to think that the tories really do dislike women....

[prettywhiteguitar]

thats it really.

And with every policy it just confirms it fo me that they think we are second class citizens.

Just picking up on the cuts to legal aid comment earlier on. One of the ways in which this is being cut by the coalition gov is in domestic violence cases where a woman now has to prove that she is in immediate and direct threat of violence before she can use LA to act to bring an injunction against her P/ex-P (Observer 30/10/11). Now I know men are victims of DV too, but as OP says this has a disproportinate effect on women.

Also, one of the first laws repealed by the coalition was the anonymity of suspects accused of rape. Initially introduced in 1970, anonymity was removed in 1988, as the police claimed it was stopping women from coming forward to report rape. Cameron has effectively taken us back to 1970. I assume this is to prevent false accuations from ruining men's lives, so why not have anonymity in all criminal cases, (GBH, ABH, Burglary. murder) why focus soley on rape? Yes I know men get raped too etc etc

Because women are cunning lying cows eager to ruin decent mens' lives by crying rape? And not even proper real serious rape, either! (thank you, Ken Clarke).

They are essentially privatising the cold case resources as well. By far the biggest amount of cold cases that are solved are rapes and sexual assaults on women (and children). DNA means that cold cases are being solved all the time. All those women who finally get to see the attacker convicted.

There is a worry that this will lead to fewer convictions and loss of the information and expertise to convict in future. It did make me give a little more credence to people who say the Tories hate women.

Am constantly amazed (but now no longer surprised) by the sheer number of women that rush onto any thread on here that has a mere whiff of women's issues to shout 'no, no, no, men are affected just the same, if not much, MUCH worse, you've got it aaallllll wrong, you ker-razy feminist nutjobs!!!'

I'm absolutely sure there's a Mensnet out there somewhere where the blokes always rush in en mass to correct their fellows that they're certainly not the ones being disproportionally shafted, and to stick up for us women... Oh, yes.

Not read to the end yet but just wanted to say in response to JLK2@12:50:

"When private sector firms cut jobs, that tends to have more of an impact on men than women, but I don't hear people complaining about them "hating men"."

No - and why is that? Because the private sector is run by individual companies/legal entities mostly accountable to shareholders - and the public sector is run by the government, who is mostly accountable to er...the government. So if we're talking about whether the government in power dislikes men or women surely it makes sense to focus on the situations where the government is essentially the boss - e.g. the public sector?

So why weren't people moaning when the public sector was expanding under Labour, and most of that expansion was based around women (both providing work for, and providing services for)?

joben and MrsTP v interesting posts on aspects I hadn't considered thank you

JLK2 sorry not sure I understand the question in the context of this debate/thread - could you clarify/rephrase please?

YANBU

Don't have to read the thread. Can't be arsed.

Every fucking policy those bastards come up with is shafting women big time. Oh, and ladies, if you haven't checked out the Legal Aid petition thread (in Legal) PLEASE do. Now. It is v. important. If not you, then it could be your sister, your best friend, your MUM who could be affected by these proposed changes in the law.

YADNBU!

In the absence of JLK2, I'll hazard a guess at what she was saying:

When spending and Govt jobs are cut, it seems to be women's jobs that were affected. So spending cuts are anti-wimmin, allegedly.

When the spending was increased, it created women's jobs and catered for women's needs. Was anyone complaining about the gender bias back then?

Lapsed, can you link?

please

I just wanted to correct something that has been said a couple of times, 'one of the first laws repealed by the coalition was the anonymity of suspects accused of rape.'

What actually happened was they TRIED to change this law but feminists (including lots of people on here) and organisations like Rape Crisis campaigned like mad and did a lot of MP-lobbying and in the end they didn't.

It was one of the first hints that under this government women need to run as hard as they can just to stay still. But it shows that it is worth fighting; maybe things will get bad but if everyone sits back and lets it happen it will get even worse.

If anyone wants to get more active but is not sure where to start, here is a link to the Fawcett Society which campaigns for gender equality.

Elderberry I and local Unison rep got our anti-cuts group to do the Fawcett campaign on our stall on 19th Nov. Unite the campaigns. Lets see what happens.

Unless you're independently wealthy or a super high earner they couldn't care less about you whether you're male or female. This particular administration are unbearably rude, boorish and seem incapable of seeing that most of the country will be on it's knees if things don't pick up soon. I think they genuinely believe they are better than others and more hard working just because they are and it's nothing to do with the massive privileges the majority of them were born into. Tossers.

handbagCrab, absolutely. It's not that they dislike women in particular, it's more that if you're not independently wealthy then you simply don't count.

As women (as a group) tend to have less income than men so the cuts are disproportionately affecting women. It's not deliberate targeting it's just that they don't care. At all.

I don't think they do at all, they need to reduce the amount of money the Government is spending because it is way more than they are receiving from tax. The fact that women rely more on government spending means thast they were always going to come off worse.