Fawcett Society

[partystress]

Not followed them closely, but always assumed admirable and well intentioned. Saw a screenshot on Twitter last night of a tweet of theirs from July which suggested they support / have listened to Gendered Intelligence. Really dodgy WiFi atm, so I can't get far enough back to see the original tweet, but hadn't read anything on here about what would seem to be a surprising alignment and wondered if anyone knew any more about it.

They organised the reception in Parliament in ?July where MPs from every party stated, on being questioned about transwomen being allowed on AWS, that they would all be very happy if Parliament were made up of just male/trans women, because ‘Transwomen are Women’.
No comment was forthcoming from The Fawcett Society as far as I know.

Are TFS the people who think parliament should be half men and half trans women?

Another group who are happy to take your money and throw you under the bus.

Yes - they lost my money after the meeting where they said noting about that "would it be fine if all the women on shortlists/in parliament/all avenues of power" were trans women. (I may be paraphrasing.)

We have threads somewhere that discuss their behaviour in this centenary year of women's rights.

Gah.

I feel really, really let down by them - an organisation I have always supported and felt were "on my side" :(

Me too. My Fawcett Society mug has been shoved to the back of the cupboard. Their position on this has made them entirely pointless.

Something changed this year. They had a statement earlier in the year that subtly hinted they were gender critical. And then suddenly they were all PinkStoneMermaidy.

Did they have a change of leadership?

Jenni Murray is their President - wasn't she one of the first public women to be pilloried for saying that TW are not women?

Jenni is sound...did anything else change in leadership

Their Chair stepped down in January and new one appointed this April - Fiona McTaggart. I am fairly new to this, don't know where she stands on the TWAW thing. She was (briefly) my little sister's teacher before she became an MP though....

Just checked F McT's twitter and she re-tweeted Julie Bindel on Karen White, so guessing she is more on our side than not.

Are TFS the people who think parliament should be half men and half trans women?

Nah, that’s the Lib Dems. Sal Brinton to be precise.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3310443-Fawcett-Society-Live-stream-from-5-30pm-Courage-Calls-Ask-her-to-stand

Although it might be TFS too, to be fair

Nah, that’s the Lib Dems. Sal Brinton to be precise.

And Maria Miller of Conservatives, Amelia Womack of the Greens, Dawn Butler of Labour, Alison Thewliss of SNP, Frances Scott of 50/50 parliament (the irony) - all in nodding agreement that this was fine

Sophie Walker (WEP) and Sam Smethers (chair of Fawcett) were grim faced throughout.

This was the question they were asked:
Most of the all women shortlists are open to anyone who identifies as a woman. So in theory, taking this to this ultimate theorisable end, all women shortlists could be composed of all transwomen, which means parliament could see 50% male representatives, MPs and 50% transwomen MPs. Would everyone be happy with that as fair representation?

This was Sal Brinton's response:
On the issue about would I be happy with 50% transwomen. Absolutely. A transwoman is a woman. And in my party [lib dems] the issue about identification has been self-identification, it is not as has been whispered by some, something you can change your mind and do ten minutes beforehand [much nodding from Alison Thewliss of SNP] we all know who our transwomen are and we support them

Genderist ideology demands that the concepts underpinning all feminist analysis and activism become unspeakable.

It is not possible to be on the fence about this and simultaneously remain a feminist organisation. The two positions cannot coexist.

Exactly right, Tallulah.

You can't be a feminist and support the TRAs and their views - they are perpetuating gender stereotypes as being the only factors that make us women. It's ridiculous and incredibly sexist.

Bloody hell, yet more lunacy from the TRA handmaidens in our ruling class

They really despise women
Even the women there fell over themselves in a liberal frenzy to sell us out

So, they all applauded themselves for being so woke: a parliament that is 100% male is fine
Back to the 19th century

That mantra "a transwoman is a woman" is like some religious dogm:
The Sky fairy (who has a lady dick) created the world in 6 days and you'll all burn if you deny this

I remember all the confidence & hope feminists had in 1970.
How did men turn back the clock so far again ?

I blinked a couple of years ago, to find they'd already done it while I wasn't watching the bastards.

Thanks, Anlaf. Sal Brinton was the name that stuck in my mind, but you’re right, there’s plenty of WTFery to go around. I read that and I can’t... I don’t know, I can’t process it somehow. The idea that anyone other than the purest misogynist could think a parliament consisting entirely of biological males was acceptable... all I can think is that they haven’t quite grasped the question and that they’re astonishingly thick. I find it viscerally upsetting and not many things affect me like that

We got here because people became complacent, they thought that we'd done enough and gotten "enough rights" and that was it; life has been fairly easygoing in the west in recent decades - but liberalism always goes too far in the end it seems. They've become militant and authoritarian (ironic, eh?)

Ta Derek

Worth reminding ourselves how important it is to speak out - the woman who asked the Q was an audience member and (I think anyway) was very brave to ask it.

Some of the women behind me half shouted at her - Yes, YES of course [it would be ok to have 50/50 representation with everyone natal male].

Sam Smethers (current CEO of Fawcett Society) was director of public affairs for the Equal Opportunities Commission when the original GRA was going through parliament. uk.linkedin.com/in/sam-smethers-27046a4

I can't find the EOC's submission just now but I remember reading it and it did not consider the potential impact of the GRA on women.

(EOC was disbanded in 2010, I think, and all the anti discrimination quangos were merged into the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which, as we now know, also does not give a hoot about women.)

Jesus wept.

Why is that every time I read about these women who are seduced into prostrating themselves before the TRAs I am reminded of that old poem ..

"Will you walk into my parlour said the spider to the fly...."

For those who can't remember it you can google it.

Some of the women behind me half shouted at her - Yes, YES of course [it would be ok to have 50/50 representation with everyone natal male].

I mean... good lord. Do you think they genuinely believe that transwomen will represent women's interests, or do they think that it doesn't really matter, and that sacrificing representation of women in parliament is simply the price we have to pay to make sure transwomen aren't 'discriminated' against? Or third option: have they really just not thought things through?