🎤 mic drop //
Learn more about the National Conference for College Women Student Leaders (NCCWSL), the annual leadership conference taking place at the University of Maryland, College Park, from June 2-4, 2016.
16 Ways to Mark 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence!
“Violence against women is not acceptable. It is not inevitable. It can be prevented.” — Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director, U.N. Women
The 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign begins November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and ends on December 10, Human Rights Day, highlighting the indelible fact that violence against girls and women is a human rights violation. This year’s campaign theme, From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World: Make Education Safe for All, highlights the “relationship between militarism and the right to education in situations of violent conflict, in relative peace, and [a] variety of education settings.”
Parallel to the 16 Days campaign, the United Nations’ UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign, led by U.N. Women, encourages “orange events” like concerts, flash mobs, and marathons featuring the color to take place around the world. These events will “symbolize a brighter future without violence” and launch the first-ever U.N. Framework on Preventing Violence against Women.
The U.N. 16 Days campaign invites participants to “orange the world” to raise awareness around gender-based violence. Image by UN Women, Flickr Creative Commons
But we’ve done some of the work for you. Here is a day-by-day guide to raising awareness about gender-based violence during and after the campaign!
Day 1: International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
Share the Violence against Women infographic to increase awareness of gender-based violence (GBV) as a global pandemic.
Day 2:
Swap your Facebook profile picture.
To kick off the campaign, all Facebook users can change their profile pictures to the 16 Days campaign logo for the duration of the campaign. Help spread the word and bring awareness to GBV and the right to safe, accessible education by changing your profile picture and inviting your Facebook friends to change theirs!
Download the campaign logo and upload it as your profile picture.
Day 3: Download and share the AAUW Ending Campus Sexual Assault Tool Kit.
Use these resources to raise awareness about campus sexual assault so that everyone can help make campuses safe for all students.
Day 4: Check out the international 16 Days campaign calendar.
Get inspired by what’s happening in your local area and globally. Visit often since activities and events are updated daily!
Day 5: Follow @16DaysCampaign on Twitter and join the conversation!
Keep reading and tweeting the AAUW blog for information on how violence affects education for women and girls, and spread the word on our International Fellowships for women around the globe.
It’s about time this made front page news.
Props to the washingtonpost for making campus sexual assault the cover of today’s newspaper.
According to a Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll, 20 percent of young women who attended college during the past four years say they were sexually assaulted, But the circle of victims on the nation’s campuses is probably even larger. In all, the poll found, 25 percent of young women and 7 percent of young men say they suffered unwanted sexual incidents in college.
READ MORE: http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/local/2015/06/12/1-in-5-women-say-they-were-violated/
Think colleges should be held accountable for sexual assault? We do. Tell your Rep. to support the HALT Act: bit.ly/HALTact
Live Blog: The Last Meeting for Making New Campus Sexual Assault Regulations, Day 6
What You Need to Know
After three months of hard work, negotiators agreed by consensus to a proposed rule to implement the VAWA amendments to the Clery Act (also known as Campus SaVE). This is a victory for improving campus safety – it takes these regulations to implement the new provisions in VAWA. The six sessions haven’t been without disagreement. If you’ve been following the liveblog you know that divisions were deep at times and that consensus seemed potentially out of reach. You can read about some of the compromises made by the group during the final sessions in the transcript below.
AAUW is gratified negotiators moved this rule forward – it will guide colleges and universities to provide prevention programming, clear policies, transparent disciplinary proceedings, and more comprehensive crime statistics. Students gain much from the implementation of the new law and these regulations – an advisor of their choice at disciplinary proceedings and more detail about how their school handles certain crimes, from reporting, to investigation, to disciplinary proceeding. In addition, the programming and awareness activities this law will spur have the potential to stem the tide of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking on campus.
There will still be a public comment period on the rule and AAUW will be weighing in. We hope you will too!
Read the live blog below.
Live Blog: Making New Campus Sexual Assault Regulations, Day 4
What You Need to Know
Analysis: Today’s meeting of the negotiated rulemaking committee on the VAWA amendments to the Clery Act was a bit rocky – the negotiators covered some of the more detailed parts of the draft rule (prevention programs, training, disciplinary proceedings) and opinions in the room varied.
