Laura Agustín is renowned for her ground-breaking research, writing and advocacy on migration, sex work and trafficking. Her writing is available on her blog The Naked Anthropologist and in her highly acclaimed book Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry. Writing frequently about the sex workers she has worked with, she has attracted controversy from those who would rather see sex work and prostitution completely abolished. Interview with Stephanie Lord. Dr Laura Agustín will be speaking in the John Hume Institute for Global Irish Studies in UCD, Dublin 4 on Thursday April 4, from 4-6.30pm.

On Wednesday, March 20, UCD Women’s Studies hosts renowned sociologist, Prof. Hill Collins for a  public lecture entitled ‘Where do we go from here? Intersectionality and Social Justice’. Prof. Hill Collins specialises in critical race theory and feminist theory, and is perhaps best known for her work on intersectionality, that is, the notion that people are often subject to multiple and mutually reinforcing disadvantages based on gender, race, or class, for instance. Below, Prof. Hill Collins discusses some of the key themes of her work.

Sinn Féin spokesperson on health Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin today called for a full inquiry into symphysiotomy, a practice he described as “a clinical scandal on a par with the clerical scandals we have seen exposed in the past two decades”.

Symphysiotomy is a procedure which involves breaking a woman's pelvis, resulting in its being permanently widened by up to 3.5 cms. It was used in Ireland between the 1940s and 1990s "as an alternative to caesarean section in cases of obstructed labour". Symphysiotomies were carried out on about 1,500 women in Ireland between 1944 and 1992. The Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists say the procedure may give rise to walking difficulties, pelvic joint pain and urinary incontinence in those who undergo it.

One woman who underwent the procedure told irishhealth.com:

“I have spent 40 years locked up for having a baby. I kept having to give up jobs because of the pain. I have never been on a holiday and I never go out. I have to wear sanitary towels all the time because of bladder problems. I have been to a psychiatrist and I am eventually going to be left on my own in a wheelchair."

We should not be complacent about the risk of “children’s rights” becoming another tool of state misogyny. By Wendy Lyon.

Last month the Irish Minister for Children, Frances Fitzgerald, announced that the long-promised referendum on the rights of children would finally be held this year.

The background to this lies in the following provisions of the Irish Constitution:

Today marks not only the 101st International Women’s Day but also the day on which the Irish government misses the deadline to implement an EU Directive on parental leave. Deirdre Hosford puts forward the case for reform.

Today, on 8 March 2012, the Irish government will miss the deadline for implementation of an EU Directive on parental leave, which would have extended the period of unpaid leave available to men and women in Ireland from 14 weeks to 18 weeks. Ireland sought a derogation from this deadline, which gives us until March 2013 to implement the directive, owing to ‘the Government’s very heavy legislative agenda’.
Clearly, extending the parental leave rights of our citizens in line with EU policy is not high on the political agenda.

During the 1990s and 2000s, the Irish Celtic Tiger model of development was hailed as a model for other European countries, but the global economic crisis has completely removed the credibility of Ireland’s approach. So where does the country go now? By Peader Kirby and Mary P. Murphy. [Event details below]

While the 2011 general election was full of the promise of reform, what has been delivered by the Fine Gael/Labour coalition has been rather piecemeal and incremental. We still await the constitutional convention, promised for this autumn and now postponed until the spring of 2012. In the meantime, energies dissipate and expectations decline.

A fascinating look at how our environment shapes our sexuality and a valiant rebuttal of many of the claims made by neuroscience, Cordelia Fine’s new book Delusions of Gender is a lively and worrying work which argues that the scientific community has often sabotaged the fight for gender equality. By Ed O’Hare.

Three years ago Cordelia Fine had an experience which horrified her. On entering her son’s kindergarten she heard the teacher reading to the pupils from a book which claimed that boys’ brains were structured differently to those of girls. Because of their rational, logical brains, the teacher said, boys could never consider things in the same caring, empathic way girls do. Fine was outraged. As a neuroscientist she knew that not an iota of scientific evidence backed up this pronunciation. The more she considered the way in which unverified and often highly speculative neuroscientific theories of gender difference have been widely accepted and promoted by the scientific establishment and the media, the more she believed it was time for her to intervene. The result is Delusions of Gender, one of the most trenchant and illuminating popular science books of recent years.

