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.

[vickyjgo]

I would like to thank the minister for the consultation on the GRA last year. It is good to see that the Government is looking to push forward with simplifying the process for obtaining a change of sex on a birth certificate. Does the Gov regret the length of time this is taking and the hate that appears to have been stirred up against a 0.6% minority of women in England.

[vickyjgo]

Can Penny confirm that the Gov intends to make no changes to the Equality Act or the provisions of that act and so the current protections for single sex spaces and the inclusive policy for trans people will continue as they currently very successfully run.

[MrsKCastle]

Do you think that there are any disadvantages or difficulties attached to being female, rather than male, in Britain today? If so, can you explain what these disadvantages might be, and how we can best address them? Also, in what circumstances do you think it might be necessary to distinguish between male and female humans?

[auldcraw]

Do you think that the BBC is a misogynistic instiution, in light of of its appalling gender pay gap statistics, the historic cover ups of abuse by Jimmy Saville, and now its bias shown in the debate around transgender issues?

[Sasstal67]

Last year I became aware of the work of several charities involved in global 'toilet twinning' projects. In January I asked my family to club together to twin our two toilets, in lieu of birthday presents, with ones in parts of the world where the rural population continue to practice open defecation (ODF). Over the next year, I hope to raise enough to pay for a toilet block for a school, which would enable girls to continue their education throughout their period each month.

Many of these projects begin with the women of the village, as they've previously had to risk going into the fields in the dark, where they're often attacked by men or wildlife. The men are often initially circumspect regarding the need for toilets. However, once the women convince them of the link between ODF and many life threatening illnesses caused by contamination of the water sources, the men do learn to accept that the toilets do indeed benefit their communities.

Can you tell me if our government is doing anything to support the development of village and school toilet facilities in developing countries?

[vickyjgo]

Period poverty is an issue affecting so many women. Groups such as the Red Box project are working within schools to provide menstrual products to young women and some councils have joined the campaign. Many food banks refuse to provide menstrual products leaving women totally without help. What can the Government do to fight period poverty?

[MrsToddsShortcut]

Thank you Penny for this.

I want to ask if you are aware of the enormous impact teaching gender theory in schools is having on the autistic community?

Recent research from The Tavistock indicates that a staggering 48% of young people referred to the Tavistock have autistic traits, with 35% of them moderate to severe.

Huge numbers of autistic girls are identifying as either non-binary or as boys, in clusters across the country.

As an ASD/ADHD mother of an ASD/ADHD girl, who is simply not coping with puberty, I can see first hand the effect that offering these vulnerable girls a 'way out' of puberty is having.

The future we are offering our girls is based on regressive sex based stereotypes, and the highly sexualised expectations of a porn soaked society that sees them as objects for the consumption of boys. Their future is shaped by neoliberalism run amok.

With an autistic theory of mind, plus schools disseminating information from Stonewall and Gendered Intelligence, that tell them that they can choose an identity that will allow them to escape this, these girls are simply saying 'if I don't feel like this, then I must therefore be that.

ASD kids find their communities online as they experience enormous social communication difficulties with peers in real life situations. They are also frequently lonely and desperate to please and to fit in.

They are ripe to be groomed and subsumed into trans culture in the same way that kids in the 80's chose to be goths. Except now, the stakes are so much higher; their fertility and their healthy bodies. And we know now that there is no safe evidence for this.

They are ripe to be hugely influenced by YouTube stars who are telling them that they have a way out. What they don't and can't understand , is that these choices will alter them forever.

Please, as a member of the neurodiverse disabled community, trying to protect my autistic daughter, I am imploring you to authorise the essential and so far non-existent research into why so very many autistic girls are identifying as boys.

This is now an emergency and as Dr Carl Heneghan and Dr Polly Carmichael both stated in the recent Panorama documentary, this is a huge, unevidenced medical experiment on our disabled children.

[vickyjgo]

As the Equality Minister what is your reaction to the news that a school has withdrawn from providing lessons on LGBT issues due to religious objections from parents? What can you do to ensure that this decision is reversed and that LGBT pupils in the school are supported?