The main takeaways:
- Some negotiators worried that the language on prevention programs was too detailed and couldn’t be applied to all types of schools. After ironing out confusion about how the requirement would apply to all students and employees (it would need to be offered but attendance wouldn’t be mandatory) the group still left up in the air exactly where they wanted to see the language go. The Department of Education, for its part, indicated that their goal is to allow flexibility in delivery of the programs but to ensure the definitions and requirements everyone works off are consistent.
- The disciplinary proceedings conversation seemed to create a divide between institution representatives and students and survivors, but also revealed that many around the table work at schools who are good actors on this topic, which isn’t always the case. The main points discussed: disclosing the sanctions being applied to students by schools following disciplinary proceedings, the role of an advisor in proceedings, and the interaction between sharing results of proceedings and privacy laws.
- The negotiators also discussed how the rule should indicate that Title IX will interact with various on-campus activities such as: training, investigations, disciplinary proceedings, and accommodations, to name a few. The Department has been clear that nothing in this new law and the regulation will change Title IX, and they suggested language to reinforce that point. Some members of the group were not completely on board with that draft language.
I’ll leave you with the positive note the Department tried to end the day on: days 3 and 4 tend to be the hardest in a negotiated rulemaking since so many details are being worked out, but there’s reason to be optimistic the group can reach consensus. The negotiators were encouraged to talk over the next month and think of compromise ways to move forward. Likewise, those following along can reach out to negotiators if there are suggestions for ways to solve some of the problems vocalized.
We’ll be back on March 31 and April 1 for the final days of negotiation!
Catch up on Days 1, 2, and 3: You can read our summary analysis or review the entire transcript.
Read the live blog below.
Live Blog: Making New Campus Sexual Assault Regulations, Day 3
What You Need to Know
Analysis: Day 3 the of the negotiated rulemaking around the Violence Against Women Act amendments to the Clery Act (also known as Campus SaVE) proceeded a bit differently from the first two days – negotiators had a draft rule to work from, and consensus-building was clearly on their minds. If you’re just joining us and wondering what negotiated rulemaking is, you can learn more here: http://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/hea08/neg-reg-faq.html.
A few things came up:
- Getting the definition of stalking correct is tough. How it interacts with Clery Geography came up several times and finding a way to ensure stalking is captured accurately in statistics is still in flux. Generally no sides on this, though — everyone around the table wants to get it right.
- There was some hesitation about setting a definition of consent in this regulation, but that riff mostly stemmed from university counsel concerns. The Department of Education explained a desire to ensure statistics are consistent across schools.
- The statistic reporting tool (a chart) is complicated and there’s still confusion (and resistance) around expanding it. The new law asks that we learn about more crimes on campus, specifically domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking– but this is being called “double counting” by some negotiators.
- Finally, confusion lingers around reporting for Clery statistics purposes and confidentiality. The Department of Education made clear, however, that there’s a lot of room to improve the draft or provide additional info in a regulation preamble.
We will be back at 9 a.m. tomorrow for day four!
Follow the day four live blog »
Catch up on Days 1 and 2: You can read our summary analysis or review the entire transcript.
Read the live blog below.
Live Blog: Campus SaVE Rulemaking, Day 1
What You Need to Know
Analysis: Today we were in the audience for the first day of the negotiated rulemaking around the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) amendments to the Clery Act. Ultimately, these provisions will help schools reduce campus sexual assault and violence. Negotiated rulemakings are an interesting process (learn more here: http://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/hea08/neg-reg-faq.html) and the day started with a bit of housekeeping – three new alternate members were added to the panel (one additional nominee was not), the group agreed to consensus procedures, and an agenda was worked out.
The rest of the day was devoted to figuring out the new terms that need definitions, and discussing concerns around statistical reporting. You can check out a picture of the big whiteboard of terms (ever expanding) in the liveblog for a sense of what was on negotiators’ minds. When it comes to data collection, there was a bit of disagreement and we’ll be watching this closely. Some negotiators don’t support reporting incidents of domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking separately from the current Clery crime categories, which include crimes like aggravated assault and burglary. Students and administrators might then lose the ability to assess the scope of these problems on campus, making it harder to put an end to them. We will be back Tuesday at 9 a.m. for day two.
Read the Live Blog Below
This is really important. We’ve all seen hundreds of Drug PSAs… how many times have we seen this?
