Thursday 17th July 2025
Blog Page 343

In-Person Fundraiser held by Oxford Students for COVID Relief in India

Matthew Schaffel
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In-Person Fundraiser held by Oxford Students for COVID Relief in India

Last Sunday afternoon, Indian students gathered at Bonn Square to raise funds for the Oxbridge Student Action for COVID Relief in India. After three hours the fundraiser raised £580 in cash donations and £1000 through online donations.

Oxford South Asian Society Events Officer Gayathree Devi KT and Treasurer Sameer Rashid Bhat led the fundraiser. They were also joined by Oxford India Society President Anvee Bhutani and Treasurer Sushrut Royyuru, and a number of members from all three of the societies, who had organised the event.

This follows the joint online fundraiser, set up by the Oxford India Society, the Oxford University South Asian Society, and the Oxford University Hindu Society, which reached its initial target of £10,000 last week. Subsequent to this a joint fundraiser with the Cambridge South Asia Forum, the Cambridge University India Society, and the Cambridge University Bharatiya Society was set up with the aim of raising £50,000.

Devi KT, a DPhil student at University of Oxford, said regarding the event: “We are very grateful to the Oxford community for standing by us at this very difficult time. We will continue our in-person fundraising efforts over the next few days and hope that the Oxford community will continue lending their support to us by donating generously and by spreading the word in their networks.”

Shrinidhi Narasimhan, an MPhil student at the University of Oxford added: “It was heartwarming to see so much solidarity and support for what is happening back home. The coverage that India’s COVID crisis has gotten in global and Western media outlets has really helped because most people seemed to be aware of how bad things are in the country. For those of us living away from home, coming together to organise the online funding campaign and do street canvassing has been a really meaningful way of channeling our anxiety, anger, and frustration with how crippled the public healthcare system has become in India.”

Piyali Chatterjee, an MSc student at the University of Oxford, who was also present at Bonn Square commented: “I was feeling helpless and desolate listening to the news coming back from home in India. The support we received from people in terms of raising funds, awareness as well as empathy for my home country was overwhelming and proved yet again how humanity binds people across the globe. We hope to use the funds in the best possible way to support COVID relief efforts at the grassroots level in India.”

Image Credit (top and in-line): Anvee Bhutani

OxMatch criticised for ‘homophobic’ question

Matthew Schaffel
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OxMatch criticised for ‘homophobic’ question

OxMatch has received criticism for a ‘homophobic’ question used in its matchmaking form. The form asked users to rate on a scale of one to five the question “I would be ok if my children were gay”. This has led to condemnation of the service by some students and student groups.

Alison Hall, a student at the University, told Cherwell: “The question OxMatch included on their survey completely trivialises the threat of familial rejection faced by many LGBTQ+ individuals, not to mention the fact that it is completely out of place and inappropriate for an informal personality quiz as a component for an online dating service. OxMatch’s response was also  deeply insulting, as it came across as an affirmation that their supposed expertise on collecting data trumps people’s lived experience of homophobia and disappointment at the inclusion of such a question.”

Oxford University LGBTQ society told Cherwell: “We have recently been made aware of the inclusion of an inappropriate and upsetting question in the latest OxMatch Questionnaire. We have made contact with the creators of OxMatch urging them to remove this question, and in the meantime wish to extend our welfare support to those who have been adversely impacted by this issue. 

 “The OULGBTQ+ Society Welfare Officers, Fran (she/her) at [email protected] or Lewis (they/them) at [email protected], are both Peer Support trained and available to listen. There is also a Welfare Brunch tomorrow morning at the Jolly Farmers, 10am-12pm, where in person support will be available (and also in the form of baked goods!) 

“Alternatively, if you feel more comfortable you can contact the Switchboard LGBTQ+ helpline here https://switchboard.lgbt/ for confidential support from trained LGBTQ+ volunteers between 10am-10pm.”

In the past, OxMatch has also faced backlash for violating GDPR rules alongside their own privacy policy. Students recieved promotional emails from the service, including advertising from services such as MyTutor, which they had not signed up to. 

