls and young women, shedding light on how the narrow range of positive examples available to girls and young women aged 7 to 21 is linked to a limited range of aspirations for their futures.

The report, prepared from focus group research, says that girls who think it right to refrain from sex while still far below the legal age of consent are no more than “a significant minority”. Several of those surveyed admitted taking risks and pushing themselves beyond their comfort zone in order to feel accepted – drinking alcohol, partying and having underage sex. They justify their actions by referring to the abundance of TV shows that are seen to normalise such behaviour.

The full report is available here:
http://www.girlguiding.org.uk/pdf/GirlsAttitudesExploredRoleModels_FINAL.pdf [PDF 5.55MB]

Social Determinants Of Health & Well-being Among Young People

The World Health Organisation has published a new report which looks at how health and well-being inschool-aged children in determined by their social circumstances.

The report gives the results of the 2009/2010 HBSC survey, covering 39 countries and regions across the European Region and North America. It collected data from 11, 13 and 15-year-olds on 60 topics related to their health and well-being, social environments and behaviour. Responding to the survey, the young people described their social context (relations with family, peers and school), physical health and satisfaction with life, health behaviours (patterns of eating, tooth brushing and physical activity) and risk behaviours (use of tobacco, alcohol and cannabis, sexual behaviour, fighting and bullying). Statistical analyses were carried out to identify meaningful differences in the prevalence of health and social indicators by gender, age group and levels of family affluence.

The report is available to view here: http://www.euro.who.int/en/what-we-do/health-topics/Life-stages/child-and-adolescent-health/publications/2012/social-determinants-of-health-and-well-being-among-young-people.-health-behaviour-in-school-aged-children-hbsc-study

Changing The Game For Girls

A study by Loughborough University's  Institute of Youth Sport for the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation says that girls are not getting enough exercise because most are put off by school PE lessons.

Forty five per cent of those surveyed said “sport is too competitive”, 48% think it is “not feminine” and more than 50% believe boys enjoy sport more. The WSFC recommends making sport more appealing by offering activities like dance and martial arts at school.

The report is freely available to download here: http://wsff.org.uk/publications/reports/changing-the-game-for-girls