Women

About One Billion Rising

One Billion Rising is an international coalition of campaigners speaking out for action to tackle violence against girls and women across the world. 160 countries and over 27,000 individuals have signed already. Together with over 9,200 organisations, that include V-Day event beneficiaries, we are already reaching over 61 million people. It is taking place on 14 February 2013 to celebrate the 15th Anniversary of V-Day, the global movement to end violence against women and girls.

The campaign is gaining momentum nationally with workshops taking place across the country, media coverage from The Guardian and support coming from many public figures, from actors and comedians to politicians to everyday readers.

Find out more at onebillionrising.org. You can also find out more about specific UK events here: obruk.wordpress.com. 

 Read more about One Billion Rising...

This project is in collaboration with Stella Creasy MP and various schools around London.

Muslim Women in the UK

• Equality should be a lived reality for all. Yet Muslim women face a double discrimination on the basis of their gender and their faith.
• At GCSE level, the performance of Muslim girls as a group is better than the national average. But once they leave education, Muslim women are almost four time as likely to be unemployed as Christian women. 69% of Muslim women of working age are economically inactive.
• In employment, Pakistani women earn 28% less than White men, compared to 17% less for White women. The Department for Work and Pensions has estimated that between a quarter and a half of the ethnic minority employment gap is caused by employer discrimination.
• According to one poll, 57% of Muslim women say that they want to work. However, 64% say they need more practical support from the government in terms of access to childcare and language lessons to do so.
• Muslim women face the highest levels of inequality in health and housing in the UK. They report the highest rate of ill health among all faith and gender groups – 16%, compared to 8% of Christian women. A third of Muslim families live in overcrowded accommodation.
• The first three Muslim women MPs were elected at the 2010 general election.

Sources: National Equality Panel, An anatomy of economic inequality in the UK; Offices for National Statistics; Equality and Human Rights Commission, How fair is Britain? The First Triennial Review; Office for National Statistics

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 'I Can Be She' is supported by the Open Society Foundation's At Home in Europe project.