The Rights Of Man

OH VIENNA!

as Ultravox sang in their number one hit in the 80's.

As one web-site has said Vienna is a European city that combines beauty and charm with culture, style and sophistication. However, PC madness knows no boundaries and this story out today (Link)shows that it even stretches to signs. Hardly stylish or sophisticated, more patronising and laughable.

It won't be long to one of the UK's council's takes this on so watch out for those 'Person at Work' signs in the road!

The Editor

EOC REPORT - A WOMAN'S PERSPECTIVE

I recently commented (5th Jan 07) on the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) Who Runs Britain Report which stated that a glass ceiling and sexual discrimination still existed in British public life because 33,000 women were ‘allegedly’ missing from top jobs in business, politics and the judiciary.

The evidence produced would have shamed a GSCE statistics student because the EOC do not prove any connection between these ‘missing women’ and any form of sexual discrimination.

Fortunately, at least of Britain’s last freedoms remain outside of the PC thought police – the free press.

Rachel Johnson in an excellent  article called ‘You Keep The Top Jobs, Guys’ for the Sunday Times (Link) on 7th January 2007 said that despite these facts and other issues such as smaller pensions and missing promotions ‘sucked’, it was ‘depressingly retro’ that the EOC report ignored the fact that some of this was down to women themselves.

She said “the whole report and the reaction to it, bizarrely depicted the workplace as a sort of hostile environment where all women were rammed against the glass ceiling….” She went on to state that if women want to be on top, they would be and described successful women who had made it such as Angela Merkel and Hilary Clinton.

The point she eloquently made that if women did not want to be top dog at work and at home, then it is more likely because they don’t want to be.

Rod Liddle in the same edition (Link) made a similar point with clarion cry “Watch out Ladies – the EOC is after you” describing the report as fatuous and of course, paid for by the British taxpayer.

Whilst Rod’s article was as spot on as Rachel’s, it is the latter that has more significance because it was written by a woman.

If only more women would come out against the EOC’s biased and unproven reports then maybe they would tone down their rhetoric.

SURVEY SHOWS 6 OUT OF 10 MEN SUFFER WORKPLACE DISCRIMINATION

A sadly overlooked piece of research emerged in June 2006 from online job portal, TipTopJob.com which revealed that it’s no longer just women that suffer from sexual discrimination at work (text of release from TipTopJob.com is below).

Some of the verbatim experiences included the experiences of men who could not find PA/secretarial work or lacked the supposed feminity of some roles such as air steward positions. Others included the age-old chestnut of men having to wear suits/shirts/ties whilst women do not have the same restrictions (successfully challenged a few years ago by a male employee of the Employment Service who had to wear a shirt and tie whilst women could wear T-shirts) and the lifting of heavy goods.

With these cases of gender-stereotyping and the proliferation of women-only courses in the workplace, especially in the pubic-sector, it is no wonder the figure is as high as 60%.

With male unemployment higher than female unemployment, the lack of courses especially aimed at men continues to be shameful. Added to the continuing decline of the manufacturing industry, many men wanting to re-train or find alternative careers are hampered by the brick wall of gender-stereotyping.

The employment issue comes down to the victorious ideology of political correctness which does not treat people as individuals’ first, gender/race second or irrelevant. The ideology fervently championed by the public sector and the UK elite places people into victims groups (except white men who are not seen as victims but either as irrelevant or as oppressors) and believes that everyone in those victim groups is the same with the same needs and wants.

The clearest example is the proliferation of women-only management courses. The courses assume wrongly that all women need management training and that all men do not need it and therefore men are denied access to this extra training offered to women. This, of course, is sexist, but it is rarely challenged and therefore has become the norm.

PRESS RELEASE FROM TIPTOPJOB.COM

13th June 2006
For immediate release

6 out of 10 men suffer from sexual discrimination in the workplace

Men are the new victims of sexual discrimination at work, according to a recent survey, which has found that 6/10 men feel that they have been discriminated against because of their sex.

The survey, which has been carried out by online job portal, TipTopJob.com, has discovered that it’s no longer just women that suffer from sexual discrimination.

Sexual discrimination occurs when a person is treated differently because of their sex and whilst we often hear about female victims, how are men being targeted?

The survey asked men to talk about their experiences of sexual discrimination:

• Some men admitted that they have struggled to find secretarial / PA work because they did not have the looks and charms of women
• Others reported that they lacked the femininity needed for certain positions. For example, one gentleman was told that he could not be an air steward because he was too masculine
• Several male employers felt that they were discriminated against because they were expected to wear uncomfortable suits, whilst their female counterparts are able to vary their work wear
• Some male employees felt that their sex meant that they were constantly carrying out tasks that weren’t in the job description, such as lifting heavy goods, moving office furniture and fixing broken equipment
• And one man felt sexually discriminated due to the lack of and quality of the men’s toilet facilities in comparison to the female toilets

Corinne Dauncey from online job portal, TipTopJob.com, said: “When sexual discrimination is talked about, everybody assumes that it is women who are the sufferers but the results show that men face inequalities too. 

