If recent allegations of sexual misconduct by Oxfam international aid workers have reminded us of anything, it’s that no sector or industry can be presumed to be free from those who would misuse their power and influence to exploit others whose lives and livelihoods depend upon them.
ON a dreich summer’s afternoon, a series of black and white photographs are projected onto a screen on the back wall of a Glasgow Women's Library committee room. As women file in one by one, shaking out wet umbrellas and shrugging off raincoats, scenes of cosy domesticity slide by: an elderly woman in an armchair reads to a young girl; a woman reclines in front of a fireplace in an expensively furnished sitting room; three smiling teenage girls sitting cross-legged in a bedroom.
WHAT makes the perfect rape victim? To most people such a question will seem abhorrent. Yet, despite decades of efforts to change antediluvian attitudes towards sexual assault, the myth persists that some survivors are worthier than others of our outrage, empathy and support.
NEW research has revealed shocking levels of sexism and harassment in Scotland’s public sector workplaces. Nearly two-thirds of employees surveyed by violence against women charity Zero Tolerance said that they had suffered or witnessed sexual harassment or innuendo at work, and one in 10 female respondents had been subjected to physical or mental violence in the workplace, including rape and sexual assault. Half had experienced sexual objectification, and the charity has warned of a "mental health time bomb".
IT should have been a typical get together in student halls at her Scottish university. Katy, then 19, planned to spend the evening socialising with a group of friends she had got to know over the course of the semester.
AS the nights shorten, broadcasters are unveiling their autumn TV schedules, and among the most eagerly awaited dramas is the third series of BBC2’s psychological thriller The Fall. Starring Gillian Anderson as DCI Stella Gibson, the enigmatic Metropolitan Police detective on the trail of Belfast serial killer Paul Spector played by Jamie Dornan, the critically acclaimed drama has become one of the channel’s most watched of the past decade, attracting over three million viewers.
