Blog
Rangitaki

What kind of future do we want after COVID-19?

Women – particularly low-income women and women in marginalised communities – are bearing the brunt of the immediate COVID-response burden. Post-pandemic, will this inequity be entrenched, or can we catapult society’s priorities in this time of upheaval towards caring, human rights and real gender equality? At a macro level, the rāhui is arguably a feminist ...

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Posted: March 22, 2020Category:

Keeping summer festivals safe

Our youth coordinator Gabriella Brayne reports on her Consent Club leadership work. The Consent Club is a restorative-oriented, peer support system that works at festivals to promote a culture of consent. Our mahi has three focuses: education through kōrero and wānanga for festival goers; training volunteers to practice survivor-focussed, non-confrontational bystander intervention; and dealing with ...

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Posted: February 22, 2020Category:

Taking misogyny out of mainstream porn

A difficult but not impossible task.   At AWC’s “The Problem with Porn” Forum in early October, the four panellists were uncompromising when they explained why they agreed with the forum kaupapa. “Our ‘enemy’ is not pornography per se, but the sexism, racism and misogyny that saturates most of the most easily accessible porn,” said ...

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Posted: October 25, 2019Categories: ,

Kōrero with Tracey McIntosh

Radical honesty and joyous activism Her remedies for our unequal society   Matching hope and humour with clear-eyed analysis of New Zealand society, Tracey McIntosh (Tūhoe) was a warm inspiration at AWC’s last event for 2019. In front of a sold-out crowd at the light and airy West End tennis club, the Professor of Indigenous ...

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Posted: October 25, 2019Categories: ,

The equal pay amendment needs amending!

The current Equal Pay Bill creates more problems than it solves   The most recent statistics show a small improvement in the gender pay equity gap. However, if the current Equal Pay Amendment Bill becomes law without amendment, the Auckland Women’s Centre believes it will do little to facilitate narrowing the gap. In August, Statistics ...

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Posted: September 25, 2019Category:

Wāhine Māori used as economic ‘shock absorbers’ for too long

Authors say New Zealand needs to stop rewarding the rich and punishing the poor   “Miriama” grew up poor. She got a job early – the work was casual and insecure, and it prevented her getting qualifications for more secure and higher-paid employment. Now a sole parent, she is one of the poorest “precariat”, living ...

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Posted: July 25, 2019Category:

Muslim women speak out about feminism, racism and spirituality

AWC forum hears that refugees feared to leave their homes after the Christchurch attacks.   A Muslim woman – Fatima al-Fihri – founded the world’s oldest university, in Morocco in 859CE. Two centuries earlier, the first-ever Muslim woman Khadijah bint Khuwaylid was a merchant 15 years older than the prophet Muhammed: she was his employer ...

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Posted: June 25, 2019Categories: ,

National strategy required for contraception

We need strategic leadership from the Government on contraception Read the article here.

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Posted: April 25, 2019Category:

Law commission advice: To reduce court stress for victims of sexual and family violence

AWC welcomes the report, although much more action is required. Read the article here.

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Posted: April 25, 2019Category:

Abortion: A reproductive right

Access to abortion is a human right – and we need to make sure our politicians know it: that was the urgent message of the Auckland Women’s Centre’s successful recent public forum “Abortion, a Reproductive Right”. As student activist Ella Shepherd put it: “trust women, support women.” Read the article here.

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Posted: February 25, 2019Category: