[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.

PencilsInSpace

Yes, I do see that, but what I was trying to say if maybe instead of allowing the same situation to repeat over and over again, if a woman received support to be a mother after her first pregnancy it would not only be cost effective, but would probably mean no more pregnancies.

e. I think it is more about trying to tell women they shouldn't think getting pregnant again will stop authorities stepping in, rather than from the view point of the women concerned.

The young woman who was interviewed said she was told "you can always have another".

She didn't specify who told her this.

She said she'd never have another baby.

f a woman received support to be a mother after her first pregnancy it would not only be cost effective, but would probably mean no more pregnancies.

Yes totally this.
There is a Lord, I forget his name, I will look.

What he does is offer financial support, through his own money, to young women who have been told their baby will be removed by the state at birth. He helps them escape to France to have their babies in peace, so they can keep them.

Thanks all, there's so much to think about on this thread. I've made a huge list and am currently going through the Labour manifesto in forensic detail with the things you've all suggested in mind.

On the subject of carer's allowance I would like to point out that the government considers these recipients EMPLOYED therefore reducing the unemployment statistics.

That's mental. There's definitely a whole thread to be had on the twisting of stats to make inequality invisible.

sakura184 those case sound heartbreaking. I've only ever knowingly met one woman who lost her baby at birth. Her boyfriend was under the care of a psychiatrist for his PD and was seriously violent. The social workers had told her she had to chose between staying with him or keeping her child. Devastating. There's a big conversation to be had around mother's rights as well, which for me is one of the "Elephant in the room" topics in feminism.

Imnobody4 if you haven't already read it this report covers exactly what you just said around the tech divide/ AI It's going to be a very very big problem for women once AI gets going I think.

unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000367416

And yes, it was really shocking reading about how coding/ programming was originally considered "women's work" because it seemed repetitive/ administrative, but then when men realised it was the next big thing they froze women out of the industry. I guess I shouldn't be shocked really.

. The social workers had told her she had to chose between staying with him or keeping her child. Devastating.

It's a bit shitty that social workers say that, when there is a link on this thread proving that housing is not affordable to women.

So there is nowhere for her to go. Social workers know this.

And yet society (police, I assume?) think it's fine to leave a woman with such a dangerous man

I don't think she'd have left him even if she had somewhere to go, to be perfectly frank. But yes, that's a very good point. I met them during my psych rotation, they'd come in after he attacked her and his with a kitchen knife. She talked about wanting the baby back, but in a very detatched dreamy kind of way. Looking back I think she might have been on drugs, she was very spacey. Late teens/ early 20s. It really stuck with me.

"attacked her and his mum" that should say

Yes domestic violence often begins when the woman falls pregnant.

Oh I see sorry, she'd already lost her baby when you saw her.

Anyway just terribly sad all round.

No, the women who are eligible for help from the pause project have either already had multiple children removed or are already being abused, trafficked or prostituted and are highly likely to become pregnant in extremely bad, chaotic circumstances.

Of course there should be support for vulnerable women during their first pregnancy and afterwards but the women this project help have been there and done that and the help wasn't there so they fucked up and didn't get to keep their baby. Or they have repeated abortions. Again and again. Because nobody ever loved them.

sakura I think you're talking about John Hemmings. There have been a few threads about him. I think women should have nothing to do with John Hemmings. His interventions are harmful to women and children. @spero can point you at the details.

No it wasn't John Hemmings, it was definitely some member of the aristocracy.

Why is John Hemmings a danger to women and children?

the women who are eligible for help from the pause project have either already had multiple children removed or are already being abused, trafficked or prostituted and are highly likely to become pregnant in extremely bad, chaotic circumstances.

It's as though there is a certain class of women that it's acceptable to turn into prostitutes, and there's a certain class of women it's acceptable to take their babies from.
And it seems that often these things are happening to the same women: young, poor, disenfranchised.

It's as though there is a certain class of women that it's acceptable to turn into prostitutes, and there's a certain class of women it's acceptable to take their babies from.

That's a very strange interpretation of what I wrote.

John Hemming

See also.

That's a very strange interpretation of what I wrote.

No it's not an interpretation of what you wrote, it just what I think.

I just think there is a certain class of women that it's acceptable to do heinous things to. because their lives are so awful and poor and drug addled and seemingly beyond reprieve that it's ok to take their babies, buy their vaginas and so on. Wouldn't happen in a sane society is all I'm saying.

I do also realize we've probably got as much chance of helping these women keep their babies as we have of eliminating prostitution. I just think it's a serious feminist issue.

And I also personally , and this is just my opinion, think that not enough is being done to help them because they are convenient for the adoption industry , which is a big money maker

Looking back at the John Hemming thread it was Ian Josephs who paid for the caravans in France.

How does the Pause Project fit into this money making scheme?

Do you deny that adoption costs money?

And then the same state that removes babies from mothers at birth is handing kids over to very dangerous fathers in the family courts.

I follow Women Count USA on Facebook which tracks the mothers who lose babies to fathers having been accused of parental alienation syndrome, and the father of course goes on to kill the child. I know parental alienation syndrome is now a "thing" in the UK too.

