Labour work out the demographic they need to win

I can picture an episode of The Thick of It where some young spad thinks up "the menopause!" in the back of a cab.

I snort-laughed at that

This could be about doling out crumbs to the various interest groups without angering the other interest groups? Or an attempt to do that. The wokerati will not accept support of single-sex spaces for women or the biology-based definition of 'women' and 'men', but they won't mind discussion of menopause, especially if it can be treated as gender-neutral.

I'm afraid that Labour doesn't need to address the gender identity theology in order to get elected, given the economic situation and the mess Tories have made.

I agree with others here that the focus on menopause is not an uncomplicated issue here as it suggests older women might be unreliable workers etc, even though it might draw more attention to the supply chain problems with HRT.

“Well, I have to say that there are different definitions legally around what a woman actually is. I mean, you look at the definition within the Equality Act, and I think it just says someone who is adult and female, I think, but then doesn’t say how you define either of those things. I mean obviously, that’s when you’ve got the biological definition, legal definition all kinds of things…’

EB: ‘With respect I didn’t ask for that. What’s the Labour definition?’

AD: ‘Oh I think with respect Emma, I think it does depend what the context is surely. I mean surely that is important here. You know, there are people who have decided that they have to make that transition. You know I’ve spoken with many of them. It’s been a very difficult process for many of those people. And you know, understandably, because they live as a woman, you know, they want to be defined as a woman. That’s what the Gender Recognition Act, again a Labour government brought into place.’

But the people whom she is so concerned to define as a woman (sic) won’t benefit from the menopause concessions, will they ? Or maybe they will be able to claim them anyway , because you know, feelings.

Precisely.

This is Labour's election to lose, and on current performance that is exactly what is going to happen.

'the British public does recognise that sex isn’t the same thing as gender and they have particular areas, for example when it comes to refuges from male violence, where it is important the Equality Act is held to'.

And how exactly are they planning to do that, while criticising and blocking any and every effort to keep such places single-sex, or even accurately state the sex of those present?

Couldn’t agree more with these posts here - why are they promising something that we haven’t actually asked for instead of giving us our actual rights back?

The more I think about it, the more suspect it becomes, and it is patronising as hell. It’s a firm ‘no’ from this aspiring hag.

Absolutely @GloomyDarkness .

I can picture an episode of The Thick of It where some young spad thinks up "the menopause!" in the back of a cab.

Absolutely!

I feel, maybe, this could be used against middle-aged women. It's yet again something else that positions women as having something biologically about them that is "unreliable".

yes - and at mid 40s I too should be pleased at all this attention and support but I think it is all noise and little substance with potential unforeseen downsides.

TBH I hope BettyFilous is right and a skills shortage is driving it rather than more nefarious commercial interest sensing untapped markets.

45 to 65 is a really wide ranging group anyway - you've got child free, women with young kids to teens to adults to grandmothers - childcare an issue for some others is elder care and others don't have those issue. Even health wise theirs's huge difference with ages and individuals.

Last thing I read about NHS in Wales - was welsh NHS dentistry might be gone soon - DH and I are already private but kids are still NHS. The kids school are shut due to strikes and they keep losing subject teachers. Educational and NHS are both welsh government run. Our parents over in England are getting some of the worse and some of the best care often in the same bloody hospital.

My Labour run council has just voted though a huge % increase in council tax and a few years ago gave us smaller black bins and has just voted though 3 week collections - no idea how as household of 5 we will manage.

But sure mention some vague menopause ideas and my vote is all yours

What's with the sudden interest in the menopause, and why are Labour insisting we need rights like menopause leave that we haven't asked for instead of the single sex services that we have repeatedly asked for?

I don't like seeing the Menopause pathologised. Help the women who have problems, but don't make something that is a normal part of women's lives an illness.

I also think the menopause emphasis is suspect, and I would also like a Labour canvasser to knock on my door so I can tell him/her/them to FUCK OFF.

Labour eyes are on voters from Workington, as well as Worthing and Worcester – but they are on middle-aged women.

Oh I do hope they up their campaigning game and come door knocking in my neighbourhood, I'd like the opportunity to tell them to fuck off. There is no way I would help them win a gold fish at a fair nevermind an election when they seem so utterly confused about basic biology and if they are not confused then they are liars.

When it suits them to sniff for votes, Labour are all "women-female-women-female" but otherwise it's all "cervix-havers-menstruators-dinosaurs-bigots"

We cross-posted ColdMeg, but my cold, dead heart shares your scepticism. 😉

So so cynical. What about all the women they kicked out for knowing what a woman is?

Got to be honest here, this sudden political and cultural focus on the menopause unsettles me. And I can't quite put my finger on why it does, because I am a pre-menopausal woman. I should be delighted, shouldn't I?

I think maybe I feel very uncomfortable about my employer knowing that kind of health information about me. I felt the same when I was asked a load of questions about my race, religion and ethnicity after the Equality Act came in.

I feel, maybe, this could be used against middle-aged women. It's yet again something else that positions women as having something biologically about them that is "unreliable".

I dunno. I got a bad vibe about it.

Doing your photo op with the WI seems pretty unimaginative TBH.

It’s annoying because both are valid and important topics, but all the concern around menopause is starting to feel like the vacuous virtue signalling around period poverty. The latest hot topics to show really care about women, even while you are brazenly stripping them of their sex-based rights.

As far as I can tell reading between the lines, all the employer hand-wringing about meno has been triggered by a couple of successful employment tribunals and employers waking up to the potential cost (to them) of doing nothing. That, more and more skilled, professional 50-something women in eg medicine retiring early because it turns out a world of work geared to men’s needs doesn’t work so well for women. They’re bending not because they want to change the model to make it fairer to all but because the skills shortages are affecting other people. 🤷‍♀️

Lol really Labour? This should be a great deal of fun…..😆

They are TWAW which is probably why they were chosen might mean no terribly negative headlines

How TRANSPHOBIC.

"She will say the party intends to spark “a national conversation” about the lives of mid-life women."

Can't wait for that. What shall we raise in this "national conversation", I wonder..?

🍿

I'm not sure that "Give Labour your votes, you menopause-havers!" is going to quite succeed as an election slogan in the way that Dodds seems to imagine...

Hey, Labour! If you haven’t got enough votes yet, despite the utter shitshow that has been the last decade of government, do you think you should consider the possibility that you need to change your policies?

You won’t get elected by whining “but it’s our turn.” Give me a policy I want to vote for. Commit to excluding biological men from women’s prisons, refuges, toilets and other safe spaces, and then maybe we can talk. It’s appalling that in 2023 some girls miss school when they’re on their periods because they have no toileting privacy at school from boys.