Regarding the criticism, a spokesperson for OxMatch said to Cherwell: “The specific question was put in due to previous complaints about individuals matching with those holding homophobic views. The question was designed to filter out homophobic individuals. We have not received a single complaint about this question despite thousands of students doing the survey. The same question was used in other non-affiliated surveys that ran in Oxford and elsewhere before without complaints.”

“We have always sought to make OxMatch as inclusive as possible and welcome any suggestions about how to do that.”

Image Credit: Jill Cushen

 

Protesters act as ‘human bollards’ on Oriel Square

Matthew Schaffel
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Protesters act as ‘human bollards’ on Oriel Square

The Oxford Pedestrians Association (OXPA) has recently carried out a protest on Oxford’s Oriel Square to highlight the lack of operational bollards in the area. Regular traffic is usually prohibited from driving through the square between 07:30 and 18:30 BST.

Three campaigners stood on the square for an hour, acting as ‘human bollards’, preventing oncoming traffic from coming through. About 70 vehicles tried to pass through illegally during this time. The protesters said that they were abused, threatened and driven at by some of the drivers.

A spokesperson for OXPA told the BBC that the bollards and traffic cameras “have been broken for around four years, and cars have become accustomed to driving through, knowing they will not be stopped or fined”.

A statement on their Facebook page also said that they were “immediately confronted by drivers from all sides, who revved towards us and demanded we move so they could break the law.”

“When we refused, they first tried to argue ‘legitimate’ reasons (e.g. “I’m picking up my child”, “I need to go to the pharmacist”), and when that didn’t work they became livid.

“Many argued that they had urgent reasons to pass, but then decided to sit in their cars threatening us for the entire hour-duration of the protest rather than find an alternative route.”

The protesters noted on the post that drivers “blared their horns for minutes on end, swore at us” and that one drove at a protester “forcing her out of the way so that he could pass”. 

In a comment to Cherwell, an Oxford County Council spokesperson said: “New rising bollards have been installed together with ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) and CCTV cameras at each of the five sites in Oxford (Turl, Oriel, Cornmarket, Broad Street and Aristotle Lane). The council needs the ANPR camera to work so that vehicles with a right of access, emergency vehicles and residents, can get through the bollards without delay.  The CCTV cameras are required to ensure that, when we need to remotely raise and lower the bollards, we can do so safely and not cause a safety issue to other road users.”

“The systems need a robust broadband system to work coherently together. The council has been testing the available internet bandwidth to ensure that we are addressing the correct issue. If new broadband connections are required, we will order this immediately after testing is complete. At the same time, motorists must obey all signs and refrain from driving into prohibited areas at specified times. Failure to do so could result in enforcement by the police.”

Image Credit: sailko / CC BY-SA 3.0 

‘Perfect antidote’ against perfectionism: New Round of Social Enterprise Awards launched at Oxford Hub

Yan Chen
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‘Perfect antidote’ against perfectionism: New Round of Social Enterprise Awards launched at Oxford Hub

Oxford Hub, a local social action charity, is actively seeking applications for the newest round of its biannual Social Enterprise Awards. All Oxford University students and staff are eligible to submit ideas for a social enterprise benefiting Oxfordshire, with winners receiving up to £1,000 for their proposed project. Additional support includes office space, networking and community, publicity, and Amazon Web Service credits.

The Social Enterprise Awards, co-run with the University’s Research Services, have supported over 40 social impact projects since 2013, with a stated goal of supporting individuals and teams to “take action and make the world a better place” through building businesses with a social purpose.

Applicants can choose to apply to one of two Award categories depending on which stage their enterprising idea is in. The Try It Award, which awards up to £500, enables applicants to test out ideas, even fledgling ones, on a small scale. The Do it Award, which provides funding of up to £1,000, supports the expansion of projects that have already been tested and proven viable, with an eye to the ventures’ future financial sustainability. Applicants for the latter Award are advised to provide accompanying evidence such as financials, a business plan, and evidence of partnerships or a customer base.

