Webchat about women/mums in politics with Stella Creasy and Caroline Nokes - 1st February

[JuliaMumsnet]

Hello,

We're delighted to announce a webchat on the 1st February, from 12.30 to 1.30pm with Caroline Nokes MP and Stella Creasy MP about women and mothers in politics. We know that women - and particularly mums - are underrepresented in politics, and that the makeup of those walking the corridors of power affects the decisions that are made. The webchat is part of the work we’re doing to explore the barriers for women and mums and see what can be done to encourage more of them to get involved.

Caroline Nokes is the conservative party MP for Romsey and Southampton North and the current Chair of the Women and Equalities Select Committee in Parliament, where she is leading an inquiry into menopause in the workplace. Since her election in 2010 she has served as a Minister in the Department for Work and Pensions, the Cabinet Office and was Minister of State for Immigration in Theresa May’s Cabinet.

Stella Creasy is the Labour and Co-operative MP for Walthamstow in North East London. She’s worked on legal loan sharks, legalising abortion in Northern Ireland, to tackle tax evasion and the impact of the private sector on the NHS and for stronger action on violence against women and girls. Following the birth of her first child in 2019, she became the first MP to appoint a locum while she took maternity leave.

Please join us here on Tuesday 1st February at 12.30pm. If you can’t join us on the day, please leave your question here in advance.

As always, please remember our webchat guidelines - one question per user, follow-ups only if there’s time and most questions have been answered, and please keep it civil. Also if one topic is dominating a thread, mods might request that people don't continue to post what's effectively the same question or point. (We may suspend the accounts of anyone who continues after we've posted to ask people to stop, so please take note.) Rest assured we will ALWAYS let the guest know that it's an area of concern to multiple users and will encourage them to engage with those questions.

Many thanks,
MNHQ

[StellaCreasy]

@WhatFreshHellisCismas

What does a ‘normal week’ in politics look like for a working mum? How much time do you get with your children?

nowhere near enough - although more when we had hybrid voting and debating which is why I am a big fan. Its disappointing that parliament abandoned all these measures without asking if there was a more inclusive way of operating for the future. Hoping that there will be cross party push to challenge that and look at whether some of the learning durin gthe pandemic abou thow to work can stay!

[CarolineNokesWebchat]

@JellySaurus

averylongtimeago
Are you concerned about the tactics of the police when dealing with women making political comments or protests?
Should women putting up stickers, or posters, or commenting on social media have their "thinking examined"?

No

Which question is your "No" in answer to?

No of course we shouldn't have our thinking examined! Sorry I should have given a fuller answer

[CarolineNokesWebchat]

@ArcheryAnnie

We want so badly for there to be women we can engage with in parliamentary politics - not just ones that we agree with, but ones who disagree with us, too, but are willing to get to the nuts and bolts of things. We are absolutely desperate for this.

And you're right - we have to engage with the nuts and bolts.

[StellaCreasy]

@justaftb

Question for Stella: I have always voted Labour and have been a Labour Party member in the past. I feel I can no longer vote for or support Labour given that Labour does not seem to know what a woman is.

Can Stella allay my fear that Labour will not protect women's sex-based rights if they achieve a majority in parliament?

Am sorry to hear this justaftb - What sex based rights do you think are not protected? There is a lot of heat and not a lot of light about what impact changes such as GRC would make etc and so genuinely open to understanding what rights these 'take away' as opposed to extend?

[JellySaurus]

averylongtimeago
Are you concerned about the tactics of the police when dealing with women making political comments or protests?
Should women putting up stickers, or posters, or commenting on social media have their "thinking examined"?

No

Which question is your "No" in answer to?

[CarolineNokesWebchat]

@DoubleTweenQueen

The thread, and what’s happening out in the real world, show that women (and men) who stand for women and children’s safeguarding and safety, will never be able to enter politics, or, it would seem, any professional career, unless they are extremely careful to not express their thoughts.

I just say what I believe, if people don't like it, that is their prerogative, what matters is we have a debate. I tried being a Minister and sticking to a line I was given, turns out it didn't suit me.

