Pro-choice week of action

This month is the 40th anniversary of the legislation which partly legalised abortion in Britain. This legislation was a crucial step towards women’s equality – a recent study by the London School of Economics found that access to safe, legal abortion and contraception has been more effective in advancing women’s equality than any other equalities legislation.

I worked with women’s committee to run a week-long campaign to make students aware of this, and to encourage them to sign a card to their MP expressing support for defending and extending abortion rights in Britain. As well as holding stalls in the Union foyer and out on the concourse, we also visited halls of residence where we gave out hundreds of ‘pro-choice fact cards’ to educate people about abortion rights in Britain.

Our pro-choice cards to MPs were signed by hundreds of students and we’re now planning to go to MPs offices in order to deliver the cards and speak to our local MPs about their views on abortion. With Parliament expected to discuss legislation which could threaten to restrict abortion rights, now is an important time to make MPs aware of the importance of abortion rights and the fact that 83% of people in Britain support a woman’s right to choose.

To find out when we’re visiting MPs or to get involved in future pro-choice campaigning please email me – bryony.shanks@sheffield.ac.uk

Also this week I’ve worked with the University Counselling Service to run a relaxation workshop for women students. (You can find more information on other workshops and groups run by the Counselling Service here.) I’ve also continued planning the women’s party, worked with the environment team on our Union’s Sound Impact awards entry, held meetings on the Union’s equality strategy, and done two interviews with Radio Sheffield about the 40th anniversary of the Abortion Act. And how could I forget the polling duty and vote counting for the Students’ Union Council elections – congratulations to all those elected, look forward to meeting you at our first Council meeting!

Pink Aerobics - Success!

Hi everyone,

Just a quick blog about last week's fantastic Pink Aerobics* event. The money has now been counted and we've raised over £150 for charities supporting women affected by breast cancer.

Thank-you very much to everyone who participated, either by joining in the aerobics or helping to collect donations.

I'll post the photos from the event here as soon as they're available and I've worked out how to operate the upload photo option on this website!

You can find out more about the charities we're supporting at www.breastcancercare.org.uk and www.breastcancercampaign.org

Thanks again to everyone who was involved in the Pink Aerobics. Check back later this week for a blog on what else I've been up to in the last week...

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*For anyone who didn't witness the event itself, Pink Aerobics involves dressing in pink and participating in a sponsored aerobics class out on the concourse. Lots of fun, and only slightly embarrassing...!

Friday 5th October

Hope you’ve all had a successful first week of lectures and you’re not too overwhelmed with work already!

We had our first Women’s Committee meeting of the year on Wednesday, lots of new people attended and I’m really excited about the campaigns and events we have planned for the year.

We’re planning a campaign on equal pay – challenging the shocking fact that women graduates still earn 15% less than male graduates within five years of graduation. On 30th October we’ll be taking part in No Pay Day – a national campaign to raise awareness of the fact that the pay gap is the equivalent of women only being paid until 30th October while men are paid until the end of the year.

Later in the year we’re looking at a campaign on body image and eating disorders – over a million people in Britain have an eating disorder and young women and students are the group most often affected. Earlier this week I met with university health service to discuss how we’ll work together on this campaign, and on initiatives throughout the year to raise awareness of eating disorders and the support available for people affected.

In Week Four (22nd October) we’ll be holding a pro-choice campaign week. This is part of a campaign organised by Abortion Rights, the national pro-choice campaign, to mark the anniversary of the 1967 Act which partially legalised abortion in Britain. According to a recent LSE study, access to safe, legal abortion has been more important in advancing women’s equality in this country than legislation on equal pay or equal opportunities. Despite this, it’s expected that MPs will soon (unless the recent speculation about a November election is true!) debate a Bill which could restrict these rights. It’s vital that the 75% of people who support a woman’s right to choose take action now to prevent any rolling back of these rights.

If you’re interested in being involved in the campaign please get in touch – bryony.shanks@sheffield.ac.uk or come to our next meeting – every Wednesday at 4pm in the Pennines.

Also coming up soon is the annual Pink Aerobics event! Taking place on October 19th as part of Breast Awareness Month, this event aims to raise money for charities such as Breast Cancer Care, as well as raising awareness of the issue among students. The event is open to all students and involves people participating in an aerobics class (not as energetic as it sounds!) on the concourse while wearing at least one item of pink clothing. We raise money through sponsorship and also through collecting donations on the day. If you’d like to get involved – either by participating in the aerobics or helping with fundraising - please get in touch, or just turn up on the day.

Also this week I attended the first Ethical and Environmental Committee meeting where we discussed our plans for the year ahead, including how to improve recycling, encourage students to use more environmentally-friendly transport, and how to take forward the Union’s policy of opposing our university’s investment in arms companies. On Wednesday I also spent some time helping the Palestine Society to collect signatures on a petition in support of a Palestinian student who is being prevented from returning from Gaza to Bradford University to complete the final year of his degree – if you’d like to find out more or sign the petition please visit www.letkhaledstudy.co.uk.

That’s all for now – as ever don’t hesitate to get in touch if you’d like to find out more about anything discussed in this blog, or discuss anything else about the women’s campaign in Sheffield.