“The Social Enterprise Awards reward creativity and risk-taking”, responds Eliza Harry, Placements Officer at Oxford Hub, when asked about what makes the Awards unique. Harry, identifying risk-averse tendencies arising from perfectionism as prevalent among university students, sees the Awards as an “antidote” to these tendencies that encourages students to “be bold, test out ideas, and embrace failure as an opportunity for learning.”

The Awards have funded a diverse range of initiatives that run the gamut from soap recycling to eco-friendly nappies for local families. Past awardees include the well-known Common Ground Café & Social Workspace, sustainable eating-proponent Carbon Codes, Uncomfortable Oxford, which scrutinises overlooked inequalities and injustices embedded in Oxford history through guided tours, Onyx Magazine, which celebrates Black creatives, and LegalMe, a tenancy dispute resolution platform.

Students and staff participating in the scheme have been able to “progress rapidly with their ideas and businesses” with the support and funding offered by Oxford Hub, Harry says. Social enterprise Carbon Codes, which uses price discounts to incentivise sustainable eating, was able to set up an Android app and website with the help of a Do It Award. A representative at the environmental startup also notes how Oxford Hub “provided us with connections and resources to help increase our knowledge base as well suggestions for potential partnerships”, including Oxford Hub’s own non-profit refill shop, OxUnboxed, located in its Little Clarendon Street office.

Past winners of the Social Enterprise Award have scaled up their operations since receiving support from Oxford Hub. Winning the Award allowed the Oxford Accessibility Project (OAP) to build the first online accessibility guide for all Oxford colleges and permanent private halls. The work of the OAP has since then morphed into SociAbility, an app that maps the accessibility of social venues and facilities through crowdsourcing information.

Applications for the current round of Social Enterprise Awards close on the 29th May 2021 at 12pm, with results announced within two weeks of the deadline. A panel of University and community experts will review applications, and all applicants will receive feedback, regardless of whether they win an award.

Oxford Hub has offered on its website a guidance document that breaks down the application process, as well as free advice sessions helping applicants tailor their idea to the Awards and providing application advice. Oxford Hub strongly encourages applicants to book a session by reaching out to Eliza Harry at [email protected].

The advice sessions are not the only opportunities for interested students and staff to finetune their application before the application deadline. Oxford Hub will be hosting a launch event for the Awards via Zoom on 10th May from 5-6pm BST, where prospective applicants can learn about applying to the Awards and engage in a Q&A session with a member of the judging panel.

From 21st to 23rd May, Oxford Hub is also running the Innovate for Oxford Competition, open to Oxford University staff and students. The competition, which awards £300 for the winning team to set up its idea, will include a morning workshop on techniques of fast innovation and behaviour change principles that those interested in the Social Enterprise Awards can benefit from.

Founded in 2008 by Oxford University students, Oxford Hub aims to make the city a more equal place by helping individuals thrive, building relationships, increasing community participation, and creating systemic change. It focuses on cultivating meaningful relationships between people and organisations.

Oxford Hub’s wide range of programmes support children, young people, families, migrants, older people, and vulnerable residents in Oxford’s regeneration areas. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Oxford Hub has also been coordinating Oxford Together, an ongoing community response volunteer effort.

Image Credit: Oxford Hub

Light Ahead – Ashmolean celebrates communities and faiths of Oxfordshire

Clementine Scott
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Light Ahead – Ashmolean celebrates communities and faiths of Oxfordshire

One World, a five-month virtual festival hosted by the Ashmolean and celebrating the diversity of faiths and communities in Oxfordshire, concluded on 11th April, with a series of videos streamed online entitled ‘Light Ahead’. 

This final event was introduced by Oxfordshire’s new High Sheriff Imam Monawar Hussain, speaking on the kindness he had witnessed in Oxfordshire during the COVID crisis, and more generally on the importance of celebrating different religions and cultures. This gave way to several demonstrations, performances and discussions. Topics ranged from the Muslim contribution to music, to dual heritage explored in collage form by artist Lana Al-Shami, to the importance of precious objects across the generations of a local Jewish family. 

The annual One World festival as a whole is stated on the Ashmolean website as a celebration of “the many communities and faiths in Oxfordshire”. Its particular theme this year, ‘Light in the Dark’, seeks to “bring hope as well as opportunities for reflection”. The events, taking place roughly once a month, incorporated multi-faith storytelling, music and dance performances and craft, prompting Oxfordshire Lord-Lieutenant Tim Stevenson to refer to the festival at its launch as a “creative tour de force”. Additionally, several of the events served as introductions to the festivals and holy days of various cultures, including Hanukkah, Chinese New Year, and Holi. 

One World was supported by various faith and cultural organisations within Oxford, such as the Oxford Jewish Congregation, Oxford Chinese Community and Advice Centre, and the Oxford Hindu Temple, as well as by the City Council. When approached by Cherwell for comment about the Ashmolean’s involvement with the festival, Mary Clarkson, the council’s Cabinet Member for City Centre, Covered Market and Culture, ruminated on the importance of people of all faiths and cultures feeling “welcomed and relevant” in Oxford’s museums. In addition to One World, Clarkson cited the Multaka Project, which recruits Arabic-speaking volunteers in the interpretation of Islamic objects in the Pitt Rivers Museum and the Museum of the History of Science, as an example of museums involving diverse communities effectively in their work.

All of the videos from the One World festival are available to stream here. The Ashmolean is currently closed to the public, but is set to reopen on 17th May. For now, it continues to offer a multitude of online collections titled “Ashmolean at home”. 

Image Credit: Lewis Clarke / Wikipedia Commons / CC-SA-2.0

Cher-ity Corner: Jacari Oxford

Sophie Morris
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Cher-ity Corner: Jacari Oxford

One of the most important lessons I have learnt, as I imagine many others have too from this pandemic, is the value of offering up our time to help others. Cher-ity Corner is a weekly column that highlights local Oxford charities that students can volunteer with and make a difference.

I spoke to Freya Turner, the Lead Coordinator of Jacari to discuss how they came about, the opportunities that are on offer for students and lots about what they do. Find out how you can get involved and more about their amazing work!

What’s Jacari?

“Jacari was set up in 1956 as a student run anti-racist campaign (the Joint Action Committee Against Racial Intolerance). During the 1950s and 60s, Jacari organised many high-profile speaker events and campaigns highlighting the racial injustices of the time. For example, they arranged an extensive survey to show that a majority of Oxford landladies would not accept black students as tenants, highlighting the barriers that students of colour faced in attending the university. They also fundraised for scholarships for students from South Africa and campaigned against apartheid. Jacari’s teaching programme was born in the 1960s, and over the decades the focus has shifted from a campaigning organisation and student society to a registered charity (we first registered in 2005), focused on providing free English tuition. Jacari used to be fully run by a student committee; now we employ a paid coordinator in Oxford and an alumni and fundraising officer, who are supported by our enthusiastic student committee members.”

Jacari’s vision is a society where young people from all backgrounds have the confidence and language skills to achieve their full potential. Our mission is to improve the confidence and English language skills of young people through our free tuition scheme. We work with those who have English as an additional language and are at risk of not achieving their full potential.

“Jacari is an award-winning charity providing free one-to-one tuition to children in Oxford with English as an additional language, helping them to build confidence with learning English, and fulfil their academic potential.”

Each pupil is matched to a student volunteer – with volunteers from Oxford Brookes and Oxford University – tutoring for one hour per week, currently over video call. There are around 65 volunteer-pupil pairs at the moment and referrals of pupils are recevied from 10 schools across Oxford.

Before the pandemic, Jacari tuition was delivered in the pupils’ homes, so volunteers would travel there and get to meet the pupil’s wider family, which was part of what makes them so special! When lockdown happened in March 2020 they had to adapt very rapidly to the challenge of offering Jacari tuition via video calls.

“Our volunteers have been so fantastic at giving this a try, alongside using letter writing and phone calls to stay in touch with their pupils.”

In Autumn 2020 they were able to train a whole cohort of new volunteers on zoom and get them started with fully remote tutoring.