[WhatFreshHellisCismas]

What does a ‘normal week’ in politics look like for a working mum? How much time do you get with your children?

[CarolineNokesWebchat]

@dreamingofspain

Are you worried about the end of All Women Shortlists? Or do you think they've achieved their aim? ie do enough party members now see women MPs and give equal consideration to them when it comes to selections?

I think that is a really interesting question about having achieved their aim, sadly we can very easily go backwards in the number of women elected. It is a bit like the gender pay gap, even if it gets to zero doesn't mean that you stop reporting.

[StellaCreasy]

@thepastisanothercountry

Sorry for lateness of this but do you really believe all women short lists best benefit voters? Surely people need the best person not the best woman?

I'd actually find it quite insulting to be put on a short list because I'm a woman not because I'm the best suited.

I've answered this elsewhere on thread which hope shows up? AWS isn't about the quality of the candidates (true equality being as many mediocre women as men in parliament!) but the unconcious bias of what leadership looks like which is embedded in our society. We can keep patiently waiting for people to see what that does to our selecting, or we can tackle it at source which is what AWS does.

[CarolineNokesWebchat]

@thepastisanothercountry

Sorry for lateness of this but do you really believe all women short lists best benefit voters? Surely people need the best person not the best woman?

I'd actually find it quite insulting to be put on a short list because I'm a woman not because I'm the best suited.

I was never part of an all women shortlist, although the media like to chuck it as an insult, that tells you they are part of the problem not part of the solution. But only 1 in 4 of all applicants to go on the candidate list is a woman, so we have to do more to demonstrate that it is a job women are brilliant at. There is still a long way to go to overcome the misogyny in selection processes. I was told in one interview that the local party "wants a nice professional man" and at another overheard "Romsey is not ready for a woman" which was in the year 2000 - hardly the dark ages.

[Ereshkigalangcleg]

think that there is a basic lack of respect for women of the female type.

I agree. We need a more respectful politics which is more accessible so women's voices can be heard.

[StellaCreasy]

@dreamingofspain

Are you worried about the end of All Women Shortlists? Or do you think they've achieved their aim? ie do enough party members now see women MPs and give equal consideration to them when it comes to selections?

I'm very worried. I'm proud ot have been selected on AWS- AWS isn't about the women standing but the audience doing the selecting. The women who stood against me were incredible and it was a honour to be chosen from amongst them. It also took gender off the table because it meant the unconscious bias about what leadership looks like couldnt' play out in the minds of those doing the choosing - but unconscious bias doesn't just go away overnight. All parties need to do more to select a wider range of women (I was selected in 2007 and since i was elected just 23 babies have been born to women in parliament in total reflecting the lack of mums in our politics) and to help make it possible to stay in politics too. AWS was the start of a conversation, not the silver bullet and without it we now need to redouble efforts to address the barriers women face - and when I say we I mean men and women as its not the women who are the problem!

[CarolineNokesWebchat]

@RuthBright

Stella, Caroline I stood down as a Parliamentary Candidate (Lib Dem) way back in 2007, pretty much broken by the lack of maternity leave - 48 hours with baby number one and three months with baby number two. What can be done about this as PPCs have no pay or employment status.

thanks for all you are doing

I was first elected as a Cllr when my daughter was 9 months old - the "childcare allowance" did not work at all, and I was wholly reliant on family and friends to do the babysitting whilst I was at Council meetings. It is a really important point about how candidates manage to hold down a job, have a family and campaign when there is little in the way of moral support and nothing in the way of financial support. It means you only get the candidates who can afford to do it, who are backed by unions / businesses or, like me, had amazingly supportive families. Nobody appreciated (not even my then father in law) that I was not paid to be a candidate, and he kept asking who my "sponsor" was. I even got criticised for getting a new job, people said it proved I was not committed enough - I used to reply "no, it shows I need to pay the mortgage".

[thepastisanothercountry]

Sorry for lateness of this but do you really believe all women short lists best benefit voters? Surely people need the best person not the best woman?

I'd actually find it quite insulting to be put on a short list because I'm a woman not because I'm the best suited.

