Summer 2024 - Women Being Heard
This summer brings plenty of opportunities to have your say – from campaigns and projects about local issues in Dorset to national issues in the General Election 2024. This season is a season to be heard!
Women's Health in Dorset
We have been working hard in partnership with NHS Dorset and Health Innovation Wessex on a Women’s Health Project that will see a brand new online Women’s Health Hub launched in September 2024. The Women’s Health Hub will be a central resource of education, information, services available and signposting for all things related to Women’s Health.
You can be involved in 3 BIG WAYS!
1. Take Part in the Women’s Health Survey – but be quick, it closes on Sunday 16th June. We have 750 responses, help us to reach 1000 voices. Your views matter, and 1000 opinions give us a brilliant sample from which to make important decisions. It only takes a few minutes.
2. Volunteer to be a Patient Representative on the project’s steering group or governance panel. Do you have experience of using women’s health services in Dorset? Could you spare three to four hours a month to attend a meeting that oversees the project in order to make sure plans include consideration of the patient experience?
3. Tell us your story. Could you share your experience so that we can use YOUR story to help other women navigate the new Women’s Health Hub?. It is not always easy to know which service we need, especially when we have general symptoms like fatigue, bloating or pain. But we can all relate to stories and yours might help someone else who isn’t sure where to turn. All stories will be in video format and made available on the website but you may remain anonymous if you wish and we will use an actor to explain your experience. Email now for more information.
We Join Other Women's Groups to Demand Action to Reduce Violence Against Women and Girls
This week we were proud to be one of 7 organisations to have signed an Open Letter to Dorset Police, Dorset Council and BCP Council to demand better collaboration between agencies to prioritise the prevention of violent crime against women and girls.
We recognise that there are some great things happening, particularly by voluntary organisations and charities in Dorset – but unless all these activities are strategically aligned and working together to prevent violent crimes against women, we simply cannot reach the standard that women and girls deserve set out as Standard 2 in the Dorset Women’s Charter.
We believe we need Culture Change, Education, Early Intervention against perpetrators, prevention of Repeat Offending, Zero Tolerance, Male Allyship programmes, Transparency of joined-up Data and Collaboration across systems and communities.
We know what is ALREADY happening, the point is, it is not working as sexual violence figures are on the rise in Dorset and women deserve better.
The Open Letter can be found at linktr.ee/DorsetWomen
Want to be involved? Email us at [email protected]
General Election 2024
We have been closely following the run-up to the General Election 2024 and will be bringing you more information in the coming weeks about the candidates running in Dorset, the issues we think they need to be considering and their intentions about how they plan to represent you.
First up, we bring you reports from some of the leading national feminist organisations campaigning on behalf of women nationwide. These are their priorities for #GE2024.
1. Childcare Reform
2. Workplaces That Work For Women; and
The Young Women’s Trust manifesto campaigns for an equal world of work for young women and asks candidates to prioritise young women towards equal pay, equal access to work, equal opportunity, equal job security and equal treatment. Add your signature here.
The Women’s Resource Centre are campaigning for a Vision for a Better Society and have written a Women’s Manifesto on subjects that include:
1. Funding and Commissioning of resources and support for women
2. Economic inequality and the cost of living crisis
3. Male violence against women and reform of family courts and the justice system
4. Equality of Work
5. Women’s Health, Social Care & Housing
6. Women’s Rights
1. Investment in Social Infrastructure for equality.
2. Investment in green physical infrastructure.
3. Transforming the tax systems across the UK.
4. Transforming paid and unpaid work; and
2. Support for survivors – to deliver the right response the first time
3. Prevention of abuse by transforming societal attitudes and understanding
And to round off, which parties are making the greatest gains in better representation of women? Are any of them reaching 50:50? The simple answer is mostly no, some parties are doing MUCH better than others. But representation is WORSE this year than in the previous general election. Will that influence how you vote? Here are the stats (with great thanks to Elect Her CIC for doing the number crunching):
Overall, only 30% of all candidates are women. In the last election it was 34%
15% of the Reform Party candidates are women
28% of Lib Dem candidates are women
34% of Conservative candidates are women
43% of the Green Party candidates are women; and
46% of Labour candidates are women.
If you are woman from an ethnic minority, living with a disability or from the LGBTQI+ community, the stats are much, much worse.
Is this democracy? You decide.