“A big challenge for us was that 30% of our pupils didn’t have any technology at home for accessing Jacari lessons, and these were the pupils who most needed our help as they were not able to engage in remote learning during the first lockdown.”

“We have been mobilising the local community to donate laptops and tablets over the past few months, and have now started loaning them out to families in need so that every child who needs it can have a tutor.”

How can students get involved?

“I’m constantly impressed by everyone who devotes time to their Jacari pupil on top of their busy life as an Oxford student.”

“We look for volunteers who are motivated by promoting the educational attainment, confidence and self-esteem of children and young people; are open, friendly and interested in learning about different cultures; have excellent communication and interpersonal skills; can work under their own initiative; and have a high standard of written and spoken English – if English is not your first language, you should have an IELTS score of 7.5 or above and you do not need prior teaching experience to apply.”

“We are still unsure whether teaching in September 2021 will be online or in-person. Therefore we recommend volunteers prepare to be able to volunteer from home and have a suitable laptop and strong internet connection for video calling!”

At the moment they are recruiting our next student committee for 2021-22 – to apply click here – https://www.jacari.org/join-oxford-committee

Why should you get involved?

Some feedback from parents is the best way to highlight this:

‘Jacari lessons and my son’s interactions with his tutor improved his English to a very great extent. He couldn’t talk in English in the beginning of school and now I am happy to tell you that he is getting ready to start a YouTube Channel in English”

As a volunteer it is also so rewarding to build a friendship over time with your pupil. One of the volunteers said –

‘Being a Jacari tutor is an incredibly rewarding experience. It’s great to get out of the university bubble and see more of Oxford, but more importantly it is extremely gratifying to work one-on-one with your pupil; we get to see them grow, progress, and become more confident people. Pupils are always so grateful for the help you give them, and their families make you feel so welcome. Tutoring during Covid has been very different, but it has remained fulfilling. It has been harder to do things like play games or do crafts, but everyone’s adapted really well to the new system. What hasn’t changed even in these challenging times is the pupils’ spirit – they have remained just as enthusiastic and we’re equally eager to help them learn!’

“When children feel left behind with language, they can feel marginalised and left out at school, hitting their confidence and damaging their ability to engage academically. Disadvantaged children with EAL have been disproportionately affected by the closure of schools and the disruption to education caused by covid-19 this year, meaning our work is all the more important at this moment in time. Recent research by the Bell Foundation has found that proficiency in English is strongly correlated to educational attainment at both Key stage 2 and Key stage 4 – so it’s vital that we help pupils catch up with their English as soon as possible if they are to reach their full potential.”

“Jacari lessons are designed to be fun; they help with boosting children’s overall social confidence and the student tutors provide an inspiring educational role model, helping to raise aspirations. Taking part in Jacari also helps student volunteers invest in and connect with the wider Oxford community and spend some time outside of the ‘university bubble’.”

Want to get involved?

You can follow Jacari on social media for updates on how you can get involved or you could sign up as a volunteer tutor; or if you speak another language you could help us translate our communications to parents.

To celebrate their 65th anniversary they are also running a ‘65km challenge’ – starting on May 6th, where they are asking people to run, walk, swim, cycle 65 km in 65 days and raise at least £65 for Jacari in sponsorship. To sign up and find out more, click here: https://www.jacari.org/65challenge. The person who fundraises the most money will win a cookery class with Migrateful.

For more ways to get involved:

www.jacari.org

https://www.givey.com/jacarioxford

https://www.instagram.com/jacarioxford/

Image Credit: Jacari.

Out of the Frame: Holbein’s The Ambassadors

Kate O'Sullivan
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Out of the Frame: Holbein’s The Ambassadors

Just as the modern media exploit images to convey particular themes and rouse responses, the painters of the past were careful in choosing what to include in their works and how they arranged them. Hans Holbein’s 1533 work ‘The Ambassadors’ is an intriguing example of the importance of composition and the selection of material. What some may see as a dusty painting, a window to another, almost alien, time can actually show that more has stayed the same than we may think. We use visual art to comment upon current affairs, but also to provide themes for contemplation. Artists today strive to create work which confronts us and makes us think, but we are certainly not the first to do this. Holbein shows us how we have been doing this for centuries and gives us a fresh perspective on a piece of art created almost 500 years ago. Through Holbein and through art, we can understand that there are fundamentals to the human experience, which go beyond any cultural or technological shifts that we may encounter.

