Kumbaya anyone?

I've been nervous about the EU referendum from day one. You see, it's all deja vu for me. I was about 10, when countries in the Soviet Block - of which my country was a member, split up and gained independence.

Although it made social and economic sense as that interpretation of socialism was oppressive, the consequences are felt to date. Almost 25 years later.  The consequences I am talking about are feelings of bitterness, divisive nationalism, and hatred.

These feelings resulted in a brief war in Transnistria, and I can vividly remember my grandmother's auntie talking about her son being blown up in the fighting, and I can remember not being able to go to school because the horrible sounds of bullets and bombs were too close for comfort.

My daughter is nearly the age I was then. And here we are in the UK and I can't shake the feeling that it's all happening again. I know it's not the same, but the atmosphere, the conversations, the questions are all too familiar. Most of it boils down to bitterness and divisive nationalism.

Budgets, layers, and motorbikes

Reflections of a feminist

As Chancellor George Osborne prepares to amuse us with an emergency budget (aka "summer budget 2015")  - amongst other things seeking to cap benefits at 20K outside London and introduce further austerity measures, I get a lot of questions about the impact of further cuts on women.

Without a doubt, women will be bearing the brunt of austerity most.

Before we even get to the question of gender equality in the face of tightening budgets, let's take a step back and see all extra levels of vulnerability that come with age, ethnicity, documented presence in the UK, and others. Creating various layers of vulnerability to austerity is not helpful. We are all in the same boat, and the boat is sinking.

In the face of a neoliberal budget proposal, we should stay united. United across age, gender, race and ethnicity. United - dare I say it - even across right to live and work in the UK.

Tackling Political Taboos - Immigration

We often watch with admiration documentary programmes about the migration of birds. At the same time we are very likely to accept politics of fear and rejection when it comes to migrants who are coming to the UK - be it because they are trying to avoid persecution and abuse, poverty and discrimination, or because they want to better their education and economic situation.

Most politicians tend to steer clear of any discourse supporting migrants in the run up to elections.  Migrants are unable to vote in the General Election and their voices don't seem to count.

I'd like to break the cycle on this issue. I am a migrant myself. A migrant who chose to make the UK my home because its values of human rights, equality, and fairness really resonated with me.  

Top 5 reasons for standing

Women's political activism reviewed

The general election is upon us, and everybody is jumping on the bandwagon of women and politics. Everybody that is except the Labour Party who are jumping in a pink minibus. But that is another story.

The main questions I want to explore is why are women not engaging with politics? And if they are not - either as voters or as candidates - why is that?

Social media is now buzzing with campaigns that are focusing on getting women out to vote - ranging from posters about suffragettes to hustings for women to meet the candidates and get more involved in the decision making process.

In Bristol, Bristol Women's Voice are partnering with Fairplay South West and Bristol Fawcett for a series of Women's Question Time across the city in the lead up to the General Elections in May. These will allow women in the four constituencies to meet the candidates. The motto of the event "women can win the general election!" implies that as a result, women will vote and elect a candidate that will represent their views best.

Impact of public spending cuts on women in Bristol

From a talk delivered at "Creating a Manifesto for Bristol South" event held by Green Party Candidate for Bristol South Tony Dyer on January 31, 2015. 

The impact of austerity on women's equality has been a growing concern since 2010. Independent research bodies, academics, and practitioners have highlighted in numerous reports how reducing public spending has a disproportionate effect on women. The Fawcett Society presents regular reports on the impact of public spending cuts on women that highlight the problems in details. 

As a practitioner who works with women regularly, I see how many women are becoming poorer and financially dependent. 

If we look at women in Bristol. the context in which we live is already putting us at a disadvantage when it comes to the economy, health and wellbeing, decision making, and safety.

Women's economic security:

• Over 40% of women living in Bristol South and Bristol East constituencies earn under the living wage (£280) per week;
• 25 % of children in Bristol are living in poverty; 29% in Bristol South and 60% in Lawrence Hill. 75% of these children live in lone parent families 92% of lone parents are women. The changes which require lone parents to move from Income Support to Jobseekers Allowance when their youngest child is 5 is likely to lead to an 8.5% drop in real income by 2015; 
• The occupational areas targeted for development by the West of England LEP are male dominated industries - aerospace, high tech manufacturing, low carbon, creative digital and professional and managerial. The policies and budgets behind these developments rarely take into account ways to get more women in board.

Come on Mark, let's make reading accessible!

