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Made In Dagenham Exclusive Preview

Dagenham, England, 1968. An ordinary woman fights for equal pay and achieves something extraordinary.

Golden Village is offering preview tickets to an exclusive screening of Made In Dagenham, on Wednesday March 23rd, 7pm at Cinema Europa ,Vivocity.

The film, from the director of Calendar Girls, stars Bob Hoskins and Sally Hawkins and is based on the true story of the the 1968 women’s strike at the Ford auto factory in Dagenham, east London.

A group of female sewing machinists staged a walk-out when they found out they were classified as “unskilled workers” while their male counterparts were considered skilled, and hence got paid much more for doing the same job.

The women stopped work for three weeks, and demanded equal pay for equal work. Their strike fast-tracked Britain’s Equal Pay Act of 1970 which made it illegal for employers to apply different pay scales to male and female staff. Read more about the Dagenham women’s strike here.

The advance screening will be followed by a dialogue session called Blog Aloud. Led by AWARE’s president Nicole Tan and honourary secretary Lindy Ong. Nicole and Lindy will discuss the film and explore the greater issue of workplace gender equality.

Date: Wednesday 23rd March
Time: 7pm (Movie Screening), 8:55pm (Blog Aloud dialogue session)
Venue: Cinema Europa GV Vivocity
Tickets: $10. They can be bought online here.

Kapap Ladies’ Self-Defense 2-hour Sampler

AWARE is offering a 2-hour sampler workshop on KAPAP Self-Defense. No frills self-defense training course for women of the general public, ages 13 and above. It’s easy to learn, practical, and safe to practice.

Here are the techniques you will learn:

– 3 principles of takedown

– shield

– stance and movement

– palm strike

– forearm grabs and hairpull

– street grappling

KAPAP is the Hebrew acronym for Face To Face Combat. It is the original combat system of defensive tactics, hand-to-hand combat and self-defense employed by the Israeli defense and security forces, the Israeli National Police, and its special operations and anti-terrorist units.

Sign-up details:

Sampler -2-hour Kapap Ladie’s Self-Defence

Date: September 24, 2011, Saturday

 

Time:  10am to 12 noon

 

Where:
AWARE Centre

How much?

Non-member -$100 for one sign-up or $180 for a pair sign-up
Member- $80 for one sign up or $140 for a pair sign-up

Reserve your spot now!  Click HERE to register.

Email publiceducation@aware.org.sg for more information.

This crash course gives you an overview of our 10-session Ladies’ Self Defense class, where you will learn so much more. See Kapap Women’s 10-session Self-Defense.

AWARE’s response to the 2011 Budget

AWARE welcomes commitment to building inclusive society
Media Release: SINGAPORE BUDGET 2011

18 February 2011 – AWARE welcomes the strong focus in the 2011 Budget on strengthening our society. We are heartened by the Minister’s assurance that steps will be taken to ensure an inclusive society.

We trust that this inclusiveness will extend to marginalised groups such as unwed mothers, many of whom are caught in the poverty trap and struggle to earn a living while also taking care of their child or children. As the Finance Minister said, Singapore needs to be a society where everyone can contribute to and share in the country’s progress “regardless of where they start from”. Unwed mother’s children should not have to suffer because of the way they began life.

Families with children
We are glad to see the greater support for early childhood education and caregiving services, and particularly the attention given to the needs of the low income groups. This will go some ways toward addressing income inequalities. If the provision of pre-school education and childcare is left entirely to the private sector, we run the risk of widening the inequalities between Singaporeans.

The measures announced are targeted at individual families. AWARE hopes to see more broad-based development of better quality services as well as more comprehensive support so that:

  • parents will feel more assured that their children will be well taken care of while they work
  • the care of children will be more continuous, that is, there are no gaps from the time they are infants and when they go to primary school. This will allow women to stay in the workforce.

Specifically, we would like to see broad-based development of childcare services in these areas:

  • Professional staffs who are adequately rewarded for doing care work. This work is vitally needed and is currently undervalued.
  • Enhancement of support for infant care, which is currently expensive and inadequate.
  • More after-school care programmes for children.

AWARE would also like to see 2 weeks of mandatory paternity leave, and the conversion of the last 4 weeks of maternity leave into parental leave so that both men and women will have better support to achieve work-life balance.

Our seniors
Aware applauds the Finance Minister for the proposals put forth to build up our long-term care sector and to make the retirement years of our seniors more comfortable.

The top-up to the ElderCare Fund, and the matching government grants for donations to the long-term care sector, will go a long way in helping our VWO sector. Attracting and training good talent in the NGO sector is always a challenge and we agree with the Minister that these efforts will help ease some of the resource pain of the voluntary organizations and the caregivers.