The painting is first and foremost a life-size double portrait of two men, Jean De Dinteville (left) and Georges de Selves (right), who were French ambassadors to the court of Henry VIII in the time between his divorce from Catherine of Aragon and marriage to Anne Boleyn. The world in which the painting was created was one torn by religious conflict, with the emergence of the Lutheran Church as well as Henry VIII’s own break from Rome. The work is therefore particularly powerful in its imagery of division, but Holbein has also hidden an important message in plain sight which appeals to a universal audience, like many visual works do today. The intricate luxury of the fabrics that we see is counterbalanced by a very large skull, which is painted from a distorted viewpoint, almost as if someone has copied and pasted it and accidentally squashed the image down. Why should he have wanted to include such a bizarre detail in a seemingly simple portrait? I like to think of this work as a very early example of proto-surrealist style. While it is in no way connected with such work from the 20th Century, it does foreshadow our interest in the visual abstraction of ideas and gives some modern feel to the work. The skull is not apparent upon first glance, only becoming visible once you begin to walk past the painting, looking at the canvas side on. We are confronted first with extreme wealth, with its silks, golds, and furs, but as we move on from the work, we are left with the bitter aftertaste of our own mortality, through the theme of ‘memento mori’, the Latin motto translating roughly as ‘remember that you are mortal’. This motto has travelled alongside humanity for millennia, and can be taken in several ways, regardless of whether one follows religion or not, by reminding us that material wealth is transient, while death must be embraced by all, a philosophy that resonates particularly in a world where so many material goods are readily accessible and essential as a show of one’s attributes.

The current affairs of 16th Century Europe are there for people to see, perhaps in a subtler way than is done today, but the effect remains comparable. The green curtain hangs heavily in the background and if you look closely at the top left corner, you can see that it partially veils a silver crucifix, once again creating a barrier between the earthly and celestial realms. It seems that religion is being swept into the background and covered up, yet it is not entirely neglected. On a superficial level, the partially covered crucifix reminded me of the badly hidden Coke bottles seen in Trump’s recent pictures, following his public boycott of the brand. Both cases show the failed attempt to separate oneself from a particular affiliation and their unavoidable presence. The Catholic Church was one of the most widespread institutions of control in the 15th Century, while Coca cola remains a brand with a world-renowned following.

The secular and religious realms see further separation when we look at these many objects: the upper shelf carries a globe of the heavens, a star chart with the constellations as well as several devices for measuring the sky. The bottom shelf by contrast has a globe as well as some book and musical instruments, showing a few pursuits of the earthly world. I have mentioned that religious division is key to this painting and the level of detail achieved to convey the theme is truly remarkable. The red book turns out to be a mathematics manual, which appears to be open on a page about division. Furthermore, upon careful examination of the lute, we can see that a string is broken, meaning the instrument is out of tune, is this a nod to the political discord of the time?

Despite the contextual detail and symbolism, we cannot help but return to that all-encompassing message about the prevalence of death. It is the universal theme which confronts every viewer of the painting and resounds loudly through the work’s composition, which is itself based upon a scene from the medieval ‘dance of the dead’, where Death triumphs over all.  But we do not need to know this particular reference to understand what Holbein is trying to tell us here, since he taps into perhaps the greatest of human contemplations: the inevitability of death, which gives our life meaning, while also rendering the value of our material goods rather empty. Holbein is not telling us to live without any such possessions and reject all material wealth, rather reminding us to take such acquisitions into context, while remembering that there is more to life than the physical. This is just as pertinent to the context of the religious revolution of the Middle Ages as it is to today’s materialistic culture. Paintings such as this one show us that art can remain relatable beyond the time in which it is created. We draw our own readings from the piece and apply them to our modern world, only to realise that similar concerns have existed for centuries.