New research suggests that women’s taste in muscular male strangers is more negatively biased when they are fertile. So if you don’t pull at the nightclub, could you blame genetics, asks John Holden?

Looking for that special someone in a dark, smoky club is often based more on instinct than anything else. If there’s alcohol involved, instinct doesn’t even come into it. But a study carried out in Michigan State University for online journal Psychological Science, suggests that women’s prejudice against male strangers may vary across their menstrual cycle.

A new report from the agency UN Women shows that there is still a huge gap between the legal guarantees of rights afforded to women and their everyday lives. Prefacing the report, its authors write: “This volume of Progress of the World’s Women starts with a paradox: the past century has seen a transformation in women’s legal rights, with countries in every region expanding the scope of women’s legal entitlements. Nevertheless for most of the world’s women, the laws that exist on paper do not translate to equality and justice.”

The statisics on domestic abuse in Ireland are often worrying, and the government needs to do more to ensure victims are protected. By Justin Frewen.

“… one in five Irish women who have ever been in a relationship experience physical, emotional, financial or sexual abuse.” (Margaret Martin, Director Women’s Aid)

The recent launch of the annual statistics report for 2010 by Women’s Aid on domestic violence serves once more to highlight the continuing abuse inflicted on so many women in Ireland by their partners.

With more Irish women in the work force than ever before, an increasing number are experiencing some form of unfair treatment. This is most common among women on lower incomes. By Bernard O'Rourke. 

The HSE's Crisis Pregnancy Programme (CPP) has revealed that almost 30% of the 2,300 women they surveyed for the study Pregnancy at Work: A National Survey, released today, experienced some form of unfair treatment from their employers as a result of their pregnancy.

The most common form of unfair treatment was being assigned unsuitable work or workloads. A further 5% of women employed during pregnancy reported that they were dismissed, made redundant or treated so badly that they had to leave their job

Geraldine Kennedy's retirement as editor of the Irish Times last Thursday, 23 June - to be replaced in that role by Kevin O'Sullivan - along with the loss of another female editor, NoirIn Hegarty, with closure of the Sunday Tribune earlier this year, has brought into focus the dearth of women in senior editorial positions in the Irish print media. What does the loss of two prominent women editors mean for Irish newspapers? Do women have different ideas about what constitutes news? And why is it that women find it difficult to succeed to editorial positions in Ireland? Christina Finn investigates.

Arguments against gender quotas often revolve around the idea that quotas are undemocratic and discriminatory; the arguer in such instances seemingly failing to realise that our democracy already is undemocratic and discriminatory. Quotas are simply an attempt to right the (undemocratic, discriminatory) skew caused by the five Cs: Culture, Confidence, Cash, Childcare and Candidate selection, writes Anne O'Brian.

A new initiative led by the US government’s ‘Voice of America’ (VOA) group and social media company CitizenGlobal, attempts to fight back against the alarming number of rapes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, writes John Holden.

Hundreds of thousands of women and girls have been raped and tortured during the conflict between rebel soldiers and government in Congo over the last 15 years.

It is actually a tactic used by the rebels to force acquiescence upon the local population.

"Congo Story" is a new online platform to record the violence in the Congo and create a country-wide platform for discussion between victims, their families and friends and even some of the rapists. This new initiative is being led by Voice of America - the official external broadcaster for the US federal government. They provide radio, TV and internet services in 44 languages outside of the US to a global audience of approximately 123 million people.

The National Women’s Council of Ireland has expressed deep concern that the Minister for Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation, Richard Bruton, TD, has not heeded its requests to meet with him to discuss his proposed changes to Joint Labour Committees (JLCs).

Minister Bruton indicated in late May that he would be consulting with relevant stakeholders to discuss his proposals regarding cuts and changes to JLCs before Friday 10 June ahead of submitting a final action plan to Cabinet before the end of that month. The National Women’s Council Ireland, through the Coalition to Protect the Lowest Paid, says it has sent emails, letters and phoned Minister Bruton’s office since 23 May requesting a meeting to discuss the impact his proposals would have on the lowest paid workers and the economy.

