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1999 News from MENZ.org.nz

Chivalry, Courtesy, Provocation, Women's Suffrage, and the United Nations - an essay by libertarian writer, J. Neil Schulman, in which he makes some excellent observations regarding politics and feminism etc. It's important to note that his perspective is doctrinaire libertarianism, which some maintain is the most effective political direction for the men's movement to follow. (more) 31st December 1999.

More Criticism of flawed Time-use Survey "Divorced Dads Didn't Count", says the NZ Father &  Child Society. "Nearly a third of all fathers are non-custodial and the exclusion of their parenting work from the study means that the unpaid parenting work of two thirds of men has been averaged out to all men." (more) 20th December 1999. (previous items)

Daily tasks 'tax teen mothers' Six out of 10 teenage mothers struggle with daily tasks because of psychological or social problems, a new Australian study has found. The findings have brought a call from Mental Health Commissioner Barbara Disley for communities to give more support to teenage mothers. (link) 20th Dec. Further evidence of a radical feminist-dominated organisation dedicated to looking after women at the expense of men? (more.)

Time Use Survey Phillida Bunkle, the Associate Minister of Women's Affairs, says the concept of a "time use" survey met official resistance from the 1980s. (link) But the results are being distorted before the proverbial ink is dry. What is the real story? (link) Bunkle Talks Bunk, say FARE - the survey is merely an expensive propaganda exercise to justify ending the current policy of equal splitting of matrimonial property and make it generally unequal in favour of women.(more) 16th December 1999. (previous items.)

Minister against outlawing smacking Labour has no intention of changing the Crimes Act to outlaw smacking in the home, says new Justice Minister Phil Goff. He said it would only make criminals out of parents "who from time to time smack their children with no degree of force or injury". Commissioner for Children Roger McClay said he had been deluged with abuse from parents attacking him for his stance.  (link) 16th December 1999. (previous items.)

Lawyer calls for change to make it easier for sex abuse victims to sue for damages Antonia Fisher, the lawyer for a woman who failed in a long fight for the right to sue her convicted childhood sexual abuser, says she hopes the case leads to law reform. The case was turned down by the High Court and Court of Appeal on the grounds that it was filed far too late after the abuse, which took place in the 1960s.(link) 16th December 1999.

Call For Child Smacking To Stop The Commissioner for Children Roger McClay is calling for smacking to become illegal. He says it only leads to further violence.(link) Mixed reactions: (link) A worldwide momentum to ban smacking is growing, and in New Zealand 45 "significant" organisations such as Plunket and Barnardos have joined a network to promote positive non-physical discipline (link) However, Christian Heritage Party leader Graham Capill  says: "Mr McClay should come clean with his real agenda which is NZ's obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, instead of misleading the public into seeing this as an issue of child abuse. Mr McClay should be focusing on the real issue - the breakdown of family life."(link) 15th December 1999. In Jan 98, a MENZ Issues article supported corporal punishment (more)

Survey: Women Do More Unpaid Work A time-use survey commissioned by the Ministry of Women's Affairs at the cost of two million dollars, shows men average two hours more paid work a day, while women do two hours more unpaid work. (link) male full-time workers spent an average of 8.7 hours a day in paid work, compared with eight hours for women.  However, women spent more time than men in "productive" work due to the higher amount of unpaid work they do. (link) Other initial findings are discussed: (link)  This survey is a landmark in our understanding of the differences between the lives of women and men in New Zealand,' says Phillida Bunkle: (link) Marilyn Waring describes this survey as: "the most sophisticated and conceptually advanced time use survey of all. This will be the single most exciting information base established as a vehicle for change in my lifetime." (link) The survey data is here: (link) Stuart Birks outlines significant problems with the survey. He notes that one aim was to show how much caregiving women do, (link) to his comments. 15th December 1999.

Long -Term Prisoners figures  reveal that only two out of 5613 of NZ's present prison population have been in jail without release for more than 30 years, five more than 20 years, and four more than 15 years. The figures come after 92 per cent of NZ'ers supported a referendum on tougher penalties for violent crime. New Corrections Minister Matt Robson said he did not agree with the vote. He believed more imaginative solutions were needed to cut re-offending, including providing more education and rehabilitative training. (link) 15th December 1999.

Contact with dad means better language skills with two-parent households becoming less and less common, University of Maryland researchers set out to study how important contact with dad is to children's development. They found that even when fathers do not live at home, children whose fathers are actively involved in their lives tend to have better cognitive and language skills and fewer behavior problems. (link) 13th December 1999.

