Swedish director Lisa Aschan's last year's début feature She Monkeys (Apflickorna) is coming to selected London cinemas on Friday 18 May (and to the Irish Film Institute in Dublin a week later).

Please see Peccadillo Pictures' website for details.

Bringing to mind films like Céline Sciamma's 2007 Water Lilies (ah, the joys of swimming pools!) or Catherine Breillat's 2001 À Ma Soeur! (oh, the perils of having an older sister!), Aschan's film remains fresh and original in its depiction of rivalry between two young female equestrians. The constantly tipping power balance and palpable sexual tension between the girls lead to unexpected twists and turns of the plot, making it a gripping viewing experience.

I reviewed the film for The F-Word last year so you can have a read here if you need more encouragement. WARNING: the review gives away some of the plot (but does not, arguably, contain any major spoilers).

0 comments // Permalink

Arguably the most prestigious (and indisputably most glamorous) film festival in the world opens tomorrow in Cannes, the French Riviera.

As it is the Festival's 65th birthday, no-one else but iconic (and resurrected) Marilyn Monroe blows the candles on the birthday cake.

In the next week or so, we will see many glamorous women (in their latest Armanis and Chanels) in the 'Fashion in Cannes 2012' sections of newspapers and blogs and will no doubt witness numerous heated debates on how much of a lady's leg is too much to show and why it even matters.

The bad news is that not a single one of these gorgeous (in all respects) women will be treading the red carpet as a director of a film listed for awards (the list comprises 22 names of film directors and has film critics around the globe drooling).

La Barbe, a French beard-wearing feminist direct action group (they became famous last year for protesting against evident sexism made explicit in handling Dominique Strauss-Kahn's case), wrote an open letter published in Le Monde last week (here original in French), expressing their disappointment with this situation (English translation here on CiF).

Most online commenters chastise The Beards for not offering any female contestants (which is true) and point out that the introduction of quotas (which they never suggest) would be bad for the Festival's prestige.

More interesting, and highlighting serious problems with the industry and not just the Cannes Film Festival, was the answer by Thierry Frémaux, General Delegate (quoted here in English translation).

"As a citizen, I fully support feminist activism," he said [how very French and republican - AO]. However (and haven't we heard this all before?), "as a professional, I select work on the basis of it actual qualities. We would never agree to select a film that doesn't deserve it on the basis it was made by a woman...Women's rights need be defended beyond Cannes, which is a consequence and illustration of what is going on." [The last bit has a slightly religious twang to it: do not protest in the church, ladies - AO]

Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?

Can women be in Cannes only as the mistresses of the Opening Night ceremony?

1 comment // Permalink

Hi all

Here's this week's round-up of some of the bits around the internet we haven't had a chance to blog about. Please add links in the comments section if there's anything you came across that you want to share too. Please note that a link here doesn't imply endorsement or agreement, and some links may be triggering.

• Of chick charts, hen charts and other such women's stories: Saba Dewan
• Owen Jones: The battle that men who aren't sexist must fight (Independent, Opinion)
• International campaign to stop rape used as a weapon of war launches in Cartagena, Colombia
• Sex shop Ann Summers and Relate ought to be unlikely bedfellows (CiF)
• Shape & Situate: Posters of Inspirational European Women at Victoria Baths Fanzine Convention
• How offensive is the word 'lunatic'? (BBC News)
• How the 'perfect storm of cuts' is shrinking one woman's life choices (Guardian)
• No Children of Ours: Rochdale and conveyor belt grooming
• The woman who lives in a shed: how London landlords are cashing in (Guardian Society)
• Four more arrested over naming of Ched Evans rape victim (Daily Post, North Wales News)
• The Muslim women who are excelling at top-level sport (Guardian)
• Workfare comes to the NHS, as unpaid workers take the place of NHS staff (The Green Benches)
• Rise of the puritan classes
• Missing intersectionality in sex positive feminism: the unaddressed racism in porn (Tiger Beatdown)
• Women's Health Mag Plans "Twitter Takeover" Olympic Issue (The Realtime Report)
• Vagina 'Brightener': Indian Feminine Hygiene Product Promises To Make Genitals 'Many Shades Fairer'
• High sickness absence might be caused by abuse
• Equality and diversity charter for music
• 5 Gender Stereotypes That Used To Be the Exact Opposite
• Dresscode: Blue tie and male (Elektronista)
• The only dress code is suitability
• Modernizing Modesty: The Hijab and Body image
• Treasury failed to test fairness of spending cuts, equality watchdog finds (Guardian)
• 10 things never to say to somone with an eating disorder (fuck Yeah Sex Education)
• PIP breast implants: 'serious lessons must be learned' (BBC Health)
• Rebekah Brooks lays bare the secret of her success (Guardian)
• A play about astronomer Caroline Herschel sets the record straight
• NY Transgender Woman Dies in a Fire, So Of Course the NY Times' Story is All About Wild Sex (Colorlines)

