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

Wtf was that waffle all about

I thought they were the perfect politician answers...

Yup, self serving, waffle, spin, tainted with just the right level of ignorance/arrogance to boot. Just perfect...

"I am proud of our achievements so far"

Lordy

Agree, it was all total twaddle and doublespeak.

So cross.

Yep what a load of spin and not really any conclusive answers, peppered with a couple of displays of ignorance.

2andout

*Please could you answer my question on what you personally, as Minister for Women, are going to do to stop the harassment of women trying to access abortion services in this country. It is disgraceful and shocking that this is simply being brushed under the carpet.

2andout, this is completely unacceptable and should always be reported directly to the police. *

the above question particularly demonstrates Maria's inability to answer a quesion. Unless she is saying that she personally will be reporting the incident to the police on behalf of every woman every woman who has this happen to the them and then backing them all the way then she did not answer the question.

What a load of old tosh.

It just shows she didn't do her research. Did she honestly expect to have a nice friendly chat with the mummies where she could spin a few fluffy good news stories to general acclaim?

Does the term "Nest of vipers" mean nothing to her?

Can you invite her back so that she can answer the questions properly please? She's answered very little, and of those that she has answered they have been mostly the same topic, with the same answer.

Blimey she was even more hopeless than most of them.

Boring as well.

Careful, judicious evasion.

Piss-poor.

Next.

Slug she didn't even manage to find any proper fluffy good news stories to bring with her
(Not that I am blaming her if there just aren't any.)

She harked on about the £2m earmarked for new childcare - as if we are too stupid to notice that is a paltry sum, and will do no good whatsoever.

I'm surprised no one asked her which biscuit she likes. She must have prepared for this question and nothing else

I had hoped you might address the issue of the 100's of library staff who are losing their livelihoods (the majority of whom are women) - but you have confused them with the facilities in which they work. Could you please try again to answer the question? Thank you.

I'm left slightly confused by her CSA obfuscation.

She seemed to be agreeing with SGM that her govt has made things worse.

What is she going to do about the majority of Non-Resident Parents who don't pay maintenance then?

MmeL But that is the thing is'nt it: silly little wimmin' are supposed to gasp "Ooooh £2000000. That's A Lot, yes? They must do a lot to help silly ol' us"

It's patronising.

There are probably women with PHDs in mathematics and Economics contributing to this thread.

Tax deductible childcare. More women in work. Imho.

GIve them more money Fast (NRP)

2 million divided by all of the families who need help with childcare is going to be next to nothing. It's not well thought through at all. What childcare can you get for a tenner?

I'd like to see school fees tax deductible. I can't see that happening again though.

27 answers - is that a low record?

I've just read through her answers (it didn't take long, I could have written more with a fidgety toddler on my lap, while flitting across to yet another job application).

What a damp squib of a webchat! Quite glad I made it too late to waste my time not having anything answered.

It's certainly a low...and not many answered questions.

The £2m she's 'banged' on about seems to be made of magic elastic - it's supposed to address the shortage of before and after school care for the entire nation, as well as address the shortage of specialised child care providers trained to provide childcare for children with special needs, again, for the entire counrty. A whole £2m is going to do all this.

Well, that was a waste of time. It was like the world's most boring party political broadcast.

That was appalling! Read like a cut and paste spin job with no research and no willingness to engage .

Beyond piss poor.

Why did you bother?

The word 'omnishambles' springs to mind...