Webchat with Sophie Walker, leader of the Women's Equality Party and London Mayor candidate, Tuesday 19 April at noon

[BojanaMumsnet]

Hello

We’re pleased to welcome Sophie Walker, leader of the Women’s Equality Party, ahead of the London Mayoral elections, on Tuesday 19 April at 12 noon.

The Women’s Equality Party was set up in 2015 “to unite people of all genders, diverse ages, backgrounds, ethnicities, beliefs and experiences in the shared determination to see women enjoy the same rights and opportunities as men so that all can flourish.”

Sophie was elected leader of the Women's Equality Party in July 2015, and in January 2016 was voted to represent the party in the London Mayoral election. She says she is campaigning for “work that works, affordable housing, equal caregiving, equal enterprise, transport that works, affordable housing and an end to violence against women and girls.”

She worked as an international news agency journalist for nearly twenty years and is an ambassador for the National Autistic Society, campaigning for better support and understanding of autism, particularly in women and girls.

Please do join us on Tuesday at 12 noon if you can, or post a question for Sophie here in advance. And, as ever, please do remember our webchat guidelines and do be polite.

The London mayoral election will be held on 5 May and you’ll need to register to vote by 18 April, today. (Keep your eyes peeled for more mayoral candidate webchats in the next few weeks.)

Thanks
MNHQ

Yes, laughed at soapbox too!

Well, I got my mayoral manifestos booklet through the letterbox today. I had been very seriously considering voting for WEP, as Khan and goldsmith are equally loathsome.

Have just read this whole thread in increasing dismay.

Mad cannabis legalisation bloke will be getting my vote , I guess....

bomadier I've been thinking about the lack of convo re transmen. Do the WEP regard them as women? Would FTM wish to be housed in the male prison service? Their voice seems to be muted.

So many things Sophie said just didn't make sense or contradicted itself. I hope this thread gets wider awareness that the WEP does not stand for women.

Goldsmith surely must be the lesser evil? Am I wrong?

"The mostly male audience stood and cheered. If Khan wins, she’ll (Rabina Khan) become London’s first female executive mayor and the first in Britain to wear a Muslim headscarf." www.theguardian.com/uk-news/davehillblog/2015/jun/10/tower-hamlets-the-rise-and-fall-lutfur-rahman

No thank you.

I'm mostly a lurker. I too would love to vote for a women's party (though I suspect they are more effective in countries which rely on coalitions more often than we do in Britain - so not sure about your pitch on that point).

I'm mostly pissed off that two people said 'car crash' before I got the chance to. Dear god what a car crash this thread is.

WEP - in case you're still in doubt, here's what I think: you need better media managers. And also an answer to the overwhelming question about how you define 'women'. It's not a crank thing, its fundamental.

Top tip: any media professional worth their salt will tell you - don't call people who you hope will vote for you 'vicious'. HTH.
And no I won't be voting for you.

Thanks to the lurkers who have shared their views

Because in all honesty, I have been struck by how vicious some of the comments around those issues are (also reflected in some of the questions here.) I don't know why that has happened, and I am not interested in being put in a box, being categorized, as someone who either hates women or hates trans women. Because none of that is true.

No one is saying anyone hates women or hates trans - as usual comments are taken as being transphobic. It really isn't on.
We are angry because the issues of women in regard to trans womens' rights is being sidelined and not included in any debate. Just ignored as transphobic.

I don't think we don't want Trans to have right we just want our rights to be included in any debate which they aren't now. Everyone in the public eye is pandering to the media and twitter etc There is no sensible debate.

They don't have any clear definition of trans either. People who had the op years ago and people who feel a "bit female" or call themselves Jane on Wednesdays are all being chucked in together.

I'm sitting reading this whilst drinking out of a women's equality party mug and even I've been put off them!!

I don't really blame them though. They are small and underfunded and don't have the strength to fight the trans lobby. Their candidates would all get death threats if they defined women as anything other than 'anyone who wants to be called one'.

Pretty soon disagreeing with that will be a crime.

this discussion reminded me of this

lightbulb that's not really any excuse for throwing women under the bus - if they didn't have the tits to face into difficult issues, they shouldn't really have started this.

they are in a perfect position to bring the trans lunacy into the spotlight, but they have not just remained silent, they've chosen to take a side that is actively harmful to women. It's bonkers.

Delurking to say that I won't be voting for WEP.

I support the rights of transwomen (and transmen, who seem to be forgotten in these discussions) but not at the expense of women. I'm not worried about transwomen accessing women only spaces; I'm worried about abusive men taking advantage of the woolly definition of 'woman' to access women only spaces.

I'm also quite disappointed by the responses on this thread - perhaps a new low record of questions answered? I don't feel that the concerns of the posters who asked questions were taken seriously.

I re read very carefully and am still baffled by the apparently 'vicious' nature of the trans questions. Anyone else see a vicious comment?