Photo of different coloured spools of thread, by The Shopping Sherpa, shared under a Creative Commons License.

2 comments // Permalink // Tags: weekly round-up and open thread

One of the few positive things in last week's Queen's speech was the government's promise to introduce new, flexible parental leave, in recognition of the fact that childcare should not be the sole responsibility of women. The specifics have yet to be set in stone, but one proposal - outlined on ConservativeHome - is for the £2 billion pot of maternity leave money to be split between all new parents, leaving couples to decide for themselves who will take time off from paid employment, how much and when.

The current system offers the birth mother up to 52 weeks' maternity leave: 6 weeks at 90% pay (unless you're self-employed), 33 weeks on statutory maternity pay (currently £135) or 90% pay, whichever is less, and the rest unpaid. Men or the mother's partner are entitled to two weeks' unpaid leave when the baby is born. Since 2011, partners can now also take up to 26 weeks of the birth mother's leave (additional paternity leave) at any time between 20 weeks and the child's first birthday. Only one partner is entitled to adoption leave (39 weeks at SMP), but this can also be transferred in the same way as maternity leave.

Rebecca Asher's Shattered includes a useful overview of other parental leave systems worldwide, including Norway (54 weeks: nine for mothers, six for fathers, the rest flexible), Sweden (480 days: 60 for each parent, the rest flexible) and Iceland (nine months: three for each parent, the rest flexible, can be taken by both parents at the same time).

There are a number of issues to take into account when considering parental leave policy. First and foremost, birth mothers need time to recover from the birth and - if possible - breastfeed their child. The WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months, and I personally think any parental leave policy must include six months provision for the birth mother as a minimum(whether she chooses to take it is up to her).

However, it's not much use being entitled to six months if you can't afford to take them, and we need to rethink how much money is made available to new parents, particularly those who don't have a working partner with a decent salary. Iceland manages to provide between 75 and 80% of the individual's earnings throughout the entire nine months, with a cap for high earners, so why can't we?

Take-up of parental leave by men is another sticking point. With the continued existence of the gender pay gap and some way to go in cultural expectations around the division of childcare, women may continue to take the bulk of parental leave, even if they would prefer not to. In addition, due to societal attitudes around parenting, men may find it harder to raise the issue of parental leave with their employers, and come up against more resistance.

Should we follow the lead of the Nordics and adopt a "use it or lose it" approach for fathers? This would likely help us move much more quickly towards a more equitable division of childcare responsibilities (as in Iceland). It would also mean employers could no longer discriminate against women of childbearing age, as men would be just as likely to take time off following the birth of a child. But if it comes at the expense of the birth mother's leave, it's hardly ideal.

Personally I also think it's important that couples can take leave at the same time if they wish, rather than just transferring it between them. I haven't had a baby myself, but I imagine it would be a massive help to have your partner around in the first few weeks, and men/partners should get to experience this important time too.

Finally, we need to address the negative cultural narrative around parental leave, particularly from business. This is neatly summed up in one comment on the ConservativeHome post, which refers to having children as a "lifestyle choice". Apparently the state and employers should not have to pay out or restructure their working practices to take new parents' and babies' needs into account.

Yet this is an incredibly blinkered argument. The state needs future generations of taxpayers, caregivers, workers. Businesses need a continual supply of employees and customers. Quite simply, we need people to have children. But if individuals receive no financial support or have to give up their jobs to do so, we'll either see a continuing decline in birth rates or an increase in child poverty, neither of which will help business, the state or society as a whole. Check out Zoe Williams' piece for more on the economic and demographic argument.

