Student protests: a shot in the arm for Women’s Lib

Observers of the recent student marches have remarked on the relatively large presence of young women and schoolgirls, some close to the 'frontline' in clashes with police. Are we seeing a new feminist movement blossoming out of the student protests?

It should come as no surprise if we are, given that the rise in tuition fees will, it is claimed, disproportionately affect women. "I think there is a link between the women's liberation movement of the 1970s and the current movement," says Sarah Veale, head of equality and employment rights at the TUC.
 
Veale, a veteran of the night vigils and abortion-right marches of the late 1970s and early 1980s, understands why her 17-year-old daughter, Esther, was in Parliament Square a week ago.
 
"She is very angry," says Veale. "I feel a mixture of pride and concern about our daughter going on demonstrations. She was kettled at the recent protests and she’s not a violent girl. She likes to go, with her friends, carrying witty placards, because she believes in the protest’s cause. I wish them every success."
  
A positive change between the peak of the Women's Lib movement in the 1970s and now is that there are more female students at university.
 
“One of the great things of the last two decades is that there have been more women going to university, and there has especially been an increase in women from lower-income families enrolling in higher education” says Veale, who was an NUS member 25 years ago.
 
But there are negatives, too - hence the strong female presence at the barricades, especially in Parliament Square last Thursday (where the photo, above, was taken by Andy De Rosa).
 
Narz Massoumi, a Bristol University Phd student who was at the protests with her four-month-old baby, says it’s Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities that are most at threat from the tripling of tuition fees - all courses traditionally populated by women.

Some argue that the coalition government's entire strategy of public spending cuts is a regressive attack on women. The Fawcett Society almost forced a judicial review of the budget, arguing it wasn’t in line with the Equality Act.
 
The organisation, which monitors gender equality, has reported a dramatic increase in membership and donations in recent weeks. "It's not only jobs traditionally occupied by women that are going (care sector and social services) but also jobs that help women are being scrapped," says Sarah Veale at the TUC.
 
The implication is that women will face tougher discrimination in recruitment processes than they currently do, while single mothers and other vulnerable groups of women will find access to education, work and maternity care harder to come by.
 
And one factor that refuses to go away is the gender pay gap. While those in government like to point to the closing of the pay divide over recent years, the gap remains considerable, with men on average earning 10 per cent more than women according to a recent survey by the Office for National Statistics.
 
In short, there's still much to fight for, which is why students are promising to continue the fight against the raising of the tuition fees cap, beyond last week’s parliamentary vote.

As Saziye, a third-year media student at Greenwich University who took part in the Parliament Square protest last Thursday, said: “It’s for my little sister that I’m worried.” ·