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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think it's disgraceful that Labour MPs are condoning gender segregation?

191 replies

OTheHugeManatee · 30/11/2015 11:55

I thought Labour were supposed to be against discrimination. But I'm hearing multiple reports of Labour MPs attending gender segregated rallies around the Olham by-election and uttering not a peep about it.

AIBU to think it's disgraceful that once again women's right to equality is being quietly set aside for other political priorities? And by the party that makes the most noise about equality, no less?

Fucking hypocrites Angry

OP posts:
LibrariesGaveUsP0wer · 30/11/2015 14:45

Ena - what would you like them to have done?

KeepOnMoving1 · 30/11/2015 14:46

Ena what would you have liked them to do?

OfaFrenchmind2 · 30/11/2015 14:49

LibrariesGaveUsP0wer Maybe looked at them, and reminded them that this is not primary schools and that girls do not have cooties.
And also said that for effective exchange and actual discussion, mingling and mixing is key.
You know, the usual for modern thinking adults...

LibrariesGaveUsP0wer · 30/11/2015 14:51

So stood up in the meeting and patronisingly told them it was wrongFrench? Then what, watched whilst they swapped seats? And what if they refused?

I honestly cannot think of a course of action less likely to effect change m

purpledasies · 30/11/2015 14:54

I think for a politician to stand up in front of a room of grown men and women and tell them they're not at primary school and girls do not have cooties would be grotesquely rude, as well as political suicide.

OfaFrenchmind2 · 30/11/2015 14:57

Nope, I do not think it is patronising to remind people the usual etiquette for social events. If they had refused to change, I would have just given my mind without being insulting, and gone on doing the event. But we always speak about challenging outdated and discriminating behaviour. Well there you go. Perfect occasion.

Enasharpleshairnet · 30/11/2015 15:01

Was the meeting segregated by the organisers rather than by natural process. If so it really is a poor show. Not seeing that is an issue imho.

At the very least I would say if any women feel they cannot sit on the same row as a male they can sit at the front. (I would chaperone them and scare off their would be aggressors with my battleaxe face under my hairnet! )

Any men who cannot trust themselves with a female can sit at the back and all the rest sit in the middle.

DrasticAction · 30/11/2015 15:06

ena

I couldn't but help giggle at the thought of trying to reorganize it along those lines....with tanoy....

" I do not feel comfortable giving this speech when you are sat before me, segregated by gender. Therefore Can I ask any Males who feel particualry out of control near women to raise their hands please. Thanks, you go and sit near the back, near security, now do any ladies feel scared to be sat next to a man? Right you come and sit near me in the front, I am a black belt, I can defend you if neccasry and police are on stand by...Now..

Original poster
OTheHugeManatee · 30/11/2015 15:11

It might have been an awkward moment, yes, but I don't think it would have been electoral suicide if the MPs had refused to address a gender-segregated meeting.

They might not have won THOSE voters, but they'd have scored a lot of points with a whole lot of others who want to see British politicians standing up for gender equality, which is supposed to be a core value in our culture, and not cravenly going along with all kinds of patriarchal nonsense while grubbing about for votes.

OP posts:
DrasticAction · 30/11/2015 15:14

YY HugE

I couldnt give a fuck for awkward moments or political suicide! I would have asked them to sit together, and if there was a problem I would have said - I am sorry but I cannot address a meeting organised along these lines. Good bye.

And I think that would have been a very important message.

Original poster
OTheHugeManatee · 30/11/2015 15:17

I would have given three cheers and reversed a lot of my current contempt for the spineless, sanctimonious Labour Party if I'd seen them do something like that to stand up for one of the values they supposedly care about. As it is I increasingly suspect they use all that vaunted passion for equalities mainly as a stick to beat the Tories and UKIP with but don't actually, truly give a shit about any of it.