Forcing women into heterosexual marriage, required baby-making, confinement to the home and financial dependency - as some Tory policy-makers seem hell-bent on doing - isn't a solution either, unless businesses are keen to lose half their workers and women our independence and rights (um, no).

So parental leave makes a massive amount of sense. And to me it makes even more sense to extend it to all new parents, regardless of gender. Women, men and children lose out when childcare is assumed to be a solely female responsibility. It's high time we reformed the system, to everyone's benefit.

Photo by HoboMama, shared under a Creative Commons licence.

0 comments // Permalink // Tags: business, children, maternity leave, parental leave, paternity leave, work, worker's rights

With their debut album From the Mouth of the Cave finally hitting the shops on 4 June, Gaggle have announced that they will be staging a series of 12 London events (one for each track on the album) in the build-up to this, culminating in a performance on 8 June.

No other details of these particular shows have been shared yet but it has also been confirmed that the ensemble will be playing the Village Underground on 4 July. Tickets for this gig are available for £10 but, if you fancy writing a review for The F-Word, you can get on the guest list for free! If you'd like to be considered, send a message holly.combe[at]thefword.org.uk.

In the meantime, watch out for Hayley Foster da Silva's forthcoming review of the album. Here's a taster for the release in the form of an animation accompanying the single 'Army of Birds' (out 21 May).

You can also take a look at Hayley's piece about Gaggle's gig at The New Empowering Church in Hackney back in December.

Picture of Gaggle supplied by Work It Media.

Title updated at 14.25 on 14 May.

0 comments // Permalink // Tags: call for contributors, Gaggle, gigs, music, reviews

Guest blogger Lottie Prince writes about Moroccan law where rapists can hide behind marriage.

'16 year old Amina's parents forced her to marry her rapist to preserve their "dignity", she killed herself to preserve her own.' @hadearkandil - Hadear Kandil

Since February 2004, King Muhammad VI has reformed many out of date laws within Morocco to approve gender equality and human rights in the country. He bought the legal age of marriage up from fifteen to 18. Custody of children does not instantly go to the father. Women are no longer 'owned' by their husbands and forced to obey them. Divorce also now has to be consented by both partners.

Yet one of the cruellest laws still remains; Morocco's penal code states that a rapist can escape being prosecuted if he marries his victim. The article definitely does not beat around the bush. It is written in plain black and white over the space of 7 lines. The government have said since 2006 that they will change the law and the violence faced to women. Still nothing has been done. Ten percent of the lower seats of the Moroccan parliament have to be reserved for women. It is true that King Muhammad VI has made the country one of the fairest for women's rights in the Middle East, but one shocking and barbaric law seemed to have been bypassed.

On 10th March 2012, Amina Filali committed suicide after being forced to marry the man who raped her when she was 15 years old. The 5 month long marriage resulted in her being continuously abused and beaten, until she finally took her life by ingesting rat poison at the age of 16.

The article making 'rape-marriage' legal states that both parties must consent. Amina was forced into it to protect her family's 'honour', as the rape resulted in her losing her virginity. It did not matter that she had not consented to what she had to ordeal; she had blighted the family name. It is also unclear as to whether she would have been tried as a child or an adult. As a child, the man who raped her and tore her whole life apart actually had more human rights than what she did. She would have had no choice in her future's outcome.
Morocco's laws have now been pushed into the world wide lime light. We are in 2012 and the country is still living under incredibly outdated laws where men have total power and women are expected to 'obey'. President of the Democratic League for Women's Rights (LDDF) Fouzia Assouli stated that the whole law was an 'embarrassment' to maintain traditional practice in the country that allows men to escape punishment through marriage. As Amina's tragic story becomes international there is still hope that the law can be abolished completely from Morocco's penal code to stop such a brutal and inhuman event happening to another innocent girl.

Bibliography:
DAHIR N° 1-59-413 DU 28 JOUMADA II 1382 (26 NOVEMBRE 1962) PORTANT APPROBATION DU TEXTE DU CODE PÉNAL.

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This weeks music paste up includes two of the most exciting talents in rock music today in conversation: Tune-Yards and St Vincent.

