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Start using Mumsnet PremiumNew equalities and Women's Ministers
(27 Posts)According to Equalities tweets
Baroness Berridge is new Minister for Women, don't know what's happened to V Atkins.
Kemi Badenoch is Minister for Equalities which I hope is an improvement.
Thanks - am off to google as I cant say I have heard of either.
Baroness Berridge has been appointed parliamentary under secretary of state at the Department for Education as well. Is that a good sign.
"Born and educated in the county of Rutland, Lady Berridge attended Vale of Catmose College and Rutland College in Oakham. She then studied Law at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and undertook barrister’s training at the Inns of Court School of Law in London. Her professional career was as a barrister before she was appointed Executive Director of the Conservative Christian Fellowship in 2006.["
Full list here
order-order.com/2020/02/14/reshuffle-live-6/
17.35:Kemi Badenoch appointed PuSS (Minister for Equalities) at DfIT
17.35:Baroness Berridge appointed PuSS (Minister for Women) at DfIT
...
17.35: Victoria Atkins remains PuSS at the Home Office
I assume PuSS is Permanent underSecretary of State.
Etc.
As a Christian, it seems she might be less expected to be sympathetic to TWAW.
Though equally, she might (or might not) be less sympathetic to abortion rights.
...Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
'Permanent Secretaries' are civil servants.
Ministers are anything but permanent.
So they are again indicating that Minister for Women is just a second job for someone who has a more important job, eg Education. [hmmm]
Interestingly Kemi Badenoch's father is a GP and her mother is a professor of physiology so here's hoping she has a better grasp on biology than some! (Apparently as someone with tech skills she didn't think anything of hacking into Harriet Harman's web site!)
Victoria Atkins MP may still be Parliamentary Under Secretary for Safeguarding and Vulnerability & in which case may be taking a lead on the inquiries into the consequences for children identified as transgender.
www.gov.uk/government/people/victoria-atkins
That all sounds a bit more promising than Mordaunt and Miller were.
You'd hope someone from a medical family would know the basics of biology, but then I saw a woke surgeon on Twitter arguing TWAW so you never know.
then I saw a woke surgeon on Twitter arguing TWAW so you never know.
There are many medics on Twitter with impeccable pedigrees in skepticism and denialism who argue that - much to my sorrow.
And a UK Professor of Public Health with a special interest in sexual and reproductive health who has also affected to believe that women who believe otherwise have failed to do enough research. That would be a professor who considers mimmymum to be a reliable source of information. And who has tweeted 'proof' of the continuum through some nonsense to do with categorising tables and chairs/stools. I nonetheless believe that she knows which sex needs to use which method of contraception/prophylaxis and which particular sex is the one that actually conceives and gives birth.
Just saw this in an article in the I about Kemi Badenoch:
" ... She had reflected: "What we thought was quite liberal is now seen as quite conservative and vice versa."
“When I look at a lot of the stuff that you see on social media about how – I think it’s a generational thing as well – younger people look at appropriate behaviour and what is a sexual advance, what is sexual harassment and so on, to me, it’s actually becoming a lot more puritanical than anything I ever saw in my 20s or in my teens."
She also came under fire in January 2019 after accusing Labour's Tulip Siddiq of trying to deliberately "make a point" by delaying her cesarean for a key Brexit vote.
The new equalities minister abstained on the extension of same-sex marriage to Northern Ireland in July 2019.
She joins the Government Equalities Office (GEO) just weeks after it put out a call for sexual harassment victims to share their stories and pledged to "strengthen protections for employees across the UK from sexual harassment".
... Ms Badenoch also challenged the cultural reassessment of the TV show Friends over jokes that are now seen as homophobic and transphobic.
... Secretary of State for International Trade Liz Truss, who continues to hold the Cabinet-level role of Minister for Women and Equalities, previously suggested renaming the department the "Ministry of Freedom" to move away from “identity politics". "
inews.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-new-equalities-minister-criticised-puritanical-millennials-sexual-harassment-1742011
So nothing has really change as basically we are still waiting for Liz Truss???
Strange article in inews. She's not the Women's Minister but Equalities so I find her comments on Friends and abstention on gay marriage in N.Ireland significant (not that I agree with the latter). Baroness Williams her predessesser was very gung ho about trans issues.
I came across this on Twitter, it seems Baroness Berridge is willing to at least say that “male-bodied women” ( that phrase makes my brain hurt) should be banned from women’s toilets. The pic is from the tweet, and is taken from the Sunday Mail of the 29th. Please please please let the tide be properly turning...
mobile.twitter.com/AnnMSinnott/status/1244242384684232704
it seems Baroness Berridge is willing to at least say that “male-bodied women” ( that phrase makes my brain hurt) should be banned from women’s toilets.
