101 reasons for liberation
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101 reasons for liberation campaigns in your student union.TRANSCRIPT
reasons forliberationin your students’ union
101
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For statistical references please go to: www.officeronline.co.uk
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LiberationLiberation from discrimination is something that millions of
students across Britain are still fighting for. Oppression for
students today can mean anything from name-calling to
violent attacks and death.
Your students’ union has a responsibility to represent
these groups of students, campaign for their equality,
celebrate their diversity, and ensure that your college or
university exercises zero tolerance of discrimination!
Here are 101 reasons why every Union needs a Black
Students’ Officer, a Disabled Students’ Officer, an LGBT
Officer, and a Women’s Officer!
101 reasons for liberation
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101 reasons for liberation
General1. Discrimination still exists for Black students, minority
ethnic students, LGBT students, disabled students
and women students
2. If you add up all the Black, disabled, LGBT and
women students, they are s almost certainly the
majority of students at your institution!
3. Liberation officers run lots of cool initiatives like
campaigns, events, fundraisers, club nights, plays
and much, much more for your students!
4. Nationally, your students can be better represented
5. Your students’ union can remain at the cutting edge
of campaigns for equality in education
6. Having Liberation Officers mean that Black, disabled,
LGBT, and women students are represented within your
union – every year – not just when a Black, disabled,
LGBT or woman student happens to be elected
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women students
Women students7. It will take women significantly longer to pay back
their student debts than men (because of the pay
gap, maternity leave, etc)
8. On average, women are paid 17% less than men in
full time work, and 38% less in part time work
9. 1 in 4 women experience domestic violence
10. Women make up under 20% of British MPs in
Parliament today
11. 70% of the world’s poor are women
12. Only 11.1% of university vice chancellors are women
13. Less than 30% of college principals are women
14. 2 women are murdered every week in Britain by their
current or former partner
15. Women own less than 1% of the world’s property
16. Only 49% of disabled women are in work
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women students
17. Two-thirds of the world’s illiterate people are women
18. A plane load of women die each week as a result of
unsafe abortions in the world
19. More than 90% of hairdressing apprentices are
women, whereas over 90% of construction, motor
and plumbing apprentices are men
20. 16% of women experience stalking in their lives
21. 1 in 10 senior police officers are women
22. On average, a woman victim of domestic violence has
11 contacts with support agencies before she gets the
help she needs – this rises to 17 if she is Black
23. At the current rate it will take 200 years before there is
gender equality in Parliament
24. Women’s Officers run awesome events like the
Vagina Monologues, International Women’s Week,
and campaigns against rape and violence on campus
25. Women are far less likely to be students’ union
presidents than men
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women students
26. Women’s bodies are used to sell everything from
soap bars to cars
27. Today, women are still being excluded from schools,
colleges and universities for getting pregnant
28. 42% of women homicide victims (compared to 4% of
men) were killed by a current or former male partner
in 2001
29. There are only 2 Black women MPs in Parliament –
and 13 men
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black students
Black students30. There are only 15 Black MPs in Parliament, but if the
numbers of MPs reflected the amount of Black
people in Britain today, there would be 55 MPs
31. Black students face discrimination throughout
education: despite higher achievements on entry,
they leave school with lower grades and are more
likely to be excluded. They face discrimination in
admissions to elite universities and are awarded
lower marks where anonymous marking is not
implemented
32. Research by the DfES found that Black students are
less likely to get a first class degree when all other
factors are equal. Discrimination is rife in education
33. Research has also found that more African-
Caribbean students study at one university – London
Metropolitan – than the top 19 institutions combined
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black students
34. Annual top-up fees of £3,000 introduced in 2006,
burden Black students with decades of debt as
Black graduates are 4 times more likely to be
unemployed than white graduates so get saddled
with debts for longer
35. The number of pupils excluded on the grounds of
racist bullying has risen by 29% between since 2004