Holly and I were also recently sent a link to a very exciting film about a Portuguese Riot Grrrl band, Everground, who were signed to Lisbon label Beekeeper. While this documentary was made many years after the band split up, it does still make for really enjoyable viewing.

Continuing the Riot Grrrl connection, Oxford's Secret Rivals will be touring in May and June, and you can see them at:

Port Mahon in Oxford tomorrow, with The Lovely Eggs
May 16 - Oxford Punt 2012 - The Cellar, Oxford
with The Cellar Family, Von Braun, Tiger Mendoza
May 19 - Sound City Festival 2012 - Mello Mello, Liverpool
June 8-10 - Wychwood Festival, Cheltenham Racecourse
June 16 - Riverside Festival, Charlbury

Folky renaissance woman Kathryn Bint, who records as One Little Plane, has a new album, 'Into the trees', which is out now on Kieren Hebden's Text Records. You can hear the eerily beautiful 'She Was Out In The Water' here. If anyone would like to review this album, please can you get in touch with me? Many thanks.

Meanwhile, this is the excellent Ms Mr with their new track 'Hurricane.'

Halifax/Montreal duo Purity Ring (Corin Roddick and Megan James), who 4AD describe as making "lullabies for the club, drawing equally from airy 90s R&B, lush dream pop, and the powerful bone-rattling immediacy of modern hip hop." release their debut album Shrines in July. There is something vaguely unsettling about their brand of electro pop, not to mention intriguing and, yes, I am once again looking for someone to review this album. If the clip below intrigues you sufficiently, please feel free to contact me.

The more guitar based Daughter have also recently signed to 4AD, and you can hear the poignant 'Landfill' below.

From newly signed to unsigned, this is the debut single by singer/recording artist Carol Rhyu and producer John Ho, who record as White Blush. A mournful eerie, delicate soundscape, White Blush cite their artist likes as Purity Ring, Grimes, Florence + The Machine, Cocteau Twins, Julee Cruise, Kate Bush, Nancy Sinatra and Nico, and from the evidence of 'Without You', it sounds as though the LA based White Blush will go on to great things.

You can find out more about White Blush by clicking here.

Until the next time...

Image of Carol Rhyu of White Blush provided by White Blush.

This piece was updated on 15 May on the advice of Carol Rhyu who has been having problems with her video on Vimeo. I have replaced the original clip of 'Without You' with a new upload on Youtube

0 comments // Permalink // Tags: Carol Rhyu, Daughter, Everground, Ms Mr, One Little Plane, Purity Ring, Secret Rivals, St Vincent, Tune-Yards, White Blush

feminism► noun [mass noun] the advocacy of women's rights on the ground of equality of the sexes.
-ORIGIN late 19th cent.: from French féminisme.
feminist► noun a person who supports feminism
►adjective relating to or supporting feminism
-ORIGIN late 19th cent.: from French féministe, from Latin femina 'woman'.

It's odd the shock that the declaration 'I'm a feminist', or 'I advocate feminism' can elicit. I doubt if I was to declare that I was a socialist, an anarchist, a tory, that it would provoke such questions. There seems to be a weird fascination, a certain taboo that surrounds the term. In general terms, people are unable to see beyond stereotypes when it comes to feminists. On numerous times I've been asked when I'm going to 'become a lesbian' and when I'm going to 'cut all my hair off'. Most of the time, I find such responses funny, if not predictable. People are scared of the unknown, and for many, feminism is just that - it holds a certain sense of antiquity, as if it's been relegated to the past and is now irrelevant. Feminism, for so many is such an alien, ungraspable concept that when they meet someone who openly declares themselves a feminist, they want to solidify what it actually means to be a feminist and what that actually entails. They seem to crave a definitive version of what feminism actually is; or realise its instability which will enable them to successfully discount it.

I'm wary of such definitions. Feminism isn't something solid and wholly definable. It is an unstable term, but for me that is one of its merits. Undoubtedly there are certain aims of feminism which are common to all of its strands, but equally it is subjective. What feminism means for one woman will mean something wholly different to another woman. Which is why it is impossible to impose an over-arching, hegemonic discourse upon feminism. But also why such questions and such a need for a definition is unsettling.

