Save our Women's Officers

[photo source: YUSU]

It has been a few years since the number of women going to university exceeded the number of men doing so, and yet a glance through the YUSU website reveals the student union to massively over-represent men. There is not a single female Sabb this year. The Women’s Committee is essential to the student union, for two reasons: firstly, it represents women, a group woefully under-represented; second, Women’s Officers provide a welfare obligation set out in YUSU’s constitution.

The most worrying change this motion proposes is that the position of Gender Equality Officer(s) would not be restricted by gender, i.e. there is no guarantee that either position would be filled by a self-defining woman. This raises the possibility of a committee, ostensibly committed to gender equality, which could entirely subordinate women’s issues and representation under the broader umbrella of ‘gender issues.’ Women’s rights could be sidelined whilst the Gender Equality Committee deals with its much wider remit (which has not yet been specified by those supporting the motion, but would include men’s issues, and those who do not consider themselves on either side of the gender binary). Why does this wider discussion, whilst important, have to happen at the expense of a committee dedicated solely to women’s rights?

Can you imagine another liberation group undergoing the same change? Would it make sense to replace the LGBT Committee with a Sexual Orientation Equality Committee, whose officers could all define as heterosexual?

Men can, should, be feminists, be concerned with gender equality, and feel that their university recognises the gender issues they face. But it is absolutely essential that the role of Women’s Officer remains. Men encounter sexism in the form of enforced expectations of masculinity, which is pervasive and deserves critique; they do not suffer a lack of representation in their student union, or indeed in government: only 22% of MPs are women in the UK (Centre for Women and Democracy). They also do not suffer increased chances of sexual assault, a welfare issue the Women’s Officers deal with specifically and are currently organising a Reclaim the Night campaign for. If they succeed, lighting in the darkest areas of the campus will dramatically improve, allowing students (especially women) to walk to and from campus at night safely.

There have also been instances of misogyny which the Women’s Committee have been outspoken about, such as the advertising of a recent Tokyo club night which tempted students with the prospect of being ‘knee-deep in clunge,’ as well as other clubs handing out free alcohol to women who agreed to kiss each other on camera. If you are still not convinced that women are exposed to flagrant misogyny from their fellow students, consider the vote last year which led to the ‘lad’s mags’ in Your:Shop being uncovered. Our student union shop proudly displays publications which earn their living from objectifying women, whilst at some other UK universities, ‘lad’s mags’ are banned from union shops for this very reason.

Indeed, the role of Women’s Officer, and the Women’s Committee, has proven to be extremely effective in promoting women’s rights. Last year, the committee succeeded in making the charity Survive, who help victims of sexual assault and abuse, a RAG beneficiary. On a wider scale, the committee’s events last year included a collaboration with Amnesty to raise awareness of female genital mutilation (FGM). A petition for the EU to create strategies for criminalising FGM was signed by large numbers of students, not only in York but across Europe; the importance of solidarity across borders for women who experience oppression is key to the Women’s Committee. Is any appeal to liberality – ‘we should allow people of any gender to represent the women’s liberation movement’ – more important than the shared, lived experience that is integral to that movement?

The Centre of Women and Democracy have said that in the UK, ‘women are dramatically underrepresented in positions of politics, power and influence. This lack of women at the top table of politics sends a clear signal to other walks of life: it is acceptable to cut women out from positions of power.’

We need to recognise that this is not acceptable. It is absolutely unpalatable that women are not only lacking positions of power within YUSU, but that women representatives might actually be cut out of their own liberation group.

The proposed motion is a kick in the teeth for those women and men who have struggled, against a wall of apathy and indifference, to raise women’s issues and make palpable changes on campus. I urge you to vote NO to the Gender Equality Motion, and save our Women’s Officers.

The views expressed in this article belong solely to the author and not to the yorker.

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