I love reading! Reading is my hobby, my passion, my love. It allows me to grow, become a better person, and at the same time live multiple lives on different levels, through different characters. This is why Mark Zuckerberg's commitment to reading a new book every fortnight this year was great news for me!

Such a powerful public figure taking up reading as a regular activity is bound to inspire more people into the habit, right? And so it did! The first book of the year - The End of Power, a 320-page non-fiction tome by Moisés Naím, the former editor of Foreign Policy magazine - is said to have already been sold out. And this is where the tricky bit comes in.

This year, reading up alongside the 30-year-old billionaire is going to be expensive! The book is £ 7.19 to download on Kindle and £ 17.59 on paperback (although don't hold your breath, it's already soldout on Amazon!).

While a wonderful initiative, close to my soul, it will only reinforce the belief that growth and development through reading is a privilege.  It becomes the habit of the white middle class person, and these books will not be accessible to those who would benefit the most - people trapped in the welfare system, criminal justice, unemployment, lack of education, aspirations and opportunity.

I don't want to simply point out a negative, complain about it, and walk away. I would like to ask Mark Zuckerberg to work with Amazon and make the books on this year's list free. Not for the duration of the year, but the duration of the time he is reading them (ie. make The End of Power free for two weeks, and them move to the next book). Alongside him, millions of other people will read them and grow their love of books.  Amazon will only have to benefit from hundreds of thousands of new readers. Come on Mark, don't leave reading to the white middle class guy. Help make it accessible to every person!

Top 5 reasons for not standing

As I was considering stating in the general  elections 2015, I've spent a lot of time talking to women in Bristol about what is keeping them from being more engaged in the political process. Five main reasons have emerged, and although they are not the only ones, they kept on coming up again and again.

1. Lack of confidence came up in all conversations, and I can't say that I am unfamiliar with this feeling. As women, we are faced with confidence issues all the time - from our bodies and the way we parent our children, to the way we take care of the extended family and express ourselves at work. We often suffer from what is known as the "impostor syndrome" - a feeling that we are not as good as people think we are, and we are going to be found out any minute now.

Remember that time when you stood in a meeting and you had so much to say? But just before you came in you were unable to verify that data with a thousand sources, so you did not want to say anything for the fear of everybody discovering that you are not so clever? I do! But guess what - we are clever, we have a lot to contribute, so it's time to take off the cover up and step in the way we are!

Childcare: a working mum's problem or a human right?

I love my children. They make me laugh, they make me proud, and more often than not - they drive me insane (in a good sense, no need to reach for the phone and call social services! )! I equally love my job, I love meeting new women, talking to them about their lives, thinking about ways in which we can promote and support each other.

The two are often incompatible. No matter how many times I tried, taking a two year old into a meeting about the next issue of the Bristol Woman magazine does not make for a productive time.  At least not for me. Nor does taking a 5 year old to an interview with a potential volunteer. No matter how many gadgets you give them (the child, not the volunteer!), iPads, loom bands, pencils - the inevitable "mummy I'm bored" is bound to sound into your ears 15 minutes into the meeting.  I often have to take out the big guns - glitter and glitter glue, but then we all risk coming out of the meeting looking very sparkly.

Bristol can make a difference when it comes to women in technology

Don’t underestimate the power of a city with a difference to change politics and culture around women in technology.

This week we’ve heard that more IT firms are heading out to the West Country. Six digital firms are coming to Bristoland Bath.  The British Silicon Valley is set to be booming as Bristol and Bath have more high-tech digital firms than any other area of the UK, outside London.

As people get excited about the prospect of new jobs as firms announce plans to recruit in Bristol – is this good news for women in Bristol? Gender continues to be an issue for technology jobs. A recent meeting I’ve attended with a giant in the airspace industry revealed that under 10% of their jobs are taken up by women, and most of them are in female dominated roles such as HR, Communications, and admin. Technology insights report revels that of the 753,000 people working in the IT sector, just one in five (20%) are women.

Women have so much more to offer to the industry. We all hear about powerful women in IT, such as Facebook COO Cheryl Sandberg, or the CEO of IBM Virginia Rometty, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, or Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitma. The list can go on.

But we do not have to look so far in search of women who are transforming STEM (Science, technology, Engineering and Maths) industries. Some amazing Bristol women have shared their experiences of working in STEM in the new summer issue of BristolWoman. IT Expert Elena Hensinger urges all women to get geeky. She successfully runs local enterprise At Home with IT. Entrepreneur Angela Fumpson discusses with our readers the key to success for women in the Technology revolution. She has worked as an engineer all her life and is currently running her own company.

