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

YY HowBad - I couldn't get over that either.

I'm bitterly disappointed in the WEP. Maybe they think that by appeasing people they will get some political power, and then they will actually start to support women (hopeful)

I'm really struggling to believe that completely misunderstanding the concerns raised about fathers staying on post-natal wards, and addressing them with 'don't worry, it won't be obligatory', was accidental. Just more avoidance.

Where did anyone, anywhere on this thread even come close to expressing worry that fathers would be forced to stay? (I'm imagining some sort of bouncer on the ward door, denying exit: it ain't over yet, mate.)

One very valid point raised was that fathers who do stay would end up picking up the slack for an overworked support staff. Nothing to do with obligatory attendence. But the whole thing is insane. I doubt anyone who's walked into a full postnatal ward recently has thought 'you know what would be great? Doubling the amount of people sleeping here'. FFS -- in the shared ward I was on, if you sat on a chair by the bed, your back would touch the dividing curtain. What's the plan? Bunk-beds? Hammock in the corner?

She didn't come to chat, she came to proselytise. She had no interest in the concerns of women about the subjects raised and had a prepared script she was not going to divert from.
What is the point of that? What is the point of WEP?

Oh I could weep at this. WEP I had hope, but now, there is no way I could ever support you.

We know you understand us. You are deliberately obtuse, namecalling, dismissive.

As PP said, we are your demographic, and you are not listening.

Wow. What a car crash, and what a missed opportunity here.

I joined the WEP as a founder member, full of optimism and enthusiasm. All they really had to do to get my vote was to not massively fuck anything up in a way I really couldn't ignore.

Well I've given them several chances now, but I think it's time to call it a day. I'll be sending them my membership card back in the next post.

I guess the WEP are completely in bed with Maria Miller, and we're all the 'wrong' kind of feminists. So disappointing but unsurprising.

I have just trawled back through the thread and I still can't identify any 'vicious' comments. I wouldn't trust WEP with a webchat never mind the mayoralty.

I saw this link on the Anti-semitism thread and thought it relevant
fathomjournal.org/the-corbyn-left-the-politics-of-position-and-the-politics-of-reason/

"‘Alarm bells ring when a politician stands haughty upon his honour,’ observes Jacobson. When Jeremy (Corbyn) says he doesn’t do personal what he means is that he will not deal with criticism in the normal way. He will not respond to it by means of reason or argument; he refuses to enter into serious engagement over worldviews, over ideas or over his record. He is less interested in trying to persuade than in making criticism appear as personal insult. ‘Jeremy doesn’t do personal’ does not mean that he refrains from insulting others; it means that he refrains from responding to that which he is able to construct as insulting."

Wow, just wow. At least with "plebgate" it was an off-the-cuff remark in what was meant to be a private space. But to come onto a public web forum with what is obviously a pre-prepared statement and call your potential core voter base "vicious"? What sort of an idiot do you have to be to do that? (And yes, I am choosing my words carefully - I do intend to be exactly that rude).

That's before we get to the ducking of all the issues - the problems posed by self-identification for women's safe spaces, the insanity of having men on maternity wards overnight.

And the level of intellectual bankruptcy revealed by her complete misunderstanding of de Beauvoir! She makes Nicky Morgan look like an intellectual powet house.

God, it's so grimly disappointing. Sophie was hoping that the vicious feminists she encountered were just a teeny tiny niche group and that this time she would get to speak to all the lovely, normal, not-hateful women.

When will the penny drop that this is what many, many normal women think? I reckon the majority do. The challenge is finding spaces like mumsnet where women don't feel intimidated, isolated and vulnerable, and can actually say what they genuinely know to be the truth. We are women because of our biological sex. All those inequalities? The difference in power? The lack of representation? All because of our sex.

SEXISM:

See woman: discriminate against woman.
not
Enquire and establish internal gender identity: if female; discriminate against gender identity.

WEP - things are beginning to snowball, and I think you're going to find more and more women feeling safe to say the truth.

Women need rights and protection on the basis of their biological SEX. We need a party that fights for women as a SEX.

Gender can fuck off as a concept. We don't need it, want it, benefit from it or want to be categorised by it. You define yourself by your belief in gender identity if you want. But that means you have literally no definition or rights for me, and millions like me.

Millions of us want protections for our SEX. I want a party that fights for women as a sex.

"Gender can fuck off as a concept. We don't need it, want it, benefit from it or want to be categorised by it."

Love it.

Millions of us want protections for our SEX. I want a party that fights for women as a sex.
^YY

So, we're vicious or we hate women or MtT?

Well, that's us ticked off by teacher isn't it?

How utterly bloody dismissive of women's thoughts and opinions. How ridiculously rude of you Sophie.

I can't even see how you can come back from that one.

You answered my question by stating that you wouldn't define yourself in relation to men... so you either lied in your answer to me, or your long first post.

You'd have been better off telling us we're all hysterical and know nothing about anything, although, having seen that your Bath branch is presently promoting transadvocate a hate group against women as somewhere to learn about trans issues, I am not at all surprised.

So we are insulted by a woman who wants our vote, for our free thought, free speach and our opinion.

I'll bet her fingers were hovering over the TERF keys so went with vicious as a safer bet

I don't think she can come back from that one, Palmer. We turned up, we were polite, receptive & keen to discuss our concerns.

We weren't extended the same courtesy. I really don't think WEP should bother in future.

What a let down.
I'm also a founder member but I'm probably going to cancel.

TBF I'm still cold after the "No-one is born a woman, one becomes a woman" comment

I mean, just whaaa... So a girl who becomes a woman is the same as a boy who becomes a woman, as a man who becomes a woman, as a male sex offender who becomes a woman... Blind to the differences. Blind to the consequences...

Being a woman is not a choice.

A male body is stronger than a female body. Someone is scared that the death threat extreme activist will be carried out so they take the anger out on women who won't also cower in the corner scared of men.

I was wondering if the trans community even want to be lumped in with women (for want of a better way of putting it)? Surely there differences mean bespoke solutions not just co-opting the little that already exists for the largest maligned group in UK?

Sigh. I think I'm going to be posting my card back too.

"Transwomen are women" does seem to be the overwhelming mantra.

Maybe I'l rebrand myself as female primate in this case.

Wow, that was even worse than I thought it would be, and let's be clear, my expectations were looooow. But that was more of a slow mo car crash than even I anticipated.

I didn't think we'd actually be insulted (well, I assumed our intelligence would be insulted indirectly), and the weird obfuscation about "we won't force men to stay on wards" was so inept.

So what we've seen is someone running for significant political office, who can't read and name calls when she doesn't get her way.

How very alarming,

'Vicious' was an interesting choice of word

It was used in the context 'vicious comments' but i would argue vicious also has sexist undertones. Its informal synonyms are 'bitchy' or 'catty' which are both of course used to refer to females