Aware is also very heartened to see the financial support for low income elderly people to improve their mobility and obtain devices such as wheelchairs.

Caregivers of the elderly and disabled are a very important part of an inclusive society. The families of elders and the disabled require some special attention and relief.

Aware would like to see more effective steps to lighten the load on caregivers. Specifically:

  • increased subsidies for women and men who care for dependent relatives (pegged to the median income)
  • conversion of the 6 days paid childcare leave into dependent’s leave
  • the expansion or creation of new schemes, with appropriate subsidies, to meet the transportion needs of those for whom public transport is not a viable alternative.

The younger disabled members of our society also require special consideration. We hope that the day care, developmental and mobility needs of this audience will be addressed by the government. An inclusive society will seek to empower the disabled so that they can become contributing members of the community and live with dignity.

As Singapore’s population matures, Aware calls for a multi-agency taskforce to study Singapore’s caregiving needs and to formulate programs and policies that will better meet these needs.

Helping the needy
We are glad to learn that the Public Assistance scheme will be revised and rates raised. We hope the revision will include a new flexibility in assessing who qualifies for Public Assistance as there are people who own a flat but are cash-strapped and unable to earn a living.

We also hope that financial assistance will be extended to foreign wives (of Singaporean men) who are in distress, and especially if they have children.

Women and employment
AWARE notes the emphasis on increasing productivity by way of business restructuring, increased use of technology and upgrading workers’ skills and capabilities. This means that people who stay out of the workforce will fall behind even faster than before and will find it hard to catch up.

We ask that the needs of women be taken into account in the implementation of this strategy. For example, mothers with young children should be given sufficient support to ensure that they are able to stay in the workforce and can participate in the various skills upgrading programmes.

We did not see any mention of increased infant care or after-school or before-school care facilities, the promotion of flexible work arrangements or provision of mandatory paternity leave to ensure that the working environment is conducive to allowing mothers to continue work. We hope that these provisions have been made and will be elaborated upon during the Committee of Supply debate.

Conference: Women’s Choices, Women’s Lives

Women’s Choices, Women’s Lives: Shaping the Next 25 Years

Update: AWARE is pleased to announce that sign language interpreters will be present at the conference. In addition, the venue is wheelchair accessible.

AWARE, together with the National University of Singapore Society (NUSS), is organising AWARE’s 25th Anniversary Conference, Women’s Choices, Women’s Lives: Shaping the Next 25 Years on 5th March 2011 at Kent Ridge Guild Hall.

This conference is a reprise of one held 25 years ago, which went by the same name – the pivotal 1984 NUSS forum, “Women’s Choices, Women’s Lives”. The conclusion of that forum was that Singapore needed a women’s rights organisation. As a direct result, AWARE was formed shortly after in 1985.

Marking the close of AWARE’s 25th anniversary celebrations, the conference aims to take stock of where women are today and explore the policy approaches that have been taken in the last 25 years and ramifications of these; and to collectively envision possibilities for the next 25 years.

Our Guest of Honour will be Dr Aline Wong, Singapore’s representative to the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women. The conference will open with presentations from the following experts and women activists:

· Dana Lam:
25 Years of AWARE, a retrospective

· Braema Mathi:
Sustaining Women’s Choices in Singapore – The Long and Short of It

· Professor Linda Lim:
Beyond Gender: The impact of Age, Ethnicity, Nationality and Economic growth on Women in the Singapore Economy

· Assistant Professor Teo You Yenn:
Making choices amidst increasing burdens: A Feminist Analysis of Singapore’s Pro-natal policies

· Dr Kanwaljit Soin:
The Forgotten Generation: Why are older women not valued

The second part of the forum will examine future possibilities. It will start with a panel of informed younger women and men sharing their views and hopes on the development of policies affecting women in Singapore.

The conference will then break out to discuss different aspects of the question:

“What possibilities do you see for greater gender equality in the next 25 years in Singapore?”

These recommendations will be collated and presented to policy makers after the Conference.

Click here to download the Conference speakers’ profiles and abstracts of their presentations.

Date: 5th March 2011
Time: 9am – 5pm (registration begins at 8.30 am)
Venue: NUSS Kent Ridge Guild House– Hall, 9 Kent Ridge Drive, Singapore 119241
(6779 1811) see a location map here. Parking is available at NUS Carpark 15 conveniently located just across the road from KRGH.

Tickets are $20 per person and $32 for two people.

AWARE members may purchase discounted tickets at $15 per person or $24 for two people by logging in first to the website and purchasing the tickets.

Click HERE to register.

