MNHQ here: webchat with MPs Jess Phillips and Flick Drummond

[BojanaMumsnet]

Hello,

We’re pleased to announce a webchat with Jess Phillips MP and Flick Drummond MP, co-chairs of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Women and Work, on Monday 23 January at 2pm.

Monday sees the release of the APPG’s first annual report, which explores the broad theme of ‘women returners.’ It has considered ‘a range of diverse issues which impact on the ability of women to return to the workplace, particularly after taking maternity leave or fulfilling caring responsibilities.’

Jess Phillips is the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley. Before this, Jess spent five years working for Women’s Aid, and served on Birmingham City Council, where she was appointed Birmingham’s first ever Victims’ Champion. Since being elected to Parliament in 2015, Jess has served on the Women and Equalities Select Committee and the Backbench Business Committee. Last year she authored a guest post on Mumsnet in support of the Reclaim the Internet campaign.

Flick Drummond is the Conservative MP for Portsmouth South. Prior to her election in 2015, she worked as an insurance broker, Ofsted lay school inspector and was a member of the TA Intelligence Corps. Flick now sits on the Women and Equalities Select Committee, where her work has included contributing to the Gender Pay Gap inquiry, in which she called for more flexible working conditions to be offered at the start of employment. Flick cites her own experience of re-entering the jobs market after raising her children as important in giving her a first-hand account of the unique difficulties that women face in the workplace.

So if you'd like to talk to Jess and Flick about women and employment, returning to work, their experience of being women MPs (or just plain MPs), sounding off on Twitter or anything else that takes your fancy, do please join us on Monday. As always, please do keep in mind our webchat guidelines - one question each (follow-ups if there’s time) and please be polite!

Thanks
MNHQ

Hello everyone - really happy to be here, and so looking forward to getting started.

Hello, and welcome to our humble nest of vipers.

@TresDesolee

How did you two come to work together on this? I've read that legislatures with more women tend to display higher levels of cross-party cooperation and are more efficient at getting reaching consensus and (ya know) getting stuff done. Do you think that's true?

That's one of the biggest surprises about Parliament - that so many different parties work together on various issues. I agree that women working together are much more efficient at reaching consensus, so we need more women to apply for Parliament!

Hi Jess and Flick.

My question is:

Are we heading towards a future in which we all, basically, work part time, or have shorter working weeks? Is there really going to be enough employment to go around when the robots take over all our jobs?!

Hello I've noticed lots of questions on the trans issue. As part of the Women and Equalities select committee we undertook an enquiry into issues facing trans and non-binary people and heard some heartbreaking accounts of discrimination and hardship faced by both children and adults. As somebody who ran women's' only services I understand the concerns raised by feminist groups and agree that individual cases must be risk-assessed and managed to ensure that a woman's experience is not undermined in the persuit of inequalities that we found in the enquiry.

@AssassinatedBeauty

Do you support the idea of increasing paid paternity leave and making it "use it or lose it basis", so that men can take a longer time off alongside their partners? I don't feel that shared parental leave as it is currently set up works for many people.

Absolutely. That's something we've recommended; we also feel that men aren't being encouraged enough to take paternity leave. Our first recommendation is to equalise Statutory Maternity Pay and Statutory Shared Parental Leave so that couples are not financially penalised if they choose to take up Shared Parental Leave. There are plenty of fathers out there who would like to spend more time with their children.

@TheSecretMrsFairbrother

Flick, I am one of your constituents and I have two questions.

1 Why did you vote against abolishing the tampon tax?

2 When is something going to be done about the Waverley Road situation? I have to take a detour on the walk to school as I don't feel safe walking my children there even in broad daylight.

The tampon tax was VAT set by EU regulations, therefore we couldn't abolish it - but I have supported the government giving the money raised to domestic abuse charities, including in Portsmouth.

I have been spending time with the police discussing Waverley Road, and I hope that you have noticed a difference recently. Send me an email if you still don't think it's been effective.

@RobDykeWatcher

I'd like to ask what if anything will ever be done to bring child care provision out of the dark ages. Unless you're lucky enough to have a nine-to-five or relatives to help it's all but impossible to go back to work

There's no doubt that childcare needs to be more flexible. The current model caters only for a 9-5 existence. If you are a shift worker or you're self-employed, or have uncertain hours there is almost nothing responsive enough to cater. I know this as someone who juggled my childcare with my husband who worked a four-on four-off shift which was never the same week-in week-out. On the Childcare Committee and the Childcare APPG I raised and will continue to raise this issue.

@user1479748652

Would like to hear your general thoughts on the kind of Brexit we're heading for -- I know you both campaigned for a Remain vote, so 7 months on, do you have any real cause for optimism?

More specifically, aren't maternity rights going to be the first in line for erosion if we become the Singapore-style offshore tax haven anticipated by Philip Hammond

All EU employment rights in place at the moment will be transferred to UK law, under the Great Repeal Bill. Both Jess and I are on the Women and Equalities Select Committee, and this is something that we will be monitoring closely. We will be looking at the effect of Brexit in the APPG as well.

