AIBU to agree with Kemi Badenoch’s comments about women?

[KateSixer]

Hopefully I am not being unreasonable to post a link to this Facebook post by Kemi Badenoch.

Whether you agree with her on politics generally or not it is surely hard to disagree with what she says here about women:

https://www.facebook.com/share/19BmVWbtsH/

You mean they won't vote for her, not let her? This is exactly the attitude Badenoch is talking about. Women in politics don't need permission - assertive female MPs align themselves with progressive parties.

I agree that quotas, especially a high one like 50% could mean people assuming that those women aren't qualified for the job and therefore losing credibility.

But unconscious bias is a real thing, as is the gender pay gap and women feeling like they have to work twice as hard to prove themselves. So the idea that an equally qualified and skilled female MP may miss out on a role just because they're female doesn't seem that controversial.

Well that doesn’t tally with her ratings as leader, she’s above the men.

Yes, I very much agree with her. I don't always like her politics, I definitely don't always like her delivery, but I do think she talks an enormous amount of sense. But then, I've always found the left far more sexist than the right, and sinisterly so. They bang on about 'feminism', but their notion of feminism is patriarchal and patronising; that women need extra help, and female success hinges on men allowing it.

Conservative feminism is to my mind much more equal, where women just go after what they want and sex is entirely irrelevant. So, acting like men, I suppose! It's interesting how many here are determined that successful female Tory politicians must have been given their positions by men, rather than grasping that they went head to head with men and beat them fair and square. It's seemingly so utterly beyond their comprehension that a woman can actually succeed without men orchestrating it for their own nefarious purposes.

Blaming women for not fighting hard enough for the top jobs? I couldn’t agree less.

Nobody wants to get a job to fill a quote

For a while I felt that quotas might be helpful- it’s lonely being the only woman in the room and I thought that quotas might help change cultures and lord knows there plenty of hopeless men in roles, if some less experienced or qualified women get jobs then so be it.

but I don’t think it has worked to create a culture where genuine female talent can flourish

i have seen business cultures become much less macho over the years, I don’t think women need to be “like men” in style and tone to succeed. But the long hours, travel and flexibility continue to put women off. I don’t think there’s a way to make senior roles less demanding.

if that is the case it doesn’t have anything to do with her sex - the Tory party members aren’t particularly sexist but they can be racist…

Time to start now. We need to stop reform/restore which are populist bat shit crazy parties with governance which makes the snp look solid. Labour is completely lost on how to grow the economy and can’t or won’t cut the huge and completely unaffordable welfare bill. There’s nothing in their policies for women and have always, imho, been an incredibly sexist party.

You missed out the other extreme party - the Greens. Kemi is keeping the common sense in the House. When she's got so many non Tories agreeing with her, she's doing a damn good job. I only wish we were seeing her enter No 10 shortly.

If the tories believe in meritocracy, how the fuck did Truss happen?

Sure you can agree with what you like, OP. Go for it.

Me, I don't agree even slightly with the comment that Hillary Clinton or Kamala Harris expected they should be President just bcz they were women. I see ZERO evidence for that & I can't understand why KB even mentioned them.

The entire subtext of KB's post is that Labour is made up of wimps. I don't agree with that, either.

It's kind of weird... KB is implying that her party's policies are better policies bcz members of her party are tougher people. Is that how life works? The toughest people have the best policies? Who knew?

The party members were, to a significant degree, racist. Sunak was quite obviously the better candidate in the round he fought against Truss.

I know this as fact as a friend who campaigned on his behalf (I.e. rung round party members) was confronted with racist comments on the phone, that and that some less racist members thought he was a ‘boris backstabber’. These were the two recurring themes.

Party members choosing prime ministers without an election never ends well. Corbyn, Truss etc etc. If Burnham really believes in himself and his policies he should call an election. Which he won’t…but then I think he is doomed…I really hope I’m wrong.

Hilary Clinton was worse. She felt entitled just because of who her husband was and that she was somehow ‘owed’ the position. This entitlement was her undoing. Andy Burnham could learn a lot from that situation.

Absolutely agree.

Her argument has some merit eg you have to put yourself forward to become a leader. However, mixed up with the reasonable comments are some nasty opinions. As some PPs have said, I think it is incredibly unlikely that the Conservative Party is a meritocracy. Sexism is still alive and well, as is the old boy network - and networks and relationships matter. I fervently disagree with her comments about there being no structural misogyny and her explanation that is down the qualities and attitudes of the women themselves.

And that's the bottom line. She doesn't have to remind everyone that she has a vagina, or point out the colour of her skin, etc or that she is 'oppressed'.

Bore off Kemi, you’re spending far too much time on MN.

No disagree-she’s wrong
Tories only give the job to women when everything is a cock up and no men want it

Maggie Thatcher only got in after Heath as we were up the creek without a paddle -3 day week, dock strikes, miners strikes etc etc
Theresa May only got in because we were in a disastrous post-Brexit balls up and the men all stepped back
Liz Truss only got in as we were in a post Covid disaster
Kemi only got in because we were in the post Coviid , post Brexit, immigration mess and the men knew Conservatives would lose the election

The Tories are sexist as are Labour and both also a bit racist.

It's a shame she couldn't resist having a pop at individual women. She could have written the piece without doing that. But that's Badenoch for you. Never passes up an opportunity to be spiteful.

Vile. Many years ago I worked an event that included her, and a memo was sent out to all staff dictating that we were not to make eye contact with her or even speak to her unless spoken to first.

Hmm, I think the truth is somewhere in the middle.

Not keen on quotas, or people getting a post just because they are female / non-white / gay etc. A lot of people feel identity politics have gone too far.

But equally we don't want to throw away EDI principles altogether and go back to the days of white men running everything. Where Kemi says "The US electorate are not anti-women", sadly I think she's wrong there, I think a large proportion of the US electorate are anti-women (unless perhaps you are a Republican woman whose policies centre men).

The US electorate are sexist when it comes to powerful roles. Look at Trumps party

She likes to have a go at Labour women doesn't she. Her comments towards Phillipson were vile and she refused to apologise , just 'hurty words'

She comes across as quite insecure with her insults.

I don't think I have. It is important but you are always unpopular, as it the cabinet minister in charge of welfare. You are damned whatever you do.

Whereas Foreign Secretary gets you a profile and some success, for example.

She’s very clever but not clever enough to realise sniping and bitching are not the way to go -we had our fingers burned with Starmer constantly criticising Tories (not that they didn’t deserve it) the electorate wrongly assumed he must have a better plan ….how wrong we were