Someone once asked me how I could possibly dare to call myself a feminist and still strive for a breakdown of gender stereotypes. After all, inherent in the word 'feminism', is the idea of a segregation of gender, an innate difference between men and women and as a result it is self-defeatist and self destructive - what it strives to undermine it, through its very name, serves to reinforce. At the time I was speechless and absolutely furious; I saw the sense in the argument and as a result briefly saw the possible limitations of 'feminism' as both an ideology and a movement. What resulted was an ideological crisis. Sure, I know that feminism has nothing to do with creating a world where women are superior to men. I knew that feminism does not have one blind, all consuming, and furious purpose. I knew that it is possessed of hundreds and hundreds of different strands and facets. I also knew that his argument against feminism was limited and reductive, but I couldn't say exactly why. I could not articulate a solid and impenetrable argument as to why he was wrong.

Laughably it's taken me several months to realise what I should have said to him there and then. The origins of the feminist movement were to ensure equality between men and women, yes, and to bring to an end thousands of years of male dominance and female oppression. Obviously it had the interests of women at its very core. But feminism has changed; just as all movements and ideologies do, it has progressed and expanded and in a way mutated. Women's rights will always be at the heart of the feminist movement yes, but more importantly it is human rights which are at its core. For me feminism's aim is to see the destruction of a patriarchal system which does not just imprison women but all of humanity. Men are not the culprits here- patriarchy is, and men are just as entrapped by patriarchy as women are, just as the Wall Street Banker is as much entrapped by capitalism as the anti-capitalist activist. We are not rallying against individual people, individual genders, individual classes; we are rallying against a dominant belief system - one which has all of humanity by the throat.

To truly understand feminism, one has to look beyond the label. It's true that if you are thinking in terms of semantics, then yes, 'feminism' is a somewhat reductive and oxymoronic term. But that in itself is a reductive attitude, and you yourself are guilty of imposing those limitations. If you are to think in such imprisoning modes of thought, you may as well throw up your hands and surrender to the world we live in. There is nothing progressive about such a declaration. Linguistically, feminism is tied to women, but symbolically, it goes far, far beyond that. Words are signifiers, but what is signified can be wholly different.

Language is in itself phallocentric and, as a result, a tool of patriarchy. It is part of a Symbolic Order which forces us to view the world in terms of binaries (day/night, man/ woman, culture/nature, love/ hate) and as a result, artificially creates divides and a hierarchical mode of seeing. If you chose to think of 'feminism' in terms of its Oxford University Dictionary definition, then you chose to view the world in terms of such binaries. Such restricted thought results in the conviction that feminism must be part of a binary, it must have an enemy, an opposite and naturally there must be a group who are marginalised and excluded from it. This causes people to flatten and compress feminism into a narrow, aggressive ideology which is solely reserved for women, is purely concerned with women, is filled with hostility towards men, is tied to an elitist attitude and, as a result, lacks transcendentalism.

But it is possible to reclaim language and to see beyond definitions which are tied to and inextricable from patriarchy and its resulting binaries Ultimately, this will result in us having taken certain steps to rid ourselves of the 'ideology of domination'. Feminism does not signify a belief system that is tied to the feminine alone, instead it is expansive and wide-ranging awash with ideas of freedom and liberty and equality. Feminism is an unstable term and in this instance, this instability is positive. There is not one totalitarian definition of feminism, instead it encompasses innumerable strands and nuances. Do not think of it in terms of a binary, because such thinking is dangerous. Instead it is part of a dialectic and an all-encompassing fight against oppression.

'Feminism is not simply a struggle to end male chauvinism or a movement to ensure that women have equal rights with men; it is a commitment to eradicating the ideology of domination that permeates Western society on various levels- sex, race, class to name a few- and a commitment to reorganizing... society so that the self-development of people can take precedence over imperialism, economic expansion and material desires' - bell hooks

The photo is of a caricature of a woman cleaning the house, posted using the creative commons license from thisgeekredes.

19 comments // Permalink

I've always enjoyed Question Time, but watching it while on Twitter brings a whole new perspective. Following the #bbcqt hashtag means that every aspect of my amusement, fury, skepticism, agreement and more can be shared, and validated, with others live. What's more, the hashtag truly makes the programme 50 times funnier, because people's pithy comments and thoughts are spot on and hilarious.