Women Claim Gender Discrimination on Rodney Council "They treat me like a little girl," said Gaye Harding, a 35-year-old solo-mother of three boys from the Hibiscus Coast. (link) 13th December 1999.

Ellis To Be Freed In February Convicted childcare worker Peter Ellis will be released from prison in February, on the mandatory date for his release. (link) 12th December 1999. (more) on Peter Ellis.

Death penalty call 'horrific' Capital punishment does nothing to reduce serious crime or murder, Jim Consedine, the national co-ordinator of the Restorative Justice Network says. (link) 11th December 1999.

Law Commission Supports Gay Couple Registration The Law Commission is recommending that same-sex couples be able to legally register as partners, with support from the Prime Minister Helen Clark.(link) 9th December 1999.

Prostate Awareness and Support Society Phones Busy Publicity surrounding Paul Holmes' battle with prostate cancer has sparked a surge in calls to a national hotline. (link) 9th November 1999.

Prison Manager calls for Capital Punishment. The Corrections Department has launched a set of guidelines on how to integrate Maori beliefs into policies aimed at combating the high Maori offending rate. The manager of Auckland prison at Paremoremo, Brett Bestic, has resigned. He said he believed there was a place for capital punishment of violent criminals who continue to break the law. (link) 9th December 1999.

Victoria University research on rapists a world first Pioneering psychological research by Victoria University lecturer Devon Polaschek has world-wide implications for the treatment of rapists and offender profiling. (link) 9th December 1999.

Plight Of the High Status Woman Recent fiction, essays, and self-help books ('Dumped!', for one) suggest that a harsh new mating system is emerging. by Barbara Dafoe Whitehead. (link) December 1999.

CYFS can be sued -expert WELLINGTON -- A woman who was raped by a 14-year-old and his gang member carer can sue the Department of Child, Youth and Family Services for punitive damages, Wellington law expert John Miller says. (link) 4th December 1999.

Mountain biking may cause scrotum problems including benign tumours, swelling and pain, Austrian researchers reported on Tuesday. (link) 1st December 1999.

Delay on DNA report The report of a ministerial inquiry into how DNA evidence was bungled in two crimes, implicating an innocent man, has been further delayed by the change of government. (link) 1st December 1999.

Prostate Cancer Research should dispel some of the fears of men undergoing radiation therapy for prostate cancer, say the authors of a study released Tuesday.(link) 30th November 1999.

Is that a bazooka in your pocket, soldier? NZ Army dads in the firing line, and the Mana Men's Right's Group see front-line action. (more) 24th November 1999.

'Traditional' family no longer norm A survey released Wednesday found that only a quarter of married American couples have children under 18, down from nearly half in 1972. The survey was part of a report that expects the typical 21st century family to be a far cry from the 'traditional' family of a stay-at-home mom, a working dad, and two children. (link) 24th November 1999.

Warren Farrell will be in Ottawa during the next few days to talk about his new book, Women Can't Hear What Men Don't Say. (link)    24th November 1999.

Spouse Abuse Crackdown, Surprisingly, Nets Many Women  Defenders of battered women long struggled to persuade authorities to crack down on brutal men who reigned by the fist at home. But those crackdowns have produced an unexpected consequence: in some places, one-quarter or more of arrests for domestic assault are not of men but of women. (link) 23rd November 1999.

'The Sex Change Society: Feminized Britain and the Neutered Male' by Melanie Phillips - book review by William Leith. Phillips says men feel "under siege", and that "their very masculinity is now under threat". They are, she thinks, "suffering a Susan Faludi-style crisis of identity". "Warfare," she says, "is deemed obscene. Authority is oppressive. Competition creates losers. Chivalry is a joke. Physical courage is despised." (link) 22nd November 1999.

FATHER & CHILD Election Feature Party Policies for Dads Father & Child asked representatives of the five main parties 10 questions about their policies on fathers and families. Labour, the Alliance and ACT answered the questions directly. National's policy research unit submitted some excerpts from their policies and New Zealand First came up with a general letter about the issues. (link.)

The Labour party website has a search function. The word 'father' gets just two hits. One points to Helen Clark saying: "A father who repeatedly rapes his daughter will face a lesser sentence than an intruder who attacks the child." (more.)

The Green Party does not seem to have any policies directly relating to fathers. They call for "mandatory attendance at (culturally appropriate) behavior modification courses for men convicted of assault on women." No need to modify women's behavior then? (more.)