In one of our articles, local expert Catherine Dunford examines what the future holds for women in STEM – calling for a shift in politics and culture. Perhaps Bristol can take a lead on this. We live in a very special city. A city that likes to make a difference. As we are looking to expand our IT expertise, let’s fully engage women and make a difference.

On a practical level, Bristol Woman currently runs girls groups in several schools across the city. We would love to partner with IT companies and work wit the girls to embrace the industry.

Reaching Out to Women in Bristol

Can you help us reach out to and support women in Bristol?

Bristol Woman is a new social enterprise in Bristol. The main activity of the company is empowering women through wellbeing, leadership and enterprise.

As part of this, we produce a quarterly magazine for women in both print and digital format. The magazine focuses on women’s issues in Bristol and provides an opportunity for women across the city to discuss parenting issues, health and wellbeing concerns, business and enterprise, safety and violence, discrimination and empowerment alongside a wealth of other key issues vital to women in the Bristol community. Our current readership online and offline is currently at 15,000.

As we are looking at this year’s issue #3, we would like to open the opportunity for 5 Bristol based organisations to advertise in the magazine. The selected companies will have to adhere to our equalities ethos.   Advertising slots include prime slots such as inside and outside back cover and key pages adjacent to Editorial welcome.

Both issues 1 and 2 of the magazine can be downloaded free of charge on http://www.bristolwoman.org.uk, and have been made freely available in 28 libraries in Bristol, 90 GP surgeries in Bristol and SouthGloucestershire. The magazine is also available in some schools, local businesses, cafes and other public buildings across Bristol. Your advertisement will help us reach out to even more women across the city.

If you would like to propose article submissions for our Nov 2014 issue, please do let us know. We would love to hear your ideas!

To register your interest, please email editor [at] bristolwoman.org.uk.

#100Kin100days

Bristol Woman: Inspiring Enterprise

At Bristol Woman, we are focusing on 3 major strands: well being, leadership and enterprise. Last week, I have put in a bid to RBS – Inspiring Women in Enterprise to set up Bristol Woman Enterprise Zone. RBS is offering grants to help build the capacity of organisations that encourage and support women, who are not yet in business, to explore enterprise. It is an inspirational opportunity!

It was an exciting process as it allowed us to consolidate all the work we do around confidence building for business. The funding will help us to lay the foundation for some exciting work and within a year support at least 50 women to start their business and at least another 50 to develop their existing business further.

Research shows that women lack confidence in enterprise, but when it comes to business, confidence is as important as competence! The funding will allow us to work with hundreds of women in Bristol and boost enterprise confidence. If you want to find out more about this project, get in touch with us: ask-at-bristolwoman.org.uk.

#100Kin100days; #inspiringchange

Why a Community Interest Company

Damien Hirst's 22ft Charity statue was displayed in Bristol. 

When looking to incorporate Bristol Woman, there was the route of making it a Charity. Instead I decided a Community Interest Company (CIC) status is more suitable. It has nothing to do with our objectives, because they are very much social and for the benefit of the wider community. It has nothing to do with the opportunities for funding, because if anything it is easier to get funding as a charity. It has nothing to do with the public perception of a charity, because a charity is currently easier to understand than a CIC.

But it has everything to do with the individual woman and her agency. Bristol Woman was set up because we believe in the power of individual women to change the world. In our work with women, this is about the constant battle between agency and victim in the non-profit sector. “Charity” as a word is very much associated with helplessness, the need for some kind of an intervention to change somebody else’s life. The word itself is the embodiment of white middle class thought. It can at times be patronising.

I was wondering if it is an issue of English Language. I think it’s more about British culture. When I first came to the UK and became familiar with this word in it’s organisational context, I was somewhat surprised. In the US I was used to “non-profit organisation”. The latter somehow offers stakeholders the freedom to decide if they want to be a victim or an agent.

Over the past decade I’ve work with women across continents. Women who have been trafficked, women seeking to balance work and caring responsibilities, women’s rights activities, or women struggling with mental health issues – they all deserve the choice of being agents of their own destinies. This was the foundation for my decision to register the company as a CIC. In the context of my 100 day challenge to raise 100K, this is more of a problem then an asset. But supporting women by giving them the choice to be agents of their own change much outweighs that.

Photo: The statue, called Charity, is of a collection box of a girl with teddy bear and her leg in callipers.