The Eco-Gender Gap

Annie Liddell
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The Eco-Gender Gap

“Climate change is a man-made problem with a feminist solution”, was claimed by Mary Robinson, the first female president of Ireland who is both a gender equality and climate activist. However, this statement places the burden of blame for the biggest problem humanity has faced on one gender. How men respond to this statement was surely unlikely to be positive. Denial, avoidance, and nonchalance were perhaps the most likely replies. At best, guilt and pro-activeness. 

The gender gap is a gender-based inequality that involves any difference in treatment or circumstance for men or women. Doubtless, gender gaps continue to exist globally in numerous spheres of life, be it economic, political or social. Most of us in the UK are very aware of the pay gap that persists, whilst on a global level, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 5 is to close that gender gap in the spheres of education, employment, rights and opportunities. The concept of an “eco-gender gap”, however, is a recently-coined idea that refers to the difference in environmental awareness and eco-friendly behaviour between men and women, with men being much less likely to feel connected to these issues than women. So how does this difference manifest itself, how did it arise, and how can we move forward as a society to implement the changes and targets that both genders can connect with? I want to reiterate now, this is not a reflection of all men, but a comment on societal trends.

The differences in green behaviour are displayed in a number of spheres of life, including travel, waste disposal, diet and consumer products. Men are more likely to eat meat, drive longer distances, recycle less and have a larger carbon footprint.  These gender differences for transport are substantial even across generations, so this brings to light the questions of why – even as work distribution has changed, with more women commuting – does this amount of travel not balance out in younger generations. Furthermore, men are less likely to feel guilty over living a non-green lifestyle: 42% of men compared to 53% of women in the United States; men are less likely to report concern over climate change, only 52% of men versus 64% of women. In the UK, 71% of women report committing to ethical living, contrasted to 59% of men. Women do, on the other hand, have higher energy use in food, hygiene, household products and health. These statistics show that, despite progress in gender equality in many ways, the UK and the US both continue to hold some traditional values of women being more prevalent in the domestic spheres, and men at work. 

So why has this behavioural and attitudinal difference emerged, and indeed, persisted? In the past, much of the women’s more environmentally conscious behaviour was considered to be due to greater altruistic, pro-social behaviour amongst women, either as part of a biological adaptation for better infant survival or, perhaps more likely, as part of social conditioning in our society, that values certain traits such as compassion, empathy and nurturing among girls. The idea that environmental awareness is due to personality differences or biological tendencies for women no longer can be considered the main explanation. It may be true that our society continues to socialise girls into being more compassionate or nurturing, but these attitudes or expectations are changing, while the difference in environmental awareness is increasing. So, there must be other factors at play.

Women are more likely to be affected by climate change and environmental damage. This is being demonstrated by the effects of increasingly extreme weather events, such as the catastrophic Bangladesh floods of 1991, where 90% of the 140,000 casualties were women, or the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, with 70% of fatalities being women.

Feminism and environmentalism have been closely associated, notably from the 1980s, during the second wave of feminism and the green movement, which linked environmental degradation and the oppression of women. It associated the barriers in the world between men and women, with that between humans and nature. The dichotomisation of the world has occurred under the patriarchal societal structures of our time. This history of the association of feminism and environmentalism has continued, with green marketing being one example of how this is being perpetuated today.

Environmentally-friendly products and branding are more targeted to areas in which women are stereotypically involved, such as cleaning, food, family health and laundry. This is creating a self-perpetuating cycle of eco-friendly products being targeted more towards women, thus eco-friendly branding becoming more feminised. The backlash of this is that more environmentally damaging branding is targeted at men, as seen in the 2012 McDonald’s advert in China ending with “100% manly man, 100% pure beef”.

