DU Gender Equality Society

DUGES Rape Awareness Week 2009: Conference, Fri, Feb 20th

2009-02-20T14:11:00.000-08:00

DUGES Rape Awareness Week 2009

2009-02-19T14:09:00.001-08:00

DUGES Rape Awareness Week 2009

2009-02-19T12:49:00.000-08:00

Lisa-Marie Jonson works in video , performance, writing and in community art contexts she recently performed in holland, in the liverpool biennial and in cork at an bheal, her video work will be shown at The social forum brazil 09

The artist is influenced by her immediate environment such as 'home and the everyday'. Her subjects in her work are sometimes autobiographical. She is interested in the outsider and the vulnerability of human form, the vagueness of our existence within social terrains. Humor, play and remnants of Gothic and punk aesthetic. Lisa-Marie is a mother, artist and activist. She is interested in writers like Patti smith, Patrick Kavanagh, Pj harvy and Pj Brady, Lydia Lunch, Aine Philips, Arthur Rimbaud, Sylvia Plath, Sarah Kane, Pipi lotti Rist , Kim Gordan, Patrick Galvin, Dave Lordan and many more..

'Lying nakedly on four speeds, she stopped , she roared and she began again..'

lisa-marie 08

DU Gender Equality Society Rape Awareness Week 2009

2009-02-12T13:38:00.001-08:00

Monday Feb 16th:

Time: 7pm

Location: 2041B ARTS, (Ui Chadhain)

Event: "BRUNT": a performance by Irish artist/activist Lisa-Marie Jonson. Followed by a screening of the Oscar-winning "Monster" (2003).

Tuesday Feb 17th:

Time: 10am (Session 1) and 2pm (Session 2)

Location: The Atrium

Event: Self Defence Classes

Wednesday Feb 18th:

Time: 1pm

Location: Hist Conversation Room, GMB

Event: Senator Ivana Bacik speaks on rape law in Ireland. Refreshments provided.

Thusday Feb 19th:

Time: 1pm

Location: 3071 ARTS

Event: Avoidance Through Awareness Workshop.

Friday Feb 20th:

Time: 1pm

Location: 4050B

Event: Rape Awareness Conference with presentations by Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC), Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) and Rape Crisis Scotland.

Rape can affect anyone, irregardless of sex, gender, race, sexuality, class or creed. Please show your support for underfunded rape crisis/awareness organizations by dropping by our stand in the Arts Building from Monday 16th- Wednesday 18th, where DUGES will be selling tulips for the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre and giving away personal alarms to students.

Rape Awareness Week 16-20 February

2009-02-11T06:53:00.001-08:00

DUGES is organizing next week a series of events related to rape awareness. We will be screening the 2003 film Monster (Charlize Theron, Christina Ricci) and will be having talks, conferences and workshops all week.

Check out posters around college !

And most important, don't miss our free self defence classes on Tuesday - a great opportunity to learn some useful holds and have a good laugh at the same time :)

Monday 16th to Friday 20th of February.

2008-12-03T04:26:00.001-08:00

battle of the sexes!

2008-10-20T05:42:00.000-07:00

DUGES is holding a Battle of the Sexes pub quiz in partnership with DU Rifle Club. €4 in, plenty of prizes to be won!

Date: Oct 28th

Location: Doyle's

freshers week 2008

2008-10-16T17:42:00.000-07:00

freshers reception 2008 @ shebeen chic

2008-10-02T17:17:00.000-07:00

Best In Show

2008-04-19T19:32:00.000-07:00

Congratulations are in order for this year's committee on being nominated for Best Small Society at the annual CSC Society of the Year awards. Best wishes extended also to long-running DUGES chair Harriet Johnson who was shortlisted for Best Individual. (A lot of people would say Ms Johnson deserved to win, but DUGES couldn't possibly comment.)

The 2007 ceremony saw DUGES receive an award for Best Website. Not bad for a society barely past its first birthday! Well done, everyone...

International Women's Day Conference 2008

2008-04-10T21:57:00.000-07:00

DUGES saw in International Women’s Day with a conference in the Emmet Theatre dedicated to the issue of ‘Women in the Workplace’. Chaired by academic Maryann Valiulis, guests included Kimberly Prost, Ad Litem Judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia; Alison Smale, Managing Editor of the International Herald Tribune, and Maeve Kyle, former Irish Olympic Athlete and Hockey Player.

Topics raised included gender politics, sexual harassment and the pros and cons of positive discrimination in the workplace. It became clear that while the event celebrated advancements made for working women, there were further improvements to be made.

