Women Bishops and #womenleaders - Equalities, Inclusion and the Millenium Development Goals

 

 This week-end and coming week in York, London, Geneva, Vienna and Brazil – conversation is turning on issues around #WomeninLeadership, women in sport, women in the church and women on boards. This blog is highlighting an up coming event in St Pauls - on wednesday 16th July - by which time the outcomes of what is now taking place as I write in York will have been decided one way or another.

In York the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York will be on high alert - awaiting the outcomes of the voting of the General Synod – (this is the Church of England’s equivalent to the Houses of Westminster – it is an established church after all!).   In November 2012 the House of Laity failed to get through (they required a 2/3 majority – not just a first past the post vote) a critical YES vote for women bishops which would have belatedly brought the Church into the late twentieth century (such is the time lapse of many religious institutions) with the incorporation of women into the episcopacy.  

The Most Revd Archbishop Justin Welby
on the steps of St Paul's May 2014 with
over 700 ordained women priests who
have waited for over 20 years
for fuller employment rights - the
freedom to be appointed Bishops

This time according to a report in yesterday’s Guardian the 2 Archbishops have plan C in their back pocket to drive through legislation to allow women bishops even if it is rejected by the church's governing body, the General Synod.

Options under consideration are said to include an immediate dissolution of the synod with fresh elections called.  This then  could produce a sufficient majority for a special Synod convened in November. There could even be a special sharp shooting move by the bishops in the House of Lords – which would introduce the legislation without synodical approval. A dramatic sidewinder coming left field and without precedent in modern Church History – to set Ecclesiastical lawyers feet atapping.

Over the Archbishops' shoulders looms the potential that parliament might be so frustrated by the foot dragging attempts by the established church, to bring itself into congruence with late modernity and the spirit of equality in the UK, that Westminster would move in and remove the church’s current exemption from equality legislation.  

This exemption enables the church to foreclose full incorporation of  Issues in Human Sexuality (1991).

gay and lesbian people into its leadership functions – from the humble cleric in some dioceses, to prince bishop thrones in others – and multiple levels in between. The discussions on how it manages to achieve this travesty of contemporary understandings of Employment Law are worthy of several treatises of their own – but effectively the casuistry at present closes off gay/lesbian marriage and intrudes into the sexual life of same sex partnerships in a way unheard of for that of straight married clergy – in the now notorious script

 

#womenleaders  What Needs to Change
St Paul's Cathedral
 (http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/womeninleadership)

Meanwhile in London next week (16^th July) St Paul’s Institute is holding an evening conference on #WomenLeaders – exploring with Shami Chakrabarti for Liberty, Ceri Goddard Director of  Gender at the Young Foundation, Frances O’Grady General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress and including one of the few black clerics in the Church of England the Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin – Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons in its line up. http://www.stpaulsinstitute.org.uk/Events/Women-in-Leadership-What-Needs-to-Change

The Fourth World Conference on Women 1995 setting the
agenda for a great deal of the  international changes on the
rights and place of women in society today.

They will be exploring how one of the key United Nations' Millennium Development Goals of creating greater opportunities for  female empowerment has been responded to by politicians, business and faith environments – in particular that of the church.  And exploring what institutional, organisational or societal cultural barriers continue to undermine the will to realise the aspiration of the seventies to see equality of the sexes in employment, domestic reproduction, political life, faith bodies, sports, business and international development.  The platform for action was set at the Fourth world conference on Women in Beijing just short of twenty years ago in 1995. (You can catch up on this here.) The corporate, ecclesial, political, business, and legislative worlds move slowly - but moving they surely are. What women and women who aspire to leadership require most fundamentally is resilience, perserverance, some sponsors on the way and longevity - in order to see the benefit of some of the changes in their own lives, and not simply their daughters, neices or the generation which follows.

Which brings me to Brazil, Vienna and Geneva – but that must wait for another blog on what we have been finding out about the parlous representation of women on the sports boards of our national and international sporting bodies – ranging from Olympic Committees at national and international levels, FIFA, and indeed the Commonwealth Games soon to open in Glasgow.

Meantime share the love and the power of inclusion, and if you’re in London see you at stpaulsInstitute at 6.30pm for 7.00pm 16^th July – by which time the Church of England may have opened the slate for its first Women Bishops to be appointed.  

More on the implications of that and the things which every woman in leadership really ought to know in the IbixInsight series on Key Coaching tips for women in their time of Organisational Change in August.