On the subject of carer's allowance I would like to point out that the government considers these recipients EMPLOYED therefore reducing the unemployment statistics.

That's mental. There's definitely a whole thread to be had on the twisting of stats to make inequality invisible.

Yup. These (usually female) carers have their rent paid plus, what, £65 per week? Unlikely to be NMW, let alone the Real Living Wage. They work (for the Govt, I suppose, with carer's allowance being a State-issued payment) but have no pension or employment rights, no right to paid holiday etc. Because they don't work for a company, they don't show up in those mandatory gender pay gap reports, making the sex pay gap look smaller than it is.

I would.like to see carers paid the Real Living Wage, have guaranteed four weeks per year of respite cover so they can have a break, and be included in the gender pay gap report for the DWP because it's DWP that pay them to care.

Under representation (and sometimes zero representation) of women has to be addressed.

As 50% of the population, we should be proportionately represented in every sphere. Yet in public life and public office, women seem to be toeing the party line rather than speaking up for positive change. They’re not even speaking up to protect our existing rights under law. We have to ask ourselves why. Is it because they are pandering to/being bullied or intimidated by men?

I have joined the WEP because I felt politically homeless. We have to start somewhere. All this talk of equality when we clearly do not have equality and are a long way off.

I know it’s ridiculous but I would like to say to women - stop having children. Stop doing the unpaid work. Stop enabling men to trample all over us. What would happen if we all went on strike and said we’re not doing it any more?

Clearly, men don’t give a flying fuck about women. They might pretend to, but they don’t. A lot of them outright hate us. We are “bloody women”. Nobody is going to give us what we want. We’re going to have to fight for it tooth and nail, just like we always have.

What would happen if we all went on strike and said we’re not doing it any more?

If we all went on #birthstrike, the Govt would outlaw or restrict contraception and abortion within the year. Romania's Decree 770 and the German abortion ban under "Kinder, Küche, Kirche" (for white women only, Jewish and Roma women were forced to abort in the camps) tells us what happens when the Govt decides that women aren't having enough kids.

This is a great thread thanks for starting it.

My first two pennerth:

I’m constantly amazed at how little people know about the phenomenon of male violence against women. The absurdity of people who say “well women do it too” as if the tiny number of women who commit violent sexual crimes is the answer to everything. Misuse of domestic violence stats I find enraging! Yes, domestic abuse is roughly equally gendered but fatal domestic abuse, hospitalisation, family annihilation, these are almost entirely male crimes.

On a much lighter note, that walk to school day also used to enrage me. Women regularly drop off small people at multiple locations before they go to work. When one of mine was at primary school and one at nursery we lived a bit out of the way, too far for small legs to walk easily, but in addition, they both went to different schools and I had to be at work by 9. If I had tried to do the whole thing walking with one in a pram, then either caught the bus or walked home to fetch the car, the morning round trip would have taken maybe 2 hours. I think we should have a walk/cycle/catch the bus/train to work day for all those people I see everyday blithely clogging up the roads with their single occupancy vehicles. Why is it always women who have to get out of the way?

Porn
Unbridled access to the graphic depiction of sexual abuse of women and girls, the effect this has on children (of both sexes), and the hard evidence that boys don’t understand about consent. The terrifying effect on girls who think that sex is a porno performance and that female bodies should look like Barbie dolls.

Prostitution & “Sex Work”
Men buying women’s bodies, the trafficking of vulnerable women, the women who feel they have no other option other than to prostitute themselves to put food on the table for their kids.

Women’s Healthcare
Woefully inadequate provision. The sweeping aside of women’s conditions, e.g. endometriosis, menopause, coercive childbirth, and the ignorance of differences in symptoms e.g. heart attacks.

Unpaid Work
The unfair burden of care and the impact it has on women’s finances, relationships and mental health.

Parental Leave
Evidence into the (lack of) uptake by fathers and the reasons behind that. They know damn well the impact it will have on their pay and career.

Violence Against Women
Epidemic levels of violence against women and girls with virtually zero redress and utterly pathetic sentences for those rare cases where conviction is achieved. News headlines, every day, that shock women to the core. The message being sent out loud and clear is that women don’t matter.

Institutionalised Misogyny
It’s everywhere, and so entrenched that most people don’t give it a second thought. We see it, meet it, and deal with it every day. The Every Day Sexism project is just one small step in documenting this.

Sexual Harassment
And old-fashioned term for an on-going problem. I defy any woman to say she has never been sexually harassed. The first time it happened to me I was 7.

Equal Pay
Equal Opportunities
Equal Everything
(yeah right)

I was a teenager when I read Scream Quietly or the Neighbours Will Hear by Erin Pizzey. I became a feminist overnight and that book will never leave me. Over 40 years later, Invisible Women by C C Perez shows just how far we have(n't) come.

Just in, and likely to be relevant: Enforcing the Equality Act: the law and the role of the Equality and Human Rights Commission report from HoC Women and Equalities Committee. Haven't read it yet, will read later today. Also likely to be relevant to the regulatory capture thread.