Sophie Walker stands down as leader of WEP

[NotANotMan]

I have heard from WEP insiders that Sophie is fully gender critical so this can't be a good move for feminism and the party

The communist party are gender critical. But not exactly mainstream!

Is it not more effective to argue for something within a mainstream party than as part of a fringe single issue party? Or join an organisation that lobbies the big parties? I just can’t see how it’s not way more effective to do this.

WEP’s pov on this is that the above is all supposedly happening yet the mainstream parties are still not effecting the change we want to see. So WEP will come up with better policies, and want mainstream parties to steal them and use them, if they won’t, WEP will stand against them.

I was blindsided by this today and feel similar to what Rhymes posted. I’m an active member, have canvassed on multiple campaigns, attended conference etc. I won’t be able to stay in the party if a new leader openly believes woman is a feeling and doesn’t know the difference between sex and gender. Whilst Sophie was encouraging everyone to listen, defending people being called transphobic for asking questions, defending sex segregation etc, I had hope. Without her at the helm I fear for the direction of the party. I also just don’t get it - WEP are supposed to be ‘doing things differently’ - falling in line with TWAW is not doing anything differently, you’ve got plenty of choice of lefty parties doing that (and alienating women in their droves) already.

The WEP committee members are fully onboard with the TRAs.
Many spoke about intersectionality and inclusivity on the subject when it was debated at conference and got standing ovations.

I'm waiting for the new leader's mission statement. If there is no commitment to centre the female sex in WEP policies and campaigns then I'm out.

She tweets that she is on woman's hour today talking about "diversity." The TRAs and woke activists have made me hate the word as they have changed its meaning.
To me a diverse panel is one with a range of views and experiences. To TRAs and the woke you only need a range of appearances and diversity has become very superficial as people with different views are not allowed to debate and decried as bigots.

Sophie was asked on woman’s hour what she meant by her statement about patriarchal systems and having been burned by the heat of it.
She responded by saying she has experienced first hand the utter ‘outrage’ of men towards any woman who dares talk about their experiences and who stand up for their point of view.

Sophie was asked on woman’s hour what she meant by her statement about patriarchal systems and having been burned by the heat of it. She responded by saying she has experienced first hand the utter ‘outrage’ of men towards any woman who dares talk about their experiences and who stand up for their point of view.

I hope that means what I think it means.

I wonder what she's going to do next....

Quite Empress she really didn’t mince her words.
And reiterated exactly what diversity meant in her opinion. I’ll be watching with interest although I wouldn’t be surprised if she takes some time out for a bit.

www.newstatesman.com/politics/feminism/2019/01/sophie-walker-you-cant-build-movement-people-who-look-and-sound-same

Further explanation from SW here. My thoughts when I was reading it - firstly, interesting to choose to invoke George Eliot for an inspirational quote - ‘Eliot was a woman who adopted the name of a man so people would hear her voice. We should listen to her.’. Obviously in this forum gender critical issues are at the forefront of our minds, and given the persistent public skirting around SW’s views I feel she is again being clear here.

But also ‘I was frustrated by my inability to make more space for women of colour, for working class women and for disabled women to lead in politics.’, this is SW’s main stated point in her resignation. And it is very frustrating, I say that from the trenches. But she’s been doing reasonably well I thought - talking about it, addressing the discomfort white MC women feel, appointing diverse women to leadership positions within the party. It seems that following this step, our next leader pretty much has to be from BAME/disabled/WC candidates, no bad thing and an exciting prospect. I can’t think of the top of my head if any mainstream parties have had a black leader for example? Perhaps Yvonne Thompson will stand, she is an amazing woman. I don’t know her position on gender theory though.

Just listened to women's hour. It sounds more like she is planning on looking for another way rather than stepping back completely. I hope so as I still have faith.

@Cwenthryth are you going to be on the WEP webinar tonight?

Rhymes didn’t know there was one! Am on late shift till 10pm though so not available sadly.

I agreed with Jenni Murray's point that "not all women want the same thing" though. There are Tory women communist women, remain women, Brexit women. To me a party for women seemed as patronising as the OAP political party that assumes all pensioners think alike. We are not a minority interest group we are half the population.

Agree 2rebecca - I don't want a women's party, I want a party that knows I Am one!

Heard her on women's hour. It wasn't at all clear to me why she stepped down.

100% agree 2rebecca. I don't want a party for women. I want a party that is fair for everyone and doesn't try to erase my biology.

You wouldn't think we would be asking much - a national party that recognises who we are. None of them give a shite.

Just managed to listen to the WH interview during a quiet moment in the office. Interesting that when asked who she thought might replace her, SW finished with “I’m hoping it might be a group of women, that we can start looking at leadership models differently”. Intriguing! Something to definitely think more about.

To the last few posters - it is the Women’s Equality Party, not the Party Of Women. I’ve met quite a few active WEPper men, as in actual male-identifying men. The answer that Sophie gave about ‘why is it the Women’s Equality Party, not just the Equality Party’ when asked at Q&A at conference was that if you look at pretty much any minority group, by race, class, disability, whatever - the women in that group are hit the worst (which is what intersectional feminism is actually supposed to be about, rather then how it gets misused so often now to include penis-bearers) so if you raise women up, if you prioritise addressing inequality between the sexes, then all those groups benefit straight away as a whole as well. Or something along those lines, I’m not the orator she is. I don’t think WEP have ever pretended that all women want the same thing, and there are definitely a very broad spectrum of views represented amongst members, WEP isn’t seeking to be a traditional left vs right party, and if the mainstream parties were doing their jobs properly, WEP wouldn’t need to exist. Sandi has repeatedly said publicly she hopes one day it doesn’t need to.

Cwenthryth I entirely agree with all of that.

But you cannot address the inequality endured by women if you refuse to recognise what a woman is, which makes WEP a single issue party that's massively failed to address that single issue. So frustrating.

@teawamutu this is the problem with WEP. It's struggling to come down one one side of the fence or the other. Who knows what a new leader will bring.

And agree that many, many Ls, Gs and Bs don't agree with the T. Many think it's not really the right "home" for them in terms of political representation.

I have limited sympathy for Sophie. It seems to me that she has been complicit in pissing away what could have been something really constructive for women

I've got a long fucking memory Sophie

Me too Bernard. Philip Davies anyone?

Oh completely teawamutu I’m with you there. I can only say that there are gender critical members trying to work on it as best they can within the party structure.

I was a founding member of WEP but resigned a while back when it became clear the TRAs had infiltrated and WEP were not a party for biological women - very disappointing. Though I do think Walker is GC - she probably found it impossible to operate as a proper feminist surrounded by All the TWAW kool aid imbibers.

The writing was on the wall for WEP when they ditched Heather Brunskell-Evans with scant regard for due process.

Sophie Walker should have stood down when she mishandled conference and had to go on gardening leave.

I have little doubt about the nature of the ultra-woke who will now have all of the meaningful power in Animal Farm WEP.