[1] Let's talk about: Feminist issue policies

[ByGrabtharsHammarWhatASaving]

I've decided to start a series of threads on non trans topics, partly because there are other important feminist issues at hand, and partly because I'm sick to death of people starting threads complaining that we never talk about X, Y, Z.

"But Grabthar" you cry "we do talk about X,Y,Z"

Yes, I know, but apparently those threads are invisible, so I'm going to try and make them more visible with a specific set of threads I'm calling the "let's talk about" series.

Thread the first

Women are massively under represented both at a political level and in terms of policy that is specifically relevant to us. I want to make feminist issue policies more visible and also encourage more women to vote for parties that specifically represent their interests. Our vote is important and we need to use it wisely. To this end I have a plan to go through the manifesto of each major political party highlighting their campaign policies that represent feminist issues, and also to go through the various party members looking at their voting history. My goal is to create something fairly neutral - so, abortion is obviously a feminist issue and I would make a note of politician's voting records on this subject, but I wouldn't take a pro/anti choice stance on it, just highlight it so that women can vote according to their beliefs.

Anyway, I wanted to canvas opinions on what issues to look out for. There are obvious ones like abortion, prostitution, surrogacy etc, but I'm hoping better feminists than I might have some relevant facts or stats to hand about things like housing, economics, sustainability etc. For example, a policy on increasing carers allowance is unlikely to specifically mention women, but is still a feminist issue given that the majority of carers are women. So that's the kind of thing I want to have in mind as I read through the manifestos.

Hope that all makes sense and thanks to anyone who contributes.

Great idea Grabthar

I think Child Tax Credits is a massive one with the utterly horrible introduction of “the rape clause” where women can only claim tax credits for their third child if they can prove they have been raped.

Probably Benefits in general as a topic. Women are more likely to be on a low income and so more likely to be reliant on a range of benefits. Universal Credit has had a horrible impact on huge numbers of people, particularly women for a variety of reasons.

I personally would never vote for any party or politician who supports lower rates of benefits, or changing the system to disadvantage poor and/or disabled people.

I think this is a great idea and also explains why I mainly lurk, as this is the best comment I can think to add here.

Will be reading though.

Excellent. Will contribute later, have to.go out in the pissing rain now.

There was an interesting discussion that came up on another thread recently about the cost of childcare and whether it should be subsidised in some way (eg through a tax deduction).

I'd be interested in whether others think acknowledging the cost of childcare as a major stumbling block to working women is constructive, or whether this only serves to reinforce the idea of childcare as women's work.

To my mind it is the rampant unpunished abuse and killing of women, which allows Patriarchy to continue. If all men were punished for abusing and killing of women, Patriarchy would fall in our lifetime.

In a democratic country, if women unite, they can make sure feminist analysis of women’s and men’s behaviour is properly accounted for, so that Police do not ignore Women’s abuse and the rapist does not go free because a woman froze in the moment and did not scream out.

I'd be interested in whether others think acknowledging the cost of childcare as a major stumbling block to working women is constructive, or whether this only serves to reinforce the idea of childcare as women's work

Yes it may be but not for the reason you give. In the case of a couple if it is looked at this way- father earns £30,000 , mother earns £20,00 childcare is £15,000- it's not worth working as wife only gets £5,000 after tax to keep.

The real way is family income was £50,000 it reduces to £35,000. Mother remains in the working world.

Removal of legal aid for divorce is a massive problem, leaving women in poverty and stripping them of assets.

The deep, deep cuts to adult social care are having a huge effect on women as the majority of carers. Not only on women's careers and earning potential but also their ability to participate in society in more basic ways and their physical and mental health.

Sorry about the guardian link

www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jun/26/social-care-funding-crisis-putting-tens-of-thousands-at-risk

Yes I agree, childcare is of course a shared family expense. But the reason that's trotted out so often on MN is because, imho, so many families still don't see it that way.

I agree with the nod to sustainability in the OP. There have been some really interesting discussions on here about the burden of sustainability being placed disproportionately on women, and the impacts of climate change affecting women more than men in LEDC's.

On the basis that the majority of carers in the UK are women - Carers Allowance becomes something of a feminist issue in that the paltry earnings cut-off point means that a carer on NLW cannot work more than about 14 hrs a week before losing their allowance totally even if - here are two examples - their elderly parent with dementia is lucky enough to go to a day centre 3 days a week, or their disabled child is in school for 30 hrs a week. To get the allowance, you have to 'care' for a minimum of 35 hrs per week so that is certainly still achievable even with a weekend's care, let alone the weekday evenings and mornings.
It discriminates against carers (women), blocks them from achieving economic well-being, and limits their opportunities for development and training to prepare them for a time when they no longer have caring responsibilities.
I've written to successive governments on this asking them to implement a sliding scale. No go.

All of these especially violence by men to women. But also pensions and what equality really means.

YES!

Hi i posted on the lurkers thread and I'm throwing my tired ass in here I'm a full time carer and I would love others to start paying some fucking attention to the topic.

£66 quid a week carers allowance:

(My math is shit and I'm on 4 hrs a night sleep atm so forgive but anyway....)

DP's medication schedule takes aprox 4 hr's a day so thats 28 hrs a week?
He needs all his meals made for him that's say 3 hr's a day...So 21 hrs a week?

So forgetting everything else just those two tasks that's 49 hrs a week for 66 quid - what's that per hr? Then throw in everything else, he can't go out alone, he can't clean or garden, he has numerous appointments, he has something unusual so I'm worryingly the most knowledgable person at half of those appointments.

It stacks up and up and then i need a spa day and a) can't have one because who will have DP and b) i get 66 quid a week so do you think I can fucking afford a spa day

And just to be clear I'm not saying carers are saints or special or magical or anything. But if we as a society disrespect the women who do a wide share of the care what does that say about how society values those who need it?