Kimberly Prost pointed out the lack of females appointed at the highest levels in various professions, while Alison Smale noted the difficulties involved in being a working mother. Maeve Kyle recounted her experiences of being an Olympic athlete in the face of public disapproval from the Catholic Church of 1960s Ireland. However, Prost’s extensive UN experience, Smale’s first-hand account of the fall of the Berlin Wall and Kyle’s far-reaching athletic achievements highlighted just how far working women have come.

After a screening of feminist documentary Rosie the Riveter [1980], the day drew to a close at the Westin hotel, where DUGES held a reception in honour of their guests.

Stand Up For Choice

2008-03-01T23:34:00.000-08:00

(as printed in Trinity News)

As International Women’s Day approaches, it might be fitting to give some thought as to what being female in Ireland has meant over the last century. All told, it has not always been a positive thing. The efforts of Irish women during the War of Independence were not rewarded in the aftermath, and laws restricting women’s roles in society became far tighter. In De Valera’s 1937 Constitution, Irish women were cast first and foremost as mothers confined to the home, the philosophy of which was brought about by the burgeoning influence of the Catholic Church on the nation. While the Church no longer exerts the same power, the ideology which enabled clerical child abuse and the Magdalene asylums in the past still informs the opinions of those who do not trust Irish females to exercise their own sexual and reproductive rights.

Slowly but surely, things are changing in Ireland. In September 2007, The Irish Times published the results of a poll which revealed that 54% of Irish women believe that it is time for the government to legislate for abortion on Irish soil, with majorities in most age groups. This figure increased to 69% in the instance of a threat to the woman’s life. Although the Irish government has reacted with conspicuous indifference in light of these figures, the Pro-Choice movement continues with optimism for the future with the support of progressives such as Ivana Bacik and David Norris.

2007 was a particularly dramatic year in the history of the abortion debate in Ireland. April saw the eruption of the ‘Miss D’ case, in which a 17 year old girl placed under State care was denied the right to travel to abort the foetus she was carrying. An ultrasound had revealed that the foetus had developed anencephaly (a fatal condition which renders a large part of the brain missing). The HSE contacted gardai to ensure that Miss D would not be able to leave Ireland to seek an abortion, unless it became clear that she was at risk of committing suicide. This evaluation was challenged by Miss D at the High Court. She told the assessing psychiatrist, “It’s my body and I should be allowed to do with it what I want.” The HSE’s decision was overruled, and Mr Justice Liam McKechnie criticised the organisation’s actions in attempting to stifle the girl’s right to travel. It is unclear how many more cases like Miss D, Miss C and Miss X are required before the government feels it is time to confront this urgent issue.

Furthermore, 2007 saw Pro-Choice groups call for proper regulation of crisis pregnancy agencies. Choice Ireland intensified their picketing of rogue agencies run by Christian fundamentalists, which claim to offer unbiased advice to women dealing with unexpected pregnancies. However, the information given to the women seeking their advice is deliberately inaccurate and misleading as regards abortion procedures, and is specifically designed to frighten women already in crisis. The Sunday Tribune journalist Christine Bohan described what she experienced when she went undercover as a woman seeking advice at the Women’s Resource Centre (WRC) on Upper Dorset St., an organisation with strong connections to the fanatical Christian Solidarity Party. Bohan’s female advisor displayed to her a number of images of aborted foetuses, describing the various ways in which each had died. She then stated: “You’d be pregnant if they left a bit behind”. According to Choice Ireland’s extensive research into its activities, the agency has also been responsible for telling Irish women that they cannot have abortions abroad until they are at least eight weeks pregnant, in many cases eliminating the option to have an early medical abortion. Without any medical backup whatsoever, the agency cites abortion as a direct cause of cancer, inferitility, frigidity, congenital depression, alcoholism and child abuse. Under current Irish legislation, any group or individual is permitted to set up a ‘crisis pregnancy counselling service’ without any kind of governmental supervision or regulation. Although two consecutive Ministers for Health have condemned the actions of rogue agencies, nothing has been done by the government to protect the women at risk.

The Irish Times poll further reveals that 42% of Irish women know another woman who has had an abortion. Considering the stigma and silence which still surrounds abortion here, it is easy to conclude that the statistic is, in fact, higher than first thought. Over 120,000 Irish women have travelled to the UK to terminate their pregnancies since 1990. This number does not include the many Irish women who, out of a sense of shame or secrecy, do not provide Irish addresses at British clinics. Nor does it include those women who have travelled to places other than the UK (which, in many cases, is the cheaper option), or women who purchase home medical abortion pills from internet sites. This reflects the stark reality that thousands of Irish women are, in fact, having abortions, and that they need a free, non-judgemental, safe and legal service on Irish soil which adequately protects their sexual and reproductive rights.

If you want to be part of the effort, please email choiceireland@gmail.com.