Cuts to welfare, threats to wage-setting agreements for low-paid work, and rollbacks in public services are all having a severe impact on women in Ireland and across Europe. Not only that, but in classic ‘shock doctrine’ style, the economic crisis is being used to sideline and silence the fight for female equality. In a month which saw British universities minister David Willets blame feminism for the difficulties faced by working-class men, and David Cameron tell a female Labour MP to ‘calm down dear’ it should be obvious that the fight for equality of opportunity and parity of esteem is anything but over. The persistence of the word WAG as a descriptor, as Alison Spillane points out below, is another small clue that indicates the need for that struggle to continue. Luckily, active networks of resistance are refusing to capitulate to either austerity or the casualised discourse of misogyny; their demands for equality refusing burial by ‘exceptional economic circumstances’.

Give me your name and address and I'll rape you. [All laugh] - Unidentified Garda Sergeant

We are still talking about what the Irish Times has dubbed the 'garda rape comments controversy', first discussed on the Human Rights in Ireland blog by Vicky here. It might be useful, in examining this incident, to think about Judith Butler's Excitable Speech, published in 1997. [This piece by Máiréad Enright has been cross-posted from the Human Rights in Ireland blog.]

Yesterday marked not only the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day but the launch of a global campaign to mobilise support for an International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention for decent work and rights for domestic workers. By Alison Spillane

Launching the campaign, Siobhán O'Donoghue, director of the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland (MRCI), said the new government should lead the international campaign and establish best-practice instead of waiting for other countries to make the first move.

Why are there so few women philosophers? Have women been too busy hanging up washing and sorting socks? A wonderful luxury, philosophy's place on the hierarchy of needs depends on whether you are female and if there is good drying weather. But if we ask why there so few women on Irish stamps then the answer is less tangible than the Beaufort scale.

[Pictured: Four Irish stamps from 2004 that honour the Irish Nobel Prize winners for Literature ]

For instance, it notes that 2 January was the 150th anniversary of the death of King Frederick William of Prussia.

Not many people know that. Not many people want to know that.

On November 25, the International Day Opposing Violence Against Women, the 16 Days of Action campaign will be launched both internationally and within Ireland. Over 2,000 groups in 150 countries worldwide will organise a range of events to raise public awareness of the staggering levels of domestic abuse against women. The campaign will conclude on 10 December, International Human Rights Day. By Justin Frewen.

One in 5 Irish women have suffered domestic abuse by a former or current spouse or partner. These statistics only account for those who have reported this abuse so the levels of abuse could be even higher. Moreover, on average a woman will suffer abuse 35 times before reporting it.
Read More About Opposing Violence Against Women...

Barnardos CEO Fergus Finlay last night launched a scathing attack on the government over the children's rights referendum. By Alison Spillane.

Speaking at a public forum in Liberty Hall theatre, Mr Finlay (pictured) referenced the Ryan report, the Ferns report and the Roscommon child abuse case saying what all the victims had in common was the fact that "nobody ever listened to them, they had no voice".

Mr Finlay reiterated this point in an interview with Politico last week (see below) and added, "The only way we can change that, in my view, is by starting with the Constitution and by working through our laws and systems".

Last night, he gave three main reasons as to why, in his opinion, the government had not accepted the current wording of the children's rights referendum.

He said the Dept of Finance rejected it because "rights are expensive"; the Dept of Justice felt it would interfere with immigration policy and "make it harder to deport children"; whilst the Dept of Education view was, he said, "if children have to be heard, they're going to be very expensive to expel from school".

Extreme weather events are not taken lightly by devout Muslims. They regard them as messages from God - either to reward good deeds done, or to reprimand moral transgressions.

So it was when a sandstorm ripped across Saudi Arabia and through the archipelago of Bahrain recently. According to a Bahraini taxi driver (and newspaper reports the following day), the like had not been seen in decades. Within minutes of being mild and sunny, visibility was reduced to a few metres. The storm thrashed date palms, ripped down billboards and flung debris along motorways in Bahrain's capital Manama. It eased momentarily before rearing up again.

Action needed to counter inequality if we are to exit economic recession. By Siobhan O’Donoghue.

Irish society remains deeply unequal despite massive wealth creation during the Celtic tiger years. It is estimated that a mere 5% of the population hold 40% of the wealth in Ireland. 

