Hello Everyone, 

It's been a while since I've wrote a blog and I know you all love my smashing patriarchy type blogs but I want you all to enjoy the week of sunshine and do two simple things:

Sign 2 petitions. It doesn't seem like much, but as Obama says 'One voice can change the world' 

Ched Evans

You may have heard of the Sheffield United Footballer, Ched Evans, who was convicted of raping a woman. The media attention on this was terrible and reminded us of the rape culture that still exists in society. The Pofessional Footballers Association decided to leave Ched on their honours list. 

If you think this decision was wrong, please sign the petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/professional-footballers-association-drop-ched-evans-from-the-league-one-team-of-the-year-honours-list#

His name on the list is a reminder that sexism and the discrimination of women is still rife in Football. 

Equal Marriage

There is a national campaign for equal marriage regardless of gender. The basic value of this petition is that everyone should be treated equally regardless of your sexual or gender orientation. 

Please sign the petition here: http://www.c4em.org.uk/

If you want to help further, you can provide feedback for the Government's Consultation, here: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/about-us/consultations/equal-civil-marriage/

The competing petition for marriage to remain for just women and men is becoming popular. I urge you to sign the equal marriage petition regardless of your gender or your sexual orientation. Equality for same sex marriage is not just a benefit to LGBT people. It benefits everyone. 

Also, if Ben and Jerry's can make a ice cream for the importance of equal marriage, you can sign a petition. 

Thank you. 

Sarah x 

P.s. Don't worry I will be back with one more blog about sexism and misogyny before I leave my year in office! 

On the 3^rd of May, its local election time. This means you can go and vote for who you want to represent your area of Sheffield in the city council. Wondering why you should bother? Well here are a few reasons

1) These people can make big decisions about how Sheffield is run, and in a time of cuts, its more important than ever that you are showing your priorities by electing the right person for you.

2) Across the country, local councils are bringing in anti student policies that have a detrimental impact on our lives. For example, Nottingham City Council have recently brought in a policy where students have to get parking permits, at £70 per permit, where as local residents get 3 per household for free. Other councils have brought in something called ‘article 4 directions’ that effectively limit the number of students who are allowed to live in an area. The reason this discrimination is accepted is because in these areas, few students vote, so there is no risk to the council by doing this.

3) Sick of potholes, poor street lighting or expensive buses? It is the councils responsibility to maintain these things.

4) The government is pushing something called localism, which is all about giving more power and authority to local government. An example is from April 2013, local authorities will have money for public health and the power to change it- elect the right people to do this.

5) Every time a student doesn’t vote, a fairy dies.

So tomorrow, head down to your local polling station and cast your vote. (The polling station location will be on the card you received through the post) If you have since lost your card, here is a map of polling stations, which you should still be able to vote at

https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/your-city-council/elections/voting-in-person/map.html

Mat Denton

Welfare Officer

So its getting to that time of year when every final year student starts panicking about what we are going to be doing next year, and this can be pretty daunting. But fear not, the university provides some great programmes that can make you the most employable you can be and help you get the job you want.

Have you heard of the Skills for Work Certificate? It helps to recognise the valuable skills that you develop through part time jobs, work experience and volunteering. Most employers want more than a degree, they want you to be able to show what skills you have, and practical examples of where you have gained and used them.

Not only this, but the Skills for Work Certificate also helps you learn more about yourself and your career options. Even if you're not in final year, its never too early to start getting your CV in order and making yourself employable.

To find out more and to register for one of the remaining briefing sessions run throughout May visit: http://www.shef.ac.uk/careers/students/advice/sfwc

(you will need to be on a campus computer to register)

If you’re not sure if this is something for you, but are still concerned about future employment, look at all the other great stuff the careers service provides here

March was quite an emotional month for me and I never really found myself in the mood to write down the things that were going on around me. 

March is probably the biggest calendar month for a women's officer. Firstly there is International Women's Day and NUS' Women's Conference. On top of this, there was Officer elections. 

I had every intention to write a blog on all these events, but it seems March was just a bit of a whirlwind. 

