Music festivals pledge 50/50 gender equality

The days of male-dominated music festivals could be drawing to a close, after 45 events pledged to achieve a 50/50 gender balance by 2022.

Brighton’s Great Escape, the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, Liverpool Sound City and the BBC Proms are among those who have signed up to the initiative.

It is supported by Garbage star Shirley Manson, who recently called the music industry’s lack of equality “insane”.

Last year, 80% of festival headliners were male, a BBC study discovered.  More

Exhibition at the National Football Museum shows impact women’s football had on British society in the 19th century

The largest ever collection of women’s football memorabilia and historical items has been acquired by the National Football Museum in preparation for an exhibition expected to be opened this year.

The items in the collection date as far back as 1869 – the same decade as the founding of the men’s Football Association – and continue throughout the 50-year ban of the women’s game and into the modern era.  More

The publishing company that’s only publishing female authors in 2018

When author Kamila Shamsie challenged the book industry to publish only women in 2018 to help address a gender imbalance in literature, just one publisher took up the challenge – the Sheffield-based company And Other Stories.

It was almost three years ago that Shamsie suggested “a concerted campaign to redress the inequality” in publishing.

Arguing that there was a gender bias in book awards, reviews, top publishing jobs and prestige afforded to authors, she suggested that 2018, the centenary of women over 30 in Britain getting the vote, would make a good Year of Publishing Women.  More

Women’s vote: Pardoning suffragettes ‘complicated’

Giving pardons to women who were jailed while fighting for the right to vote would be “complicated”, Home Secretary Amber Rudd has said.

But she said she would “take a look”, 100 years on from some women getting the vote in the UK.

Jeremy Corbyn said a Labour government would apologise to suffragettes and have criminal records overturned.

Helen Pankhurst, great-granddaughter of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, said the women had been pardoned by society.  More

Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month – February 2018

February is LGBT History Month and with that in mind we have chosen Heather Peace as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month.

Heather is an actor and musician studying at Manchester Met University.  She has appeared in a number of well-known TV series including Emmerdale, London’s Burning, Ultimate Force, Waterloo Road and Prey.  She has been a classically trained pianist since the age of six and held a jazz residency at a club whilst at university.

Heather divides her time between acting and her music.  She has released numerous albums and tours regularly in the UK, Europe and currently in Australia.

Heather and her longtime partner Ellie Dickinson entered into a civil partnership in 2013, and subsequently converted it to marriage in 2014 and they have three daughters together.

Heather is a prominent supporter of LGBT equality causes. She is a patron of Manchester Pride and has recorded a video for Stonewall‘s “It Gets Better” campaign. She is involved in a number of related charities, including Diversity Role Models and The Albert Kennedy Trust.

She has hosted and curated her own “Heather Peace Presents” stage in several editions of Manchester Pride and in July 2016 Diva announced that Heather was its new columnist.

In 2010 she was number 40 on the Independent on Sunday‘s Pink List, and number 10 in 2011. She was also voted number 18 on US website afterellen.com’s 2011 Hot 100 list. She is also the only woman to have appeared twice on the cover of Diva Magazine in the space of six months.

To find out more about Heather’s music see here http://www.heatherpeace.com/ and for her acting see here http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0668698/

To find out more about Diversity Role Models see their website at https://www.diversityrolemodels.org/ and the Albert Kennedy Trust at https://www.akt.org.uk/