Well played. I did a genuine double take.
Yes, yes, yes. Also, check out Stop Street Harassment.
(via pangurbanthewhite)
Look at this awesome hackathon focusing on solving violence against women. In their own words, “The Violence Against Women Hackathon is an attempt to address the challenge of domestic violence by building innovative technology solutions to assist the victims of Violence Against Women and the agencies that work to support them.”
We can’t wait to see what type of solutions and tools this group comes up with.
A fan asks Patrick Stewart about his work against domestic violence, and his response is amazing.
3:00 He talks about learning about the possible cause of his father’s abusive behavior.
5:50 “As a child I heard in my home doctors and ambulance men saying “Mrs. Stewart, you must have done something to provoke him. Mrs. Stewart, it takes two to make an argument.”
Women are afraid of meeting a serial killer. Men are afraid of meeting someone fat.
When Strangers Click, a 2011 documentary about online dating.
It reminds me of that famous Margaret Atwood quote: “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.” It also reminds me of something written by one of the mods of Sex Worker Problems: “Misandry irritates. Misogyny kills.”
I mean, it’s just true.
(via tealeafprincess)
“Misandry irritates. Misogyny kills.”
That’s it. That’s it right there.
(via oddpicturesoddpeople)
(via smellslikegirlriot)
Source: sonyasupposedly
Shakesville: Seen
“It’s why it’s considered more dishonorable to report a rape, than to rape a fellow soldier.”
Good read.
The Problem with 'Boys Will Be Boys'
For months, every morning when my daughter was in preschool, I watched her construct an elaborate castle out of blocks, colorful plastic discs, bits of rope, ribbons and feathers, only to have the same little boy gleefully destroy it within seconds of its completion.
No matter how many times he did it, his parents never swooped in BEFORE the morning’s live 3-D reenactment of “Invasion of AstroMonster.” This is what they’d say repeatedly:
“You know! Boys will be boys!”
“He’s just going through a phase!”
“He’s such a boy! He LOVES destroying things!”
“Oh my god! Girls and boys are SO different!”
“He. Just. Can’t. Help himself!”
I tried to teach my daughter how to stop this from happening. She asked him politely not to do it. We talked about some things she might do. She moved where she built. She stood in his way. She built a stronger foundation to the castle, so that, if he did get to it, she wouldn’t have to rebuild the whole thing. In the meantime, I imagine his parents thinking, “What red-blooded boy wouldn’t knock it down?”
She built a beautiful, glittery castle in a public space.
It was so tempting.
He just couldn’t control himself and, being a boy, had violent inclinations.
She had to keep her building safe.
Her consent didn’t matter. Besides, it’s not like she made a big fuss when he knocked it down. It wasn’t a “legitimate” knocking over if she didn’t throw a tantrum.
His desire — for power, destruction, control, whatever- - was understandable.
Maybe she “shouldn’t have gone to preschool” at all. OR, better if she just kept her building activities to home.
I know it’s a lurid metaphor, but I taught my daughter the preschool block precursor of don’t “get raped” and this child, Boy #1, did not learn the preschool equivalent of “don’t rape.”
Not once did his parents talk to him about invading another person’s space and claiming for his own purposes something that was not his to claim. Respect for her and her work and words was not something he was learning. How much of the boy’s behavior in coming years would be excused in these ways, be calibrated to meet these expectations and enforce the “rules” his parents kept repeating?
There was another boy who, similarly, decided to knock down her castle one day. When he did it his mother took him in hand, explained to him that it was not his to destroy, asked him how he thought my daughter felt after working so hard on her building and walked over with him so he could apologize. That probably wasn’t much fun for him, but he did not do it again.
There was a third child. He was really smart. He asked if he could knock her building down. She, beneficent ruler of all pre-circle-time castle construction, said yes… but only after she was done building it and said it was OK. They worked out a plan together and eventually he started building things with her and they would both knock the thing down with unadulterated joy. You can’t make this stuff up.
Take each of these three boys and consider what he might do when he’s older, say, at college, drunk at a party, mad at an ex-girlfriend who rebuffs him and uses words that she expects will be meaningful and respecte, “No, I don’t want to. Stop. Leave.”
The “overarching attitudinal characteristic” of abusive men is entitlement