Feminist Library Event – Care Webinar Resources

A series of online Feminist Library events during 2020, that focused on ‘Care’ in its various forms. Below are the resources that were shared during the event by the speakers and participants.

Webinar 1: 4th June 2020 – Care Workers in Crisis

Video:

Speakers:
Karolina Gerlich, Director of the Care Workers’ Charity (CWC)
Sue Himmelweit, Women’s Budget Group
Nadia Whittome, MP and care worker campaigner
At last, some attention is being directed towards workers in care homes, though the provision of PPE and adequate testing remains patchy, to say the least. But the plight of domiciliary care workers continues to be completely overlooked. Come and hear the testimonies of women who care in various situations, and find out more about the stress of working on this vital front-line, and how the vital work of caring, both paid and unpaid, has been neglected and needs to be reformed.

Resources

Webinar 2: 11th June 2020 – When Crisis Collide: Women and Covid-19

Video:

Speakers:
Mary-Ann Stephenson, director of the Women’s Budget Group
Eleanor Lisney, co-founder of Sisters of Frida
Wanda Wyporska, executive director of The Equality Trust

The Women’s Budget Group has worked tirelessly to produce a number of reports about the multifarious impacts on women of the current pandemic, so we are delighted to welcome them to the Feminist Library to share some insights with us about their findings. These shocking statistics must be a wake-up call to all of us to make sure that women do not slip even further behind economically as society returns to so-called ‘normal’.

Resources:

Some other organisations that have been doing good work in the area of migrant healthcare charges:

We talked about ‘the law of humanity’ and how we need a different way of doing things and working to come out of these multiple crises. Learn more about other relevant campaigns:

And last but not least, please donate to the Feminist Library and any of the organisations who have spoken that you might want to support:
https://feministlibrary.co.uk/support/
http://www.sisofrida.org/donate/
https://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/support-us
https://wbg.org.uk/donate/

Webinar 3: 25th June 2020 – Reproductive health(care) is care too!

Video:

Speakers:

Abortion Support Network – Mara Clarke – founder; volunteer manager and abortion funder
Birthrights – Maria Booker, programmes director
Brook / Ponton – Paula Wawrzynczyk – sex educator, Poland/UK
Decolonising Contraception – Annabel Sowemimo & Edem Ntumy
Fumble – Lucy Whitehouse – sex educator
Marie Stopes UK – Sarah Salkeld – clinical lead for early medical abortion

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have heard a lot about moves to restrict reproductive rights and limit access to healthcare provisions. In many countries, anti-choice organisations saw the pandemic as an opportunity to attack reproductive, women’s and human rights. Access to sexual education has also been affected. In the third session of our care series, we will be discussing reproductive health(care) and sexual education, and how the pandemic has affected the accessibility of these services, with speakers from Fumble, Brook, Ponton, and Abortion Support Network (and more to be announced). We will also be discussing these issues from an international perspective. We will be looking at the international context and how things have changed during the pandemic, and what we can do to support campaigns, organisations and activists doing important work in this area.

Resources:

Some resources were shared:

And last but not least, please donate to the Feminist Library and any of the organisations who have spoken that you might want to support:

The best way to support the Library is with a regular donation. You can sign up here: https://feministlibrary.co.uk/support/friends-scheme/

And other organisations involved:

Abortion Support Network – www.asn.org.uk/donate
Birthrights: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/charity-web/charity/finalCharityHomepage.action?charityId=1007158
Brook Charity: https://www.brook.org.uk/get-involved/donate/
Decolonising Contraception: https://www.paypal.me/decolonisingcontra19:25:53
Fumble: https://www.fumble.org.uk/donate/

Webinar 4: 13th August 2020 –Housing as a feminist issue

Video:

Speakers:

Mandy Ogunmokun, Treasures Foundation
Luchia Fitzgerald, housing activist in Manchester
Representative of London Renters’ Union
Representative from Sistah Space

After a short break, and as some of us begin to emerge from lockdown, we return to the question of how we can build a feminist future based on coming together to fight against the deficit of caring in society. Housing is one of the key areas where women’s caring and care for women has been consistently undervalued. In this capitalist society, housing is seen as a market and as an investment for those who own it and trade in it – this obviously conflicts with the concept of housing as a home. Decades of government policy has focused, in housing and beyond, on caring for profit rather than people. This means that social housing in particular has been going through tough financial times, which impacts disproportionately on women. To give just two examples: there is a big crossover between key workers and people living in social housing, and especially in the fields of education and healthcare, many of these workers are women and women of colour; the Covid-19 crisis has worsened the situation of many families living in overcrowded situations with no respite, leading to an increase in domestic violence, mental health problems, and loss of childcare provision.

Resources:

Coming soon..