36. African-Caribbean boys are 3 times more likely to be
permanently excluded from school, than white
children for misdemeanours of similar severity
37. Black children are 5 times less likely to be considered
‘gifted or talented’ compared to white children
38. Black communities are 3 times more likely to become
statutorily homeless than the majority white population
39. African-Caribbean people are 14 times more likely,
and Asians 6 times more likely, to be stopped and
searched by police than white people
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black students
40. In 2004/05 there were approximately 179,000 racially
motivated crimes. Since 1999, after the Stephen
Lawrence Report, racially motivated crimes have
steadily risen
41. Almost 10% of mental health inpatients are African-
Caribbean or mixed-race, despite making up only 3%
of the general population
42. Black people are up to 44% more likely to be
detained under the Mental Health Act but are less
likely to be referred by their GP than white people, a
significantly high percentage instead get referred
through the Criminal Justice System
43. In 2004, Black workers earned an average of £7.50
per hour, compared with £8.00 per hour for workers
from white backgrounds. This gap has been
increasing since 1998
44. Within six months of graduation Black people are
three times more likely to be unemployed than white
graduates
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black students
45. Within 5 years of leaving college Black students can
expect to be earning 9% less than their white peers
for the same standard of work
46. 18% of men and 15% of women graduates who are
Muslim are unemployed – this is 2 times the rate of
their Christian and Jewish, without religious
conviction counterparts
47. 75% of the Black community live in 88 of the poorest
boroughs across Britain
48. Job applicants with an African name are 25% less
likely, while those with a Muslim name are 18% less
likely, to get an interview than those with a British
sounding name
49. There are no Black women police chief constables
and there are no Black women judges in the House
of Lords or Courts of Appeal.
50. Babies born to immigrant Pakistani mothers in Britain
are more than twice as likely to die in their first week
as the babies of British-born mothers
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black students
51. Rates of suicide among young South Asian women
are double that of the general population
52. On average, Pakistani and Bangladeshi women earn
only 56% of the average hourly wage of white men
53. Less than 1% of college principals are Black and
there is only 1 Black university pro- vice chancellor
54. Black staff are more likely to be cleaners than
lecturers at universities and colleges
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disabled students
Disabled students55. In further education, at least 6% of students declare a
disability on enrollment
56. In higher education, at least 4% of students declare a
disability on enrollment
57. In 1994, China introduced a law designed to
eliminate ‘inferior births’ and heighten the standards
of the whole population through enforced sterilization
of disabled people and compulsory abortion of
disabled fetuses
58. Only 1 in 20 disabled people are in FE or HE,
compared to 1 in 10 for the rest of the population
59. 1 in 5 disabled people in FE and HE feel that they are
directly discriminated against because of their
disability
60. One third of disabled people do not feel they can
enter education because of their disability
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disabled students
61. 27% of disabled people have no qualifications at all
compared to 12% of the rest of the population
62. There are 7 million disabled people in Britain
63. Only about half of disabled people in Britain work,
compared to 80% of the rest of the population
64. Only 1 in 5 people with mental health problems work
in Britain
65. Disabled employees are paid an average of £1.50
less per hour than their non-disabled counterparts
66. Disabled students are 10 times more likely to be the
victim of bullying than their non-disabled counterparts
67. Disabled people are ten times more likely to be
victims of sexual abuse
68. 85% of disabled people surveyed in Britain feel they
are treated as second class citizens
69. 1 in 3 families with Black disabled children have
severe problems with their housing, compared to one
in five families with white disabled children
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disabled students
70. Disabled women are 3 times less likely to work than
disabled men
71. Dyslexic students make up 43% of the disabled
students in Britain
72. HIV is defined as a disability under the Disability
Discrimination Act 1995
73. In 2005 2.4 million adults and children in sub-
Saharan Africa died of HIV. Over 2 million of these
deaths was preventable through anti-retroviral drugs
and the widespread condom availability
74. In 1997 less than half of polling booths in Britain were
accessible meaning that many disabled people were