[StellaCreasy]

@ADisgruntledPelican

How does 'being kind' protect women from the daily abuse and threats they receive in RL and on social media?
Also are you aware that if women tweet anything about mum's or women's needs, they are buried under abuse and threats for excluding 'men'?
How does the ThisMumVotes campaign hope to attract support and/or traction when women cannot discuss pregnancy, cervixes, periods or menopause without being told they're exclusionary?

fwiw if anyone is telling you discussing pregnancy, cervixes, period or menopause is exclusionary they are wrong. What we need to do is discuss full stop as we've accepted that women have to struggle at many different points in their lives and in many different ways - I've been told by other women not to talk about how difficult it is to combine family life and public life because I'm letting the sisterhood down etc etc. Threats and abuse ar enot acceptable full stop and think we're all clear about that- but that doesn't mean we have to agree either. Until we have a kinder politics which is accessible because it is kinder all womens voices will always be harder to hear.

[WandaWomblesaurus73]

I'm so heartbroken by the lack of courage shown by Labour now in standing for women. Heartbroken that Labour has left me no choice but to vote elsewhere or withhold my vote. What could Labour do now to win women back?

[dreamingofspain]

Are you worried about the end of All Women Shortlists? Or do you think they've achieved their aim? ie do enough party members now see women MPs and give equal consideration to them when it comes to selections?

[Diplobrat]

"One of patriarchy's tricks is to use the power of men's existing status to command attention and then suggest how women should respond"

Like saying "be kind"?

[DoubleTweenQueen]

The thread, and what’s happening out in the real world, show that women (and men) who stand for women and children’s safeguarding and safety, will never be able to enter politics, or, it would seem, any professional career, unless they are extremely careful to not express their thoughts.

[StellaCreasy]

@CentenaryActionGroup

How does Parliament need to change the way it does business to ensure it's a place that more women would want to work?

Oh where to start! I'm sat here with a wriggly baby who means I can't speak in the chamber because he's banned (other kids haven't been) whilst not having any maternity cover because parliament thinks that those employment rights shouldn't be upheld in practise even if we're not in principle employed. When my proxy vote ends we'll go back to votes at 10pm on mondays and 7pm on tuesday/wednesdays - none of which is family friendly and hybrid meetings have been junked overnight without a moments thought. There's a really great campaign called 'keep the good stuff' which is about trying to use the lessons of the pandemic about flexible working and hybrid activities in politics (as same issues at a local level too!) that we need to encourage men and women to support !

[CarolineNokesWebchat]

@CentenaryActionGroup

How does Parliament need to change the way it does business to ensure it's a place that more women would want to work?

I think there is a massive amount that could be done here - not least providing parent and child parking, looking at the provision for childcare, the creche is not sufficiently flexible, changing some of the attitudes of MPs towards parents. There is no easy solution around sitting hours, because "child friendly" hours don't help those with constituencies outside London or whose families are not in London. But we need to recognise that parents need flexibility, and many will choose different models of parental leave. But it is the culture that needs to change most.

[RoyalCorgi]

I don't think at any point I have said there is not fault on both sides. In fact I have repeatedly said we need to raise the level of debate.

Ah, both sides. Remind me about the feminists who have been sending death threats and reporting trans activists to their employers?

[ADisgruntledPelican]

How does 'being kind' protect women from the daily abuse and threats they receive in RL and on social media?
Also are you aware that if women tweet anything about mum's or women's needs, they are buried under abuse and threats for excluding 'men'?
How does the ThisMumVotes campaign hope to attract support and/or traction when women cannot discuss pregnancy, cervixes, periods or menopause without being told they're exclusionary?

[RuthBright]

Stella, Caroline I stood down as a Parliamentary Candidate (Lib Dem) way back in 2007, pretty much broken by the lack of maternity leave - 48 hours with baby number one and three months with baby number two. What can be done about this as PPCs have no pay or employment status.

thanks for all you are doing

[ArcheryAnnie]

We want so badly for there to be women we can engage with in parliamentary politics - not just ones that we agree with, but ones who disagree with us, too, but are willing to get to the nuts and bolts of things. We are absolutely desperate for this.