“Despite there being a greater awareness to discrimination and inequality in the workplace, it appears that it is still an underlying problem for both genders – it is important that employers confront these issues and attempt to solve them.”

For more information on TipTopJob.com, please visit www.tiptopjob.com.

-Ends-

TipTopJob.com is an international job portal offering access to jobs and careers advice. As one of the most exciting recruitment web sites, TipTopJob.com has an abundance of jobs internationally and in the UK, covering over 34 industries.

Information on the survey

Survey 36 - "Have you been discriminated at work"

TipTopJob’s latest survey looked at the discrimination against men at work.
They found that 60.6% of men had been discriminated against because they were male and 39.4% had not experienced any kind of sexual discrimination.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AGAINST MEN : ARTICLE BY DAVID HUGHES (Chairman of The ManKind Initiative)

The Rights of Man has been kindly sent an article for publication by David Hughes, Chairman of The ManKind Initiative, a men's civil rights charity (Link). The article was first published in Right Now magazine c2004/2005.

Download domestic_violence_against_men_by_David_Hughes.doc

The article is excellent for anyone looking for an overview on the conspiracy of silence surrounding the issue of domestic violence against men.

It explains the statistics involved, the lack of refuges available to men and experiences of people like Erin Pizzey who wrote Prone to Violence in 1982 (Link)and then received death threats from feminists.  Her book was 'deleted' but fortunately is available on the Internet ((Link).

Its conclusion is that domestic violence is not a sex issue, but a social one and that domestic violence against men is a problem that can no longer be  ignored.

The Editor

GOVERNMENT TO PARTIALLY RECONSIDER ANONYMITY LAW

One of the most difficult and sensitive subjects is the area of rape and anonymity.

The Daily Mail (Link)and The Independent (Link)ran stories on 10th January about Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General who confirmed that "the Government were actively considering whether the law on compainant anonymity in sex offiences needed amending" (The Independent).

Both articles highlighted the case of Warren Blackwell was freed by the Court of Appeal after the women who had accused him rape had a history of making false accusations.  Of course, rape is hideous with the sentence of those convincted are not strong enough and certainly those found guilty should serve their full term and not be let out after half their time has been served.

However, the balance between the anonymity for a woman and the lack of anonymity for a man once charged should be reviewed.  This lack of anonymity for a man if he is found not guilty means that he is effectively tainted anyway.  Many men have suffered from this.

The Government, however, is only looking at changing the law so that a woman who has a history of making false accusations can be named.

The problem with this is that firstly it does not tackle the stigma of accusation for any man found innocent and secondly, there is the strong possiblity that some victims may be put off from taking their case forward.  The latter argument will be used against the Government by women's groups and then the law surrounding anonymity will not be looked at for a long while.

A more rounded solution would be for the defence to be allowed to state in court that the accuser has made a number of false accusations in the past, if true, and is a matter of police record.  The crucial point is that there must be a history of false accusations and these must be shown to have been clearly false.  If the accused is found innocent then the women should automatically remain anonymous unless there is this history.

The accused should also be anonymous unless convicted.  This would not affect the possiblity of women being afraid of coming forward and would mean that innocent men would no longer be stigmatised for the rest of their lives.

UNEQUAL ENTRY TO NIGHTCLUBS : UPDATE

On the previous post I mentioned the issue about unequal entry fees into nightclubs and bars.

Men's Aid have kindly sent over this link to the EOC web-site (Link) which has crystal clear advice.

It is illegal and therefore the club my friend went to was acting illegally. I will look to widen this campaign up later in the year to see if a list can be gathered and then all can be sent to the EOC.

As mentioned, if anyone knows of other places operating such a policy then please let me know at [email protected]

The Editor

UNEQUAL ENTRY TO NIGHTCLUBS

An interesting stroy reached the ears of the Editor about differential entry charging to some nightclubs and bars.

In December, a friend with some fellow mates (male and female) went to a nightclub in Covent Garden, London.

The club had a policy that women could enter free-of-charge yet men had to pay £15.

This policy surely flouts the SDA which prohibits the sale of goods and services to people of a different gender at a different rate.

