UK has got ‘fat’ on decades of free labour by women - Jess Phillips

I used to volunteer at playgroup and at school. I don't volunteer any more anywhere. I got tired of female volunteers being taken for granted, there was not a single man volunteering and if a dad so much as helped stack some chairs away after an event he was thanked profusely.

Women are even the majority when donating blood, even though male donors are more useful practically, as they have bigger, more easily accessible veins, can donate more frequently and are less likely to be anaemic. But fewer volunteer than women.

If I'm working, I want to be paid. I am done with providing labour for free.

It was.

The problem, I think, is there's essentially now an expectation of both. But you can't be working and paying in at the same time as you're volunteering.

I was thinking about this the other day as I took DC to a paid for summer club, in the same building as I used to attend a volunteer led free one in the 90s.

What is the point of this article. Another 'Jess friendly' profile piece.
I think she's out of her depth, grooming gangs have sunk her.

'The Home Office minister Jess Phillips has apologised for the delay to the publication of a report on grooming gangs, adding that while parliament must wait another month, she had waited “14 years for anyone to do anything”.'

All she does is blame others, she's got the power now so let's see something more than excuses.

“Undoing that is really hard and it’s going to take a long time.”

‘Toddlers’ was run by volunteer mums in church halls. Coffee and biscuits and friendship for mums. To be able to get out the house and let your child play in a safe environment with other little ones and different toys. There may have been a nominal charge to pay the rent has but the milk but the time was given freely and with love.

She’s absolutely right on this score.

She's right.

Sometimes its assumed, sometimes more explicit. I remember some pointing out a few years back that the Big Society initiative was essentially about trying to get more unpaid labour out of women.

I agree with her although I'd extend the point across the whole of society, not just refuges. So much of care falls to women and is free and hugely undervalued. And if a woman chooses to outsource that labour it is often to another woman who is paid barely enough to survive.

It’s her title because there’s a high risk that when something is everyone’s responsibility it’s so diffuse and distributed that it’s no-ones.

There are certainly no accountability mechanisms.

But if government then effectively takes over these services (I'm thinking of the financing of rape crisis services) they fix things so men are allowed in and we have to raise loads of money to fight to keep them out.

And that's shit.

On the subject of free labour from women and the good that it has done I can remember in the 80’s when my children were growing up being able to access lots of facilities/groups (play groups, toy libraries, clothes and equipment swaps) that were set up and run by women on a voluntary basis - they were a real help to women with children who didn’t have a lot of money but still wanted things to do with their children. A very fond memory for me and a real lifeline for those in need.

I don’t see her role as being the sole point of contact for these issues. It should be front and centre in all government departments. I see her title as a reminder that this is still an issue in 2025. I see part of her role as identifying failings in other government departments and holding them to account.

My Gran did paid and unpaid work from the 1940s to the 1980s, mostly service industry jobs or to help others. My mum did quite a bit of volunteering in schools & with the Scout movement in the 1980s. So, yeah I agree with her. I also agree that JPs title is sh*t. Why should she be the sole point of call for safeguarding women and girls? Surely everyone is?

I don't agree with JP on a lot of things, but on this she's correct.

She doesn't seem to care about young working class girls being raped though does she? She is a hypocrite.

She's not wrong.