OP posts:
tiredandhungryalways · 30/11/2015 15:17

I genuinely do not get why it bothers anyone if there is separate seating. What if women say they want to sit separately does that change things? Or men say it's sexist they are not allowed to sit with women? is it okay to insist on mixed seating? It just doesn't make sense why anyone would be bothered by this!

purpledasies · 30/11/2015 15:18

If the local Women's Institute invited a local councillor to come and speak to them, would that not be allowed either in your view manatee?

This meeting wasn't even single-sex, just that they'd sat on separate sides of the room. I'd be very surprised if that was something they'd been instructed to do by the Labour party organisors. The audience appear to be Muslims, so their sense of the correct etiquie might be different from mine or yours.

What about at a wedding if the bride's family choose to sit on one side and the groom's on the other - that's just etiquite - but you don't stand up and tell the groom's familly that they must be doing it because they're incapable of not asulting the bride's family if they sit next to them, or they think they have cooties Hmm I'm quite shocked that people would honestly interpret segregated seating in this way.

DrasticAction · 30/11/2015 15:19

tired I posted earlier about the school governor at a religious school, listening to the meeting - as usual through a door way, sat away from the men.

do you agree with this? do you think that is acceptable?

would you be happy to see people segregated by race in that photo? would that bother you?

DrasticAction · 30/11/2015 15:21

purple can I ask how you interpret this please.

www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/12014081/Female-governor-forced-to-sit-in-separate-room-to-male-colleagues.html

^ is this an issue in your eyes?

is this OK because in some cultures this may be the correct etticute?

tiredandhungryalways · 30/11/2015 15:23

Drastic I already responded to what u said please read my previous posts

purpledasies · 30/11/2015 15:23

Obviously that's a completely different issue.

Being made to sit in a different room is not the same thing as sitting on different sides of the same room.

tiredandhungryalways · 30/11/2015 15:24

Ofafrench exactly segregated seating is not going to affect attendance of Muslim women one dot. I think it's people trying to show how considerate they are maybe? And drastic I don't agree with Muslim schools and certainly not that the female was in a separate room. Shit like that makes Muslims look stupid hre it is in case you can't find it drastic

tiredandhungryalways · 30/11/2015 15:28

And to respond to your comment about people of different races sitting separately I ask why would they? They wouldn't unless they chose to which I expect is also the case here.

DrasticAction · 30/11/2015 15:30

I think it's people trying to show how considerate they are maybe

who is being considerate to who and why?

Why would it be considerate for either me or Dh to sit apart from each other at a political meeting?

why would it be considerate for me to sit on the other side of the room to my father or my brother or they considerate to me.

how is seating a man away from a woman considerate?

howabout · 30/11/2015 15:31

I stopped attending church on my own after the old man next to me started rubbing his hand on my thigh. I am a white Christian woman. I do not actively choose to sit next to men if I attend a public meeting on my own. I do not see a problem with self-imposed segregation if both sexes are in the same room at the same meeting with the same opportunity to participate.

I do wonder if the World I live in is really so vastly different from the utopian dream of social sexual equality others see as their reality?

DrasticAction · 30/11/2015 15:32

how did you report the man!

DrasticAction · 30/11/2015 15:33

And to respond to your comment about people of different races sitting separately I ask why would they? They wouldn't unless they chose to which I expect is also the case here

well they would choose to if they were conditioned to do so.

tiredandhungryalways · 30/11/2015 15:35

Tha my point drastic I think the organiser think they are being considerate of other cultures by offering separate seating assuming they did offer separate seating and it wasn't self imposed

howabout · 30/11/2015 15:38

Yes I did but unfortunately the age profile of the Church is such that semi-senile lonely old men are not uncommon. I don't want to arrest them, I just want to have the choice to avoid putting myself in harm's way.

Drastic all your examples assume a woman is attending accompanied by a man. I don't want to be chaperoned. If DH and I do attend a function together it is not uncommon for the women to sit together in one corner while the men congregate in another.

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