How could a cheerleader for Ukip ever become CEO of Women’s Aid? (she has now stepped down)

[stumbledin]

The fact that Katie Ghose led the charity at all shows that the corporatisation of the women’s sector has gone too far
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/07/womens-aid-ceo-ukip-katie-ghose

Women's Aid chief Katie Ghose steps down after publicly praising Ukip
News of her comments sparked outrage from black and ethnic minority groups and others
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/feb/07/womens-aid-chief-kate-ghose-steps-down-public-praising-ukip

These was a thread about the corporisation of women's sector jobs here. www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3494902-When-womens-services-are-corporatised-is-that-the-beginning-of-the-end

As someone on facebook said, its good to know that some women recognise that being a feminist means you get a free pass on your other politics.

This article (and what appears to be a campaign against Katie Ghose) is extraordinarily unfair.

She was head of the Electoral Reform Society (which campaigns for proportional representation) when she addressed the UKIP conference. Nearly 4 million people voted for UKIP in 2015. The relevance of PR and why ERS would need to engage with such a party is pretty blindingly obvious. Would any of those, let’s assume 2 million, female UKIP voters be welcome in a women’s refuge if they needed it I wonder?

The Katie Hopkins thing is odd - seems like very bad judgement by the ERS there. I’m completely against “no platforming” but KH is just a failed reality TV show contestant who has made a career subsequently out of saying hideous things, so don’t really think she has must of interest to say on electoral reform or anything else.

But for the article to suggest Katie Ghose espouses UKIP’s/katie Hopkin’s views is just garbage. A cursory google will show you she’s stood as a parliamentary candidate for the Labour Party.

The left (of which I consider myself a member) really is in danger of eating itself with this kind of thing. And the likes of UKIP will be the beneficiary.

I notice that the author places males ahead of disabled women. Idiot.

Sorry, OP you fail at critical thinking.

This bullshit harassment of this woman emanates from Sisters Uncut.

Rather than hatchet jobs from these arseholes her Wikipedia biography:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katie_Ghose

"
Katie Sushila Ratna Ghose (born 1970) is a British campaigner and lawyer. She was Chief Executive of the Women's Aid Federation of England.
Ghose was former Chief Executive of the Electoral Reform Society.[3]

She was previously Director of the British Institute of Human Rights and before that worked as a barrister and for a number of charities. She was National Chair of the unsuccessful YES! to Fairer Votes campaign in the 2011 UK Alternative Vote referendum."

"Ghose was born in Shoreham by Sea, Sussex, to an Indian father and English mother. She went to Boundstone Community College in Lancing, Sussex and Brighton, Hove & Sussex Sixth Form College.

Ghose read Law at Somerville College, Oxford. During her time at Oxford, she was Editor of the student newspaper Cherwell, and then studied for a Masters in Political Science at the University of California, Riverside."

"After leaving university, between 1992–1994, she worked as a parliamentary researcher and senior caseworker to Labour MP Greville Janner. She then became Parliamentary Officer for the Citizens Advice Bureaux.

Ghose qualified and practised as a barrister between 1997 and 1999, specialising in immigration, family and Human Rights law. She later wrote Beyond the Courtroom: a lawyer's guide to campaigning, which was published by the Legal Action Group in 2005.

Ghose has campaigned for several charitable and campaigning organisations, first with the Child Accident Prevention Trust, from 1999–2000. In 2000 Ghose joined Age Concern as their National Campaigns and Parliamentary Affairs Manager, leading campaigns to protect older workers from discrimination and to oppose unfair hospital charges.

In 2005 she was appointed Director of the British Institute of Human Rights, providing charities, hospitals and care homes with practical support and training about human rights in England.

Ghose is currently an independent council member of the University of Sussex and a board member of the US democracy group Fair Vote. She was a trustee and Company Secretary of Stonewall (2005–2011) and was chair of two charities, Asylum Aid (1997–1999) and Bail for Immigration Detainees (2002–2004). She also served as a Commissioner on the Independent Asylum Commission from 2006-08.

She joined the Electoral Reform Society as Chief Executive Ghose in 2010, and was a regular media commentator on elections and voter disengagement"

"Ghose is a member of the Labour Party and sought selection as a Parliamentary candidate before the 2015 election in the constituencies of Brighton Kemptown, Stoke-on-Trent North, Great Grimsby and York Central."