Discrimination as experienced by women, black and minority ethnic people  including travellers, older people, young people, lesbian, gay and transgendered people, lone parents, carers, people with a disability, people from minority religions, and people who are socio-economically disadvantaged continues to be a reality. At the height of the boom it was reported that 12.5% of the adult population reported experiencing discrimination.

The Catholic Church’s controversial recent document Normae de Gravioribus Delictis put the sin of ordaining female priests on a par with child abuse. The document has reignited the debate on the role of women within the Church and society as a whole, as well as the role of feminism. By Sean Carroll.

In the late twentieth century feminism galvanized many young women into demanding fundamental change. The movement questioned ingrained ideology and aggressively advocated women’s equality.

Looking back from the vantage point of a modern liberal society it seems the movement had its work cut out for it. Consider the following:

In the first part of this two part mini-series on domestic abuse in Ireland we looked at the reality of domestic abuse and the scale of the problem in Ireland. In this final part, we will look at what might be done to help support the victims of such abuse. By Justin Frewen.

Over 200,000 Irish women live in fear of being abused by their current or ex-husbands, partners or boyfriends. The shocking truth is that women run a greater risk of being abused by someone they know than from any stranger.  

According to the National Crime Council 2005 report – Domestic Abuse of Women and Men - roughly two-thirds of abuse cases start before the relationship is two years old. Alcohol played a role in about 75% of the cases, but was a constant feature only 25% of the time. Although frequently an important element in triggering episodes of violence and their severity, research has shown alcohol plays more of a `facilitative´ role than a determinant one.

In the first of a two part series, an overview is taken of the devastating impact of domestic abuse in Irish life. By Justin Frewen.

It is only in the last couple of decades that the world has focused on the horrific levels of violence perpetrated against women in times of war. Although women and girls have been the victims of sexual violence and other forms of aggression for several millennia, their plight has generally been relegated to the footnotes of historical accounts.  

However, the appalling accounts emerging from conflicts over the past 20 years has brought the horrors of this abuse to global attention. Surveys carried out in Rwanda in 1999, four years after the 1994 genocide, revealed that 39% of women reported having been raped with 72% claiming they knew someone who had been raped. In former Yugoslavia, it was estimated that at least 20,000 women were sexually assaulted.  

Martin Amis's long awaited new novel about the sexual revolution does nothing to restore the author's reputation. By Edward O’Hare.

High summer, 1970.

Keith Nearing, his girlfriend Lily and her friend Scheherazade, all just turned twenty, go to stay in an Italian castle. Outside the social order is undergoing a metamorphosis. The sexual revolution has reached full pitch; Feminism is upending old power-structures.

An alliance dedicated to changing the structure of Irish society to make it more fair and equitable is crucial. By Vincent Browne.

The economic and financial crisis offers an opportunity to reshape this society, making it more democratic, fair and equal, and giving it a robust sense of solidarity. We are not talking about revolution here, nor communism, but changes which, intuitively, we all (or most of us) would welcome.

Also, there is persuasive evidence that more equal societies are healthier, less violent, more cohesive and happier (see The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always do Better by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett).

Wild Romance is the study of a generation undergoing seismic change. By Clare Lanigan.

Life imitates art, as the old saying goes, but more often than not it’s the opposite that’s the case. Writers, no matter how literary, can’t help being influenced by the scandalous stories of their day, and this was as true in 19th century Dublin as it is now.

The Thelwall v Yelverton trial, which was brought in Dublin in 1861 on behalf of Theresa Longworth against the man she claimed was her husband, Major Charles Yelverton, gripped the nation and was covered exhaustively by the penny press – the Now Magazine of its day. Countless novels and stories sprang from this case, the details of which lay somewhere between tragedy and comedy - the most famous of which was Wilkie Collins’ Man and Wife, published in 1870.

Full text of the statement released by the Rape Crisis Network Ireland (RCNI) on the recent controversy over the Hunky Dory rugby ads (embedded below). By Clíona Saidléar.

On Monday of this week Giovanni Trapattoni and Mr Tayto played footsie for the cameras to announce the Football Associations of Ireland’s latest commercial partner, Tayto crisps. Largo Foods CEO, Ray Coyle said, "We are delighted to link Tayto to Irish football and look forward to working with the FAI over the coming months".

