Isn't the name of Mumsnet itself sexist?

But then wouldn't you go to butchersnet for that breeze? I'm not being snippy, I just think that one website can't fulfill all needs for all people.

I would just like more bredth of talk and perspective and experience.
For instance, when the horse meat scandal was going on there were at least 5 threads on the scandal.
On none of them, did I come across a butcher, male or female. I know there are some female butchers. But there was not a single viewpoint from either a male or female butcher.
I only came across one MNetter who could even talk about the food chain in any detail.

I think the OP has a good point actually. Calling a parenting website "mumsnet" conveys an assumption that the mums will be the main parent. A bit like how in many organisations for years maternity and paternity leave have been massively different, helping mums to be seen as the main parent, while entrenching dads as the main WOH earner.

What makes more of us wince is the class implication - some of us are mummies and mum sounds a bit common as it were. I suspect we can all live with the compromise over the name. Anyway they have registered trade marks in the name so not likely to change it.

I love the fact that there are far more women's voices than men's on mumsnet - it is like an oasis from domination by men's voices and perspectives everywhere else and I don't actually find the men here add much tbh. They seem like the 'fifth wheels' at best.

Well, it may be just me, but I would like to see the name changed to parentsnet.

Aksherlly.

OP wrote - "It suggests that the forum is only for women, which in turn conveys the idea that women do more parenting than men."

Your comment reminds me of the way that the England football team (of men, the default, of course) and the England women's football team convey that football is only for men, and women do something else that is implicity inferior to football.

Personally I would like a whole heap more men on here.
It would widen the topics discussed by quite a lot.
And some debates would be much more realistic with men's perspectives.

I dont suppose, having thought some more and listened to the posts on here, that what it is called is much of a problem.

of course the name isn't sexist.

My question to Mumsnet HQ is:

Will Mumsnet be renamed Parentsnet before or after Manchester is renamed Personchester?

I'm a dad, and I don't care a hoot what the site is called. I've picked up good advice, laughed at the stupid stuff and been welcomed.

I agree that the name is inherantly sexist, but as an adult, I can live with that without losing too much sleep over it.

A website named something like www.only.mothers.are.real.parents.so.no.fathers.allowed.com would be sexist, because it would discriminate against men who are parents. Mumsnet does not come anywhere close to that.

I wonder if Mumsnet chose their name because there may already have been a website called Parentsnet?

It was started by two mums. So the title isn't sexist.

There are lots of men on here.

I like that it's a female space. OK, men can join in, but it's overwhelmingly female and therefore refreshingly free of the gendered-based trolling that happens everywhere else in the web.

By which I don't mean the site doesn't get trolled, or that members don't troll in responses to OP's, but the particularly nasty reaches of 'shut up cunts' doesn't tend to happen here. (Here being MN, not FWR)

Trampypants has indeed fixed the Internet.

I like the vibe here, it's funny and interesting and downright rude and silly sometimes.

It's also quite often the first website that pops up under questions I giggle and that's how I found it.

I'm not a parent, I would like to be but hasn't happened yet. I love that Mumsnet seems to bring out a brilliant side to women that I haven't seen elsewhere in the media.

Well said catfromjapan

OP you do realise men are pretty well running the planet? Remove the plank of anti-women sexism before you solve the speck of dust that is anti-men.

well, if it was called parentsnet, that would discriminate against non-parents.

I know, lets call it ParentsParentsToBeAndPeopleWhoJustLikeGabbingToLikemindedSouls-net.

I fixed the internet!

"Dadsnet" is just one topic on here, like "Relationships" or "Childbirth" - posting in one doesn't bar you from the rest, it just allows for one area of interest to be identified. So if "dads" (or anyone else) wants to discuss something that is likely to be specifically relevant to fathers then they put it there. For instance, they might want to talk about the practicalities of public toilets and changing rooms with daughters, which might get lost in "Chat" with lots of "mums" joining in to moan about toilet provision in general rather than stay focussed on the particular worries which men might have.

Men do pop up all over the place, and join in with pretty much any topic. I'd hope they would be cautious in areas like childbirth or breastfeeding, and make it clear they happen to be male if they want to join in, just as I'd be cautious joining in a conversation about prostate cancer on another forum.

But they are not unwelcome here, unless they individually behave in ways which go against the ethos of the site.

Good points.
Maybe I am wrong in that case.

Also, I assume the same righteous dissatisfaction is going to be directed at Men's Health, Women's Own etc.

Yes, let's make sure the place welcomes men in to exactly the same degree as women, since across the vast range of the rest of the internet, men have nowhere else to go and no material aimed at meeting their needs. Poor discriminated against bunch that they are.

Eh? Men and women can post in any section.

How do you feel about Mothercare, ilike?

Yes.
It is not really welcoming to dads at all, because there is a dadsnet section. But anything that dads post on there comes through on here. But everything on here does not go through to dadsnet.
But I get the impression that that is what MN wants it like.
And probably most MNetters as well.
Personally I would welcome many more dads on here, but I would guess that I am in the minority on that one.
Actually I get the impression that MN does not want more dads on here, but I could be wrong.