So, last night I sat down to Question Time with Twitter loaded and ready. The second question was, "Was race an issue in the recent Rochdale grooming case?". If only the panellists had read our blog yesterday! I braced myself for some awkwardly-worded attitudes about race and culture, but what came next actually stunned me.

The first person to answer was journalist Peter Oborne. My jaw dropped open when he stated that

"One of [the things involved] was the young girls who accepted the advances of these disgusting men. What does it tell us about what's happened to our society that we have 12 year old girls, 13 year old girls, who are happy to give up their affection and their beauty to men in exchange for a packet of crisps or a bit of credit on their mobile phone?".

No sooner had he completed his victim-blaming tirade when an audience member contributed to the discussion. This man, a vicar, stated,

"Children are guided by peripheral ideologies and interests, where they feel it is appropriate, at 13, to go out - forgive me for saying this - I'm not saying the victims in this case did that - but it seems prevalent on the streets in the area - where they go out dressed as if they are looking for that sort of issue to take place. They don't give themselves the privilege of growing up any more".

Yes, he went there. 12 and 13 year old girls going out dressed as if they are looking for it.

The next audience member was a woman who feels that society is not "addressing race", and that "we've got to stop with this political correctness [...] We're not racist, but we want to address this issue". Yes. Not racist, but...

Next up was Tory MP Caroline Spelman. The first thing she did was echo what the judge in the case said, that it was "lust and greed" at the heart of this case, not race. Good. She also went on to point out that the sexual exploitation of women and girls is endemic. True. However, she then went on to add her own kind of victim-blaming to the mix.

"It's not an easy time to be the parent of young teenage girls. You can't just lock them up at 7 o'clock - we don't want to live in a country where we need to lock up young women at 7 o'clock. We try and give them the right values, the right instincts, to keep themselves safe".

Oh, Caroline. By this time, I was raging.

Giving girls 'values and instincts' doesn't keep girls safe. Men not raping them does. #bbcqt #spelman

— Philippa (@incurablehippie) May 10, 2012

And I wasn't the only one.

Absolutely amazed that a debate on the sexual exploitation of children is focussing on the behaviour of the children involved. #bbcqt

— Gavin Shuker (@gavinshuker) May 10, 2012

Tweets were flying by at top speed, such was the strength of feeling. The panellists, the #bbcqt hashtag, and even the word 'vicar' were trending topics, meaning that they were the subjects being discussed the most.

Even Mary Beard, who in every other way was wonderful, gave a response about teaching teenage girls not to be attacked, rather than teaching boys and men not to attack.

"@Claire_Phipps: "If I had a daughter, I'd tell her..." Nobody *ever* says "if I had a son, I'd tell him" But that might help more #bbcqt"

— Lucy Wake (@lucywake) May 10, 2012

Some of the audience members pointed out that the police failed the victims initially, as did the care system.

When it came to Lord Oakeshott, he thankfully made a point of saying,

"I'm sorry to disagree with the Minister of religion in the front, but I thought he was verging on that it was partly the girls' problems for how they dress or something. That cannot be right - this was an evil crime, whatever the girls were wearing, and we must focus on that, surely".

Finally! Then, sadly, back to Oborne.

"We have to ask, why were these girls so vulnerable? Why were they so ready to surrender that innocence for a bag of crisps?"

Then, god help us, we returned to the vicar. By this stage I was too apoplectic with rage to even hear what anybody else said. I believe he explained that we had misunderstood him.

Does it really still need to be said that these victims did not surrender their innocence for a bag of crisps? That they were not happy to give up their affection in exchange for a packet of crisps or a bit of credit on their mobile phone? That they did not go out dressed as if they are looking for that sort of issue to take place? Do we still need to point out that teaching girls the right values and instincts does not make any difference to the decision a rapist may take to rape them?

It was offensive, it was depressing, and it was terrifying. Mary Tracy on Twitter summed up the discussion well.

