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.

Somewhere in the Department for International Development, Incorporating Women and Equalities For The Time Being, is a senior SPAD refusing to take the flack for this.

Maybe she's hoping for a general election......& that she'll be out of a job so won't have to confront this shitstorm.....

Has Rigor Mordauntis set in?

chain of new women's and equalities'...risks..

FFS!

Has nobody brought any beef Monster Munch???

Is it too early for gin? Just me then

Beef monster munch? We're not savages. Surely you meant pickled onion flavour.

Is there such a thing as too early for gin? It's 6 o'clock somewhere in the world!

Explanation 1: Brexit has taken over everything and they can't function in the current shitshow.

Explanation 2: they had no idea of the extent to which women are concerned and angry about this and are now panicking and wondering how to craft something so mealy mouthed that it will pass muster with the daft mummies on Mumsnet

I think both of those, but more the second than the first.
Many women are seriously not aware of the impact. But once you've peaked you can't seem to stop!

Should we start a book on whether we'll have the A's to the Q's before this thread reaches its limit? What would the odds be?

MNHQ this is joke, I am not taking bets.

If it turns out that the current, unprecedented, circumstances mean she really hasn't time to respond to such a large number of excellent questions (which, of course, all deserve a full and considered answer) maybe she could at the very least let us know what she believes a woman is.

PM has a new role. twitter.com/Ulla_Tornaes/status/1105576547040276480

Interestingly She Decides statement opens with We see a world where every girl and woman can exercise her right to privacy...

Right we've got a gin and tonic here, two screwdrivers, three white wines, two beers over there, and an Ovaltine?

Who's the lightweight?

Sorry Datun. That's me

Interestingly She Decides statement opens with We see a world where every girl and woman can exercise her right to privacy...

Yeah that noise you can hear is thousands of women falling about laughing.

I’ve got a large flask of sweet coffee and a packet of cheese and tomato sandwiches to share (homemade of course). snuggles down into deck chair

Sorry I'm late, have been wading my way through Maria Miller's shitstorm on Twitter.

I see we're in 'promised a Q & A, wasted our time writing questions' yet AGAIN territory.

I'll go out for a takeaway later, if anyone's interested - Chinese...?