@Kennington

Nursery childcare is too expensive. Will there be subsidies for all? Many women I know just give up work and then can only return to poorly paid employment.

I believe that childcare should be as important as all other infrastructure spending and people simply cannot work without it. There are currently varying elements of subsidised childcare that I would like to see become universal as part of our industrial strategy.

jess sorry, but this "that individual cases must be risk-assessed and managed to ensure that a woman's experience is not undermined in the persuit of inequalities that we found in the enquiry."

Is nonsense. Woman is either a biological reality, or it's a feeling a man can have. It can't be both.

I'm sure you heard some very sad stories, but throwing women under the bus will only make for more sad stories.

Jess.

Can you specifically address the issue of self identity and how this will affect women.

@illegitimateMortificadospawn

We know that academic attainment is a key foundation for later career development and progress. What are your views on the recent parliamentary report into the high level of sexual harrassment that girls are subjected to in schools? What should government and society be doing to address this issue? Also, what problems do you think this behaviour poses for the future workplace when these teenage boys are in the workforce? (As a point of reference, there are many threads on mumsnet where women are trying to support daughters in school who are being subjected to a level of assault or harrassment which would constitute gross misconduct in most workplaces and is illegal too, but schools are minimising it & sweeping it under the carpet.)

We were both on the Women and Equalities Select Committee, which produced the report on sexual harassment. We both support the mandatory introduction of Sex and Relationships Education, and will be pushing the government to bring it into law. I hope that, by the time our teenage boys are in the workforce, they will have a good knowledge of the issues.

@AssassinatedBeauty

Do you support the idea of increasing paid paternity leave and making it "use it or lose it basis", so that men can take a longer time off alongside their partners? I don't feel that shared parental leave as it is currently set up works for many people.

Yes. I believe in equalising maternity and paternity pay and rights. If you both got nine months and took it one after another, you wouldn't need childcare for the first eighteen months. Also increased paternity leave makes women less of a perceived threat to employers.

Wow. Is this really a webchat with 2 women MPs completely ignoring the biggest concern women posting have asked questions on?

For the record, Jess, your sidestepping of the issues isn't helpful. You are a woman MP, and women need you to take these concerns seriously. If women in your position won't, who will?

They're both very slow typists, aren't they?

@Namejustfornappies

As an ex secondary school teacher I have many ex colleagues who are also ex teachers. The majority are female and left teaching due to the insane workload and pressure being incompatible with a family - unless maybe you have huge amounts of family support, or are happy to have your children in wrap around care for 12 hours a day. I believe this is a similar situation in many areas of the NHS. As these are two areas of employment that the government has huge control and impact on, can you tell my why the government cannot lead by example in making teaching and healthcare more family friendly?

There are many initiatives that could help - salary to recompense actual hours worked, stronger incentives to accept part time requests, etc.

(For example as a teacher with a 50% timetable between dc1&2 I was working a 45 hour week for a salary of £15k. And due to timetable pressure common in many schools my day off was different depending on whether it was week 1 or week 2 of the timetable - meaning a full weeks childcare was needed.)

I'm a school governor and know how hard teachers work. The hours are insane. We also work longer hours in Parliament, so I absolutely understand the pressures placed on family life. Our report asks for flexibility in the workplace, but working part-time is always going to be difficult unless you're completely rigorous in keeping to the hours that you're employed for - not an easy task, I can imagine, if you're a dedicated teacher.

@JaneBand118

Hi Jess and Flick.

My question is:

Are we heading towards a future in which we all, basically, work part time, or have shorter working weeks? Is there really going to be enough employment to go around when the robots take over all our jobs?!

It's a real worry. I have made sure that my children know how to code because I am really worried about the changing landscape of industry and employment. This is doubly worrying for women, as currently women are underrepresented in science and tech jobs. This is something that we will be looking at in future on All-Party Parliamentary Group on Women and Work.

Jess and Flick

The majority of questions are about defining women and legislating to protect women's rights. Please spend a proportionate amount of time answering these questions. It will be very noticeable if these questions are avoided in favour of others.

@user1475253854

Jess, how do you restrain yourself from punching Philip Davies?

I wouldn't give him the satisfaction.

agreed

The problem with case by case basis is that if women's groups, like shelters, refuse a transwoman the trans activists try and close the shelter down. There is no escape from accusations of bigotry when women choose to project themselves and don't want to admit transwomen, most of whom have male anatomies.

We need to protect women from harm, this means keeping males out in the first place not women sticking their necks out at great personal risk.

If I answered every question from my employer with "hmm, good point, I'm going to commission a report into that, or "I've got vague platitudes to say about that", I wouldn't have a job.

This is an incredibly disappointing show, especially from Jess who I've previously admired.

I was agreeing with Hairylittlepoet, Now up next the biscuit question, because even biscuits are more relevant than womens rights

protect