[ChickenonaMug]

vickyjgo the Mumsnet webchat guidelines state that only one question (plus a follow up) per member. Therefore it might be worth highlighting to MNHQ which of your questions you would prefer to be answered, otherwise they may choose for you.

[Smotheroffive]

I wonder if any making rules around putting men with penis into women's refuge have any concept of how terrified battered women are there children hiding with them are of men in what was previously a safe space.
Have those making decisions seen what happens when an unexpected male voice is heard; have any seen how extreme their terror reaction can be, or the living hell their nights are...too scared to sleep in bed.

So, do those making these decisions to allow male bodied actual men have any idea how cruel and abusive this practice this is on women and their children who as a result of domestic abuse have a protected characteristic and frankly deserve to feel safe after their bravery in escaping horrors. These are women made compliant through fear, and arrive in refuge in terror, they deserve better.
Thank you for reading.

[ForgivenessIsDivine]

Historically we have seen analysis and comparators that use sex as a basis to compare the disparity between men and women in the areas of education, pay, employment etc. These have been used to focus attention and resources on bridging the gap in the areas of money areas money and power.
Women MP's, Women in higher levels of management, Gender pay gap, Participation in Sport.

If gender replaces sex is these comparisons and gender is based on self identification according to a set of harmful stereotypes, we will loose all real benefits from these analyses and be unable to see improvement or otherwise in the participation of women in society.

Women have been silenced over millenia and by failing to keep sex as the defining and protected characteristic, the government will be contributing to the unraveling of decades of progress.

How will you ensure that this does not happen and the advancements are not reversed by natal males identifying as women and using their male advantage to take the space that women are still fighting to occupy?

[Smotheroffive]

*battered women and their children [that should have said, sorry.

The question being what uber compliant abused women have been consulted on sharing their safe space? As you can't ask women in refuge, they are homeless and wholly dependent on the service even if it does have men in it.

[Attic52]

Thank you Penny for doing this. I support the idea that all people need to be aware, respectful and accepting of differences and understand in particular about more vulnerable groups. However I do have concerns about lobbyist groups such as Stonewall, as well as Mermaids and Allsorts providing training to schools, government agencies and charities.
I’d like to know what checks are being done regarding this training and by who? Is it being ensured that the training does not negatively impact on the safeguarding of children and content is in line with the Equality Act 2010 ( eg. Sex not gender and exemptions)?

[AutumnCrow]

Hello Penny,

We have met in real life quite a few times.

My question is about the Tavistock Clinic and GIDs. Children were given experimental drugs euphemistically known as 'puberty blockers'. This has emerged as a major safeguarding scandal. Furthermore, follow-up studies of the children post-18 have not taken place, which is inexcusable in medicine and science. It is known, though, that harm has been caused. And also that money has been made.

Will you assure us that the promotion of such harm in schools will stop immediately?

[LangCleg]

Further to the question about the current issue with a Birmingham school and LGBT lesson plans plus the introduction of compulsory sex education, I have been approached by a group of maths and science (I am not a teacher myself) teacher who would like me to ask:

Will teachers be able to refuse to teach the elements of this curriculum that teach gender identity theory as established fact?

[Lumene]

A friend of mine attended an LGBT event which you spoke at regarding GRA reform and your views on how trans people should be supported. During the event a fairly prominent Conservative party member spent some time telling everyone there that the Transgender Trend school’s advice pack was anti-trans, anti-LGBT and promoted conversion therapy. None of those things are true but this was not challenged. Schools packs are now coming out from trans lobby organisations, often based on Allsorts guide, which are concerning in a number of ways (safeguarding, encouraging unquestioning support of transition with no watch and wait contrary to nhs practice, encouraging schools not to keep data on biological sex, advising schools they should allow boys into female changing room and sleeping areas without informing parents, suggesting lesson plans that teach a particular and unscientific view of gender identity that is one ideological belief and with no discussion of the complexities or other views on the matter, etc)

What is your view on this and how will you help ensure children and girls in particular are ALL protected through guidance given in this area which you have been championing?