#100Kin100days

One of those 100 day challenges

This week, I embark on a new journey. As I leave my job at Platform 51 (YWCA England and Wales, now Young Women’s Trust), I will be focusing on building and growing Bristol Woman - a community interest company. We have been in operation since November 2013, but I have not had time to focus on the company because of my job.

I’ve set up the company because I strongly believe that individual women can make a difference and inspire – in Bristol, but also all over the world. Three amazing women have joined me on this journey. Together we can change Bristol by providing creative avenues for women to share their stories, running workshops and mentoring schemes which allow women to process, adapt and embody confidence, and supporting women as they unlock their individual leadership potential.

How Bristol Woman came about

These are the few words I said at the launch of Bristol Woman on November 25, 2013 at the Mauretania:

I never thought I would be interested in women’s rights. I come from Moldova, a former Soviet country, and being raised indoctrinated by the apparent equality of Soviet socialism – I never questioned equality between men and women. It’s not until I started researching trafficking in human beings and other forms of contemporary slavery and violence against women that I started to open my eyes to women’s rights violations and where these come from.  I could not believe it then that I’ve had my eyes wide shut to such systematic violations for so long. As I was learning about case of physical and psychological abuse – my view of the world and of the state of women in the world has changed forever.

I now have two lovely daughters and the oldest one is very outspoken, emotive, and pro-active. If I had a coin for every time she was called a chatter box or bossy, I would not be here today, I would be in the Bahamas enjoying some sun.  But there is a problem to her being called that  - as it is bound to influence her continuing to be outspoken and pro-active into  her teens and adulthood. The youngest one is probably the same, it’s just that she is only 17 months and only learning to express herself.

Even I, being a women’s rights activist get the occasional instinctive urge to tell her to be quiet and listen more, say less, be less “in your face”.  That’s what society would expect. Just like any other women, I easily feel and give in to the pressure of society’s expectations. And then when we look around and see that women are underrepresented in decision making and leadership roles, we wonder “why?”.

To be or not to be...

I often think I’d like to be a writer. Captivate audiences with interesting topics, have a sophisticated and witty style. I can almost see it – sitting at a desk with a view of  some greenery in a nice tranquil village. Writing away at my desk. A nice candle burning away by my side, inspiring a finger dance on the keyboard.

Except then reality hits and I am in a Bristol suburb, crowded houses outside my window, not a site of candles, dreading the blank page on my screen. If anything, having to write will more often frustrate me.  I get very excited and passionate when I talk about things like migration, or women’s rights, but I actually dread putting the thoughts on paper.

I always wonder why that is. And I also wonder if it is better to pursue such dreams until we perfect our skill, or if it is best to leave it and move on to things that are easier for us to do and develop a passion for them instead. What has your experience been?

This is what a feminist looks like

There was a time, when I was in my mid 20’s when I too thought feminism was a dirty word. It was a Saturday night in lower Manhattan, and I got into an argument with my friend over him buying me drinks. As we stepped out of the bar into warmth of a New York summer night, he offered to take me home and I politely declined making my way towards a stuffy subway.   

A few other girlfriends joined me and as we were giggling away I heard him mutter something including the word feminist. I don’t quite remember what he said, but I remember feeling offended. How dare him call me that! As we waited for the subway for what seemed like hours, I could not get over the fact that I was just called a feminist.

It took nearly 10 years, but I did finally get to a point where being called a feminist is a compliment. Makes me feel proud, and I think I finally got something right. The thing is, because of the way feminism is portrayed in mainstream culture, I’ve wasted a lot of my active youth years trying to disassociate myself from this concept. And a lot of other young women do too. 

Perhaps it’s time we reinvent feminism. Or just clear its name from all the negative connotations our patriarchal society has attached to it. It’s also time we bring feminism home – and by home I mean making it a part of our daily lives.  Perhaps making feminism practical can engage more young women.

Women in Business

This week I went to the launch of Bristol and Somerset women in business awards. It was a VIP event and I wanted to make sure I am dressed for the occasion. But as I was leaving the house, there was not much I could do about the snot patches on my clothes from my lovely toddler who was trying to hang on to my leg as if her life depended on it.

A friend told me later that at the feet of every successful business woman is a snot covered toddler. I used to think that at the feet of every successful woman is the world. Now I know my friend is right. The world is nothing compared to the toddler.

After meeting some brilliant and inspiring women at the event, I saw that most of them are juggling children and business. They are leaders both in business and at home. And although the awards recognize the hard work that goes into making motherhood and business work through the Business Mother category, it’s important we recognize that most of the women in other categories will be mothers. Hard working women shaping the business of tomorrow and the new generation.