simply unable to vote
75. Even though it’s against the law, lots of colleges,
universities, and students’ unions are not fully
accessible to disabled people
76. Disabled people are denied adequate sex education –
disability and sex remain a taboo and not talked about
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lgbt students
LGBT students77. In a recent study, 72% of young lesbians and gay
men indicated that they had either played truant or
feigned illness to avoid homophobic abuse at school
78. LGBT pupils are more likely to leave school at 16 and
not reach FE or HE (regardless of their achievements
at school). 2 in 5 say they fear bullying will continue if
they stay on
79. In a survey of 4000 Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual
people, 48% of respondents under 18 had
experienced violence because of their sexuality and
90% had experienced verbal bullying
80. 24% of lesbians (1 in 4) have suffered homophobic
violence
81. In a recent study from Scotland, 68% of respondents
said that they had been verbally abused or threatened
by someone who has assumed they are LGBT
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lgbt students
82. Only 6% of British schools have a homophobic
bullying policy, despite homophobic bullying being
endemic in schools
83. Gay and bisexual men or any person who has had
sex with a gay or bisexual man cannot donate blood
to the National Blood Service
84. Same-sex sexual activities for men are explicitly
illegal in more than 80 states around the world, and
for women in more than 40 states
85. 35% of lesbian and bisexual women in a survey of
1100 LGBT people said they had attempted suicide
(the average age for the first attempt was 18 years old)
86. According to recent figures, 1 in 5 young LGB people
try to commit suicide
87. 4 in 5 secondary school teachers say they are aware
of verbal homophobic bullying in schools
88. Waiting times of ten years are not uncommon for
trans people wishing to access surgery or other
treatments on the NHS
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lgbt students
89. Many colleges and universities still refuse to re-issue
degree certificates for graduates who have changed
gender roles. Such refusals mean that trans people
may have to apply for jobs with employers who are
going to ask to see their certificates, or force them
to disclose their medical history during application
90. It wasn’t until 1992 that the World Health
Organisation removed homosexuality from its list of
mental disorders
91. Up to 38% of LGBT people will be the victim of a
hate crime at some point in their lives
92. The Civil Partnership Act came into place in
December 2005 and provides same-sex couples
with some of the rights that opposite-sex married
couples enjoy
93. A Stonewall survey found that 83% of Londoners
believe anti-gay prejudice should be tackled
compared to just 65% in the east of England
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lgbt students
94. Government estimates put the number of LGBT
people in Britain at 6–7% of the total population
95. In a 2007 social attitudes survey 98% of Guardian
readers said prejudice against lesbian and gay
people should be tackled compared to just 49% of
Daily Telegraph and 65% of Daily Mail readers
96. Until May 2007 it was legal to refuse goods or
services to an LGB person. Trans people still have no
protections from discrimination in the provision of
goods and services
97. 74% of gay and 42% of straight consumers are less
likely to buy products from companies that hold
negative views of lesbians and gay men
98. In 2007 a gay man from Paisley won £120,000 from
his employer for discrimination because he was gay.
This was made possible by the Employment Equality
(Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003
99. From over 700 members of the House of Lords only
two – Lord Smith and Lord Alli – are openly LGBT
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lgbt students
100. It is 35 years since the first gay pride march in Britain
101. LGBT people are officially subject to the death
penalty in nine countries across the world, in 3 of
which recent executions took place
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101 reasons for liberation
Contactblack students’ campaign
disabled students’ campaign
women’s campaign
lgbt campaign
national union of students
2nd floor, centro 3
19 mandela street
london nw1 0du
t. 0871 221 8221
w. www.officeronline.co.uk/liberationineveryunion
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Convinced?For a complete guide to Liberation in your Students’ Union
please visit www.officeronline.co.uk/liberationineveryunion
or contact us at [email protected]!
The Liberation In Every Union Pack Includes:
• detailed information about all the Liberation Campaigns
• model policy to help you set them up
• useful stats and facts
• contact details and help with getting started
We have come so far in Liberation work over the years but
we’re not done yet. Demand Liberation in your Students’
Union this year!
Produced by NUS 08/2007
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