This issue will be followed up at a later stage. If any fellow bloggers have information about establishments with the same policy, then please e-mail me at [email protected]

The Editor

EOC REPORT: WHO RUNS BRITAIN? PROMOTES SEX DISCRIMINATION

The day after the EOC failed to push any comments on the Ofsted report (Link) (Link) that boys need separate school classes to close the results gap with girls, it cannot get enough of its report on the alleged glass ceiling in UK plc.

It's report (Link) Sex and Power: Who Runs Britain? complains that because females are under-represented in certain walks of life such as the judiciary, parliament and FTSE-100 directorships then there must be a glass ceiling of sexual discrimination. They allege that 6,000 women are missing from positions they should have.

The EOC are only think about society in black and white terms. They ignore that some women will choose to want a career break (normally to look after their children) and therefore will lose some time/experience at the workplace which means a man (or a woman with no children) will likely to advance in a company quicker. In addition, why do the EOC automatically think that as many women as men want to be politicians, judges, FTSE-100 directors. They may do, of course, but the EOC are not interested in finding out if it is true, they just make sweeping generalisations.

The good thing is that the EOC receive more of a challenge to their sweeping generalisations nowadays with their explicit notion that UK society is anti-women and men are to blame. BBC Breakfast this morning ran a debate asking viewers to state whether they thought there was a glass ceiling or whether it was down to a woman's lifestyle choice. This is the first time that the latter counter argument has been put out by the BBC, normally the BBC give as much airtime to the EOC to rant their anti-men, pro-women propaganda. It was spoilt by their web-site which ignores the lifestyle issue when asking for comments.(Link)

The reason I raise the subject here is not to deny that more women should be in these positions of power. I have no real view one way or other, as I cannot pre-judge what motivates individuals who happen to be women. My concern is that the EOC want more and more positive action and they raise this in the debate. Positive action means negative action for someone else, that is, as ever, men.

The outcome of the EOC campaign would be that less qualified/experienced women will be able to leapfrog more qualified/experienced men into positions of power to meet a gender quota. This is anti-male, anti-freedom, anti-meritocratic, anti-equality and of course, sexual discrimination. 

THE EDITOR 

SANCTUARY SCHEMES- MEDIA SILENCE ON MALE NEEDS

Just before Christmas, Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly MP, announced a £74 million scheme to provide extra support for victims of domestic violence in their own home (Link).

The money is to be made available via local authorities who are to provide Sanctuary Schemes for their residents. Currently, 120 local authorities offer sanctuary schemes. This scheme includes providing a safe room (sanctuary) within a home fitted with safety measures, including the; installation of alarms, mortice locks, security lights and CCTV.

In addition, the addresses with a safe room will be flagged on police computers to ensure a swift response if an incident occurs.

Ignoring the argument that this one of the usual gimmicks from the government that gained the headlines for a couple of days and then disappears into the ether, there is one clear thing missing – the mention of male victims of domestic violence by the media covering this story.

Home Office statistics (Link) show that of those who are victims of domestic violence 60% will be women, 40% will be men and the government’s press release whilst mentioning women (‘to support women’s choices’), is largely gender-neutral. Yet, the media coverage spins the story into a gender-specific story, painting the issue of domestic violence as one that only affects women.

BBC News online for example (Link) is headlined “Abused Women offered safe rooms” and the only links to other sites are for Refuge and Women’s Aid, nothing for The ManKind Initiative which helps male victims of domestic violence. The article throughout is women-centric not helped by the usual and by default biased comments from the Minster for Women and Equalities, Meg Munn MP.

The story and the BBC coverage was challenged on their own blog (“Have Your Say”) on the subject, including comments by women. The very first comment on the blog was from a Rachel Miller who asked, “Will the installation of ‘safe rooms’ also be made available to men who are victims of domestic violence?”

The Daily Telegraph (Link), not for the first time, has  treated the issue in a one-sided fashion. Their headline in the story written by Nicole Martin and Laura Clout was “Safe rooms plan for houses of battered women” and The Evening Standard ran the story un-bylined under the heading “Panic rooms for abused women”.

The Daily Telegraph has plenty of ‘previous’ on this issue. On 8th December 2006, they ran a story by Joshua Rozenberg under the headline "Remorse : no way out for wife-beaters" (Link) and on 12th April 2006, they ran a front-page story by James Burleigh under the headline “Wife beaters who say sorry to go free” (Link) when both stories were about domestic violence generally. The latter article actually stated the 60%:40% Home Office statistics.

This lazy journalism and sub-editing reinforces the one-sided coverage and attention on the subject of domestic violence. This percolates through to the lack of attention that male victims of domestic violence receive from the public authorities ranging from the police, local councils and law-makers.

It is an issue worth complaining to the media or individual journalists about else the lack of balance will continue.

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