I am sick to the back teeth of the hand petting attitude that DP is a burden, he is not, his illness has made me a fucking mountain of a woman with a wide skill set and knowledge.

That gain in skills doesn't mean I should be happy as his savings go down the drain (paying for the additional meds he cant get on the nhs and for expenses benefits doesn't cover) and the end result will be poverty for us both.

Anyway! Yeah maybe pay attention to increases of carers allowance in the manifestos

Great thread OP. No idea what's come over fem subject this week but you lot are on fire

Thank you for this and I am really looking forward to seeing what comes up. I'm sorry I have no expertise that I can think of that will help.
One thing that came to mind recently - I was wondering how Brexit will specifically affect UK women. I know we don't know how it will affect any of us yet or where it's going but like anything else we just know that if things get tough they will get extra tough for women, so I'm wondering just what we should be watching out for.

Oh and yes, all of the above, sorry I have read them and totally agree, thank you for all those that suggested them.

Women's Equality Party released something last year I think but I thought it was nobby. If I am remembering correctly brexit is very bad for women because we should be in board rooms not looking after our elderly relatives because cant recruit and under pay eastern Europeans to care for our loved ones anymore.

Anyone in the know in terms of the no deal brexit and meds situation? It's currently impacting women who take hrt. There's a normal manufacturing shortage which has been compounded by the need to stockpile. The stockpiling btw is only for directly life saving meds so post no deal fuck knows.

As someone who benefitted from a more generous benefits system in my time, I think an awful lot of women get stuck in abusive relationships because they cannot afford to leave, so this is an extremely important feminist issue.

The benefits system in general and how the erosion of it disproportionately affects women and kids.

Benefit rates have been frozen for years, the two child limit, the benefit cap which affects almost all families with more than 2 kids, child tax credit/ UC rates cut by £10 a week.

The lack of any child maintenance system with any teeth. There are sanctions that can be used for non payers but they never use them.

Hazardtired - such a powerful post

I don't know anything about the situation with meds and no deal - other than to know that it is considered to be an exceptionally dangerous risk. This article highlights some of the specific risks of Brexit for women:

www.independent.co.uk/voices/brexit-vote-theresa-may-no-deal-eu-crash-out-women-sexism-feminism-a8753881.html

Yes to the benefits issue. It's the summer holidays, and I've seen client numbers at the Foodbank begin to rise - I deal with countless women with kids who find themselves having to provide a meal for each kid that in school time the kid gets for free. I can count on my digits the amount of clients I saw in the past year that were not there because of an issue with some kind of benefit - mostly UC, but often PIP. We ordinarily have a numerical limit on vouchers in a certain period of time - this has gone out of the window during the holiday period because if you suddenly find yourself with three extra hungry mouths every single day, your meagre budget is royally fucked.

And there you go, I'm working in a foodbank, a charitable endeavour staffed mostly by women, that the benefits office treats as an extra arm of local government services, which serves them very well, as no one has to sort out the ridiculously punitive and complicated benefits system because an army of volunteer women, some on pensions, some working part time to feed their own families, are giving up their time to feed, care for and provide sign posting to some extremely vulnerable people. Some of it is very physical work, most of it is hugely emotionally draining. And mostly I think it is being abused - not by clients, but by a systemic reliance on the goodwill of people, often women, to pick up the pieces of devastation the government causes by cruel mismanagement of resources.

Sorry. Tired and irritable.

Thank you for that link truthisarevolutionaryact - I was kind of guessing some of those. Very scary and a lot to think about.

Universal credit issues -

It puts all the money except for child benefit in one big lump, payable into one account. Special arrangements are needed if you want the money split and paid into two separate accounts and if you arrange this your partner will know you have told a government department that you are experiencing domestic abuse.

The two child rape clause rule also applies to UC.

The new rules around mixed age couples are hitting a lot of women caring for older husbands/partners. @helenadove knows a lot about this.

The vast majority of volunteers in all sorts of sectors are women, and often women of a certain age. Governments are increasingly relying on self-funded (ie fundraising charities), such as Floral’s food bank, to do their work, effectively returning us to the 19th century of private welfare.

At the same time, these volunteers are rarely consulted in policy development, generally treated as disposable and their labour is not valued or recognised.

Mind you, the bigger picture here is evidence-based policy, but I think that’s a dream too far.

Agree with everything said!

Women in violent relationships are having avenues for leaving blocked off and then if social services get involved told off for staying

floral I hadn't thought of food banks like that re mostly women's labour being used for free by the councils. I'll do my best to be more mindful of it.

truth thank you for the link!

Childcare and parental leave - while family issues effect women's participation in the workplace.

Education especially for children with SEN - again while a family issue, you are more likely to be a single parent if your child has a disability. I was just reading a BBC article about 4 children with SEN in different parts of the SE who were off school due to lack of their last school's provision for SEN and the thing that stood out is only the mothers were mentioned.

Women are more likely to be working irregular hours, multiple p/t jobs etc. which gives them unpredictable earnings, month to month. UC is calculated strictly on what arrives in your bank account during your assessment period. For many women the extra they get in lean months is more than cancelled out by the months they earn slightly too high to be entitled to anything.

Childcare has to be paid upfront then claimed back. Records - receipts, contracts etc. have to be meticulous or childcare costs are refused. Women are told to take out advance payments (i.e. debt) to pay their childcare costs. The advance payments are interest free but the repayment schedule is harsh. Especially for women who are struggling with other debts as well - some of which can also be deducted from UC at source, at very high repayment rates, even when there's a court order that sets a much lower rate of repayment.