DNA tests show 25% convicted of sex crimes are innocent U.S. Dept. of Justice DNA Study shows that  25% of all convicted of sex crimes are innocent. "Convicted by Juries, exonerated by Science,   Case Studies in Use of DNA to Establish Innocence after Trial". Authors:   Edward Conners, Thomas Lundregan, Neal Miller, and Tom McMcEwen. Findings:  40% of all primary suspects in sex crimes are innocent, and  25% of those convicted of sex crimes (prisoners)are innocent. Published by: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institutute of Justice Research Report. (link) 21st November 1999.

Fear lingers for children of divorce By Susan Whitney. Loneliness. Twenty-five years after their parents' divorce, this is what people remember from their childhoods: loneliness and fear. "Well, terror, actually", says Judith Wallerstein, a psychologist and one of the USA's premier divorce researchers. She says adults like to believe that children are aware of their parents' unhappiness, expect the divorce and are relieved when it happens. But that's a myth, she says.

What children actually conclude is: If one parent can leave another then they both could leave me. Wallerstein does long-term studies. She's followed a group of California families since the early 1970s, interviewing fathers, mothers and children at regular intervals, beginning with the divorce.Divorce cuts family relationships loose from their moorings, Wallerstein says. In general, she finds that 21-year-old children of divorce are angry with their parents. They are usually more angry at their fathers. (link) 20th November 1999.

Fathering 'Key issue of the next decade' says Shipley Too often fathers are missing when children get into trouble says Prime Minister Jenny Shipley. "Unless we allow children, particularly our boys, to feel that they are included and their lives are relevant, we are going to see more trouble, not less trouble" she warned. (more) 17th November 1999.

North Shore Summer in the Bays Programme From 7 November to 26 March the Summer in the Bays Co-ordinator will be traveling the beaches, parks and reserves of the Bays with a trailer and van-load of toys for the whole family including tennis, croquet, volleyball, petanque, street hockey, cricket, moonhoppers, bungee jumpers, hula hoops, balls - just to name a few! It's all free! So mums, dads, grandmas and Granddads - put a picnic together, grab the kids and come down for a few hours of Summer in the Bays fun! (link.)

A Challenge If there is strong feeling among fathers that their position in the Family Court on custody matters is inferior to that of mothers, Courts Minister Georgina te Heuheu wants to know about it. In Palmerston North yesterday Mrs te Heuheu was asked if she had received many complaints from fathers about their treatment under the Family Court system. She said she had not. (more) 11th November 1999.

Interview with Wendy Kaminer: The author of 'Sleeping With Extra-Terrestrials', and 'I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional' (1992) sees a disturbing decline of reason in our public life. "The feminist identity crisis I described in 1993 dates back 150 years to the beginning of the women's rights movement. Feminists have always been divided over two conflicting views of femininity and two approaches to sexual justice. From the beginning, in the mid nineteenth century, some feminists focused on what men and women shared -- the capacity to reason, for instance, and the right to a self-determined destiny. They sought legal equality: laws that would extend the same rights and the same responsibilities to both sexes.

Other feminists, whom I think of as "protectionists," focused on biological differences between men and women and embraced traditional notions of women as a gentler, more moral sex. These women tended to seek sexual justice through protectionism. They advocated protective labor laws for women and the censorship of sexually explicit mateial. (link.)

Pregnancy no longer pushes women to wed By Rita Rubin. In the early 1990s, more than half of the first children born to young women were conceived outside marriage - a rate nearly three times that of the early 1930s, says a Census Bureau report out Tuesday. Demographer Amara Bachu attributes the trends to changing attitudes about marriage and growing acceptance of giving birth outside it. "It's accepted by society. Getting legally married is not a big issue. As long as society accepts women having babies out of wedlock, it will continue." (link) 9th November 1999.

Private employers increasingly tap prison labor force:   Kathleen Koch, CNN. WASHINGTON -- A new employment trend is emerging, in part because of the tight labor market. Private companies are increasingly turning to prison labor to fill jobs no one else wants. Prison-industry partnerships are up 200 percent since they began in 1979, with roughly 2,500 inmates nationwide working for businesses like Furniture Medic. This is quite a scary article - no women in prisons, and men in the new Gulags. (link) 6th November 1999.

Swiss boy faces new sex charge: By Kieran Nicholson. From the land, and the county, that brought you the Harris and Klebold Columbine High shoot-'em-up, which occurred despite the fact that the county "authorities" knew a year in advance that those boys were unbalanced, comes a lesson in how to judicially destroy a child. Raoul Wuthrich, the 11-year-old who's been accused on "fondling" his five- year-old sister while helping to clean her after a backyard elimination, has now been additionally charged with "sexual assault on a child."