For further information, e-mail to training@aware.org.sg

SPONSORS
High Commission of Canada

Five Women Leaders We Love

Congratulations to Brazil on the inauguration of Dilma Rousseff (right), its first female president, whose election promises include tackling poverty, promoting gender equality and supporting freedom of press and religion.

We at AWARE congratulate her and celebrate some of our favourite female leaders who have contributed towards the betterment of their countries and the world.

• Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany, and arguably the EU’s strongest leader, calls for the placement of more immigrants in the country’s civil service, deploring discrimination in employment.

• Hillary Rodham Clinton, United States Secretary of State, may have lost the presidential race, but she has won multiple awards internationally for her dedication to activities encompassing health, women and children. The American Ambassador to Singapore, David I Adelman, is working closely with AWARE on The Because I Love Her Project, where men stand up and speak out about violence against women.

• Rania Al Abdullah, Queen of Jordan, is dedicated to making quality education accessible, encouraging efforts in classroom quality, computer access and community investment.

• Mary McAleese, president of the Republic of Ireland and currently the longest-serving female president is the world. Although leading the country at a very difficult time, she is passionate about improving relations between the country’s Catholics and Protestants.

• Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Laureate and Burmese pro-democracy leader, has continued to fight for reform in Myanmar despite being under unlawful house arrest for most of that time. AWARE salutes her, and supports her continuing fight for her country’s freedom, now that she has attained her own.

– Tania De Rozario

A Budget with Room for Women?


Take the chance to give the Ministry of Finance (MOF) feedback on the national budget!

AWARE is keen to hold a discussion with members on this topic and would like to invite you to a briefing cum discussion that aims to result in a report which will be sent to MOF.
In this two-hour session AWARE-members will hear what a Gender Sensitive Budget is and also look at the analysis done by a few countries.

This is an important exercise as it reveals priority areas for Singapore as well as how people will be enabled to access an adequate standard of living. It is time to understand how budgets impact women and to also become more engaged on a fundamental document that actually directs how we live and make a living here.

The discussions will be led by two AWARE/CEDAW members – Braema Mathi and Lee Sze Yong. See the programme here.

Why does MOF want our feedback? Because MOF has recently stated that it wants to engage Singaporeans and businesses on issues relating to public spending and get views on what can be included in the next budget. Read more here .

Date: Tuesday 11th of January 2011
Time:7-9pm
Venue: AWARE office, see location map here.
Register: Send an e-mail to aware@aware.org.sg

Men We Love: The Because I Love Her Champions

AWARE is pleased to announce our four Champions for The Because I Love Her Project: US Ambassador to Singapore David I. Adelman, distinguished actor Lim Kay Siu, Former Nominated Member of Parliament Siew Kum Hong and Reverend Dr Yap Kim Hao.

Chosen because they are upstanding members of the community, and role models for all manner of men, the three individuals are spokesmen for The Because I Love Her Project.

The Because I Love Her Project is an online video campaign where men submit a video of themselves and their favourite female to Facebook. In the video they stand up and speak out about violence against women, saying: “Because I love her, I pledge to never condone violence against women.” Violence against women includes rape, sex trafficking, domestic abuse, emotional abuse and sexual harassment.

AWARE is grateful to all three men for their commitment to end all forms of violence against women, to give a voice to the non-violent majority of men, and for coming forward to champion the campaign.

In an official statement, US Ambassador David I Adelman (above, right) said: “The US embassy here in Singapore is honoured to work with AWARE… violence against women knows no socio-economic boundaries it affects girls and women in every country across the world regardless of religion or race. Economic empowerment is a critical part of combatting violence against women. That’s why today I’m participating in AWARE’s video pledge… and I urge you to do the same. Together we can stop violence against women.”

Rev. Dr Yap Kim Hao is Pastoral Advisor to The Free Community Church. He holds a Master of Divinity and Doctorate in Theology, serves on the Council of the Inter-Religious Organisation (IRO) in Singapore and is committed to the promotion of inter-faith dialogue and understanding. Rev Dr Yap told AWARE he is “very happy” to be a part of The Because I Love Her Project.

In addition to being a former Nominated Member of Parliament, Siew Kum Hong (right) is a practising lawyer and pro tem vice-president of MARUAH (Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism).In his video, which features AWARE bastions Corinna Lim, Poonam Mirchandani, Margaret Thomas, Dana Lam and Hafizah Osman, Kum Hong makes an empassioned pledge, saying: “Because I love my wife, because I love my mother, because I love my sister and because I love all these wonderful women, I pledge never to condone, commit or keep silent about violence against women.”

Watch the videos submitted by David I Adelman, Lim Kay Siu, Rev. Yap and Siew Kum Hong here.