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.

Hello Penny

Thank you for coming to do a web chat.

Excellent questions from everybody, once again I am impressed at the intelligence and depth of knowledge of the Mumsnet posters.

I would like to see all the previous questions answered, starting with ChickenonaMug.

My question is: I understand that the Women and Equalities Committee has recently awarded money to Stonewall to train schools. What checks have been done on the training and by who to ensure that it doesn’t negatively impact on safeguarding children and the rights of women and girls? This is particularly important due to the recent scandals of David Challenor (father of Aimee Challenor who is influential at Stonewall) being inprisoned for the sadistic rape and torture of a ten year girl, the petition against Stonewall by leading Gay and Transsexual activists and the resignation of Ruth Hunt.

If the advice being given to schools by Stonewall is later found to be incorrect and harm occurs to a child due to schools following this advice, who will be liable and pay any compensation due? Will it be individual schools or will it be the Government?

Thank you once again for doing this webchat and I look forward to full and frank answers to my question and all previous questions.

Hello Penny,

My daughter refuses to wear feminine clothes, has short hair, likes everything traditionally masculine from football to dinosaurs, and claimed she was a boy for 4 years. Obviously she’s not. She’s a girl confused by social gender roles which do not allow her to be her quirky self.

Meanwhile, trans rights activists (including groups that you listen to carefully, like Mermaids) are very concerned to tell me online that she’s really my son and that I am abusive.

At the moment I am terrified to send her into school because the transgender ideology has become so entrenched and indeed is about to be taught in schools thanks to SRE reforms.

What are you doing to support girls like my daughter and parents like me? Why do schools have no government guidance on this issue?

Thank you.

Great questions. I can't wait for the web-chat.

Penny, I heard you talking about period poverty on woman's hour. You made the point that you will be spending quite a bit of money to try and reduce the stigma of buying period products and to raise awareness. However, do you not think that actual poverty- ie- being short of money and not being able to afford to buy period products is an actual problem, and if so what are you proposing to do about this?

During the Brexit campaign, you repeatedly said that the UK couldn't stop Turkey from joining the EU.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36352676/penny-mordaunt-the-uk-can-t-veto-turkey-joining-
eu

www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/may/21/vote-leave-prejudice-turkey-eu-security-threat

This was a huge lie. A lie I heard many people repeat in the run-up to the referendum.

So my questions are:

Why did you say that?

Are you ashamed of the lies you told to get people to vote Brexit?

Do you think deliberately lying in politics is acceptable or democratic?

Thank you for your response, Justine.

I appreciate it.

Hello Penny, I'd like to ask a question that falls under yours responsibilities around women and equalities.

In 2018 the United Nations published a report that detailed grave violations by your government against lone parents and disabled people, amongst others. To date your government has refused to acknowledge the findings of the report, and done nothing to remedy the wrongs that have caused vast increases in relative poverty and homelessness. More than this, there have been countless suicides where the coroner has specified that benefit cuts and cuts to mental health services have played a part in that person's death. One suicide is too many, yet under measures you have actively contributed to, numerous people have died.

What are you doing to redress this situation, that you must agree is abhorrent?

This is a question for @JustineMumsnet. Will you please tell us the selection that you choose to send?

I've already had my question, but I'm also really interested in the area where Penny's remit crosses. Given the several scandals overseas where vulnerable women and children have been abused and in some cases prostituted by the very agencies the UK were funding to aid them, can we be confident that no more abuses will happen?

Hi,

I'd like to ask for confirmation that the government will ensure guidance is produced urgently to give advice on how single sex exceptions under the EA2010 can be invoked in all the areas that they apply to. These include:

Women only services: schedule 3 part 7 Sections 26-28
Women only clubs: schedule 16 part 1
All-women shortlists: part 7 section 104 (7)
Occupational requirements: schedule 9 part 1 section 1(3)
Competitive sports: part 14 section 195
Communal accommodation: schedule 23 part 3

All of these areas are currently not having the exceptions invoked and this impacts on women & girls. What will you do to ensure there is solid guidance for organisations, Government depts and local authorities as well as private businesses to invoke these exceptions?

We give aid to places like India and Pakistan, who have nuclear programmes, and yet don't allow the education of girls, or see females as second class citizens.

Is there any way to tie the aid to specific programmes to empower girls and women and only fund those?

In the wake of the Haiti scandal, what is being done about the NGOs, many of whom seem to do very well on aid monies?

Thank you for engaging with MN

My question: given the importance of being able to monitor the impact of policy changes, funding decisions (including targeted aid overseas) and implementation, how can we do this in relation to sex without a clear, non-circular definition of "man" and "woman"?

Put another way, how do we know that money spent on improving the lives of women and girls, such as through DfID's flagship "Workand Opportunities for Women" programme, or the work in partnership with Women for Women has had the desired impact, if we cannot distinguish between men and women?

(Please talk to your colleagues at the Ministry for Justice and the Home Office regarding the collection of crime and prison statistics for evidence that crimes committed by self-identified transwomen are already being included in the "female" data set)

As you may know, Stonewall are actively campaigning for an end to the single sex exemption in the Equalities Act. They have given evidence to the Select Committee to this effect and it is now stated policy.

Given that the government has committed to maintaining the single sex exemption, what are you doing to ensure that it is upheld?

This is particularly important since Stonewall are being paid by public funds and quasi public funds (Lottery etc) to advise bodies including schools, government agencies, charities as well as private sector organisations.

