Live webchat about women and work with Maria Miller, Culture Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities, TODAY, Thursday 22 November, 1pm to 2pm

[FrancesMumsnet]

Hello, we're very pleased to announce that Maria Miller, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, and Minister for Women and Equalities will be joining us for a live webchat on Thursday 22 Nov between 1pm and 2pm.

Maria has been the MP for Basingstoke since 2005 and has previously held shadow education and family briefs. Before entering Parliament, Maria worked in advertising. She is married with three children.

This is Maria's second Mumsnet webchat.

Maria is keen to hear your thoughts on how to get more women into work, with a particular focus on getting the right childcare in place for women. She also wants to hear your thoughts on how the government can make workplaces more equal environments, where women can better realise their potential.

Do join us for the webchat. As ever, if you can't make it, please post up your advance questions here.

Thanks,

MNHQ

yes.fill yer boots.maybe she wasn't there maybe was a maaaaan
so based on no likey answers,its clutch the pearls and how very dare she
i expect all politicians to deflect,avoid,paraphrase and trot out party spiel

She didn't read the questions. And then she didn't answer the questions.

Why bother coming on?

Patronising nonsense.

Did she 'deflect' or 'fight her corner'?

I thought she was just utterly hopeless.

they all do that im afraid.do you exect a women to appeal to all women
im bemused at the how dare wimmins minister speak to us like that complaints
did you expect empathy and//or affinity because she is a woman.

She gets paid over £100k plus expenses for what she does. And yet she seems to know fuck all about what she has responsibility for as minister for women and equalities.

She was contemptuous and rude. Hundreds, if not thousands, of women (and men) who work in the arts for local authorities and charities have lost their jobs because of the government cuts and all she could do was quote the current number of arts council funded organisations. No reference to anything, not even the half baked legacy report issued this week, which gives not concrete plan and no response to Boyle and hyntner's damning article in the guardian about her lack of interest and understanding of the arts.

She didn't reply to other questions directly either and finished with some pithy remark.

And oh the irony, that she is also responsible for digital and media, including social media...

Since when is it acceptable for anyone to patronise posters SM?

The point is that she is semmingly crap at her job. Like bunch and a load of other people have pointed put on the basis of having read the actual webchat.

We are fairly interested at how someone in that position can be so crap at their job.

I didn't expect affinity with her because she is a woman But I did expect her to make a more convincing job of answering the questions. It all just smacked of a lack of preparation.

Maria Miller is certainly no Sarah Teather.

Well, scottishmummy, she is the Minister for women, which is why I sort of - stupidly, naively, expected her to answer questions about women, posted by women, in an intelligent and considered kind of way.

SM
What does this mean:

'but for me spirit of mn is all oinion valid'

onion valid?

I don't think that we would automatically bond with Maria Miller because she is a woman, or that we expect more of her. Other than perhaps hoping that a woman would have more understanding of the issues that women in UK face. I doubt she has a clue about what normal women in UK are concerned about.

I also think that she is in a high position in government, arguably the highest woman politician in the country, and for her to come on here completely unprepared to answer the questions is extremely poor.

She was 'keen to hear your thoughts on how to get more women into work, with a particular focus on getting the right childcare in place for women. She also wants to hear your thoughts on how the government can make workplaces more equal environments, where women can better realise their potential' according to the OP of this thread.

I can't see that she learned anything of our issues with childcare, or has even a basic understanding of the problems facing women when we go back to work.

If I have to pay £50 a day for childcare, that makes £1000 a month (working 20 days). But if I only earn NMW, I bring in LESS than my childcare costs. How is that supposed to work?

im commenting on the puerile..is she a man..was she really there..maybe she imposter
by all means if you think she gave poor representation, inadequate answers do comment
but this oooh shes that she that is really silly

lindor you've understood enough of my post to repsond at length
i dont need to explain an obvious spelling mistake
nor do you need to ask,unless you're being facetious

No, I did not say 'Is she a man.'

i didnt attribute it to you

Oh, fair enough. I must have missed who said that they thought Maria Miller's posts were being posted by a man. I thought I had read the webchat quite thoroughly.

SM
I am sorry, but I really didn't understand it. Not being rude (or facetious, which incidentally was my Grandad's favourite word)

And my response was to your other posts, not about that one, which I did not comprehend.

And I do think that it's important to read the whole actual webchat including the questions asked before the Minister started responding, not just the responses afterwards.

I was the one who wondered if her SPADs were with her/posting for her. And it's a genuine question. I want to know if this webchat was her being hopeless, unshepherded, un'minded' or whether there was a team from CCHQ in and the responses here represent the sum total of their work. Is this an individual or a collective failing?

It's not puerile to me, Scottishmummy. It's a valid question.

And I'd like to know the answer.

SPADs can be women, ScottishMummy.

musing one is unhappy with inadeqate posts, feeling fobbed off
is wholly different from is she imposter,is she a mn poster,did she really write posts
thats the peurile points im commenting on