I hadn't realised until all this Rennard news came out how poorly represented women are among senior LibDems, particularly MPs. It now seems quite obvious why that is. Beyond the boys' network type of organisation aspects, there seems to be something quite fundamentally wrong with liberalism as it affects women.
I generally believe that the values held most dear to the liberal heart are those that most affect powerful men rather than those that affect disadvantaged groups. Sometimes there appears to be an overlap with issues which are important to disadvantaged groups which masks the reality. For example, freedom of speech is a valuable tool for silenced, disadvantaged groups to be heard and advance their cause but as a "right" in and of itself and without context, it primarily benefits groups with privilege and/or is pretty irrelevant to groups without privilege. We see this in the way the porn industry co-opts the notion of free speech to justify continued perpetuation of harm against women.
In their response to the Rennard situation and the situation of women in the LibDems in general, the LibDems are showing how much their liberalism is rooted in the false neutrality of the male experience. It's not surprising this is causing such a problem in the party as it becomes clear that the liberal philosophy does not help women and the reality of this is unpalatable to many well-meaning non-misogynists.
Interested to hear what other feminists (particularly libfems or LibDemFems) think about this.