I think sex should be included as one of the groups that get protected in hate crimes. If that happened then I think that women would benefit from this hugely. Women are regularly targeted by violent men because they are women. Because of their sex. If racist abuse is shouted at someone from a car that's a hate crime. If my daughter is called a slag by someone in that situation then it doesn't get treated as a hate crime. Though it clearly is. I think women are as deserving of this extra protection just as much as the other groups.

Do you?

Could you work to make that happen please?

I'm really concerned about the impact that self ID has had and will have on females' rights and spaces.

Like many women I have experienced abuse at the hands of males - my only reguge was in a female only space.

My son is being taught Stonewall fiction in school. That human beings can change sex and it troubles me deeply that you seem to think humans can change sex too.

I met with my Conservative MP to discuss my fears. To explain how women and girls are being stripped of rights, safety and dignity to cater to men's feelings.

What are you doing to protect females' rights? Why have you now met with Stonewall several times yet Fairplay for Women and A Woman's Place UK's events in Westminster experienced much silence from politician's quarters. When I phoned my MP up to see if she was attending both events, her aide told me she was "too busy because of Brexit."

This is unacceptable. With the amount of evidence to hand when will you make a stand for women's rights? I understand that politicians don't have to mix in the same wards, toilets and shelters/refuges as the public but as an elected official we need you to safeguard our rights.

This is harmful ideology. I am deeply disturbed by the Stonewall teaching at my son's school (secondary) where he takes a quiz using Stonewall's fake trans suicide figure that was debunked by the NHS.
Young girls are told to move over while Mermaids, All Sorts have the run of schools. Stonewall.is a lobby group so why does the Govt recommend them as trainers where many of the males on Stonewall's steering committee not have experience or qualifications or even children yet insist on going into schools?

Do the decent thing and please support our rights.

Dear Penny,
In response to concerns of women about the implications of Self-ID, your government has stated that the exceptions in the Equality Act will not be changed. In reality, the Equality Act exceptions are not being implemented in circumstances where they clearly should be. Right across the country, Local Authorities, schools, gyms, swimming pools, youth hostels, sporting organisations etc, and even the civil service, are systematically introducing policies which prioritise the rights of transwomen over the rights of women and girls. These polices routinely ignore, or play down, the Equality Act exceptions. They give no consideration to the safety, dignity and privacy of women and girls. They have been introduced without consultation with women and have not been subjected to any equality impact assessment. These policies have been written in consultation with government-funded transgender advocacy groups, the same groups that have actively campaigned for the complete removal of the sex-based exemptions in the Equality Act. Service providers etc who are brave enough to implement the exceptions are often subjected to an orchestrated campaign of bullying and intimidation to get them to change their mind.
To stop this negation of their rights, women have to resort to crowd funding in order to challenge these policies on a case by case basis, whereas the transgender groups who are driving this onslaught continue to get generous government funding.
Your government is presiding over the greatest assault against women’s rights that has occurred in the UK in living memory. Does your government intend to take action to reverse this situation? If not, why not?

Hi - following your comments in June 2018 regarding the lack of women's reproductive rights in NI and the fact that Stormont is still completely inert but with worse feeling between the parties, I was wondering what way forward you as Minister for Women and Equalities can see in order to provide women in NI with these rights? Thanks

Dear Penny, thank you for doing this web chat. Do you stand by your earlier statement that transwomen are women? If so please would you explain exactly how a man can become a woman?
Would it not be better for a man with gender dysphoria to be able to change his legal sex marker to that of Transwoman?
Is it best practice in law to have Male bodied people with male genitalia classed as women?
Thank you.

Hi Penny,

1. Why is a quasi religious belief (genderism) being imposed on an unwilling population from above?

1. Can humans change sex? Y/N

Ta.

Hi Penny,
The dictionary definition of a woman ('adult human female') has been described as hate speech. What do you think?

I've got a second question if that's allowed?

The journalist, James Kirkup has written that a number of MPs, some of them Cabinet Ministers, have expressed their concerns to him about Gender self ID, and the whole gender debate but have told him they're afraid to speak out in public. What do you think of these MPs?

Hi Penny,

Do you support the moves towards mixed sex toilets and changing facilities in schools? Are you worried that the UK is moving backwards in this respect, when most developing countries are pushing for single sex female toilets in schools in order that more girls can access education? Does it concern you that girls in the UK are now reporting that they are missing school when they have their period and that some girls dehydrate themselves in order to avoid using the toilet at school altogether? What would you say to parents who are concerned about their girls being pushed out of education because schools no longer support segregated toilets and changing rooms? Do you consider girls to have the right to education, and if so, what are you doing to remove this barrier?

Dear Penny

If you are right and "transwomen are women" how do we define those people who are of the sex class that produces ova, gestates their young, lactates, menstruates etc?

And if we can't define that group how do we protect their rights not to be discriminated against because of their membership of that sex class?

How will public bodies collect the data that is necessary for the proper exercise of the public sector equality duty if we can't define a group which holds a protected characteristic under the Equality Act?

And in case you think I am reducing that group of people to their biology, I am describing the class of people, just because someone can't or chooses not to do those things doesn't mean they are not of that class.

Thanks for doing this Penny. Can I ask why the Government doesn't take into account the status of LGBT rights in countries before sending aid or directing aid towards supporting LGBT groups. Trans men and women are under a massive push back in this country but in many countries that we support it would be illegal and possibly be punishable by death. Will the minister assure me that LGBT rights will be at the heart of policy. PS I am a mum and a woman with a trans history.