This disconnection of masculinity and environmentalism has been drawn into popular culture, as seen in the Urban Dictionary term ‘soy boy’ which is defined as “males who completely and utterly lack all necessary masculine qualities”. Although soya is the more environmentally friendly option, it is considered “unmasculine”, something which reflects wider male attitudes to the subject. This may thus push women away from these options, further widening the divide. So, where does this need to assert masculinity come from, and is it a reflection of the remodel of masculinity in our society? As women begin to compete on more level playing fields in employment, making the traditional role of male breadwinners less significant, and indeed, even increasingly exceeding male achievement in education, masculinity is seeing a reboot. The form the backlash to this has taken on might be the rejection of environmentalism.

When Robinson made her statement, she was not trying to exclude men by bringing a feminist solution to the table, nor blame men for the issues of the past. Here lies the issue of knowing what feminism is, not a question of ostracising men, but bringing women, who previously have been at the periphery, to the table. Moving forwards, a new kind of masculinity is surely needed, one that is secure enough to interact with these often feminised problems, and which allows us to tackle our problems in society, as a whole.

Image Credits: Photo RNW.org via Flickr/ License: CC BY-ND 2.0. 

Microsoft Power Apps popular in Oxford

Matthew Schaffel
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Microsoft Power Apps popular in Oxford

The University is now one of the biggest users of ‘Power Apps’ in the UK. The apps, designed by Microsoft, can be crafted into a vast array of different functions. The University has been using them in various tasks across the institution.  

The apps are regarded as being simple and easy to use, while still encompassing an array of capabilities. For example, at Oxford, they have been used to handle course fees, funding applications, assigning colleges, ID cards and email accounts to new students, and childcare services and travel insurance for staff. 

Matthew Castle, head of application platforms in central IT Services at the University, said to Microsoft News: “If we didn’t have the Power Platform or Microsoft 365, we would be in a very challenging situation. We would be looking to next year and trying to figure out how we going to interview 25,000 students and help them prepare for life at our university. It’s a lot of work that’s made easier by using Power Apps to automate many of the manual and repetitive tasks that our staff have to do. This frees up time that our staff can use to focus on more pressing matters.”

Chris Rothwell, Director of Education at Microsoft UK, told Microsoft News: “Power Apps is putting organisations in control of their data. The Power Platform tools are perfect for any team that wants to increase agility, solve problems and improve how they work. I am inspired by how the University of Oxford is using this technology.”

Image Credit to: ijmaki/pixabay.com

Student societies’ links to BP revealed

Matthew Schaffel
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Student societies’ links to BP revealed

Following on from the recent report published by the Oxford Climate Justice Campaign uncovering the links between Oxford and the fossil fuel industry, Cherwell has researched the ties several STEM-based student societies have with BP, the British multinational oil and gas company. 

BP has contributed as a sponsor to the Oxford Chemistry and Biochemistry society, Oxford Energy society and Oxford Women in Engineering, Science, and Technology (OxWEST). The company has provided generals funds to support their ongoing operations and events. Currently, all three societies continue to list BP as an active sponsor on their websites.

When asked for comment on this issue, Yurim Park, president of the OxWEST society told Cherwell: “Our partnership with BP has been great so far, we got to hear about the company’s change in strategy and future ambitions to become net zero by 2050 or sooner. The event we had with BP was engaging and helpful to our members. Their contribution was added to the society’s general fund.”

A spokesperson for the Oxford Climate Justice Campaign told Cherwell: “BP has knowingly perpetuated the climate crisis and upheld global injustice for decades. This is demonstrated by BP’s willingness to collude with the Indonesian government to extract profit from West Papuan land, where 500,000 West Papuans have been killed since 1963.”

“BP’s climate commitments remain ‘grossly insufficient’ and are not aligned with the Paris Agreement. BP is one of the corporations most culpable for the ecological destruction we are witnessing. There can be no more chances for BP.”

“We urge every student society to cut its ties to BP and the fossil fuel industry. Fossil fuel companies want to use the talent and intelligence of our student body to legitimise and further their own destructive practices.

“BP’s responsibility for the climate crises shows it does not care about your future. It is time all of us stopped caring about BP’s future as well.”

Oxford Energy Society, Oxford Chemistry and Biochemistry Society, and BP have been contacted for comment.

Image Credit: Kouji Tsuru/Unsplash.com

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