Not a single panelist mentioned the rapists. Race? Girls? Clothes? Sure. Rapists? Nah #bbcqt

— Mary Tracy (@MaryTracy) May 10, 2012

[The first image is a photograph of a woman sitting on the ground at the London Slutwalk, with a bright pink placard reading "Stop victim-blaming". It was taken by Tom Radenz and is used under a Creative Commons Licence. The second image is a screenshot of the Twitter trending topics which was taken by @laurevans311]

28 comments // Permalink // Tags: BBC, question time, slut-shaming, twitter, victim-blaming

Are libraries a feminist issue?

This is a question that I have been thinking about in the last few weeks. I am due to do a talk at the Victoria Baths Fanzine Convention in Manchester a week on Saturday, and this is one of the tangents I seem to have gone off on while pondering the wider area of women, fanzines, punk, riot grrrl and feminism. There are a lot of zines and websites about libraries, and they are frequently written by women.

I don't have any stats to back it up, but its been my experience that the libraries I've worked at here in the UK have all been female dominated. Some more blatently so than others, but as a rule I'd say at least 70% female, and in some very small libraries, 99%-100% female. Libraries are classed as being in the public sector by the way, and in the UK we have two women's libraries, one in London, one in Glasgow. They aren't related to each other, they just happen to both be called The Women's Library.

In mid March London Metropolitan University, who are responsible for the Women's Library in London, announced that they will be seeking a new home, custodian or sponser for the Women's Library collections. If a new home cannot be found by the end of December 2012, the Library will move to opening hours of one day per week for a period of three years, with a further review at the end of that period.

You can read the full announcement from London Metropolitan University here
and The Guardian have also been covering the story.

I don't live in London, but I've used the Women's Library for research on many occasions now. I've found the staff to be approachable and friendly, and the reading room is accessible both in the physical sense but also in the sense that accessing it doesn't involve masses of layers of bureaucracy. There doesn't appear to be a criteria you have to satisfy to access the collection, you don't have to apply months in advance, and as long as you abide by the reading room rules (which are sensible) then you can use the collection. Without the Women's Library both the punk women series and the Shocking Pink piece would both have had substantial holes in them.

But don't just take my word for it, read the save the women's library blog. There you will find good information about the library, and why the library deserves to be saved.

Libraries are not just places to go when the weathers cold, when you want to borrow a DVD, when you want to apply for a job online, they are also archives. They store things. The Women's Library in London stores women's history, and if it goes, so will a lot of that history.

On a similar theme of libraries suddenly looking financially vulnerable, the Working Class Movement Library in Salford, which includes an impressive archive of feminist pamphlets, journals, ephemera and publications within its collections, announced a massive fundraising drive late last year following funding cuts from Salford Council. Salford is a Labour council and, as such, has been especially hard hit by local government spending cuts.

As with the Women's Library in London, I've used the WCML to research women and punk. The two collections are very different in many ways, but there is occasional overlap: Both have the entire run of Spare Rib for example. But if you wanted to research Margaret Ashton, suffragist, pacifist and first female city councillor in Manchester, then the WCML would probably be a key stop on your research journey.

"We are recognised at home and abroad as one of Britain's most important collections of working class history. We are open for everyone to use without charge. The breadth and depth of the archives, books and artefacts makes the Library a vast and unique collection, capturing the stories and struggles of ordinary people's efforts to improve their world. Tony Benn has called us 'one of the greatest educational institutions in Britain'."

They say on their website, adding:

"Our founders Ruth and Eddie Frow started the Library in their own home, driven by the belief that working people should remember and value their own history. Together they rescued countless items which would have otherwise been lost to the future. In these turbulent times that history has never been more relevant - and the survival of the Library will depend on the generosity of our supporters."

In the US, there is a wikispace devoted to women in libraries, which describes itself as being somewhere writers can review "books, films and other publications of interest to the feminist library community"

Do we have a feminist library community in the UK? certainly I know feminists who work in libraries and, while I'll accept that there's an informal network of librarians and library assistants in the Greater Manchester area who are of a similar mindset, social group, have similar politics and tastes in music, I'm not aware of a specific network of feminist librarians in the vicinity. Modernists, certainly, emos and goths most definitely, and in many ways we are all Warrior Librarians and often a bit Unshelved as well, though - again - both US sites. Some things are universal though...

Picture of a woman sitting on top of a bookcase, entitled 'Hipster Librarian', by Super Furry Librarian. Used via a flickr creative commons licence

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