He also playfully put forward Mr. Tayto as a potential player for the Irish football team. Our hearts lifted a little in these depressing times.

Feminism today faces serious challenges, and defining exactly what it means to be feminist in the 21st century is an increasingly difficult task. By Shane Creevy.

Recent high-profile cases of domestic violence among celebrities – Chris Brown and Charlie Sheen spring to mind – lead to broad questions about the world around us. We might begin by thinking about the influence of American celebrities on Irish teenagers. We might also question the role of feminism in the twenty first century.

Do teenage boys still watch Two and a Half Men in admiration of their hero Sheen? Do young girls still listen to Brown’s records? What has been the effect of these incidents among their fans?

(Picture: Simone de Beauvoir, prominent second-wave feminist)

The state’s first ever Strategy on Domestic, Sexual and Gender–based Violence is welcomed by advocacy groups, but it is meaningless without adequate funding. By Deirdra O'Regan.

The five year strategy was produced by the National Office for the Prevention of Domestic, Sexual and Gender–based Violence (COSC), which was established by the government in June 2007.

Speaking at the launch, Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Dermot Ahern said: "This government is tackling the violence and abuse suffered by women and men of a sexual and non sexual nature both within and outside the domestic scene. These types of crimes often happen behind closed doors where there are no witnesses or, worse still, where the only witness is a child. As a government, we are saying 'No to Domestic Violence, No to Sexual Violence and No to all types of gender-based violence'".

Let’s talk about the future.

Feminism is going to die in the next 40 years. By 2050, equal rights, legal protection, and social equality for women will have been enshrined in Irish law and, more importantly, in the Zeitgeist, for three generations or more.

In 2009, we are now as far away from 1970 as we are from the year 2050. Think about the changes in material conditions, in workplace treatment, in opportunities (and in threats) women have seen over those 40 years. Now think about how much further women have to go to reach the goal feminist thinkers and practitioners have set their movement–and the answer is ‘not far’.

Women of Concern, a photographic exhibition chronicling the lives of women and children in some of the poorest nations of the developing world is currently showing in the Temple Bar Gallery of Photography. It features the work of three of Ireland's top female photo-journalists, Brenda Fitzsimons, Kim Haughton and Marie McCallan and documents the work of Concern and their partner, the Women's Support Association, in Haiti, Ethiopia and Bangladesh.

(Picture: From the exhibition "Women of Concern" © Kim Haughton 2010)

The photographs, taken in early 2010, offer an insight into the lives of people whose existence and stories are usually lost amongst the masses. Each photograph attempts to convey the humanity of the person featured and helps to express the realities of their lives. Many of the stories that accompany the images are harrowing, but as each woman is involved in the Women's Support Association, the stories are punctuated by a positive outcome.  

Below is the liveblog of the Tonight with Vincent Browne programme, 6th January 2010, hosted by politico.ie
Topic: Women's issues
Panelists: Ailbhe Smyth, Susan McKay, Noirin Hegarty, Lisa Marie Berry

18 December marked quite an occasion for gender equality advocates: the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) has just turned 30. With near-universal ratification and countless stories testifying to the ways in which this Global Bill of Rights for Women has been used to challenge gender injustices, there is much to inspire us. Already momentum is building for the next milestone: the 15th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action in 2010. And for feminists eager to have a say about what a post-Millennium Development Goals world might or should look like, the MDG Review Summit looms large on the horizon.

(Picture: Afghan women wear blue scarves symbolising justice during a ceremony to mark international Women’s Day in Kandahar earlier this year)

The end of the ’16 Days of Action’ Campaign organised to highlight violence against women (VAW) was marked yesterday by another sad reminder of the reality, and wide-ranging consequences of VAW.

Today, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) Grand Chamber, which consists of 17 judges, will hear a controversial landmark case on abortion, the outcome of which will have significant implications, both for the Irish state and Europe. The case involves a challenge to Ireland's ban on abortion, lodged with the ECtHR in August 2005 by three women resident in Ireland.