A child sexually assaulting a child? My, my, don't they grow up fast these days? The County is Jefferson, a suburb of Denver, in which operates one quasi- state witchdoctor named Dan Jarboe, cited in the story below. Jarboe likes to leech, very lucratively, from the fringes of the "abuse" industry. He's also probably one of the biggest liars in the business, having wreaked havoc in another case which hasn't made the mainstream press - yet. By the time the "authorities" get done with this little kid, they'll have him on death row. Read it, and weep for our society. (link) 5th November 1999.

New Zealand - the cruel country. New Zealand leads the world in feminist ideology and practice. It prides itself on the early adoption of measures to better the lot of women. But it also means, taken closer to some logical and illogical conclusions, that men are branded and go to jail. (link)

Unneccessary father bashing Tragically, Roger Sowry still thinks 'father bashing' is a good way to win votes. During their term in office National has passed the Child Support Act 1991, is planning to introduce unequal splitting of matrimonial property, and passed the Domestic Violence Act 1995, none of which can be regarded as father or family friendly. (more) 3rd November 1999.

A selective critique of Snively, Suzanne (1994), 'The New Zealand Economic Cost of Family Violence', Department of Social Welfare, New Zealand - by Stuart Birks. There are many problems with Snively's study. This discussion should not be taken as comprehensive, but simply as indicative of the speculative and problematic nature of the study and its findings. (link.)

Father & Child Trust second website: Still 'under construction', but well worth a look. (link.)

Peter Ellis Supporters Website: Read the full Peter Ellis Court of Appeal of New Zealand Judgment , CA120/98, 14 October, 1999, and other material (link.)

Perspectives On Fathering II: Issues Paper No.6 - Edited by Stuart Birks and Paul Callister Massey University Centre For Public Policy Evaluation. Papers available in PDF format: (link)

• "In the Name of the Father": Men, Fatherhood and Public Policy, Ian Shirley
• Fathers Who Care: Partners in Parenting Project, Office of the Commissioner for Children
• Fathers at Work - Families Keep Out: The Need for Cultural Change in New Zealand Workplaces, Trudie McNaughton and Julie O'Brien
• Developing Support Services to Fathers, Harald Breiding-Buss
• Encounters with Counsellors: Relationship Services - What's in it for Fathers? Sue Hine
• Putting Children in the Forefront of Custody and Access Disputes, Robert Ludbrook
• Fatherhood and Family Law, Mark Henaghan
• Parenting and the Family Court: An Economist's Perspective, Stuart Birks
• Fatherhood and the New Zealand Population Problem: An Economist's View, Simon Chapple
• Fatherless Sons - A Review of the Voices, Jill Chrisp
• Children Living in Sole Father Homes in New Zealand, Judith Davey
• No Job, No Wife? - Fathers, Paid Work and Changes in Living Arrangements in New Zealand, Paul Callister

USA - Recent columns by Kathleen Parker: I evolved into a writer about families and children by turn of fate. As the daughter of four stepmothers, the mother of one child and the stepmother of two sons, as well as a sister to a dozen or so siblings - whole, half and step -- what choice did I have? (link)

The deadbeat dad is less a scoundrel than an object of pity In general, the deadbeat dad is less a scoundrel than the pitiful, bastard off-spring of a divorce industry predicated on the mistaken assumption that children belong to one parent (the mother in 90 percent of divorces), and that fathers, regardless of their income, are cash cows. (link) October 17th 1999.

FATHER & CHILD Election Feature Party Policies for Dads. Father & Child asked representatives of the five main parties 10 questions about their policies on fathers and families. Labour, the Alliance and ACT answered the questions directly. National's policy research unit submitted some excerpts from their policies and New Zealand First came up with a general letter about the issues. Check out the replies here: (link.) September 1999.

Fitting Fathers into Families - Commonwealth of Australia Department of Family and Community Services. Astonishingly, a survey of professionals' and service providers' attitudes showed that over half of the women and a third of the men believe that between 11% and 24% of fathers sexually abuse their children! The actual rate (in NZ) is about 1 in 500. The study also reports:

• Fathers are working an average of 47 hours a week, with one-third working more than 50 hours a week, demonstrating only a small change from 1983. However, over two-thirds believe they don't spend enough time with their children.
• Fathers have an important impact on their child's development, especially for self-esteem, emotional wellbeing, capacity to love and be loved, and social skills.
• A significant number of fathers reported experiencing high stress and insufficient time for family.
• Men's perceptions and expectations are changing, particularly of relationships and their role as fathers.

January 1999. (link expired.)

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