I wondered if the vicious comments referred to the collective disbelief and distain that we showed for the crap way in which both Sophie and Sandi failed to respond to the points raised in the last web chat. I mean, it was woeful and this was pointed out clearly.

Anseladams, that's a different Khan. Sadiq Khan is standing for mayor, not Rabina Khan. It's quite a common name.

Also, I would love to vote for a party that would stand up for women. We need it. We don't need any party that can't understand what a woman actually is and we don't need people talking down to us like this. Sophie gave rubbish pre-prepared responses to valid concerns. I am genuinely aghast that she could not understand the maternity ward point!

I wondered if it was 'vicious' (at least better than the usual 'bigoted') to point out the different attitudes of the WEP to two transwomen - one 'pretty' and just run of the mill violent, you know, like so many of us are, and the other a paedophile rapist who didnt look all that photogenic. I wondered if pointing out inconsistencies in WEP attitudes based either on looks or on some other factor (was going to say feminine stereotypes but headbutting people is not typically seen as 'feminine') is vicious

It was very strange to read her comments about fathers on maternity wards. An obvious solution is surely individual private rooms - expensive but a great thing to campaign on

I wouldn't touch the WEP now with a bargepole.

If you believe literally that saying the words 'i am a woman' makes it so, it probably does seem anti-trans to talk about men in female spaces

"I am about to start my web chat with a statement on all your questions regarding trans identity and experience"

A statement? It seems Sophie thought that this was a press conference and that women gathered on this page were journalists waiting to take notes.

And what a content-free, wishy-washy statement it is. Yes, "one is not born a woman but rather becomes one" but to be a woman one must be born a girl.

How can you hope to fight for women if you don't even have the courage to say who women are?

What a colossal disappointment.

The response to the question on maternity wards was also disappointing. Why would men need to be on a maternity ward 24hrs. I'm all for flexible visiting hours during the day, but why during the night? What would the advantage be?

And in any case, this would only really be of use at the birth of a first child. With subsequent kids, the father would be home with other children.

The women’s Equality Party
Came skipping to Mumsnet one day
Politically, not very smarty
Expecting the ladies to play

Do these politicking people not know us?
Have they never encountered our like?
Do they think they can canvass our votes and
Not leave with their heads on a spike?

“Tell me your issues!” trilled Sophie
“We’re all about women, you see!
Our policies should win a trophy
I’m sure you will all vote for WE!”

How lovely said Mumsnet, but tell us
As women we’d just like to know
The way that you want to define us
Dictates how this webchat will go

“I see.” said our heroine “let’s see;
It’s nothing to do with your birth
Becoming a woman is messy
And different across the whole earth”

Erm replied Mumsnet, just hang on
We cannot get equality
As long as you don’t hear us bang on
It’s all about biology

It’s nothing to do with ‘becoming’
It’s not about identity
Our bodies have different plumbing
And not just the way that we wee

We bleed, and we birth and we breastfeed
We’re cut and we’re raped and oppressed
Abducted, enslaved and molested
And not because how we are dressed

Nothing to do with identity
Not because of ladybrain
When we are denied our autonomy
Our wombs are the public domain

Employers when they interview us
Ask “Is your family complete?”
They’re finding a way to then screw us
Offended that we dare compete

Jobs for the boys means biology
Votes for the boys meant just men
Changing the damn terminology
Still means it’s all about them

“Woman is anyone says so”
Bollocking tautology
And meanwhile the actual women
Are still fucked by biology

Don’t tell me my gender identity
Is the essence of what makes me ‘she’
That I share this with Johnny-come-lately
That we’re really the same, can’t I see?

My sex is what everyone notices
My sex is what used against me
My sex, and the women who share it
Are the ones who need equality

So Sophie, I hope that you heard us
For gender is purely fictitious
Sexism’s live and still kicking
Increasingly vile and pernicious

A party to fight for our sex
Now that would be something ambitious
But now what the fuck do we call it?
Since fighting for women is “vicious”?

I’m thinking of starting a party
To fight for the women like me
Who are angry, and cheated, and silenced
Who really just want to be free
Free from the shitstorm of gender
Free from denials of facts
Free from appeasing the bullies
Free from unworkable pacts
Free to say “This has defined me”
Free to say “You’re not the same”
Free to convene with my sisters
Free to reclaim my own name
Women means women means women
The people the world treats like scum
You’re born and you live and you die one
It isn’t a thing you become

It’s not that I’m lacking compassion
For the trans folk who have their own fights
I see that they have their own struggle
I support that they need their own rights

My needs and my life and my fight is not theirs
But they need me to say we’re the same
I need to define that I’m different from men
And it’s nothing to do with my brain

And so we have reached an impasse for today
I’ll leave you with this small footnote
The party that lets me define my own needs
Is the one who’ll be getting my vote.