Women's Equality Party

Thanks almond Punk and shortcut I am fine now I have since found out that lots of women had similar experiences at Kings college. Women only spaces are so important, I can begin to imagine voting for a party that is so willing to give them away.

TheXXed, I'm really sorry this has happened to you.

Flinging I think you are missing the point, the man who opened my curtain to ask rather politely that midwife see his girlfriend was naice early 30s, wearing vans,hipster type. I am sure he thought he was doing nothing wrong.

I was cut open bleeding and vulnerable. The midwife gave a sigh as to say you know what they are like. I didn't say anything I closed my curtain and stayed under the blanket holding my DS. I waited until my sister arrived so that she could get me some food. Before she left i asked her to the shop again so i wouldn't need to leave my bed that night I went to the toilet in those cardboard bed pans and buzzed for the HCA to take it away.

There is a huge value in keeping maternity wards women only. It gives women a chance to report domestic violence, it maintains womens privacy and dignity.

WEP seem to be unable to think critically and examine the root causes of women's oppression instead they seems to be happy to promote these dangerous and poorly thought out campaigns.

Yy Buffy. We all frequently criticise various policies of Labour, LibDem, Tory, Green parties - it's part of political engagement.

And now, with years until the next election, IS the time to criticise. When standing in front of a ballot paper, any choice is a compromise. Right now, let's work to make this option the best possible.

Buffy: I want a fucking t-shirt with that post on it. I want it spraypainted on the side of Parliament. I want it etched into the pavement outside every location where any party of any persuasion holds a meeting*.

• don't do this, you will go to jail. ** same with this.

I have to agree with PPs on the men in maternity wards argument. It is absolutely obscuring the real problem. I would have happily waved off DH if I thought I was in a caring, well organised environment where DS and I would be looked after. But that wasn't the case and so I was desperate to have him there 24/7. Fortunately he's smart enough to know how to behave.

What happened to you sounds horrific Xx, but I wonder, if the ward had been properly staffed and resourced, would that admittedly tremendously ignorant man have been able to get anywhere near you?

I don't think it is in any way unreasonable to expect a serious political party to have some sort of healthcare policy in their manifesto. If they have so much support and enthusiasm, surely someone in their ranks could come up with something?

But more importantly, can we concentrate on the big picture and not get sidetracked on the symptoms of bigger problems?

They are a political party not a perfect world. Their policies on maternity wards are just words until they ever become elected. If someone wants to influence maternity policy they would be better off approaching the existing health ministers, as they actually have the power to effect change.

But what if WEP did get an MP into the house? Someone to consistently ask questions about women's equality issues. That would be amazing.

The one thing I learned from the last election was that I could no longer wait for the 'perfect party for me' to come along. I have to just pick the best of the bunch and join in.

WEP is a work in progress, but I certainly wouldn't write it off yet.

I'm trying to stay positive about them and think 'things can only get better'

Agree with crayon - these issues indicate mindset

I think maternity wards and other women's safe spaces are, in the case of these policies, subjects where you must pick a side.

It's not a case of disagreeing with a couple of policies, it's WEP showing what their priorities are.

There is a middle ground for both fathers and MTT - separate facilities - but that costs money so it's not being entertained as a possibility. Best just take the space from women.

"Shouldn't feminism be focussing on the women who are the worst off though?"

I don't see any reason why feminism should (or shouldn't) put focus on just one issue, nor that all feminists are the same. It is totally possible to be either left or right wing feminist. It is totally possible to be a feminist in an extremely rich country like UK or an extremely poor country like Congo. You can care about global inequalities, or ones within your own country, or both. You can be more concerned about things which are nothing whatsoever to do with relative richness or relative poverty.

And you can be totally unattracted by a 'women's' party, because you dislike the potential for othering or for any other reason, such as a silly policy like this one.

As you might tell, I didn't warm to the concept anyhow. And do think they missed a trick by not making this platform about the improvement of maternity services, rather than visiting rights.

A lot of their policies are spectacularly badly thought through and many of the ones that are good are completely negated by their anyone can self identify their sex (yes, they have actually said sex) bollocks. As others have said, it's unlikely to be naice middle class women that are the worst affected by these stupid policies. Shouldn't feminism be focussing on the women who are the worst off though?

I stupidly thought there might actually be a party/person at last who would represent me.

It's not WEP.
The only stuff I've heard about is championing men's rights.

WEP my arse.

You want a women's party run to your spec, you start one.

LauraMipsum the thing is, we have created all sorts of women's organisations and services, and these organisations and services are now getting co-opted by all these people who are not women. Setting up our own services and organisations - often at great personal cost, by women who had very little to start with - was always part of women's activism.

And if there's a party that is claiming to be for my equality, and it's anything but, then I am absolutely entitled to point that out. And if that party contributes loudly to the general pressure for women to give up to others everything that they have created - then, well, I'd be daft not to point that out.

This isn't tweaking around the edges. I am a part of all sorts of organisations and groupings where I disagree with PLENTY of the details. That's the price of group action and enterprise. But if a women's party RIGHT FROM THE START prioritises men, then it's in my best interests to try and chance this before it is ingrained. (But I think it's too late in this case.)

The Xxed that's awful.

I'm not glad they exist either. I don't think it's an impossibly high standard for a party with 'Womens' in the title to have a maternity policy that focuses on women rather than men, to not campaign to open up women's safe spaces to anyone who 'lives as a woman' without being able to define what 'lives as a woman' actually means and to not deny women the right to be defined by our own biology.

theXxed

Well said, almond
The fact that they think that men being allowed to stay overnight on maternity wards is acceptable, or what the majority of women want, just goes to show how spectacularly ill-informed and naive they are.

I gave birth at Kings college hospital and they did allow men on the ward and it was horrific. A man opened my curtain to ask the midwife to see his girlfriend. I was bleeding not wearing any underwear and bfing my DS. They kept clogging the toilets, they ate all the breakfast food meant for the mothers and I felt to humiliated to get up and move around.

I am also not glad they exist. There's no chance of them getting in to power, but they have said they want other parties to steal their policies.

So effectively they are a pressure group, but a spectacularly badly informed one.

If parties need a policy on VAW or indeed anything else, they should go directly to charities and organisations that are experts in that area, not WEP.

I'm also sick of people treating women's boundaries like they are no big deal.

It is a massive deal to me that some bunch of, quite frankly, idiots think I should have to be vulnerable, in positions of partial nudity and dealing with gynaecological issues a couple of feet from some random guy who does not need to be there.

It is not an impossible standard to have a set of policies on women's reproductive health if you are a women's equality party.

It is the core rights for women.

They do not have policies on these issues.

I find it hard to believe.

I think part of the problem is that people are too quick, and too willing, to jettison an entire body of women's rights workers because the party / the group / the conference / the Facebook group / whatever isn't EXACTLY to their specifications.

You want a women's party run to your spec, you start one. I have a huge amount of respect and time for those who are working (for free!) for the WEP. And I predicted at the outset that the first people to ditch them would be feminists, for failing to meet an impossible standard or failing to play the exact tune of the invisible conductors of the internet.

I don't agree with WEP on everything, but I'm bloody glad they exist and I'd rather vote for them than anyone else. (I don't agree with any other party on everything else either - but it's only WEP who are apparently expected to perform all things to all women.)

There is no way in hell that I'm going to turn my nose up at the ONLY party who are actively campaigning for an end to violence against women on the basis that I'm not in 100% agreement with one of their other policies.