It

[RepealTheGRA]

During the event a fairly prominent Conservative party member spent some time telling everyone there that the Transgender Trend school’s advice pack was anti-trans, anti-LGBT and promoted conversion therapy.



That is Libellous and deserves it own thread.

[LatinforTelly]

So many good questions here. I would just like to add weight to these questions:

• we need urgent investigation into why autistic children are being groomed into believing they are transgender in disproportionately large numbers.

• how are gender non-conforming children are being supported rather than encouraged to believe they have been 'born in the wrong body'? (It is utterly regressive to tell a girl who likes football, dinosaurs and trucks that they are really a boy.)

If I have to pick one, it's the one about autistic children. Thank you very much.

[MsMcWoodle]

Adding my concern - Why are political lobby groups such as Stonewall and Mermaids given public money and influence?

[CharlieParley]

Dear Penny,

Thank you for agreeing to answer our questions.

Guidelines such as the Allsorts Toolkit have led to the adoption of transgender policies that changed how children are treated in our schools. These guidelines have an impact not just on the children who identify as trans but on all the other children too.

This impact has not been assessed. Despite the public sector equality duty of both your government and schools, not one robust and thorough children's rights impact assessments or equality impact assessments have been carried out, no consultation with the other children and parents/carers was undertaken prior to adopting these policies.

One such assessment, a CRIA, was written by a grassroots women's rights group called Women and Girls in Scotland.

This assessment found that guidance nearly identical to the ones used in English and Welsh schools breaches at least 11 articles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as the rights of children under the EqA, affecting girls disproportionately, discriminating against them, potentially harming them and creating a hostile environment for girls in our schools.

This CRIA has been accepted as correct by the Children's Commissioner in Scotland who called it "extremely thorough, well researched, comprehensive, informative and helpful". They then asked the Scottish Government to stop using the transgender guidelines and reminding them that they have a legal duty to assess all guidelines used in school.

As the guidelines used in English and Welsh schools also potentially breach the human rights of children under the UNCRC and the EqA will the minister honour her responsibility to our female children and urgently commission thorough and robust impact assessments and then commission independent guidelines to ensure that the human rights of all children are upheld in our schools?

Or will the minister follow in the footsteps of the Scottish Government and refuse to do so, thereby signalling to all women and girls in the country that our human rights and our rights under the EqA are now superseded by the rights of males who identify as trans and therefore can be breached with the approval of our government.

Thank you.

[Meandmetoo]

Hi Penny

Id like to echo Datuns question at the start of this thread re: changing rooms.

And how do you define woman?

[Tanith]

Many low income women are losing money - and friends - to Multi Level Marketing companies and their representatives.
Do you agree that the laws on pyramid selling need to be tightened?

[Bluestitch]

That is absolutely shocking CharlieParley, I too would be very interested in a response to your question.

[rocketromano]

I would also like to know why the Tavistock has continued to prescribe puberty blockers when their own study showed no benefit and an increase in self harm for girls who were on this treatment. Why are they being allowed to experiment on vulnerable children? The effects of puberty blockers need to be followed up in long term studies - why is this not happening?
And where is the support for children and young people who detransition??

[CharlieParley]

Bluestitch I actually felt crushed when I saw that response. I keep bringing up the CRIA because it is the first comprehensive impact assessment, using a template provided for this purpose by the Children's Commissioner. A 51-page legal assessment on human rights breaches that was found to be accurate, accepted as such and then acted upon.

And the Scottish Government's response was "We still fully support the guidance" Guidance they were just informed breached human rights law and the EqA.

And then they tried to wash their hands off it in a not my monkey, not my circus move, refusing to do their public sector equality duty because they didn't write the guidance.

There is only one conclusion - to our government the rights and needs of girls do not matter anymore when there are males around who identify as trans. Not even when you can prove that this breaks the law.