International Women’s Day Q&A with Penny Mordaunt MP, Secretary of State for International Development NOW CLOSED TO NEW QUESTIONS

[JustineMumsnet]

[EDITED BY MNHQ: Questions have now been collated and sent over - new questions may not be answered]

Hello all,

We’re very pleased to announce a Q&A with Penny Mordaunt MP, Secretary of State for International Development and Minister for Women and Equalities.

Please post your questions on this thread by lunchtime on Wednesday March 6. We’ll send on a selection to the Minister and we will post up written answers from Penny on this thread this coming Friday (March 8), International Women’s Day.

In her role as Secretary of State for International Development, Penny Mordaunt oversees DFID’s work ending extreme poverty overseas, including programmes focused on girls’ education and women’s health. DFID has been in the news recently, facing calls for its budget to be spent partly on encouraging projects that would aid British business overseas, and for it to be folded into the Foreign Office instead of being a standalone department.

In her role as Minister for Women and Equalities, Penny is also responsible for work including gender pay gap reporting and possible changes to the law concerning gender recognition.

Penny campaigned for Brexit in the run-up to the 2016 EU referendum and is a Royal Naval Reservist. She has previously been Minister of State for Disabled People and Minister of State for the Armed Forces.

Please add your questions for Penny here by Wednesday lunchtime. And although it’s not a live webchat please stick to the spirit of our webchat guidelines and keep it civil.

If one topic is overwhelmingly dominating responses we might request that people don't continue to post what's effectively the same question or point. Rest assured we will ALWAYS make the recipient aware that it's an area of concern to multiple users and will encourage them to engage with those questions.

Thanks
Justine

Nb existing members will be able to post on this thread. Thanks.

And she's going to do or say something that will buy her time over the trans issue.

Yes - she's trying to work out what fobbing off will be sufficient and, if her SPADs have done their research, trying to find a way to both fob off and avoid the Creasy/NSPCC debacles we've already had on here.

Penny: we know what a fob off looks like. We've had plenty of practice. Don't do it.

Not on twitter. What does it say?

Looks like the government are backing down and realise what a mess this all is to me. Will await the replies from Penny Mordaunt with renewed interest.

Let's not have a flag.

Can't hold a flag with hooves, so...

"horse" proper chuckled. thank you, it's a trying day so far.

Ah see it now. How does that showbacking down about self ID #allgreektome

I very much doubt they are backing down on anything.

We're chasing it up. Busy time etc.
Please bear with us...

What’s strange is - surely she knew that all the questions would be about self-ID, and that March was going to be busy with the Brexit shitshow?

So why offer to do this at all? Why say she could have answers for us by Last Friday when that clearly wasn’t going to happen?

Or is she just caught off guard by the strength of feeling that a bunch of stodgy old mums have? She can’t have honestly thought she was just going to get asked what her favourite biscuit was, surely?

surely she knew that all the questions would be about self-ID

I doubt it, remember it's only 100 or so Radfems and transphobes who care about it.
They actually believe that too, because it's something that been told to them and repeated.
The idea the Questions would be around this subject is probably suprising.

Sorry, I was one of the four that didn’t ask about the trans issue as I couldn’t think of a good enough one. Although the whole country at the moment...🤷🏽‍♀️

Maria Miller isn't backing down on this. Here's an account of a meeting her constituent had with her on this only a couple of months ago:

My Meeting with Maria Miller MP
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3483804-My-Meeting-with-Maria-Miller-MP

I feel a bit sorry for Penny here. Really between a rock and a hard place.

And suspect that answers will not come at all.

I didn't post a question because I thought other posters had more than adequately addressed my concerns. I completely expected we would be fobbed off so wasn't anticipating any game changing answers and thought I'd check out the responses when I had time. However the delay has taken me from mildly interested in how she might fudge her responses to actively watching to see when they are posted. If Penny was hoping this would quietly die and we'd forget then she's made a mistake. Her delaying is attracting more attention.
Penny we're waiting!

I don't feel sorry for her at all. Women's groups and individuals have been trying to draw attention to this issue for years. The government didn't listen and now it's spiralled. If meaningful discussion had been allowed earlier who knows where we'd be but I suspect it wouldn't be here.

I'm not holding my breath for answers from PM but surely at some point the government have to address this?

Watching and waiting...

This is really poor form isn't it... only 5 days late

Maria Miller is trying to deflect from herself/her own responsibility but those who have replied to the Twitter thread are having none of it-it is a sight to behold. I am one of those "purported feminists" she tried to rubbish-I have been an active one throughout my life so I KNOW there are members of the women's groups (she mentioned as having been consulted) who do NOT agree with GRA consultations re: self-Id. A handful of "spokespersons" are not representative of all the views of women who work in/use the services who, even if consulted, may not have felt free to say what they really think. Especially if they know transwomen would be reading it or even facilitating the discussions!
As a potential future service user, I would be appalled if met by a transwoman worker in a female only service. It is very rare for them to "pass" so I would perceive them as male-however they identify. I am extremely anxious about how this will affect me if I need intimate care, in the not so distant future, as an older woman and a male bodied person comes to my door or hospital bed to provide it. I know women who will be traumatised by this-how is this person centred if all about the employee & not the needs/requests of the actual patient etc.
Organisations have been, I think, afraid to ask the questions in case of threat of legal action (this was implied in the document I posted about) & if transwomen do not disclose they are trans (as has happened) organisations have to employ them.
Any of these organisations (which do a great job-let's not detract from that) can no longer call themselves "women only". It is one thing to have "legal" (a legal fiction) females accessing them but quite another to include those who have no intention of transitioning whatsoever or live as men part of the time. As such, they should no longer be held up as if their voices represent ordinary women, who have no desire to control how anyone dresses/identify but who want "women only" to exclude men.

Not all the questions were about trans issues. I knew other, more knowledgeable women would be asking those questions so I stuck to what I know best.

I asked a couple of other questions about pension theft and BRexit advantages for wome as so many others had written so eloquently about self Id.

They certainly don't have my support any more, because a service that is supposed to exist for the safety and support of women and children simply doesn't any more. This is no longer what they do so they are now badly failing women and children, until this is changed.

We shall, we shall not be moved.

Sandwiches and a flask (to share of course)

Just popping my head round the door to see if Penny has shown up?

No?

I'll give it another hour, then I'll make tea and biscuits in the room next door.

All welcome.