The EU legacy on Women's rights

At a time when the UK government is considering reviewing EU membership and terms of engagement, and on a week-end when we have 'celebrated' International Women's Day - we have assigned our blog on this #IWD2014 to a presentation made by Dr Roberta Guerna - Head of the School of Politics at the University of Surrey - What has the EU done for women?  Just like the Romans you will discover more than initially you might have thought!

Guest: Dr Roberta Guerrina -
Head of Politics University of Surrey

What has the EU done for women's rights?

As we celebrate this year's International Women's Day, it is worth thinking about the role the EU has played vis-à-vis women’s rights.

The story starts in 1957 with the inclusion of Article 119 in the Treaty of Rome, introduced to appease French concerns over social dumping. Even though the principle of equal pay was inserted to ensure the fair competition between the member states, it has provided the legal foundations for all subsequent developments in the area of equality between men and women at the European level for nearly sixty years.

The European Court of Justice supported the direct effect of the equality principle in the Defrenne case of 1976 and established the necessary political momentum for the development of secondary legislation that would broaden the principle of “equal pay for equal work” to “work of equal value” (1975 Equal Pay Directive) and equal treatment (1976 Equal Treatment Directive and related directives of the 1980s). In a nutshell, by the end of the 1980s the European Community was swiftly moving towards establishing a comprehensive definition of equality of opportunities for men and women in the field of employment. Wider socio-economic trends in 1990s led to a renewed interest in the role of women as workers and mothers. The enlargement of the newly formed EU to the Nordic states added a new flavour to European debates about equality. After much debate in the Council and following a change in the treaty foundation – from Art. 119 (equality) to Art 118a (health and safety) – the Commission successfully championed the introduction of the 1992 Pregnant Workers Directive (92/85/EEC). This legally binding provision provided a minimum standard for the protection of employment rights of women who are pregnant or have recently given birth. It was certainly instrumental in shaping employment regulations relating to maternity leave and pay in the UK.  The 1996 Parental Leave Directive (96/34/EC) extends the right to (unpaid) leave to fathers. These provisions establish a right to six months parental leave, but what is particularly radical is that each parent has a right to three months leave, which is non-transferable. The principles introduced in this policy have been recently consolidated in a new Directive that set the standards for time off to fulfill the function of care (Directive 2010/18/EU). By the end of the 1990s the principle of mainstreaming had been included in the treaties and the body of European equality legislation provides a comprehensive safety net for women employed in the official labour market. The 1997 Directive shifting the burden of proof in sex discrimination cases is a clear example of the reach of European legislation in the area of gender equality in employment. This is not to say that the policies could not have been improved, but they represent a comprehensive set of legislation directly applicable at the national level and enforceable at the European level. It is also the most developed area of European social policy. By the middle of the first decade of this century the EU sought to consolidate its position as a gender actor. Two legislative acts are particularly worth of notice: 2004 Equal Treatment in Access to Goods and Services Directive (2004/113/EC), is the first legally binding piece of legislation that tackles equality outside of the employment sphere; the 2006 Equal Opportunities and Equal Treatment Directive (2006/54/EC), which provides a comprehensive framework against discrimination. Clearly these policies mark a shift towards a wider approach to equality between men and women. The European Gender Roadmap (2006-2010) extends the reach of EU discourse on equality. Casting the net very wide this action programme include issues ranging from economic independence to the eradication of gender stereotypes and a commitment to promote women’s rights in external relations. Finally, the launch of the Women’s Charter in 2010 to coincide with the 15th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action represents a high level commitment to challenging structural inequalities that prevent women from achieving their full potential. The European Union has been a positive force in promoting women’s employment rights. It has provided a safety net that safeguards women’s access and position in the official labour market and has helped promote a women friendly policy agenda. However, the achievements of the last fifty years must not been taken for granted. The economic crisis and associated politics of austerity affect social and welfare services that often enable women to participate in the official labour market. In addition, talk of “repatriating powers” and “renegotiating” the UK’s relationship with the EU focus on social policies, that often include employment rights that offer protection to, not least, women. The benefits that EU laws offer women and the protection they afford to their rights is an important part of Britain’s membership of the EU. The cost of detaching Britain from the EU will be particularly felt in the area of women’s rights. Copyright   Dr. Roberta Guerrina, Senior Lecturer in Politics, and Head of the School of Politics, University of Surrey