Her CV is fucking impeccable, it's just that these areshole parasites pursued a vendetta against her and won.

It's misogynism writ large. Fuck these bastards.

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/feb/07/womens-aid-chief-kate-ghose-steps-down-public-praising-ukip

'Aaliyah Davis, of the direct action group Sisters Uncut, said she felt that although Ghose was acting in her capacity as the chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society at the Ukip conference, her praise for the party had “overstepped the mark”.

“We were deeply concerned at the kind of language she was using. It felt like she was trying to garner support from Ukip. I and other members of Sisters Uncut feel she overstepped the mark saying that Ukip had been robbed and rightly there should be more Ukip MPs and it flies in the face of her position at Women’s Aid.”'

She was working for the Electoral Reform Society and was pointing out that UKIP voters got 1 MP per 2 million votes while Labour & the Tories get 1 MP per 70,000 votes.

It was not her job to be some sort of partisan left-wing hack who says 'we should punch all the UKIP voters, they don't deserve representation' - she was working for the ERS in the cause of electoral reform, which would necessarily benefit minor parties of both rightthink and wrongthink.

She did nothing wrong in pointing out to UKIP voters that the British electoral system disenfranchises them - that was literally her job.

She has nothing to do with Katie Hopkins!

And the idea that, er, Women's Aid works for Asian women (among other races) and UKIP hates Asian women so she is unacceptable is a bad joke! She is an Asian woman!

" I and other members of Sisters Uncut feel she overstepped the mark saying that Ukip had been robbed and rightly there should be more Ukip MPs and it flies in the face of her position at Women’s Aid."

I mean that was literally written in the constitution of the ERS. If you are working for the ERS, which aims to achieve more proportional government, and you DON'T say that UKIP were robbed, you are a dishonest shitbag, frankly.

The 2015 election resulted in ONE UKIP MP from 3.8 million votes. This was by far the worst return from any party. They got 2.5x more votes than the SNP, which won FIFTY SIX MPs.

If she was not talking to UKIP she should have been sacked by the ERS.

Sisters Uncut and all allied groups are scum.

Well bloody said @QuietContaryMary

I'm horrified that Ghose has stepped down as a result of the witch hunt against her. By other women. Women hounding other women out of jobs now.

There are wider issues though as Julie Bindel outlines.

www.thearticle.com/womens-aid-federation-is-vitally-important-it-cant-afford-to-forget-its-feminist-roots/

Julie Bindel's arguments:

• Ghose invited Katie Hopkins to an ERS event (did she?)
• Ghose praised Carswell for being (apparently?) a good constituency MP but failed to condemn his reactionary tendencies - not sure this is wrong as she's not in the ERS to pass judgement on that.
• Women's Aid failed to respond to this mass of hashtags on Twitter: twitter.com/HarrietHarman/status/1084861078599811073
• Women's Aid did not sign letter about assault on Maria McLaughlin - www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/24/violence-against-women-transgender-debate
• 'Ghose is not a feminist'.

Some of these points are better than others, but the UKIP argument is a non-starter. Purity politics is bollocks.

If they have sacked her because she's not a feminist, well that's fine. But let's not make it about UKIP.

There's a petition here about self-identifying 'women' in refuges.

www.change.org/p/katie-ghose-keep-out-of-women-s-refuges

The issue I perceive here is that Sisters Uncut et al have framed this as their victory, and what they want is an even woker replacement.

It's all very well to say that she's not good - and she might not be - but it's not clear to me that this is going to result in a replacement who is better. I'm sure Sisters Uncut would happily appoint Lily Madigan as the Women's Aid CEO, so be careful what you wish for.

It’s been interesting to read around the wider issues, which I wasn’t very familiar with (probably cos I’m not a “proper feminist” in JB and Sistersuncut’s eyes...).

Fair enough object to her candidacy on those grounds if that’s how you want to spend your energy, but sticking the knife in with a frankly dishonest story about her being a ukipper is... well, just that: dishonest.

Assume all those outraged voted no in the AV referendum too? If we’d had PR in the UK we’d have had a left leaning government for the last few decades, which would have been much better news for women’s services I would have thought...