My head hurts also.
Is it euphemistic & referring to males with intact genitalia or is it a clunky reference to any male person (physically so disregarding the possibility of GRC)?
link to the Mail on Sunday article:
'Ban male-bodied trans women from ladies’ toilets, says Equality Minister
By Glen Owen POLITICAL EDITOR 29 Mar 2020
TRANSGENDER women who have male bodies should be barred from female toilets and changing rooms, a new Equalities Office Minister has insisted.
In the latest salvo of a Government war to protect single-sex spaces, Women’s Minister Baroness Berridge declared the law is clear that such places should be for biological women only.
She said: ‘Transgender people can be excluded from singlesex facilities if service providers have a legitimate reason for doing so and if exclusion is the least discriminatory way to proceed.’
Rules over trans women’s access to ‘women-only’ services are the subject of fierce public argument, with opponents insisting that those who identify as female but are anatomically male should be excluded.
A similar debate has been taking place within Government, with female Ministers clashing with senior male aides in Downing Street to demand a tougher line. At the heart of the issue is the Equality Act, which states that organisations cannot discriminate on the basis of gender reassignment. However, the Act also contains measures allowing for female-only services.
Baroness Berridge, who was appointed Minister for Women in the February reshuffle, works with Liz Truss, the Equalities Secretary, who is pushing No 10 to take a stronger stance on protecting women’s right.
Insiders say Ms Truss wants the Government to formally abandon proposals to let people ‘self-identify’ their gender and align itself with campaigners who believe that trans equality laws threaten female- only spaces. But she has so far been overruled by Boris Johnson’s top aide Dominic Cummings who does not believes the debate is a priority for most voters.
Trans activists such as Stonewall argue that the Equality Act means that trans women cannot be stopped from using female facilities.
A source said: ‘Liz is one of several Ministers who want to be much tougher on this, but Downing Street just wants the whole subject to go away.’
In her statement to the House of Lords, Baroness Berridge, a former lawyer and director of the Conservative Christian Fellowship, said: ‘We must take the right steps to protect safe single-sex spaces for women and girls; their access should not be jeopardised
‘We are considering carefully our next steps.’
www.pressreader.com/uk/the-mail-on-sunday/20200329/282355451841159
text from: www.reddit.com/r/GenderCritical/comments/fraxiq/mail_on_sunday_ban_malebodied_trans_women_from/
Don't all trans women being male have male bodies & aren't they all 'anatomically male'?
Don't all trans women being male have male bodies & aren't they all 'anatomically male'?
They all have male bodies. A man who surgically feminises his face, or inverts his penis, is not a woman.
Despite it not being an unpopular stance, I can't imagine how people believe they would implement any policy that allowed men who have inverted their penises access, but not those who don't.
It's far more unworkable, discriminatory and prejudicial than sex segregation according to sex.
Yes of course they are all male bodied and anatomically male irrespective of any body modifications they've purchased or obtained via the NHS.
I think the Baroness and the writer are simply spelling this one out for clarity. It does make a change.
They all have male bodies. A man who surgically feminises his face, or inverts his penis, is not a woman.
Exactly.
Just as any males whose bodies are altered by accidents, cancer treatments or other elective facial plastic sugeries continue to have male bodies.
A similar debate has been taking place within Government, with female Ministers clashing with senior male aides in Downing Street to demand a tougher line.
That's an interesting quote. Who are these senior male aids who are clashing with female ministers on this? Cummings?
I think the Baroness and the writer are simply spelling this one out for clarity. It does make a change.
Im not sure.
Some people use the term 'male-bodied' to refer to those males who identify as women but have not had genital surgery.
There is a significant push from many directions to assign female spaces to females & those males who have had particular sugeries.
Language continues to obfuscate.
That's an interesting quote. Who are these senior male aids who are clashing with female ministers on this?
Did it ever emerge which male cabinet member threatened David Davies MP with police action when he continued to host women's groups?
Women’s Minister Baroness Berridge declared the law is clear that such places should be for biological women only.
I can't see any obfuscation there Rowan trees, can you?
It may be that the complaints to IPSO improve clarity in reporting & subsequent discussion.
fairplayforwomen.com/ipso/
womansplaceuk.org/2020/03/29/wpuk-response-to-the-communications-and-digital-committee-enquiry-the-future-of-journalism/
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3863216-FairPlayForWomen-fight-inaccurate-press-reporting
KB is also currently on Maternity Leave. She happens to be my MP, so when she is back at work/we are allowed out again and I'm on top of my own real-life shit, I have promised myself that I will go along to one of her surgeries for a chat.
My impression is that she is right-wing and hawkish and if this bears out, she wouldn't be my first choice of minister. On the other hand, I suspect that she knows what a woman is.
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