to not know what difference a female perspective would have made?

[icewoman]

Covid enquiry.

Helen McNamara, deputy cabinet secretary says women were being ignored and disregarded and the female point of view was missing from most decision making

I have no difficulty believing that our revered leaders behaved like a bunch or ignorant arrogant chauvinistic pigs but I do wonder what, if anything, a female point of view would have changed about the decision making?

Idk I think those in Auckland probably suffered their prolonged lockdown as much as we did.

Harder still as it gave the rest of the country freedoms they didn’t have.

Imo Sweden did better for women and children

Going back to the OP, the example i heard was that female scientists were ignored.

Yes

I may be an outlier, because I was 65 and in 2020, my primary concern was my DMIL. Her dementia was beginning to accelerate when Covid kicked off. The carefully picked care team supporting her independent life fell apart in January 2020; DSIL was booked in for a long awaited knee surgery, so she went into respite care a week before the big first lockdown. For months, noone could visit; then we were allowed to sit outdoors/ indoors to talk. For us it was either Facetime or a 13 hour round trip. After five months, DMIL had to choose between selling her house for care or living unsupported with random carers. As we had PoA, we sold her house to fund the care home she needed, because otherwise she would have been sat in her own excrement waiting for any random bod the council could hire to arrive to clean her. It was not enjoyable for any of us. And it cost DMIL a flippin fortune. Under two years of care absorbed two thirds of her estate's value, plus her army widow's pension.

Brilliant article by Caroline Criado Perez of "Invisible Women"

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/03/covid-inquiry-women-ill-fitting-ppe-pandemic-unisex-healthcare?CMP=ShareiOSAppp_Other

Perhaps if women like Helen McNamara had spent less time popping along to parties in number 10 and more time acting like the senior civil servant she was paid to be we'd have had women's issues thought about more in the pandemic response.

Her evidence at the inquiry was as if she was having some kind of out of body experience. She was there in the middle of it as a senior person! She was totally ineffective, the copy of her email asking the head of the NHS about PPE for women was as if she was writing to a senior manager not the deputy cabinet secretary asking a serious question.

What a load of balls.
Its really very clear none of the men were interested in what the women in the room had to say. Blaming women for that by saying they weren't communicating effectively is classic sexism.

Thank you @RobinStrike