I'm just going to share some of my thoughts on the past month. 

I started to understand why it is vitally important that we do more to celebrate the achievements of women and that we provide more support to women to achieve their potential. 

In the recent Officer elections as an organisation we achieved the goal of getting more women to stand for positions, which is great if you only care about statistics. Although, if you know me personally, you'll know I LOVE statistics, but it just isn't enough. We were able to get women to stand, but making sure they feel confident and supported once they have nominated themselves, throughout the campaign is a difficult task. We as a Students' Union should be doing more. 

I genuinely think that bringing women together is a powerful thing, it allows women to share their personal experiences and make women feel united. This is something I definitely saw from the Women and Faith event, there was a range of different faiths and beliefs, but women came together to share what their faith meant to them.  

When women do come together we are able to reflect on our contributions and achievements as women. 

I chose a film for International Women's Day that had a positive representation of women, one of the only award winning films last year that did, 'The Help'. For starters it had more than one women in and these women actually talked to each other not about men or sex (See Bechdel Test- trust me not many films pass it- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLF6sAAMb4s). 

Representation of women is a powerful thing, there is a phrase: 'You can't be what you can't see', and it's true. If you see more women achieving certain things or positions, you start to believe that you can too. 

In the film one of the women tells a young girl over and over ‘You is kind. You is smart. You is important’. This resonated with me, because it is a reminder that women do matter, and that when we come together to support each other during the good and hard times, we can make life better for ourselves and future generations of women. 

When all women are free to follow their dreams and are not held back by society, this will be truly something to celebrate. 

But in the meantime, it's time for Sheffield Students' Union to take some serious action to show that women's voices do matter, that we can make a difference and that most of all we too, are important.

Thanks and have a great break!

Sarah x

As Officers from Sheffield Students’ Union you’ll not often find us saying anything positive about anything produced by Leeds University Union (not publicly at least) but when it comes to Rachel Wenstone we reckon we can make an exception.

We truly believe that Rachel is the perfect candidate for Vice President Higher Education.

This year Rachel has been our regional contact on the National Executive Committee. For many of you your NEC contact is that person who’s just started sending you e-mails now election season has started, telling you how hard they’ve been working all year. As first year sabbatical officers most of us were new to NUS and the work of the NEC. Rachel has been an endless source of advice and has built up a strong relationship with all our Officers throughout the year. 

Rachel has been so approachable and has gone out of her way to let us know how we can make changes beyond our Students’ Union. She has consistently fed our views into NEC meetings and reported back on what’s going on after them. Rachel has done a brilliant job of listening to the issues affecting our students and has been very effective in raising these issues in NEC meetings. 

We can all say we feel very connected to NUS. We feel supported as an institution to raise our voices on a national level and this is all thanks to Rachel’s hard work.

In what is difficult times for higher education nationally and when there are new officers just trying to get to grips with their roles, students up and down the country need someone who can effectively and passionately lead the higher education campaign. We need a VP Higher Education who can show us how to both challenge and work positively with our institutions in order to get wins for our students and make real change. Rachel understands the need to relate not just to student officers, but to students as well, which is a refreshing and much needed change for NUS. 

We believe Rachel is the best person to take the higher education campaign forward in NUS. She has a proven track record of mobilising and supporting students on the ground both as the Communications and Internal Affairs Officer at Leeds University Union and as a member of the NEC. 

At Sheffield one of the biggest issues we have been lobbying the University on is better support for Postgraduate Taught students. With the rise in tuition fees for undergraduates, the conversation is already happening about PGT fees and yet there is no funding system in place. We trust Rachel to campaign on this and actually deliver a model to support these students and so that we don’t price certain groups of students from higher education even further!

Students deserve a VP Higher Education who is supportive, approachable and experienced. 

Students deserve Rachel Wenstone. 

This is why we believe Rachel is the best candidate for VP Higher Education.

Short and Long Manifestos -www.voterachel.co.uk

Facebook page -https://www.facebook.com/ voterachel

Contact - rachel.wenstone@nus.org.uk