The women, known as A, B and C to protect their identity, were forced to travel overseas to obtain abortions, in the process incurring expenses and enduring unnecessary hardship. Each of the women was experiencing difficulties with her pregnancy; collectively they contend that Ireland has breached their human rights under a number of articles of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

A more equitable gender balance in positions of leadership and employment would have lessened the impact of the recession on Ireland. Indeed, an increased effort to correct gender imbalances could also hasten our recovery. However, Ireland's gender gap is getting worse, impacting not only the economy, but women's health, violence, children and society as a whole.

The New York Times coined the term ‘mancession’ for a recession which they claim has disproportionately hurt men who are “more likely to work in cyclically sensitive industries like manufacturing and construction.” Although this may hold some strength in the US, the situation in Ireland is much different. Although the whole country is sharing in collective economic woes, women have been hit particularly hard by the recession, which has further deepened an already cavernous gap in gender inequality. Susan McKay, director of the National Women’s Council of Ireland says “women are being punished for the failure of a political system run overwhelmingly by men”.

Women's rights remain a major issue, although progress has been made in some areas, there is growing inequality world-wide, as the report on the United Nation's Women's Treaty reveals.

At their quarterly meeting in Maynooth on 7 December the Irish Catholic bishops welcomed the report of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Child Protection of 30 November last.  However, even at this stage, Bishops wish to register their deep concern at the lack of any reference to the moral issues involved.

In 1997 the government published a task-force report on violence against women, which looked primarily at domestic violence. Nine years later, most of the report's recommendations have not been implemented. By Emma Browne

Those self-congratulatory media reports of Mary Robinson's praise for Ireland in combating global violence against women did not convey the whole truth of what the former president said.

'Pay ruling will undo 50 years of women's struggle," screamed the headline on the front page of the Irish Independent. "EU court rules women can be paid less," complained the headline on the front of the Irish Times. The sisterhood was exercised as only the sisterhood can be exercised, lacerating "discrimination" and demanding "equality" in the face of patriarchal nastiness and dirty dealing.

Businesswoman Anne Heraty was already one of Ireland's richest women before selling a chunk of her stake in CPL Resources this year. Fionola Meredith charts the career of the media-shy multimillionaire.

Five years ago we started Magill with four central editorial themes in mind:

- the redistribution of wealth.

- womens' rights.

- civil liberties.

- the Northern Ireland problem.

Now five years on, it is appropriate that we should review these themes.

Politicians, journalists, a feminist and an economist discuss the significance of Election 1982.

When Sexual Politics was published in 1969, Kate Millett provided a backbone of theory to the emerging feminist movement in the United States. She analysed the whole social fabric and human behaviour in terms of the effects of long established patriarchy. Since then she has written several other books and been involved in several civil rights movement~ throughout the world.

One million people in the Republic of Ireland live in poverty. Poverty is endemic to Irish society and extends not just to the unemployed, the travellers, and the slum-dwellers, but reaches right into the middle classes.In Ireland, social inequality is greater than in any other EEC country. The proportion of total income which goes to the poorest 30% is smaller here than elsewhere in the EEC, while the richest 30% here get a higher proportion of total income than the EEC average. The 300,000 at the top of the pile receive six times the income which goes to the 500,000 at the bottom.

A new survey on male sexuality shows that men want sex more than once a day, still want to marry virgins, are prone to cheat, prefer sexually active women and react with disbelief on hearing of their wife's infedility.

THE CLEANING WOMEN in UCD earn £6 5s. Od. for a five day week. There are 25 of them. They work from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 2.30 p.m. until 5.30 p.m. This is a thirty hour week, but they have no recognised breaks which makes their week's work equivalent to a normal employee's. On their £6 they pay 9s. 6d. in insurance and up to £1 in income tax. This lowers their weekly salary to £4£4 10s. a week. By John Feeney, Dan Ruddy and Vincent Browne. Published in Nusight, November 1969.

MRS. K. stands in the queue for Home Assistance.
"I feel like a beggar," she says. The office is crowded and as each applicant's turn comes the name and amount of assistance money is called out. There is no privacy, no dignity. "I cried the first time I came. I would go hungry, but I can't let the children starve."

. The non-contributory widows pension is £3 13s. 6d. per week. For each child there is a 12s. 6d. supplementary benefit.

. There are 5,000 widows under 44 and the vast majority of them would be responsible for rearing a family.