Banana is spot on. Her cv was known to the board when Katie was hired what has changed? In her role at the ERS surely she had to attend such events a lot of people voted for UKIP whether we like it or not. Interested to hear the agendas of those “revealing” this now. Left truly is eating itself.

QuietContraryMary

I think you are allowing the Guardian agenda (where friends of Sisters Uncut work) to give them more credit than they are due. They are merely being asked to comment and come out with their usual queer jargon.

If you read the opinion piece by Amrit Wilson you will see that Black and Asian Women's Groups in the Women's Sector raised concerns about her sharing a platform with UKIP, and what ever the incidence was with Katie Hopkins,

My problem, along wiht most feminist commenting on this elsewhere, is how did a woman who was a trustee at Stonewall ever get offered a job at a women's service provider. Given how anti woman Stonewall is, whoever did the recruitment procedure must have known this would be a problem.

The history of women's sector and how funders have created a mission drift from the original concept to what happens now in practice has been creating heartache for women for over a decade.

I know mumsnet has got excited having apparently only recently become aware of Sisters Uncut but outside of the Guardian they are little more than a performance art group.

More worrying is that fact that many women's sector group, especially in Scotland, but by silence in England have just sidestepped if not actively embraced the trans agenda.

In symbolic terms for Women's Aid to have been challenged by both the Black Women's Project and Imkaan is far more dangerous to their credibility than a few snowflakes in Sisters Uncut.

Er, wasnt she working for Stonewall before they became a tra organisation?

Watch the video of the UKIP speech - KG is well over the line - she comes across as some sort of UKIP acolyte - her behaviour was very very inappropriate. I understand her point re proportional representation - it's well made - irrespective, she came across as a fan of UKIP - rousing the mob at their unfair treatment. She came across as a member of UKIP even if she wasn't/didn't mean to.

She's a career civil servant, not a feminist - she was a bad appointment - she was with Stonewall as they became TRA'd.

I am concerned that those same trustees who appointed her thought she was a good replacement for Polly Neate - heaven knows who will come next - but probably not a feminist who understands male violence.

I don't understand how she can be a UKIP acolyte if she's a lifetime Labour supporter.

"She's a career civil servant, not a feminist - she was a bad appointment - she was with Stonewall as they became TRA'd."

That's 100% untrue. Ruth Hunt started the TRA stuff in early 2014 or late 2013. Ghose left Stonewall in 2011.

Overall this is very troubling for what is left of the Women's Voluntary Sector (renamed by Blair the Third Sector). Having seen another recent articles about standards, salary levels and family patronage at Refuge I had sort of clung on to the idea of Women's Aid as managing to navigate between it feminist origins and funding co-option. Not thinking that any refuges or rape crisis centres would be coopted by the trans agenda.

And it seems we have to rely on Black and Asian Women's Groups who dont get their share of the little funding there is to hold groups to account.

Statements from:
nia project www.niaendingviolence.org.uk/perch/resources/comment-on-womens-aid-ceo-and-ukip.pdf
Imkaan www.imkaan.org.uk/statement-womens-aid-recent-develop

And for anyone who hasn't seen it, this is Katie Ghose's statement www.facebook.com/katie.ghose/posts/10156384057583401

Stonewall was active in creating the stepping stones to undermine the Eauliaty Act with their submissions and behing the scences political networking via the wordking of the 2004 GRA. (Others on FWR have documented this with links) It was and still is signficant as it legally confuses sex and gender.

Stonewall ceased to be an organisation campaigning for the rights of gay man and lesbians when it was infiltrated by queer activists who have been part of the backlash against women's autonomous organising starting with transforming women's studies into gender studies in universities back in the 80s.

As a campaign group they have been steadily working themselves into positions of power and influence for decades.

And as many feminists will now admit, we weren't watching what they were doing, and like many lesbians who just drifted aware from Stonewall thinking it doesn't really represent me without necessarily analysising why. Or thinking this is part of a long term plan.

Given the state of the GRA loving Labour and Tory parties, UKIP are the most feminist party in Britain. Don't see why the CEO of Women's Aid should be ashamed of applauding the only party to stand up for females.